I think that Finbar is right: the Unionists in the North will never agree to a united Ireland, but they might also find themselves much reduced in power over the UK if they become too much of a liability. Trans indoctrination is well underway in Eire and in the North, and I think, as in Scotland, this will be the way that Sinn Fein is reduced because, like the SNP, it will be besieged by these people who want access to power and influence. Time will tell.
Ukraine could never have won against Russia without far greater Western input on the ground, and this will not happen. Zelenskyy should have settled long ago, but, of course, he is an American puppet, albeit one who is not stupid and knows that he is and that he must, at all costs, keep the conflict going, for the sake of Western interests. I think that he will be overthrown in time, perhaps sooner rather than later. Russia will end up with Eastern Ukraine.
The Zionists, extreme Jewish nationalists, have to be understood in light of the pogroms – mainly in Eastern Europe. Although many migrated to America in the 19th century, many more planned for a Jewish homeland, and the Holocaust of the 20th century supplied the impetus, and we are where we are. Zionism is based on the return of the Jewish people to their ancestral homeland as laid out in the Bible. Most of what is Israel today is included. However, the strip of land called Gaza today was not part of Israel, but was Philistine, an ethnic group which has disappeared as such, but which was probably absorbed by other Arab groups after the expulsion of the Israelites by the Romans, largely Syrian in genetic make up, spreading throughout Biblical Israel.
The West Bank was largely Samaria (the Samaritans) who were Jewish, but who worshipped Jehovah differently from the other tribes of Israel and were a kind of outcast people. From the biblical references, we can see that the Israelites occupied a land mass not dissimilar from today’s Israel, but bigger. This is from where the expansionist ideas stem.
Does all this make Israeli expansionism right? No. Berwick once belonged to Scotland, as did parts of Northumbria. Should we demand them back? I think not, unless we wish to be at perpetual war with England. However, we have to understand Israel from a paranoia perspective. The people feel hemmed in and outnumbered, by, the teeming Arab nations surrounding them – all of which have stated endlessly that, a) they will never recognize Israel; and b) they will drive out the Israelis all over again. Unless we understand all this background, we understand nothing because the Israelis do not see what they are doing as ‘genocide’, but as the people whose land was stolen from them centuries ago, who felt unwelcome anywhere after WW II and who want the ‘usurpers’ off ‘their’ land.
A two-state solution its the only sane one in the longer term, and many Israelis know that, but what that would do would be to create yet another anti Israeli/anti Jewish state on their doorstep which could, potentially, carry on causing trouble for Israel. On the other hand, the Zionists would see that as a betrayal of their principle of a return to their ancestral lands. Britain should have taken the bull by the horns in pre 1948 and created a two-state solution. Not saying that there would not have been conflicts (Pakistan and India?) but, at least, the principle of a Palestinian homeland would have been created and dispelled the Zionist mantra that the land was ’empty’ (meaning empty of Jews) and making it far more difficult for Israel to settle it against UN directives. They would have been blatantly and obviously in breach of international law and it would have been less easy for the West to turn a blind eye and offer support.
One of the almost insurmountable problems now is the way that Islam is being pushed in the West. If we have any doubt about aggressive Islamism, we should look to Bosnia where the Savic population was forcibly converted, albeit, before the Yugoslav conflict, the Bosniaks were a peaceful people and were invaded by Serbian nationalists. Same in medieval Spain where Islamism was a civilizing force, but an occupying one, nevertheless, and Ferdinand and Isabella eventually forced out the Moors after much slaughter. Islamism does not sit well in the West, and Israel, like it or loathe it, is part of the West. Conflating the Palestinian situation with Jihad should be worrying, just as conflating Zionism with anti Jewishness is worrying.
We should also remember that trade agreements and diplomatic measures were being advanced between Israel and Saudi Arabia, and between Israel and Egypt, and possibly Jordan, before the 7 October Hamas assault on Israeli settlements. Now? All three Arab states have broken off relations and the Palestinian situation is dire and a humanitarian crisis. Women and children were targeted specially. Men always choose to degrade and murder women in their wars as a way to demoralize other men. Not saying women are any better, but we do not start wars as a rule. The Hamas fighters knew the layout of each kibbutz, the street names, the homes and the people living in them. How? Palestinian civilian workers in each kibbutz. The peace disco had changed location, yet the Hamas fighters knew that, too. What is happening in Gaza is reprehensible and the UN should have stepped in long since, to stop the killing, but an outright condemnation of what Hamas did, no doubt whatsoever at the behest of Iran, has yet to be made by the UN in the form of international arrest warrants, alongside the ICJ interim ruling. No one is clean in this situation.
