Read stuff and write stuff.
#religous
studies,
#mad
studies
#celt
For more about 1st book 👇
New book: Psychedelic Consciousness: religiosity and spirituality.
The language of 'Acute Religious Experiences' is not about 'religions', it's an exploration of extraordinary/anomalous/extreme states of consciousness.
Here's 35% discount codes
Here's the first 35 pages of the book
Check out this guest post on
@awaisaftab
's blog, in which Richard Saville-Smith
@DrAnamorphosis
introduces his new book and the notion of acute religious experiences.
Find the book 👉
Read the blog ➡️
If you don't understand Scottish politics, don't worry, it's complicated. But today thousands march (representing millions more) to politely say - its not over.
There'll be no TV/Press coverage, because it's an unpalatable message for a media which is owned in another country.
Why is Michael Matheson (£11,000 and no malicious intent) gone from the Scottish Parliament
but
Michelle Mone (£61,000,000 with totally malicious intent) still in the House of Lords?
Personally, I blame the partisan media - who have lost all sense of perspective.
You know how Labour are going to make the Scottish office our 'window onto the world'? The window already looks like this👇so along with GB Energy I guess we'll be getting GB Whisky, GB Salmon/ Seafood, GB Meat, GB Oil and GB Strawberries.
Welcome to the new Scottish erasure.
Dear
@nickeardleybbc
, Now that David Davies thinks it's ok for Westminster to get involved in the Salmond case, does that mean that the Scottish Parliament can investigate Patel, Hancock and the liar in chief Johnson?
Hey
@BBCScotlandNews
just watched that programme called 'Reporting' Scotland and stunned that you forgot to report the catastrophic slump in Scotland's trade with the EU.
The shambles of Brexit is a Scottish story so 'Report' it!
The difference between Michael Matheson and Douglas Ross is that Matheson was a cock up while Ross is a conspiracy. And, while Ross was persecuting Matheson, week in week out, he knew he was fiddling his expenses. Add theft to hypocrisy and his betrayal of Duguid-then vote Tory?
I've searched 'Herd Immunity' in the University of Edinburgh library which accesses all major journals.
I found no (ZERO) peer-reviewed scientific papers addressing
#herdimmunity
in a human population where there is no vaccine, no immunity and no protection
There is no SCIENCE.
Douglas Ross repeatedly claims there isn't any difference between Scottish and English approaches to coronavirus. On the day the UK passes 100,000 deaths, Scotland has 5,796.
Will
@douglas4moray
the so called leader of
@ScotTories
now apologise for his lie?
Every time Boris cites NHS test and trace, he perpetuates the idea the test and trace is run by the NHS.
This is a lie. It is an outsourced privatised service which reflects the ideology of the Tory party.
#PMQs
Falling off the sofa watching
#Kuenssberg
on catch-up as
@SirTomhunter
compares Ireland's projected surplus and Scotland's projected deficit.
Well Tom, What's the difference?
The difference is that Ireland's INDEPENDENT and controls ALL of its tax rates inc. corporation tax.
I live eight miles up a single track road on Skye and then it's another 29 miles to Broadford. I think it's an excellent idea from
@Douglas4Moray
that I should get an ambulance as quickly as someone in a city. I'm looking forward for him explaining how he'd fund it.
Can I just mention that Scotland not being independent is not a failure of the SNP or the people who voted them into power. It is the responsibility of governments in London which decline to respect the democratic right of Scots to self-determination
#BBCQT
@bbcquestiontime
Journalists at the
@scotgov
briefing are after the health secretary. Why? She published data about the vaccine which UK gov wanted to hide. She took it down.
If I was a journo I'd be asking why the UK Gov is suppressing the info?
But too many prefer
@ScotTories
attack lines
Having tried to understand GB Energy, it still seems like a strategy to harvest Scottish energy resources and put them under political control in Westminster.
Am I missing something?
Hi
@STVColin
I see X traffic on your campervan scoop. Well done! The real scoop would be finding out why
@policescotland
spent £1.3 million and still not brought charges after 3 years in operation 'performative blue tent' branchform. I'd be so grateful if you could find out?
There we go
@afneil
, per the
@scotgov
briefing Scotland is 80% of the way through care homes, England is 50%.
ILLUSTRATIVE of England going for the low hanging fruit in a bid for BIG numbers to score political points, rather than follow a public health agenda.
