Dear loudmouth2,

You said: "Presumably Scotland will seek to join the EU as an independent state (for the time being) within minutes of a positive referendum outcome."

indeed. The mood continues to sour in Scotland and Boris' shambolic response to Covid hasn't earned him any favours.

This gentleman posted in the Sub-Reddit /r/Scotland sums up the mood of many.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Scotland/comments/l765jz/pretty_much_everyone_in_scotland_right_now/

Oh, sorry, Russia running a disinformation campaign during the UK elections makes them "Britain's principle enemy"? Well that's a pretty low bar and if that's the worst that "Britain's principle enemy" can do then the UK is in pretty good shape.

Oh but wait....China also runs disinformation campaigns against the UK both during elections and at other times. So by our low bar that means China is "Britain's principle enemy". OMG.

Oh but wait....Iran ran disinformation campaigns against the UK during the elections and at other times. So by our low bar that means Iran is "Britain's principle enemy". OMG.

Oh but wait....there was a report a while back that India has been running disinformation campaigns against the EU in general and the UK in particular. So by our low bar that means India is "Britain's principle enemy". OMG.

Oh but wait....there have been reports....

Struth, Britain's got a sh!tload of principle enemies. Either that or SR's talking through his hat. Tough choice!!

BTW "The mood continues to sour in Scotland ..." But the article SR originally linked said the exact opposite of that and that less people would support leaving the UK now as compared to last year. I guess he got bamboozled by the figures...happens alot.

Dear mhaze,

My my you do flail around when you don't have an argument don't you.

This is from the report:

“Despite its economic weakness, it nonetheless heavily resources its intelligence services and armed forces, which are disproportionately large and powerful. Moreover, Russia is adept at using its apparent weaknesses to its advantage: for example, its poor national brand and lack of long-term global friends appear to feed its enormous risk appetite – perhaps on the basis that it thinks it has nothing to lose; its lack of democracy and rule of law allows its intelligence agencies to act quickly, without constraint or consideration; and its lack of strong independent public bodies and the fusion of government and business allow it to leverage all its intelligence, military and economic power at the same time to pose an all-encompassing security threat.”

And,

“The security threat posed by Russia is difficult for the West to manage as, in our view and that of many others, it appears fundamentally nihilistic. Russia seems to see foreign policy as a zero-sum game: any actions it can take which damage the West are fundamentally good for Russia. It is also seemingly fed by paranoia, believing that Western institutions such as NATO and the EU have a far more aggressive posture towards it than they do in reality. There is also a sense that Russia believes that an undemocratic ‘might is right’ world order plays to its strengths, which leads it to seek to undermine the Rules Based International Order – whilst nonetheless benefitting from its membership of international political and economic institutions.”
http://docs.google.com/a/independent.gov.uk/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=aW5kZXBlbmRlbnQuZ292LnVrfGlzY3xneDo1Y2RhMGEyN2Y3NjM0OWFl

So a the Poms view Russia as a "fundamentally nihilistic", "all-encompassing threat" and you sit there making vapid statements about the Cold War being over and others are doing it too so Putin can't be all bad. Useful idiot status confirmed old chap.

Look I know you make every effort to try and get one over on me and I'm not complaining as you can be a nice diversion but dishing up this 3rd grade rubbish needs to stop.

Dear mhaze,

Oh and on a Scottish independence vote here this compilation of polls show that for the last year the Scots have been quite firmly in favour of independence from the start of last year.

So when you mince in and say: “But the article SR originally linked said the exact opposite of that and that less people would support leaving the UK now as compared to last year. I guess he got bamboozled by the figures...happens alot.”

You once again are talking out of your backside.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_on_Scottish_independence#:~:text=In%20the%20referendum%2C%20on%2018,an%20overall%20turnout%20of%2084.6%25.

In 5 years they will be gone and will join the EU.

Your problem SR is that you make these wild yet quite specific claims which are little more than assertions you hope are true and then try to back them up with increasingly less relevant factoids.

Case in point: you assert that Putin interfered in the Brexit vote so as to help the Leave case because it would advantage Russia.

Now that Russia monkeyed about with the vote is undoubtedly true. The rest is rubbish. There's no reason to think that the UK leaving the EU helps Russia one iota except in your fevered mind.

But then to try to justify your assertions you find something about disinformation and pretend that's decisive. Until the notion is mocked.

Then its on to some report from a decade ago that is more about how Russia is a menace to the EU.

Its all bonkers. If you thought more about your wild assertions from the outset you wouldn't look such a fool and you wouldn't have to double-down with increasingly foolish factoids.

Russia is a menace to the West although these days it more of a nuisance. It doesn't have the wherewithal to seriously threaten eastern Europe let alone the UK unless it went full nuclear. That it meddles in elections and votes is clear. But it unclear that it has a clear aim each time other than to make the west more factitious. When they meddled in the 2016 election they offered clandestine support to both sides - more to Trump before the vote, more to Hilary after the vote.

As to Scotland and leaving...you originally claimed that they were more likely to leave because of Johnson's leadership. But the polls you originally quoted said the opposite although that probably went over your head. Since then you've been trying to find a form of words to extricate you from that from that self-imposed mess.

You seems to spend half your time here doing that.

SR,

I don't know why you are banging on about Scottish independence. The latest poll indicates a preference of 52% pro-independence which would most probably evaporate once a real referendum takes place (not due until 2034) when the Scots face the reality of losing the nearly $4000 p.a. subsidy per person from the rest of the UK and a border between Scotland and 80% of its export market.

The Scottish National socialist party AKA the SNP is whipping up Nationalist fervour to cover-up its policy failures. The bubble is sure to break at some point.