I am old enough to remember where I was the night JFK was assassinated, Friday, 22nd November 1963. Friday night was Scouts night. I remember as a 12 year old the Saturday night, 8th May 1965 when I was told my father had died. That explained why I had been sent to my aunts house that weekend. I remember every minute of Thursday, 18th September 2014. Now I have another day I will not forget, the day Nicola Sturgeon finally stood down. It was the same day I rode on the back of an elephant in Thailand.
When I returned to my hotel and a WiFi signal my phone was going berserk. I saw some tweets and messages telling me of the impending presser and the resignation rumours. I had to watch for myself to make sure this was at last actually happening. I don’t tend to watch BBC news and current affairs programmes.Too many lies and too much right-wing English and WEF propaganda for my liking.
I noted even at the end of her tenure she gave her resignation to the British Unionist media without a single new media pro independence outlet in the room. Not even the ones that have profited personally from their devotion and sycophancy to this most divisive leader of the independence movement. Not even those shills were granted an audience. Still I suppose a column in the in-house magazine, or a villa down the coast is reward enough for those that were willing to join in on the sell out of Scotland’s independence and female population.
This blog, long before either ISP or Alba even existed has been pleading for unity. We warned of the dangers if she pursued her obsession on GRA. We begged her to stop running around England post Brexit and instead mobilise Scotland towards independence. As far back as the summer of 2018 we were advocating an independence referendum in the autumn of that year. We pleaded with her to lead the AUOB rallies and marches. In 2019 at the UKGE, we once again encouraged her to unite the YES Movement in a concerted effort to free our nation from English imperialism.As was always the case we and others saying the same were ignored and traduced. Wheesht for indy was the constant cry!
Nothing it seemed could shift our defacto leader of the independence movement to unite the cause and the different factions therein. In 2020 when she once again demanded yet another mandate the following year at Holyrood. We asked her to keep her promise of a Constitutional Convention.This was and remains the best way to reunite and reignite the entire YES Movement. Three years and sixteen days after her promise there is still no sign of that Convention.
Yesterday, she stood down and in that resignation speech she mentioned herself 153 times and Scotland just 11 times. Of those 11 times several were in conjunction with her being the First Minister of Scotland. Hardly the words of someone devoted to the cause.
That famous Scottish phrase by Burns of “facts are chiels that winna ding” is very apt for her. The fact is this not once in her near nine years has any SNP Conference been allowed to debate independence. Every time a motion was suggested to debate the core of the SNP Sturgeon had the motion denied. Hardly the actions of someone devoted to independence! Let us remind ourselves of the first parts of the SNP Constitution.
CONSTITUTION OF THE SCOTTISH NATIONAL PARTY.
1.The Party shall be named the Scottish National Party.
Aims
2.[a] Independence for Scotland;that is the restoration of Scottish national sovereignty by restoration of full powers to the Scottish Parliament, so that its authority is limited only by the sovereign power of the Scottish people to bind it with a written constitution and by such agreements as it may freely enter into with other nations or states or international organisations for the purpose of furthering international cooperation, world peace and the protection of the environment.
[b] the furtherance of all Scottish interests.
Just as an example go to the SNP website and see how easily or difficult it is to locate this basic tenet of the party! It explains why the Plan B debate was never allowed to take place.
So now she is gone, and it is time for the historians to decide her legacy. Despite the sycophancy by some over the past hours, I suggest that history and historians will not be so kind to her. She had so many opportunities to progress our cause and allowed each and every one to slip through her fingers. Her achievements in almost nine years are almost nil. For reasons best known to her and her cabal, she thought that enabling male rapists to change their gender at will would show her to be seen as a progressive. She was wrong, and despite many warnings she decided to die on that hill of misogynistic biology denying insanity!
Going forward all that matters now is that whoever becomes the new leader of the SNP and the defacto leader of the YES Movement is a unity candidate. The immature trolls encouraged by Sturgeon need removed not reigned in.They have been disastrous for the movement. The Greens likewise, need pushed out of government. They have brought nothing but division and madness to the independence cause. The Constitutional Convention needs to be announced immediately. The hand of unity and comradeship needs extended out to the other independence parties and groupings like AUOB, SSRG.
