alanferrier

alanferrier, 9 days ago to random

Fixed that for you, New Statesman.

Fun fact: England is the only country in the world to have fully privatised its water and sewerage systems.

Via the Financial Times: "Scotland—which has its own state-owned water company—massively outperformed its neighbours with water standards similar to much of Scandinavia."

alanferrier, 1 month ago to random

Green Party representation in Holyrood relies heavily on list votes from, predominantly, SNP supporters who won't look kindly on them for, as they see it, sabotaging the BHA. This means there's little likelihood of a pro-independence majority at the next election.

alanferrier, 26 days ago to random

The Rector of the University of Glasgow, a Palestinian witness to war crimes, is now banned from entering both Germany and France and, it would seem, the whole of Europe.

alanferrier, 4 months ago to random

It's neither the right nor the responsibility of Scotland to stop England getting the government it votes for.

And vice versa.

alanferrier, 6 months ago to random

Britain in British history books vs. Britain in everyone else's history books.

Daniel Radcliffe as some mad bastard

alanferrier, 12 days ago to random

A typical nuclear reactor produces about 1 GW of electricity.

The Pentland Firth alone has the potential for about 4.2 GW of tidal stream power.

Waiting for the naysayers to ask me what we'll do when the moon no longer orbits the earth.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0960148113005466

alanferrier, 8 months ago to random

This is from Bill Bryson, but would almost function as a draft constitution for an independent Scotland.

alanferrier, 2 months ago to random

So all four senior members of the British Royal Family have suspended public engagements until further notice yet everything continues as normal, or as normal as things get on this deeply weird and dysfunctional wee island.

Every single one of the Windsors could cease all duties forever and barely anyone would notice apart from some sad royal gossip obsessives.

alanferrier, 1 month ago to random

This letter is 10 years old. It was true then and remains true today. Regarding the recent murder of aid workers, I'd say we're at about stage 5.

alanferrier, 4 months ago to random

Who could blame it?

alanferrier, 6 months ago to random

I see we’ve reached the “rich people should be able to buy your organs” point of late-stage capitalism.

alanferrier, 6 months ago to random

It's perversely entertaining to watch Britain belatedly discover what it's like to be ruled by Britain.

alanferrier, 7 months ago to random

Fifteen Scottish Labour Party officials have now quit over the party's 'stifling' of debate on the ongoing tragedy in Israel/Palestine. It was the top story on STV Politics News, and is being reported in the Scottish print media.

BBC Scotland News: Not a peep. Radio silence.

alanferrier, 1 month ago to random

The laughable assertion from the Tories that "Britain is the Second Most Powerful Country in the World," (backed up by an article in the Daily Express, FFS) reminds me of this from Professor Nicholas Boyle, University of Cambridge. https://archive.is/6NC4N

alanferrier, 3 months ago to random

I'm so very, very tired of being governed by a bunch of psychopaths who all went to the same school.

alanferrier, 7 months ago to random

• Starmer rules out any referendum on Irish re-unification.

• Starmer rules out granting a Section 30 order allowing a second independence referendum in Scotland.

• Starmer rules out any return to the EU, Single Market or Customs Union.

Reckon we just call him Viceroy Starmer from now on.

alanferrier, 10 months ago to random

Grown adults in the 21st century who still believe in kings and queens, princes and princesses, nobles and commoners? The monarchy is both the apex and the essence of the British state, the symbol of a national childishness, a national backwardness.

alanferrier, 6 months ago to random

Well, I suppose it's marginally less fuckwitted than Trump's "inject yourself with bleach", but being less fuckwitted than Trump is a tremendously low bar.

alanferrier, 10 months ago to random

Portugal decriminalised drugs in 2001 and subsequently treated drug abuse as a public health issue. Between 1999 and 2016 deaths from overdose fell by 92%.

If Westminster refuses to even consider this approach then future deaths are on their hands.

alanferrier, 6 months ago to random

Extraordinary how many mainstream journalists are claiming it’s only now, because of the #CovidInquiry, that they realise how much of an utter shitshow the Johnson government was, rather than reporting on it honestly at the time.

The UK media failed us, and continues to fail us.

alanferrier, 3 months ago to random

If you have to insist that you'll stand up to your leader in Scotland's interests, doesn't that kinda imply that your leader may not have Scotland's best interests at heart in the first place?

alanferrier, 8 months ago to random

4-year-old: What happens when you die?
Me: Well, some folk think you go to heaven and...
4-y-o: No, I mean what happens when you die? Do I get all your stuff?

alanferrier, 8 months ago to random

The UK and Norway discovered oil at roughly the same time, and have extracted roughly the same total amount of oil and gas. Norway has a sovereign wealth fund amounting to $1.4 trillion. The UK, and consequently Scotland, has a sovereign wealth fund amounting to the square root of sod all.
https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2021/01/north-sea-oil-a-tale-of-two-countries/

alanferrier, 1 month ago to random

As the UK Home Office prepares to set the police on scared, vulnerable people in a desperate attempt to solicit votes from its racist base, we should all remember the words of historian and journalist Neal Ascherson, from 2017: #AsIf
https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/15384883.neal-ascherson-scotland-must-act-independence-nation/

alanferrier, 16 days ago to random

I wonder how the newspapers and TV would have reacted had John Swinney called unionists an extremist threat to Scotland.