It is quite incredible how Orwellian the UK has become. Deliberately and obstructively preventing citizens from witnessing a public trial is obviously the antithesis of any claim to be democratic, open or accountable, and as Craig says, begs the question of what terrible injustice they wish to prevent us all from seeing. The mainstream media will of course happily oblige in not reporting anything of merit, merely the headline the government want that he is extradited. The reasons and justifications for such a draconian verdict, which defies the UK’s own laws and precedents are obviously ones which the authorities do not wish to be exposed publicly, or challenged, and they are following the new zionist examples of declaring anyone who might question them as an enemy of the state. If there were ever an example of how the state is an apparatus separate and distinct from any form of restraint – legally, morally or politically – this is it. The former principle of democracies – the separation of powers, which guarantees a system of checks and balances – is moribund and clearly an impediment to the wishes of the establishment, who now feel free to act as secret police, secret judges and secret trials, especially ones whose outcome is preordained and already decided. To think they used to mock closed societies where there were no independent judiciaries or press – now, as Ai Wei Wei (who knows a thing or two about state censorship) said, they eagerly adopt the Orwellian Big Brother approach – with no shame, no pushback and no accountability to anyone or any institution.
How shameful to live in such a backward society with so little opposition to the New Order, save of course a handful of brave souls like Craig.
They have obviously given up altogether on trying to con the citizens and the rest of the world. All pretence of freedom, democracy, or the rule of law had been abandoned.
Apparently all their efforts nowadays are going into trying to decide whether Huxley, Orwell, or Kafka is the better manual of operations to follow.
Well they are very silly people which maybe due to the private education system which is very odd, but they are becoming sillier and sillier. I feel extremely sorry for the people who have to rely on this system of – is it justice? And people like Julian Assange who are trapped in it. I watch the ICJ hearings on Gaza which was assessible on my computer through the UN website without any problem whatsoever. It was extremely informative and impressive. South Africa was magnificent. But that is what they are afraid of isn’t it. We all watch the case against Julian Assange and most likely we see that there isn’t a case at all – it’s all made up and probably very badly. Compared to the South African delegations searing intellectual analysis and presentation which showed us all the horrifying extent of the genocide in Gaza and the overwhelming strength of their argument. Sadly. for Julian Assange, lack of public scrutiny, including media scrutiny allows the judgment to be based on very little. No matter how good and diligent and convincing Julian’s defense arguments are no one will be allowed to hear them to call the judge to account. I hope the judge has more integrity than I fear and will free Julian.
I very much doubt they’ll listen to this.
“GENEVA (6 February 2024) – The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Alice Jill Edwards, today urged the Government of the United Kingdom (UK) to halt the possible extradition of Julian Assange to the United States of America.
She called on British authorities to consider Julian Assange’s appeal based on substantial fears that, if extradited, he would be at risk of treatment amounting to torture or other forms of ill-treatment or punishment.
“Julian Assange suffers from a long standing and recurrent depressive disorder. He is assessed as being at risk of committing suicide. In the United States, he faces numerous charges, including under the Espionage Act of 1917 for alleged unlawful releases of diplomatic and other cables and documents via WikiLeaks. If extradited, he could be detained in prolonged isolation while awaiting trial, or as an inmate. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 175 years in prison,” Edwards said.
“The risk of being placed in prolonged solitary confinement, despite his precarious mental health status, and to receive a potentially disproportionate sentence raises questions as to whether Mr. Assange’s extradition to the United States would be compatible with the United Kingdom’s international human rights obligations, particularly under article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as respective articles 3 of the UN Convention against Torture and the European Convention on Human Rights,” the Special Rapporteur said.
“Diplomatic assurances of humane treatment provided by the Government of the United States are not a sufficient guarantee to protect Mr. Assange against such risk,” Edwards said. “They are not legally binding, are limited in their scope, and the person the assurances aim to protect may have no recourse if they are violated.”
“I call on the Government of the United Kingdom to carefully review Mr. Assange’s extradition order with a view to ensuring full compliance with the absolute and non-derogable prohibition of refoulement to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and to take all the necessary measures to safeguard Mr. Assange’s physical and mental health,” the expert said.
A final domestic appeal after a long-running legal battle on Assange’s extradition is scheduled to take place before the High Court in London on 20-21 February.
Julian Assange faces 18 criminal counts in the United States for his alleged role in unlawfully obtaining and disclosing classified documents related to national defence, including evidence exposing alleged war crimes. He has been detained in the UK since 2019, where he is currently being held at Belmarsh prison.”
