Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[effeffsee_the2nd]

10 minutes ago, Honest_Man#1 said:

It’s been covered by a few already, but essentially whilst my ultimate dream/aim is to be independent but have someone else other than the SNP run the country, I am genuinely terrified at the prospect of them having control for a period after independence happens. People are quick to say they’d cease to exist, but I’m not at all convinced by that argument, and the idea of them having full control bizarrely has become a worse thought than Tories controlling us. I have always despised the Tories and opposed near enough everything they stand for, but the most pressing issue at present is pandemic response, and somehow the SNP have managed to present a worse case of how they’d handle it.

i get what you and many others have been saying , i myself think the SNP over reaction has been all about making scotland feel like a different country.

but have you gave thought to the idea that right wing populists, far from loving freedom, have just looked to capitalise on the demographic that thinks "this is all a load of shite and I'd rather not be forced to go along with it"

[SlipperyP]

Not been on here for wee bit.

Heyha mentals

I take it we're all fucked again.......no no Thai Gov have said today  "nothing chances"

[Honest_Man#1]

26 minutes ago, The Moonster said:

This terrifies me. 

As I said, outside of the pandemic response the opposite is true. Prior to Covid I was a bit of an SNP and Sturgeon fanboy and would’ve loved them to be in full control. Unfortunately the pandemic response is the most important thing for me currently so until that passes I won’t be going near an SNP vote, and moving forward it has really worried me that their Covid response has hinted at their method of running a country as being a fairly controlling one.

[The Moonster]

1 minute ago, Honest_Man#1 said:

As I said, outside of the pandemic response the opposite is true. Prior to Covid I was a bit of an SNP and Sturgeon fanboy and would’ve loved them to be in full control. Unfortunately the pandemic response is the most important thing for me currently so until that passes I won’t be going near an SNP vote, and moving forward it has really worried me that their Covid response has hinted at their method of running a country as being a fairly controlling one.

I just feel that's all very short-term-ist. I don't disagree on the points raised about the SNP, they are nannying b*****ds, but I won't ever forget the disdain that Tories hold for this country. 

[SlipperyP]

8 minutes ago, Honest_Man#1 said:

As I said, outside of the pandemic response the opposite is true. Prior to Covid I was a bit of an SNP and Sturgeon fanboy and would’ve loved them to be in full control. Unfortunately the pandemic response is the most important thing for me currently so until that passes I won’t be going near an SNP vote, and moving forward it has really worried me that their Covid response has hinted at their method of running a country as being a fairly controlling one.

Good to see you're still shifting a whole lot a nothing on this forum.

[Honest_Man#1]

1 minute ago, The Moonster said:

I just feel that's all very short-term-ist. I don't disagree on the points raised about the SNP, they are nannying b*****ds, but I won't ever forget the disdain that Tories hold for this country. 

Oh it absolutely is short-termist, but in the short term my life is being impacted on in a much, much bigger way by the SNP than by the Tories. I don’t want Tories in control, but I absolutely don’t want the SNP either. I’m fucked either way and it’s a depressing place to be.

[Michael W]

I imagine the tendency of the 'liberals' to advocate very hard and authoritarian restrictions that are more in tune with the flog em' brigade has been a difficult one for people to reconcile. It has been particularly galling to see measures such as border closures and the closure of hospitality venues at the drop of a hat being discussed as if they are mere tweaks that the government can make to a Statutory Instrument. 

It was one thing putting these measures in place in an emergency when we genuinely had no treatments and no vaccines, but the slow release and continuing of restrictions without merit was galling. To take an example away from Scotland, the Welsh were banned from indoor visits from outside of their 'bubble' until July after the January lockdown. This sort of thing is outrageous and not befitting of a decent society. 

The country is nowhere near as liberal as a lot of people thought it was unfortunately. 

Edited November 30, 2021 by Michael W

[Glennie]

57 minutes ago, Elixir said:

Also, as the left have been a fucking disgrace throughout, it has made me utterly disillusioned and politically homeless, essentially.

