It is sickening that Spanish courts continue to jail, and remove from political life, Catalan politicians who are the victors in democratic elections. That the European political class and media is almost entirely complicit and supportive in this truly vicious repression of the Catalan people, has shocked many of us to our core, and made us realise how thin is the veneer of democracy and how fragile are the rights we believed we held.
If the UK were any kind of a democracy, opposition parties would have held firm against the rush to conflict with Russia, until serious and thorough investigation of the Skripal case had yielded real results. At the very least, you would expect to see a select committee of the House of Commons call the head of Porton Down to give evidence and quiz him about the level of certainty they have of the identity and the Russian manufacture of the substance which poisoned the Skripals.
Instead, we have seen all the establishment parties fall over themselves to appear as belligerent and faux-Churchillian as May and her pipsqueaks, in order to placate the tabloids. This is ludicrous. You cannot out-jingo the Tories, and the rush to increase international tension benefits nobody except the armaments and security industries.
I am obliged to say I was disgusted by Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP leadership and their premature condemnations of Russia. By coincidence I spent much of last week at pro-Indy events and I have to say I found this disgust almost universal.
The odd voice was prepared to offer the usual Nicola excuse of “She is trying not to alienate the Unionists”. But what is the point of not alienating the Unionists by, to all intents and purposes, becoming a Britnat yourself? The continued failure – for years now – of the SNP to argue to the public the case for Independence, the attempt to dodge Indyref2, all of it leaves me to feel that the SNP leadership have got their feet under the table within the UK, as a form of controlled opposition.
The SNP leadership are far happier talking about which powers devolve to Holyrood from Brussels, and which stay at Westminster, than they are talking about Independence. I don’t give a damn about the precise contours of the devolution settlement; I want my country to be free of Westminster entirely, and soon.
We are not yet subject to the extreme state repression afflicting our counterparts in Catalonia, but you can be certain the Tories have noted the template, and that other Western political leaders will support them if they start putting people like me in the pokey for thirty years for sedition. Sadly it has become abundantly clear that there is no danger of the highly paid SNP elected representatives, their SPADs, and party bureaucrats, ever putting themselves in that position.
They would be with those handing down the sentences, as their attitude to Carla Ponsati shows.
Just as MEPs lined up one after another in the European Parliament to defend Francoist thugs batoning grandmothers trying to vote as the “rule of law”, and use the same excuse for lengthy sentences for political prisoners, so there was an echo of this distancing in Nicola Sturgeon’s response to the extradition of Catalan campaigner Carla Ponsati through the Scottish courts, potentially to spend the rest of her life in a Spanish jail just for peacefully campaigning for freedom for her country.
Nicola referred to “the fact our justice system is legally obliged to follow due process in the determination of extradition requests”. She too is hiding behind “the rule of law” and thus turning a blind eye to the Francoist attack on fundamental rights.
Very few voters of the SNP put Nicola Sturgeon into parliament in order to warm her toes at the Robert Adam fireplaces at Bute House, while Catalan leaders are dragged from Scotland to a terrible repression. The SNP leadership have become far too adept at speaking with British Establishment voices and thinking with British Establishment minds.
At some stage they have to accept that achieving Scottish Independence is in itself a revolutionary act, and that it will never be achieved without real constitutional conflict with the UK, the sort of political conflict which has attended the birth of every independent state. If you are afraid to do something “unconstitutional” under the present repressive system, you have no right to pretend to be a part of the Independence movement.
For Sturgeon to hide behind the Edinburgh High Tory Scottish legal establishment and wash her hands, Pontius Pilate like, over the extradition of Carla Ponsati is simply unacceptable.
Saving this brave woman is as noble a cause to launch a constitutional crisis as one might wish for. The Holyrood parliament must pass a Bill forbidding the extradition of Ponsati and the Scottish government must order Police Scotland to enforce it. We need finally to show we are serious about challenging the UK. If Sturgeon declines, then the Scottish people must physically defend Ponsati. And the Independence movement must fundamentally reconsider its leadership and strategy.
Strong words Craig, and although I agree with some of them, remember what happened at the last indyref, when we couldn’t prove beforehand that Alistair Darling was wrong about sharing currency, or that we couldn’t shout loud enough about pensioners would not lose their pension.