For the Lockerbie trial a Scottish Court was set up within a disused USAF base in the Netherlands. There was a public gallery, but with huge public interest and with the next of kin of 270 murder victims to be expected to want to attend, an arrangement was made for the proceedings to be videoed in real-time. Special viewing rooms were set up, one in Lockerbie Town Hall and a much larger one in New York. The video feed was not available anywhere else in the UK or the US, nor anywhere else in the world
Entrance was very strictly limited to registered next of kin only. There too there were the strictures that no recordings were to be made. Additionally, daily transcripts were issued by email to authorised next of kin, also with a stricture that those emails were not to be copied to any unauthorised person. I leave it to the reader to consider whether that email restriction prevented those emails from escaping into the wild.
In my non-legally-qualified opinion, the trial was a monstrous miscarriage of justice. A ghastly stain on the reputation of Scottish Justice in every way.
The MSM coverage was very heavily distorted. Allegations made by the prosecution were headlined as statements of fact. The Crown Office put up an “advisor” to the media to “interpret” the proceedings. It turned out that the guy had just retired from a full career in SIS (MI6) and was posing as a professor from Glasgow University.
It is worth remembering that the so-called ‘security services’, Special Branch MI5 etc. do not exist to protect the state’s citizens (or rather the King’s subjects – we are not citizens in the UK – we are feudal serfs).
Rather, they exist to protect the state FROM its citizens (or feudal serfs).
Similarly, the police are “His Majesty’s Constabulary” and the Courts are feudal remnants of the Royal Prerogative: Crown Courts (England); The Crown Office (in Scotland) ; His Majesty’s justices.
What the state (which really means the ruling classes and those plutocrats who own them) fears most is the justified anger and retribution of the people (whom they always refer to as ‘the mob’). Hence increasing restrictions on public assembly and demonstrations.
A vital part of that is to restrict knowledge and information – hence the billionaire press and the state broadcaster.
We must never buy the idea that we live in a democracy; all that stuff is mere performance art.
And hence the utter imperative to deal with Assange behind firmly closed doors.
” BUT to me the formation of independent Muslim politicians under a grouping of TMV is as threatening as a openly zionist grouping forming politicians under their respective religious dogma
Where does it all end”
Twathater.
Yes good point, an eye for an eye leaves the world blind as they say, however with both the Labour party hierarchy and the Tory party hierarchy all but supporting the genocide in Palestine what do we expect from the Muslim communities across the UK, for years both mainstream parties have been close to the likes of LFI and CFI both who refuse to name their funders, I think this horrendous and prolonged attack on the already oppressed people of Palestine has brought this action to the fore.
As for Yousaf his calling for a ceasefire is a bright spot in a somewhat lacklustre tenure as FM, here at least he’ll be on the right side of history.
We must act like they failed to do so in the US, all those years ago when their was a call from Washington to register lobby groups with a foreign countries interests at heart to register as foreign agents.
Sturgeon and her acolytes were following the World Economic Forums manifesto to the letter. The destruction of country, culture, health, family, religion, law and order, gender, education, economy, infrastructure, truth, integrity and identity. If you have no borders, no national identity it is easier to assimilate you into a New World/WEF order. The reduction in population size (see Canada MAID programme).
You just have to look at the destruction that is happening in America and Canada, it is a blue print of what has/is happening in Scotland under Sturgeon and her continuity party.
Sturgeons murder of the Scottish people during the Covid mismanagement is why I left the SNP.
Andy Ellis @ 4:46 pm
“Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland all have national police forces”
These independent countries also send far fewer of their people to prison:
(incarceration rates per 100,000 people)
Scotland – 136
Sweden – 76
Denmark – 71
Norway – 56
Finland – 50
Iceland – 39
Northern Ireland, not that long out of a civil war, has 84. Ireland is at 76, which is almost half the Scottish figure.
Most comparable Nordic nations and even near neighbour Ireland therefore have about half or in most cases considerably less than half the Scottish prison level, which suggests some serious failures in this ‘society’ and its governance. Craig Murray’s brutally excessive ‘example’ just one of many it seems.
It is like living in a colonial society, between ‘two cultural and psychical realms’ and where the ‘prisons fill up’ (Fanon). Another clear downside of the ‘Union’ hoax.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/957501/incarceration-rate-in-europe/
Those wishing for a million “new Scots” need only wait for Irish reunification and a million Yoon Prods will be heading for these shores for fear of retribution for four centuries of abuse of power.
