What is a word salad?

According to Google, it means a random mix up of words that have no clear or logical meaning, and are often attributed to people who have neurological difficulties.

Politicians on the other hand use this method when they don’t want to answer hard questions. They say a lot, but their words have no actual meaning. This can be very confusing, but then it’s meant to be.

It’s not that they can’t answer the question, but rather, they don’t want you to know the answer! So much for democracy. They actually go on courses to learn how to do this, paid for by our taxes!!

The ‘pen’ erected in Holyrood to keep the press at bay was to protect the newbies from the press until they learned how to handle them and produce ‘word salads’!

Brand new, shiny MSPs, still wet behind the ears were likely to tell the truth and that could not be allowed.

But then it’s been a long time since Holyrood was the parliament of the People. The ‘entitled’ hijacked it and have, at times, locked us out.

What does that say about Scottish democracy?… It is even more surprising just how many folks are okay with that.

Usually, at this time of year, the political scene is very quiet, but not this year. Call it ‘ego’ or call it what you like, there are certain politicians who just love to hog the limelight. They don’t realise the honeymoon is over, and the press are merciless.

But in the background the ‘sma folk’ keep chipping away, determined to counter every lie. These are the real heroes of our country, not dead billionaires who lied through their teeth.

The grassroots people, irrespective of colour or creed. These are the real people of Scotland, and these are the people who, one day, will take it back.

We say it as it is, no holds barred, and we won’t wheest for anyone!

And on that subject of not holding back, there was an interesting news article on Monday night saying the ‘UKGovernment’ [just quoting!!] were going to step in and support the Coalsnaughton residents. I did wonder why them and not the Scot Gov. Then I got a message saying the Council had refused permission to build on that site and the Scot Gov over-ruled them! So did Swinney get his pals down south to save his skin?

He gets his rewards.

One day we will get ours!!

On the LK programme on Sunday, our new PM said, when asked about a GE, that we have a Parliamentary Democracy. It is important that people understand what that means as it is often shortened to Democracy and the two are not the same!

Note to words above, ‘ a democractic FORM of Government’.

This particular form means we vote for a party which best??? represents our views. And once we put our X in the box, we have no more say for 5 years! We have handed our power to people who, at the drop of a hat, can change their priorities. Note I said, ‘their priorities’… not necessarily ours.

Now, I accept the world is changing and that the government of the day must adapt to those changes, but I am not talking about world events here, I am talking about domestic events. The ones that don’t change immediately when one becomes PM.

The rise and fall of Starmer did not happen overnight, or even in weeks, it was well planned over the months, giving Andy Cap plenty of time to survey the fiscal landscape. And by the way, the changes within Scottish Labour were also moving along in tandem! It was no accident that Monica Lennon was rolled out a few weeks back onto a political programme, and one person who reads the room as no other, noticed it. That person was Colette Walker [ISP]. Nothing gets past her.😂

Take a look at this party, it does things differently.

https://www.isp.scot/

For Labour, the impression of swapping one policy for another may look and sound good, but those opportunities are rare and minor.

What they fail to understand is, people are not looking for freebies…only fairness.

Scotland could have a different kind of democracy, one that works for the people and holds politicians to account. Direct Democracy does that. But we have to get there first, and from what I saw and experienced in Glasgow yesterday, we have a long way to go!

If Glasgow is meant to give the impression of a modern Scotland, then Scotland is in deep trouble.

I will, however, praise the Police, having seen firsthand what they have to deal with.

Direct Democracy is about people, not politicians, and that is their fear. Fewer of them, for a start, and no gravy train!

Over the next 24 months, things could change in Scotland; a civil court case could very well upset the apple cart! 🙏🙏

We have a strange kind of democracy in this country, and for this post, ‘country’ means Britain!

It may look ‘democratic’, but it feels ‘class-driven’.

Once elected, many MPs feel and act as if they are above everyone else. And the culture within Westminster feeds into that delusion. Personal aims change, the plan…to end up a Lord or Lady in the upper House! [Why not, nearly £400 quid for an afternoon kip!!]

As they travel onwards on that journey, the meaning of democracy seems to dissipate. Promises made at the beginning are quietly forgotten, replaced by Party loyalty. It is, after all, their bosses who, one day may reward their faithfulness with a nudge up the class ladder!

