SNP’s claim Scotland props up UK economy is ‘whopping lie’ - "The SNP has claimed Scotland should get a second independence referendum because it props up the UK economy in what has been described as a “whopping lie”... the Tories said this was a “whopping lie”, with official figures produced by SNP ministers showing that Scotland received far more from the Treasury than it provided in taxes. They found that Scots received nearly £2,700 more public spending per person compared with the UK average last year, thanks to the Barnett formula – the mechanism used by the Treasury to work out expenditure to the home nations. Scotland’s deficit – the difference between total tax revenue and expenditure – surged to 11.7 per cent of GDP. This was more than double the UK figure of 5.1 per cent and higher than anywhere else in Europe... John Swinney, the SNP leader, has claimed that his party winning an outright majority at the polls, at least 65 seats, would give him a mandate to demand that the Prime Minister allow a second independence referendum. He has cited the 2011 Holyrood election as a precedent when Alex Salmond led the SNP to a majority win and David Cameron agreed to transfer the powers for the 2014 referendum. But Sir Keir has made clear he will not give the green light for another vote on breaking up Britain, regardless of the result. SNP ministers said the 2014 referendum was a once-in-a-generation event, before they lost."
Maybe the SNP plan is to demand reparations after independence to continue to subsidise their lavish spending
SNP's disastrous election night puts independence question to bed - "The SNP's bid for Scottish independence has taken a huge blow after the party was almost completely wiped out by Labour... 'I understand their desire for change, I know there'll be a huge sigh of relief that we finally ended 14 years of total chaos and failure'"
Lisa Cameron MP: 'I was bullied out of the SNP. They were autocratic and intolerant' - "Clever, principled, and relatable, Dr Lisa Cameron is exactly the kind of person our political system needs. Which is why her horrific tale of the bullying and abuse she suffered inside the Scottish National Party – which culminated in her defection to the Conservatives last October – is such a tragedy. Over the past few weeks, the wider world has begun to understand the toxic “progressive orthodoxy” and political chaos that has been raging inside the SNP. This week its hapless leader Humza Yousaf finally stood down after a chaotic few days of coalition collapse and political turmoil, while just a fortnight ago, former leader Nicola Sturgeon’s husband was formally charged with embezzlement of party funds. Meanwhile, Scottish public services are in disarray and the SNP’s policy of putting up taxes on higher earners has already caused 1,000 individuals and businesses to relocate to England. It is hard to believe that it is less than 10 years since the SNP was riding high on a wave of nationalism which swept away a generation of Labour MPs. Or that Nicola Sturgeon was once seen as the epitome of the modern leader... “Nationalism is not the answer. It’s just made everything worse. It’s not been good for Scotland. It’s ushered in an era of aggressive, us-and-them politics, eroding compassion and creating polarisation.” So how did we get here? Cameron, 51, says that when she joined the Scottish National Party in 2014 she was enthused and convinced by Alex Salmond’s vision of a better future. “As a senior NHS psychologist I was in favour of the SNP’s policies of more money for the NHS, free prescriptions for the Scottish people and particularly free university tuition. It all sounded good but it hasn’t delivered. Education is very important for people like me.”... Cameron was not the only SNP candidate shocked to find themselves in Westminster in 2015; it was a landslide for the nationalists who won 56 Scottish seats in the House of Commons out of 59. Labour was wiped out. This week’s local elections point to a similar outcome in reverse at the next election with SNP losses to Labour likely to play a key part in helping Keir Starmer’s party to victory. “The SNP experiment has failed. I see a clear move from nationalism and constitutional politics back to the old politics of Left and Right. I keep being asked by constituents: ‘How do we move on from the SNP? It hasn’t worked.’ Scotland is turning the page on nationalism.”