Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[johnnydun]

Just now, Ross. said:

As much as I think she is making a rip roaring c**t of the current situation, it doesn’t appear to be damaging support for independence. If anything I have seen more people who previously disliked the notion come out in support of her and what she is doing than the opposite. Plenty of people who support independence have always disliked her and the SNP, that has been highlighted as well but is very different to putting people off independence altogether.

I see your very good point, however grovelling to the UK Gov for more money to cover restrictions that are not required, because we can't afford it ourselves, is not a good look.

[Monkey Tennis]

1 hour ago, Bairnardo said:

Ehh..... Yeah I get that its unlikely in the cold light of day mate. Fear isnt always rational though. 

Irrational fear is the prevailing narrative in Scotland though. Its hardly any wonder folk are concerned how far they will go. 

If you recognise it as nonsense, why is it worrying you?

Edited December 29, 2021 by Monkey Tennis

[Todd_is_God]

55 minutes ago, johnnydun said:

I am with you on this, however I think the Soft Yes/On the fence group are currently a firm 'No'.

I fall into this group. And you are right. Forget about other politicians etc, why would I trust a word of what NS says about independence?

For people like myself (voted yes in 2014 and SNP at every election I could prior to this year), through her actions over the last 18 months she's destroyed any chance of me putting an X next to SNP or Yes (barring some seismic event) on a ballot paper for the foreseeable.

[DeeTillEhDeh]

As much as I think she is making a rip roaring c**t of the current situation, it doesn’t appear to be damaging support for independence. If anything I have seen more people who previously disliked the notion come out in support of her and what she is doing than the opposite. Plenty of people who support independence have always disliked her and the SNP, that has been highlighted as well but is very different to putting people off independence altogether.

There is also the reality that most political parties in Scotland are singing from the same songbook regards restrictions.

If you are anti-restrictions there are very few options for you on the table. I also suspect that there is an element of holding the nose and voting for the SNP because they are the only current sane route to independence.

[No_Problemo]

2 minutes ago, Monkey Tennis said:

If you recognise it as nonsense, why is it impacting on your own levels of anxiety?

I don’t think you remotely understand anxiety, so possibly best not to comment on it. 

[Lyle Lanley]

No bother John  

[Guest]

SNP/Sturgeon cult are out in force this morning, wonder if they'll disappear as quickly if she announces further restrictions again.

[mizfit]

No bother John  

The funny thing being is how many people will have booked to go down south after last weeks announcements.

[Ross.]

9 minutes ago, johnnydun said:

I see your very good point, however grovelling to the UK Gov for more money to cover restrictions that are not required, because we can't afford it ourselves, is not a good look.

Two ways of looking at it. The first is that we can’t afford it ourselves. The second is that we don’t have the ability to fund it ourselves due to the nature of the UK’s set up. I’ve said from that start that this whole thing has highlighted massively how devolution isn’t a long term solution.

9 minutes ago, DeeTillEhDeh said:

There is also the reality that most political parties in Scotland are singing from the same songbook regards restrictions.

If you are anti-restrictions there are very few options for you on the table. I also suspect that there is an element of holding the nose and voting for the SNP because they are the only current sane route to independence.
 

I don’t know if I would say sane, but certainly the SNP and support for independence in general are far more intertwined than is healthy for both.

[Elixir]

39 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

How thick are people btw?

Scotland's (and Wales and N.I.) official case numbers for the last 4 days are 0, 0, 0 & 0 yet people use graphs like this in an attempt to show that BJ is wrong and the likes of NS's restrictions have caused "7 day average cases" to plummet.

It's stupidity at best; dishonest, confirmation-bias fuelled nationalist propaganda at worst.

The exact same tactic used when the reporting issue caused the graph to look like this for a day.

It's losers like that and the Granny Dangers of this world that will ensure Scotland never becomes independent. It's partly why the Scottish Government have shat it from holding another referendum despite having mandate after mandate.

[Monkey Tennis]

10 minutes ago, No_Problemo said:

I don’t think you remotely understand anxiety, so possibly best not to comment on it. 

I think you'd be surprised.

[No_Problemo]

Just now, Monkey Tennis said:

I think you'd be surprised.

Well the alternative is that you do understand, and choose to mock, knowing that it doesn’t matter if a part of your brain is telling you something is nonsense. 

[Monkey Tennis]

16 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

Through her actions over the last 18 months she's destroyed any chance of me putting an X next to SNP or Yes (barring some seismic event) on a ballot paper for the foreseeable.

Shit!