We need to have the core answers in place before people feel secure enough to vote yes. Sure I’d love to throw off the gloves and storm the bastille, to use a phrase.
However we must get this right next time around, we must show those who are floating voters that their quality of life won’t deteriorate under a independent Scotland, unfortunately not everyone who could vote yes, feels the pull in their hearts for some (and lets not forget we need their votes to win) it more a economical matter.
I feel I have to at least make a case for the SNP, on Catalonia, some MSP’s did head to Catalonia last October in support and to attempt to see fair play at the voting booths. Several SNP MSP’s and ex-SNP MSP’s openly support the Catalan cause on social media platforms, and I hope if the opportunity to protect Clara Ponsati from the Spanish fascist government comes along that they reach out and take it. If the Scottish government can use the law to defened the Continuity bill, then they should be able to influence the Scottish judiciary
However, section 13 states extreneous considerations, includes political views, and unjust perescution. Which should apply to Clara Ponsanti’s position.
https://mobile.twitter.com/PeatWorrier/status/977896078275117057/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwingsoverscotland.com%2Fthe-winds-of-change%2Fcomment-page-1%2F%23comments
Of course Sturgeon needs to call a second indyref before we leave the EU, for its very likely that once we’re out EU citizens living in Scotland will not be able to vote in indyref 2.
Finally in my opinion the SNP for now, are the only real vehicle to independence, yes they need all the grassroots movements, but lets wait and see if Sturgeon calls a second indyref before we leave the EU, then we can decide where we stand.
I think the SNP and Salmond and Sturgeon have done a bloody good job for Scots with onehand tied behind their backs.
The SNP leadership has no mandate to call a second referendum, even were it lawful to do so.
Yes they do have a mandate. I don’t know where you get your info from? But it’s not true.
The SNP and the Greens carried the majority for a mandate.
Where in the Green manifesto did it say they would support another referendum?
They took votes under false pretences, no mandate.
Rubbish!
The Scottish Government CAN, being one of the signatories of the original treaty of the union of the parliaments of England and Scotland, rescind the treaty.
Who’s Carla Ponsati?
Does Craig mean Clara Ponsati?
With any luck the Spanish have made the EAW out in the name of Carla Ponsati. Then it’ll be invalid.
As already pointed out it is probably invalid in any case. If the country being requested to serve an EU warrant does not have the crime the person is accused of on the statute book the warrant is invalid. If the judges in the country expected to extradite the accused consider the accusers are trying to extradite the accused for political reasons the warrant is invalid.
@Craig – Noting today’s announcements by at least five NATO members that they will expel some Russian diplomats, is it possible that Article 4 (and possibly also Article 5) of the NATO treaty has been invoked without a declaration to that effect? Invocation doesn’t have to be public, does it?
Disgraceful, that twelve cou tries are to expel Russian diplomats in solidarity with London, when no solid evidence of Russian guilt is forthcoming.
Have you got a link to the full list of 12? At the moment I’ve only got six:
US, France, Germany, Poland, Lithuania Ukraine
The US statement refers to “the attack on our Ally the United Kingdom”.
It sounds like Article 5 of the NATO treaty has been invoked.
Article 4 – threat to independence and security.
Article 5 – attack. And the US statement refers to an “attack”.
Article 5 has only been invoked once before, by the US after 911.
N.
No however Sky added Croatia and Hungary to the list.
Sputnik are indicating that 17 countries have expelled or will expel Russian diplomats over Skripal:
(14 in EU) Britain, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Germany, France, Denmark, Czechia, Netherlands, Italy, Romania, Finland, Croatia
(3 outside EU) Ukraine, Canada, US
Some of these haven’t been confirmed.
Or organising them differently:
(15 in NATO) Britain, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Germany, France, Denmark, Czechia, Netherlands, Italy, Romania, Croatia, Canada, US
(2 outside NATO) Ukraine, Finland
Another non-NATO country that has been mentioned as possibly joining the expellers’ group is Ireland.
EU members not on the above list:
(in NATO) Belgium, Luxemburg, Slovenia, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia
(not in NATO) Sweden, Austria, Cyprus, Malta
Now add Hungary. They’re falling like flies!
