Inspirational meeting in Linlithgow last night. Wonderful people. Biggest applause of the evening for my suggestion that on the day of Independence, we seize the Trident nuclear missiles, dismantle them and refuse to give them back! A very bright audience, including some genuine undecideds. Everywhere I am especially cheered by the sheer determination of people to ensure they are not cheated by ballot-rigging, and their very wakeful understanding of the possibilities. It is not just a question of observers at the counts; there has been a groundswell to organise for ballot boxes to be followed from polling stations through to the count, which is essential but seldom done.
I confess to a boosted ego having been photographed and asked for my autograph frequently yesterday, something I am not used to! I have metamorphosised into “that man off youtube”, as the patronising BT woman would say, were she not living in the 1950s.
Despite the new media meme that all supporters of independence are evil Nazis, I really think we are going to win this. Communities are coming together to discuss how they wish to be governed, and an independent Scotland is going to bring a major change from current hierarchical political and economic structures. This truly is a revolutionary moment.
Well it’s been a while since politics has been as exciting as this!
Well done to the brave Scottish people. Their struggle for peace and justice is an inspiration to us all. In a political desert of lies, violence, inequality and faux democracy, Scotland is emerging as an oasis of human decency and political freedom. No wonder our odious ‘masters’ are in a panic.
Westminster’s Thatcherite consensus is under threat as never before. Your struggle is our struggle. Your victory a victory for humanity.
Alex Salmon a persuasive and calm speaker on the Today programme this morning.
Interesting watching this from the outside. Initially I was a strong NO vote, but after a few weeks I’m wondering why we haven’t gone through a similar process in England?
Has anyone noticed that UK politicians are finally paying attention to Scotland.
If I was Scottish, I’d make the independence referendum a yearly event !
The assault on the yes campaign by the press has been vicious. Dishonest, malicious, childish, overbearing. Above all the condescension towards the Scots shown by Westminster has been astonishing. To me, that comes over above all. What a way to try and persuade people to your point of view! Still, they have revealed how they truly view Scotland and it’s people.
AussieP 9.41am
Cheers,nice one mate :.)
Amos
“… I would make the independence referendum a yearly event !”
Thanks for that; but I hope that it happens only once in my lifetime. I have been waiting for this day since April 1966, and I want to see it done and dusted, with no need for a rerun.
There will still be enough excitement in following the nuts & bolts of getting the new nation up and running.
Let’s wait and see what happens. Voters may think carefully about the future and vote No!
@Abe – or perhaps they will think even more carefully about the future and vote Yes!
Sagely advice as always, Abe. Not!
Dismantling Trident is a great idea. The trigger-happy military would probably shoot anyone who tried, and yet it is the right thing to do: swords into ploughshares. There should be no port in the UK prepared to take these offensive weapons because wherever they are based it poses a threat to the community. In the event of a nuclear attack the ports with weapons are the most likely targets. Why have people let this go on so long?
What a great opportunity for intellect to triumph over brute force.
“Sagely advice as always, Abe. Not!”
Typical isn’t it, the implication that you have to be swivel eyed to want to run your own country and that somehow the Union position is the default gold standard in some way. No need to explain why, it just is. Such a patronising position and it appears as George Monibot suggests many may be suffering from system justification.
Well to “that man off Youtube”, I’d like to say a big thanks.
Your knowledge of what really motivates the UK at its highest levels has certainly helped me in discussions with voters, to explain that we could be living in a better society. We might be able to guess or speculate. With your testimony we can point to specific examples.
People are looking for a country where when we talk about “decency” and “fair play”, we actually mean it.
So thank you for your valuable contribution, Craig.
“on the day of Independence, we seize the Trident nuclear missiles, dismantle them and refuse to give them back!”
Then kick the royal scroungers out of Balmoral.
Fuck Izzard, Snow and Geldolf. They are a joke. Most of the London I know wishes for an independent Scotland as a catalyst to threaten the murderous, greedy, elitist establishment. It’s the only show in town.
Let’s wait and see what happens. Voters may think carefully about the future
and vote No!FIFY, Your Majesty. Remember, you’re not supposed to get involved?
The prospectus, Scotland’s Future was published almost a year ago. The Yes campaign coalesced round it, broadly in support of its detail, sometimes adding other stands and policies they felt were needed but remaining positive throughout.
In reply Westminster with two days to go points to a sweetie bag as though we were some naughty child. It is just a tease for we cannot even be sure if it contains sweets, what flavour they will be and when we might be given it. However, we do know it contains nuclear weapons.
Delighted you had a great reception in Linlithgow. You fully deserve it. Followed your great blog for months and hope you continue with it matter the outcome of the referendum.
We will know the actual result soon. Bubbles of alternative reality can be deceptive. I remember in the US supporters of Mitt Romney were equally confident, ignored the opinion polls, and look what happened to them. But anyway it will be an interesting morning on Friday.
