Next permanent Scotland manager

[The_Kincardine]

53 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

I'm pretty sure the SG knew that the Section 30 appeal had no chance of succeeding, it was about establishing that a de facto referendum through an election was the only democratic option open. Section 35 is different.

Yet it didn't establish that in any way at all.  A de facto referendum is still the piece of nonsense that it has always been.

[welshbairn]

3 minutes ago, The_Kincardine said:

Yet it didn't establish that in any way at all.  A de facto referendum is still the piece of nonsense that it has always been.

Edited my post. I didn't agree with the de facto referendum strategy but the court case was useful in making it absolutely clear that there is no democratic route to independence if Westminster refuse to play.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, StellarHibee said:

Right and left wing chat is for people stuck in their tribes. How about the sensible wing? The wing that stands up for the environment, living standards, a reasonable level of economic equality, health, education, local business.... etc.

I think right and left can be used as informal shorthands when making comparisons. 

[welshbairn]

2 hours ago, StellarHibee said:

Right and left wing chat is for people stuck in their tribes. How about the sensible wing? The wing that stands up for the environment, living standards, a reasonable level of economic equality, health, education, local business.... etc.

Centrist Liberal has become the demon for left and right. I think it's because of a confusion of neoliberalism which is unconstrained capitalism and oligarchic theft with social democratic liberalism which is basically why can't we just be nice to each other and make things fairer. Folk from left and right have justifiably got frustrated with social liberalism as not really achieving much in economic fairness, but mirroring it with neoliberalism is like equating Rees Mogg with John McDonnell, a democratic socialist very much in the centre left spectrum.

Edited March 24, 2023 by welshbairn

[MazzyStar]

2 hours ago, sophia said:

What an utterly ridiculous thing to suggest.

There are many positives and chief amongst them is being able to wind up greedy Tory trawler owners and wee Bertie 

 

 

Unlucky Bertie 

I have no idea who Bertie Armstrong is. 

[Wee-Bey]

It's socialism or barbarism lads. Always has been, always will be.

[vikingTON]

3 hours ago, welshbairn said:

Centrist Liberal has become the demon for left and right. I think it's because of a confusion of neoliberalism which is unconstrained capitalism and oligarchic theft with social democratic liberalism which is basically why can't we just be nice to each other and make things fairer. Folk from left and right have justifiably got frustrated with social liberalism as not really achieving much in economic fairness, but mirroring it with neoliberalism is like equating Rees Mogg with John McDonnell, a democratic socialist very much in the centre left spectrum.

There's no such thing as 'social democratic liberalism'. That's a contradiction in terms. 

The Western Twitter-inhabiting liberal is neither neoliberal nor a live and let live pluralist as you seem to be describing. They're a fundamentalist for whatever narrow individual identity politics cause they can attach themselves onto.

Liberals used to venerate political rights over social justice; now it is minority identity rights over...  err, social justice. It's the same bait and switch tactic deployed by the same bourgeois class in society ever since the 1830 revolution in France.

Edited March 24, 2023 by vikingTON

[Guest]

9 hours ago, welshbairn said:

Centrist Liberal has become the demon for left and right. I think it's because of a confusion of neoliberalism which is unconstrained capitalism and oligarchic theft with social democratic liberalism which is basically why can't we just be nice to each other and make things fairer. Folk from left and right have justifiably got frustrated with social liberalism as not really achieving much in economic fairness, but mirroring it with neoliberalism is like equating Rees Mogg with John McDonnell, a democratic socialist very much in the centre left spectrum.

This is why I personally rail against liberals rather than liberalism. Without even realising it, today's self-identifying "liberals" are nearly all captive to neoliberalism. They're unaware neoliberalism has only been around since the 1970s and has been enforced on us all using state violence. Its not a simple modern twist on a celebrated old philosophy, rather it goes fundamentally against key aspects of classical liberalism. Consider these quotes from the founder of classical liberal economics, Adam Smith:

 

Here he described the parasitic nature of the ownership class. How they profit from the work of others.

Quote

As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed, and demand a rent even for its natural produce. The wood of the forest, the grass of the field, and all the natural fruits of the earth, which, when land was in common, cost the labourer only the trouble of gathering them, come, even to him, to have an additional price fixed upon them. He must then pay for the licence to gather them, and must give up to the landlord a portion of what his labour either collects or produces.

 

This complaint from him matches how modern landlords treat tenants with housing. It also parallels with how the privatisation of previously state-owned services does not improve those services and costs the public more in having to subsidise the company's profit margins.

Quote

The landlord demands a rent even for unimproved land, and the supposed interest or profit upon the expense of improvement is generally an addition to this original rent. Those improvements, besides, are not always made by the stock of the landlord, but sometimes by that of the tenant. When the lease comes to be renewed, however, the landlord commonly demands the same augmentation of rent as if they had been all made by his own. 