... Cameron’s troubles began in 2019 when she “voted on my conscience” at the end of an abortion debate (she was a vice-chairman on the pro-Life All-Party Parliamentary Group so this shouldn’t have been a surprise to her colleagues)... “Christians are barely tolerated in the SNP. I was told my views meant that I would fail its vetting. That I shouldn’t be in the SNP because I wasn’t progressive enough. I was bullied because of my faith.” This is something Kate Forbes, who was considering running for the leadership until supporting John Swinney – and is a Christian – also discovered... She explains that the SNP that she joined under Alex Salmond was a “broad church, more tolerant”, and that the culture war-style “uber progressive politics came in after Alex Salmond left. Under Nicola Sturgeon, the party’s leftist politics became toxic. It was Nicola Sturgeon who said she ‘hated’ the Tories. “That was a big moment for me, that meant Sturgeon hated my mum. That was not the Scotland I had joined the SNP to build.”... When she was badly stalked in 2021 – she had to go to court – she says, “Sturgeon never reached out to see if I was OK. No one from the SNP ever personally congratulated me on my work on disabilities, for which I won MP of the year.” Cameron was officially persona non grata... Cameron further riled the party hierarchy when she stood up for the young male victim of sexual advances by a leading SNP figure Patrick Grady (Grady was found guilty and eventually suspended briefly). “I was the only person in the party to support the victim. I thought he had been really brave to come forward, he was very young. In the meeting the groupthink was that we should all ‘support the perpetrator’. I said, ‘what about the victim, we should support him’. I’m a doctor and a psychologist. I did what I thought was right.” She paid a high price. “I was ostracised in the tea room where none of my SNP colleagues would speak to me. They emailed me saying I had to move office. They sent boxes. I refused to move so they put the perpetrator in the office next to mine where I had to walk past him every day. It was awful. I felt I couldn’t cope.” Did she feel this was done deliberately? “As a psychologist assessing dangerous criminals you don’t listen to what people say – you watch what they do. Let’s just say it would be a strange coincidence that they just put him there.”... she told the SNP chief whip and many other party dignitaries about the state she was in and “no one was helpful. I sent emails to the different chief whips saying I needed support for my health. They had a duty of care, but they ignored me. I was anxious, depressed, having panic attacks.” Instead, she says, they “gaslighted me, told me I was making it up”... “There was no support for me from within the party. I was shunned.” It sounds like Mean Girls, I say. She nods. “Yup, pretty much.” Of course, at the centre of the SNP culture wars is the ongoing row around the Gender Recognition Bill, particularly around whether trans-women should be imprisoned in female jails. Particularly those, such as Scottish transgender woman Isla Bryson, who had committed rape as a man. “This was something that I am an expert on,” Cameron says. “I’d done risk assessments in prisons as part of my job. Many female prisoners have a history of sexual abuse and trauma. Lots of women in my constituency wrote to me saying it was very important that rapists who’d raped women shouldn’t be in enclosed spaces, ie, locked up with women. My opinion on this matter was never sought by the SNP. They just took the view that this was the policy... accept it. This is the ideology.”... "no one could raise any concerns. The SNP view just became narrower and narrower. Anyone who disagreed was ostracised. It became a huge issue. Joanna Cherry also got lots of abuse and so did Kate Forbes.” It wasn’t just on the uber progressive agenda that any criticisms were shut down. “There were concerns within the party about the finances. The treasurer Douglas Chapman complained and later resigned claiming he was not given proper access to the information.” She adds: “Then when Humza Yousaf was running for leader it got even worse. The SNP rounded on Kate Forbes during the leadership race saying she wasn’t suitable because of her beliefs. That was not the tolerant Scotland I grew up in. But the leadership thought they were right on everything. It got very autocratic and intolerant. It was, ‘Don’t question anything. Don’t disagree. If you disagree: shut up!’ There was no care for victims. The whole ethos of nationalism was exhausting.”... Intriguingly she says the first senior politician to show her any sympathy or compassion was Rishi Sunak... “The Tory party really is a broad church. They are pro-Christian; they respect different views.”"
