This blog is severely hampered by flu. I hate flu. In a globe-trotting life I have had a number of illnesses that became life threatening – peritonitis, typhoid, cholera, cerebral malaria, pulmonary embolism, pulmonary hypertension (thankfully misdiagnosed) severe arrhythmia. I was once declared dead and awoken by a cockroach eating my nostril as I lay naked on a corpse trolley in Kaduna. I refuse to die because of the thought of the people – Jack Straw, Islam Karimov, Alisher Usmanov, Tony Blair, John Reid etc – whose day I know would be momentarily brightened by news of my demise. But for sustained misery and feeling really, really awful and uncomfortable, a week with the flu, while not nearly as dangerous, is pretty well as unpleasant, at least to me.
As I lie in a sweaty bed, my thought are perhaps unsurprisingly not happy and light. I am paying keen attention to all the proposals for how to move forward the Independence movement after that check, and am struck by all the calls to reach out to No voters and bring them in.
I have no idea how to reach out to No voters because I find the majority of them stupid beyond my understanding. This is not because they desired an end result different to that I desired. That is a perfectly legitimate choice. It is because, by voting No, they are going to get an end result which is not what they wanted at all, and that was very obvious. Asking me to reach out to these unbelievably thick people is like asking me to go for a drive with someone who, against my advice, drove the wrong way down a motorway, causing a lot of people to get hurt as a result.
Through their No vote they are going to get five more years of Tory rule – which most of them absolutely did not want. And it is going to be Tory rule that lurches further and further to the right. It seems no proposition was too right wing to be applauded to the rafters by the Tory Conference.
Tax cuts for the rich. Benefit cuts for the poor. Openly declared government in the interests of multinational corporations. Censorship of the internet and severe restrictions on freedom of speech. The government intercepting all communications. Even more detention without trial. Permanent war in the Middle East. Leaving the European Convention on Human Rights and in consequence the Council of Europe – the first country to leave the body set up in 1946 to prevent the rise again in Europe of just the sort of proto-fascist measures the Tories wish to impose. To be followed by leaving the European Union.
All of these are direct consequences for Scotland of the No vote. This is much more profound than the entirely predictable and immediate dishonouring of the pledges on Devo-Max by Cameron, Clegg, Miliband and Brown. Brown’s call for a petition to request him to work for what he assured the electorate was already “a done deal” is beyond contempt. It should do for his reputation what the tuition fee betrayal did for Nick Clegg.
Frankly I have no interest in any devolution measures that do not give Scotland control of its oil and whisky revenues, and those are not on offer. But there were people who voted No – 23% of No voters them according to Ashcroft – because they wanted the promised pretend “powers”. Well, you are not going to get those either.
Mostly, of course, those stupid No voters acted under the crass assumption, against all modern precedent, that the opposition could win a general election from a position of just 2 per cent ahead, eight months out. And the even more incredible belief that the Labour Party was still in some significant way different from the Conservative Party.
The consequences of what is coming will fall disproportionately on the poor, with even greater escalation of the UK’s astonishing wealth gap. There will be still more damage to the social fabric that Scots hold dear.
Now there are hard-hearted right wingers in Scotland, in the Tory Party and the leadership of the Labour Party, who wanted everything that is coming in terms of neo-con policy prescription. Those No voters who are wealthy and successful and want to get ahead further on the backs of the poor, made the correct intellectual choice to achieve their ends. They are deeply unpleasant sociopaths, but they are not stupid.
But those No voters who voted No because they believed a fair and caring society was achievable within the present structures of the UK, are so stupid I am astonished that their cerebral cortex can transmit a signal that sparks respiration. They are probably not capable of ever noticing their error.
I am not going to reach out to you, No voter. You are either evil, or quite extraordinarily thick. You will forever be a long way beneath my notice. This will be the last thought I ever give you. To quote a great line from Casablanca:
Peter Lorre: You despise me, don’t you Rick?
Humphrey Bogart: If I gave you any thought, I probably would.
BREAKING NEWS
The Russian rouble hits a new low against the USD dollar today.
So much for all those on here advising buying BRICs currencies!
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Buy €, £, $ and shekels, dump reals, roubles, renminbis and rupees.