 

54 minutes ago, bairn88 said:

This is where I am mate. Those who my entire life I've broadly agreed with, who have, since about May, been calling for lockdowns, vax passports, facemasks in every location they can think of...all because, really, they are just thick and genuinely don't really know the effectiveness of these actions. 

the left have been a fucking disgrace for decades its just your now noticing

once for streetwise working men the followers are now servile drones cheering big state. 20 months and still cannae see an inch past their nose

[Honest_Man#1]

6 minutes ago, SlipperyP said:

Good to see you're still shifting a whole lot a nothing on this forum.

Whilst you continue to contribute… drunken, incoherent ramblings and Walter Mitty tales about drowning dogs.

 

[Abdul_Latif]

5 minutes ago, Michael W said:

The country is nowhere near as liberal as a lot of people thought it was unfortunately. 

Agreed. I think a lot of people at the moment are getting tolerant and liberal mixed up. 
 

I would certainly say Scotland is on the whole a tolerant country, but it has deep rooted conservative (not the party) beliefs and behaviours.

[Glennie]

39 minutes ago, effeffsee_the2nd said:

i get what you and many others have been saying , i myself think the SNP over reaction has been all about making scotland feel like a different country.

but have you gave thought to the idea that right wing populists, far from loving freedom, have just looked to capitalise on the demographic that thinks "this is all a load of shite and I'd rather not be forced to go along with it"

cynical, its a myth thinking freedom, liberty are sole property of the left 

the left dropped the torch miles back, youre just noticing the right carrying the extra burden

[HibsFan]

I know it's hard but I genuinely can't help but feel that the best way out of this, for us everyday folk on the ground at least, is to play ignorant.

Not "I refuse to comply", that's antagonising and gets you lumped in with antivax weirdos etc.

Nor "yes I'll do anything you tell me to help us micromanage our way out of a pandemic which clearly isn't going anywhere no matter what restrictions are put in place".

Just a simple ignorance about what the current 'restrictions' are will help a lot.

Carry a mask, wear it only if you are backed into a corner and made to, otherwise, play dumb.

This time last year, I spent hours on this thread working myself up, shadowboxing against the blue hearts on Twitter, the whole nine yards.

When (and I've been lucky to have been in England this year I admit) March came and the roadmap started, I haven't looked back.

I don't wear masks in all but the rarest of situations e.g. a packed train. I collected both of my vaccinations. I went abroad and paid for a shitey LFT to be let back in. I don't go on the internet and look for pro-lockdown c***s who will wind me up anymore. Play the game as little as you physically can get away with doing so and don't give them an inch more.

There is a big argument to be made for saying that the real battle with COVID now is less the physical virus itself, and more the mentality it has instilled in society. Grassing, curtain-twitching, viewing everyone around you as if they are untrustworthy and riddled with disease.

Positive mentality needed, keep the head and look after your mates, family etc. - we can get through this together by removing ourselves from the unstoppable culture war that has become COVID restrictions, IMO.

Edited November 30, 2021 by HibsFan

[Wee-Bey]

Hasn't the Westminster response to the pandemic been just as much of a clown car driving through a minefield as the Holyrood one ?

Are posters who consider themselves 'left leaning' really now voting for a bunch of reprehensible right wing populists because they are winding back restrictions slightly quicker down south than up here ?

A caveat for the above here as I'm probably not up to speed with the latest news as I've stopped paying attention to anything Covid related on the news or social media and I'm basically getting on with it like the @HibsFan post above.

[Michael W]

Other than some happiness that measures have generally not been as harsh in England or that restructions were lifted faster, you're not going to find much praise of Johnson's handling of covid on here. 

It has indeed been a shambles also 

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

3 hours ago, Tynie Wickfield said:

I'd settle for closing Ibrox/Celtic Park until every last amazonian tribesperson is jabbed.

That would make entire pandemic  worth it.

 

 

reported for anti-north sentinalese racism. 

1 hour ago, Abdul_Latif said:

Completely agree.

