Cybernats.com will be a year old on Tuesday.
:Happy-Birthday2:
Tempus fairly fugits as they say, especially when you’re having fun. This of course means that it’ll be 2 years old this time in 2014 and it’s my sincere hope that it won’t ever reach its 3rd birthday. The aim when starting my scribbling was to capture top spot in Google for the pejorative terms cybernat and cybernats and this has long since been achieved. My grateful thanks to all those who link here or share posts in various social media which helps keep the blog in the Number One position.
So how were things a year ago? Funnily enough while clearing out my Internet Explorer favourites I found a Daily Mail page from January 2012 that I’d stored for commenting on but never got the chance. I thought it’d be quite interesting to have a look back at what they were saying at that time. What’s clear from it is that they hated us as much back then as they do now! We’re a drain on the English taxpayer who generously subsidises our ungrateful hides so please let’s stick together. Nope – this recurring mantra makes no sense to me either. It went on…
“Alex Salmond says 16 year-olds should get the vote since they’d be likely to vote for independence through idealistic naivety, but how can the verdict of school pupils be binding on 60 million UK citizens?” Aye we should leave it to the grown-ups. Just a few hours ago I watched a TV show where a lady responded to a gentleman telling her that he was studying architecture at university with, “You mean digging up bones and stuff?!” If the 16 and 17 year-olds up here have the intelligence to find the polling stations then I’m willing to trust their judgment. What else…
“More deviously still, the First Minister suggests offering voters a third option of much greater devolved powers for Holyrood.” Just how wrong can a newspaper be? “Under this fantasy, Scotland would continue to enjoy all the benefits of belonging to the UK club, spending English taxpayers’ money with even wilder abandon, while refusing to pay the subscription or abide by the rules. As with his abolition of prescription charges and tuition fees, he suggests it only to provoke anti-Union feelings south of the border.” The blackguard! We only get free prescription charges and tuition because it winds the English up! Nothing at all to do with governing with the best interests of the people in mind. Of course such a phrase probably doesn’t compute as far as the Mail is concerned, where the natural order of things is the toffs in control and the plebs knowing their place.
“What would become of the thousands of defence jobs and others in Scotland that depend on Whitehall?” We’d compensate by no longer having a defence underspend up here… “How would we share the UK’s assets and – more saliently – its debts, including the tens of billions spent on bailing out RBS and HBoS?” On a per capita basis… “How would we unravel a welfare state that transfers £9billion a year from England?” We’d keep our money, you’d keep yours, but thanks for your generosity down the years… “Where would a divided kingdom stand at the UN’s security council?” Maybe the big boys will still let you play if you ask nicely so you can invade some more sovereign territories. Zzzz…
And finally…
“The United Kingdom is the most mutually beneficial partnership between nations in history. The real tragedy is that after 300 years of standing shoulder-to-shoulder in war and building an empire together we should ever have come to this point.”
A mutually beneficial partnership where one party leeches off the other? You have to wonder just what’s in it for the one having its blood sucked dry. In other words, they had nothing back then and they’ve got nothing now. We’re “better together”. Why? Er… because a Scottish lassie and an English one won a rowing gold medal in the Olympics while sharing the same boat (the coxless pairs no doubt).
Still, it always comes back to war doesn’t it? Certainly 2012 seen one of the most utterly ridiculous decisions ever with the announcement of plans to celebrate the start of the First World War, a decision that of course has nothing to do with jingoistic flag-waving around the time of the referendum. I wish these clowns could’ve met an elderly neighbour of mine back in the 70′s. She never got over the death of her younger brother in the 14-18 carnage, right up until the dementia claimed her grief-stricken brain. “Let them that want war go and fight,” I heard her say on numerous occasions, but never, “What ho, cheps, these Gerries don’t like it up ‘em.” The end of one of the most shameful periods in human history calls for the popping of champagne corks, not the start. Mind you Ian Davidson will be happy even though he has a problem with 2014 being 700 years after a few barbarians murdered some innocent English tourists who were up here on a golfing holiday. Isn’t it funny how any talk of combat has his name popping into your head?
I’ve digressed slightly from the original intention of slagging off the Daily Heil and it wouldn’t be a proper post about that bogroll without raiding their comments section for some beauties. Enjoy…
“HA! Of course you can’t join the euro – it won’t exist any more by the time scotland have been ejected from england.”
“It’s my very clear understanding that Scotland does not own the seas around their beautiful landscape. The high seas were secured by the English Navy, not the Scottish Navy.”