Mr Scorgie
“Habbabkuk (La vita è bella) !
5 Oct, 2014 – 8:30 pm
“That might just be because Abon1 remembers your reaction…”
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Stop answering for other people Habbabkuk it is the height of bad manners.”
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Then why do you do it all the time, Doug?
I suggest we ask Anon1 to hear if he objects.
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Habbabuk for good cheer, fellowship and mutually beneficial cooperation.
Hardly breaking news Habba.You been asleep ?
I see the point Fred. My concern is that you can’t fundamentally change the complexion of government without top-down revamping. If you approach it as you suggest, the worthy goal is too easily side-stepped by the opposition of a minority of people with a majority of the wealth.
My suggestions will never happen because it involves a complete re-boot of the political process and change within bureaucracy is plodding and incremental. Short of all-out voter rebellion, united in short and long-term goals, it ain’t gonna happen. I was asking about your idea because it seemed to be a baby-step, but babies get their candy stolen by politicos.
Then why do you do it all the time, Doug?
I suggest we ask Anon1 to hear if he objects.
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Habbabuk for good cheer, fellowship and mutually beneficial cooperation.
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The chief shill and useful idiot speaks out.
“Helena Brown”
“…I also would bet on the fact that Fred (not much of a Scots Name that, Fred)”
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Is that why you chose “Helena (Kennedy)(Gordon) Brown, you old sock-puppet?
🙂
Mr Scorgie
I have asked you twice for the identity of your “academic” and a link to the quote.
“Twice you have ignored me.
That suggests that, either you made the quote up yourself or you don’t want to identify the individual because he’s a raving lunatic of the swivel-eyed loon version and perhaps a UKIP supporter.
Please have the courtesy to answer.
Note to Habbabkuk; keep your neb out.”
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You’ve ignored me, bwahahaha. Grow up, Doug, or get a thicker skin.
He’s probably ignored you, Doug, because you have form in asling people for references and sources and then telling us you “couldn’t be arsed to read them”.
I would have ignored you as well.
DonnyDarkside
“Fred isn’t a Scot,he just lives in Scotland.He dislikes the place and the people and lives in fear on a croft where he reads Craigs blog from morning to night spouting his contempt for anything Independence oriented…blah, blah, blah zzzzz”
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A quick look at any thread (number and length of posts)reveals that Fred spends far less of his time on this blog than Captain Komodo-Baal (cashiered), RepublicOfPerspriringDreams, Tony_M and several others. Less time than you as well, for that matter.
Go back to Vienna and sit on a Strudel.
Israel has hit out at Sweden’s newly elected prime minister Stefan Loefven over his decision to recognise a Palestinian state.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that he regrets that the new prime minister was in a hurry to make statements on Sweden’s position regarding recognition of a Palestinian state, apparently before he had time even to study the issue in depth,” Lieberman’s office quoted him as saying, in a statement issued late Saturday.
It added that Sweden’s ambassador to Israel, Carl Magnus Nesser, will be invited for a talk at the foreign ministry in Jerusalem, but did not say when.
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Now the genocidal monsters are attacking Sweden’s position, one which will recognise Palestine as state. Stefan Loefven, should tell them to f*ck off.
http://news.yahoo.com/israel-chides-swedish-pm-over-palestinian-state-060755792.html
A quick look at any thread (number and length of posts)reveals that Fred spends far less of his time on this blog than Captain Komodo-Baal (cashiered), RepublicOfPerspriringDreams, Tony_M and several others. Less time than you as well, for that matter.
Go back to Vienna and sit on a Strudel.
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The useful idiot doesn’t know when to shut up.
“The way Tony can work a room, or an individual sucker, given that sincerity and empathy are completely foreign to his nature, indicates superb theatrical ability. He should be at the Old Vic, where his talents would be put to constructive use and he would be unable to harm anyone. Or maybe Hollywood, starring in cheap action movies.”
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Baal Zevul’s comment reminds me of something one of BLiar’s schoolmasters (or it may have been his Housemaster)said to one of BLiar’s biographers, viz, the key to understanding the man is to know that he is a consummate actor.
Yesterday, 300 orphans staged a protest following the demolition of Al-Rayyan Dairy Factory, north of Hebron, which occurred in the early hours of 1st September 2014.
