Yes, the headline is a shameless attempt to enter the QTWTAIN hall of fame/shame but it does raise an interesting point. MI5 are the best intelligence agency in the world, they have form for infiltrating organisations who wish break up and destroy the United Kingdom, famously with the IRA and prior to that the world changing Double-Cross system in World War II when every German agent in the UK was turned, so it would be no surprise if MI5 infiltrated the SNP in eyes of some SNP supporters not just former MSP Campbell Martin.
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I said it wouldn't a shock.
Those are two very different things.
Australians have a long (for them) tradition of bloody mindedness and rejecting what their leaders want. Between that and the double-majority clause of the constitution requiring 4/6 states to pass it, that's why almost every referendum in Australia's entire history has failed, with 1999 being rather unique in that the PM also wanted it to fail.
Anyone shocked if this latest referendum fails is only shocked because they're pig-ignorant of Australia's history. Not because it'd be shocking.
MI5 involvement or not with the SNP also having fallen in the polls and Sturgeon replaced by the hapless Yousaf it does not look good for Scottish Nationalists
The Aussies haven't had a PM last 4 years since 2007 though, so for the sake of stable politics I'd hope for their sakes if it is lost it indeed doesn't derail the PM.
As it notes in conclusion though No still leads in some polls, so if they are infiltrating could they get around to a coup de grace already.
Since Sillars backed Jackie Baillie at the last Holyrood election, we must assume he is a now a neo Unionist and therefore an unimpeachable source.
I prefer my SNP news from WingsOverScotland, now there's a source with no axe to grind, nossir.
Questions that HYUFD runs away from answering, part of a long series.
How much lower is No than the 55% they got in 2014?
The number of times they get mentioned on the Moscow comedy programs, for example…
I've always thought its part a hangover from the old Imperial days, and part looking to pin blame on a figurehead of the 'The West' without having to blame the americans all the time, so is also even a bit diplomatically useful.
It makes about as much sense as anything else Russia has done for decades.
I think the only thing that stopped me being recruited was there's an inevitability of me becoming the victim of numerous honeytraps .
General Melchett:
Is this true, Blackadder? Did Captain Darling pooh-pooh you?
Captain Blackadder:
Well, perhaps a little.
General Melchett:
Well, then, damn it all! What more evidence do you need? The pooh-poohing alone is a court martial offense!
Captain Blackadder:
I can assure you, sir, that the pooh-poohing was purely circumstantial.
General Melchett:
Well, I hope so, Blackadder. You know, if there's one thing I've learnt from being in the Army, it's never ignore a pooh-pooh. I knew a Major, who got pooh-poohed, made the mistake of ignoring the pooh-pooh. He pooh-poohed it! Fatal error! 'Cos it turned out all along that the soldier who pooh-poohed him had been pooh-poohing a lot of other officers who pooh-poohed their pooh-poohs. In the end, we had to disband the regiment. Morale totally destroyed... by pooh-pooh!
The Federal Security Services however may well be pleased to hear from you. Why don't you have a word with one of those Russian trolls that pop up here from time to time?
There's been a large expansion in Ukraine's home-produced drone capability this year. A capability that isn't subject to the restriction not to hit targets in Russia that applies to weapons supplied by NATO countries.
In the book, the US/U.K. plan a cruise missile strike to hit the Russian TU-22 bases just as they return from an attack and refuel.
https://www.thenational.scot/sport/23733332.celtic-fans-root-rangers-champions-league-play-off/
Its hardly as if there's titans on the opposite side to Fraser now, is there?
Just spent some time in Rijeka while wandering around Croatia a bit.
For those who don’t know, it used to be Fiume. Large Italian population and quite a separate identity from the rest of Croatia.
The locals wanted (largely) a multi-ethnic Free State. And no, this isn’t to be confused with D'Annunzio little proto Fascist comedy of trying to turn Fiume into a part of Italy (semi-detached).
After WWII, Tito was initially in favour of autonomy - since the those if favour of that option had fought with the Partisans against the Germans. Then he noticed that ethnic cleansing was in fashion (see movement of Poland, elimination of East Prussia). The leaders of the autonomy movement were murdered, and the local ethnic Italian population were pushed out of the country. All traces of Fiume as a separate identity were wiped out.
Facts on the ground, eh?
At least whoever we elect in Scotland doesn't govern you, whereas the rsoles you vote for..
The longer-range drones are also much smaller and cheaper than we’ve seen before, and the naval drones are annoying the hell out of the Black Sea fleet and the Kerch bridge security team.
I had to stop reading 'The Jakarta Method' too depressing.
I wonder if Putin and the Donbass thugs might now regret MH17.
https://alastair-meeks.medium.com/the-disintegration-of-the-middle-class-acdab60b979a?source=email-4256e494a1fa-1692539318651-newsletter.subscribeToProfile-------------------------72eada0e_232f_44eb_991b_dcbacafea326--------66bfee5d7afb
Though anyone British would recognise that his expenses claims would exceed Civil Service allowances by a substantial margin, showing it is a work of fiction.
I would extend the disadvantaged age threshold to under 50.
Anyone 50 or over reached the age of 30 before 2003 and was therefore able to get on the housing ladder before the great inflation of the 2000s.
I am 44 and only *just* managed to get on to a property that suited me in 2011. It was already probably 2x more expensive than it had been a decade before. It is now 2x more again.
The air war is no longer pointy nose jets flown by slavic @Dura_Ace stick jockeys.
Some PBers have blogs: Cyclefree has one, Alastair has one, Isam has/had one. Are there any others?
Disappointment to us Brits is surely worth more than actually winning.
You need bigger drones for range and endurance - or to take out the odd Tu22M (cost c.$40m) on a Russian airfield.
Have just sent you a private message.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/live/athletics/65740170
(it wasn't a cheap dig btw, just a light josh)
As for why people leave, only they know for sure and it'll rarely be just one thing.
We can be pretty sure from the works of LeCarre, Ben MacIntyre, and the renegade Peter Wright that MI6 was generally next door to useless and may even have been a negative factor in respect of the security of this country.
MI5 is the domestic version and may possibly have been a bit better but that isn't saying much. The above three writers do touch on it from time to time and again the picture is not wholly flattering.
He'll be back, but the Site will survive if he isn't.