The Scottish Media, owned outside Scotland and opposed to the SNP, have been hounding Nicola Sturgeon about her WhatsApp messages like rabid dogs, compared to the scrutiny Johnson and Sunak receive in the English media. Nicola Sturgeon responded👇I'm awaiting the media apologies
Statement re UK Covid Inquiry:
I do not intend to give a running commentary on the ongoing Inquiry. Instead, out of respect to all those impacted by the pandemic, I will answer questions directly and openly when I give evidence at the end of this month
However, in light of
It makes me chuckle that Anas Sarwar feels obliged to do his photoshoot in front of the iconic old bridge, rather than the iconic new bridge which his rivals built on time and in budget.
Tom Hunter is so politically illiterate that he doesn't understand the difference between reserved powers in a Westminster parliament and devolved powers in a Holyrood parliament. Muddling the two smears the SNP. I have to say I find this quite astonishing.
Ok, I'm done with the politics of last week. What I learned is even reasonable media commentators like
@BethRigby
can't help demeaning the SNP - once the line that they're just causing trouble for Labour is fabricated, their sincerity is compromised by that lie. /2
This is the absurd SKY news map. Scotland's gone and the rump is labelled the United Kingdom. What's going on?
Oh, right, we're all in it together folks. it's riots across the UK.
Time for an independent England - to take responsibility for what it means to be English?
Starmer decided to crash his election campaign by proclaiming "Britain will not rejoin the EU in my lifetime" Starmer then went on to say he cannot foresee any circumstances where UK would re-enter the single market or the customs union.
What a plonker. Scotland will.
I love the English media. Any mention of Scottish Independence includes a deluge of negativity, spurious argument and blanket rejection.
By contrast, any mention of Irish Reunification is met by technical discussion about the democratic preconditions. Why the double standards?
My difficulty with Scottish Labour is not the rhetoric of change, front end loaded with meaninglessness and empty promise
No, it's their claim Scotland will be at the centre of power in Westminster. The difficulty is we've heard that one since 1707 and it is not true
#scotlab24
Dear
@BBCScotlandNews
, I do thing MSM Monitor has a point. It's your footage👇 and the whole nation has been deceived. The least you can do is to explicitly call
@AnasSarwar
out - because we all knew he was lying then and now you have the proof.
Rachel Reeves is set to announce immediate cuts worth billions of pounds today. During the election campaign Anas Sarwar told John Swinney "Read my lips, no austerity under Labour". The clip should be in all BBC Scotland news bulletins today. It likely won't be in any. Indeed
So, the worst scenario for the SNP is they spent donations outwith the intentions of donors.
The best scenario for the Tories & the BBC is that a donor bought his way into running the state broadcaster.
Why is the former a catastrophe and the latter business as usual?
What's amazing is the BBC still haven't taken this photo down.
If you don't live in Scotland you may not understand how willing the BRITISH Broadcasting Corporation is to gaslight Scotland. They want Scotland to fail.
This photograph was taken on July 11th, 2021 by PA photographer Niall Carson in the loyalist Corcrain area of Portadown, Co. Armagh. The linked article states it's "Firefighters extinguishing a huge bonfire in Cumbernauld."
I didn't need to be a seer to anticipate that Labour MPs from Scotland would go down to Westminster and do what Starmer told them to. Lifting the two child benefits cap is
@AnasSarwar
position. He was humiliated tonight.
Dear
@BBCScotlandNews
can you kindly tell me how many complaints have been upheld against
@kayeadams
as her name seems to come up disproportionately often. She could just be badly informed, but she could be deeply biased and unfit to work at the BBC. Please clarify?
The BBC has issued an apology & correction after Kaye Adams made claims about the Hate Crime Act that weren't true. The correction was published on an obscure website three weeks after the broadcast. Listeners duped by Adams will never know they've been duped.
Nearly a year now since Nicola Sturgeon was arrested. To date no case has been brought against her. The investigation by Police Scotland has now cost over £1 million. This to investigate £600k of SNP funds. Scandalous. Says a lot about the political leanings of Police Scotland.
I'm watching BBC Debate Night and it has degenerated into arguments about local services - which are devolved. What is the point of a debate on subjects which aren't up for grabs at a general election?
Hey,
#bbcdn
I'm talking to you - get your act in order.
Not a single Scottish vote is required to 'boot out the Tories'. They are gone. There is no need to lend Labour votes which will simply add to their supermajority.