The descendants of those Protestant Scots who flocked to the plantations of Ulster in the 17th century will be heading for the Orange Counties of Ayrshire and Lanarkshire to seek out a fresh start, and Westminster will chuck millions at the Scottish Government to ensure it happens, tipping the balance in favour of Unionism for generations.
It might become an India/Pakistan partition equivalent, with Scots families of Irish Catholic origin heading west as the other ‘community’ heads east.
I’m neither Catholic nor Irish, but I’d be tempted to head west… A Republic, in the EU, with a Celtic heart and a language and culture sympathetic to my own? What’s not to like?
Might be the nearest we’ll ever get to an Indy Scotland if half of Norn Ireland heads this way, waving a flute in one hand and a Union Flag in the other.
Andy Ellis @ 7:14 pm
“The franchise used in Scotland in 2014 has been the rule in virtually all self determination referendums since WW2.”
Rubbish. The franchise used in Scotland is a local government franchise based on residence, not nationality. It arrived here via the Scotland Act reflecting the fact Holyrood is the equivalent of a local council, a spending department of Westminster.
Try getting a vote in a referendum in any other country as a resident but not a national, you would be rejected. Even the Belfast Agreement confirmed that only those born in Northern Ireland will get a vote in any referendum there.
Scotland is the odd one out internationally having a dubious franchise imposed on its people which diminishes and weakens its national sovereignty every time, as is the intention. Anyone who supports such a franchise has no interest in protecting or reclaiming Scottish sovereignty, and has no understanding of self-determination.
Hatuey @ 10:23 pm
“Based on memory, correct me if I’m wrong, about 1 in 10 people living in Scotland are from outside of Scotland.”
You may be thinking of the 2011 census. Given in-migration data since it will be well over one million today (20%+) and if you add in ‘extraction’ its probably nearer to two million (30%+).
At least one third of No voters in 2014 (incl the ‘added’ postal votes) were from outside Scotland and it will probably be more than half now.
What do we think happens when a people have no control over their population/borders?
twathater
Ignored says:
4 February, 2024 at 4:00 am
Dan I am with you 100% on your proposals for independent politicos and the methodology to keep them on course, BUT I am against any second chamber unless it contains ordinary people, and people making out that ordinary people are not competent enough to determine what is good for Scotland they are supercilious self absorbed know it alls…
I get it, I really do, but the tragic shortcomings of Scotland’s politicians is unfortunately a global phenomenon. A life in politics, and dare I extend it to the closely related life in Local Government, seems to attract the corrupt and lowest of the low, and politicians having no moral integrity suits Lobbyists to the ground, and thus a political career is born.
I agree, a second chamber, with more of the same, does nothing to affect any improvement.
What Scotland needs is a mechanism to better educate these political types about what their professional and constitutional obligations are, and better yet, have an effective series of protocols to police and address departures from acceptable conduct.
Far be it from me to adopt the ways of Westminster, but there’s a well known phenomenon of the “men in grey suits” who will orchestrate the demise of delinquent politicians who become a liability.
Scotland has no “men in grey suits”. My repeated calls for Sturgeon and Holyrood to be impeached have fallen on deaf ears. When we get a rogue in Holyrood, we have no capacity to impeach or remove them, and worse, we have the puppet masters in Westminster determined to entrench their bogus and unconstitutional “UK” credentials.
Thus the colonial mechanisms of Westminster are embedded ever deeper, while Scotland’s constitutional rights are continually eroded.
The only body of opinion who has even broached this subject is SALVO, where the sovereign Community of the Realm can assemble as a Convention of the Estates, and through that convention, hold to account anyone from Monarch, Lord, Politician, to government flunky. Even the mighty Faculty of Advocates can be held accountable to a Convention of the Estates.
So what prevented a Convention of the Estates being as rigged and corrupt as the Government? That’s a good question. Maybe it was every inch the same Establishment only mechanism seeking power. …. But maybe the fact it wasn’t a permanent Assembly, but effectively a trouble shooting exercise which only assembled itself to address some particular emergency, … maybe this helped to keep it “clean”.
I know, I know, a politician’s elected status and finite term of office is meant to keep them honest, but we all know that’s a pile of baloney.
The immediate question people ask is how do you select who sits on a Convention of the Estates, and how do you codify their power and legitimacy. These are big and important questions for Scotland to address.
Arguably, a public inquiry which recruits laymen as members represents some elements of a Convention of the Estates, (who codifies such Inquiries?), but clearly, a Scottish Convention of the Estates seems to have been a much more powerful body; something akin to the “Martial” Government during a period of Martial Law. (Please don’t focus on the Martial element, my point is only the seizure of control).