The future of the children remains unclear as the two orphanages they live in, the Hebron Charity House for Girls and The Hebron Charity House for Boys, are dependent on the profits made by the dairy factory. Both the orphanages and the dairy factory are owned by the Islamic Charitable Society.
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Are there no limits to evil these genocidal will go to, wake up world and stop these devils now.
http://palsolidarity.org/2014/09/orphans-protest-demolition-of-dairy-factory/
Robert Serra was a rising star in Venezuela’s ruling socialist party, a young “Chavista” lawmaker for whom great things were predicted. But in what officials described as a carefully planned murder with no obvious suspects, he was killed in his home this week.
“This is not a random incident committed by common criminals, this is an intentional homicide, planned and executed with great precision,” said Venezuela’s Interior and Justice Minister, Rodriguez Torres, after Mr Serra’s brutal murder on Wednesday, the latest high-profile violent death in a country blighted by violent crime.
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Sniff Sniff, yip smells like CIA alright.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/mystery-as-rising-star-of-venezuelan-politics-killed-in-perfect-murder-9773629.html
Republicofscotland
“Now the genocidal monsters are attacking Sweden’s position, one which will recognise Palestine as state. Stefan Loefven, should tell them to f*ck off.”
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Don’t tell us, matey, tell the Swedish Prime Minister!
Have you emailed him with your advice? You can, you know!
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Talk the talk, but walk the walk…?
Now this is a good idea.
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/smartcards-for-mps-expense-accounts
@Ben
It was just a little hypothetical discussion I was having on another thread, I wasn’t thinking of starting any campaigns or trying to change the world or anything. It isn’t all that important.
“It isn’t all that important.”
ok.
Deepgreenpuddock
Dominant economic class perspectives always inform and influence environmental policy. Not only that but criteria used to make judgments about the projected outcomes of the environmental policy are efficiency criteria (CBA and so on) which are limited in terms of social justice, because these criteria estimate utility so the likes of ecological values are not accounted for. Centralized policy measures deliver disproportionately across sectors and activities and can not build upon institutional capacity, social capital no less business opportunities. Place based policy is the only way to move towards a sustainable future. Centralization and sectoralism are at the root of environmental degradation, so unless the governing party, who ever they are, are prepared to devolve power to communities then nothing will change. Sadly.
Brian Fujisan
Blow Fukushimo up! Craig was obviously pissed on Scotch when he posted the tripe above about not forgiving the NO-ters.
A drunk man looks at a thistle…
I thought you were supposed to be a polite man.. maybe the fumes..?
Read the genocidal sermon a notable Atlanta rabbi gave this Rosh Hashanah.
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Last Thursday Rabbi Shalom Lewis of Congregation Etz Chaim in the Atlanta suburb of Marietta, Georgia gave what can only be understood as a call to genocide in his Rosh Hashanah sermon to welcome in the Jewish new year. The sermon, republished in full below, calls for a war on Islam and Muslims worldwide. Lewis says a “holy crusade” against Islam is needed to”exterminate it utterly and absolutely.”
Rabbi Lewis’s bio on the Etz Chaim website says his “religious services are a stimulating, uplifting blend of the past and the present. Whether on the bima or in his office, he generates a caring warmth.” Yet, this is not his first foray into racist and inciteful rhetoric. Three years ago Rabbi Lewis gave a very similar sermon on Rosh Hashanah, again attacking Muslims and comparing them to Nazis. In fact he fashions this speech as a sequel to the earlier one.
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Monster raving lunatics, just about sums up the ideology.
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/10/genocidal-atlanta-hashanah
This piece confronts the accusations of blind nationalism which tainted the referendum campaign: notes that the impetus for independence is as much the recognition that the larger parent state has lost its way as anything else, and makes other salient points. Suggested reading for all participants in the debate.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/05/catalonia-independence-more-than-nationalism
…radical mindset changes on investment,migration, public service provision and innovation need to happen…
(And that’s the OECD talking.)
just got back after celebrating Yom Kippur Habbz.
http://www.schweizerhaus.at/#!/page_home
“Az men est khazer, zol es shoyn rinen ibern moyl.”
DonnyDarko
Hope you got your money out of roubles in time!