Will the expellers be leaving the OPCW? What is the point of belonging to the OPCW if they pre-empt its conclusions?
The only EU countries I’d say there’s a good chance of them not joining the chuckers out are Bulgaria and Greece (orthodox) followed possibly by Cyprus and Malta, and I would like to think Austria too.
US Whitehouse offical says Russian consulate in Seattle will be closed. This is a concerted attempt (without real evidence) to further demonise and isolate Russia.
The EU, and Nato nations are quick to act against Russia, yet Spain acts with impunity.
If Spain had been a ME country, we’d have bombed them by now, on the pretence of bringing democracy.
….or supply arms to both sides of the political entities, until the country becomes infested with terrorist groups, and then take advantage of their resources, fulfilling the wishes of the military/industrial complex.
In addition to the several absentees on the list, notably, so far: Israel, not usually a Russian fan club. Adult response? Perhaps they’re waiting for actual evidence?
So many mysteries … this has to be the strangest coordinated international response to an event in many years, an event for which the demonized target nation apparently had no motive, and for which there is no demonstrated evidence, just wild speculation and the refusal to provide data and evidence to the accused.
There was a lengthy news item on CBC, the BBC of Canada, on Sunday, whereupon there is reported of a bus tour in London, much like the tours in Hollywood of Homes of the Stars, to survey the homes of expat Russian oligarchs, characterized as ‘Putin’s close associates’. I thought that typically these people that had either fled Russia or been kicked out. In one example, we are told that Mr X claims an amount of income annually that could not possibly justify the purchase of such a property. Where did such information,confidently stated by a tour bus operator, come from, if these oligarchs are so reclusive and secretive? In any event, the government of Canada has now expelled Russian diplomats.
What in the world is going on?
The Israelis have form for being the close ally of the USA in public while doing secret deals with Russia in private. A quarter of Israelis were either born in Russia or born to parents born in Russia. Likud draw huge support from the Russian emigres.
I argued much the same last night on wee ginger dug forum and was shouted down. What’s the point to the SNP under Sturgeon? The Catalan are going to jail for their beliefs we can’t even get the SNP to support a YES rally.
“going to jail for their beliefs” – Yes, they’re a right lot of Thomas Mores.
“What’s the point to the SNP under Sturgeon?”
Council jobs for drab wee conservatives.
I think Nicola Stuurgeon must be confident that Scottish Law courts will not grant this extradition order. However, I too was a little disappointed in her statement blaming Russia for Salisbury “nerve agent” attacks. But so far she has made very few blunders and in the main has done a good job for Scotland. Think that when it comes to the crunch, she will step up her performance and be more effective when it really counts.
Well, Isabel, I have a wee suspicion that Nicola is playing a very clever stroke here. If she had disagreed with Theresa the MSM and SMSM would have hung her out to dry. She agrees with Theresa but implies it is on the evidence supplied by Westminster.
So if the Russians are to blame Nicola was right, if the Russians were NOT to blame they she points at Theresa and says, “But she told me they were”.
Rev Stu of Wings has tweeted to offer £10 to anyone who can direct him to a recent tweet by a Labour MP/MSP criticising the Spanish Governments behaviour.
Happy hunting!
No claims after 2 hours says Stu. He’s upped the prize to £20.
Perhaps those of one opinion are more keen on using Twitter than those of the other opinion? 🙂
So what is Steve Bannon up to in Scotland? He was there this past December and apparently again recently.
“STEVE Bannon’s whistlestop UK tour, which has seen President Trump’s former strategist, pictured, take in the sights of Jacob Rees-Mogg and Nigel Farage, took him to Scotland yesterday. The alt-Right rabble-rouser was addressing a think-tank at the Gleneagles hotel and golf resort. Poor guests — but what inspired this jaunt?
Step forward Bannon’s old boss at Goldman Sachs, John Thornton, who issued the invitation to the conference in Scotland.
It’s not the first time the former banker has set Bannon off on an international tour. In September, Thornton was behind a meeting in China where Bannon met President Xi’s deputy Wang Qishan.
