#alex salmond
Text
💖🎀 World Politicians Barbie Selfie Generator Posters (Part 4) 🎀💖
This is the fourth part I made for my collection and it's also consisting of six Barbie Selfie Generator posters of six world politicians.
Top: Scottish ex-First Minister Alex Salmond (left), Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (middle), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right)
Bottom: Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (left), French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal (middle), British former Prime Minister Theresa May (right)
#world leaders#giorgia meloni#mette frederiksen#theresa may#gabriel attal#benjamin netanyahu#alex salmond#politicians#politics#lolitics#european politics#british politics#asian politics#barbie selfie generator#barbie#memes
8 notes
·
View notes
Text
A truth sandwich
Neale Hanvey MP is to be applauded for saying “No independence supporter should have been pleased to see the East Kilbride West by-election result”. It is truth of kind we lamentably seldom hear from politicians. Unfortunately, this high-point in his commentary does not survive well sandwiched as it is between folly and nonsense.
The folly is yet another plea for unity with nothing offered…
View On WordPress
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
Who's next..?
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
Could Alex Salmond please kindly just fuck off.
For good.
Please.
Thanks.
0 notes
Text
The 'how' of independence
Scotland must not enter into negotiations as the subordinate party to a grossly asymmetric political union.
People say, ‘oh, what if they say no’. They won’t say no, if you have a determination of intent.
Gaza, independence, and Ash Regan: Q&A with Alba leader Alex Salmond
Naïve is not a word one would readily associate with Alex Salmond. But there is certainly naivety in this remark. But there is also a measure of the political nous that is more usually expected of the former First Minister. He…
View On WordPress
0 notes
Text
If Humza was to ever cut a deal with that vatnik bastard Alex Salmond I would want to leave this country.
#Alex Salmond is a Putin apologist#Alba is just the tartin version of Smer or AFD#also the sheer vile transphobia puts the SNP labour and tories to shame
1 note
·
View note
Text
The Clackmannanshire Bridge opened to traffic on Wednesday 19 November 2008.
Prior to 1 October 2008 the bridge was referred to as the upper Forth crossing while the name was chosen.
The increasing levels of traffic using the existing Kincardine Bridge led to a public inquiry being held into options to ease traffic flow over the Forth and around the small town of Kincardine. In 2000 proposals were put forward for a number of alternatives, one of which was a new crossing running north-northwest of the existing bridge, bypassing the town of Kincardine altogether.
In 2005 the new crossing was given the go-ahead, and construction began in June 2006, with the sod-cutting ceremony performed by then Scottish Transport Minister, Tavish Scott, accompanied by the Earl of Elgin who as a boy had performed the ceremony for the Kincardine Bridge.
The bridge was officially opened by Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond on 28th November 2008. At the ceremony, Salmond said: "This is a world-class infrastructure project which will cut journey times, improve central Scotland connections, and provide a unique gateway to Clackmannanshire, Fife and Falkirk"
84 notes
·
View notes
Note
Could you please do a quick sum-up of what's going on with Sturgeon stepping down and where the party and Scotland are/might be heading? I avoid news outlets for the sake of my mental health, but now I'm wondering how worried I need to be given that the woman I've seen being discussed seems very right-wing. Do you think we'll end up with a Tory in yellow? I'm really frightened of that/the way the world in general is going, so a rational answer from yourself would be grand.
Sure - so after 8 years of governance, Nicola Sturgeon has resigned as First Minister. I’m not going to speculate too much on the reason because it’s not super clear.
Now, personally, I think Nicola Sturgeon has messed up a bit here, as it looks like there was little no proper planning for a successor. Nobody has really been groomed for a leadership role.
So there was a lot of hesitancy from SNP MSPs to put their names forward. We’ve ended up with Humza Yousaf, Kate Forbes, and Ash Regan.
This is where the SNP went wrong in my mind, there’s lots of good talent on the progressive side but instead of putting themselves forward, they rallied around Humza. This isn’t because I think Humza is particularly bad, but having more progressives would have helped dilute the voices of the other two.
Kate Forbes is appealing more broadly to the right of the party. Typical lines like ‘being a safe pair of hands’ with finances - the issue is that it lends itself to a lot of Tory ‘we must tighten the belt’ type policies.
She’s also anti-LGBT, anti-abortion and, baffling in 2023, anti-sex before marriage. I believe over half of Scottish kids are born out of wedlock so I don’t quite know who she’s appealing to. That being said she’s won over the ‘She just speaks her mind’ crowd which has been a right-wing excuse for decades if not centuries.
Ash Regan looks to be appealing to the hardcore independence above all gang - she knew she wouldn’t get that much support from the party so immediately extended a hand to Alba & fringe pro-independence groups. Really trying to play into being a ‘unity for independence’ candidate. I don’t think she’ll have too much support from within the party, and she’s using this platform to boost her own reputation.