The new leader needs to reassert the Scottish Right by TELLING Westminster we are collapsing Holyrood and calling a Plebiscite election in October 2023. This time definitely no ifs and no buts! This gives the YES Movement all of spring and summer to campaign, march, leaflet, rally, door knock, recruit, car cavalcade, gather, debate and bring back that old independence feelgood factor.
The world needs to know that Scotland is on the march again towards independence. More importantly, the people of Scotland need to know that too. For almost nine years now there has been nothing to inspire them or give them hope. That has to change!
To the elected MPs and MSPs that have savaged those that have stayed true to the core principles of the cause I say this, you either get with the programme or you will be swept away in a tide of disgust!
Scotland needs warriors, not carpetbaggers and pension pot fillers.Those days are in the past as the song goes, it is time for you to think again or join your heroine and resign today! We the people of the ancient nation of Scotland give you notice. We will not tolerate anymore prevarication or blind alleys. You have one job and one job only!
Now is the time, now is the hour!
Help me beat the censors.
Since I first expressed my opposition to this entire GRA nonsense I have found myself being banned and blocked on social media platforms. Even here many people who have subscribed to my blogs no longer receive notifications when I post a new blog.It has grown worse since February last year when I made my views as a peacenik clear and refused to join in with the war mongers and their Russophobia. I have opposed wars my entire life and will not for the sake of popularity jettison my principles. If you agree with my musings in these blogs I would ask that you share my blogs wherever you can on social media and help me beat the censors and war mongers.
I have been in hospital for nearly four weeks now, sore, tired & aye, trying hard to keep pushing upwards and onwards
However yesterday’s cha cha Cheerio announcement was worth an extra couple of shots of painkiller 👍
We knew it would come but jeezo, it’s been a fight – but we are all moving on now 🏴
Saor Alba
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She’s left Scotland in a complete mess and the SNP in financial troubles, I’d love to know what the membership is now.
Totally agree, Roddy……..and beginning to feel we are on the move again. Here’s to our freedom!
As a keen follower of Barrhead Boy and being all for independence and following your suggestions on the way forward i have a nagging worry. With all this chaos that is going to sweep through the SNP and the Scottish Government perhaps we have been ignoring A Jack and his team in Edinburgh waiting the go ahead from Westminster to close down the Scottish Parliament and Devolution. Irrespective of push back from us colonials they could just finish off the privatisation of everything. We are still far away from the next general election for them to do it now. What would be the strategy to stop this other than the obvious one of having a Scottish Election, like almost now.
Lack of knowledge i’m afraid the only people who can close down the Scottish Parliament which is enshrined in Law are the Scottish People voting themselves for that to happen , best stop listening to conspiracy theorists telling you otherwise.
Not so Ian, with a stroke of a pen Westminster could close Holyrood in a micro second and Scots could not stop them. Holyrood is a branch office of Westminster in effect.
Over on Mr Craig Murray’s blog he does a good piece on how Sturgeon was used and abused by the establishment.
Why Sturgeon became the blocker and spoiler of the independence movement is a question we might never know. Idiot or traitor Craig asks because everything these last eight years happened for a reason.
But now she is gone, past her sell by date, her damage done, her handlers will now in every possibility pursue her or her husband for the misappropriated. missing £600k..Nor is it likely that she will be given the big UN job so widely speculated.
But further establishment attacks on the ex First Minister and or her husband should not be seen as a distraction, Yes it will. further reinforce in many minds how rotten the SNP became but it is but a distraction to the opportunity that lies before us.
Independence is not the preserve of the SNP. The SNP these last eight years allowed itself to be Hollowed out.. It is damaged badly and the only reason ithe polls at present still report support, albeit now collapsing electoral support, is because folks still want independence.
Against this background there is therefore the absolute opportunity to go for independence later this year. The status quo is gone. Undermining gradulism in cosy elected seats is no longer an option.
This is our time. We All must use it to rid ourselves of the vicious hateful colonial Union and join other free open and successful small countries like Ireland, Norway, Switzerland, Denmark, Singapore and many many more.
That should be our everyday prayer.
Well said, Willie. The long catalogue of failure and procrastination has to end. The carrots are well past their sell by date.