Thornton is something of an old China hand, being Goldman Sachs’s former Asia chairman, winning the Friendship Award of the People’s Republic of China in 2008. He may not be winning the tartan version, though, judging by how Bannon’s alt-Right shtick went down in the clubhouse. The Londoner’s insider tells us Bannon didn’t exactly get a warm reception even by Scottish standards, especially after he defended Trump’s retweeting of videos by the far-Right group Britain First.
“The great and good of Scotland didn’t hold back,” Scotland’s Sunday Herald reported. “I don’t think there was anybody who supported what he was saying.
“He defended it all. He said we’ve all got to wake up,” and had Breitbart editor Raheem Kassam for company — it doesn’t look as though he’ll be making Scotland great again any time soon. Maybe he would have had more luck at the Trump Turnberry resort instead?”
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/londoners-diary/londoners-diary-bannon-feels-a-chill-in-the-air-at-gleneagles-a3709651.html
—
Any MI6 officers reading this? Are you sorry for
* letting your source Sergei Skripal get caught
* swapping him out
* failing to protect him in queen-and-country land
* faking “evidence” recently shown to other EU and NATO countries
* undermining the OPCW
* paving the way to WW3
* all your other filthy crimes?
Like getting the FRU to kill .the SNP’s Willie McRae
Reading some of the comments it appears you have attracted people who are more at home on the Scotsmans daily rant pages, the nutters who have pitched their Unionist tents on the Nationals front lawn probably associated with the Scotland in Union tribe , this lot are becoming more vocal I wonder if that’s because the end of their Union is in sight . Keep it up chaps your ranting is becoming more hysterical by the day and really quite amusing.
Regarding the theme of your post Craig I among a whole lot of other people associated with the SNP are a bit uncomfortable with the support shown to Mrs Mayhem over the alleged poisoning by Russia of people in England , all this trial by media based on what ? . Based on the word of the same people who brought us the daily catastrophe that is the Middle East, the trust these people demand has long since dried up they have abused their position and for the SNP to side with them is a step to far . I believe the caution called for by Corbyn would have been more appropriate .
As for the Spanish abuse of the European Arrest Warrant in order to stifle political opposition this surely must be contrary to Scottish Law , this Warrant was never devised for purely political reasons and I hope every legal impediment is used to thwart the extradition of this dangerous woman who poses a real threat to democracy .
Well said, Robert Graham
According to some on WOS, Germany appears to be refusing to extradite Puigdemont, however I can’t confirm this just yet.
Police Scotland are looking forward to giving Carla a good kicking.
Most narratives on ‘sovereignty’ come from the right because nationalism is, by definition, reactionary. Why? Simply because countries do not exist: they are “merely” ideological constructs (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Imagined-Communities-Reflections-Origin-Nationalism /dp/1844670864/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1465388361&sr=1-1& keywords=imagined+communities).
There are two exceptions to this rule, however: anti-colonial struggles and resistance to the ultra-centralisation and de-democratisation taking place under the current neo-liberal phase of Capitalism that has been dominant since the mid-1970s (a reaction to the gains of the working class post-WW2). Within these strictly limited conjunctures, nationalism is progressive and a left-wing case can therefore be made for it.
Once this basic political theory is understood, the EU ‘project’ ceases to have any charm for true Leftists, and the SNP’s “independent within the EU” spiel is revealed for the infantile, incoherent garbage that it is. Their weasel words vis-à-vis the current Catalonia situation just illustrate the intractable contradiction between the EU posited as some kind of mythical ‘progressive wonderland’ and the brutal reality of its realpolitik.
The link should be: https://www.versobooks.com/books/2259-imagined-communities.
Yeah! Morton but that won’t alter the totally illogical argument you attempt to make.
MS – “Once this basic political theory is understood, the EU ‘project’ ceases to have any charm for true Leftists, and the SNP’s “independent within the EU” spiel is revealed for the infantile, incoherent garbage that it is.”
When Scotland becomes independent they will be free to either join or leave the EU as they wish. In 2014 they were told they had to vote no to stay in the EU, now they are being told they have to leave the EU. That’s treating the Scottish people with contempt.
Given the fact that Jeremy Corbyn is about to enter his 70th year and the fact that he keeps forgetting to tweet anything in support of Puigdemont & Co, I’m considering writing a book about it all.
Perhaps a good title would be Dotage To Catalonia.
