FROM NOON SUNDAY.
This week’s Through A Scottish Prism covers all the Scottish political news of the week. We start the show with Tommy Sheppard, MP, asking the English Parliament in London to grant extra powers to Holyrood. The panel of Eva Comrie, Lloyd Quinan, Phil Boswell and Yvonne Ridley express their views on the Edinburgh MP’s pleading.
The big news of the week was, of course, The Alba Party, St. Andrew’s Day Declaration. Ash Regan’s Bill at Holyrood is an attempt to break the constitutional logjam. We debate the merits of the initiative and discuss the likelihood of SNP and Greens supporting this bold move.
With support for independence now sitting at 54%, we ask has there ever been a better time to begin another move towards independence. The Scottish voters are ready, the Alba Party is ready, are the SNP/Greens?
A good sign would be Humza heeding Fergus Ewing’s wise words about SNP not standing a candidate against Angus MacNeil in Na h-Eileanan an Iar at next year’s UK General Election. Our panel gives their views on this and any likely action by SNP.
Earlier in the week the Tory Party Chairman Lee Anderson suggested that asylum seekers and immigrants should all be relocated to Orkney, not Rwanda. By the end of the week, Anderson was threatening to relocate himself to Orkney if Brexit was ever reversed. Maybe because these Northern Isles are so solidly Unionist Mr Anderson feels it is safe to push his English anti-foreigner tripe on the good people of Orkney?
With only 13% of Scottish public watching BBC Scotland propaganda each week we ask if at last the influence of London media is waning in Scotland. You can fool some of the people some of the time…
Police Scotland appointment of yet another English senior officer as Chief Constable that commutes to England every week we ask was there not a suitable Scottish Officer? Who exactly appointed her London or Edinburgh?
We could not let the week go by without discussing the latest horrific actions of the rogue Israeli state in Palestine. While it was mainly ignored by the British media, the panel discusses the assassination of two 8 and 9 year old children by Israeli snipers in the West Bank. No Hamas presence there so how can anyone anywhere condone, justify or ignore the murders of these innocent children by Israel?
All this and more on your favourite Scottish Political review show.
Hi Roddy and panel. Felt like greetin after today’s Prism. Always one step forward two back across the board.
SNP supporters and Unionists need to understand that independence is not going away any time soon. If anything, the next couple of years are going to witness a resurgence that will make the past resurgences pale into insignificance. If the SNP is losing voters, it has no one to blame but itself. No one wanted the insane policies that have been delivered of late, in the wake of decent and achievable policies.
What is wrong with people who bleat in letters to The National that ALBA is seeking to drag the SNP down out of spite and malice? Why would they unless something very dark is happening within the SNP which has achieved nothing towards independence in nearly ten years? Nothing whatsoever. That is the very crux of the matter. The SNP has achieved nothing and will achieve nothing because it has decided to settle for devolution, which, itself, is under threat from the West minster government because it will interfere with the UK-wide framework for every reserved matter and devolved matter, too, now.
Absolutely spot on, Eva. This proposed re-regulation of legal services and the legal system from top to bottom smacks powerfully of top-down political interference. Lady Haldane and Lady Dorrian have both, whatever you think of them, been in the forefront in condemning the ways in which the politicians are increasingly trying to bring pressure to bear to change the legal system in ways that suit their political aims, not the ends of justice for the majority of the population. They have both been critical, as have other judges of the Courts of Session and High Court, of the way in which the politicians now expect the legal system and courts to clean up the mess that has been left by them in their endeavours to introduce as many ridiculous and pointless laws as possible in the shortest time possible – all to no actual purpose.
Lloyd is right in that few of the political figures in Holyrood – or indeed, Westminster – have the required knowledge to tackle the big legal questions arising from the policies that the SNP, backed by the Greens, are intent on introducing come hell or high water. Even when the lawyers are consulted, no one listens, but just ploughs ahead regardless. That is not the mark of a democratic nation or a democratic UK, each subject to the rule of law. It is, rather, the mark of a Scotland and a UK each lurching towards totalitarianism with no separation of powers. I take his point that the real intent is deregulation and the ‘free market’ which is never ‘free’ for those burdened by it. The post Brexit UK-wide framework cannot work as intended without a destruction of all previous positions of every institution and industry and service. This will be Thatcherism on stilts.