DonnyDarko
If you did, for Heaven’s sake don’t out it into rupees or reals! Wouldn’t like to see you on those reduced state benefits!
DonnyDarko
But I’m sure your hero Mr Putin has HIS money safely in $,£, € and perhaps even shekels. He’s a clever man.
Mr Scorgie
Isn’t it time for another of your Socratic questions?
Or, failing that, another of your twee little quips?
Or perhaps just another whopper…..?
Your choice, but do hurry up, “you’re missed” as the saying goes. 🙂
@Horace de Bussey Jones at 2.01am. There should certainly be far closer supervision of the vote counting processes, together with tight control over postal ballots. Neither are easy to achieve. Postal ballots have the added disadvantage that if they are completed and sent before polling day, the voter may be unable to take account of late developments in the campaign – as in the Scottish Referendum, with the three main parties’ last-minute “vow” to devolve more powers to the Scottish Parliament. I hope we soon get clarity about the strange suggestion that some of the postal ballots were “sampled” before the end of polling-day. See @ Node at 10.52 am.
Craig and the vast majority of campaigners on both sides have not argued that fraud was a decisive factor in the outcome. My guess is that there was some fraud, but less than in recent General Elections. Labour has probably encouraged or connived at fraud more than other parties, possibly feeling justified since this would compensate for the electoral register being out of date in many urban constituencies. But fraud could be an increasing risk if there is loss of trust in the integrity of the electoral system. Continuing efforts to create and exploit tax loopholes suggest that every opportunity for electoral fraud will be exploited by those for whom democracy is unpalatable when it does not produce the desired results.
Ba’al Zevul: this goes back to an earlier thread, also Craig on unwillingness to forgive, but in this case not “No” voters but – with greater justification – Teresa May for her involvement in incarcerating the innocent Moazzam Begg in Belmarsh Prison.
I asked you some questions there (“Teresa May Must Resign”) at 2.26 pm on 4 October, which you may have missed. Grateful for your response, which I expect, as usual, to be reasoned and civil, even if we disagree.
I shall ignore your gratuitous quotation from the collected works of Havvacluck, RoS. Sufficient to remind the readership that Charles Crawford contributes to this:
http://securefreedomradio.podbean.com/?cat=826481
Which, in case anyone is unaware of Frank Gaffney’s leanings, is an outlet for this:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Center_for_Security_Policy
many of whose members were complicit in this:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/pdf/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf
and/or other PNAC productions, not to mention JINSA.
If Havvacluck were affiliated in some way to Mr Crawford that would be sufficient damnation.
Mr Crawford informs us in his deathless but somewhat self-serving prose, in the course of an excursion into diplomatic balls (in Poland):
…every time you see a Z in a Polish text, remember that it serves much the same function as an H in English. Thus cz = ch, and sz = sh. Except when it doesn’t. Not much help, but you won’t be quite so appalled…
The correct response to Havvacluck, RoS, is therefore, Hhhhhhhhh.
hi browsed to this blog story from rense.com.
as an over-seasoned “reality-theorist”,
i wonder what keeps guys like craig going.
i did hear his comment that he thinks of the usual crew of hacks doing Lucifer’s service.
that is my paraphrase.
i generally step back at my advanced age. i have fought a long time.
my discovery, like craig’s, is that the average person (he says “no” voters)
really needs to be cured of their failings.
lately i dock my little boat in a harbor whose name is:
“you can’t fight stupid!”
but i am a retired warrior. right now we have a tsunami overtaking the world.
i look back at the video interview with george orwell as he lay dying in his sick-bed.
hey, thanks george and craig!
Craig take it easy, drink lots herbal tea and make a drink, simmer fir 5 mins some thyme, cinnamon, garlic, ginger and honey with a bit of clove if you have it, majes you feel better if nowt else.
Fabulous I love the way you describe no voters, it us absolutely true, a friend vited no last minute ‘to save the poor areas of England anpd give the union one more chance’. Jeezus wept, I cannot bring myself to socialise with them at the moment as they have asked…their house us for sale for nigh on a million…I suspect they will go live in Norway, ‘if only we could be like them’ they said, after spending 3.weeks there recently, during the referendums last days, says it all, god give me strength.