MP Dr Lisa Cameron who defected to Tories 'forced into hiding' - "she had received a "torrent of abuse" in emails since announcing her defection on Thursday... She told the newspaper the threats were "where the political discourse has got to in Scotland""
I was sent death threats for joining the Tories… I had to go into hiding to protect my children - "One horrifying email sent to the mother of two after she crossed the House of Commons floor read: ‘Listen... your time living on this earth will come to an end soon, be careful.’ Another troll threatened to brick her in the street, while one said they hoped she ‘burned’... Dr Cameron told how the stress saw her suffer severe anxiety and panic attacks, attending 12 months of counselling sessions and being prescribed antidepressants. While MPs from Labour, the Tories and the Lib Dems contacted her to check on her welfare and offer support, there was nothing from the SNP and no attempt to investigate her concerns. Even when her mental health battle was made public, senior Nationalist Mike Russell simply dismissed it as an ‘odd tantrum’, a response Dr Cameron felt was ‘demeaning and misogynistic’ as he had painted her as a ‘hysterical woman’. She said: ‘There was a moment when my GP said, “I can keep prescribing you these antidepressants, but it’s not a biochemical issue. It’s to do with your environment, and it’s not going to improve unless you change your situation.” I think at that point, I knew he was right.’"
Clearly, being a left winger is about "empathy". Only women who push the left wing agenda should be supported
The differing reaction to Jo Cox and David Amess's deaths is telling, since they were killed by people supported by different ends of the political spectrum
Scotland's top civil servant warns John Swinney he must slash services - "Scotland's new First Minister John Swinney has been told he will have to make 'significant' spending cuts in order to balance the books. In a fresh dose of misery for his party, the SNP leader was warned about a need to take an axe to public services due to the risk of financial meltdown... The senior official's warning will come as a bitter blow to Mr Swinney as he attempts to overhaul the SNP's fortunes after 17 years in power and ahead of the general election."
Time to blame England despite Scotland's leeching off them
STEPHEN DAISLEY: Politicians are good at one thing - spending cash - "As the independent Scottish Parliament Information Centre confirms, Scotland was allocated €941million (£800million) in 2014, with half coming from the European Social Fund and half from the European Regional Development Fund. All the Scottish Government had to do in return was distribute the money, usually to local authorities or quangos who would spend it on approved projects, then provide certified statements of expenditure to the European Commission. Spend the money and hand over the receipts. It doesn’t get much simpler than that. But it’s the SNP. They couldn’t walk in a straight line if you painted a guide in the road for them. That €941million allocation has been revised down to €783.4million (£666million) because Scottish ministers failed to meet spending targets within the necessary timeframe. As a result, Scotland has missed out on €157.6million (£134million). There is also an outstanding €280.4million (£238million) which ministers hope to claim for later this year or early next year... For the SNP government to sit on a mountain of cash during times of real need will strike them as perverse. If there’s one thing politicians are good at it’s spending money, but the Nationalists can’t even do that properly. This underspend might be forgivable if the SNP was new to government and still getting to grips with the machinery of the state. But it has been in power since 2007. There is simply no excuse for such a wanton dereliction of duty... how many times have we heard SNP ministers plead poverty and demand yet more money from the Treasury to top up Scottish government coffers? Their begging bowl is overflowing but it’s never enough. And their failure to invest European funds should serve as a cautionary tale to devolutionists who say Holyrood must have proper borrowing powers. Anyone who surveys SNP ministers’ handling of structural funding and concludes they need more financial responsibility might as well pile up taxpayers’ cash on Calton Hill and start a bonfire. However, this is not a story of mere incompetence, but one of profound cynicism. The Nationalists lambast the UK Government for its austerity policies and accuse it of failing to do enough for the worst off, yet their government chose not to pass on to Scotland’s most deprived communities funding that could have made a meaningful difference... This is not some fiscal abstraction: it’s real people with real needs who missed out because the Scottish government didn’t do its job. This is the latest breach of trust between Scots and the party that claims to represent them. I have frankly lost count of how many such breaches we have seen lately. The SNP seems incapable of doing anything right. Everything it touches turns to scandal."
