From Noon Sunday.
Through A Scottish Prism Podcast.
This week and next, it was the intention of the TASP team to take a summer break. Holyrood is closed and Westminster is about to follow suit. We assumed our politicians on both sides of the border would leave us with nothing to review. How wrong we were!
The panel of Eva Comrie, Lloyd Quinan, Allan Petrie and Phil Boswell had plenty to discuss. First up was the news of the opinion poll once more showing that independence is the choice of the majority of Scots. This has been a constant for over three years now as poll after poll from all the companies shows the Scots want out of the union.
The same polling shows that the SNP are only hitting low 30% in voting intentions. This 20% gap is widening with every day of inaction on independence by the SNP. Yet they remain intransigent in their refusal to unite with other independence like minded parties.
We ask when will the SNP wake up to the reality that if they truly want independence they need to be reaching out to the independence movement, not the unionist parties, media, and podcasters!
We know that in July last year at the UKGE more pro-independence voters stayed at home rather than come out to vote for the SNP. The reality is this, in May 2026 Scotland could become independent if only the SNP would join in the demand for unity.
A united Scottish Independence grouping could not be defeated. Indeed, with unity we could win a super-majority and declare independence on Friday, 8th May. A very appropriate date, it was on this date in 1945 that the western allies declared VE day. Let us have a victory, Scotland’s independence declaration that day. Put that on the front page of The National, this time it can be a reality, not a carrot for votes!
The reasons for seceding from the union are growing every single week. Our imperial masters gave us a classic example this week. The Prax Lindsey refinery in Lincolnshire has been taken into public ownership by the London Government to protect UK energy security!
The UK Government’s propaganda outlet, the BBC, told us this. The BBC understands crude oil stocks already held at the site have been bought with taxpayers’ money to allow the refinery to keep operating.
Speaking in the Commons on Monday, Michael Shanks, the energy minister, said workers had been “badly let down” and the government was demanding “an immediate investigation into the conduct of the directors and the circumstances surrounding this insolvency.”
Shanks also said the government was actively looking for a buyer for the business and, if that failed, other potential uses for the site.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj9vzyyyv3do
This Michael Shanks is the House Jock MP and Labour toady for Rutherglen. The same treatment was not shown to Grangemouth. Scotland, which produces 100% of the Unions oil, had its refinery shut down. Shanks never said a word! There was no urgency, no government intervention. England, with no oil, has 5 refineries and they must be protected at all times.
As if we didn’t already have enough reasons to get out of the Union, this Labour Government this week just gave us yet another reason!
Meanwhile, we have been informed that Offgem has approved a £24 billion investment in transmission, or stealing Scotland’s leccy if you prefer! To top it all off, so that we can give England all this free energy, our bills will go up by an average of £104 per household!
UK energy regulator Ofgem has provisionally approved a £24billion investment package into the country’s gas and electricity transmission system.
https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/ofgem-approves-24bn-in-transmission-upgrades-in-boost-to-uks-ai-ambitions/
We also had the very scary, and it seems undemocratic, proscribing of Palestine Action. This on the same week that the IDF admitted they were executing Palestinians standing unarmed in aid lines!
It seems painting planes owned by a Hedge Fund red to symbolise the blood spilled in the Gaza genocide is an act of terrorism. Executing starving children queuing for food aid is apparently self-defence and OK. However, protesting against genocide is viewed as terrorism. Do you really want to remain in a state with those kind of values?
We ask how long before the independence movements in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Cornwall are all proscribed as terror organisations?
This was the week when Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana announced their new English left-of-centre political party. We discuss the implications of this for the Unionist parties and the SNP. One more reason for the SNP to unite the pro-independence movement?
All this and so much more on your favourite Scottish political review podcast. If this continues, there just might not be a TASP summer break!
I wholeheartedly disapprove of the “both votes SNP” insanity, and I’ve always believed Salmond’s ALBA hoovering up List Seats for a Holyrood supermajority was an inspired intervention. I believe it would have worked – if Sturgeon’s SNP hadn’t wilfully sabotaged ALBA, Salmond and generally poisoned the well. Is it just me? Or what assurance do we have that the SNP won’t to likewise to Liberate and / or SALVO? Aren’t they doing it to us already?
See, there is a wee trap here we need to be aware of…The LESS dominant the SNP becomes, the more desperate the SNP will grow for List Seats, (and equally, the more likely it is the SNP will win some). You could make an argument that “Both Votes SNP” is a kind of defeatism which is cognisant of the likelihood that support for the SNP might crumble. Please understand, I’m not saying there’s any positive outcome from Both Votes SNP, but just, – we shouldn’t be getting our hopes up for the SNP suddenly waking up and smelling the coffee. A wounded SNP will need List Seats, and they’ll adopt a strategy which will get some.
While it’s true, people are indeed scunnered, I think it’s more than scunnered. The Indy Movement isn’t just disillusioned and disinterested, – there’s a huge elephant in the room where the SNP has deliberately betrayed us. I can get myself over being scunnered and rekindle some passion, but “fixing” what is broken within the SNP strikes me as an uphill struggle. It feels like the only solution is something to be imposed on the SNP, because there’s precious little sign of repentence or contrition within. Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock … yet no change.
