Delighted that the popular upsurge in Scotland has been reflected in the polls and the mainstream media have started to notice it is happening. There is no doubt that unless the No campaign can find a game-changer (and a curiously untraceable person throwing an egg at Jim Murphy isn’t it), then the people of Scotland are going to seize their chance to escape from neo-con domination and create their own society.
But I also have no doubt the establishment are not going to accept this lightly. They are not simply going to let Scotland’s people walk away with Scotland’s resources. They have yet to make serious use of their most frequent instrument of population control – the “War on Terror”.
The scene has already been set. Cameron has already told parliament that ISIS, or the Caliphate as it calls itself (I always think it is better to call people what they call themselves, rather than some made-up name) poses a major and imminent threat to the UK. Jack Straw is back on Radio 4 saying that Britain must bomb Iraq, as though the very cause of the Caliphate was not the last time he invaded Iraq. Saudi Arabia, which funded and still funds the Caliphate, is giving warnings to the security services of planned attacks in the UK.
The truth is that everybody who has ever carried out an actual Islamic terror attack in the UK (of which there have been very few indeed) has stated that they did so because of British bombings and invasions of Muslim countries – a fact which is very plainly true. The notion that the way to stop this is to bomb or invade Muslim countries is quite incredible.
I fear that we will shortly see arrests of young Muslims in Glasgow and Edinburgh. We will be told they were planning to detonate a dirty nuclear bomb in George Square, or convert the Scott Monument into a giant ballistic missile using fertiliser and Irn Bru. We will be told that only the UK security services have saved Scotland from destruction. The media hype will be on a par with the liquid bomb plot. Like the liquid bomb plot, when it turns out to have been non-existent the media will not tell you that. Anyway the referendum will be over by the time the story is debunked.
In truth, of course, an independent Scotland which does not invade other countries will be a safer place than the continually aggressive and murderous United Kingdom.
It has been reported that ‘Liquid Bomb Plot’ came out of confessions obtained by torture, with MI6 & Bangladeshi involvement.
I’ve always thought that was the weakest part of the no campaign actually. The argument of security. If they focus on that I think it smells of desperation.
The no campaign should stick to economics/lack of a plan to implement an independent scottish currency.
Smells like the referendum is going to go to the wire.
If Scots distance themselves from Westminster’s warmongering in Iraq, Syria and Libya by voting for Scottish independence, wouldn’t that make Scotland less of a target for terrorism?
I wish I lived in Scotland and could vote for independence. The UK has limited independence as currently configured. Most of our important decisions are made by Washington or Brussels.
” In truth, of course, an independent Scotland which does not invade other countries will be a safer place than the continually aggressive and murderous United Kingdom. ”
Strange, in the past you’ve argued that the threat from terrorists in the UK is close to non-exisratant so just how much more safer can Scotland be?
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/03/as-big-as-terrorism/
if the yes campaign win the referendum you and the supporters of a so called free Scotland will have to confront the same problem that the system you will have operate in is still in tact .the laws of Capitol will still control the structure of the Scottish state the countries you interact with will be goverened with these laws so the future that has been projected for the Scottish peaple I predict will not happen.the small elite who have the wealth will retain their ill gotten gains while the majority will still compete with fellow workers in the race to the bottom.
At least some good news. Hopefully very good news. Ceasefire in Ukraine announced by Poroshenko:
http://rt.com/news/184716-poroshenko-ceasefire-ukraine-putin/
Mainstream media must be in total disarray about this…
Off the point, I know, but remembering all the fuss a few weeks ago about the start of the First World War – all the celebration of the start of a carnage. Today is the anniversary of the UK’s entry into WW2, but not a peep in the media! I know it’s not the centenary but just nothing after all the glory of WW1?
Perhaps in an independent Scotland we’ll be close enough to our own movers and shakers to ensure a bit of consistency if not honesty!
@Len: start of ww2 (exactly 75 years ago today…) obviously doesn’t fit the current agenda.
Sorry O/T but this needs to get out there
http://www.oilandgaspeople.com/news/1039/scottish-west-coast-untapped-oil-and-gas-reserves-worth-trillions/
And they’ve just other ordered a puckle tanks, ?why. Bairns suffering malnutrition and they squander billions, disgusting grrrr.
I’ve been waiting for the last shoe to drop, scary
I wonder if the sudden readiness of the MSM to report a swing in favour of YES is a tactic. Until recently they have projected a comfortable win for NO with the implication that YES voters are losers. Perhaps Westminster recognise that this strategy is failing, is encouraging apathy in the NO vote. Perhaps they calculate now is the time to scare NO voters to the poll stations and encourage complacency in the YES vote.
From the outset I have believed this, expressed in exactly those words. The way to understand the sense of Project Fear is to invert it: all the losses and dangers of separation are to rUK, not Scotland.
There is much puzzlement that Westminster says it has made no contingency plans in the event of Scottish independence, while Cameron continues to preach from a distance but evade engagement in debate. One interpretation of this sang froid is that there is a determination that independence will simply not be permitted. The question arises as to how it will be prevented if the Scots vote for it, as now seems likely. There are a number of ways that this might be done.
