Blethering Skite

We don’t stop, we won’t give up and we will win!

Whatever path to independence we decide to follow, they all start with the simple step of convincing the people of Scotland to support independence and that is what we do.  

These may be challenging times to campaign in but Believe in Scotland is up for the challenge. We believe that only independence can allow us to build a better nation and that Scotland needs to leave this dysfunctional union that does nothing for Scotland that we couldn't do so much better ourselves. 

Our movement remains strong, as does independence support. Anyone thinking that Scottish independence isn't on the nation's agenda will be severely disappointed. 

OP : @[email protected]

We have now reached the stage here in the north ,where we have to put up signs asking people bag excrement and bin it ,,,AND not dog excrement ,but human excrement .Struie is a famous spot ,but this is happening everywhere ,every road however remote has at least one spot thats been used as a toilet :( Its worth pointing out also public toilets here are free and theres a lot to reach Struie you will have passed at least one well marked loo

Highland Council has been forced to erect a new sign at a north beauty spot urging people not to use the area as a toilet, it has emerged.

The sign has appeared on Struie Hill, which has stunning views of the Dornoch Firth.

It reads: “Please do not use this area as a toilet. The nearest public toilets are in Alness (south) or in Ardgay (north). If you can’t make it, please ‘Bag and Bin’ all waste.”

Yes We Didnae survey results, part 2

The usual caveat: this is not an opinion poll, it's a survey of a self-selecting group. That said, it provides an in-depth look at what a very large number of engaged Yes voters think.

And a huge "thank you" is due to the kind people who volunteered their time to help me analyse the results. 

Trigger warning: if you're a Yes voter, I'll be revisiting some traumatising experiences. To steel your nerves, you may wish to get yourself a dram, espresso or strong camomile tea (depending on your lifestyle choices).....

What all this tells us is that, as befits Project Fear, the No side had a very clear strategy for highlighting uncertainty, especially through the medium of currency, and were very effective at finding mechanisms for ramming that home.

Believe in Scotland are organising a rally for independence at Holyrood on Wednesday the 18th of September 2024 to mark the 10th anniversary of indyref1. Let's mark the date and reset our movement, let’s reboot the campaign and put the grassroots at the forefront of the movement again.

Can't make it to Edinburgh? Why not join us in: Dumfries - Orkney - Aberdeen

This is not a party political rally

It’s a people’s rally. We set up Believe in Scotland in 2019 because we knew that party politics alone can’t deliver Scotland independence. We need a non-party-political arm of the campaign that adds a different dimension and is capable of engaging voters without triggering the tribalism of party politics.

Old people will freeze because of Winter Fuel Allowance cut to fill invented ‘black hole’ – and Labour knows it

The Labour party’s cut to the Winter Fuel Allowance will kill around 4,000 pensioners this winter – according to the party’s own research.

Labour’s excuse for the cut to the vital benefit, which gives pensioners £250-600 toward heating costs, is the supposed – and apparently invented – ‘black hole’ in the national finances, a ‘hole’ that is a pinprick in the national expenditure of around 1.2 trillion pounds and one that the government could create money to fill, if it actually existed, at the click of a key, or with a small tax rise on the wealthiest.

Other government statistics show that the cut is aimed primarily at over-75s, at women more than men and at those living in the north most of all:

Political posts on social media that most frequently referenced ancient history tended to be more extreme, hostile and overwhelmingly negative in tone than average, finds a new study by researchers from UCL and the University of Edinburgh.

For centuries, the past has been leveraged as a powerful means of framing and legitimising political identities .

Today, such identities are often expressed on social media. However, most of the existing literature on political uses of the past online has analysed populist nationalist and Far-Right speech .

Very few studies have examined how references to the past feature in multi-sided discussions about a specific political issue.

Therefore, although substantial knowledge outlines how different ‘myths’ and heritage symbols are invoked to support extreme ideologies in online environments, there is virtually no information on whether people with more moderate views similarly mobilise the past to make sense of the present and plan for the future.

Conclusion

This study demonstrates that posts that reference the ancient past in political discourse on social media are significantly more negative and more extremely polarised than those that do not contain these references.

We therefore conclude that heritage keywords in politically-themed debates on social media are likely to signal the presence of more polarised and, potentially, extremist views.

Furthermore, we show that social media research on political uses of the past is likely to over-represent people with very strong opinions compared to individuals whose views are more moderate.

OP: @[email protected]

The deid-hole’s a sma-boukit place for you.

You need tae be blawn aboot the cosmos

so’s your live matter mells wi the spaces

and you become the stour starns are made o…

Christopher Murray Grieve – Hugh MacDiarmid – died #OTD, 9 September

​

On 9 September 1513, what many believe to have been one of the most important events in Scottish history took place here.