And we, yes we, have a bad habit of helping them on that journey.

How?

We keep re-electing them in spite of their failures!

Only in politics does one get promoted for failure, and only in British politics do we have a system where the perceived elite can crush the voices of the people who disagree with the establishment.

We have no recourse apart from a GE. And the U-turns on having one when the ruling party changes leader are astounding! Everything changes when you are in power!!

What little Democracy we do have flies out of the window.

This will only change when people start voting for parties that offer Direct Democracy.

So don’t blame the politicians for wanting to stay on the gravy train, the problem is US!

We are the only ones who can change the system, especially here in Scotland, but once again our end-of-year school report shows failure. In May we voted for of the same.

Could someone explain to me why we did this?

We are like the wee hamster, afraid to come off the wheel. We know the wheel, and it’s safer to stick with what we know, even if that means we are going nowhere fast!

Our FM is eager to talk to the new PM about further powers! Another one happy to stay on the wheel, albeit a bigger one, but it’s still a wheel going nowhere.

Devolution is not Democracy!

It might have been an attempt to look like it, but Westminster holds all the important levers. Nothing, absolutely nothing happens without their say-so.

…and the new messiah isn’t going to change anything. He knows the value of Scotlands assets, and he’s about to use them.

We made a mistake in May, let’s learn from it!

Only 5 days in, and we are already saying, ‘if only’!

Big ideas are only ideas if they are workable, as our new PM is finding out the hard way. Being at the top does not mean you can wave a magic wand, because those who have gone before you have already sown the seed. Only ‘time’ and a lot of it can reverse the damage.

The majority of policies mentioned so far stop at the border, apart from pinching Sarwar, but then, that’s no great loss. They are welcome to him.

Baillie says this will be good for Scotland; I agree…but not in the same way she does!!

He has made it clear that the Constitution is not up for discussion, so where now, John, as you bow before the King & Queen again today? And in case you have forgotten, John, bowing signifies submission, just as singing the English National Anthem shows adoration!!

Our destiny is not fixed; we have the power to rewrite what Westminster would have it be. The pens are in our hands, and the paper is blank. What is happening at the UN is our lifeline but without our backing, the work being done will be futile.

The political will to move in parallel must begin now, we are already a little late to the party, but we can catch up.

The ‘if only’ just needs to change to ‘I will’!

Stop overthinking everything, there are people out there doing what is required, all we have to do is support them.

I don’t have the brains to work out things like currency, so I’m not going to have a nervous breakdown trying to; instead, I will let the professionals do it. In the tendency of overthinking , we, forget our perimeters of control!

I know my perimeters…do you?

Our new PM is just learning his!! He is learning that he is not God, after all!

Just because Scotland has to work to a budget, does not mean Scotland as a country is broke!

That budget is set by Westminster and has no bearing on Scottish assets.

We are one of the wealthiest countries in the world, yet we are the only ones in the world who cannot touch our own assets.

Think about that for a moment!

All of our resources are stolen by Westminster, and we only get a small fraction back through the budget.

Even our Common Good Funds end up in England!

When are we going to wake up?

When does enough become enough?

Are we really all that stupid?

Are we ready to jump for UDI the minute we get the required ruling from the UN, are enough of us even taking those routes serious enough?

Wait and see won’t cut it, we either believe it’s going to happen or we hang up our boots now!

I will believe the words ‘we believe ’ when I see people getting together and planning, not just talking.

The FM got a ‘No’ again, so what’s he going to do about it

…ponder?

But thinking of things from a purely English stance for a moment, if you want to save money, why not get rid of the biggest financial burden…that would be Scotland, according to what our friends south of the border are told…except it’s not!

The myth that Scotland is subsidised has long run out of steam, but don’t tell the natives down south, some truths are just too hard to bear! They do, after all, need someone to blame.

It’s a bit strange, is it not, that England sees all Scottish assets as theirs, yet blames us for their financial woes! Talk about screwed-up thinking.

Today, a lot of people are complaining that Rayner is not handing back her £17k severance money, yet they forget that this is the system we signed up for, again! This is how the government works and always has done.

One name sums up Labour today, and that is Sarwar!

Everything in government, on both sides of the border, will continue to work as it does until the day comes when we change it.

Until we change, nothing will change!

