Scottish Politics Thread

[Dredd]

The Scottish FA should fine Rangers 10 points. That might concentrate the minds of even the most Neanderthal supporters.

The conduct of the fans was disgraceful but the footage on the news this morning g clearly showed the player egging them in.

I find it sweet that you think that if the other half of the Ugly Sisters had won their historic 10-in-a-row, they would all have stayed at home sipping their Guinness and thanking the pope for their deliverance.

And as Steven "gies-a-job" Gerrard said, it is understandable that they would want to celebrate. After all, you can only win it the very first time once.

 

[BuggerAll]

And what would that fix?

A clear message that we’re I. The middle of a pandemic and spreading disease and encouraging other to do so is not acceptable.

The more people break the rules the longer it will take to break the chain of transmission.

 

[BuggerAll]

I find it sweet that you think that if the other half of the Ugly Sisters had won their historic 10-in-a-row, they would all have stayed at home sipping their Guinness and thanking the pope for their deliverance.

And as Steven "gies-a-job" Gerrard said, it is understandable that they would want to celebrate. After all, you can only win it the very first time once.

And I would have advocated the same thing. It’s not about the game it’s about the behaviour of the players and the supporters.

Most of us are sticking to the rules. A significant minority are not and have not. They risk their own health but more significantly they risk everyone’s health.

 

[Actingunpaid]

Celtics challenge for the title

Wouldn't that take a 20 point deduction?

 

[BPS666]

Celtics challenge for the title

Maybe, but better yet we could get the Scots govt to mount a legal case against some senior Rangers Bods and pursue it through our legal system. Pretty sure there must be another 21 mil hanging about spare ........doh!

 

[Old and Grumpy]

Kind of shows what they think of themselves and what they think about those who are trying to get us out of this covid mess..

 

[Fang_Farrier]

Kind of shows what they think of themselves and what they think about those who are trying to get us out of this covid mess..
View attachment 555422

NHS Scotland pay their nurses a bit more than that.

Admittedly 2019 but close enough

 

[BuggerAll]

Kind of shows what they think of themselves and what they think about those who are trying to get us out of this covid mess..
View attachment 555422

It’s open to anyone who wishes to to stand for election. Very few do because it’s precarious and they work bloody hard and very few of us want to work that hard and whilst it’s not starvation pay it’s actually not very much compared to similar levels of responsibility and work.

 

[Emcon Ecomcon]

A clear message that we’re I. The middle of a pandemic and spreading disease and encouraging other to do so is not acceptable.

The more people break the rules the longer it will take to break the chain of transmission.

This pandemic does bring the authoritarians out of the closet and you need to grow a sense of proportion !
As far as I can see, the gatherings were outdoors and at the end of the day, this isn't china so you have to expect the rules to fray at the edges and not reach for your handbag.

 

[TamH70]

Celtics challenge for the title

Nah, they'd still lose by ten points or so.

 

[Emcon Ecomcon]

Addendum to the Sunday Times article. The comparisons are stark for the Nats:-
2011: The SNP got 45.4% share of the Constiuency vote and 44% of the regional share.
2016: The SNP got 46.5% share of the constiuency vote(FPS) but down to 41.7% on the regional share(PR)..
Dec 2020: Support for independence was 52% and support for the SNP was 55% (+3)
Mar 2021: Support for independence on 46% and support for the SNP is 47% (likely below 50%, even with the curtice correction).

The media were swept along by the polling in 2020 and as ever with polling, it doesn't capture the final result but is merely a snapshot of mood. As you approach election day, things start tighten up and the process has shrank the lead far quicker than it should and bodes ill for the next two months SNP campaign.

 

[wrinklyone]

Addendum to the Sunday Times article. The comparisons are stark for the Nats:-
2011: The SNP got 45.4% share of the Constiuency vote and 44% of the regional share.
2016: The SNP got 46.5% share of the constiuency vote(FPS) but down to 41.7% on the regional share(PR)..
Dec 2020: Support for independence was 52% and support for the SNP was 55% (+3)
Mar 2021: Support for independence on 46% and support for the SNP is 47% (likely below 50%, even with the curtice correction).

The media were swept along by the polling in 2020 and as ever with polling, it doesn't capture the final result but is merely a snapshot of mood. As you approach election day, things start tighten up and the process has shrank the lead far quicker than it should and bodes ill for the next two months SNP campaign.

Better ask for some more English money to be able to fight back.

 

[Dafty duck]

NHS Scotland pay their nurses a bit more than that.
View attachment 555424
Admittedly 2019 but close enough

I smell some porky pies.....

The original post seems to have used band 4 for their example of 2020 salary. A newly qualified nurse in all four home nations is paid as band 5 on AFC. Current NHS (England) band 5 is £24,907 against £25,100 for NHS Scotland. Band 4 is £21,892 & 22,700 respectively. Looking back to the 2010 AFC circular shows B4 & B5 starting salaries as £18,152 & £21,176, there was no difference in pay points across the 4 home nations at this point.

So, what they have done, is compare the salary of a B5 qualified RN from 2010 against that of a non-qualified B4 student/trainee nurse from 2020. Nursing starting pay has in fact increased by £3,731 or 15%.
Still less than that of MP pay, but not nearly as dramatic as is being suggested.

I suspect that this is deliberate disinformation off the back of the "1% is all we can afford" announcement. Would be interesting to know as to where @Old and Grumpy got it from. Is it from some sort of official/semi official source? Or some troll sitting in his bedsit deliberately trying to stir things up?

