NotThePars

It’s wild that Jon Snow gets criticism for being a fairly open lefty liberal while Andrew Neil chairs the press group responsible for a far-right rag that publishes shit like “In Defence of the Wehrmacht”

Tbf America is happy with widespread incarceration and voter suppression at home while assassinating thousands of people abroad on dubious legal ground and that's without even an ounce of the economic or political pressure Venezuela are under.

Only party that truly has Scotlands interests at heart. Question not to me, but there's the answer That's quite an amorphous concept though. You could announce a purge tomorrow and claim it's in "Scotland's interests". You or I have nothing in common with large swathes of this country and actively have competing interests. A completely failed opportunity tbh. The 2017 election showed that the SNP are lacking in purpose atm and there was a real opportunity to drive at them from the left and force them out their stupor to start articulating a radical vision for the next referendum. I'd hope the Greens would do it but I can understand there's a sense of solidarity between the pro-independence parties. Colkitto is hopefully right and that they'll run a better campaign that utilises people like Mhairi Black who have a lot of good ideas but are currently marginalised. They'll need to set out a positive vision for the next referendum as I doubt a negative campaign, even one in the shadow of something as monstrously shite as a Tory Hard Brexit, will be enough. There's a clear argument that people vote SNP for a single issue as well. There's plenty of "leave it till after independence, lads" vocal supporters who don't want to have the discussions about what kind of society we should be building after independence. I don't really blame anyone who votes for any of the left parties atm because the future is so uncertain and it's a party's responsibility to get people to vote for them.

What’s your reasons for voting SNP, out of interest?

I don’t disagree with that I just don’t think it was some purposeful attempt at erasing a distinct Scottish cultural identity rather Scotland as a potential political unit just didn’t give enough of a shit to articulate any dissent over British, or English, foreign policy. We seemed more fussed about conducting our own imperial missions within the empire, or convulsing occasionally over religious disputes. I wish I could remember who it was I was reading but they made a convincing argument that the real problems for British solidarity occurred under Thatcher who did attempt to erase the laissez-faire “family of nations” system and tried to turn Britain into a unitary state much to the dismay of Scottish Tories who probably saw where it would end up. I think that decade is where Scottish nationalism should look to as its most potent motivator.

I don't think there was any long term consistent attempt to form one unified country. It's been a year since I was studying Scottish history post-1707 but it largely seems to have been a case of benign neglect which obviously has its positives (separate legal system and religious practice) and negatives (lack of modernisation and all round ignoring of the specific problems Scotland had and has). I think someone who tried to consciously frame "unionism" in the entire United Kingdom and create a new idea of the Union was Thatcher and, imo, that is when the Union as a positive concept really began to be challenged with great success. Of course the oil bonanza helped as well.

So a unitary nation?

If it wasn’t a union of nations then what was it?

This is what the entirety of #MeToo is dependent on. If the collective shitting the bed from Kavanaugh and all his supporters over this, the constantly changing narrative on their end, that laughable performance at the hearing, Ford’s completely credible coherent testimony or the not at all weird signed list of 65 women that turns out to have been signed under false pretences isn’t enough for you to think that there’s something incredibly dodgy with the guy then you should probably take a step back and have another go in a few months. The two accusations are not remotely similar unless you think these women that come forward are coming from the same position of power as the PLP or the British press are.

Nah not sure any self-proclaimed leftist should be crying over an obvious danger to women being kept away from presiding over laws that can devastate their lives. You’ve fucked it here.

Getting the vibe your leftist switch is just so you can troll the SNP fans on here from a more secure ideological footing, H_B. Might want to go away and work at it a bit more.

Do you believe Dr Ford’s testimony? Do you believe the latest allegations?

Packing the courts with deranged conservatives is what the Kochs want. Maybe you should practice your sudden conversion to leftist politics and support people opposing utter dangers to women being allowed prominent political positions by any means necessary.

Stopping a rapist occupying the Supreme Court seems like one of the most cut and dry ways to building a better society.

Democrats should be more partisan. The West Wing fantasy was seeing them get shanked by the Republicans.

Nice man.

Please elaborate.

Any game of Cluedo where Rod Liddle is the “victim” is going to end with a Spartacus moment of collective guilt.

I love when he posts his own reinvention of a classic tbh.

hahahaha

Still don’t think any of his arguments topped that Post article claiming it could’ve been a doppelgänger.

Is that the vote where multiple people broke the party whip and now face deselection?

How dare you! This is the man who fought to make to criminalise people who registered porn addresses under common misspellings of popular websites. I assume he has had other revolutionary ideas.

I think his point is that they can’t hold both Banff and Glasgow East at the same time outside of unusual circumstances like the post-indyref landscape.