Scottish and English armies met in what has since been variously called the Battle of Flodden, the Battle of Flodden Field, or the Battle of Branxton Moor.

So what did happen? Well the outcome was a catastrophe for Scotland, and a triumph for England. The Scots lost up to 10,000 dead out of an army of some 25,000. The Scottish dead included King James IV himself, plus an archbishop, two bishops, 11 earls, 15 lords and 300 knights: in effect a whole generation of the Scottish nobility was swept away. The English lost just 1,700 dead out of an army of around 20,000.

What made things much worse from a Scottish point of view was that this was a battle that need never have happened.

A group of academics, trade unionists, former council leaders and journalists are starting a campaign to tackle the creeping centralisation that has left Scotland as one of the least locally governed countries in the world. 

  Building a Local Scotland believes local democracy is not working, even though decentralisation was promised as part of the Scottish devolution settlement. In fact, the opposite has happened. We must encourage politicians of all parties to honour their pledge before another quarter of a century passes. 

  Unbeknown to most citizens, Scotland has some of the largest councils in the world with an average population of 170,000, against a European average of just 10,000.

Highland Council, for example, covers a third of Scotland’s landmass and 11% of Great Britain. It is physically larger than Wales (with 22 local authorities), North Macedonia (80 municipalities) and Belgium (with 1 federal government, 3 language-based communities, 3 regional governments and 581 local councils). Six other Scottish councils including Aberdeenshire, Argyll and Bute and Dumfries and Galloway are also larger than the country of Luxembourg, (with 12 cantons and 116 communes (councils).

This is not local democracy

Scotland also has the smallest councillor cohort in Europe. England has an average of 2,814 people per councillor, Norway 572 and Denmark 2,216; but the average Scottish councillor looks after 4,155 constituents. This means councillors, through no fault of their own, must take decisions about areas they barely know. And now, with the prospect of swingeing cuts in public spending, it’s likely they’ll take community-altering decisions without any locals in the room.  

 Building a Local Scotland believes this must change and challenges every political party to admit the current system is unfit for purpose and breaches the contract made with the Scottish people 25 years ago.

And is it not especially unacceptable that the economy – and by extension, levels of prosperity and quality of public services – of a pro-remain constituent nation, one with aspirations for independence, is now being harmed the most of any UK nation by Brexit, the negative outcomes of which, arguably, are now being exploited by Unionist politicians in opposition to the Scottish Government?

The amazingly well preserved Clickimin Broch on the south-west edge of Lerwick in Shetland. The site was first occupied around three thousand years ago, with the main structure dating back around two thousand years.

About 1000BC a bronze-age family built a small farmhouse on a grassy islet surrounded by loch or marsh, and they walled the islet to enclose their cattle and sheep. Evidence has been found on the site of barley cultivation, which was ground in stone troughs, one of which can still be seen at Clickimin. The visible remains of the farmhouse lie to the north-west of the main broch.

Some time around 200BC a ditch was dug across the neck of land connecting the farm with the southern side of the loch, probably crossed via a draw-bridge, and a much stronger wall was built around the islet. The aim now was less to keep livestock in than keep people out.

The farm continued to be the main residence, but other wooden buildings with thatched roofs were built within the defensive wall. Around this time the Loch of Clickimin was cut off from the sea and ceased to be tidal.

A hundred years later, about 100BC, a "blockhouse" was built immediately inside the only gate through the wall. This provided additional defence at the weakest point of the islet and may have been intended as the start of a feature that encircled the inner part of the settlement. Originally much taller than it is today, it was never finished, and work quite quickly began on the broch, the most striking feature of the site today.

The broch was originally up to 12-15m high and came with the usual rooms, enclosures and stairs within its thick, dry stone walls. It would also have had internal wooden structures providing shelter and accommodation for a significant number of people. Some time later it was reduced in height and converted for use as the residence of a single family. At the same time the original bronze age farmstead was reoccupied, by this time anything up to 1,500 years after its original construction.

It is thought that it was during this period that one of Clickimin's oddest features was added: a slab of stone with two footprints carved into it on the causeway leading to the broch. A similar feature with one footprint at Dunadd in Argyll was thought to be associated with kingship. The purpose here is unknown, but was perhaps more mundane.

More than 700 million years ago, the Earth was plunged into a state that geologists call “snowball Earth”, when our planet was entirely encased in ice. This happened when the polar ice caps expanded so far that they joined up around the equator.

Several lines of evidence show that the snowball Earth happened, but we have previously lacked rocks showing the landscape entering this big freeze. We may now have found this on tiny islands known as the Garvellachs, off the west coast of Scotland.

Sedimentary rocks are in layers that can record major events on Earth. For example, there’s a clear boundary 66 million years ago where rocks contain unusually high concentrations of the element iridium, which is often found in meteorites. This boundary marks the asteroid impact at Chicxulub in Mexico that wiped out most dinosaurs (sparing only birds).

