scottsdad

This thread, and the stuff on twitter, are highlighting what the Alba party are. Within the SNP there was a batshit crazy element but they were kept quiet. Now they have broken away and, like a squeezed spot, and blowing their poison all over the place. Every grievance accepted, every issue dredged up, personality attacks. And yet, none of these attacks are on the Tories and wider unionists. Their enemy is the SNP.

No. She was old when it happened and social work got involved when her phone got cut off. They left her under a pound in her bank account. The gory details are here: https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15607579.ex-policeman-left-counting-cost-family-plundering-mothers-bank-account/

Aye, when Patrick Harvie was on the radio this morning, gender fanaticism was the thing that came to mind

Too Good to Go Down was fascinating. Docherty was on a real upswing and they sacked him for getting tatters deep into the physio's wife. If they'd kept him on they might have won the league in the early 80s.

In my old man's experience the 'bad cops' weren't so much corrupt as lazy. I know of one who was sacked for not checking on his prisoners every 15 minutes (CCTV showed he checked them every 3-4 hours). He had two probationers. One went on to be the Chief Constable of Fife. The other was convicted (after he had retired) of defrauding his own mother out of her life savings. You get a mixed bag but the majority do the job and do it well.

I'm not arguing that Covid isn't worse than these other ones, or more widespread. What I am saying is that when the BBC news in 2026 talks about Badger Flu or whatever the next (mild) virus is emerging in the Far East, the government will go straight to Covid mode.

In terms of the "world has changed forever" thought, my worry is the next pandemic in 4-5 years time. Since 2000 we have had SARS, MERS, swine flu, avian flu and Covid. Only the flu ones came to the UK. But come, say, 2026 and Badger Flu or whatever emerges - how will we deal with it? Will we let it run its course like bird flu and swine flu? Or will the fact we've been through this lockdown pish with Covid mean that the government will be trigger happy with the restrictions?

The whole idea of the system is that the list votes top-up the constituency votes. In Westminster we saw in 2015 the SNP take 95% of the seats with 50% of the vote. The Scottish parliament was designed so that this couldn't happen. It evens this out and means that parties are represented in the parliament in accordance with their vote share as well as keeping a constituency MP. If you go both votes SNP and so do 50% of the country, they get 50% of the seats. You're not being cheated out of anything, and your vote isn't wasted.

Today the Alba party produced a manifesto. I said several pages ago that they weren't in this for a supermajority working hand in hand with the SNP and the Greens, and this confirms it. What they want is to "instruct" the Scottish Government to begin the process of Indyref 2 in week 1 of the new parliament. Forget diplomacy and negotiation, Salmond wants a high publicity fight with the other Yes parties. He's more interested in taking out his ex-colleagues than he is about independence. Like Trump going after disloyal republicans in the US. Want a proper Indyref 2? Go SNP/Green. Want a civil war within the new Yes movement? Vote Alba.

These porn apps can be quite big, you know.

I think in the background there has been - development of treatment and vaccines is what I mean.

Interesting that we're leaving the science-led phase of the pandemic and approaching the psychology-led one. On "the science" we have treatments and vaccines we didn't have before. The vaccines are safe. It's simply a matter of time and production to get this virus under control for the future. Now the psychology. For 13 months people have been scared silly (literally). Day after day of doom and gloom, of analysing news reports, of reading all the bonkers stuff on social media (the true cancer of the 21st century). There are a great many people who do not want lockdown eased, like Stockholm Syndrome. They have convinced themselves that plague exists outside their front door. They don't see others as people, they see them as germ factories determined to spread infection. Something as simple as seeing a few people sitting on a bench in a park is enough to send these people into orbit, worrying that the virus is oozing out of people with every breath. Many of us here want a return to normality ASAP. We miss living more than half a life. But there are others who dread it. I'll be interested to see how governments treat the next year, coaxing people out of their homes.

Looking up my local list parties again...I posted about Scottish family on another thread (anti-Gay, anti-abortion, anti-everything really but especially anti-sex education). Today I looked up Reform UK. Mother of God. Would you vote for this guy?

It's the doldrums just now. There was interest/activity at thhe start and it'll ramp up again ahead of May 3rd, but this is a quiet patch not helped at all by Prince Philip sucking all the publicity out of it.

When I think of the great socialist orators of the past - Foot, Kinnock and so many others - Corbyn was hopeless. When making a speech he never quite got the habit of making snappy points and pausing to let it sink in. He just kept going on long, rambling sentences and not allowing, say, an applause. Starmer is no great shakes in this regard either. The best performance I have heard in recent years from a Labour politician was back in (I think) September. Keir Starmer was self-isolating and so Ed Miliband stood in. Johnson, hearing this, decided to take on Miliband instead of letting Alok Sharma do it. It was related to Brexit and Johnson thought he's get a free hit taking on Miliband. I was in the kitchen when this was on the radio and by the end I was grinning from ear to ear. Never heard anyone tear Johnson a new arse like that before, or since. In full here, a fun 15 minutes.

Winter of the World by Ken Follett. Follett does a good thriller, but this is a sweeping saga of ~5 families in the 20th century. Focuses mainly on the shagging.

I don't want much. I want to take the wife and kids out for a meal at a pub, and have a pint with my meal. We did this last summer and the pubs we went to were really safe and secure. Can anyone tell me why this isn't allowed yet? It can't be the numbers.

I watched Graeme Norton about 2 months ago when Jimmy Nesbitt was promoting Bloodlands. He was giving it "Jed Mercurio hired every actor in Northern Ireland for Line of Duty except me. Still, at least we got to work together on Bloodlands" Long game being played by Nesbitt and Mecurio.

Guy in Thailand was eating a lot of raw beef. They found a 59 foot tapeworm in his guts. Anyone else fancy Spag Bol for dinner tonight?

Helen McCrory has died age 52.

Watergate is on BBC4 and the iPlayer. Made in the 90s it is excellent. Like WAW, it has the main people being interviewed. G Gordon Liddy (who died this year I think) comes across as an absolute nutjob. Before Watergate, and before the break-in at the psychiatrist's office, he had planned to hire a boat in Florida and rig it with cameras, then hire prostitutes to seduce Democrats and film them having sex, then blackmail them. All with the OK of Nixon's inner circle. They didn't go ahead with that one as its chances of success were too low. As you watch it, you realise that in terms of utter scumbaggery, Trump was an amateur compared to Nixon and his gang.

Currently re-watching season 6. Quality. Johnny Sack pleads guilty and so gets 15 years and loses his money, and they're still mad at him for acknowledging the existence of the organisation

Oh boy. Just found their manifesto. I'll add a few choice quotes below but let's start with a fun video on how domestic violence is a racket. I could go on but you get the jist.

My oh my

The Scottish Family Party- holy cow! I just looked them up. If you want a few minute's entertainment, have a gander at their policies. https://scottishfamily.org/policies YouTube videos on their opposition to "corrosive" sex education in schools amongst many others. Ultra zoomers. Even Trump would look at this lot like a bunch of weirdos.