What Labour need is to be held to account👇
🚨 Thursday's election is on a knife edge - and every single vote will count.
📣 "Only the SNP can be trusted to stand up for Scotland’s interests and protect Scotland’s values at Westminster."
📝 Read
@JohnSwinney
's letter to voters.
You know that Sunday Times poll...
Turns out they:
❌didn't include 16/17 year olds who get to vote
❌asked Brexit question 'remain/leave' instead of 'yes/no'
❌manipulated their bar charts👇look what a 5% & 6% difference look like in the chart below:
Thanks News Corp
Dear
@iaindale
. You do realise that Alex Salmond and his Alba party gained half a percent, that's 0.5%, that's less then 12,000 votes for the whole party and lost every deposit. Why would you let him explain Scotland to your listeners when he demonstrably speaks for no-one?
STV paid for this Ipsos poll👇- but they didn't like the results, which show strong support for the SNP with 44 seats in Westminster and 54% pro-independence.
So what did STV (repeatedly) lead with? More Michael Matheson.
Suppressing your own polling is a rubbish look
@STVNews
Apparently Labour MPs in Scotland intend to hold the Scottish Government to account. Why? What's the point of devolution if Scots can't govern without political harassment from Westminster. And what's the point of the opposition in Holyrood, Ross & Sarwar will be insulted.
Given Humza Yousaf has been absolutely consistent about calling for a cease fire, the idea that the SNP are 'playing games' says a lot about how weak the Labour party is. They would rather stand by carnage in Gaza than risk supporting the SNP. These are the children in the room.
As one senior Labour source told me last week: “these are long days ahead”
And now hearing there are “lots of frontbenchers meetings this PM so will depend on their readouts”
I don't know why the BBC think it acceptable to get Lisa Nandy on to
@bbclaurak
to provide Labour spin lines, sorry, truth, on the events of last week... and no one from the SNP?
In Scotland, Labour's victory was based on brazen lies:
GB Energy
The NHS
The benefit cap
The "Scottish Passport"
"Beating Heart of Government"
But the biggest lie of all? Voting Labour in the central belt would help to "boot out the Tories" when there weren't any there.
I want Labour to win, I do, I do!
But I don't want them to win in Scotland.
Why?
Because new Labour MPs will trot down to London and do what their masters say (cf Murray & Shanks).
I want to be represented by MPs in London who know the difference between country and party.
In Scotland, Labour has chosen to fight the General Election by posting about how incredibly awful everything is and then promising change. Meanwhile, Rachel Reeves, their boss in London, is promising austerity. In Scotland, Labour has two faces, and one of them is lying.
If you're a Scot, the upcoming election is not a General Election, it's a Reserved Election - on all the powers controlled in Westminster rather than Scotland. As Labour will win, all the more reason to vote SNP.
Why vote for a Labour candidate who'll take the Starmer whip?
Actually, I find this astonishing from
@BBCGaryR
at
@BBCScotlandNews
. It is certainly the case that MSM Monitor provides a running critique of BBC Scotland, but criticism makes us better. Blocking your critics is symptomatic of an unwillingness to reflect on your own bias.
If the SNP win 80% of the constituency seats (which is where Westminster elections stop) they would have the Westminster equivalent of 520 seats out of 650 = a majority of 390.
Arithmetic is simple, politics is not. The colonial powers in London are creating a false narrative.
Dear
@InnesMcgarry
, you know how Mr Sarwar is always on about booting out the Tories. Well now there's no Labour candidate in Aberdeenshire North and Moray East, am I right in thinking Labour voters should vote for the SNP to boot out Douglas Ross?
I haven't got all the data so can anyone help me understand why the Conservatives held onto all their Scottish seats except the hapless Douglas Ross? If the Conservative vote collapsed to 24% who was propping up the Scottish vote? Do we know?
Please list the ways this man has contributed to national life in Scotland? How can the Order of the Thistle be granted to someone who has nothing to do with Scotland? Please don't list all the other Scottish honours he might have been granted to justify this cognitive dissonance
On the occasion of The Duke of Edinburgh’s 60th birthday tomorrow, His Majesty The King has been graciously pleased to appoint His Royal Highness to the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle.
📷 Chris Jelf
Our Scottish Future (or whatever it's called) is a 'think tank' from Gordon Brown to tell you what he thinks.