I keep hearing the argument that we can vote them out when we are independent, but I’m afraid of what they could do in the period till they are replaced, if at all.

they have become the darlings of the permanently offended, more determined to out ‘care’ westminster whilst at the same time shafting the public sector workers so they can promise everyone everything free and buy votes. Policies that dont make sense, senior politicians who are completely out of their depth. Careerism has taken over.

1 hour ago, Elixir said:

The Tories are snakes, and yet since 19 July - and even now they still have less restrictions - I would rather be living down south than up here. How do you square that circle, as left-leaning parties practically view it as a crime that England enjoyed such freedom. Give me full pre-pandemic normality back, otherwise nothing else will truly matter until that point.

The left now is entirely different, led by people who’ve never actually had to struggle through life and who think that people struggling to pay the heating bill care more about idealistic debates than actual practical solutions to problems they face, look at the way labour ripped itself apart and the infighting in the snp over trans rights policies (fwiw im very much pro trans rights). This is what happens when the academic ideologists take over, everyone spends ages arguing about daft minutiae and nothing gets done.  

[WeAreElgin]

Calling the SNP the "left" [emoji2955]

[Wee-Bey]

Yeah, I think 'the left' is doing a lot of work here on this thread, considering a small chunk of the SNP and the PLP, Trade Unions and about 5% of the mainstream press are the only parts of the organised Left with any sort of agency in this country.

[sergie's no1 fan]

50 minutes ago, The Moonster said:

I just feel that's all very short-term-ist. I don't disagree on the points raised about the SNP, they are nannying b*****ds, but I won't ever forget the disdain that Tories hold for this country. 

Aye.

Folk talking about pre pandemic normality, what culling the poor and disabled through benefit cuts?

We haven't voted that lot in for decades yet we have to deal with their pish.

It's all about the bigger picture.

[NorthernLights]

I was at The Garage on Saturday night. It was my first gig in Scotland since March 2020 and it felt so normal it was joyous. Here is a photo the band posted on their Facebook page.

I arrived and had to show my vaccine passport, I did stick a mask on while entering but once in the venue it was clear that like my visit to Leeds at the start of the month barely anyone was bothering, even the staff were mostly mask free so back in my pocket it went so I could enjoy the live music with some vertical drinking.

I'd have hated to have attended a gig enforcing social/physical distancing as they looked absolutely awful. Sure the music is a key thing but so is the crowd reaction and the atmosphere it generates. And comparing the above to the below I know which gigs I want to be attending.

[craigkillie]

2 hours ago, Inanimate Carbon Rod said:

The left now is entirely different, led by people who’ve never actually had to struggle through life and who think that people struggling to pay the heating bill care more about idealistic debates than actual practical solutions to problems they face, look at the way labour ripped itself apart and the infighting in the snp over trans rights policies (fwiw im very much pro trans rights). This is what happens when the academic ideologists take over, everyone spends ages arguing about daft minutiae and nothing gets done.  

Do you not think that trans people have had to "struggle through life" and indeed continue to do so? Protecting their right to exist might be idealistic to you, but it's not for people who are being directly affected by the pervasive transphobia in this country. I'm sure the same arguments would have been made in the 80s and 90s about "the left" spending too much time focusing on gay rights or antiracism.

The SNP aren't even a left-wing party and have their own issues, but they are clearly way to the left of the Tories, and on issues such as people "struggling to pay the heating bill" they are absolutely miles ahead of the Tories. Look at free school meals for kids during the pandemic, something that was always available here, yet the UK government had to be shamed into by a fucking footballer (someone on "the left" no less). Look at the Tories cutting benefits and the Scottish government almost simultaneously raising child benefit for those in low income households.

I think it's entirely reasonable to be hugely critical of a lot of their pandemic response and feel that the Westminster government have got it right over the last little while. However, the Tories have also simultaneously trampled over people's human rights, been directly responsible for the deaths of refugees, essentially killed off thousands of disabled people and generally made life more miserable for poor and marginalised. If anyone thinks that is preferable to an independent Scotland, even one with an SNP majority, then I'd suggest they're not as left-wing as they think they are.

Edited November 30, 2021 by craigkillie