The other issue I worry about is the “missing” campaign. Taking my lead from Craig Murray’s recent comments, (I forget who it was he was speaking to), but I was delighted to hear the Russians at highest diplomatic level were still well aware of Alex Salmond describing the bombing of Yugoslavia as unpardonable folly way back in 1999. Salmond the Statesman making Scotland heard.
But looking in the crystal ball, if we’re not careful, the issue of Independence in 2026 will be divisive just like Independence in 2016. The Pro and Anti Brexit distractions in 2016 could easily be repeated with an equally divisive argument about whether Scotland should be pro or anti BRICS in the emerging multipolar world. A pro-BRICS agenda runs the risk of incensing the US, UK, and EU governments trying to shore up their crumbling hegemony. The BBC and London will make it a divisive issue for Scotland, just as they did with currency.
I am not remotely comfortable with a Europe re-arming itself to replace NATO with a home-made but equally Russophobic European alternative. For God’s sake, war with Russia means war with BRICS, war with China, and on our current chilling trajectory, supine complicity with the barbaric genoicide in the Middle East. NOT IN MY NAME! I don’t think BRICS can ever be put back in the bottle.
I raise a salute to Ireland, (and Clare Daly in particular), who are doing all they can to shame the warmongers and bring an end to the bloodshed and butchery… Would that they had an Ally in an already Independent Scotland, but Scotland’s SNP “Government” has shamed our Nation with it’s cowardice and backing for the UK’s murderous complicity in war crimes.
This all matters. If Scotland becomes actively pro- BRICS, we will see a surge in Foreign Investment and new markets for our exports. Our Ports will flourish with trade for the first time in centuries. But if BRICS is good for Scotland, we can be sure the narrative will be poisoned by the UK government and media. So much is going to depend on Europe, and how the EU deals with it’s Hawks and Warmongers. But all this hostility and antithesis towards Russia and the Far East just feels like a doomed and shortsighted foreign policy that Scotland neither wants nor needs.
BRICS is going to revolutionise trade between Russia, China and the Middle East and do most of it overland across one single landmass which will make disruption and embargos all but impossible. But look to the Western seaboard of that “Super-Continent” and look North, to the North Atlantic, Baltic and possible Arctic Trade routes, and Scotland, indeed Scapa Flow, is in a prime strategic location to rival Singapore or Istanbul. People seem to concern themselves about Scotland’s size, but we neglect Scotland’s potential for importance, strategic location,, and the wealth associated with that importance.
Yes, yes, yes, unite under one cause, ALL for Scottish Independence, but there’s a wee niggle in my head. Why are we allowing ourselves to be hostage to Westminster or Holyrood Elections? Is it just for the familiarity and convenience of another Election sponsored by Westminster? Maybe so. OK. If we cannot even dictate the timetable of our electoral revolution, what chance do we have of dictating the narrative and agenda? Why leave Westminster with all the initiative? Brexit didn’t need to force itself into an Election. Did it?
I don’t say that to be negative, because I firmly believe the landscape could change in a heartbeat, but we need a much more vibrant and vital Leadership cadre to emerge. The Nation aches for the absence of charismatic leadership, and our footsoldiers aren’t marching because they don’t have anybody to follow except the moribund SNP.
Hats off to SALVO, Liberation and Liberate, and all the footsoldiers still working their socks off, but it is all undermined because we have a rogue party which cannot be trusted firmly ensconced in the driving seat, and EVERYTHING we do is compromised by that unnatural detail.
The SNP needs killed or cured. Neither option seems particularly easy. We need to see some meaningful ultimatums put forward, benchmarks and commitments. Are you for it or against it? No more drifting along in the current. We need to chart a course to steer, and harness some form of active propulsion.
Time is running out.
Brilliant comment , B , with every part of which I concur .
I understand the rationale of still leaving the door open for the snP ( and ALBA ; but how sad that so-called ” alternative ” to snP uselessness/corruption are having to be cajoled into coming under the Liberate * umbrella * ; and , so far anyway , are refusing to do so , instead seem intent on flogging the dead horse of expecting cooperation from snP ) to , finally , do something right , ie put Country before Party , but I’m 99% sure they won’t .
The geopolitical situation has , IMO , never been more perilous , moreso even than the Cuban Crisis , for the simple reason that the current generation of West/European leaders are the worst in living memory – possible ever . Vain , posturing ,hypocritical , psychotically reckless/feckless & useless , incapable of admitting their folly and driving us relentlessly to potentially catastrophic WW3 . All the while looking in their narcissistic mirrors and telling themselves how wonderful , how ” brave ” , how ” strong ” they are . Utter clowns every one of them .Who knows what the situation will be by next May and how that will play into the perceptions of voters . We can be fairly certain the hysteria will be turned-up to 11 by then – if not sooner .
And what’s hair-pullingly , agonisingly frustrating is seeing the snP/GOV squander yet one more prime opportunity to gain advantage , ie promote the absolute necessity of Independence , from the bumbling idiocy of another English Uniparty Government , this one falling apart in front of our eyes but still intent on dragging the entire * U.K * into the morass of it’s own making .