Humza Yousaf is being portrayed by the Forbes and Regan as the ‘continuity candidate’ as if winning every election in the past 8 years has been a bad thing. He’s pro-equality, unequivocal in his support for the recently passed GRA reform, and plans to continue the roll out of progressive policies we’ve become quite used to. He wants to extend child care etc.
The vast majority of SNP members I know are voting for Humza, there’s a few I know who are going Forbes. I’ve not yet met anyone who’s voting for Regan.
The vote is a transferable one, so SNP members will rank candidates in order of preference. I’ve seen a lot of Humza supporters just outright not transferring their vote - this is why the other two candidates are bending over backwards to discredit the leadership election. They’re already complaining about ‘voter regret’ etc.
Either way, the SNP could split after this - if Humza wins, Forbes has absolutely nuked her career and won’t be offered a cabinet position. Regan might spit the dummy and join Alba, becoming Alex Salmond’s successor.
203 notes
·
View notes
Text
JKR has ruined things in my country
TW/CW: Transphobia, homophobia, Scotland and the UK being a transphobic hell hole right now. Brief mention of sexual assault. Also this is a depressing rant.
JKR has ruined things in my country.
That sounds pretty hyperbolic, but, it's, surreally, unfortunately probably true.
The SNP's Nicola Sturgeon has long been one of the few UK politicians who could provide an articulate, progressive, well argued voice in support of important left leaning principles against a prevailing right wing tide. In complete contrast to the total mealy mouthed nonsense spouted by the likes of the labour leader, who's afraid to stand up for anything at all lest he do a poor job of pandering enough to tory ideas to get voted in. She's the closest thing the UK has had to an opposition to tory principles, standing up for worker's rights, equality and the NHS.
And now, she's resigned. And regardless of what she says, I do believe it's because of the rampant transphobia stirred up by JKR, who personally made Scotland's gender reform bill an ignition point for anti-trans hate in the UK. Transphobia from the media, transphobia stirred up in her OWN party, transphobia from all sides, is causing rifts and schisms due to the deeply morally regressive panic JKR gave so much voice to.
Now Nicola Sturgeon has resigned, and it's like a mask has fallen off the SNP. What had seemed to be a progressive party, with commitment to LGBT rights and equality, now shows itself as riddled with transphobia and homophobia. Because among those slated to replace here, there are.. a right wing religious lunatic who doesn't believe in gay marriage, and a woman who supported 'Alba' - which was Alex Salmond's transphobic, Russia pandering party (the ex SNP leader, a man who could not be left alone with women without sexually harassing and groping them). Granted, there is also Humza Yousaf, who is pro-LGBT rights, and hopefully will become our leader, but that these people even exist in the party, let alone want to become the leader, is alarming in itself.
It was fun for five minutes to think that maybe transgender rights would split the UK but what's this fuss from the media against Nicola Sturgeon has actually done is removed one of the last progressive and articulate voices in British politics willing to actually call the tories out on their bullshit. And now this has also created articles saying things like 'maybe joining with the greens and trying to be progressive about trans rights was a mistake from the SNP as trans rights aren't popular'.
Apparently, it's not worth sticking up for Scotland's own ability to put bills into place in its own country and stopping Sunak from trying to block our reforms if it's about transgender rights.
It's despair inducing, that fighting for trans rights has been made into such a divisive issue, and genuinely, that JKR has actually been at the forefront of a massive wave of senseless and cruel moral panic that is diverting people in Britain away from actually caring about actual massive, huge problems in the UK. Like people dying due to NHS waiting times, like the massive inflation, like the unprecedented cost of living increase, like tories actually proposing further reducing our human rights, our rights to protest, and worker's rights, and various disasterous consequences of Brexit. Things are DIRE right now, and hating transgender people has been whipped up into a fury not solely by JKR, but SHE made this gender bill into an ignition point for UK anti-trans hate.
The tories meanwhile, are loving this massive diversion in attention, especially since to 'fix' it requires that they do literally nothing except get in the way of further progress. They found a way to curb Scotland's right to determine their own bills without upsetting the majority of Scots by counting on people to be transphobic, and it worked.
64 notes
·
View notes
Text
Survival was “absolutely possible”, he said. This was a reference to the idea of making a pact with the SNP’s hero-turned-nemesis, Alex Salmond. However, “I am not willing to trade my values and principles or do deals with whomever, simply for retaining power.”
This noble self-sacrifice was only slightly undermined an hour later, when Salmond popped up on the BBC to reveal that Yousaf had been on the phone that very morning, saying that the proposed trade of his values and principles sounded “very reasonable”. The deal had been nixed, apparently, by dark “forces” within the SNP.
