RuamRudy

I would imagine that the Tories will continue to be mostly immune from any official scrutiny.

But just imagine how UK business might be performing if it wasn't handicapped by brexit. It's recovery is despite brexit, not be of it.

The police are so in the pocket of the SNP that they turned up mob handed with a forensics tent in the garden. If only the MET were as discrete and low key with Johnson when they sent him a questionnaire about whether he had been partying while he messed up his COVID response.

Why? Independence is not the SNP; the SNP is not independence. In the same period, the UK government has done nothing to make the UK look anything other than the corrupt, toxic drain on my country.

Yes - but the essence is in the fact that it's 'completely deserved'. As most people, including myself, know incredibly little about Murrell so it's impossible to say whether it's deserved.

I wouldn't know - I am not in the SNP.

I am not disputing that brexit is ongoing or that Sunak is pm - both are demonstrable facts. For example, the UK government was ecstatic this week at the signing of an Asian trade deal that will improve our economy by a whopping 0.08%. A few more of those and we will be in fine fettle. However it's the relative merits of both brexit and Sunak that are debatable.

Seeing as your are all over the place, I think you have made a wise choice.

In 2014 the europhile credentials of the SNP were clear - an independent Scotland would seek admission to the EU subject to a referendum. It was Better Together that stated that the only way to remain in the EU was to remain in the UK. I think you are misreading my posts. What I am saying is not that Westminster is responsible for SNP failures (although Westminster does set funding) but the argument that the SNP is a failure only works in context - and that context is Westminster, which has presided over a massive decline in living standards in England. The SNP may be bad - but the alternative, which repeated posters try to portray as being superior, is demonstrably worse.

Not exactly great news for our exporters struggling to make up for the loss of a common EU market.

I guess that you didn't read the post that I was replying to? Why is holyrood a failure? The alternative, administration from Westminster, is clearly worse, as demonstrated by the disaster that is unfolding across England. If you insist that I can't refer to that, then it's not really possible to debate your point.

Brexit - a never ending tragedy that will blight your country and mine for decades Johnson - a domestic disaster and an international embarrassment Truss and Kwarteng - we have common ground Sunak - well his own tax stuff hasn't been too promising, and his MPs whoring themselves out left, right and centre is a bit disconcerting too. But those are all my opinions - as yours are yours.

I think I already made my opinion of them clear.

Given the disasters of brexit, Johnson, Kwarteng and now Sunak, I don't really see fiscal competence or integrity in our neighbours either.

What, specifically, is the lie upon which independence was 'sold'? I don't know about SNP membership. While most SNP supporters are in favour of independence, it is a nonsense to suggest that all independence supporters are positive about the SNP. Scotland's NHS is in difficulty, but it is miles ahead of England's. However it is constrained by the confines of the UK - so thank God our health service is controlled from Edinburgh because I would hate it to be in as dire a state as our English neighbours have to endure. Don't believe all the lies you read about Scotland being a basket case, destroyed by the SNP. Or, at least try a little critical thinking - if what you believe is true, ask yourself why the SNP have enjoyed so much support over the past 13 years. The SNP are not perfect, and in an independent Scotland I would not vote for them, but (until now) they offered the best option to escape the dead weight that has caused so much harm to my country whilst systematically bleeding it dry.

I never passed comment on their performance. However I can say with all honesty that, when looking at just how much damage the Tories have done to England and the wider UK since they came to power, I am glad that the SNP have been able to mitigate much of it.

You may or may not be correct, but I was responding to the comment that "it couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke" - generally that statement really only makes sense if you have knowledge of the person, but Murrel is totally unknown to most people other than as a name. You may also be right about the SNP - I am sure that many people are heartily sick of these ongoing controversies, but nothing the SNP does makes independence less attractive, or make the UK look like anything other than an ongoing disaster for Scotland.

Totally agree - it's a terrible look for the SNP. If Twitter is anything to go by there are a lot of very unhappy people in the SNP camp at the moment, whereas Alba supporters are cock a hoop. Humza will also struggle in the wake of this - if the charges stick then Sturgeon's heir will be as tainted as her. It will be interesting to see if Alba can capitalise on this - maybe the return of Salmond?

Do you know him? He has a very low profile in Scotland - I am sure that the vast majority of Scots couldn't say one way or another whether he was a nice bloke or not. It would be interesting to hear your insight.

Why did you think that corruption (although he had been released without charge pending further enquiries) was the sole preserve of Westminster? I appreciate that the Tories are rotten to the core, but your country, unfortunately, isn't the only one blighted by corruption. But again, as I have stated many times, the SNP is merely the vehicle to take us to independence. The end goal of freeing ourselves of the malevolent presence of the government of choice of the country next door is still very much in sight.

As far as I understand it, the accusation isn't that he pocketed it personally, but that the money was raised for specific independence related activities, but it seemed to disappear into general party coffers.

An interesting point in today's Guardian: "Nicolas Opiyo, a Ugandan human rights lawyer and campaigner, told the Guardian: “The wave of homophobia and transphobia in Uganda, and the region, has nothing to do with Ugandan or African values. It is a disguised campaign by American evangelicals through their local actors."

It's genuinely mind-blowing, I agree. I read that there are thought to be maybe 200 billion or more galaxies in the universe, and within our galaxy alone there are over 100 billion stars. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/beyond/overview/#:~:text=Our Milky Way galaxy is,solar system within the galaxy! That in itself is beyond my comprehension, but then I read that the mass of everything immediately prior to the big bang may have been around the size of a human - so that human sized lump contained all the material to create these billions of galaxies!?!? https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2021/08/25/how-small-was-the-universe-at-the-start-of-the-big-bang/

I imagine he will continue the same line as his predecessors - now is not the time, repeat ad nauseum.

I do wonder if we are maybe too old to understand his appeal. There is an article on the BBC at the moment where they interviewed a broad range of young (under 30) people and they seem positive, or at least lukewarm to him. Certainly there was no outrage the he might continue pushing for the core SNP raison d'etre. Like you, I don't rate him at all, but the joke about the Tory pm election being like choosing which Glastonbury portaloo to use would have been apt here too. But if he can keep the younger people on side then hopefully we will see a significant swing in the polls in the coming years. After all, the under 55s show, consistently, majority support for independence.