Today he's been exposed for peddling a report in the Times which rubbishes Scotland - based on a muddled methodology which is statistically incorrect
Thanks Gordon
Watching TV report about SNP being 'mired in a police investigation'.
Well, yes, police have a dozen officers for 3 years costing £1.3 million to investigate an organisation with a turnover less than £10m
Elsewhere, the refusal to conclude would be called political interference
This is how BBC Scotland infantilises Scots, in cahoots with the English owned press. You may think they've got a point, but in reality we're talking about an £11k mistake. Look around and tell me this is the most important news - day after day after day after day after day?
And the little Labour bunnies from Scotland bounced down to Westminster, bobbing their fluffy tails, only to find it was run by scary people with whips who told them exactly how to vote. It was then they realised they could go against
@AnasSarwar
and let the children go hungry.
How elections works:
1. A newspaper tweets a story, blaming Scottish government for something
2. Opposition politicians pile in tweeting hot takes
3. Their followers go bananas
3. The Unionist media go hysterical
4. Turns out the story's more complex, but the hit's been made
Please can we have a roll call of all the newbie Scottish Labour MPs who went down to London to fight for Scottish interests (at the heart of government) but just went along with this👇
I'm not a tin hat kinda guy but I do wonder what Jackie Baillie thinks she's up to? Is this an intimation of the new centralising regime we're to expect from a power hungry Starmer?
Hi
@BethRigby
just saw your report on
#skynews
from Glasgow. Just for the record the issue of independence was never settled before Brexit for 'a generation' as you report. The SNP have recurring mandates, the Smith Commission concur there is no block. May and now Johnson deny /2
Baroness Hallett
"The processes planning and policy of the civil contingency structures across the UK failed the citizens of all four nations of the United Kingdom"
EDITED by BBC to say‼️
" The inquiry found the Scot Gov led by Nicola Sturgeon "until 2023 Failed its citizens"
Today Keir Starmer told the media he didn't give a toss about democracy in Scotland by declining to negotiate, whatever the election result
The BBC website is not covering this news. Whose interests are served by suppressing the discovery that Starmer is a prospective autocrat?
Hey, UK Government Scotland and
@IanMurrayMP
, If you actually want to be useful, get onto
@BBCScotlandNews
now and instruct them to take down this👇
@policescotland
, you might also investigate this online instigation to fear, riot and misinformation.
Secretary of State for Scotland
@IanMurrayMP
has written to reassure Scottish faith communities and underline there is no place in Scotland for racism, bigotry, or the politics of hate.
Read the letter here⬇️
@InterfaithScot
I personally think this is the end for Anas Sarwar.
How can the Labour party leader, who's into workers rights and new deals for working people and other such Labour visions, turn out like this👇
”Is your family business now paying all of its staff at least the real living wage?”
@mmgeissler
asks Anas Sarwar.
The answer wasn’t yes.
#bbcsundayshow
Ayesha Hazarika on Times Radio stating that the narrowing in the polls between Labour and the SNP must be wrong because it wasn't her gut feeling. No doubt based on the dinner parties she attends...
Enjoyed watching Peter Mandelson😂, on Kuenssberg, attempting a pathetic hit job on
@theSNP
. He's surprisingly less bright than he thinks he is. How does independence get to be over when half the population still support it, including one in three Labour voters?
.
@IanMurrayMP
, the Labour overlord of Scotland, is so inadequate that he can't resist interfering in devolved matters to make party politics out of the exam results of young Scots. Can anyone point me to the attainment gap under Labour?
If there's going to be a Labour supermajority then the best way to protect Scottish interests is not to vote for novice MPs who will obey the whip. The best way of keeping Labour honest is to vote SNP. If GB Energy is a con it needs to be called out, not covered up.
I think the question, why are the SNP bringing the vote on the Gaza ceasefire is easily answered: It's opposition day at Westminster and they're consistent. The real question is why are the Tory government still supporting this massacre? And why are Labour playing games?
So Anas Sarwar's big political message was to 'boot out the Tories'. So how come there are still so many Tories left in Scotland? Oh, he was just talking rubbish. Thanks Anas.
(Douglas Ross was kicked out without there being a Labour candidate)
You'd imagine that a Prime Minister worried about democracy might grant a second Scottish independence referendum, in line with the repeated democratic mandates.
Well, that's it. The United Kingdom is over. How can Keir Starmer think Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland should submit to being ruled by an English Nationalist and his 'Labour' party?
