Never before in my time of following politics has the SNP been so vulnerable and never before have its members felt so disillusioned.

It follows then, that now is the time for something different, but that ‘different’ cannot be just another talking shop!

It’s time for the smaller parties to stand up and be counted, and/or a breakaway from the SNP itself. It’s time for bold policies, bold stratergies, bold words and absolute honesty.

Who will step up first?

Who has the grit to make a stand for Scotland, not just to influence but to take over?

To do that they would have to provide policies that add up and a willingness to work with others both in politics and the groups working in the background. Who would dare call a conference on a future Constitution?… Who would dare?

Who will put their feet to the fire and discuss all options openly?

Who dares to lay down their past differences, and begin anew?

A policy left on the shelf to gather dust, deserves no merit, and the people who put it there do not deserve our trust either.

We have talent in abundance, and enthusiasm is brimming over, we just need to put the two together in one room and form a plan. A place where every voice is heard, even from folk you may not like because every voice matters.

Who will step up to organise such an event, and, more importantly , who among the disgruntled would have the courage to attend?

Many today say they are angry, then let that anger motivate you into action. I don’t care which camp you are in as long as the bigger camp is for Scotland!

The once-democratic party is no longer democratic! The heid yins rule!

Why did anyone believe it would be otherwise? There is a pattern within this party and it goes like this…rinse and repeat.

JS keeps knocking on the doors of Westminster and gets NO for an answer, but still he knocks. The members keep asking for debates on independence and the leaders keep saying NO, but still they ask!! It’s the psychology of, if we keep asking the same question, we might get a different answer!

They won’t !

Someone has to break the circle. Whether it’s toppling the ‘top’ or breaking away, something must change.

There are those within the SNP who have a vision, and a plebiscite election would have seen it move forward. Now will they have the grit to stand alone if need be and create something new? Something the whole of Scotland could get behind.

One phrase with meaning, accompanied by action would do!

Scotland can wait no longer, if you think more wind and solar farms will be a problem, just wait until then Data Centres arrive, and they will, the ravaging of the land and our water system will be complete.

Please understand this, if nothing else, JS can call all the monitoriums he likes because it makes him look good, but the one thing he cannot do is, overrule Westminster!

Only WE can do that!

We can tie these companies up in the courts using our ancient laws. Laws that cannot be superseded by the scrappy-doo Westminster attempts. Some things from the past just cannot be changed.

ps. Forget the last one, they have changed sides.😂

“Life” has a habit of disrupting our plans. Having just experienced another sudden death of a much younger member of the family, I have realised that even at 80 there are no certainties.

And in politics, there are certainly no certainties…apart from one! When you cast your vote, you are never going to get what you think you are voting for!

This is not because the world is changing, but because with this crop of politicians, what you see and what you get are two very different things.

It is also a fact that party politics does not serve the country well.

I was brought up to believe Leaders should lead by example. There is a huge difference between flexibility and being swayed by opinion, especially when that ‘opinion’ is coming from questionable quarters. Politicians, do listen, but who do they listen to?

Clearly not those who voted them in! They listen to Think Tanks and Quangos, each with their own agenda.

Does Scotland really want to follow the Westminster blueprint? Do we want politicians who are bought and paid for by another country or conglomerate?

Or will we have the courage to step out of the corrupt loop and build something new?

Direct Democracy would cut out the crap!! It would bring in a new era of honesty and power to the People of Scotland, and that’s what matters most.

Plans will always go awry, because life is like that, but with solid foundations, they may shake but, will always bounce back!

The more ‘fixed’ we are in our ways and thinking, the more difficult it is to adapt and overcome!

When it comes to solving problems, any problems, our politicians only see the ‘now’! They never consider how today’s solutions might become tomorrow’s problems. It’s almost as if the attitude is…well, that will be someone else’s problem!

…and that problem has already arrived!

But no one is saying, ” Hold on a minute, let’s rethink this…no, it’s full steam ahead with more wind farms and even more solar panels covering good agricultural land. This land will never be recoverable!

Does Scotland benefit from this wanton destruction? No, because all the power generated goes elsewhere, and so do all the profits.

As I said, we only live in the now!

Even the past is changing!!!

My apologies for quoting this old saying, but it typifies what I am trying to say!

This seems to be no longer the case…

This will probably affect south of the border more than us, but it shows the direction Labour are going.

Our Rights are crumbling on a daily basis, and for what?

Banks already control how we spend our own money and how much we can spend at any one time.

We use the words ‘independent and independence’ quite liberally when talking about Scotland, forgetting that our personal freedoms are quickly being eroded as well.

The straitjacket is tightening…unless you’re a ‘Mancunian ’!!

