After a three-week summer break, Through A Scottish Prism Podcast is back. We chose the perfect week to return. Nicola Sturgeon’s much-heralded work of fiction hit the bookshelves this very week.
The panel of Lloyd Quinan, Eva Comrie, Phil Boswell and Allan Petrie are back in position to give their opinions on the book and its content. Like so many others, our panel was amazed at the contradictions and downright mistruths contained in this book.
The suggestion that Alex Salmond somehow came into possession of the Scottish Government’s file of the accusations and charges against him. Not only did he miraculously obtain the dossier, but he then allegedly passed it to Liz Lloyd’s very close holiday ‘buddy’, David Clegg, then chief political correspondent of ultra unionist Daily Record was one of Sturgeon’s suggestions!
Unlikely and incredible as that one may sound, Nicola of Assisi also tries to tell her readers that the late Queen of England, Elizabeth craved gossip on the topic of her Privy Councillor Salmond! That Her maj had not been briefed by her advisors on exactly all that was happening before her meeting with Sturgeon is to beggar belief.
The other crackers were the BS Sturgron tries to spin regarding the GRRB where ‘if she had known the opposition to it’ she would have paused the bill. The truth being she refused to listen to any alternative view other than her own. Indeed, we know for a fact anyone that dared to criticise any aspect of the bill was immediately lined up for exclusion and persecution with threats of deselection thrown in for good measure.
The lie that Alex Salmond was opposed to the Gay Marriage Bill was quickly debunked by Alex Neil who inherited the bill after Sturgeon got ‘bored’ with it at committee stage. The real truth being she was anxious not to offend the Muslim community of South Glasgow she was wooing to win the Holyrood seat at the next election.Alex Neil then on Salmond’s instruction steered the bill through into law. The exact opposite of Sturgeon’s smear!
Sturgeon’s belief that the UK will not exist in 30 years but is likely to be replaced by a British Isles Confederation. In layman’s language, Devomax, and there you have it! It explains why she never used any independence mandate she was given. She it seems has always been a devolutionist, not an independinista.
Our panel gives their views on all of these and more of Sturgeon’s ramblings.
Other topics we discussed on this return show were the ‘rebellion’ by 43 SNP Branches regarding the Section 30, SNP 1-2 Holyrood, the strategy of John Swinney for Holyrood 2026. Honest John ruled the alternative plan by the 43 branches will not succeed, nor will it even be debated at SNP Conference. Independence is just not that important to John to merit a debate on it by the party faithful.
However, the party will be allowed a debate on the Supreme Court ruling on the terms ‘man’, ‘woman’, ‘sex’ as defined in the Equality Act 2010. It really shows the SNP priorities!
We discuss the other book of the week, “The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht.” The book that the National Library of Scotland wants to ban. It is a historical book laced with facts on the struggle of the women to defend their human rights against the Stonewall onslaught and queer theory. This makes the National Library’s decision all the more confounding.
We cover the nuclear leaks on Loch Long and at Faslane and also highlight why the government will not house these dangers on the south coast of England. It shows that Scottish lifes are expendable,and that English lifes are not to be endangered!
All this and much more on your favourite weekly political review podcast.
A confederation is impossible logistically because England now outnumbers the rest of us all together. The only way such a thing could work is if every part had equal say in decision-making. Aye, right! What is far more likely to happen is that the UK splits up entirely, with all four parts becoming independent, or, in the case of NI, rejoining Ireland Proper. That we might come, in time, because we all share the same islands, to a situation where we co-operate, Scandi-style, across a number of policies that benefit all of us whilst remaining independent. That is not a confederation or a federation.
Anyone in public office is standing on the shoulders of giants. When Bruce did bring us independence, he acknowledged the debt he owed to Wallace, de Moray, Lady Buchan (who crowned him and paid a terrible price) and all the others who had given their lives, including his own brothers, and the ordinary people of Scotland.
She is not really a Trump, though, Allan, because he has done things in his presidency that she could only dream of doing in her leadership. Maybe things do go wrong, but he at least tries.
She is not interested in homosexuality, anyway, only the ‘trans’, and they are two very different things, but, yes, her preferred constituency is full of the Muslim vote. The same doesn’t apply to ‘trans’ identified males because they are considered to be gay and, if they ‘transition’, that is a plus. Everyone knew she was bisexual. So what? Who cares?
So many people have no backbone when they are in public life. Women were standing up to these deranged people from day one, losing their jobs and being vilified. Yet, public figures let it happen and fell over themselves to pander to these vile men and women. The best thing anyone can do, as they should do with toddlers who are throwing tantrums is say: No. Very loudly and very firmly.