Your fixation on what tweets don’t contain is impressive.
The Madrid government don’t give a fuck about a million of their citizens protesting on the streets. They will not be influenced by a foreign opposition politician. The Labour leadership have a clear plan to fight on their chosen economic territory and avoid getting overly dragged into non campaign issues such as Trident, the Royals, Palestine and the policy of foreign governments.
You could waste everyday constantly tweeting and not even cover 1% of the injustice in the world. The Labour leadership are campaigning to end neoliberalism in the UK, that’s a bit more important than virtue signalling on social media.
OK. Forget tweets. Has Corbyn made a speech in support of the Catalan exiles? Mentioned them at a press conference? In an interview? Written about it in a published article? Said anything in the House of Commons?
You are missing the point.
Corbyn talking about Catalonia changes nothing and probably loses votes. Corbyn maintaining message discipline might create a much fairer UK.
So don’t say the right thing in case it loses you votes, which might prevent you gaining power in order to do the right thing, and don’t forget while you’re in power to maintain message discipline, since failure to do so might lose votes and prevent you being re-elected to do the right thing some more…………..
“Corbyn maintaining message discipline might create a much fairer UK.”
More sarcasm Stu you’re good at this, I mean Corbyn sacked Owen Smith over speaking out about remaining in the EU. Yet here’s a man (Corbyn) who defied the whip all his life as a backbencher – discipline yeah.
Nice Stu very funny.
“The Labour leadership are campaigning to end neoliberalism in the UK,”
That’s sarcasm right? I mean Labour is packed full of neoliberlist Blairites, hell Labour voted with the Tories on welfare reforms.
Yeah that’s sarcasm, nice one Stu.
“That’s sarcasm right? I mean Labour is packed full of neoliberlist Blairites, hell Labour voted with the Tories on welfare reforms.”
Showing your usual inability to understand context or the basic sequence of any events.
The current Labour leadership ARE the leadership because they voted against the welfare reforms.Corbyn, McDonnell and the people around them genuinely want to change the country for the benefit of the vast majority. There is a good chance they can succeed.
Hilarious, Labour are around 50% of neoliberalism in the laughably titles United Kingdom.
How can that title, “United Kingdom”, describe what is plainly a Westminster parliament that operates as the, unelected as such, de facto parliament of the country of England? No such parliament has legally existed since it was put into recession on the last day of April 1707. Since that day not one solitary person has since been elected as a member of the Parliament of the country of England.
Yet Westminster uses EVEL to ensure no one interferes in whatever Westminster rules to be English Only matters. Westminster, though, claims to be the United Kingdom Parliament but the United Kingdom, (as seen by the signatories on the actual Treaty that gave it birth), is a bipartite union of two equally sovereign Kingdoms. Thus the resultant whole is 1 kingdom plus 1 other kingdom makes 1 united kingdom of two parts.
So how come we have the de facto Parliament of the country of England dividing up the bipartite united kingdom into four unequal countries and devolving wee bits of what it claims is its sovereignty to three of those countries while funding only itself directly as The United Kingdom and funding the other three countries, (one of which is its only kingdom partner), with block grants that the de facto parliament of England decides to, “grant”, them?
Then they tell the Scots that they are subsidised by English tax payers money but there isn’t any English taxpayers money all UK money goes into the Westminster Treasury and that is the unelected as such de facto parliament of the country of England that is giving everyone but England a grant of their own money back.
Don’t despair, Chairman Mao has the answer to liberating Scotland as well:
At certain times in the revolutionary struggle, the difficulties outweigh the favorable conditions and so constitute the principal aspect of the contradiction and the favorable conditions constitute the secondary aspect. But through their efforts the revolutionaries can overcome the difficulties step by step and open up a favorable new situation, thus a difficult situation yields place to a favorable one.
“On Contradiction” (August 1937), Selected Works, Vol. I, p. 335.
Scotland being forced out the EU. Devolution under threat. I’d say the favourable situation is already here.
We don’t need no long march.
:
Oh, I don’t know, a ‘long march’ would be MUCH BETTER than a ‘great leap forward’:-
.