Oh! And by the way Mr Burnham…

Some truths remain truths no matter where they come from.

I have a fear, and apparently I am not the only one, it is the fear that when get the outcome we desire from the UN, there will be no vehicle to take it forward.

There are a few groups working in the background on the foundations of a future Scotland, but they lack the power to implement them. And our government has zero plans. There might be some on a shelf somewhere, but the world has moved on since they were drawn up.

An event would be required, and you can bet your last £ the SNP would not let that happen.

So, who really is our enemy?

Whose minds must we change and how?

Well, we won’t do it by arguing!!

Why are we so defensive when we talk about independence?

Independence is normal but the way we sometimes discuss it, is anything but normal. When we become aggressive the arguement is lost.

But getting back to the problem we face, a future Scotland must have secure foundations, so many things must change, and it’s going to be up to us, the people, to change them. Maybe we have to wait until the UN make its declaration before people finally realise there is a different way and respond through the ballot box.

So, don’t be in such a rush to blame the slowness on others, for we too have played our part. We had a chance for change in May and blew it!

Only one party has ‘walked the line’ with its policies and ethos over the past few years and that is the ISP.

https://www.isp.scot/

…and it will only take one to move the train along.

Events can change destinies, and there’s one event coming that has the potential to stop the SNP in their tracks…a certain court case!

Which means, 5 years may not mean 5 years!!!

This is not the time to switch off, catch your breath if you need to, but never switch off, there’s building to be done!

Scotland must never use the same political blueprint as Westminster, there must be a clear distinction between the two. Nothing, absolutely nothing should be replicated. And the only way we can make sure of it, is to follow the path of Direct Democracy…and to those who say there is no such thing, I suggest you look it up before you speak again!

It’s fair, it’s proportional, and it works in many EU countries, and there are several models. We could pick one or create our own.

You can tell that we are getting nearer the goal by the influx of sudden counterarguments.

Salvo, is certainly getting under someone’s skin! And we now find the idea of UDI is becoming quite popular…interesting times indeed.

And here is another thing, we must not think we can just jump into the physical seats of Holyrood.

The Holyrood estate as it is belongs to the Westminster estate, so we might need the assistance of the Kirk again. That being the Kirk which was instrumental in writing the COR… but has since swapped sides!!

But then, the Kirk and, indeed, most Presbyterian and Anglican churches have become politicised over the years. Just as politicians constantly try to modernise old treaties to suit their modern agenda, the churches likewise try to modify scripture to suit the populace’s trends… and somewhere during that journey, Britain lost its moral standing.

You can change the language but you cannot change facts!

Woke modernity won’t last forever. It’s a fad, spread by activists, and people will soon move on to something else, despite the Scottish Government throwing money at it.

Social engineering took on a whole new meaning when Woke activism arrived. One day we will realise how dangerous it is to interfere with nature, and this big experiment will come back to haunt us.

Nothing is as it was, and that is not always a good thing.

Whatever happens in the future, this must stop!

The saying, ‘living in someone’s head’ is an interesting one, it suggests that another person is constantly thinking about them. Or as NS suggests ‘are obsessed’. I suspect this is her ego speaking, in other words…she wishes😂😂

The only time Nicola comes into anyone’s head is when she opens her mouth and the press oblige!

Egos don’t care if what is written is good or bad, they just crave attention and there is only one way to deal with someone like that, and that is to stop giving them oxygen.

In other words, do not share/retweet anything she says on SM and don’t share/retweet anything where she is mentioned!

Choke the thread!

Stop playing her game, because she is winning!

Stop feeding her ego!

To practice what I preach, this will be the last time I mention her name. [With one exception, the AS court case!], why, because the truth must be heard.

Another game we should stop playing is the Westminster game. You know the one I mean, the one where you keep knocking on the door, always getting the same answer. The one that is making the SNP look stupid, and us, because we did after all vote them back in!

They think that by doing so it looks as if they are trying…well, believe me, they are very trying! They try our patience and our goodwill.

For me, both have run out!

Once again, in only 3 months we are seeing promise after promise broken…but then promising school bags and new playparks everywhere in the first 100 days was a tad stupid in the first place. Not exactly the priorities we need.

Elections have become the playground for egos as parties compete for the craziest headlines. And that’s all they are, headlines not promises to be kept.

We, the people, don’t matter, in most cases, we are not even part of the equation. It’s all about selling the Party!

The Party becomes the product.

But the good news is…

You can always tell when things are starting to go wrong for Westminster, by the barrage of incoming verbal missiles they send to or about those getting under their skin!

…and the recipients are? You guessed it, Salvo/Liberation.scot.

Anything and anyone is being quoted, as long as it is against them…and there are some real crackers!! Not that they are biased!!

