What a fantastic turn out for an independence march in Stornoway. Five hundred might not seem a lot by Edinburgh or Glasgow standards, but for Stornoway with a total population of around 8,000, that’s a brilliant turnout.
Meal do naidheachd!
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This is the graphic that Dave was talking about the other day, looking at the popularity of various figures in the Tory party…as judged, not by the citizenry in general but by party members.
Frankly, I was horrified that Tory Party members actually favour Andrea Leadsom above all their colleagues. I’ve always thought that she was as dumb as a stump, not to mention an utterly ghastly person. Remember she was the one who said that she would make a better prime minister than Theresa May, because she, Leadsom, had had children and May had not. What kind of person would say something like that? Not someone you’d want to be in the same room as.
But, if the poll is anything to go by her form of right-wing, no-deal, hardline, fox-hunting, tactless, tasteless Conservatism is what we might expect when they finally ditch May (who, you will have noticed is right at the bottom of the popularity table, even under the catastrophe that is Chris “Failing” Grayling.
If that is the British future, Scotland needs to leave sooner rather than later.
Ruth Davidson, despite being on maternity leave for some time now, and out of the public eye (she has faithfully stayed out of everything and off social media), is 4th most popular under the aforementioned Leadsom, with Truss and Hunt (another two pretty incompetent empty heads) just above her.
Scary!
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That’s why the BBC don’t want to cover SNP conferences.
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Erm… yeah.
I’d love to know too. Wouldn’t you?
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MUNGUIN'S NEW REPUBLIC 
I am old and silly. But where was Boris? Y’know on the list?
I hope I am not missing anything but I hope I am!
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Good question. I never noticed he wasn’t there, Douglas.
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Hi Douglas,
Bojo the clown isn’t in the cabinet at the moment. The survey was cabinet plus branch office leaders.
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Douglas,
As in 1984, the book, boris the yank’s position can’t be disclosed as it has always been known he was destined to be england’s next PM. Unless of course Winston destroyed all the evidence. They have previous for electing a rank outsider. Maybe a truss will be elected.
What a great turn out in Stornoway.
What an enlightened speech from Nicola, loved the bit ‘ Time to get the jaikets on’.
Pity our Nation don’t get to hear the whole thing and will be fed some spun version.
Today I was told that the Conference had dealt Nicola a massive slap down over the currency, said to the person that he must have read it in the sunday post/mail as it wasn’t the case at all, a democratic policy of moving to our own currency was to be welcomed.
Our time to join the family of Independent Nations isn’t too far away, I hope to live to see it.
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I didn’t even notice he wasn’t there… OOoops.
Scottish Tories said it was a humiliation for Nicola over the currency, which it wasn’t, but I didn’t wonder how THAT could be considered a humiliation by people whose own membership rated their leader at -74… lower than Grayling. Jeez.
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The listing I saw said , Cabinet members and other notables, so untruthful got a mention as an occasional visitor or leader.
Notice carless jackass didn’t get on the list.
Or those other notables like annie the checkout, two jobs, benefits scrounger or farmer subsidy.
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To be fair Davidson was not really included on the list, being added at the bottom under May, although she is clearly much more popular than May, although. Along with Paul Davis of whom I have never heard.
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Dave,
What you say:
“Our time to join the family of Independent Nations isn’t too far away, I hope to live to see it.”
Me too. I would die happy.
OK, that is too, too dramatic.
But still. There is a lot of investment by people like you, our host, Munguins fellow travellers and me in independence. I kind of hope our hopes are not dashed.
I also think that Nichola will win. Though it might be a long and winding road, it will not be finally blocked by a “shower of rougues in a nation”.
At least, I hope not.
———–
Off topic, a bit.
Our future, not just Scotland, but the whole of humanity, will depend on talking down folk with idiotic positions, be that nutcases like Trump, May or even – a distant third – Farage.
Surrendering our critical faculties to their lunacy suggests to me that we are an imperfect species.
Is this too harsh?
Thoughts?
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Douglas,
good morning, another day above ground for me, hopefully you as well.
Not too dramatic but as you cross the line of 3 score years and ten you realise the master system. The design of a human is wonderful but the servicing arrangements aren’t so good.
Heard the bestest yet from a tory, damien green.
He wants to take extra tax from the over Forties for their use of the english Health Service as they are an extra burden going forward. He wants to TAX benefits like the pensioner’s heating allowance in winter.
This is the person who had to resign from the government as a minister due to having Strange Pictures on his NATIONAL Government provided computer. An offense that your ordinary punter would have been sacked for, as a minimum.