 

On the personal character of our Rees-Moggian overlords.

Quote

[Landlords] are the only one of the three orders whose revenue costs them neither labour nor care, but comes to them, as it were, of its own accord, and independent of any plan or project of their own. That indolence, which is the natural effect of the ease and security of their situation, renders them too often, not only ignorant, but incapable of that application of mind.

[ICTChris]

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/jason-leitch-says-kate-forbes-29544962
 

lol 

[Pocketman]

1 minute ago, ICTChris said:

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/jason-leitch-says-kate-forbes-29544962
 

lol 

to be fair, he never gave any inclination of his beliefs at any point before - even when chatting and laughing/having the "bantz" with the OTB boys. But yikes.......

“Whether you like the politics of the country or the politics of... that's quite a moment. We have an evangelical, born again Christian standing to be the First Minister of this country. That feels like an important moment to me. I don't know how that feels to you.”

[vikingTON]

Does whatever branch of the Free Church she belongs to really class themselves as evangelical, born-again Christians? 

I presumed those labels were preserved for the predominantly American family of splitter churches (Baptists like the world's shittest dentist himself, all the way through to Mormonism).

[Trogdor]

Clownshoes, I'd like to say I missed you but just f**k off! He can't resist the limelight.

[Sherrif John Bunnell]

1 hour ago, virginton said:

Does whatever branch of the Free Church she belongs to really class themselves as evangelical, born-again Christians? 

I presumed those labels were preserved for the predominantly American family of splitter churches (Baptists like the world's shittest dentist himself, all the way through to Mormonism).

I might be wrong, but I think pretty much all Presbyterian churches consider themselves to be evangelical and born-again. The dour oddballs in the Free Church are just a bit quieter about it than their shouty American pals.

[alta-pete]

19 minutes ago, Trogdor said:

Clownshoes, I'd like to say I missed you but just f**k off! He can't resist the limelight.

I’m fairness I think he was just speaking to the congregation at his own church and the paper somehow picked up on it. I don’t think he went looking for the limelight…

[Trogdor]

17 minutes ago, George Cowley said:

I’m fairness I think he was just speaking to the congregation at his own church and the paper somehow picked up on it. I don’t think he went looking for the limelight…

That makes a pleasant change. You may have been able to infer that I can't stand the man. 

[Crùbag]

On 23/03/2023 at 18:40, Trogdor said:

You must be looking at different polls to me or viewing them upside down.

No. One was You Gov. SNP up to 5% on a UK level.

Here we go:

https://mastodon.scot/@MacNaBracha/110057867039280568

[ScotiaNostra]

So SNP is up after Sturgeon leaving?

[The_Kincardine]

6 hours ago, Sherrif John Bunnell said:

I might be wrong, but I think pretty much all Presbyterian churches consider themselves to be evangelical and born-again. The dour oddballs in the Free Church are just a bit quieter about it than their shouty American pals.

There's been a lot of blurring of lines over the past 50 years but, traditionally, the evangelical born-againers tend to be those of an anabaptist independent church persuasion emphasising individual salvation and personal testimony to the grace of God.   Traditionally, their theology followed that of the Dutch bloke, Arminius.

Presbyterians, including Free Kirkers, tend to be Calvinistic in their theology with an emphasis on predestination and election.  'The Chosen' if you like and, in terms of ecclesiology, would emphasise church collectivity (handily called presbyteries) as the administrative body for a district or area.

So I'd certainly consider Presbyterian denominations as historically different to the evangelical free churches but some congregations may adopt that appearance.  

[DrewDon]

I will be deeply disappointed if the winner doesn't open their acceptance speech on Monday with something like: "Neds, boors, Shinners - it is the honour of my life to be elected as your leader."

[vikingTON]

Quote

 

With the new SNP leader facing a formal vote to become first minister at Holyrood on Tuesday, Slater told delegates gathering in Clydebank on Saturday: “We will only vote for the SNP’s new leader to become first minister if they are committed to the politics of cooperation; if they respect and share our values of equality and environmentalism; if they will prioritise climate justice; and if they agree that trans rights are human rights and that our trans siblings cannot be used as political fodder by Westminster.

“These are fundamental issues for us. They are non-negotiable.”

 

So the party with 64 seats in Scotland's parliament - one short of an outright majority - must be 'committed to cooperation' or else. While a party with *checks notes* 7 seats thinks that it can slap down no fewer than four different 'non-negotiables'. So cooperation for thee but not for me, as decreed by Lorna Slater, Minister for demented bottle taxes. 

They should be huckled out the door within 0.3 milliseconds of the leadership result being announced, regardless of who wins. 

Edited March 25, 2023 by vikingTON