She'll be worried sick by this development.

[Bairnardo]

Do you have any evidence to support this.  Opinion polls carried out very recently suggest otherwise.

Those ones that you have spewed all iver the site that were taken before the restrictions were announced, and therefore couldnt possibly reflect any impact l?

[jamamafegan]

It’s quite funny when SNP loyals are shocked after you tell them that you’ve chucked your party membership and know others that have also had enough. It’s like they are so wrapped up in their pro-restrictions covid world that they just don’t understand what the problem is.

I’ll vote for independence every single time no question - but the SNP have almost certainly lost my vote in the next elections. I think the Tories will win back marginal seats and it will obviously be spun as “the people don’t want independence.” It’s a damn shame but it doesn’t sit right with me to keep voting for the party “because independence” after this pish.

[betting competition]

54 minutes ago, Louis Litt said:

Yeah I've got one for this afternoon in Dundee, booked it about 7pm last night. 

I'm nhs so ticked the essential worker box or whatever it is, I dunno it that has an impact or if its just different regions with different testing capacities. 

Good stuff, I managed to get one today although in Ellon which is 16 miles away.

[Ross.]

4 minutes ago, jamamafegan said:

It’s quite funny when SNP loyals are shocked after you tell them that you’ve chucked your party membership and know others that have also had enough. It’s like they are so wrapped up in their pro-restrictions covid world that they just don’t understand what the problem is.

I’ll vote for independence every single time no question - but the SNP have almost certainly lost my vote in the next elections. I think the Tories will win back marginal seats and it will obviously be spun as “the people don’t want independence.” It’s a damn shame but it doesn’t sit right with me to keep voting for the party “because independence” after this pish.

The next UK election will be interesting. Currently it looks like Labour Are Building a lot more support than they have had for a while, but if the Tories have got their approach to the current situation correct, I think a lot of people will forgive them for embezzling billions of public money and vote them in again.

Edited December 29, 2021 by Ross.

[welshbairn]

29 minutes ago, jamamafegan said:

It’s quite funny when SNP loyals are shocked after you tell them that you’ve chucked your party membership and know others that have also had enough. It’s like they are so wrapped up in their pro-restrictions covid world that they just don’t understand what the problem is.

I’ll vote for independence every single time no question - but the SNP have almost certainly lost my vote in the next elections. I think the Tories will win back marginal seats and it will obviously be spun as “the people don’t want independence.” It’s a damn shame but it doesn’t sit right with me to keep voting for the party “because independence” after this pish.

In most elections I've ended up voting for the least worst option, especially when I lived in Wales. Even if independence wasn't a big priority I still can't think who would be a better option than the the SNP, whatever you think of their performance on Covid, which has been backed pretty well every step of the way by the other parties in Hollyrood. The alternative of drawing a cock and balls on the ballot paper by someone who usually votes SNP is effectively a vote for the Tories in most Scottish constituencies.

Edited December 29, 2021 by welshbairn

[Donathan]

13 minutes ago, Ross. said:

Two ways of looking at it. The first is that we can’t afford it ourselves. The second is that we don’t have the ability to fund it ourselves due to the nature of the UK’s set up. I’ve said from that start that this whole thing has highlighted massively how devolution isn’t a long term solution.

I don’t know if I would say sane, but certainly the SNP and support for independence in general are far more intertwined than is healthy for both.

It’s not necessarily that devolving some powers locally and reserving others at the national level is a problem (indeed, this happens in every single country in the world). The problem is that something as crucial as a pandemic response should not be devolved to the Scottish Government but paid for out of UK Government budgets.

 

You need to marry up who pays for the response with who determines it. Ideally the UK Government would say to Sturgeon, “here is the list of areas you’re responsible for and here is the money to fund them, allocate as you see fit”. 
 

 

Pandemic response, in my opinion, should be reserved by Westminster and funded by the treasury. This would allow for joined up thinking.

 

I’m not opposed to the Scottish Parliament (indeed, I think there should also be devolution within England, though undecided on whether I’d prefer an English Parliament or regional assemblies serving roughly 5 million people each) however I do think that devolution has gone too far. Ideally we’d have a full federal UK with all the devolved assemblies having the same level of power.

[Detournement]

7 minutes ago, Ross. said:

The next UK election will be interesting. Currently it looks like Labour Are Building a lot more support than they have had for a while, but if the Tories have got their approach to the current situation correct, I think a lot of people will forgive them for embezzling billions of public money and vote them in again.

The Tories will just turn the racism dial up on Facebook if they are struggling near election time.