Incredibly , not only are they not using this latest incarnation of English pathological delusion to extract Scotland from the poisonous contamination of ” Union ” , the snP are actually going along with the Blimps n Strangeloves of English imperial fantasy ; colluding with the ludicrous Putin = Hitler / Zelensky = Churchill intelligence-insulting , nursery-level propaganda . Christ Almighty ! Talk about prisoners learning to love their chains !
All the best to those under the Liberate Umbrella ; along with SALVO/LIBERATION they represent the best ( only ? ) hope of getting something positive from the ’26 Elections & beyond .
The * Rest * are like drunkards staggering along , whistling in the dark n pissing in the wind , telling themselves they’re doing great as they lurch impotently from one crisis to the next and head inexorably to the ditch of complete irrelevance and total failure : whether they * win * the next election or not , on current form/trajectory , they – more importantly , Scotland , fails .
Firstly, I really think we need to stop and look around us a lot more than we do. We are far too invested in DEI/woke, with every national institution riddled with this stuff. So long as that is the case, independence based on the alienation of Scottish values, Scottish culture, languages, sensibilities, is impossible because we are trapped in a world where diversity and inclusion outweigh any indigenous claims to anything, where people wholly unfit for office, but who mouth the orthodoxies of our age, regardless of how much they destroy us as a nation, continue to be lubricated into positions of power and authority, to continue the dilution of Scottishness. Independence, per se, will not cure this, and DEI/woke will work actively to prevent independence, in any case, as we have seen.
Very little in Scotland is actually Scottish these days, and our economy would collapse if we did not make it plain that these foreign interests will continue to retain their interests under a benevolent Scottish government after independence. That is the reality. That we might be able to tweak contracts a little and ask for a bit more are as much as we dare to posit now until we regain our independence, because too much of a deviation from Westminster’s track will lead to our being sanctioned and derailed – and not just by Westminster and Whitehall, but by our own DEI/woke-infested civil service and corporate managements, from councils right up to Holyrood. No country that has interests in another will support its independence if it will lose all its interests, so you have to play the long game and keep stumm until you are in a position to call the tune. Even then, many a country has been ruined by trying to slough off the cloak of global corporate capitalism instead of coming to an accommodation with it. We are mere infants in world reality terms, and we need to grow up very quickly if we want to achieve our independence, let alone thrive once we have it.
That means that we have to ditch the utterly infantile pie-in-the-sky DEI/woke albatross as we move forward to independence, however we do that. That means being utterly ruthless in our own interests and cutting out all the dead wood. In reality, it will mean destroying the SNP, crippling the Greens and the Lib Dems, defanging Labour and keeping the Tories at bay. Independence is not going to fix the problems we already have and we will not enter an independent state of being with a clean slate because the embedded DEI/woke adherents will ensure that they survive. They are parasites on the bodies social, political and economic, and parasites are not easily removed. They will have to be ousted ruthlessly. They are ostensibly of the hard left, but they are far greater proponents of unfettered capitalism and class warfare than the Tories could ever be. They are that most unhinged of political narcissists, the hard left/woke middle-class neoliberals who have no interest in the working-class (that actually protects our Scottishness) and no critical thinking ability to understand (or care about) the massive burden they are placing upon the unwilling working-class in the name of equity, diversity and inclusion.
If they want men to be women, fine, ensure that these men are offered homes in nice, leafy middle-class areas so that their fetishes may be fully appreciated by the residents there; if they want mass immigration, great, build the hotels, or turn nice middle-class houses into multiple occupancy properties, in the nice leafy parts of the city and country, and place the immigrants there. If you vote for a moron SNP or Green or whatever candidate who believes in DEI and woke, you get the results of that which you voted for and which your candidate campaigned on, as the result of your efforts. If you want to campaign on Gaza or Ukraine, fine. You can be offered a post in your chosen territory, as a funded gap year, to either fight for your cause or to volunteer in some capacity so that you can experience the authentic atmosphere, and everyone there will be so filled with gratitude, they’ll welcome you and your keffiya around your lily-white neck, your pride lanyard and miniskirt that barely hides your knickers, with open arms. Nice, middle-class boys and girls will be queuing up to take advantage of the opportunity, won’t they?
Those SNHS HR and DEI managers can have their offices filled by unskilled ‘diverse’ people in fetish gear and/or niqabs/burqas/bushy beards and djellabas, who don’t speak English, let alone Scots, and require translators because they have entered the country illegally. They won’t mind taking salary cuts and maybe voluntary redundancy to make room for them because that would be the epitome of kindness? Isn’t that what they advocate for the rest? Imagine our schools full of genderless loos and changing rooms where teenage boys, hormones raging, can gatecrash girls’ menstruation days, watch them undress and listen to them peeing. The girls will be able to listen to the boys’ doing what teenage boys do as their hormones take control. What could be more civilized, equitable, diverse and inclusive? Our children learning that there are absolutely no differences between the two sexes – sorry, genders – either physically or otherwise, even though the girls are sluts for sleeping with the boys who have no comparable name? What could be healthier in an independent Scotland?
I jest. I think.