(1) Rig the poll so it turns out No anyway
(2) Claim the poll is too small (retrospectively apply the 40% rule)
(3) Renege on the Edinburgh Agreement (EA) immediately if it’s still a Yes vote
(4) Make a muddle of independence negotiations, then renege on EA
(5) Offer only a settlement which will be wholly unacceptable to Scots (e.g. Ireland, Serbia)
(6) Manufacture a crisis and kick independence negotiations into the long grass
There are plenty of options short of planting bombs in shopping malls and blaming the Caliphate – a strategy which could rebound badly, like the Kilmainham executions.
Node, that is exactly what I thought. Seem to recall when New Labour first came to power in what was clearly going to be a landslide similar tactics were used to ensure the maximum majority
“The truth is that everybody who has ever carried out an actual Islamic terror attack in the UK (of which there have been very few indeed) has stated that they did so because of British bombings and invasions of Muslim countries – a fact which is very plainly true.”
Yes. But also true is that the greatest terrorist threats to the UK over the last 50 years have been domestic. I don’t see any great threat to an Independent Scotland from Islam but independence could well greatly increase the threat of sectarian terrorism.
Fred,
It actually surprised me that the NI situation did not really spill over into the West of Scotland. The fact that it didn’t makes me think that it is unlikely to suddenly explode if we vote ‘yes’ to independence. If there wasn’t enough emotional capital when the whole thing was at it’s peak, it is hardly likely to arise now.
@node, Uzmark
For a long time our canvass returns have been showing much higher support for Yes than the polls suggest (we almost never see No ahead) even allowing that we see unweighted raw data. There has been an even more marked surge in the last few days which no poll will have picked up. A strong factor in this has been the public debates: not so such the argument and counter-argument, but the half-consciously perceived difference between the protagonists: ambitious idealists on one side, most of them not politicians – drearily predictable careerists and apparatchiks on the other. The atmosphere around the No campaign is noxious and people are recoiling from it.
Craig, can you prove that there has been a single incident of a real Islamic terror attack in the UK ever? Surely you don’t still believe the 7/7 bombings were not staged.
A timely appearance by Fred to illustrate “drearily predictable careerists and apparatchiks”
Well anything is possible, but The neocon Terrorists have just suffered the most Amazing Defeat in The Ukraine. Their credibility will be in tatters – and it is likely to only get worse for them as serious questions are asked.
Tony
“It actually surprised me that the NI situation did not really spill over into the West of Scotland.”
If Scotland had been independent at the time it could well have. It spilled over into the Republic.
Vronsky
I should say 4 and 5 are certain. The others range from possible to probable.
The British hostage referred to in the Sotloff video posted by ISIS is apparently Scottish, with a military background, and recently resident in Croatia (his wife’s homeland).
http://www.vocativ.com/world/isis-2/david-cawthorne-haines-isis-threatens-kill-third-man/#!bOZ5fk
Summerhead
“Craig, can you prove that there has been a single incident of a real Islamic terror attack in the UK ever? Surely you don’t still believe the 7/7 bombings were not staged.”
The bombers filmed themselves describing their intentions and their reasons for carrying out the attacks. I would have thought that alone proves they were responsible.
Scotland’s great fortune is the peaceful nature of the debate. Any terrorist style incident thus has no plausible background. It will be seen as a secret service intervention by many – even, ironically, if it is genuine!
As for the CIA – if independence wins in Scotland, it will have been thanks to the internet and personal conversations, the same method that has thoroughly exposed the CIA’s tactics over the last decade. They and Westminster may try something underhand, but it will be hard for them to do it in secret.
Craig, not on UK soil but many Brits died – what do you believe to have been the justification for the 9/11 attacks?
@Tony:
I spoke too soon. Here’s the latest from the Ukranian PM:
“Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk says Russia is a “terrorist state” and is waging war in eastern Ukraine, Reuters reports. Ukraine is planning to construct a wall, or “real state border”, between Ukraine and Russia, he adds.”
BBC live updates 11:08
Project Terror: Military buildup in regional capital –
here
‘A timely appearance by Fred to illustrate “drearily predictable careerists and apparatchiks”’
Here come the Nationalist thugs with their personal attacks.
The SNP may be wooing the Catholics now but in an independent Scotland after those Catholics realised they had been shafted things could turn nasty.
In Ireland the Nationalists are Catholic and the Unionists Protestant. In Scotland the Unionists are Protestant and the Nationalists even more Protestant.
George Galloway is Catholic, Alex Salmond is CoS.
In 2001 16% of the population of Scotland were Catholic, 28% of the prison population. Social injustice is a motive for terrorist acts.
Al Milliner
Yes, they were led to make those martyrdom videos by Rashid Rauf, who was being run by the CIA and Pakistani intelligence agencies. No mention at all in the videos of liquid bombs, or airplanes. There is reference, as always, to western occupation of Muslim countries.
It is perfectly possible for agents provocateurs or genuine militants to ramp up uneducated, misled and possibly unpleasant people to say all sorts of stupid things. In no sense do these videos prove the existence of a liquid bomb plot.
Fred
I fear you are losing the plot. Alex Salmond being a member of the Church of Scotland and George Galloway being a Catholic in no sense makes the independent movement a sectarian one. The idea that an independent Scotland would take some kind of action against Catholics is, frankly, absolutely bonkers.