The irony is her legacy will show the monumental damage she has done to the Transgender community. I’m sure in her own mind she thought this was a noble cause but listening to a small clique of utter zealots and headbangers does not make it noble. Many in the LGBT family warned her the bill as it stood would do more damage than good. Women told her this many told her that. Now what we have is a Transgender community even more marginalized than it was more exposed to real Transphobes and associated with crimes of a sexual nature. And being a stubborn bloody minded sod the more she dug her heels in the more damage she did not only to the Transgender community but to Scotland aspirations to be free. Whoever takes over from her must learn the lessons . As someone once said to keep doing the same things over and over with the same outcome is ……..
I think we need to better understand the main reason for ‘identity politics’ to have become such a big issue within the independence movement. Gender identity ideology has clearly been imposed on Scotland by external interests, i.e. it does not emanate from within Scotland and has been pushed and promoted by powerful external organisations and interests, also facilitated by Whitehall appointed officials running the UK’s Scottish Government/Dept and quangos, and a compromised party leadership. GII seems to be primarily about diverting and weakening emphasis on national identity/national consciousness which are the key fundamentals for any ‘people’ seeking self-determination, independence and reclaiming their sovereignty. A couple of generations subjected to intense gender identity ideology indoctrination and associated laws would probably be sufficient to weaken and perhaps even destroy ‘a peoples’ national identity/consciousness (adding to prevailing cultural and linguistic imperialism which has the same effect) and hence could dissipate or replace entirely their motivation for national independence and sovereignty. It therefore seems likely that GII is a neo-imperialism tool being imposed on a number of countries, both independent and non-independent. Interesting also that an academic researcher specializing in genocide was appointed to the UK-Scottish Governments ‘Expert advisory team’ on ‘gender reform’.
“. Gender identity ideology has clearly been imposed on Scotland by external interests”
BS It came directly from the SNP , clearly seen in all the SNP elites who attend Rainbow marches annually.
Give us a rest from you constant WM conspiracy nonsense this whole burach was completely of the SNP and the Scot Greens own making. https://wingsoverscotland.com/all-the-nice-greens-love-a-rapist/
“BS It came directly from the SNP”
The SNP, Greens and most other UK political parties and a host of UK/Scottish state agencies and departments are the enablers of the ideology, not the originators. Scotland is not alone, gender identity ideology has been adopted by numerous mainly western countries. In each case a woke administration has merely facilitated its implementation. It is not an ideology originating from within any particular political party in these countries, they are merely part of the local enabling organisational setup. It is well known that there is serious global money and players behind the wider ‘distribution’ of gender identity ideology. We are very fortunate that Scotland still haes mony wice heids who can see through the gender ideology ‘BS’ given that our elected representatives have mostly been found wanting.
Well said Prof.
Thank you, Alf. Good to hear from one who knows and understands through experience.
Has she gone or has she just gone to the back benches to watch over from behind.
The real legacy or what people should realise is politicians and political parties are pure poison.
The people are never in control of anything, once in power there are no safeguards for the public, politicians do what ever the hell they like and they never do that they said in their manifesto.
People who seek power should never be allowed near it.
Just back to the back benches , she has no intentions at this time of giving up the WM expenses gravy train.
She stated she was going back to the back benches Herself yesterday.
I’m slightly amused with the headlines suggesting that the SNP might not go ahead with their “De Facto” referendum as though it was some sort of secret , its partly why Sturgeon resigned to avoid all the flack and abuse from that fact getting exposed anyway very soon at SNP discussions on the matter. She ducked out before the sh*t inevitably hit the fan. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/snp-leaders-hint-at-rethink-on-sturgeon-s-scottish-independence-plan/ar-AA17yLUo?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=5639d030dd92412ba2effcf338743bf7
https://hangingtogether.org/facts-are-chiels-that-winna-ding – for those, like me, who have lost touch with their Burns’ dialect.
‘But facts are chiels that winna ding,/An downa be disputed’ appear in Burns’ poem A Dream from 1786. The English translation is ‘But facts are fellows that will not be overturned,/And cannot be disputed’.
The problem is that she’s not gone, she’ll be on the benches, and neither is Murrell, both will hand pick her successor, probably Robertson or Forbes both close allies of Sturgeon, so it will just be a new face same shit.