Do you ‘identify’ as disabled? - "The SNP has reserved spots on its electoral lists for people who identify as BAME or disabled... Qualification for the lists is entirely dependent on self-identification – the SNP won’t check that candidates are actually BAME or disabled. According to the pro-independence blog, Wings Over Scotland, Emma Harper MSP, who has diabetes, is believed to be planning to run for the top spot in South Scotland, which is reserved for disabled candidates... The policy is not only absurd – it is also probably illegal. Jonathan Mitchell QC was commissioned to advise the SNP on the legality of the new rules, and he told the party it would be susceptible to a legal challenge by any candidate who lost out as a result of the rules. He advised that the party would probably lose such a case. But the SNP is so committed to identitarianism that it has gone ahead with the rule change anyway. We already knew about the SNP’s commitment to wokeness. Last week, Nicola Sturgeon released a cringeworthy, supposedly unscripted video in which she delivered a monologue about transphobia. She declared that ‘no debate can be a cover for transphobia’, in a swipe at the feminists in her party who are concerned about the erosion of single-sex spaces. And in its desperate desire to force ordinary Scots to confirm to its woke beliefs, the SNP plans to introduce authoritarian hate-speech laws that would allow the state to police even conversations held in private homes."
From 2021
The SNP giving bus passes to asylum seekers is a dangerous misstep - "Generous Scottish tax-payers are to spend £2 million on a pilot scheme to give free bus travel to asylum seekers. The largesse is being provided by the Scottish Government and a range of publicly-funded civic society groups who want to demonstrate their support for new arrivals in Scotland, who must hereafter be referred to as New Scots. The justification? In the words of the SNP’s equalities minister at Holyrood, Kaukab Stewart: “Scotland has a proud history of welcoming those fleeing war and persecution, and we are dedicated to helping them integrate into communities from the day they arrive. It is vital…people seeking asylum…understand their rights and access employment and services to help them to rebuild their lives in Scotland.” The Scotland Act, which denotes which policy areas are reserved to Westminster and which are devolved to Edinburgh, makes asylum and immigration the responsibility of our national parliament in London. This is a point of frustration to the SNP, who, despite having lost their battle for independence, frequently behave as if Scots voted ‘Yes’ in 2014. Their ministers gallivant around the globe on the tax-payers’ shilling pretending to have responsibility for foreign affairs and defence, while at home, they connive to trim away any authority the UK government might have north of the border. This latest public relations initiative is an example of such. No one in the Scottish Government has the authority to make asylum policy or to authorise asylum seekers to work while they await the decision on their applications for refuge. So instead they use devolved powers to signal their virtue on the issue. Yet the initiative is a risky one. Especially in the council housing estates which turned their backs on the SNP at last week’s general election, the nationalists’ performative sympathy with asylum seekers is not wholly reflected... If this were a simple act of charity rather than an obvious virtue-signalling attempt to emphasise the exceptionalism of Scots, it would be bad enough. But included in the Scottish Government’s new strategy for welcoming asylum seekers and refugees is a commitment to seek permission from the UK government for asylum seekers to have the right to work while they await their decisions on refugee status. This has long been a demand by those who are employed in the refugee industry, who claim that having a job would help applicants integrate more easily into their new country. But such an assertion is surely based on the assumption that every applicant will be successful. What about those applicants who manage to secure a job but who are then informed that their application has been refused, that it has been discovered they are not, after all, fleeing “war and persecution” but are in fact economic migrants? Would those fighting for asylum seekers’ right to work then accept with a shrug of their shoulders that that’s just too bad and have a safe journey back to your own country? Hardly. Then the campaign against the “injustice” of removing someone from the country – someone who’s actually working and paying taxes – would begin. Governments of both colours have refused to allow asylum seekers to work because it would inevitably act as a magnet to other asylum seekers. SNP ministers don’t seem to disagree with this risk; rather, they welcome the prospect of many, many more asylum seekers choosing to make Scotland their home. Except that while the SNP are welcoming all those New Scots and promising them homes, jobs and free bus travel, the Scottish Parliament has declared a “housing emergency” due to the scandalous shortage of available homes for the existing population"
Easy. Just blame the British government for the housing shortage