It is the Eve of Bannockburn and the day before we need all Scots to think about well and hard about History, our in this case Oorstory.
Now is the time to recall Scotia’s glory, our great Kings and charismatic Queen Mary Stuart who was entangled by English agents provocateurs to plot her gory death. Now is the time to recall the Highland Clearances, which burned hundred of thousands of Scottish homes and crofts to make way for sheep on the vast estates of uncaring absent English landlords. In my own life I have been offered nineteen and sixpence for a Scots pound note while on a visit to London as a child ( I went to a bank instead!) I have been called “Scotty” more times than the actor on Startrek. I don’t dignify these slights as racist, just anti-Scottish. A lot of Scots have similar stories to add to Oorstory.
We all have our own reasons to wish to see Scotland achieve her Independence tomorrow.
I shall be praying for a classic textbook win. Scots, tomorrow you must remember your manners, be patient and calm and be gracious in triumph. Saint Margaret will be watching over you all.
God Speed Scotland on its journey into the light.
Victory and Freedom for the Scots!
Just checked out Ladbrokes:
Put a tenner on Yes and you win £35
Put a tenner on No and you win £2
Watching the watchers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb1TtoFupZY
Good luck everyone!
Craig,
If you are in Edinburgh over the next few days and can spare a bit of time to visit the Yes shop in Newington Road,we would be delighted to see you.
Whatever the outcome,thanks for everything.
“The NHS is the single greatest achievement of any government this country has ever had. In a recent survey of healthcare systems the NHS ranked the best in the world. It was rated the most efficient, the best value for money and the best for results. All that has been achieved within the NHS is now at risk as the coalition has begun to privatise the service to allow American healthcare companies to profit from the sick people of England.”
Courtesy Hugh Wallace
https://arewebettertogetherscotland.wordpress.com/
Coalition Squeeze on NHS is Literally Killing People
Cancer services have been weakened by the coalition’s shakeup of the NHS and lack the money to cope with the growing number of people getting the disease, a report claims. [Harpal Kumar, Cancer Research UK chief executive]
Diagnostic and treatment services are under such strain that improvements in recent years are in danger of unravelling, according to the charity Cancer Research UK. Its findings are based on anonymous interviews with 45 leading cancer experts and an online survey of 450 other NHS cancer personnel.
Specialists have been struggling to keep up with the rising demand for care at the same time as their budgets have shrunk amid the NHS’s £30bn efficiency drive, it says.
The NHS’s failure to meet its target for treating cancer patients quickly enough for the last six months may be a sign of deepening problems in the years ahead, the charity predicts.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/sep/08/cancer-coalition-nhs-health-service-budgets
For Scottish males, the most common cancers are prostate, lung and colorectal cancers, collectively accounting for 52% of cancers in men.
For females, the most common cancers are breast, lung and colorectal cancers, accounting for 56% of cancer in women.
A significant, increasing trend for Scotland’s females (8% increase)
[Information Services Division
NHS National Services Scotland]
“Despite the new media meme that all supporters of independence are evil Nazis…”
The nationalism is only the symptom, the problem is the inherent socialism.
All socialist systems become totalitarian. Under the guise of equality, they empower the weak, whilst licensing the strong. The caring bureaucracy thus evolves symbiotically with their enfeebled clientèle. Hence spontaneous industry, hobbled by taxes, and starved of natural talent by the imposition of cuckoo-quotas, will be displaced by a controlled economy. Once impoverished, the socialist State is free to subvert democracy in perpetuity by hiring the hungry and the meek, to inherit their vote.
You deserve all credit Craig and whatever laurels are being presented.
Thanks for giving us a ‘voice’ too.
Do you cut and paste your own voice, Mary?
I agree Mark. From visiting the local district general hospital with a friend, I learn that the staff and machines in the radiotherapy department are working at 140% of capacity. The clinics and diagnostic scanning department are similarly overwhelmed with patients coming from three other surrounding counties yet the staff are amazingly cheerful, positive, hard working and show nothing but loving care and kindness. They are exploited of course. Not one of the pocket pols would be capable of doing such work.
Would you like a Glasga kiss Jimmy?
Do deep fried mars bars, taste the same if they’ve been fried in the same fat as the fish?
….will be displaced by a controlled economy
We all appreciate the superior qualities of an uncontrolled economy, don’t we?
(rolls on floor laughing Lehmann’s off)
Personally I favour humanitarian pragmatism over the other isms. If you haven’t heard of it that’s because I just invented the term (I think). And I think that’s where, deo volente, Scotland will go.
Mary gushes :
“You deserve all credit Craig and whatever laurels are being presented.
Thanks for giving us a ‘voice’ too.”
__________________
All credit for what, Mary? For using his blog to support the Yes campaign? I recommend awaiting the outcome of the referendum before gushing.
So you wouldn’t have had a “voice” without this blog? That is really very feeble of you.