Your NHS is safe with the likes of damien.
A few ideas maybe damien forgot,
how about giving the newly born an invoice for the birthing services?
How about taxing general benefits, they cost too much.
How about taxing rough sleepers for benefit in kind, taking heat from Shop Doorways.
How about taxing uplifts from Food Banks, that’s unearned income.
How about introducing a new payment up front scheme for Primary and Secondary Education.
How about a new carbon disposal tax for cremations.
Maybe we should TAX the subsidised meals and drink that mps get in the House of Fools.
In the meantime income derived from dividends is taxed at 5%.
There’s your nutcases we get elected to the House of Fools, not to mention the unelected £300 a day rough sleepers in the House of Hangers ON.
Aye Douglas like you I will pass on HAppy When we are a normal country, sorting out the medicine our economy needs to support OUR residents.
Have a great day you all.
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Nice one, Dave.
What world is Damian living in?
I heard him saying that by 40 people had a good income and owned their own houses and could afford to pay more.
I just shook my head.
He was better occupied with his porn on his computer.
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Seems we are living in dangerous times of huge change, Douglas.
May is clearly on her way out. In England Farage is more popular than ever. Trump, well, who knows. He still has his massive band of supporters.
But there is Putin and Xi to contend with too.
And then the far right movement in Europe…
And climate change… At the moment we have refugees from drought stricken Africa. Maybe it won’t be that long before we are heading for Canada, Russia, Greenland to avoid the water which will inundate our land.
And the seemingly insoluble problem of how to care for, and to afford to care for, the number of elderly people… a number which will double in the next 10-20 years.
Not to mention the ever encroaching use of robots to do work that people once got paid for doing, or to make customers do what staff once did.
Ah… what a future.
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I have often said that as a species we have not evolved sufficiently for democracy.
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Liz Truss?? I once heard her making a speech about, I think, and it was the most risible and stomach turning performance since Maggie quoted from St Francis. It was actually 501 in Stornoway but I was late….
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Jeez, John. You have all the luck getting to hear Truss make a speech.
I once saw her give an interview and she seemed to know less about her subject that I know about Black Holes.
501 you say?
Even better. 🙂
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From the FT
https://www.ft.com/content/eb01cd18-4f63-11e7-bfb8-997009366969
The end of 11 uncomfortable months for Liz Truss
Justice secretary provoked high-profile clashes with judges, MPs and industry
Liz Truss was the first female Lord Chancellor and justice secretary when she took over from Michael Gove © Getty
Liz Truss was replaced as justice secretary on Sunday after an uncomfortable 11 months in the job including several high-profile clashes with the judiciary.
A non-lawyer, Ms Truss was the first female Lord Chancellor and justice secretary when she took over from Michael Gove last June but since then she has made a series of mis-steps.
She initially failed to defend the judiciary last November after they were branded “Enemies of the people” by the Daily Mail because they ruled parliament had to be given a vote on triggering Brexit. Ms Truss later issued a statement supporting the judges but this was seen as too little, too late.
Her actions drew unprecedented criticism from Lord Thomas, the Lord Chief Justice, who told a committee of MPs in March that he felt Ms Truss had been “completely and absolutely wrong”.
It was the duty of Ms Truss to defend judges, Lord Thomas told the committee, adding he was “very disappointed” that she initially failed to defend them describing it as “constitutionally absolutely wrong”.
The Lord Chief Justice also attacked Ms Truss for a “complete misunderstanding” of reforms to cross-examination of vulnerable witnesses in rape trials.
He had been forced to write to all judges to clarify that measures to spare witnesses live cross-examination in rape trials were for children, not adults as Ms Truss had said.
Jolyon Maugham QC, a barrister and anti-Brexit campaigner, said that some in the legal profession “will be pleased to see the back of her”.
However, he said Ms Truss had taken over as Lord Chancellor at an “especially difficult moment for the rule of law in this country” given the unprecedented attacks from the media and politicians. “It is quite difficult to expect a relatively junior minister to stand in the way of all that,” he said
He said the Lord Chancellor role, which has now been held by three non lawyers in succession, includes defending the judges and this “delicate and complex” task best rests with someone who “appreciates the complexities of being a judge in politically fraught cases”.
Andrew Langdon QC, chair of the Bar, which represents barristers, said: “It is encouraging to see that the prime minister has, perhaps, taken note of our call in our manifesto for justice . . . for a Lord Chancellor who will properly fulfil their constitutional role and defend independence of the judiciary and uphold the rule of law.”