Here's details of the first countries (including Australia) which have issued travel warnings about the riots. If the media persist in lazily saying these are happening across the UK it's the Scottish tourist industry which is also being trashed.
My problem with an independent nuclear weapons' system is that
it's immoral
it's expensive
it doesn't work
(The West's nukes didn't stop Russia invading Ukraine).
AND, if they do work WE'D ALL BE DEAD.
Show me the upside?
Dear
@adamboultonSKY
, can you drop the one-party-state line. Scotland's so democratic that George Galloway's got a party.
Scots don't vote SNP out of coercion or for lack of choice, they vote because they want the SNP in Government.
Your slur darkens democracy.
As the chap on
@BBCr4today
said, this new transmission infrastructure can be viewed as a transfer of resources from Scotland to England - and then carried on without any comment.
I'm more relaxed. On independence we can just insert a great big meter.
Labour say you can't have change unless you vote for it. This is psychological trickery designed by experts to make you feel anxious.
It's also bullshit.
On the 4th of July, the Tories are out Labour are in. Labour don't need a single vote in Scotland so don't lend them yours.
Hey
@SkyNews
I really enjoyed watching Rishi Sunak having a pop at the SNP.
Can you tell me if I should carry on waiting for a response from
@theSNP
about the damage he and his government have done to Scotland?
You know how BBC Scotland, STV, Record, Sun, Herald, Scotsman (etc.) continuously attack the SNP?
What would happen if they actually published all the dirt they hide about the Labour party.
Just watch how
@BBCScotlandNews
are smoothing over the Sarwar story this morning.
There's a seriousness to
@questiontime
from Scotland tonight, a refreshing contrast to the usual party lines shenanigans and the buffoon below👇 taking the piss out of Scotland's representatives in Westminster.
#bbcqt
Did BBC Reporting Scotland run a piece about the risk to Scottish Tourism of sloppy media reports giving the impression the riots covered the whole of the country. Or did they run a piece with Anas Sarwar looking statesmanlike speaking as if the riots covered the whole country?
Just in case anyone had forgotten, the SNP won 81% of the seats in the UK parliament. So when Douglas says the SNP don't speak for Scotland he's demonstrating an exceptionally nuanced idea of representative democracy.
‘The SNP do not speak for Scotland’ lies
@Douglas4Moray
of the
@ScotTories
who’ve failed to win anything in Scotland since 1955 and are now crashing in the polls under Douglas Ross and Baroness Ruth Davidson’s leadership.
Labour are going to "Boot out the Tories" whether Scots vote for them or not. So
1. Why vote for a party which doesn't know the difference between reserved and devolved?
2. Why vote for a party run from London?
3. Why vote for the party which faded our flag into their colours?
Netanyahu literally bombed the Iranian consulate in Damascus to provoke this - and you want to support a crazy war-monger - you do not understand how dumb your tweet sounds.
Now more than ever, we must stand with Israel.
For over 70 years, Israel’s very existence has been threatened. Tonight, Iran attacks Israel as their leaders have promised for so long.
Thinking of our military personnel in the region and the people of Israel tonight.
🇬🇧 🇮🇱
Big mistake. When did it become acceptable for people under criminal investigation (for defrauding the public of millions and millions of taxpayers money) to be given a TV platform to conduct their personal PR
Who is the chair of the BBC?
@paulhutcheon
Read your piece. If "the difference between the SNP and Labour positions is tiny to the point of irrelevance" why didn't Labour vote for the SNP motion? Or, why didn't they bring a motion earlier?
The SNP have been consistent throughout, in comparison with Labour party silence.
I'm a cautious boy, so when dissemblers in the Alba Party suggested the SNP were downgrading Independence, I wanted to check. So this is it👇and I can assure Alba my opinion of them is less than shit. By standing you're splitting the vote and letting Unionists in. Well done.
Yvette Cooper just argued on
#bbcqt
that providing safe and legal routes would not reduce the criminal gangs.
If asylum seekers had safe and legal routes the criminal gangs would be out of business. Does she not understand capitalism?
Just heard
@FraserNelson
on
@BBCr4today
smoothing over Johnson's failures
What a f**king hypocrite when he &
@afneil
invested so much in destroying
@NicolaSturgeon
over the details of a meeting & botched HR
What happened to your investigative journalism without fear or favour?