OP: @[email protected]

Only in Scotland would this question even be asked.

Imagine Norway saying, "Let's give all our energy revenues to Sweden and wait to see what they give us back. I'm sure they'll play fair."

OP : @[email protected]

AULD REIKIE, wale o’ ilka Town

That SCOTLAND kens beneath the Moon;

Whare couthy Chiels at E’ening meet

Their bizzing CRAIGS and MOUS to weet;

And blythly gar auld Care gae bye

Wi’ blinkit and wi’ bleering Eye …

—Robert Fergusson, “Auld Reikie”

Fossils predating the dinosaurs by hundreds of millions of years have been found in a paving stone in a Scottish city centre.

Thousands of people have walked over the remains of 385 million-year-old fish in the slab of Caithness flagstone outside Inverness Town House.

Caithness flagstone quarried in the north Highlands has been used for construction all over the world.

Mr Ryan said: "These fossils in the paving slab are the remains of ancient fish dating to around 385 million years ago - around 140 million years before the first dinosaur.

“Caithness flagstone was laid down as sediment over a period of thousands of years at the bottom of a giant freshwater lake which stretched from the Moray coast up north to Orkney and Shetland."

The fish date from the Devonian period, which are thought to include evidence of a fin.

Believe in Scotland's Indyref anniversary programme aims to fire up the Indy movement, and send a message of both defiance and hope. We are working with several of our affiliated local Yes campaigning groups to organise a series of events around Scotland on Wednesday September 18th, the tenth anniversary of the indyref and a programme of campaigning activities that include a series of billboards, videos and social media campaigns.

We want people from across Scotland to be able to join in and so we have teamed up with The National to print a double page spread poster (see above) for independence supporters to put in their windows on the 18th. 

The poster, which will also feature on billboards is an updated version of the iconic Vote Yes image from the indyref by graphic artist Stewart Bremner. The poster will be printed in The National on Wednesday the 18th. 

What you can do

We hope to see thousands of posters in people's windows right across Scotland sending the message that we are Still Yes with a message that is non-party-political, friendly and iconic. So grab a copy of The National on that day, display the poster with pride and take a photo of it and share it on social media with the hashtag #StillYes and then complete the sentence ‘I #BelieveinScotland because’ and we will share across our social media.

Drumelzier, in the Scottish Borders, has long been associated with the legendary figure of Merlin, reputedly imprisoned there by a Dark Age king and buried nearby on the banks of the River Tweed and the local Powsail Burn. This, according to the Vita Merlini Sylvestris – The Life of Merlin of the Forest – a medieval manuscript held in the British Library.

In 2022, a team of volunteers from across Scotland, led by GUARD Archaeology, set out to investigate the archaeological roots of this local legend. Their findings, recently published, reveal the startling survival of early medieval cultural heritage in southern Scotland.

A geophysical survey identified an archaeological feature resembling a grave near the reputed site of Merlin’s Grave at Drumelzier.

Unlike the classic depiction of Merlin as the wise and respected adviser to King Arthur, the Drumelzier legend portrays a much darker figure: a rather pitiful man prone to nonsensical riddles and bewildering prophecies, kept prisoner by a petty tyrant of a forgotten kingdom, and ultimately meeting a gruesome death, a victim of royal intrigue.

The Chief Opens A Time Capsule

Completed diaries captured firsthand accounts of the benefits of freshwater interactions and created a large database of freshwater experiences: from sailing and swimming to sketching by the water’s edge.

This study was one of the first to use diaries to study our relationship with blue spaces. By analysing these personal stories, experiences and emotions, my diary study adds to the growing body of research quantifying the health benefits of spending time in nature.

Overall, my results highlight the potential for lakes and rivers to improve people’s physical and mental wellbeing. Diary entries revealed that participants held a strong appreciation of Scotland’s freshwater environments and consistently felt they gained restorative health benefits such as calmness and improved concentration levels.

Part of one of the stone circles in the rich prehistoric landscape of Machrie Moor on the west side of the Isle of Arran. One of the most important prehistoric sites in Scotland, people have been leaving their mark here for 6,000 years.

One of the largest areas of reasonably level ground on the Isle of Arran, lies in a broad triangle to the south of the Machrie Water as it makes its way to the sea a little south of mid way down the island's west coast. More pics and info:

‘Amazing’ Viking-age treasure travelled half the world to Scotland, analysis finds

Lidded vessel is star object in rich Galloway Hoard and came from silver mine in what is now Iran

It is a star object of the Galloway Hoard, the richest collection of Viking-age objects ever found in Britain or Ireland, buried in AD900 and unearthed in a field in Scotland. Now a lidded silver vessel has been identified as being of west Asian origin, transported halfway around the world more than 1,000 years ago.