As a Sassanach, having in mind forever become disassociated from, severed forever from the seemingly endlessly Mass-Murdering serial War-Criminal increasingly xenophobic leeeetle inGRRRRland, I had a fantasy dream once about Scotland becoming independent and me being still being fit enough to locate myself somewhere in Europe so that “I could walk 500 miles, and then walk 500 more” so that I could then “be the man who walked a thousand miles to fall down at Scotland’s door”, and be one of the first foreigners to claim, and hopefully be granted my Repubic of Scotland passport – and burn the British one, which I own for convenience only; all the time whilst the Proclaimers famous song blared from some portable device I was carrying … 😉 …. .
“I would walk five hundred miles, and I would walk five hundred more, to be the man who walked a thousand miles to fall down at your door …”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbNlMtqrYS0
.
There’s a global war on democracy and it’s playing folk songs from the Urals..
It’s playing golf at the most exclusive country clubs across the planet, but mostly in the USA.
When MPs in Britain break the law we send them to prison.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/8776160/Expenses-MPs-and-their-sentences-how-long-each-served.html
It isn’t just the charges of sedition the Catalan ministers are facing, there is also a question of the misappropriation of public funds.
The trumped up charge is embezzlement, when in fact funds were used to hold a democratic indyref in Catalonia.
An illegal referendum you mean
Did those who went as unofficial observers from Scotland receive expenses? If so where did the money come from?
Illegal under whose laws Spain? So we’re back to square one, yet International Law, and the UN Charter incorporates the rights to self-determination.
Roosevelt included such principles in his Atlantic Charter, as did Churchill in the eight principle point of the charter.
Then again the United States at one time had no problem with liberating countries from the Spanish America’s.
If you’re looking for bungs try the DUP.
Not always the case, Fred. Many MPs, guilty of heinous crimes, walk free.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westminster_paedophile_dossier
Then there’s Jack Straw… where Craig’s evidence was ignored, etc., etc.
CanSpeccy,
We gave up that particular method in Britain in 1747
http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/behead.html
However, we still promote and train our jihadist terrorists in this technique, in foreign countries like Canada, but do not approve of its use in England.
Personally, I think you are being a little bit harsh on Craig.
Do you want to extradite him?
I assume you are a Canadian.
Tony
You cannot act in an unilateral manner in any country , Scotland did not just decide to vote for Independence in 2014, it was the result of negotiation , what would London do if they Scots did as per Catalan? I am sure it would be vigorous in stopping such actions and EU law does not cover such issues and people should stop this twaddle that the EU are to blame.
“You cannot act in an unilateral manner in any country”
Really?
You better tell the Americans, Egyptians, Irish, Bangladeshis, Irish and Croatians.
JP Murphy.
You have a point on the EU, it has no real power over Spain and it’s dreadful handling of Catalonia, however it could if it felt necessary put a vote up to the other EU members to suspend Spain’s membership of the EU – but it won’t.
CanSpeccy,
We gave up that particular method in Britain in 1747
http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/behead.html
However, we still promote and train our prixies in this technique, in foreign countries like Canada, but do not approve of its use in England.
Personally, I think you are being a little bit harsh on Craig.
Do you want to extradite him?
I assume you are a Canadian.
Tony
At the time of the Catalan declaration of independence, it was pretty certain that one of the Latin American republics would recognise the independence of the country. Venezuela was the most likely candidate, with Cuba and Bolivia no far behind. Had those states recognised Catalonia then others would have followed.
However, for that to happen the Catalans had to stand in defence of that declaration, which they refused to do. Nobody will recognise a new state whose people prefer to be kicked like dogs rather than stand like men.
Had Catalonia fought and lost then her government in exile would have found refuge in any number of countries. Instead, the former leadership is reduced to scuttling around thew world looking for a country, any country, that will take them in as individuals.
X forces where do I sign up. Evil does exist you don’t need to look far. All that matters is good overcomes evil in all its forms if not then what is the point of democracy or independence if we just sit on our hands and talk while good people rot in jails. Shame on everyone who thinks it is fine to issue only words of support. Once again where do insign up.
Scottish Labour MEP Catherine Stihler, a former rector of St. Andrew’s University where Clara Ponseti teaches, has written to Jean-Claude Juncker to urge him to protest Spain’s use of EAWs to settle political rows.