As ever, Yousaf turns out to have been at the mercy of personalities stronger than his own. He won power following the tracks laid down for him by Sturgeon, and he was taken off the rails by her, too. Though he’s managed them ineptly, the troubles of his government have largely been ones bequeathed by his predecessor, who reached the getaway campervan just in time.
As for the rest of Yousaf’s statement, it had all the self-satisfaction so familiar from the SNP. He was “incredibly proud” that Scotland had a “a fair tax system,” he said, “where those who earn the most, contribute the most.” In England, it is well-known, anyone earning over £50,000 is exempt from all taxation so long as they can satisfy the authorities that they’ve thrashed a peasant in the last fiscal year.
Not everything is great in Scotland, of course. “Let us also acknowledge,” he began, and we wondered what he might talk about. Drug deaths? Failing school standards? “Far too often, in our country, hatred continues to rear its ugly head,” he said. “In a world where every issue seems to descend into a toxic culture war, it is often the most marginalised in our society who bear the brunt.” This probably wasn’t a reference to embattled first ministers, but it did sound like one.
“Each and every one of us must resist the temptation of populism,” he went on. Like culture wars, populism is something of which the nationalists are convinced everyone else is guilty. It’s an irregular verb: He is a populist, you are inciting hatred, I am simply pointing out that my opponents are personally guilty of genocide.
He had more wisdom to impart. Other parties, he said, should “not just oppose for opposition’s sake”. Comedy is tragedy plus distance: in Edinburgh, where the SNP are in government, that sounded plaintive; in London, where they very much aren’t, and act accordingly, it was hilarious.
Robert Hutton, So, farewell then Humza
4 notes
·
View notes
Text
Three British journalists I know personally – Johanna Ross, Vanessa Beeley and Kit Klarenberg – have each in the last two years been detained at immigration for hours on re-entering their own country, and questioned by police under anti-terrorist legislation.
This is plainly an abuse of the power to detain at port of entry, because in each case they could have been questioned at any time in the UK were there legitimate cause, and the questioning was not focused on their travels.
They were in fact detained and interrogated simply for holding and publishing dissident opinion on foreign policy, and in particular for supporting a more collaborative approach to Russia – with which, lest we forget, the UK is not at war.
These detentions have taken place over the period of a couple of years. All were targeted for journalism and this is plainly a continuing policy of harassment of dissident British journalists.
I have three times in that same period been questioned by police in my own home in Edinburgh for journalism, over three separate matters. I spent four months in jail for publicising essential information to show that a high level conspiracy was behind the false accusations against Scottish Independence leader Alex Salmond.
Julian Assange remains in maximum security jail for publicising the truth about war crimes. Meanwhile a new National Security Bill goes through the Westminster parliament, which will make it illegal for a journalist possess or publish classified information.
This has never been illegal. The responsibility has always lain with the whistleblower or leaker, not the journalist or publisher. It seeks to enshrine in UK law precisely what the US Government is seeking to achieve against Assange using the US 1917 Espionage Act. This is a huge threat to journalism.
It is also worth pointing out that, if Evan Gershkovich was indeed doing nothing more than he has claimed to have been doing in Russia, that action would land him a long jail sentence in either the USA or the UK under the provisions which both governments are attempting to enforce.
On top of that, you have the Online Safety Bill, which under the excuse of protecting against paedophilia, will require social media gatekeepers to remove any kind of content the government deems as illegal.
When you put all this together with the new Public Order Act, which effectively gives the police authority to ban any protest they wish to ban, there is a fundamental change happening.
This is not just a theoretical restriction on liberty. Active enforcement against non-approved speech is already underway, as shown by those detentions and, most strongly of all, by Julian’s continued and appalling incarceration.
To complete the horror, there is no longer a genuine opposition within the political class. Keir Starmer’s Labour Party opposes none of this wave of attacks on civil liberties. The SNP has been sending out identical stock replies from its MPs on Julian Assange, 100% backing the UK government line on his extradition and imprisonment.
I feel this very personally. I know all of these people affected – Julian, Alex, Kit, Vanessa, Johanna, and view them as colleagues whose rights I defend, even though I do not always agree with all of their disparate views.
Two other people I know personally and admire are under attack. The campaign of lies and innuendo against Roger Waters this last few weeks has been astonishing in both its viciousness and its mendacity, recalling the dreadful attacks on Jeremy Corbyn.
More mundane but also part of the same phenomenon, my friend Randy Credico has had his Twitter account cancelled.
To be a dissident in the UK, or indeed the “West”, today is to see, every single day, your friends persecuted and to see the walls close in upon yourself.
A unified political class, controlled by billionaires, is hurtling us towards fascism. That now seems to me undeniable.
