[0762]

The First Minister meets EU officials in Brussels and the Tories order the UK ambassador to monitor the FM's activities??????
Political censorship of live high-level conversations with Scotland's democratically elected leader by a representative of a government that the people of Scotland rejected!!
What are European Commission leaders going to make of that, particularly when the uninvited UK govt representative intervenes?????
This latest farce sounds like something out of Soviet-era Russia and remember we are living well into the 1st quarter of the 21st century!!!
Are Brit Govt officials going to censor correspondence too????
Perhaps Humza Yousaf and his delegation can provide EC leaders with a written briefing on any issues that have been live-censored by the Brit Govt's representatives.
Conclusion: If one wanted to demonstrate that the UK was a failing dictatorial state, and that Scotland wanted to throw off such UK "shackles", then one would assign a minder to monitor the FM of Scotland - WHAT A JOKE!!

[0762]

I notice Thames Water is collapsing under a mountain of debt (paying dividends to their shareholders was surely a tad unwise!!) and the other nine English water companies are in similar hock. English consumers pay the highest water charges, leaks are rife and waterways are full of excrement/pollution. Privatisation was sold to the public as an efficiency measure - you'll pay less for better quality water. The government knew it was a lie btw!!! It was a multi-million pound wealth transfer to shareholders!! Shares were priced at a low value to attract shareholders and guarantee a successful sale of public assets. People/investors cashed out their profits and the firms were sucked in to private equity., institutional investors and large foreign infrastructure firms. Ever since, the companies have been loaded with debt to enable large shareholder returns while investors have been exposed to minimal risks and a passive OFWAT regulator. So what has this to do with Scotland eh?
The question immediately arises: "How did Scotland dodge this bullet'"? MORE THAN 90% OF SCOTS OPPOSED WATER PRIVATISATION!!!! So, in March 1994, Strathclyde Regional Council organised the biggest council referendum ever held in Scotland. The people were asked, "Do you agree with the govt's proposal for the future of our water and sewerage services"? Over 70% of voters turned out for this referendum vote and 97.2% SAID NO!!! Remember this was a period before devolution took effect in 1997!! The chancing British Govt dared not proceed with less than 3% support!! And Scotland's water remained in public hands!! And that is why our water is cheaper and cleaner than England's water. However, the Tories got their revenge (nothing new there eh!!) - they abolished Strathclyde Regional Council in 1996, probably because it stood up to the Tory British Govt. WESTMINSTER IS COMING FOR OUR WATER AGAIN, JUST AS IT CAME FOR OUR OIL AND RENEWABLES. TO STOP THE THEFT, THE SCOTTISH PEOPLE (INCL MANY READERS OF THIS Sb BOARD) MUST WAKEN UP, RECLAIM THEIR VOICE AND RESTORE THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE COUNTRY THEY LIVE IN, BELLA CALEDONIA.

[0762]

I just watched too much of a tv interview covering Scot Lab's Jackie Baillie's embarrassing attempts to defend the Labour Party's stance/U-turn on retaining the Tory welfare bill covering the two-child limit - what a car-crash interview that was - saying "The Scot Labour Party opposes this legislation, but we back Labour Head office on the issue"???? Then saying, "We have significant influence on the decision-making of the Labour Party"????? An absolute joke - and pigs can fly!!! To any Scots reading this thread - don't even think about voting for these chancing bastards in any election - don't be stupid!!
Lets focus on Starmer and what he is all about in abandoning almost every pledge he has made in order to become the Labour leader. FOLLOW THE MONEY!!
This reveals with surprising accuracy the motivation for his political U-turns in this plutocratic age.
Note last week the Shadow Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, sent personal letters to Tory donors inviting them to one-to-one meetings. Starmer has courted big business and he and Reeves have hobnobbed business elites and oligarchs at Davos last year and assuring them Labour won't be a threat to their hegemony. Like obese rats fleeing HMS Tory, donors like Kasim Kutay (CEO Novo Holdings), Gareth Quarry (multi-millionaire tycoon) and many others "jumping ship" to HMS Labour knowing they'll be safe. Their influence is obvious. And the future of the NHS? Well rather than fund the cash-starved NHSE, Starmer pledged to introduce personalised drugs, for which big pharma has been lobbying for years - the same industry that has exploited publicly funded research and privatised the profits. And the Tufton Street gang, a gaggle of RW "think tanks" with close ties to Brit govt, MPs and Labour, is bankrolled by large corporations and wealthy elites - the same entities that fund mainstream media. Their main purpose? To protect and grow the establishment parties/individuals obscene wealth by destroying the post-war welfare state and impoverishing the vast majority of people. The main point is that THIS IS NOT THE LABOUR PARTY AT ALL AND THE SCOTTISH LABOUR PARTY HAVE NO CREDIBLE PLACE IN SCOTTISH POLITICS EITHER - THEY ARE NOT GEARED UP TO HELP ANYBODY UP HERE. They are fooked and talk bullshit with too much unhealthy diktat from their paymasters in London. Independence is the way forward, no doubt!!! And more people in Scotland need to waken up to the urgency of this situation to rid ourselves of this Unionist "noose around our necks" in order to save ourselves from further serious damage before our land and resources are sold off to private corporations and our very existence as a sovereign country is seriously under threat.