Totalitarianism is the political system through which books and learning are banned. Both Fascism and Bolshevism are part of the totalitarian whole. Censorship is rarely acceptable except, perhaps, to protect children. The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht book is, indeed, contemporary history and should never, ever have been banned. Only in Scotland.
No, you can’t change your sex, Eva, and nor can you force yourself into others’ public spaces in fetish gear and expect everyone to bend the knee. A huge backlash is coming against this stuff and, although ‘trans’ identified people have not lost any rights, their and/or their supporters’ demands have gone so far into narcissism now, that the public has had enough and the existing law are going to be enforced rigidly again.
I think, Phil, it is far too late for the SNP to be saved unless it agrees to unity with the other independence parties now, way before the 2026 election. Alba needs to do the same. We need a political umbrella for all independence views or we are going nowhere. Well said, Allan.
God, Lloyd, that is so grim. They would happily sacrifice OUR children, but not their own, although we should not expect ANY children to be sacrificed. Why would we expect anything different considering that they did nothing for years to protect people on the mainland, from Gruinard, and its anthrax spores.
We had ID cards during the war. I agree that there is nothing inherently sinister about them, and they could solve a lot of problems. Facial ID is more controversial because it can identify people through face masks, so I can see a lot of problems there. The newest stuff can measure height, weight, body shape, as well as facial bone structure. You could conceivably identify someone in a full burqa and niqab. I disagree with Lloyd about intelligence from Israel. We need it. Just as we need intelligence from the US. Does that mean that Israel can do precisely as it pleases? Does it mean that Muslims are automatically extremist? Of course not.
You are correct Roddy.
She is terrified of independence, indeed too terrified to even go into battle. Her confederation is a dead duck. We virtually have this already in the UK. The biggest country runs it due to weight of numbers.
Changing the name is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Calmac Ferries. England will run any confederation. The big stuff will happen in WM. Scotland will continue to be an Argos catalogue of resources to plunder.
They have virtually neutered our legal system. They are right now plugged into our power grid, and emptying it on a daily basis, free gratis.
England is heating up, the water is turning to mud. They need our water and Starmer knows this. Next it will be GB water with a wee sub office in Aberfoyle.
Big Jock: a letter in today’s Herald writes that desalination plants along England’s seaboard would do more to solve their water crisis than anything else, and, not blowing my own horn, but I have long advocated such a move for all of us, and for every country that has water problems and a coastline. The seas are rising every year, and it would be stupid not to make use of that while water supplies on land are dwindling.
I hesitate to say it, but Israel has perfected desalination and deep water well exploration on land, and, is, even now, rebuilding Gaza’s water pipe system which was destroyed in the war, but also through sabotage by, presumably, Hamas. The Negev desert, in Israel – or a large part of it – has been turned into an oasis. It’s just my take, but I don’t think any of us should be refusing help or expertise or technology from anyone, for turning up our noses, just because we don’t like their politics. Water sources are even more important than food, short-term. The Bible actually talks of aquifers and underground wells, and the Israeli archeologists found them exactly where the Bible said they were.
No reason at all why England should take our water, and we should be careful that we don’t end up like parts of Wales. No one wants to deprive anyone of life-saving water, but neither can we afford to allow our rivers and lochs to be drained to supply anyone else when rainfall now is much lower and snowfall negligent these days. Once, these two primary sources – rain and snow, especially snow, refilled our reservoirs but that is no longer happening to the necessary degree.
Hi Lorna, nobody really cares about what goes on in the Knesset, what most people in the world are angry about is the fascistic, racially motivated, real-time, genocidal policies emanating from that parliament.
I don’t think water engineering originated in the Knesset, Carmen, and some, day, you might even be grateful for it.
Also, although what is happening is horrible and I wish the war would stop, I don’t believe it is a genocide any more than I believe that challenging so-called ‘trans’ people is a genocide. It is a word with a very specific meaning and should not be bandied around willy-nilly. Yes, there is a huge loss of life, and, as in every war in the history of the planet, women and children and the elderly suffer the most – which is a really good reason never to start one. Yemen, Sudan, Congo, Afghanistan, etc all experienced much, much higher loss of life – again, mainly women and children and the elderly – and no one took to the streets, certainly not the comfortable, middle-class, omnicause people.
I don’t think that recognizing a Palestinian state that has no borders is a wise move either, at this point, though I do agree that a separate Palestinian state, minus the West Bank, is definitely on the cards for the future. To recognize a non existent entity will create even more chaos at this time. The Palestinian people exist, but a state does not – yet. The only way that all Palestinians could be cleansed from Gaza is if the Arab states around them take them in – and they won’t. None of them wants Hamas coming with them – which it would. That leaves the West. Fine, go ahead and invite them all in here, and prepare yourself for the civil war that will ensue – not might, but will. The north of Gaza was all but clear and the south was a safe haven, but Hamas pushed the people back to the north, making the destruction of the tunnels impossible – and still the hostages were not released. Until they are, the tunnels flooded, and Hamas flushed out, this is not going to end. Hamas is threaded throughout the Gazan population, but they will be much easier to detect if the tunnels no longer exist.