#craig murray#julian assange#fascism#censorship#press freedom#national security bill#ukraine conflict
8 notes
·
View notes
Text
⭐️ Weekly Fandom Vote (Round 13) ⭐️
#fandom#fandom questions#character quiz#quizzes#rounds#films and tv shows#canadian films and tv shows#american films and tv shows#british films and tv shows#european films and tv shows#cartoons#world leaders#politicians#politics#lolitics#shrek#dreamworks#alex salmond#british politics#european politics
1 note
·
View note
Text
The 'how' of independence
Scotland must not enter into negotiations as the subordinate party to a grossly asymmetric political union.
People say, ‘oh, what if they say no’. They won’t say no, if you have a determination of intent.
Gaza, independence, and Ash Regan: Q&A with Alba leader Alex Salmond
Naïve is not a word one would readily associate with Alex Salmond. But there is certainly naivety in this remark. But there is also a measure of the political nous that is more usually expected of the former First Minister. He…
View On WordPress
0 notes
Text
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
April 29 (UPI) -- Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf quit Monday ahead of two no-confidence votes he had little-to-no-chance of winning.
The 39-year-old Scottish Nationalist Party leader resigned four days after he collapsed a coalition with the Scottish Greens that kept his government in power in a row over carbon emissions targets.
"After spending the weekend reflecting on what is best for my party, for the government and for the country I lead, I've concluded that repairing our relationship across the political divide can only be done with someone else at the helm," Yousaf said in an emotional address at Bute House, his official Edinburgh residence.
"I have therefore informed the SNP's national secretary of my intention to stand down as party leader."
The resignation of Yousaf, Scotland's first Asian-Muslim leader, triggers a contest to find a new first minister -- which as the largest party falls to the SNP -- although he will remain until post until that happens.
Party grandee Fergus Ewing immediately endorsed Kate Forbes, who came a close second to Yousaf in last year's leadership contest, saying that with the party in urgent need of a reset he had "no doubt whatsoever" she would would make the best leader for the SNP and for Scotland.
Crediting Forbes with being Scotland's most popular MSP, Ewing said the last thing the SNP needed was "another candidate that, frankly, is associated with some of the problems that have brought us down in the polls and lost us trust and confidence."
Yousaf had insisted he would not resign and would continue to govern without a majority but has been unable, or unwilling, to gain the support from rival parties he needed to do so.
His former arch-rival and potential kingmaker, Ash Regan of the pro-independence Alba Party said she was perplexed by the SNP's intransigence but pledged to work with whomever the party chose as its new leader.
"Bizarrely some forces in Humza Yousaf's own party would rather see him resign than deal with a party who really want to advance independence," said the lone MSP of former SNP First Minister Alex Salmond's breakaway party.
"However, a new SNP leader and a new first minister will not change parliamentary arithmetic. I continue to stand ready to work in the best interests of Scotland and to advance the cause of Scottish independence."
The end came after the Greens, furious at being unceremoniously kicked from a coalition Yousaf had only days previously said was "worth its weight in gold," rejected his overtures while he ruled out of hand any deal with the Alba Party.
The failure to broker a deal meant he lacked the votes to survive no-confidence votes later this week -- one in him as first minister and a second in his government -- leaving him no choice but to quit.
Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie signaled earlier Monday his party would support an SNP minority government, but only if Yousaf, whom he accused of breaking trust and creating an unnecessary crisis, quit.
"The SNP remain the largest party in the Scottish Parliament, just short of a majority, and they are capable of governing a stable minority government. Greens are ready to help make that happen.
"But I don't think Humza Yousaf is in a position to be able to lead such a stable minority because it depends on trust and I don't think there is anything that he will be able to say to restore the trust he has broken."
The resignation of Yousaf, who has been in office for a little over a year after taking over from Nicola Sturgeon after she unexpectedly quit in Feb. 2023, gives the Scottish Parliament 28 days to select a new first minister.
Failure to do so within the time limit will result in parliament being dissolved and a general election being called.
1 note
·
View note
Text
The 'how' of independence
Scotland must not enter into negotiations as the subordinate party to a grossly asymmetric political union.
People say, ‘oh, what if they say no’. They won’t say no, if you have a determination of intent.
Gaza, independence, and Ash Regan: Q&A with Alba leader Alex Salmond
Naïve is not a word one would readily associate with Alex Salmond. But there is certainly naivety in this remark. But there is also a measure of the political nous that is more usually expected of the former First Minister. He…
View On WordPress
0 notes
Last Seen Blogs
elifinchsart
elis art
timespring18
Time Spring 18
fancy-a-dance-brigadier
Welcome To The Sisko Disco
jasa-virtual
Jasa EO Company Gathering Online call wa 0812-3193
scarletbellatrix
TITANIA OF FAIRY TAIL