[0762]

There was an interesting announcement by the Electoral Commission last week re an issue that the Scot Labour leader, Sarwar, and his smirking Deputy, Baillie, have been regularly denying during their recent Rutherglen by-electioneering shenanigans - "Is the Scottish Labour Party a political party at all and who is running the show/the selection process at Rutherglen"??? The EC clarification was damning in the fact they are just a registered (reg in Newcastle) political identity and Sarwar plus Baillie deemed AGAIN as downright liars when it comes to this issue. As any savvy Scot citizen knows, "They are accountable to their head office in Westminster"!!! Of course, they don't want to admit to that, but it is a fact!!! IMO the Unionist parties should be named as "the Labour Party in Scotland" and "the Conservative Party in Scotland". They are run and owe allegiance to their masters in the Brit Govt. If they wish to be separate from the main parties and add "Scottish" to their title, then they must register as such and come under the legal and fiscal regs that would entail. It's also ironic that nationalism is derided by the Westminster crew and yet the Labour Party attempt to disguise themselves as the Scottish Labour Party - grand to be a nationalist when it suits them to dupe the electorate!! Should they win the next election, the Scottish Labour Party will disregard Scotland and Scottish interests as usual and skip to the tune of the Labour Party - that's one of the main reasons (one of many btw!!) why millions of Scots don't vote for them and rightly so!!

[0762]

https://www.businessforscotland.com/scot...-red-tape/

More than 16 months of falling trade exports and Scotland's EU trade slowly being suffocated!!!! Still too many Scottish citizens unaware of what is going on because of a Brexit that Scotland never voted for and well over 70% of the voting Scottish public now oppose.

[0762]

The Scottish Govt confirms an agreed pay deal with the Junior Doctors' union and averts more strike action - another pay deal thrashed out through proper pragmatic negotiation and discussion as per previous actions with other unions in Scotland. Compare this with the Brit Govt and consistent confrontational stuff in England with the likes of the Junior Doctors (and other pay grievances elsewhere) and the issues with more strikes in NHS England. And as many strikers in NHSE have previously commented - "Clapping doesn't pay the bills"!!! Quite!! This is the kinda positive news that the colluding unionist press/media up here deliberately try to play down and keep focusing on this bogus insinuation uttered yesterday by Starmer re the Scot Govt's "appalling record" (??????) it is not all appalling in over a decade you chancing prick, nothing like it compared with what is happening in England!! - cynically trying to feed this negative deception to dupe targeted folk in the Scottish population and they never stop in trying to denigrate the devolved governance of Scotland where we make our mistakes and we learn from it (without any interference from outsiders from another country!!!!!) like other successful independent governments all over the world!!!
Re the this Labour leader and his highly questionable regard for Scotland, study his recent comment on a visit up here - "Countless people tell me they support Labour values. From Kirkcaldy to Glasgow, Inverness to Rutherglen, they all tell me how little trust they have in politics to change things for them and, if I'm totally frank, this extends to the Labour Party".
THESE COUNTLESS PEOPLE HAVE NO TRUST IN HIS LABOUR PARTY BECAUSE HE HAS STATED IF THEY VOTE SNP, THEY WILL REMAIN UNCOUNTED, EVEN IF A COUNT SHOULD SHOW THAT LABOUR PLUS SNP COULD OUST THIS TORY GOVT AND ITS OBNOXIOUS POLICIES!!! IF HE LISTENED TO THE "COUNTLESS PEOPLE WHO TELL HIM THEY SUPPORT LABOUR VALUES" HE WOULD HEAR THAT THEY NOW VOTE FOR THE SNP BECAUSE ITS POLICIES ARE MUCH CLOSER TO LABOUR VALUES THAN LABOUR PARTY POLICIES AND THEY ADHERE TO DEMOCRATIC VALUES RE THE SCOTTISH CONSTITUTION ISSUE.