The suggestion that Ireland will become part of the British State within a British Isles confederation is just utterly laughable.
The history of Ireland, the colonisation of it, the famine, the War for Independence and the partition of the country trapping Irish people in a vicious sectarian state should tell even most blimpish Brit that Ireland will not be returning to the colonial fold. But the dream of the colonial Brit lives on.
Indeed, it was only a few years ago that a senior Conservative minister said that he hoped Ireland, the Republic that is, would see the error of its ways and return to the fold. But hey, as the bejewelled City of London financial centre loses its crown, as the British economy tanks, as public debt soars, as a country struggles to be able to fund essential services, whilst economies around the word soar and the UK slides, the Brit dream lives on. This after all is Britain’s Golden Era if you remember the post Brexit promise.
And the snivelling Sturgeon is part of that Brit dream. A wee colonial scum bag, you couldn’t make it up.
But soon the game will be up for her and her Brit pals.
Absolutely agree, Willie. The disintegration of the UK is, more or less, a dead cert now. It will take a few more years, but it is also something that all four parts should be planing for in the (nearish) future.
Lorn. We can share water with England. But they will pay full market value for it. The revenues going to a fund for all Scots.
I really don’t think we are going to be able to do that, BJ. The rapid pace of climate change would suggest that, perhaps, not as quickly or as devastatingly as southern England, Scotland, too, will suffer water shortages in years to come. We need to plan ahead for that eventuality now. However, as we all know, planning ahead for anything is a concept alien to British and Scottish political culture.
Just heard – no idea of it’s accurate or not, or just more spin – that Israel has threatened to withdraw its intelligence from the UK, leaving us open to extremism. As soon as I heard that Starmer was going to recognize a Palestinian state now before the war has ended, I knew this would happen. Is the man insane? Hopefully, it is just a warning shot across the bows or we will be hosing bits of bodies from the streets again – and don’t think, folks, that it won’t happen up here. The omnicause people are going to get a well-deserved rude awakening, if it is true. They think they are invincible, untouchable and immortal because they are, generally, young, but the young die in these horrors with everyone else.
This is why you should never ally your country to a terrorist state like Israel. Blackmail,honey traps attacks of anti semitism if you criticise even shop opening times of Israel they attackmand threaten you. It is the world that should withdraw everything from this abomination of a state. Theybare governed by Zionist baby killers and genocidal maniacs. They should be kicked out of every global sporiting,political, forum and trading platform until they act with in UN international law.Israel is a rogue state that needs brought to heel by the nations of the world
Get a grip, Robert. I used the word, ‘omnicause’ because you actually see the same people, if you study the films, at every conceivable event where dissent might rear its head. Some of them are actually ‘professional’ demonstrators.
The Israeli intelligence on the Manchester bombing did not reach the British authorities on time and the Israelis have admitted as much, and have apologized. Their intelligence did not prevent 7 October either. No intelligence is infallible. Atrocities happen because you let your guard down, believing that everyone is decent, basically, when so many are patently not. The fault of bombings lies at the feet of those who carry them out, not the people who tried to stop them.
Sorry, but I do not believe that there is a genocide although I do accept that the death toll is high. I have made a point of studying other conflicts, and the death toll of civilians is actually lower, in most cases. Anyone else can find this out quite easily. Yemen, Congo, Rwanda, Sudan, Afghanistan, etc. Why is no one on the streets and demonstrating over the civilian deaths in those conflicts? Because Qatari and Iranian propaganda litters the West, with huge amounts of money sunk into it, whereas these countries suffer almost in a conspiracy of silence. If Israelis were involved in any of these other conflicts, we would soon be overwhelmed by the noise. Yes, some Israelis are extremists, too, but they are not bombing us or cutting off our heads, are they? Please, do not say that we deserve all we get and that they do these things because they are suffering so much more than others.
Israel is fighting a war. How do you expect it to carry out that war? How did we fight the war in Afghanistan? With one hand tied behind our backs. The result? The Taliban returned. Afghanis are still dying. Women are treated worse than dogs. If you prosecute a war without defeating the enemy completely, there is no point in it because they will just come back, won’t they? Did we allow the Germans and Germany a conditional surrender? No, we didn’t. Why was deNazification introduced? Because the young generations coming up would not be learning the same lessons about war and martyrdom.