Once again, Scotland has the means already at our own disposal, to come together and codify a 21st Century interpretation of a Convention of the Estates, and belatedly set up a Constitutional Watchdog to defend Scotland’s Constitutional integrity and Interests, – since our feckless politicians are manifestly incapable of doing so.
In the holistic realm of Scottish Government, we restrict our capacities to those activities which Westminster Government “approves” of. Instead, we Scots need to resurrect the mechanisms of Scottish Government which Westminster would both fear and dread. We can begin with a much better grasp of the Claim of Right.
Concerning the Claim of Right, the “claim” is ephemeral and situational. The “right” however is the important bit. We, the people, have the Right of Sovereignty, and on the appropriate occasion, we can claim against that right and defend Scotland’s Constitutional ascendancy and superiority.
SALVO has it right. Ok, there are difficulties and complications, it isn’t a panacea, but SALVO would bring us much closer to Scotland’s emancipation than any other agency currently at large.
Hatuey @ 1:23 am
“The numbers aren’t that significant.”
We also have to consider long-term impacts including Scotland’s massive historic out-migration due to the union/annexation. Since census records began over a century ago they tell us of sustained inflows of a professional and managerial class from rest-UK, mainly England, along with excessive out-migration of millions of mostly working class Scots.
Net migration is not the main issue when it comes to self-determination and sovereignty of ‘a people’; rather it is the change in the culture and hence the identity of the people living within the territory. Lets say 50,000 mostly Scots were leaving each year, and 50,000 people mostly of other identities are arriving. This means that the identity of the population is fundamentally changing and will over time ultimately result in an indigenous population becoming a minority in their own land. Scotland is not far off this point.
“I’m inclined to let people be free”
A colonized people are never ‘free’, why do you think ‘a people’ seek self-determination independence/liberation? In a colonial society opportunities are closed off to the bulk of the colonized masses, who are subject to a ‘cultural division of labour’ and oppressive laws limiting their freedoms; hence their historic and excessive out-migration and/or high levels of poverty and deprivation for those who remain, also limiting the ability of people to bring up families, i.e. to reproduce. It is therefore no accident that Scotland’s population is now only growing through in-migration.
Higher level opportunity for the colonized group is mainly restricted to the more assimilated among the privileged bourgeoisie class, hence the role of private/colonial schools, from which some 50% of the elite is derived, with much of the remainder from the ‘mother country’, as census and other data confirms.
Might I suggest a reasoned study of colonial society:
I think Scotland would need some sort of second chamber for matters relating to constitutional/international law/trade laws..
Yer average Joe wouldn’t be expected to know that. The politicians we have don’t even know It! It could work with a revolving type president so no one person becomes engrained.
I think the Swiss would be a good model to look at. Referendums common place.
Cause what would happen in a constituency if 50% agreed & 50% didn’t? GRR for example (just an example of a contentious issue)
The problem is world wide & it’s because of selfish greed. They’re not there to serve anyone but themselves. Sunak is a billionaire. He isn’t there for Westminster – he’ll be like every other no mark that enters Westminster – it’s a launch pad onto bigger & better things already with an eye looking for more lucrative positions.
Brian Doonthetoon
Ignored says:
4 February, 2024 at 10:31 pm
JJ Burnel of the Stranglers is interviewed in The Herald…
….Public figures should check their facts before they utter nonsense. Great Britain, the island, is already split between two countries/kingdoms, Scotland and England….
It is also split in geological terms. Scotland for the most part, (Norway too), belongs to the same tectonic plate as North America, while the rest of the UK belongs to the European plate.
There used be a great ocean, the Iapetus Ocean, between us, until this closed about 500 million years ago, bringing the two parts of the UK into collision.
I don’t mean it in a derogatory way, (From a stonemasonry perspective, I’m a great fan of particular English limestones), but I understand Geologists find Scotland’s geology the more diverse, dramatic, and fascinating of the two. It not oneupmanship, simply that if you’re a geologist, there’s so much to see, you’ll never get bored in Scotland.
So even if Mr Burnell was correct in his hypothesis, the UK “island” actually comprises two completely dissimilar land masses, each with a distinct and separate history.
Vive la difference…
Andy Ellis @ 7:53 am
“which part of this are you having problems understanding”
It is the case that only citizens of Ireland are permitted to vote in referendums there and that is the norm in other countries. Hence allowing citizens of other countries to vote in national referendums in Scotland is not reciprocal.