A wasted decade of SNP's neverendum nonsense has damaged Scotland - "Ten years on from the historic independence referendum, Scotland is in a sorry state of disrepair and disunity. Since 2014, the endless debate about so-called independence - or breaking up the United Kingdom to be exact - has sapped the nation’s soul and inflicted wounds that will take many years to heal. A wasted decade of political purgatory has cost our country dear and left our economy and public services in a desperate mess. This only happened because SNP politicians - starting with Alex Salmond, Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney - arrogantly refused to accept the decisive outcome of Scotland’s biggest ever democratic exercise... In the immediate aftermath of the referendum, and without pause ever since, narcissistic nationalists have refused to take No for an answer and instead squander the Scottish Parliament’s precious time and far-reaching powers in pursuit of their endless obsession of breaking up Britain... At First Minister’s Questions, Sturgeon, Yousaf and now Swinney kept banging the same broken drum. If only the Edinburgh parliament had absolute control of the economy, taxation, security, defence and other reserved matters, they would have us believe that Scotland would become a tartan Nirvana. Their fantasy being untroubled by hard facts. Where did all that get us? Nowhere. In that time, the SNP advanced their case not one inch. No solutions were found or even, in truth, sought. The economic case for separation is even more fatally flawed than it was a decade ago. Meanwhile, Scotland remained trapped in a doom loop, with the SNP presenting ‘independence’ as the only solution to every ill and issue of the day."
Taxpayers forced to fork out £80,000 a year on a 'traffic cone tsar' - "Scotland's ‘traffic cone tsar’ is among an army of bureaucrats costing taxpayers millions of pounds a year. Now MSPs have demanded a halt to the hiring of such costly officials after warning the system is not fit for purpose. A network of ‘commissioners’ and their staff act as watchdogs, with combined annual budgets of £15million."
SNP 'failure' sees record number of kids in temporary homes
How refreshing for Scot to call out nationalism's 'wha's like us' guff - "A couple of years before Police Scotland announced they didn’t have the resources to investigate every minor crime, and wouldn’t do it any more, they launched their Gaelic Language Plan – or Plana Gàidhlig if you prefer – and outlined the resources they would be throwing into it. This included an audit of employees who understand Gaelic. An inventory would be compiled of all existing Gaelic and bilingual materials, including publications, stationery and online content. There would also be an assessment of internal and external signs to ensure ‘equal respect’ was accorded to Gaelic. Henceforth, all high-profile press releases would be translated into the language too. You may surmise one of two things: either that the police were heavily leaned on by the Scottish Government, which has been at pains to embed confected Scottish culture into the nation throughout its 17 years of power – or that men like Andrew Marr and me simply have it in for Gaelic. Let me address the second conclusion first. I’m enchanted by the fact Gaelic is still spoken regularly by 58,000 of us – or 1.1 per cent of our population – every one of whom, incidentally, is also fluent in English. I want the language to survive. Long before the SNP came to power there were extensive measures to ensure this happened. The Gaelic Television Fund, for example, was established in 1992. It brought jobs and high-quality programming in Gaelic to the areas in the West of Scotland and the Hebrides where the language was most spoken. It served the tongue and its speakers. What it didn’t do was pretend the 99 per cent of Scots who don’t speak it were something they were not. ‘The Scots are made up of many different peoples historically,’ said Mr Marr at an event at the Labour conference. ‘I think we should let languages rest and prosper where they come from.’... In Liverpool, the broadcaster fumed at ‘the Scottish Nationalist view that if you’re Scottish, you’re a better person; because you’re Scottish, you’re more innately liberal; because you’re Scottish, you’re more progressive’. The truth is because you’re Scottish, the facts will be misrepresented. You will be persuaded by those with no grounding in history that Scotland was colonised by the English when the truth is that, acting together, the two nations colonised much of the world. You will find propaganda masquerading as educational material – such as Education Scotland’s 27-page The Road to the Scottish Parliament, which baldly informed children that ‘for 800 years the Scots have been struggling against English oppression’. And you will discover at length, possibly years from now, that nationalism doesn’t make you a better person. The movement is not exactly noted for its ability to see the good in people, whatever their world view. Rather it is consuming; it is intolerant; it narrows vision and clouds the lens with a fug of grievance and bitterness. No, while I like and admire many nationalists, they are dear people in spite of, not because of, their independence dream."