ETA: using reverse image search, all it throws up is SNP supporter Twitter pages with the odd smattering of Faceache and forum posts. Not sure which company the "Bloc" watermark is from.

 

[Werewolf]

Last year, a Sudanese asylum seeker stabbed and seriously injured several people in Glasgow. One of his victims was a copper. A Polis Scotland ARU shot Mr Stabby dead. Over one hundred people rocked up at his funeral. In spite of it being illegal to have more than a handful of close family at such services.

I don't recall Sturgeon etc being too outraged about that. Were I a cynical chap - Heaven forfend! - I might speculate her reticence owed something to the ethnicity of the mourners.

 

[tazmanian_clogdancer]

Last year, a Sudanese asylum seeker went postal and stabbed and seriously injured several people in Glasgow. One of his victims was a copper. A Polis Scotland ARU shot Mr Stabby dead. Over one hundred people rocked up at his funeral. In spite of it being illegal to have more than a handful of close family at such services.

I don't recall Sturgeon etc being too outraged about that. Were I a cynical chap - Heaven forfend! - I might speculate her reticence owed something to the ethnicity of the mourners.

View attachment 555522

I remember that it was the day Greggs ran out of donuts everyone had jammin.



I'll get me dreadlocks

 

[offog]

Last year, a Sudanese asylum seeker stabbed and seriously injured several people in Glasgow. One of his victims was a copper. A Polis Scotland ARU shot Mr Stabby dead. Over one hundred people rocked up at his funeral. In spite of it being illegal to have more than a handful of close family at such services.

I don't recall Sturgeon etc being too outraged about that. Were I a cynical chap - Heaven forfend! - I might speculate her reticence owed something to the ethnicity of the mourners.

View attachment 555522

Or that a large number of the crowd waved union flags and not a blue face seen within the crowd. So not SNP supporters.

 

[shellbackmac]

Or that a large number of the crowd waved union flags and not a blue face seen within the crowd. So not SNP supporters.

Yup, absolute nightmare for them that thousands of folk waving Union flags crammed into the centre of Glasgow, images all round the world of ecstatic people singing, dancing and swinging off lamp posts draped in the butchers apron when, according to the Lard of The Isles, Keith Brown etc, independence is the "settled will" of the Scottish people. No matter it's a football thing and mainly about the OF, but anything that involves a flag that is despised appearing en masse in SNP territory goes down like a lead fart. I bet it wasn't people being extremely stupid WRT COVID that Swindly and Sturgeon found most "disgraceful".

 

[Old and Grumpy]

I smell some porky pies.....

The original post seems to have used band 4 for their example of 2020 salary. A newly qualified nurse in all four home nations is paid as band 5 on AFC. Current NHS (England) band 5 is £24,907 against £25,100 for NHS Scotland. Band 4 is £21,892 & 22,700 respectively. Looking back to the 2010 AFC circular shows B4 & B5 starting salaries as £18,152 & £21,176, there was no difference in pay points across the 4 home nations at this point.

So, what they have done, is compare the salary of a B5 qualified RN from 2010 against that of a non-qualified B4 student/trainee nurse from 2020. Nursing starting pay has in fact increased by £3,731 or 15%.
Still less than that of MP pay, but not nearly as dramatic as is being suggested.

I suspect that this is deliberate disinformation off the back of the "1% is all we can afford" announcement. Would be interesting to know as to where @Old and Grumpy got it from. Is it from some sort of official/semi official source? Or some troll sitting in his bedsit deliberately trying to stir things up?

ETA: using reverse image search, all it throws up is SNP supporter Twitter pages with the odd smattering of Faceache and forum posts. Not sure which company the "Bloc" watermark is from.

Someone sent it to me (someone vaguely trustworthy) so I posted it in good faith - I should have done some checks before posting it on - I will try to find out where it came from...... Sorry to mislead....

 

[Dafty duck]

Someone sent it to me (someone vaguely trustworthy) so I posted it in good faith - I should have done some checks before posting it on - I will try to find out where it came from...... Sorry to mislead....

I dont think you deliberately set out to mislead anyone. I think the creator of it did though.

 

[Old and Grumpy]

The biggest problem we have in Scotland is that the oposition to the SNP are totally disorganised, underfunded and working seperately without any co-ordination or cohesion.

Sturgeon is undoubtedly a liar, cheat and fundamentally incompetent whose ego surpasses that of her mentor. Salmond is an able but nasty little man with a colossal ego determined that the temple will come down if he is not allowed to be the Messiah. It is working because it is the only possible opportunity for the opposition in Scotland to do any damage and is fantastic fun and mischief for the press. In reality it is an item of absolutely no interest or significance to any sane and sensible person who leads the SNP. The only thing of interest is how to get them out of power.

Having said all that, it is interesting is it not, and we are all guilty, that we are enraged by the transgressions, be they ever so minor, of those of whom we do not approve but effortlessly rationalise and forgive those, be they ever so major, of whom we do. My working assumption is that almost all politicians are lying to us almost all of the time but where the line lies with which you are prepared to live is how we all kid ourselves. I do not believe that there is a member of the Westminster cabinet that has not broken the ministerial code, some of them are repeat offenders and most of the offences are self-evident and documented. If you think they are doing an adequate job you will not care or consider them anything out of the ordinary. If you are not happy with their efforts in office you will be incensed that they are getting away with it and there is ‘One rule for them and quite another for us’.

Life continues to remain unfair. Now that is a reliable fact!! Hallelujah!

So - does the whole system, Westminster and Holyrood need a thorough weeding out and the current incumbents replaced by people with integrity and at least some semblance of honesty?