It is the case that the Belfast Agreement defines ‘the people of Northern Ireland’ as those ‘who were born there’. These are the people who will make the decision on its future.
It is the case that Scotland is treated politically, socially and economically as a colony; however, constitutionally Scotland is a sovereign nation.
It is the case that mostly small island territories remain listed as NSGT colonies by the UN; however this does not alter the fact imperial powers retain their milch cow territories / internal colonies which they avoid listing for decolonization.
I saw Stu’s Twitter feed
“What an unending trainwreck this Alba election has become.”
“Something manifestly shady has happened. Nobody EVER has a good excuse for refusing to publish the results of an election.”
This echoes my own unease. I hope Stu will be publishing a full investigation/explanation piece soon, for ALBA’s sake as I believe members are leaving over this perceived lack of transparency.
The Scottish government (past and present Sturgeon and Yousaf) is performing so badly on running and maintaining ferries in Scotland that the staging post in Scotland Queen Elizabeth House in Edinburgh is monitoring the situation, and even though its a devolved area this staging post is making noises about stepping in after listening to concerns from islanders badly let down by the SNP government with regards to the ferries.
“THE UK Government has said it is “closely” monitoring problems with Scottish ferries – as a Tory minister held a “summit” with CalMac and islanders relying on the service.
Scotland Office Minister John Lamont will host a roundtable meeting on Monday with CalMac chief executive Robbie Drummond and operations director Robert Morrison.
Also taking part are the CalMac Ferries Communities Board, Colonsay Lifeline Transport Group, Arran Ferry Action Group, North Ayrshire and Argyll and Bute Councils, Arran Community Development Trust, Mull and Iona Community Trust, Tobermory Harbour Association, businesses, MSPs and MPs.
In a statement, the Scotland Office said that while powers over ferry services were devolved to Holyrood, UK ministers were “monitoring the situation closely”.”
Republicofscotland @ 3:20 pm
“Scotland Office Minister John Lamont will host a roundtable meeting on Monday with CalMac chief executive Robbie Drummond and operations director Robert Morrison. Also taking part are the CalMac Ferries Communities Board, Colonsay Lifeline Transport Group, Arran Ferry Action Group, North Ayrshire and Argyll and Bute Councils, Arran Community Development Trust, Mull and Iona Community Trust, Tobermory Harbour Association, businesses, MSPs and MPs.”
Yes RoS, the biggest problem we face is that none of these folks (and SG and TS) have any education in maritime business/economics/policy, which means they don’t know what is the best maritime solution.
The solution to Scotland’s permanent ferry and other policy woes simply requires bringing in the best Scottish expertise, instead of relying on ‘British exceptionalism’:
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2021/11/12/how-to-end-the-madness/
John Main @ 4:19 pm
“Ethnic nationalism underpins all decolonisation efforts across the world”
Indeed, this is evident throughout the postcolonial world and associated theory; which tells that an “independence movement depends on the solidarity of the oppressed ethnic group” (Hechter).
And from this we begin to understand that, for there to be an oppressed ethnic group there must also be an oppressor ethnic group and culture.
Hence colonialism, as we know, involves racial oppression against a specific ethnic group through the theft of their territory, plunder of their resources and the obliteration of their culture and language.
This explains why the ethnic group forming the bulk of the Scottish independence movement comprises Scots speaking Scots. Withoot thaim/us thar widna be ony Scottis leeberation muivement an thar widna be ony naitionalist pairties aither.
Dan.
It would appear that Robin McAlpine has caught a glimpse of the bigger picture when he pens this and other parts of his latest excellent post.
Thanks again for the link.
“The Catalans did not factor in any possible outcome other than reasonable compromise on the part of Madrid. That wasn’t just naïve, that was stupid. Their other assumption proved just as unsound – that the European Union was primarily a democracy and so it would come in in support of the Catalans.
This was equally naïve – the European Union is a coalition of nation states who are represented in a Council of Ministers which makes the main decisions, other than those made by the European Commission, a barely-accountable administrative state for the continent. There’s a democratically-elected parliament tacked on too, but no-one pays much attention to that.”
Lets remember the EU is currently standing by as the Zionists commit war crimes in Gaza.
And this also from McAlpine which just reinforces my points.
“The EU sat silent throughout the police violence, was 100 per cent behind Madrid and expressed no discomfort when politicians were jailed for holding a democratic event. The EU only pretends to be a moral body; it is there to represent the interests of governments of nation states and is exactly as moral as those governments.”
