HTG

Tango tears

That's the spirit. Woke Belgium getting it up these c***s. https://www.politico.eu/article/brussels-police-shut-down-nigel-farage-viktor-orban-right-wing-jamboree/

This is a cracking read. https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1779295265045811211

Has introduced "spastic" as a line of insult. If he keeps this up he'll be at the front of the queue if any west end theatre producer fancies reprising Love Thy Neighbour. Absolute arsehole of a boy.

As expected - still early days ...

J K is having a rare old swing at this stuff - what an absolute fucking moron. https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1776000537076375909

The view of the Scottish electorate has continued to be to return a govt in favour of independence. Your conjecture about the next election carries absolutely zero substance - unlike the elections of 2015, 2017 and 2019 plus the elections to the Scottish parliament in the same period. You maybe missed the SNP taking the matter of pushing for another referendum to the Supreme Court - not sure how that aligns to "shat it". Northern Ireland - a much more contentious landscape - has the term generation defined in the GFA. We're already well past that definition in Scotland so your inference that the people of Scotland should get back in their box is laughable - except in a country where there is no legal means of delivering on a mandate repeatedly given by the people of that country.

He'll be on a poster by this time next week.

On paper it actually looks easier to secure a united Ireland than an indy Scotland because of the construct of the GF agreement. The GF agreement cost in excess of 3000 lives right enough.

I get all of that but there appears to be no legal route to independence other than via approval from Westminster. It's clear to me that irrespective of the views of the Scottish electorate, that approval will never be given again. It was only given the first time because there was an assumption that there was simply no appetite. If you recall the reaction of Cameron and the Queen at the outcome of 2014, it's evident that those in charge got a proper fright. Someone is going to have to explain what the alternative is to England saying "no". Because that's what this amounts to. In a normal functioning democracy, a party winning election after election using the same rules that have applied across the UK throughout modern times would/should be enabled to call for and secure agreement to a referendum. The democratic deficit which Scotland is suffering is an absolute disgrace in the 21st century.

Sigh ...

Indy is dead as long as Scotland waits to be "given" independence. No matter what popular demand might look like, no UK PM will ever grant another referendum on the subject. Scotland will need to take its independence. As far as I can see, nobody is terribly keen on that approach if it's deemed to break international law - not that breaking international law seems to bother the UK govt. It would potentially scupper access to trading blocks though.

Time to set up a spread bet option for the number of Reform candidates who will be stood down between now and the election. Reform keen to make a virtue of deselection though ... https://hopenothate.org.uk/2024/04/03/more-hateful-reform-candidates-exposed/ https://twitter.com/reformparty_uk/status/1775532359430840702

Listened to part of an interview on R4 with trans activist Katie Nerves at lunchtime. She's one of a number of trans people included by Rowling in a tweet thread yesterday - a list that started with criminals and moved on to activists. Predictably, she's suffered an absolute pile on since then. She made the point that she's considering reporting a hate crime (although not sure whether Rowling was in Scotland when tweeting) but knows that this is exactly what Rowling wants. Rowling isn't going to stop until she's reported. So someone might as well get it going.

Deposit Return works perfectly well in other countries and it's already been highlighted that somewhere like Germany has stronger hate crime legislation than is the case in this country. Poor procurement within the public sector is completely unsatisfactory but it's hardly something that's unique to the Scottish government (and pales in comparison to HS2 or track and trace). This is all set up as a culture war - at least politically - because the Scottish government is introducing something different from rUK. No matter what the Scottish Government seeks to introduce now, it'll be challenged by those on the right. Below is the definition of hate crime as taken from the Met Police website: "A hate crime is defined as 'Any criminal offence which is perceived by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice based on a person's race or perceived race; religion or perceived religion; sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation; disability or perceived disability and any crime motivated by hostility or prejudice against a person who is transgender or perceived to be transgender.' A hate incident is any incident which the victim, or anyone else, thinks is based on someone’s prejudice towards them because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or because they are transgender. Evidence of the hate element is not a requirement. You do not need to personally perceive the incident to be hate related. It would be enough if another person, a witness or even a police officer thought that the incident was hate related." In Scotland, according to The Guardian: 'The act, which was supported by MSPs from Scottish Labour and the Scottish Liberal Democrats as well as the Scottish National party, also creates a new offence of “threatening or abusive behaviour that is intended to stir up hatred” on the grounds of age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity and variations in sex characteristics." It's probably just me but I'm struggling to see just how much more Draconian the new bill in Scotland might be. If someone is intent on stirring up hatred in the areas identified, that's not really acceptable in modern society. I've seen people cite examples such as comedians being at risk as a result of the new law. But are they? Are they really? Or is it just bollocks being spouted so that those who really do want to stir up hatred towards certain communities can continue to do so with impunity?

Just for the sake of clarity, I'd lmfao if Rowling got lifted.

Klaxon has sounded at Tory HQ - shiting themselves from Reform's potential to split the absolute arsehole vote. https://twitter.com/EstherMcVey1/status/1774166612922232914

KFC = woke c***s

Bryson's pinned post is no more. Wonder if he'll bring out a new edition of his book without Donaldson's input ...

He's got his team of loopy lawyers on to it.

To be fair to Bryson, you can see the brass on his neck shining through the collar of his shirt as he continues to slaughter Jeffrey Donaldson whilst simultaneously retaining his pinned post where he's happy to grift his book with a foreword contributed by said Jeffrey. Hasn't even had the sense to untag the boy. e23c6ea0-78b4-4f7b-89b5-51e029b6c9c8.mp4

Barton's an absolute c**t

If Kim Jong Un and Putin turned up at his club championship he wouldn't look so clever. Best he'd manage is a 3 way tie with them all going round in 18.

Trump tells so many lies that it's hard to tell the zingers from the howlers.