Misquotes, misinterpretations, you name it…anything but the truth.

Let me say this to all who sit back and laugh…SLOW DOES NOT MEAN STOP!

You may not like the people but you cannot deny the product!

Sometimes, things just happen and our destinies change in a heartbeat. The road we were on is blocked or broken. We either fight the change or embrace it through our choices.

The older one is, the more difficult the transition to a new path or even a new way of thinking is. Many prefer to stick to the broken path, but soon those broken pieces become obstacles. We are the makers of our own destiny, I would go as far as to say that, no matter what the change is, we oldies must adapt or sit back and rust!

Has anyone else noticed that whenever there is a meeting about independence or the constitution in general, the room is filled with people of a certain age?

We have lost the young people!

How do we catch their attention again, how can we convince them there is still a battle to be won? Is it a slow slog or a snappy slogan?

If only we could encourage the few young people we know to reach out to their own generation, it would be a start.

Can you look back and remember the day your political destiny changed and what changed it? And how many times has it changed since?

Destiny is not fixed forever by one event, it is fluid, like a river, and like a river it will carve out its own destination…There is always a destination and Independence is ours! Our determination is shown by our willingness to try and adapt.

We are not very good at this patience thing are we? Especially when it comes to waiting for independence. Maybe that is because many of us have been waiting for a long time for all those promises to materialise...the ones that didn’t!

Unfortunately the road we are on at the moment is long and winding, but it is a different road and yes, the train is moving forward.

I say, ‘Unfortunately’, by which I mean it is unfortunate for us oldies whose time is running out. So there can be a tendency to sit back and criticise all the work that is going on behind the scenes.

If you have ever been involved with the Kirk and sat on one of their committees, then you know what patience is. 😂

Multiply that by 50 and you get an idea of how the UN works…but it does work!

But then, I suppose it has to be like that when they are dealing with such huge matters. Matters that determine the future of Nations. Add to that all the politicking behind the scenes, including the blackmail tactics of the colonizers. That of course ends, or should end once a decision has been made, and it’s that first decision that really matters.

“Once it is determined that we have the right to self -determination”(SS), everything changes!

The storms we go through are sometimes those of our own making! Relationships between groups and individuals tend to go up and down. How long those storms last, matters.

We can choose to sit back and be out of the loop if we wish, but just how does that satisfy our impatience? … it doesn’t…instead it feeds our animosity…and there’s a hell of a lot of it around just now.

We have to face the fact that our ruling party is not interested in independence and that once again JS lied to us pre-election. He has no plan B! So it’s up to us, the People. We either come up with a new plan or seriously follow the others on offer: P Bell’s UDI, Salvo, or a mixture of both. My personal choice is the latter.

Don’t let personal feelings blur the map and don’t let our impatience bounce us off it either.

We are not the leaves on the tree…we are the roots!

You may remember we had a GE two years ago…although it feels like 10! You may also notice nothing has changed, apart from the nation’s debt.

The reason for this, in my view, is that although a new party comes in with a few new ideas, the root of the problem and how to tackle it never changes. Their answer is, to borrow more money and chuck it at the same old problems.

Money alone will never solve Westminsters problems and it won’t solve Scotlands either. Not even the black gold under the sea will solve it. There needs to be a fundamental change in the way we do things. At the moment, Holyrood is operating as a mini Westminster, it’s ‘rinse and repeat’, and we wonder why it all feels like déjà vu!

Systems keep failing when people fail to recognise the root of the problem and are too inflexible to change.

It is the same with new political parties, people when starting up a new party tend to forget why they left their old one in the first place. They then go on to build a new one copying the model of the one they have just left. A party doesn’t fail just because of money, it fails because of its structure, internal policies and lack of due diligence.

When Alba was formed, it soon became clear and was indeed referred to as SNP2. The model was the same, and the mindset was the same. In other words, they forgot why they had left the SNP in the first place. New, means new, not copy and paste! AS made a strategic error when he started Alba, he built it using the old SNP business/ political model knowing it was crumbling.

Tried and trusted only works when the ‘tried and trusted’ continues to work!!! Holyrood is failing, not through lack of money, but through the ethos of the ruling party. What they say they believe in and the road they walk do not match, much like Westminster. Devolution and more powers are the easier road for them…independence…well that’s too difficult!

When someone slams a door in your face, you do one of two things, you either walk away or you find another door.

We know there’s another door, it’s not a door to direct independence, but it is a door that opens other doors. Swinney won’t even stand at the door and knock! No discussions, nothing, just a report from someone who also won’t discuss or defend their case. They have built their wall and nobody is getting in.

What a way to run a country, where is the vision?