[0762]

A recent BMG survey reveals that 52% of households are generally struggling with everyday bills and the cost of living crisis. This is after 13 years of austerity by a Tory govt (ref Cameron-Clegg leadership ) that made this a political choice and has been roundly condemned by most reputable economists, followed by a disastrous Brexit that Scot voters never voted for and now unanimously oppose for good reason. Consequently it is encouraging to see the "drip, drip, drip" of more n more Scots "joining the indy trail", seeing that Scottish independence is not to be dismissed as the solution to positive change/progress and a sound economic transition in a more vibrant and accountable separate , sovereign country than the one being damaged by this Westminster govt. BIG ENOUGH, SMART ENOUGH AND RICH ENOUGH - TELL A FRIEND!

Note: This will be my final thread on Abstract Chat - been a pleasure to contribute, but too few contributors on such an important section of the Sb board although refreshing to see lots of interested or curious readers.

[ritchiebaby]

Now that the 2022 Accounts have been published, it's interesting to note that the membership has fallen from 104k in 2021 to 83k in 2022, a drop of 21% (there is a figure quoted for June 2023 of 74k). Encouragingly the drop in membership income is only 9%, but as the Party is now running a Balance Sheet deficit of £220k, steps will have to be taken to reduce expenditure in relation to income.

There was a minor adjustment to the 2021 Accounts, but nothing of great note in this year's Accounts, except for the Completeness Of Income qualification.

Questions will still remain about the Referendum Appeal Fund, but I'm certain we won't find anything out until the Police Scotland investigation is complete and the Procurator Fiscal decides to prosecute, or not.

[0762]

What a dead Abstract Chat board this is just like most of the other disused sections spread around this Sb forum.
Anyway, since I know there are a good number of Scottish readers (tell a friend!) who peruse this board, when it is utilised, I will briefly relay some solid, informative info re some recent astounding Labour Party comments actually praising the horrible Tory PM, Margaret Thatcher. This is a one-off thread btw (just in case someone fires out a welcome back notice of some sort - it aint gonna happen!!).
Darren Jones, Rachel Reeves Deputy, made the incomprehensibly stupid remark that Thatcher oversaw a period of "economic renewal and wealth creation". I'd like to plaster this comment all over Scotland to warn those gullible enough to think English Labour offers us anything apart from stealing what remains of our wealth and impoverishing us further.
ENGLISH LABOUR PARTY KEEP SHOWING US WHO THEY REALLY ARE WITH SCOTTISH LABOUR HAPPILY KOW-TOWING TO THE POLITICAL DIKTAT FROM LONDON HEAD OFFICE!!! ALL SCOTINDY PARTIES AND SUPPORTERS SHOULD BE PAYING CLOSE ATTENTION!!!!!!
Larry Fink, CEO of Blackrock, the planet's largest private equity firm that manages $10T of assets, praised Sir Keir Starmer for saving English Labour from "extremism" under "Marxist" Jeremy Corbyn. What Fink really meant is that SKS saved the UK for the world's vulture capitalists to exploit.
Blackrock and Vanguard, Blackrock's largest shareholder, own huge huge swathes of the global economy. Many of the world's oldest and wealthiest families -the British royal family, the Italian Orsini family and the US Bush, Du Pont, Morgan, Vanderbilt and Rockefeller families - ARE OWNERS OF VANGUARD!!
Together, they own the majority of stocks in the largest corporations spanning big pharma, big tec, big banks, the biggest media companies and the military industrial complex. By 2028, Blackrock and Vanguard will be managing assets worth $20T.
Now you may ask, "HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO SCOTLAND AND SCOTTISH INTERESTS"? Blackrock owns Edinburgh Airport; Aberdeen Asset Management merged with Blackrock's investment trust; Scottish Widows awarded a £30B contract to Blackrock to manage index strategies; the Wheatley Group received a £100B injection from Blackrock to drive Scotland's biggest housebuilding programme; note Blackrock also bought a West Lothian wind farm from Muirhall Energy. There are rich pickings in Scotland! Starmer's "single-defining mission" is to increase economic growth in partnership with business. SCOTLAND'S RESOURCES ARE FOR SALE TO VULTURE CAPITALISTS LIKE BLACKROCK, LEAVING NOTHING FOR THE THE RIGHTFUL OWNERS - THE SCOTTISH PEOPLE!!
I can't think of a louder clarion call to end this disastrous and failed Union. As said previously - TELL A FRIEND, SPREAD THE WORD - SAOR ALBA!!

[Lord Snooty]

Welcome back, 0762.

You're right, this forum has been quiet since you took your bat and ball home, for whatever reason. It's none of my business, obviously, but the Labour Party praising Margaret bloody Thatcher has had by blood boiling again this week.

Voted Labour all my life, but this lot are a chuffing joke. It's like they're trying to alienate everyone who's ever voted Labour in the past, just to try and win over a few undecided Tory voters.

Well Starmer, Reeves, Lammy, you can all do one.