If the SNP DON'T get a majority at Holyrood, they must end doomed Indyref obsession for ever

Scottish Sun

a day ago

The fact that a majority in a parliament and a majority of the population calling for a referendum are two very different things seems lost on our First Minister
BILL LECKIE If the SNP DON'T get a majority at Holyrood, they must end doomed Indyref obsession for ever
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FULL-ON John's back yet again with his old broken record – the one about how Scotland really, really needs Independence.
Why do we need it so badly? Well, if he has to explain it, we're clearly just not patriotic enough.
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John Swinney is back with his old broken record
Credit: PA
All he's telling us right now is that it's mega-trega-important for the SNP to get a majority at next year's Holyrood elections so they can 'ensure' a second once-in-a-lifetime referendum.
The fact that a majority in a parliament and a majority of the population calling for a referendum are two very different things seems lost on our First Minister, but let's not argue the toss while he's busy trying to get The Donald to realise he's not a wine waiter.
No, for now, let's just put a deal on the table.
Which says that if the Nats DON'T get the 65 seats they need for outright control come May, they shut up about their doomed obsession for ever.
It rocks that we ALL have Ozzy's power to improve lives of others
HIS legs wouldn't hold him up and his voice could barely carry a note.
But even in the final throes of life, Ozzy Osbourne exuded enough power to light up his beloved Birmingham for a fortnight.
We're talking REAL power here, not the sort that's bought and that corrupts, that steals in the name of fairness and kills in the name of peace.
We're talking the power to help, to inspire, to connect, to educate, to spread limitless joy.
It's just over three weeks since Ozzy took his last public bow.
It's seven days since he passed away, aged 76 and racked by Parkinson's Disease.
Inside Ozzy Osbourne's final days after historic last show 'took huge toll' on his health
What he achieved in that final act of his, though, will live forever.
The astounding £140million he raised for charity through his farewell gig will do good for so many across generations to come.
What a way to leave the stage. What more could any of us ask when our own time is up?
Think about it this way. Imagine if Putin or Netanyahu or Trump were to pass away tomorrow.
What would their last contribution to society have been?
Trying to obliterate a neighbour? Pulverising terrified hordes into submission and starvation and submission? Turning culture against culture and colour against colour?
Letting basic public services crumble and rot?
That's how too many of those to whom we GIVE power choose to waste it, how they choose to use it as a weapon.
Not the man born John Michael Osbourne. He chose to use his as a magic wand with which to make fortunes appear in the bank accounts of those who need it more than most.
He phones all his heavy metal mates — Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Slayer, you name them — and says he wants them to play at his last ever show.
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Ozzy passed away last week aged 76
Credit: Getty
Be an honour, pal, they chorus.
He tells them they're not getting paid a bean.
Not an issue, mate, they echo.
Plus, they'll have to pay their own travel and hotel and hire their own gear.
Sure, Oz, whatever you need.
And by the way, you'll be putting your hands in your pockets for the cause, yeah?
Goes without saying, legend.
That's power. That's influence. That's respect. That's something the warmongers and the tariff-raisers and the plain old political hypocrites will never have, will never know.
Maybe it's knowing how little they're truly respected that makes them so angry, so defensive, so weak — and, yes, your Putins and Netayanhus and Trumps ARE weak, because no one who possesses genuine strength needs to kill or rob or besiege to prove it.
Look at the president of the United States of America, swanning around the golf course while Europe's leaders wait to tell him how his economic idiocy is bringing global business to its knees.
Look at Israel's leader, unmoved by the poverty, the disease and the starvation taking hold right across the border from him, all caused by his refusal to admit when enough retribution is enough.
Look at Russia's ruler, too stupidly proud to admit that the war he thought would be won in a week could grind on forever and gain him the square root of nyet.
Each of them forgetting the most important thing about power: That with it comes responsibility.
In his final days and weeks, Ozzy Osbourne could have acted the way they do. He could have yelled to the world about how unfair life was, settled old scores, maybe even just turned his face to the wall and waited for his last breath.
Instead, he got on that phone, he pulled together one almighty wall of support and noise and energy, he sold 40,000 tickets for Villa Park, the football stadium along the road from his childhood home, he sold a deal that streamed his dream to close on six million more worldwide.
It's our sworn duty to be on top
TO news that would make Sir Big Yin himself yell: 'Jesus Suffering F***'.
Glasgow is now second to ****ing Newcastle on the UK's swearing charts.
Seriously.
Official research says we're down to a p***-poor 11 Fs, Bs and Cs per 100 words, while on Tyneside they're hitting 14. And despite the fact that those no-coat-wearing b*w*a*s still can't match our 2023 record of 15 per 100, this is still no b***o*k**g use.
I've genuinely always thought that Glaswegians were the best swearers on Earth. They do it naturally, almost like punctuation. There are words that in dialects can sound horribly harsh and offensive, but which when said here can come across as compliments.
Then some scientist *an*ers come out with findings like these?
Sorry, but as a fully-paid-up, 300 f***s a day man, I'm not ****ing well having it.
So let's commit to sorting this s***show, to redressing the b***a*d**g balance.
It's the duty – no, the SWORN duty – of everyone in our biggest city to go full-on Malcolm Tucker until our sweariosity is once more respected the way it ****ing well should be every ***h***u****g day of the week.
From today, every knock at the door should be met with a cheery cry of: 'Come the **** in or **** the **** off!'
From today, every friend should be greeted with a smile and the words: 'How's tricks, ya ****?'
And, of course, from today every word with more than two syllables must automatically have a sweary word shoehorned into it.
With abso-****ing-lutely no exceptions.
Then he rose from a trapdoor on a leather wheelchair with skulls on its armrests, he grabbed a microphone and he rasped what few lyrics his throat could still form.
He led his farewell gig from front and centre. He knew the crowd would be his voice.
He knew his rock 'n' roll buddies wouldn't let him down. Most of all, he knew that when it was done, he could go back home and prepare for the end in peace, because the job had been a good 'un.
That £140million, the most raised in a single day by a music event, will do untold good for his three chosen causes — Cure Parkinson's, Birmingham Children's Hospital and the Acorns hospice for terminally-ill kids — all from one afternoon and evening out of a very special man's life.
As a spokesperson for Acorns said when news broke of his passing: 'On the night of the gig and ever since, thanks to Ozzy, our hospice has been embraced by people across the world. Families who so often can feel unseen have been celebrated by millions.'
That, my friends, is power and how to use it. A power we ALL possess.
Maybe we can't all phone Metallica and book them for our local community centre, but we can all do something to make others happier; a smile, a compliment, a phone call, a visit, a fundraising event.
Each insignificant in isolation, but which come together to make the world a better place.
That's all Ozzy was trying to do while he still had the chance.
And it rocks.