I am no apologist for atrocity and I will call it out wherever it happens or whoever it happens, but what would you call 7 October? Please do not bring up the ‘refugees from Palestine’ thing because you cannot have a home and be a refugee at the same time. Also, no other refugees have been refugees for – what is it – at least four generations now?
I want to see a Palestinian homeland in Gaza, and I do not believe that Netanyahu actually wants to occupy Gaza after Hamas has been cleared out of it because it is not in Israeli’s long-term strategic interest to occupy it. It has never been Israeli, anyway. Ancient Gaza was Philistine, home to the Philistines, of Greek and Mediterranean lineage. The West Bank, on the other hand, is ancient Samaria and Judea, part of ancient Israel, and it will be incorporated into Israel Proper at some date. I do not believe that the Israelis will ever allow it to join Gaza.
Do I think that every Muslim is an extremist? Of course not. Do I believe that the West is always in the right, or that Israel can do not wrong? Of course not. What I do believe, though, is that democracy and Western values are part of our heritage and we should treasure them. Do I want to end up under Sharia Law and become a second-class citizen in my own land? No. Neither do the Israelis. Neither do they wish to be wiped off the face of the map as, once, that came so close to being their fate. We have Western values in common with Israel, and that is why intelligence sharing is essential for both of us, just as it is important to share with the Americans and vice versa, whatever we think of them or their President’s world view. In the end, extremist Islam hates us, in the West almost – but never quite – as much as it hates Israel. A lot of what we are seeing is actually anti Jewish sentiment masquerading as virtue-signalling goodness, and, yes, an extreme and thoroughly Western kind of naivety that will bee our undoing if we don’t get a grip.
Having said all that, I respect your views and your sincerity in holding them, Robert. I simply cannot, and will not, endorse them.
Zionism is merely the belief in an Israeli homeland – i.e. ancient Israel. Just as many Jews have been banished from the Arab states, but they do not call themselves refugees. Extreme Zionism and extreme nationalism is problematic.
We ally ourselves to Israel, Roddy, because we share common values which are Western in origin. Judaism and Christianity, the bases of both our cultures, underpins our civilization. Islamic values are totally alien, but there is no reason they cannot exist alongside ours so long as they remain willing to exist alongside ours and not seek to undermine ours and to supersede them.
If we are to accept that Gaza is a genocide, we have to accept that every other conflict on the planet is also one, and then, genocide becomes a meaningless concept in international law. I do not believe, and have ever believed that the Israelis are carrying out a genocide in Gaza. Rwandan for example, was classed as a genocide because of the numbers of civilian deaths, but also the systematic way in which the Tutsi population was treated. I’m not defending the Gazan deaths, far from it. Wars are horrendous and should never even be contemplated unless you are under extreme threat and danger. An equivalent British example of the 7 October would be something like 10,000 men, women and children slaughtered and several thousand hostages taken. What would we do? That question may yet have to be answered for real.
As with Robert, I respect your viewpoint while I cannot agree with it, and I know that we do share similar feelings about war and its pointlessness in most situations.
I see you’ve adopted the ” omnicause ” slur which is nothing more than an attempt to diminish people who are utterly appalled by the actions of the unhinged fanatics of Zionism . Aye , great bandwagon to jump on there .
Likewise the nonsense about how crucial Israeli * Intelligence * is to , presumably , keep our streets safe from the bogeymen-de-jour ” Islamic Terrorists ” . Were they just on holiday in the lead-up to the Manchester Arena attack ? The Zionist psychopaths cheer every ” Islamic ” attack in the West . Remember the ” dancing Israelis ” celebrating the 9/11 attacks ? No , you’ve probably filed that away as nasty anti-Israel ” misinformation ”
Right enough , Islamic countries have been running about about all over the M.E bombing starving children here , disseminating exploding pagers there , debating whether rape of designated enemies is justified ( yes , it apparently is ) ; using children as target practice , there is abundant evidence of this from the clusters of fatal gunshots in particular areas of the victim’s bodies .How about Muslim soldiers dressing-up in female clothes from homes they have blasted to ruins , and posting themselves in this ” drag ” on Social Media or Muslim schoolkids organising nice little skits mocking people who have lost everything including entire families , you seen that ?
Oh wait , it wasn’t Muslims or Muslim nations who have been doing those things : no it’s that ” Holy Land ” of Saints , Heroes and , of course Victims . The same ” Holy Land ” that is warping , mangling , perverting what little remains of Democracy & Free Speech in the so-called ” Liberal ” nations of the West . That has the power to command ” our ” UK Gov to prosecute people FOR HOLDING A PLACARD . Aye , some fckn ” victims ”
” Omnicause ” . Away wae you , you’ve turned into another sick apologist for atrocity