Ms Truss’s relationship with the judiciary came under further strain this year when the vacancy for the role of the new lord chief justice was advertised.
It stipulated that the successful candidate must serve four years in the post — in effect ruling out leading contenders such as Sir Brian Leveson because they would have to serve beyond the usual judicial retirement age of 70.
Ms Truss has also overseen a number of contentious decisions — notably plans to raise legal fees payable after death by up to £20,000, even after a parliamentary committee said the increases were unlawful.
MPs questioned whether Ms Truss was “acting beyond” her powers by pushing through the changes using a statutory instrument, a form of secondary legislation that is not subject to parliamentary scrutiny. In the end, the reforms were dropped.
She also came under fire from insurers in March over plans to allow victims of UK road accidents to receive much higher compensation payouts. The UK government has revised the formula, known as the discount rate, which determines how much the NHS or insurance companies must pay up front to successful claimants in court cases to cover their lifetime care.
The new rate will result in substantially higher claims costs than either insurers or the NHS were expecting in a move the Association of British Insurers described as a “crazy decision” and “reckless in the extreme”.
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I know a guy that can aid your understanding of Black Holes 🙂
Your North American correspondent should be on speed dial!
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Heard her on R4 when I used to listen to the propaganda department.
She wanted to introduce discounted Fines in englandland if you gave a guilty plea, then you could pay the fine with your bank card. No magistrates or judges required just clerical staff and accountants.
What planet does she live on? Ever been in a sheriff court and seen the customer base, after an old firmfootball match.
On the EU polls, farage’s party polling 28%, we are no longer living with a Sane neighbour.
It’s like the Hangman voting to repeal Capital Punishment when it’s his only source of income and he’s got an interview with the DWP about his work prospects.
The Dugdale Defence is getting more popular.
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Oh lordy yes. She was lord chancellor or something at one point.
https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/1a8c8069b82a07a452cc1c42a73bceded0ce4b25/0_0_3137_4684/master/3137.jpg?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=4c4501883d708e233d2170a68e8f9ba6
I think she’s something to do with the Treasury now.
No wonder we’re broke.
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It’s very likely that I’ve missed something but if I haven’t then my current impression is that Ruthie ain’t coming back. She’s extended her maternity leave, as is her right and good on her for choosing to spend more time with her kid. (Much as I feel sorry for the bairn) The thing is that this human stuff isn’t really the behaviour I’ve come to expect from the borderline personality disordered, obsessive, driven, political types that politic, scheme, backstab and claw there way into party leadership. Climbing over the bodies of slain adversaries in the quest for power somehow doesn’t fit with, “please can I extend my maternity leave, please thank you.
I’m probably wrong and possibly there are other factors at play, eg health, but right now I just can’t see Tank Woman re-entering the fray.
Not as Scottish branch office leader anyway.
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my understanding is she’s back for next week’s Tory party branch office conference next weekend. She’s also got a puff piece in the Daily Heil about her return.
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Oh… well, bang goes my theory, PP.
I wonder how many they will get for their conference… and if they will be addressed by the Maybot…
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The Maybot coming to the Branch Office knees-up? Hm. I seem to remember that at the last one – or maybe the one or a one before that, it seems so long ago now – May turned up at the Armadillo and, I thought, laid the groundwork for direct rule from Westminster: the SNP are so bad, said she, that we poor, stupid wee Jockanese need saving by an enlightened Tory regime from ourselves, from getting our own way, and in general from the dark, dangerous and despicable effects of too much democracy.
Needless to say, she lied out of both sides of her mouth, and the middle as well.
I hope her vicar dad, wherever he is, is wondering what the hell he did wrong.
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You wonder, don’t you, about people who profess devoutness in their faith and then lie through their teeth, and cheat those less fortunate out of what little they might have had.
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The Reverend died in a car crash, so the maybot is an orphan, mother died a year after dad.
From Wiki
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Ouch, that must have been hard for her. No one should have to go through that.
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she was 25 when her dad died and 26 her mother. She wasn’t a child.
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Still young, although as you say, hardly a child. She had already decided to be prime minister by that time.
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Morning Panda Paws.
I was being a little bit off message, I usually refer to a friend who inherited a very large sum of money when his parents died in a car crash as an orphan. He agrees that as a waster he would never have seen the inheritance in the normal run of life, he was also in his 20’s and still thinks of himself as an orphan.
