The name of this site is itself a hat-tip to Wings Over Scotland, where the 'off-topic' section became a repository of material which, for one reason or another, was not deemed appropriate for general conversations underpinning Stuart Campbell's posts.
Wings is a happy hunting ground for us. We don't have a stable of full-time writers and much of our material (e.g. the Not Hitting The Wall series) consists of comments by Wings readers. We gather some of what we consider to be a fairly representative range of writers whilst excluding those who are obvious mischief-makers. Whether those characters are just embittered unionists or Anglo-state employees isn't always easy to tell and there is, of course, the permanent possibility that those who appear to be fully committed to the independence struggle are, in fact, just ingratiating themselves as part of a 'long game'.
The following comment appeared yesterday and has drawn a lot of attention via Twitter so we're republishing it as a stand-alone post because it merits close reading and deserves to reach at least some of those who shun Wings.
We are living in a Spookocracy. This is not a term of my invention.
“A counterintelligence state (sometimes also called intelligence state, securocracy or spookocracy) is a statewhere the state security service penetrates and permeates all societal institutions, including the military.”
At Westminster, we have a Prime Minister described by that levelheaded, old, one nation Tory, Peter Oborne (always worth a listen) as the “MI5 candidate”.
Starmer would not of course be the first, Blair was always suspect. The Security Services are believed to have plotted to bring down the Government of Harold Wilson. Wilson came dangerously close to disrupting the status quo when he (and Barbara Castle) proposed a Tripartite model of economic cooperation along the West German lines. The longer term solution was to infiltrate the political process and control it from within to avoid future crises.
This is not to say that MPs and MSPs are necessarily serving officers of the Security Services, they are more usually individuals who fall under the control or influence of Thames House and Vauxhall Cross. The training manual refers to MICE. Money. Ideology. Compromise. Ego.
Some agents of the Intelligence Services inevitably break cover at some point. Former Labour MPs, Ian Austin, John Woodcock and John Mann, who were granted comfortable sinecures by a Tory Government for propagating the risible charges of antisemitism against Jeremy Corbyn spring to mind.
Former and serving spooks are more commonly found in the “third sector”, influencing outfits that take young, middle class humanities graduates and mentor them to form a never ending conveyor belt of compliant, career politicians. The John Smith Centre at the University of Glasgow is one such example.
Talking of breaking cover and revealing the fingerprints of the Intelligence Services, the key here is to look for good, ol’ fashioned self interest. While the treacherous, faux, Labour MPs listed above were rewarded with Peerages, in Scotland, the more commonly used means of providing remuneration for defenestrated politicians is via academic posts. On losing his seat in the crash GE of 2019, Stephen Gethins was employed with indecent haste by the spook infested School of International Relations at the University of St. Andrews. Gethins rose to the status of Professor within a couple of years, a highly unusual state of events for an academic ingenue. Similarly, failed politician, Kezia Dugdale was made a Professor with no Doctorate and derisible claims of teaching experience by the University of Glasgow. The UoG has form in this, making a senior MI6 officer, Andrew Fulton a Professor of Law in 1999, in order to spin the events of the Lockerbie trial at Camp Zeist to the world’s press. Let’s not forget Mike Russell’s laughable short stint as a Professor, also at the UoG.
So, what’s been happening in the last ten years? Well, the Security Services have been busy accumulating influence and power in the hierarchy of the SNP. Clearly, the Security Services can’t afford to have their distinguishing imprint detected on figures within the SNP and visa versa. Here Thames House and Vauxhall Cross rely on the services of Foggy Bottom. This is a well established relationship based on quid pro quo. Before the Patriot Act demolished the protections put in place to prevent the US State from eavesdropping on its own, law abiding citizens, GCHQ Cheltenham used to perform that task, with presumably a reciprocal arrangement being conducted on British citizens by the NSA. More recently, we have wee Simon Bracey-Lane of the Institute for Statecraft volunteering to work on Bernie Sanders primary run against Hilary Clinton.
Tell-tales of the US State Department are all over NuSNP. Graduates of their International Visitors Leadership Program include, Humza Yousaf, Jenny Gilruth, Patrick Grady and Angela Crawley. MP for Glasgow South (until recently) Stewart McDonald, attended the Woodrow Wilson Centre for International Scholars. Having around 100 SNP MPs and MSPs directly linked to the State Department is neither practical or desirable (the greater the number the greater the risk of detection). Nonetheless, those who are connected form an inner cadre, a Mafia of the mediocre, networking and providing mutual support to reach otherwise unattainable heights like a Catalan castell.
For the rest of the herd, all that is required to attain their complicity is a unifying cause célèbre. In the SNP this takes the form of Poststructuralism and its more recognisable manifestation, Identity Politics. By a combination of prejudicial vetting conducted by Jackson’s Entry (to eliminate free thinkers and attain a supply of brain-dead cannon fodder) and criminal naivety by branch associations, the salaried ranks of the SNP were ripe for dictatorial control. For every Joanna Cherry, there are a dozen Kirsty Blackman’s or Anne McLaughlin’s. Most of these numpties would be hard pushed to get a job stacking shelves at their local ScotMid. Paying them £90k pa as an MP or £72k pa as an MSP will buy their unquestioning loyalty to the party top-brass (lest deselection be mooted). Beyond material wellbeing, these sheep need to be told how to think. Catastrophically thick individuals like Karen Adam are only too happy to slavishly repeat the mantra determined by the Cult leader.
In summary, electoral politics is irredeemably fucked. This was almost unavoidably the case. Sinn Féin were an exception, a micro party that came out of nowhere to grasp a geopolitical, perfect storm in the shape of WW I.
For my part, I put what little faith I can muster into the likes of Salvo. Whether you believe that they can attain direct results is almost immaterial. I tend to believe that the United Nations is as fucked as UK politics. As long as the mass media parrot the US line about “rules based order” and ignore actual, international law, the UN is a distraction. In this case, might is unfortunately right. Nonetheless, the message Salvo have to impart is essential as an educational and campaigning tool. This is how we energise the Scots folk, by making them aware that their sovereignty is (or at least should be) in their hands according to our Constitution.
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