“Hahaha..hahah ha. Oil rich and fishing rich? Well the oil is already drying up, completely evaporating in about 20 years, and Norway gets all the fish. Scotland is frankly a shaky economy, with a bleak outlook”
“Why wait too 2014 we should just kick them out. Been nothing but a pain in the buns for 600 years. I used to be pro scottish, any event when scotland performed i supported. Obvioulsy second to england. I have had an still do, many scotish firends. Ovet the years it was obvious that anything to do with england and support was out of the question. Scots are way too nationalistic and will never change. look at the dat theu picked? dam i cannot remember 30 years back. Let them go good riddence.”
“if the scots want independence then fine let them have it!!!!!!! stuff them!!!!! but if they think they can have the oil hahahahahaha like westministers going to give that up after the money invested over the years to bring it out!!!!! with no military, I cant see scotland having much choice. fish? no with her majestys royal navy blockading you cant. you want to make out that the english and westminister are tyrants then fine, we should start behaving like it then”
Bless their wee hearts, they didn’t get the benefits of free education like us spongers. As long as I’ve got that “answer the simple maths question” security facility on the Comments there’s not much danger of them turning up here.
A Cybernat
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Nothing changes, they’re still publishing the same old rubbish today! You’d think that a time capsule would produce something different wouldn’t you?
Ever known perfidious Albion lose a colony which was still lining their pockets without at least a screaming match?
Oh, and congratulations….. here’s to victory.
Cheers, Bill. Roll on the day when I don’t have to do this any more.
Dave
A BIG happy birthday to Cybernats.com, Dave, and I would be willing to bet that since its inception, the viewing figures have gone up and up, unlike some of the opposition blogs that have fell by the wayside and died a slow lingering death, and the circulation figures of most of the pro-unionist printed editions, which are falling to well below sustainable figures – I expect you will have less rags to comment about in the near future!
It would be sound though if someone with a bit of knowledge in the ‘rag trade’ decided to launch a decent pro-independence paper, this is probably about the right time out from the referendum to stimulate a decent readership and make such a newspaper a sustainable proposition for years to come. It could become the mainstay Scottish newspaper well into the future of a new independent Scotland, and may hurry the demise of some of the more unsavory editions staining the newsagent counters at the moment. Any millionaires out there looking for investment ideas?
As far as the main pro-union rags output, over the year, it’s been more of the same doom and gloom, interspersed with the odd bombing threat or worse. I suspect it will continue this way, after all, they have nothing remotely positive to say, nothing to offer, the UK is broke, the economy is dire, austerity gets worse, and as the only growing industry seems to be in the foodbank field, people are beginning to realise if this is as good as it gets, then the ‘better together’ message appears more and more like some sadistic joke.
Oh, I could go on and on, but I’ve ranted enough for a day!
Once again, many happy returns :Happy-Birthday3:
Many thanks, Stevie. The cybernats search term doesn’t capture a huge amount of traffic but the idea was more to grab it before it fell into enemy hands. It’s still worth my while ranting away though.
I remember somebody started a pro-indy newspaper a few years back but it folded (no pun intended) after just a couple of issues. Can’t remember the name of it. I think at this stage we’d be looking for a Road to Damascus type conversion from any of the present lot, but even if they did go pro-indy I wouldn’t trust them.
Dave
Hm, can’t remember that pro-indy paper Dave. I don’t buy a newspaper at all these days, but if someone launched such a paper I would buy it as a matter of principle and obligation to hopefully help make it a success.
In the long term, though, all printed news is doomed, but a worthy millionaire could still make a killing, I think.
As for the existing publications, well, as you say, I wouldn’t trust them. One can always live in hope, I suppose!
Just did a quick bit of Googling. It was called The Scottish Standard. To his credit our local newsagent at the time – the most rabid Tory you could ever wish not to meet – pushed it quite hard. I wonder how a similar effort would fare now?
Dave
To paraphrase the Beatles ‘yeah, yeah, yeah’. Reckon you’re hooked and folk will still be visiting this site come the 2020 elections!
Now see what you’ve done….. I’ve resorted to using these ridiculous face things!
They’re addictive aren’t they? When replying from the admin panel I’m stuck with the boring ones –
Dave
I love the section on the Daily mail comments, I bet Ian Davidson spends hours writing them.
Well done on reaching your first years birthday, I hope you dont see three either.
Cheers.
Any time I’m stuck for something to write they always come to my rescue! I often think if they substituted Moslems or Pakistanis for Scots in these comments…
Dave
Hope you got/get your bumps!!!