Republicofscotland @ 10:37 am
“It would appear that Robin McAlpine has caught a glimpse of the bigger picture”
Yes, he and others may be edging ever closer to realisation of the bigger picture, although its a pity that many pro-indy bourgeois intellectuals have not quite got thair bricht mynds aroond tae understanding our longstanding ‘colonial condition’ and the reality of the situation that: “every colonial nation carries the seeds of fascist temptation in its bosom” (Memmi). Much as Ruby @ 10.41 notes.
A wee bit o theoretical appraisal may help:
..to take pro-indy intellectuals to the required ‘new thinking:
https://peterabell.scot/2023/08/27/the-new-thinking/
ruby, “class” was excised from any “left-wing” political analysis post-Thatcher and replaced by identity politics, mainly because the latter is cheaper and a useful diversion; elites are actually quite into these social agendas, being pervs themselves. Identity politics is no threat to the economic system, but its a zero sum game, for crumbs from the table – and we see, e.g. the feminists and trannies fighting over status.
“identity politics is the leftwing of neoliberalism”
and elites now control “the left” (guardian, labour party, numerous quangos, NGOs)
It was a real nasty sneaky bit of shitfuckery to turn round and declare the working class as “white racists” (BBC, guardian) and thus as moral degenerates, with no place in the new world, who get what they deserve (very protestant attitude). Nowadays when normal working people start to organise we are told it is a threat from the “far right”.
Class isn’t everything, but about 80-90% of it, at least for the discussion of socio-economic matters. When you remove it from the discussion, you can’t really understand anything, like trying to do organic chemistry without the carbon atom.
Being middle class is being part of an invisible support network which makes life so much easier – you need a job, a position, a reference, a backer, finance – you have the contacts. The working class are on their own; this inequality is bedded in through the private school system. Now, supposedly the education system is fair (at point of testing), but one group get a lot better training for the big test. Being working class means having to leap hurdles all your life, and it becomes exhausting.
As for independence, there is a hidden class war embedded in it, which the leaders of, being middle class, do not want to provoke. The middle class in Scotland are half anglo and half Scottish cringe merchants who won’t see their careers (law, business, academia, media) threatened. The middle class are uber-super-thunder-cunts, and the problem in its essence, they fuck everything up and would sell their own grannies for a promotion. They also love to takeover working class organisations and make themselves gatekeepers – they have done the same with indy, e.g. their manifestos and lists of rules of conduct.
– if indy does not materially improve the lives of the Scots, and I mean, the natives, then what is it for? To get the incomers a better deal, to pad the middle class even more? What would be the worth of that? Replacing one tranche of neoliberal managerialism, for a slight variation, does nothing for anyone; poverty with a rainbow badge on it?
The problem with the youth is that they know nothing of this – they were born in a post industrial world and have no clue about what went on before; they are dangerous fuckwits – they think everything comes from a mobile phone and think the government and corporations are there to “enact social justice”. They are deluded on so many levels (“women can have dicks”), a lost generation.
You can always have fun with them – you can really upset a “social justice warrior” by pointing out their enormous class privilege. And one way of hacking back at the trannies and “progressives” is to attack them from a lefter-than-their-left position, e.g. to say :
as a communist, let me say – sex is a biological reality, gender is a social construct, a category of mind, not of reality; gender theory is bourgeois postmodernist fantasy pushed by faux-left middle class reactionaries – in the glorious Soviet Union, such creatures of western decadence and degeneracy, so-called “LGBTQ+ activists” would be sent, rightly, to the gulag to have their counter-revolutionary madness sweated out of them …
– people who react, pavlov style, to slogans and keywords, will hear “reactionary” / “bourgeois” / “counter revolutionary” and instinctively approve, then realising it is aimed at them, become disorientated, lost for an answer.
I wonder if Prince Harry has ever watched the marvellous old film “Kind Hearts and Coronets”?
– what is he, 5th?
revenge is a dish best served cold.
I think the deep problem with Harry is that he believes his mother was murdered; I think he tried to get his bruv in with him, the two of them to get to the bottom it all, pickup the trail of the assassins, using, in time, the full power of the state and its resources. I think they had a big blue pill/red pill showdown.
I might almost feel sorry for the guy, if we forget about the millions of “little people” living in the shit, scraping by; but when you have been on the inside, and now find yourself thrown beyond the castle walls, it is hard. Does he have any real money? Enough to keep his expensive maniac wife happy? He can’t really go off and live in obscurity; what can he do anyway, fly a helicopter? That’s good money, private pilot for the super rich, but he can’t really enter the jobs market.