Meme - Isabel Vaughan-Spruce @IsabelVSpruce: "So buffer zones in Scotland could now include someone speaking inside their own house about abortion. And neighbours are being encouraged to report each other. Well done 'Safer Scotland', I'm sure everyone is sleeping better knowing this."
"Dear Resident, Your area will soon be situated within a designated Safe Access Zone for a local healthcare facility where abortion services are provided. You may not notice any changes, but this letter will explain what it means for you and your neighbours... activities
in a private place (such as a house) within the area between the protected premises and the
boundary of a Zone could be an offence if they can be seen or heard within the Zone and are done intentionally or recklessly... You can report a group or an individual that you think is breaking the law by contacting Police Scotland"
Since you cannot "influence someone's decision to access, provide or facilitate the provision of abortion services" is a crime, that means you technically can't be pro-abortion either
Thread by @Basil_TGMD on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "In honour of Humza Yousaf deciding to step down as an MSP at the next election. I thought I'd take this opportunity to look back on some of the highlights of Humza's career Feel free to add your own in the thread below🧵
Never one to shy away from calling absolutely everyone and everything bigoted and/or racist. Humza couldn't help himself when it came to pointing out how infuriated he was that so many WHITE people important jobs in Scotland, a 95% WHITE country. He also signed into law the authoritarian HATE CRIME BILL which effectively made it illegal to purposefully call a transwoman a man. Cue massive protests, it also pushed JK ROWLING to break the law proving it's ridiculousness
On the first day the HATE CRIME BILL came into force, HUMZA's very own "WHITE SPEECH" was the most reported hate incident. He then went on to say that anyone reporting his speech to the police for racism were in fact "FAR RIGHT". This episode resulted in a huge backlash against HUMZA from all corners of Scotland including this particular favourite of mine by one @NiallFraser8. Again, not one to shy away from calling everybody he doesn't like bigoted, Humza also called the entire Conservative Party 'Institutionally Islamophobic'
Before we get on to more of his terrible behaviour, how can we not include this 🤣
in case you haven't worked it out yet, he really has a problem with white people.
And don't forget the time he sent Scottish Taxpayer money over to UNRWA the controversial organisation with multiple alleged links to Hamas. Speaking of which @ch_talks_to raised some very pertinent questions about Humza's actions on the ay of October 7th, a lot of questions around an email that was sent suggesting he may know quite a bit more than he let on. Check the video 👇
AND THE LESS SAID ABOUT HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW THE BETTER 😉
To top it all off, he routinely claimed to be a patriotic Scot yet here he is being sworn in wearing traditional Pakistani attire with a kilt and speaking in Urdu 🤡
Not one to miss out on an opportunity to smear Scottish History he named a Tartan for himself, is family being in the country for a whopping 60 years. Usually Tartans are reserved for families going back centuries in Scotland. The rest is fakery, perfect for Humza Yousaf"
Clearly, if you criticise him, you're racist, xenophobic and Islamophobic