The maybot was indeed an adult at the time but she hasn’t actually grown up to see the harm she is causing with her coldness and uncaring persona.
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So there you go, I was right all along Panda Paws. I did miss something
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I was thinking that she was hoping to stay out of the way until the worst of the Tory Brexit catastrophe is over.
Those who can remain unstained by something which is breaking up that party, have a better chance once it is over and done.
Maybe even off to England in a constituency and thence to Downing Street…
Who knows?
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grieg12,
Maybe not. But she has the balls to straddle a Nuclear attack submarine if that would get her a few more votes.
I kinda think she plays in the same intellectual dead end as Nigel Farage, but that is probably just me.
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I quote from elsewhere:
“Speaking power to truth has long been the preference of the UK broadcast media. Can you recall a single interviewer in the run-up to the indyref shouting over the answers of David Cameron or Gordon Brown or Alistair Darling, and demanding to know “but does ‘permanent’ mean that the Scottish Parliament’s existing powers can never be removed?” or “how can the Scottish people be expected to vote for a plan that you won’t actually devise until the referendum is over?” or “what recourse will the Scottish people have if this turns out to be the baloney it appears?” or “on what date will you resign if none of this ever sees the light of day?”
I am damned impressed with that. “Speaking power to truth” is a work of genius.
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Yep. Good stuff.
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What is it with Tories,in particular,with regard to things German?
They worship a royal family of German origins but reject the German language,which I am pretty sure English is a derivative of or at least had a common root.
They will find it much harder to master Mandarin.
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English is a bastard language. There is hardly a language in the world from which English does not have imported words.
Of course, there is a huge Germanic influence, along with Latin and Norman French.
Yep Mandarin is going to be a total swine to learn…
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Tim Newman – er spricht scheiße
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Agreed… however, it would do most Brexiters / Faragistes a lot of good to be forced to learn another European language or two. Perhaps make it part of their ASBOs / community service?
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Ed, it would do everyone a lot of good to learn a couple of other languages. It does great things to the mind.
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Indeed it does, Tris. Very broadening, too, especially to those whose minds are so narrow that new ideas can’t find the room to squeeze into them.
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Mindus narrowum weeroomdom nonsqueezium.
I think I need a bit more practice
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Just a bit!
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Tsk. In virumdum mindorum narrovorum ideæ novæ nullo modo non squizibuntur, I always say.
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Well, you would… doesn’t everyone?
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I’m declining to. Or is it too?
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It’s both the two: I’m declining to, too! 🙂
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Don’t they all?
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I see that there is a chance that Kezia is going to quit pretty soon…
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/apr/28/kezia-dugdale-set-to-leave-politics-over-labour-brexit-stance?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Bitly
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Tris
Is Docha gu bi.
Maybe more likely than leaving the labour party in Scotland she will just become an independent msp but not believing in Independence.
Too much easy money to give up for another couple of years and can go off to the jungle again as a come again celebrity.
After all she has given the World the DUGDALE Defense, too stupid to know what words mean and thus it’s FAIR comment. It’s my fair comment that she is stupid enough to brazen it out.
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Well Well
I got that wrong, according to the web Dugdale is to take on the Directorship of the John Smith school of politics at Glasgow University.
A piece from their Web Site.
Politics has become a discredited and disrespected process. This acts as a huge disincentive to talented people choosing to enter politics. People passionate to effect change will go elsewhere, and we will all suffer as a result. We need to act now: it is critical to the social and economic wellbeing of our country that the most able and willing to serve represent us.
What we do
Encourage those who have the interest and passion but not the access or means to enter politics
Champion excellence in politicians to act as role models for public service
Foster respect for our elected representatives through advocacy and debate and improving understanding of what it means to serve our citizens.
So a person with a court case win where the sheriff says she didn’t know what she was saying gets a nice wee earner out of the public purse.
Thought Glasgow University was supposed to be a centre of excellence in Education, perhaps no longer, just a centre of smegma.
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There’s a lot of them in Glasgow. Isn’t Wendy Alexander there too?
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A role model for public service…not in my book. She’s giving up on representing the public and her constituents . Not for the first time either although this time she might be able to avoid eating quite so many insects. Again though, a nice wee earner.
This John Smith Institute looks dodgy, if not sinister.
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As a Glaswegian, born and bred, who sort of loves this Dundonian perspective, we’d claim Mhairi Black as one of our own, though she could rightly claim to be a mere Paisleyite, or summat.
Luv her, just so’s you know!
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I think we all do. Douglas.
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