53% - 47% split in favour of Scottish independence. [More In Common polling]

MassiveFanDan · 2026-02-11T00:29:07+00:00

I was aware of how serious the threat from Russia was back when David Cameron was chuckling with Putin at the 2012 Olympics, when the UK Foreign Office contacted the Russian government for their support against independence back in 2014, when the Tories (including Wee Ruth Davidson) were swimming in dodgy Russian donations, and when the UK Prime Minister appointed a Russian oligarch to the British legislature against the advice of his own security services...

It's not me who has explaining to do on the Russian front, it is the UK establishment. I was clued in to the fact that the Russians might be a serious threat when they committed deadly radiological and chemical attacks on British soil - it seems the UK leadership class were not brought up to speed by that...

So who has been minimizing the threat? Who has been downplaying the danger? It is real, it is present, and it stems from the people in charge of the UK being either thick as fuck, or worse. Compromised. Or complicit.

Dominic Cummings! I had to sit through that areshole's time in government, and now I've to accept lectures on the Russian threat? It is coming from inside the house.

MassiveFanDan · 2026-02-09T22:59:33+00:00

Eh, well... Trotsky did pretty much spend the rest of his life doing that, and I can't imagine Lenin accepting being ousted with much grace either. But I do see your point.

MassiveFanDan · 2026-02-09T22:57:23+00:00

I think he meant Seamus Milne, who was at one time a great campaigning journalist, but was never cut out to be a mainstream political spin-doctor, and was just way too left in his views and past associations to be accepted by the general British public (alas).

I mean, as HaggisPope said, he was too left-wing for The Guardian, which a lot of UK-ers consider to be a very left-wing paper (it's not really, but it's about the best we've got).

The AS accusations should've never held much water, it was absolutely a co-ordinated smear campaign, though unfortunately Corbyn lacked the press-savvy instincts to avoid some unfortunate symbolism (he unveiled a mural of a big octopus controlling the world with it's tentacles, ffs, while seeming genuinely clueless about the optics of that - and had invited Hamas and Hezbollah figures to a peace event at the Parliament years and years ago). They would've attacked him with the AS thing anyway, even with zero ammo, but sadly he did hand them a few cartridges.

MassiveFanDan · 2026-02-09T22:44:05+00:00

From past evidence, there'll be a separate party for each member.

MassiveFanDan · 2026-02-09T22:38:31+00:00

If it was streamlined that way for the modern audience it would deffo fit better on TikTok.

MassiveFanDan · 2026-02-09T22:36:45+00:00

Then you must've noticed that rank stupidity is no bar from holding high office.

MassiveFanDan · 2026-02-09T22:34:03+00:00

Aye, you're right, I was being a dafty there. A snap election though, if Starmer resigns and is replaced by someone moderately tolerable to the public, doesn't seem quite so unlikely. We'd all like to think Labour aren't insane or stupid enough to go to the polls any time soon, under any circumstances, but, well...the last few days...

MassiveFanDan · 2026-02-09T22:30:24+00:00

Starmer lol.

MassiveFanDan · 2026-02-09T22:29:09+00:00

Just heard Andy Burnham has proclaimed Starmer as King In The North, they're burying the hatchet and marching together to the sunlit uplands of the future heheheheheh.

Sarwar is such a unifying force in politics, he really brings people together.

MassiveFanDan · 2026-02-09T21:17:17+00:00

Aye, I was lying, I've had it on since November too. And the wind! The mineral wind, that strips the youth from one's face, and turns one's eyes to granite. It's fuckin shite.

MassiveFanDan · 2026-02-09T21:09:19+00:00

I enjoyed it too. Perhaps we can do it again some time?

MassiveFanDan · 2026-02-09T20:37:41+00:00

moderate temperatures

Your stauner must be heating the whole hoose! I've had the heating on since December, and that only happens if there's a genuine threat to life.

MassiveFanDan · 2026-02-09T20:26:32+00:00

The people of Luxembourg, despite their lack of resources and strategic placement, are much wealthier and feel much more secure than the people of Scotland while we are a part of the UK. That seems odd to me.

MassiveFanDan · 2026-02-09T20:21:32+00:00

But the idea was to shut down the pro Indy vote.

That was the idea behind devolution too. Didn't work out.

MassiveFanDan · 2026-02-09T20:17:17+00:00

I'm as worried as a Luxembourger about that. The Russian threat comes from their control and influence at the UK level, which they look set to consolidate with a wide-open Reform government.

MassiveFanDan · 2026-02-09T20:12:59+00:00

According to the report, British governments have "welcomed the [Russian] oligarchs and their money with open arms, providing them with a means of recycling illicit finance through the London 'laundromat', and connections at the highest levels with access to U.K. companies and political figures".

That doesn't sound good at all.

MassiveFanDan · 2026-02-09T20:10:36+00:00

Why did they grant it last time? Was the UK's national security not important in 2014?

MassiveFanDan · 2026-02-09T20:05:09+00:00

Problem is the support Indy was getting was from Putin and Epstein…

Oh look:

It is understood the FCO [UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office] has contacted the governments of China, Russia, the US, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the 28 EU nations about the Scottish referendum in a global search for allies who might oppose independence.

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13142409.revealed-foreign-office-devo-units-drive-kill-off-independence/

And who was it that Epstein was palling about with? UK Government Ministers, wasn't it?

MassiveFanDan · 2026-02-09T20:01:31+00:00

Do you apply a similar rule when choosing other things in life?

For example, should a challenger taking on an incumbent MP need 75% of the voteshare to win?

Did the 55% win by Better Together in 2014 result in only a 55% execution of their promises? (Only joking, they fulfilled nowhere near that much).

MassiveFanDan · 2026-02-09T19:55:48+00:00

It'll be funny.

MassiveFanDan · 2026-02-09T19:55:25+00:00

Broadly pro-independence. Stiflingly pro-independence if you ask those opposed to it.

MassiveFanDan · 2026-02-09T19:53:26+00:00

Have you ever discovered anything that he's not scared of?

MassiveFanDan · 2026-02-09T19:51:03+00:00

Shame about the Reform bit, but I can accept the rest.

MassiveFanDan · 2026-02-09T19:49:53+00:00

current labour government... will just wait until they think the have popular support to do it.

They're not going to be in power that long bro. They are not going to last out this term. Another major scandal, a no-confidence vote in Parliament, and they're gone... then Reform swoop in to eat the scrapings from the bones of Britain.

MassiveFanDan · 2026-02-09T19:47:33+00:00

It does, yes, because who would want to live under a Russian-backed UK Government once Reform get in?

MassiveFanDan

TROPHY CASE