So at least one Labour parliamentarian has spoken out. But it doesn’t look like any other MPs/MSPs/AMs/MEPs from Catherine’s party have her integrity.
Ponsati.
Have we become an Indpendent soveriegn state and nobody told me
Yes Dr Jim. When it’s Westminster election time the SNP have to defend their record at Holyrood. When it’s FMQs Sturgeon has to defend against Leonard’s charge of failure to use a reserved power. And the SG are at fault whenever they don’t use the sovereignty Scotland doesn’t have.
Unionism is beyond the looking glass.
I understand, but I have to ultimately disagree. SNP would have to throw away their legitimacy to do those things you have outlined. Waiting in the wings, the Unionist Extremists are waiting to pounce. I am not being melodramatic when I say that the Orange Order is readying itself to cause disorder in this country, aided and abetted by the UK’s government (again)
They have a history of doing so, have had high up and former leaders confirm it in public statements and the government and police do nothing. A terrorist sympathising organisation if not openly terrorist.
Any such move by Sturgeon would ‘justify’ removals of power and open action by them. Independence has to be unstoppable, overwhelming and embarrassingly obvious not just to Scots, but to the entire public of the UK and the world beyond.
This WILL happen, but not today. The extradition WILL take place, but not before she is given a platform from which to make her claims outside her own Francoist Oppressor’s presence. Nothing of it will be reported on the BBC, again.
In this case there is a choice of two actions to take – both wrong…
Only a headbanger would say that Sturgeon should follow the Catalan separatists and hold a Catalan-style kangaroo referendum in Scotland, in the hope that enough Unionists will boycott it for the SNP, waving its Odal rune, to claim “legitimacy” for UDI. Given up on persuading a majority?
Did Alec Salmond meet some Catalan separatists in the green room at RT or what?
N.
What would you know about the legitimacy of the Catalan indy vote, you didn’t even know that Holyrood had a mandate for a second indyref.
N, are you Norton?
I am not Norton. You ask what would I know about Holyrood mandates. More than you, it appears. I will tell you why Holyrood has no mandate for a second referendum. It’s because while the SNP committed in their manifesto to “if Brexit then Indyref2”, the Greens, on whose support the minority SNP government relies, did not. So only a minority of MSPs were elected on an “if Brexit then Indyref2” platform, so there is no mandate. Push for another election if you want to try for one.
“The SNP wants something” is not the same as “they should get it”. Especially when the Scottish people have indicated very clearly, by voting, that they don’t want the SNP to get it.
Everyone knows that when SNPers talk about “us getting more say” or “us getting power taken away from us” (especially the latter, because they appeal to the infantile), they may say that they mean “Scotland” or “the Scottish people”, but what they really mean is the SNP. They talk as though they are the same thing.
As for the Catalan vote, it was boycotted by most opponents of independence by reason of its being unlawful. Since the unofficial vote there has been an election. The three separatist parties won a majority of seats but they failed to win a majority of votes.
The Spanish government should have allowed an official referendum. It’s not possible to go back in time, so they should allow one now. Most likely, the result would be to stay in Spain.
Certain forces are deliberately stirring up trouble in Catalonia.
Be careful if you’ve got an account with Santander.
“The Scottish parliament has voted to demand a second independence referendum, raising the stakes after the UK government this month refused to agree.”
“The parliament at Holyrood approved another referendum by 69 to 59 votes, with the Scottish Greens.”
https://www.ft.com/content/195d9986-13d1-11e7-80f4-13e067d5072c
Holyrood should be able to set the referendum question, franchise and timing, which would be “most appropriately” held between autumn 2018 and spring 2019.
92 per cent of people who voted in the referendum backed independence on a 43 per cent turnout.
Not bad considering the fascist Guardia civil, stole ballot boxes shut polling stations down, beat, shot, tear gassed and intimidated voters young and old.
Catalans voted for independence, there’s no way the fascist Spanish government will allow another vote. The mistake Puigdemont made was not openly declaring independence that day.
One could forgive his reticence with 10,000 fascist military police waiting at the harbour, to beat the living daylight out of him and anyone else who uttered those words.
Are there any Scottish independence supporters here who support the decision of people in the Crimea to join Russia?