When it emerged from the ground a decade ago, the vessel was still wrapped in its ancient textiles, whose survival is extremely rare. Its surface could be seen only through X-ray scans. Since then, the textiles have been partially removed and preserved and the vessel has had laser cleaning to remove green corrosion over much of its silver surface. It has also undergone scientific analysis.

Details of a “remarkable” design that includes crowns, fire altars and creatures including leopards and tigers can be seen for the first time.

The imagery is linked to the iconography of Zoroastrianism, the state religion of the Sasanian empire, the last Persian empire before the early Muslim conquests from AD632. Scientific analysis shows that the silver from which it was made came from a mine in modern-day Iran.

Deans, Scotland

A memorial commemorating the only Scottish police investigation into an extraterrestrial incident.  

On November 9, 1979, Robert Taylor, a forestry worker, parked his truck and walked his dog through a path to a newly planted forest area north of the hill known as Dechmont Law.

It’s reported that he happened upon a flying dome hovering above the forest floor. The dome sent out two smaller spheres that dragged him to the larger dome. The last thing Taylor remembered was a strange choking smell that overpowered him. He came round sometime later and the spheres were gone. Taylor made it back to his truck, but was unable to start the vehicle and had to walk home. 

When he arrived home with torn, disheveled clothes and various cuts, Taylor’s wife called the local doctor and the police. The police took him back to the scene of the incident, where they found unusual marks that looked like ladders and others that Taylor claimed were made by the spheres. 

The police treated the incident as an assault and conducted a criminal investigation. It’s the only UFO sighting in the United Kingdom that has ever been classified as a criminal investigation. Known as “The Livingston Incident” it has sparked interest all over the world and has been featured on TV.

If you climb the steps you find that the top of the outcrop bears two footprints. The more southerly is laid parallel to the shore, while the other is at 90 degrees to it. Each print is a little less than a third of a metre in length, and between them is carved the number "564". Footprints caved into stones are found in a number of places in Ireland and Scotland, and are usually associated with king-making ceremonies. As there was a major fortress of the Kingdom of Dalriada at nearby Dunaverty from the 500s it is quite possible that at least one of the footprints might well be associated with it, like the carved footprint at the other Dalriadan centre at Dunadd in northern Argyll.

The story is blurred, however, because St Columba and 12 followers briefly landed in this part of Kintyre in early 563 at the start of his exile from Ireland. The "best guess" about the real story of the footprints is that a single footprint dating back to the Dalriadan era became associated over the centuries with St Columba, and is why St Columba's Chapel was established immediately to the east. Then, according to a story told many years later by his grandson, in 1856 a local mason called Daniel McIlreavie helped the legend along a little by carving a second footprint into the rock and adding the (wrong) date for Columba's landing of 564.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19157797

Highlights

•Violence-induced skeletal trauma is frequent in Viking Age Norway, rare in Denmark.

•Viking Age weapons (swords) were more numerous in Norway than Denmark.

•Rune stones and earthworks reveal Denmark to be more stratified than Norway.

•Where present, robust centres of authority helped contain violence in Scandinavia.

•Norway and Denmark were distinct societies in the Viking Age.

Among the findings: weapons and interpersonal violence in Norway was much more widespread than in Denmark, and the social pyramid in Denmark was progressively steeper and more complex than in Norway.

“Official” executions accounted for the preponderance of violence in Denmark, while rare in Norway.

Denmark was evidently a more “civilianized” society than Norway.

The comparative research supports the primary proposition. The research, furthermore, suggests that Denmark and Norway were sociologically distinct societies, which accords with recent findings that the respective regions displayed distinct, though still similar, genetic profiles.

The Scottish Independence Congress meets four times a year and is open to all independence campaigning groups across Scotland. Believe in Scotland launched its Yes group organiser meetings in 2019 (initially called the Big Yes Gathering), which was renamed the Scottish Independence Congress in Feb 2023.

The Congress is the biggest meeting of grassroots independence campaign groups With an annual congress in February it hosts three to four Mini Congress’ a year to discuss topical issues. 

On Wednesday the 21st of August, 119 local and national Indy campaign group leaders logged onto a two hour online conference to discuss Scotland's road to independence in these challenging times. 

Proposed by the 33 strong elected National Campaign Steering Group of Believe in Scotland, the citizens’ Convention can be seen open up a conversation about creating a better scotland which we believe in turn will progress us towards independence by circumnavigating the unfair and completely undemocratic roadblocks set up by Westminster.

You can read the summary of the proposal here.

The National Campaign Steering Group of Believe in Scotland has proposed a new path to independence for Scotland, one that circumnavigates the unfair and completely undemocratic roadblocks set up by Westminster. A Citizens' Convention means everyone will be heard on this new road to an independent Scotland.

https://www.believeinscotland.org/delivering_independence_via_a_new_style_citizens_convention/