We need to start thinking differently.

I can think of a few who will be rubbing their hands with glee, seeing those headlines.

His gift is not freedom, just a bigger cage!

Another PM who knows the truth, and that truth is, they can’t afford to let us go! But soon they will have no choice, if, and it’s a big ‘if’…we, the people, dare to take the necessary steps forward.

Are our feet pointing in the right direction?

Are we prepared to push the cage door open, or is it a case of ‘you in your small corner, and I in mine’?

They say there is strength in numbers, but that’s only true if those numbers are prepared to get to their feet and act. We can’t afford to be ‘couch potatoes’!

We cannot reap a harvest without sowing the seed. A conversation needs to happen, people need to know there is a road and it is open!

And those who do know need to prepare. We need two plans, one to get over the line and another to build the foundations, because we cannot do ‘rinse and repeat’!

Any semblance of a Westminster-type democracy will bring disaster.

In Scotland, we the people are sovereign, and we must take that responsibity seriously, not hand it to others.

There are several examples of Direct Democracy to look at, and the best thing is, we can create our own unique type. The central point being, everything reverts to the people…that is us!

Power is best served in the hands of those who don’t want it!

It is humility that makes the greatest leaders, not egos.

The biggest lesson we need to learn in Scotland is, we don’t need to like the people we work with, but we must work with them! That is the starting point.

We need to be resilient, not picky!

Collectively, we are living with the consequences of the choices we made 2 years ago.

The incoming PM has promised to bring back ‘hope’! He may tinker around the edges on some policies, but the reality is, his hands are tied fiscally. Too many deals have been made, ones that cannot be undone, leaving very little wriggle room.

He has, however, reversed one bad policy, digital ID. But something tells me it will creep in via the back door affecting some part of our lives.

We now live in a world that will not accommodate ‘old Labour’ ideology. Nobody, not even Burnham, can turn the clock back that far. There are no quick fixes, the oracle [Truss] has spoken, move too fast and he will cause a financial crisis…she should know!! Move too slow, and the people will lose faith and turn against him. What he does and where he does it will matter. Can he come up with a plan that will at least give a semblance of order and settle the maddening crowd?

I won’t hold my breath! The stars are not aligning, nor are his ducks all in a row!

As for Swinney, well, I think all of his ducks have gone walkabout, and a tsunami is on the way. If he thought everything would go away with Murrell in jail, he must know by now that it’s just not going to happen. I think things are going to get very messy, and when things get messy at one end of the room, the other end gets neglected. To run a country, one has to be 100% focused. I don’t think he can be.

I think he needs to have a wee word with his former boss, because every time she makes a statement through her very expensive Lawyer, she makes things worse for herself and the whole Party.

There appears to be some kind of ‘baiting’ game going on just now; the penny has dropped and people are becoming very vocal when it comes to accusing NS of just about everything. They know she won’t dare sue them, because a courtroom is her nightmare.

All this seems trivial with the man in the Oval Office, dropping bombs again at the behest of Israel. America certainly lives with its choices.

But her friends are diminishing in the gulf for fear of being annihilated by Iran.

This can’t last long as the bodies pile high.

Some cry, ‘where is God?’… that’s a very good question!

‘The logical conclusion to the new debate about devolution is to move the UK towards federalism with equal powers amongst the UK nations. It could break the constitutional deadlock without compromising deeply held positions. It is a way forward for all.’[Pete Wishart. 2 days ago on X]

We didn’t really need confirmation, did we, but we certainly have it now!

A ‘Freudian slip’ happens apparently when you release “an unconscious desire”.

Freudiant or otherwise, the truth is out…independence as we want it, ain’t going to happen under the SNP, even if Salvo gets their desired ruling, it will not be acted upon.

The SNP are, as many of us have believed for some time now, a Devolutionist Party. This is not something to gloat about, many of its members will be shocked hearing Pete’s words and will need time to process them. Now is the time for the hand of friendship, not laughing.

It is not a laughing matter when the Party who governs us does so under a false flag!

Why such a huge change, one might ask.

As I see it, there could be a number of reasons for this change, and I humbly admit that I could be wrong on every one😉

1. They know a gold standard Referendum will never happen.
2. They think a kind of Federalism would enhance Devolution, saying ‘we tried’!
3. They can’t or won’t go down the UN route, mostly out of pride or they just don’t get it!
4. The gravy train would stop!
5. It’s easier to follow than lead!