It was evident from the Salmond debacle that the Scottish civil service has been infiltrated – as has the British – by elements that would introduce totalitarianism tomorrow. ‘Wokism’, as all are going to find out the hard way, was never going to be beneficial to anyone but those with an agenda.
On the chief police officer in Scotland, no different from every other institution in Scotland. Big is better, and if someone is available outwith Scotland, then that person will be chosen, supposing he or she has to travel from Land’s End to Edinburgh or be allocated prime property in Scotland while homeless people freeze in the streets. The point is that the Scots cannot possibly be bright enough or knowledgeable enough or else they are too Scottish. Where’s Cameron Miekelson when you need him? Almost every institution in Scotland is headed by someone from outwith Scotland, and people wonder why Scottish culture is being affected adversely. No other self-respecting country does this to itself and its people. Nobody is saying that other than Scots can have some influence in Scotland, but when that influence is all pervasive and non-Scots, that is a very different matter. The SNP are not off the hook because they have done this even more than the Unionist administrations.
Yes, there should be an international force in Gaza, but I doubt whether the Israelis will stop whoever comes. They said they were going to finish Hamas and that is what they plan to do. It has little to do with right-wing politics in Israel, and more to do with the fact that they have allowed incarcerated Palestinians to come back at them in the past. The man who actually led the 7 October atrocity was a previous prisoner of Israel. I think they will agree to a ceasefire, but not before Gaza is rendered too weak to operate properly for quite some time. The Russians are doing the same thing in Ukraine. The aim is to weaken the other country so that it is unable to concentrate on inflicting pain on Russian Eastern Ukraine and on Israel. The UN is toothless and the West, most of it, will continue to support Israel, if only secretly. The fact that both Russia and Israel are nuclear powers has much to do with the reluctance of the West to provoke them beyond the point when they might use them.
It is hard to see how either conflict will be settled without loss of territory, with Gaza and even the West Bank being squeezed into even smaller areas, and Ukraine losing the Russian East of the country. I keep asking the question: why did the Hamas leaders, all safe and secure in other states, provoke this response, knowing what was bound to happen to their people? Of course, there will always be what is termed ‘collateral damage’ – usually civilians, as in both conflicts here, but the carnage is way out of proportion to any threat the ordinary civilians could possibly inflict. The world is wringing its hands, but that is because of the nuclear threat involved in each conflict here, but, sooner or later, the world is going to have to step up to the plate without provoking nuclear war. The sticky fingers of Iran are always visible, too. It is not only the West that interferes in others’ territory and politics.
Another enjoyable programme, and interesting views on the return of Kevin Pringle. How unfortunate that the promised magic dust he was expected to sprinkle on Humza turned out to be the remnants from his Dyson. I know the format is dedicated to a review of the latest developments but your guests possess so much inside knowledge and experience, it would be really interesting to hear a few predictions of how they think things are going to pan out electorally, with the GE just months away and hopefully indicate some light at the end of this dark tunnel!
As a ALBA official Roddy can I ask if Ash Regan’s proposal of every election is a plebiscitery election when she was contesting the snp leadership election has been adopted and applies to ALBA’s policies and manifesto , or has that been replaced by the DRAFT proposal for a holyrood referendum
Actually I am just an ordinary member now.
Thanks for your response Roddy , can I ask if anyone else within ALBA who attends Roddy’s blog can throw light on my enquiry , it would be good if ALBA has included Ash’s plebiscitery proposals in their forthcoming policy mandates , if her proposal has been dropped or sidelined it would be educational and informative to know who done it and the reasons behind that decision
As I have pointed out to Mr E above it is to give authority to Holyrood to negotiate independence post a Scottish GE. Not a referendum