Or is the belief that people living in that peninsula are mostly “Ukrainians” who would love to paint everything blue and yellow at the earliest opportunity if only the wicked Putin, outdoing even the sorcerer Rothbart in Swan Lake, hadn’t invaded with his foreign Russian horde to keep them all in peonage?
The Scottish Government CAN, being one of the signatories of the original treaty of the union of the parliaments of England and Scotland, rescind the treaty.
Why are you scared of using your real NAME.
No – the Scottish government was created by an act of the Union’s parliament called the Scotland Act 1998. It is not the incarnation of the royalist government of 1706 and 1707. The parties that agreed the treaty are no more.
This is real headbanger stuff. You want a mandate? Then go out on the stump and try to get one, ugly and reminiscent of H*tler though the message that “the reason Scots are in the shit is because foreigners won’t let them do stuff” undoubtedly is.
We may well be on the brink of WW3. Raise your sights.
I was merely defending Corbyn. I hadn’t actually seen the mural published by the Times, and it seems neither had he.
I used to be very good at playing monopoly when I was a kid, yet it seems I have been banned from here for that.
Strange Times.
Tony
It seems to message from the SNP is jam tomorrow and this lets wait and see brigade o for a William Wallace or a Michael Collins because that is what it is going to take as for the o.o. Going to cause trouble along with the British state may I remind them terror can be used by both sides and remember that saying beware the fury
Of a patient man
100% Craig
The SNP have been too nice for for too long. Stop playing THEIR game.
The press will attack the SNP no matter what they do. If Nicola thought they might have turned a corner by now she is clearly very mistaken. These establishment bastards and their media lackies will do anything to thwart Scotland.
Do you realise that you changed there from “the SNP” to “Scotland”? Do you think the majority of Scottish people are self-haters?
Are you deliberately obtuse ?
Craig said, “I am obliged to say I was disgusted by Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP leadership and their premature condemnations of Russia. By coincidence I spent much of last week at pro-Indy events and I have to say I found this disgust almost universal.”
Yup! As soon as that happened Sturgeon, who I did have very high regard for, and her leadership of the SNP plummeted like a stone into the oceanic-depths. I now no longer trust the SNP to be a voice for reason, that trust has now vanished. I now have grave doubts as to their intentions and capacity to lead Scotland to independence within my lifetime. They are sitting pretty with their status (not much in reality) and with their gold-plated pensions and I don’t think they want to rock that boat. I surely do hope I’m wrong in my thinking but it sure doesn’t *feel* that way.
If Scotland extradites Mrs. Ponsati to a guaranteed prison sentence at Caudillio Rajoys behest, then it will demean its very own case for independence.
And if the UK, seeking Independence from Europe, is not granting another Indy ref.2, it does not deserve to be cut loose from its perceived vassal Europe. The Government should be asked whether it wants to leave the UN charter and denounce the right to self determination, because they are collaborating with the Madrid regime.
Mrs. Ponsati has done no harm to Scotland and by its nature EAW are now being used as politcal repression tools, rather than to catch criminals. Scotland does not have to agree with EU legislators who all have assured us that the the right to self determination will be respected.
Those who fought fascism in the past must feel like they are going mad having their own Government side with them.
@ N_ since you asked.
I do denounce the Zionist racial hatred that is being meted out to Palestinians of any age, I denounce the deliberate crippling of young lives for throwing a stone, for denouncing a fascist israeli Government and for the Apartheid thyat has split Israeli Arabs from the services Jews enjoy there.
Whilst I’m at it, I denounce the interference of these same Authorities in the foreign policy resolves of other countries, their undermining of political parties and the incessant demands to act up as they want us to. I also denounce the deeply racial slur by CHIEF RABBI Yitzhak Yosef calling blacks ‘monkeys’.
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/adl-slams-chief-rabbi-of-israel-for-calling-black-people-monkeys-1.5932876
Israel/Palestine can have a future without using guilt as a perpetual stick to beat up others with, they can thrive as a multicultural country. If it would make peace with its neighbours, share their country with those who have an equal right to it according to the Balfour declaration and relent from dissing rules and laws made and supported by the rest of the world, rather than set itself above all others, Israel/Palestine would have a thriving future.