I am sure you could think of a few more reasons, so what is the answer to this conundrum?

Can, the SNP members stop this leaning towards Devolution/Fedralism.[the latter is still a cage, just a bigger one!]

The answer is, of course, to have the courage to change our voting habits… have we collectively got that courage?

That is the key, and that key is in the hands of every voter, so there is no excuse next time.

However, I have a feeling that Independence is the last thing on the minds of the leadership today after David Davies speech in Westminster. Which will no doubt be a precursor to a full judicial inquiry.

The gutter press is having a heyday!

Soon, they will have no place to hide and as always, the truth will out!

A sad ending will come to a once-great party; the whys and wherefores will be lessons for all.

Give, what’s coming down the road, we may not have to wait 5 years for another Scottish Election!

You can always tell when someone is speaking from their heart and not just their head!

Conviction is born out of raw emotion, and belief in something, you can feel it. The words spoken are clear, and you feel certainty about them and the person who speaks them.

I have the greatest admiration for people who speak from the heart rather than from a script. Unfortunately, as age creeps in, notes and scripts are needed, but there’s still a difference… it’s the emotions!

Conviction is also shown through consistency. People with conviction can not be blown by the wind of the day.

Words can become our enemy when we say too many of them. There are an awful lot of people who like the sound of their own voice, and I suspect you know some of them. There is a new phrase for this, it’s called a ‘word salad’!! Give me a steak any day. Something I can chew on and dissect!

People hate long-winded speakers, they just switch off and walk away. I grew up in the era of long-winded preachers and boy did that turn me off!!

Why use 100 words to say something you can say in 20!

Political messages should be short and punchy, and, above all, they should come from the heart.

Political literacy isn’t just about how much we know, but also knowing how to share it with others. That is a gift!

Sometimes sound bites are better than an exposition!!

The case for Scottish Independence is well-versed, and the facts are well-known. What we need now is those punchy one-liners that will become fixtures in our heads. The ones that give rise to conviction and in turn, give rise to action.

Words without action mean nothing. Asking for another Sec 30 is neither a conviction nor an action, it is compliance!

Every time we ask, we acknowledge Westminsters governance over us.

Action is to join the Salvo/Liberation.scot train and say to Westminster, were done with you and we are going over your head!

All it takes is a couple of clicks on your device, and you will have accomplished more than you have in the past 5 years…that is real conviction!

Doing nothing, is never an option!

Friday was a strange day, one that started with shock and ended in horror.

We all had different feelings towards Ann Widdecombe; mine were mixed. I certainly did not agree with her politics of late but many of the things she has said over the years did resonate with me. She was a formidable woman, yet there was a gentle, fun-loving side to her as well. She also, always answered the question!!

They say she was ‘carved from another age’…well, I was also carved from that age, they were the days when there was a clear line between right and wrong. But Ann was in a league of her own, and well deserving of all the accolades now being heaped upon her.

Values, real values, do not change at a whim. They are not a fashion accessory but the rock we build on.

Her demise has shocked us all. For this 78yr old woman to be murdered in her own home has sent shock waves across the political divide, and remember she was not even a sitting MP. But the way it has been reported says a lot about the world we live in.

The words in the first sentence by the police were, ‘a white male’. They know the country is like a powder keg just now and given the victims name it was important not to light the taper! [ I believe this suspect has now been released.]….but they still say they are looking for ‘a white male’. It was also interesting that they ruled out a political motive…watch this space…that may change!

No doubt over the next few days, all will be revealed.

The evil that walks amongst us has no colour, neither does it have a matrix, but it does have a mind! It is said that evil is a choice and is fed only by the things we choose to ponder.

A person of Faith, like Ann Widdecombe would perhaps see it differently. Many can say that they have felt the presence of evil. I confess, I am one of those, and it is not something you forget!

The obvious question coming from this is, how do you defeat evil?

I suppose that depends on what your concept of evil is. Is it a spiritual concept or a social construct grown out of how we feed our minds?

Whichever one fits, one thing above all remains: evil is real, and it is incumbent on us all to look out for each other. We are indeed, ‘our brother’s keeper’… It’s called collective responsibility!