Over the years the numbers of hangers on has been reduced quite a bit; all these grace and favour residences, and peppercorn rents – didn’t Princess Michael get some sweet deal, 10 quid a year for her flat, then was asked to pay a “commercial rent” of 500K per year?
Primogeniture is a bastard; 800 years ago Harry could at least have grabbed an army and tried to steal a bit of France.
Identity politics destroyed the left, and now it looks to have destroyed indy too.
– who does it serve? Elites, and the middle class.
the cartoon of a while ago, where wokeness is portrayed as a form of neo-puritanism, is very apt, and with a lot of deep connections; I wrote an unpublished comment on it, which was too long, even by Mia’s standards.
– the youth have been infected by this “cult like” mind virus, which has effectively turned them against their own, and ultimately, against their own interests; they are going to be hit hard by what is to come, but they will only realise it once they get out of uni and into the economy, where they will face automation/AI, “gig” work, student debts, irregular income if any, and an inability to ever get on the housing ladder – then it clicks – getting worked up about being a pansexual trans-racial dolphin furry antiracist at 20, was taking your eye off the ball. Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?
Soon enough, almost there already, the only decent “middle class” jobs left (the real work is done by gig workers, computers and technocrats to run the computers) will be these bullshit “non jobs” which involve no skills whatsoever, but are handed out as a prize for loyalty and ideological purity. Getting a job nowadays means a complex kabuki theatre, of being able to say the right things, use the right words, even the civil service has moved away from “competency based criteria” for hiring and into their own thing, something called, “success profiles” (- pretend to be disabled to guarantee an interview, then once in there, spew as much woke garbage as you can). But the trouble is – there will never be enough of these grifter-roles to go round, the ordinary footsoldiers will have to suck it up.
The middle class are good at climbing the ladder, then kicking it over once at the top. They are also great at getting into places then holding the door open for others of their class and mindset. They are the sand in the vaseline, the sugar in the petrol tank, always stodging it all up.
anton, govanhill seems to me to be a “lab experiment”/petri dish, for the most extreme ideas; it acts as a containment zone, and I note there seems to be an official “silence” about it all, apart from how “vibrant” it all is. I am lucky to live in the “anti Govanhill”, but it has problems of its own, awash in dirty money, expensive housing, and the whole place is infested with criminals, the successful types who have escaped the “mean streets” and now legitimised themselves.
@Confused (1.01) –
Bravo.
If The Uber-Super-Thunder-Cunts and The Dangerous Fuckwits wasn’t an actual band in the late 70s, it should’ve been.
It looks like there’s widespread resistance from lawyers to the Scottish governments madcap juryless trials scheme, and so there should be. For me this hairbrained scheme is all about getting the conviction rates up at the expense of a fair trial by a jury and evidence led cases.
“Simon Brown, vice president of the Scottish Solicitors Bar Association (SSBA), said that more than 97 per cent of his organisation were opposed to the move and would not take part in such trials.
He made clear that lawyers could not be compelled to take part in the Scottish Government’s proposed pilot scheme for judge-only trials for rape and attempted rape cases
Brown told MSPs on Holyrood’s Criminal Justice Committee it was the pilot for judge-only trials in rape and attempted rape cases that they were concerned about.
With more than 400 lawyers in the SSBA, he said the organisation was “currently polling at over 97 per cent of our members refusing to take part”.
He added: “We can’t see any avenues that the criminal legal bar would be prepared to take part in such a pilot scheme.””
You only have to look at what happened to Craig Murray with regards to a juryless trial. Also would Alex Salmond have been acquitted without a jury?
Republicofscotland @ 4:21 pm
“All EU nations should be calling for a ceasefire, and threatening to impose sanctions”
Yes, it would not be the first time international ports and dock labour unions have refused to handle ships bound for Israel. At least one country decided not to wait on the ICJ decision. In December 2023 the Malaysian Government rescinded its permit for Zim, the Israeli national carrier, to use their ports, responding to “Israel’s actions that ignore basic humanitarian principles and violate international law” in the 2023 Israel-Hamas war. However various global shipping lines still maintain direct calls at Israeli ports, such as Denmark’s Maersk and Taiwan’s Evergreen, and Borchard Line from UK.
There is a totally different UK response to the Ukraine conflict whereby:
“Russian ships have been banned from UK ports, following a fresh raft of UK sanctions against Russia today. The ban includes any vessels owned or operated by anyone connected to Russia and authorities will also gain new powers to detain Russian vessels.
Additional economic measures, introduced by the Foreign Secretary today, including against the Russian Central Bank and the state’s sovereign wealth fund, also mean the majority of Russia’s financial system is now covered by UK sanctions.”
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