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.
Oh! Craig, You do some really great work but that is utter claptrap. Not only has the FM stated publically that the SG/SNP back the Catalonians but has explained very clearly that it would be counter productive for the SG/SNP to take further action. The action is properly the function of Police Scotland, The Procurators Fiscal and the Scottish Judiciary.
The SG must not attempt to influence, and must be seen not to do so, or they could ruin what looks very much like an EU strategy to thwart the ambitions of the Spanish Government. If the Germans follow the Brussels lead, and first of all take the time to follow due process of law, then use that process to best advantage, then the German courts will rule that they cannot extradite the people named on the EU arrest warrants. If for no other reason than that the Spanish Government are attempting to abuse the EU Warrants for political reasons.
However there are several other factors that could rule out extraditions and one of them is that if the offence the warrant is issued for does not comply with the laws of the nation asked to serve the warrants the request must be refuse. How many EU legal systems, for example, have rebellion against the state as a crime?
Put it this way – the good lady has not had her human rights abused by Scotland until Scotland hands her over to the Spanish police but Scotland must follow due process in order to refuse to extradite the lady.
A mark of solidarity, would be to offer her ‘asylum’ at Holyrood and let matters take their course as ‘the authorities’ tried to get Carla out of there. Nothing wrong with upsetting the apple cart, if it tweaks Brittania’s nose (or kicks her erse). The worst (and best) it could do, is’; provoke a constitutonal crisis.
The police would just go in and arrest Ms Ponsati. Do you want Nicola Sturgeon to get a bit of wood with a nail sticking out of it, and an Odal rune carved on the end of it, so that she can whack a policeman over his head when he comes in, shrieking “Freedom!”, “You’re a lackey of an occupying power!”, and “Remember 1320!”
Then Sturgeon can run to Belgium too, maybe, if she can get away in time? Prepare the underground railway! She can stop off at Dundee on her way to the boat at Aberdeen. It will be like Bonnie Prince Charlie or the theft of the Stone of Scone all over again.
Let’s all talk about insane, stupid, patriotic, pork-barrel crap, rather than address the more serious matter of WW3.
Spain has now joined the list of NATO countries that will expel Russian diplomats.
12 out of 32 teams due to play in the World Cup come from Europe outside of Russia. Serbia is unlikely to throw Russian diplomats out. (My prediction is that no predominantly Orthodox Christian country will. That’s Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, Cyprus.) $witzerland is extremely unlikely for the same rea$on that they stayed out of WW2. Iceland may well not either. Portugal hasn’t been on a list so far. So the list of withdrawing (or expelled) countries is likely to number 8, or 9-10 max. It looks like Brazil or Argentina will win.
Scottish nationalists can at least take cheer from the fact that if England don’t participate they can’t win. But is that a price worth paying for not being able to root for whoever their opponents would have been?
Oh well. Iceland have joined the gang now. Other than Russia itself there are 3 World Cup teams from Europe that aren’t from the 9 countries currently burning the Russian flag: Serbia, Switzerland, Portugal. I still think Serbia and Switzerland won’t sign up. Not so sure about Portugal.
Meanwhile as Europe goes into a feeding frenzy over expelling Russian diplomats, on the grounds of committing a crime in England, that hasn’t been proven.
“Fifteen members of the Finnish parliament have called on Germany to turn down the extradition of Carles Puigdemont, the deposed Catalan president.”
http://catalannews.com/politics/item/finnish-mps-against-extradition-of-puigdemont
If only such common sense prevailed over Russia, until proven one way or another.
Ros
It’s funny how a few years ago the Tories kept putting forward the claim that they were the party of common sense.
Now they are completely devoid of common sense. Of course they’re also rotten bastards into the bargain.
@ reel guid March 26, 2018 at 19:42
Hear! Hear! Ordure!
O/T
The European Commission has said it’s likely that British companies will be frozen out of the European space industry post-Brexit. The EC cited security reasons.
Chicken Coup 2 in full effect.
Iain Paisley Jr and Norman Tebbit are actually in Parliament Sq protesting against Corbyn’s racism. This is actually unbelievable.
The DUP has long been strongly pro-I***el. Ulster loyalists carry I***eli flags at some of their events.
But like Catholics they will never be allowed to join the Orange Order, only for Protestants that can prove their linage
why on earth would a Catholic want to join the Orange Order…..that’s like a Green Activist joining the board of Monsanto…..jeez….are you saying the orange Order is against Catholics??…..duh, that’s what it’s all about
great analogy!!!
Corbyn has bright this on himself with his pusillanimity, kcuf him.
2 clowns don’t make a mathematician it seems…..it just makes 2 clowns….which is what both these clowns are….clowns….Krusty and Sideshow Bob
Thank goodness for that Craig. I am Rd up wading through the swamp of mediocrity , abuse, and personality cult worship , on sites like We Are The 45 , when bringing these obvious severe shortcomings of the SNP leadership to
the notice of the Yes movement.
Bloody well done and thank you
Sounds quite unlikely since it protected the assassin of an earlier SNP leader, Willie McRae.
For connoisseurs of hypocrisy, get this from the BBC:
“Britain was swift to point the finger at Moscow. But then it largely avoided public diatribes, seeking out every available international forum, from the EU, to Nato, the UN, and the highly relevant OPCW (Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical weapons) to set out its evidence and justify its conclusions.”
“This patient diplomacy has now paid off.”
And the BBC are making the Russian consulate’s plaque look like a tombstone too. I bet they think they’re clever.
How “patient” is it to pre-empt the OPCW’s report?
I still suspect Article 5 of the NATO treaty may have been invoked without announcement.
The article continues
“One must assume that many or most of the Russian diplomats designated for expulsion are intelligence operatives. Thus the cumulative impact on Russia’s overseas intelligence activities could be considerable.”
That reads like a blurb written by a less attentive GCSE student. Where do the BBC hire nowadays?
Admittedly the following bit is funny, reminsicent of both Neville Chamberlain (“Mr Hitler has missed the bus”, said in April 1940) and John Cleese (the Minehead by-election):
“Mr Putin may have made a serious mistake.”
Yeah, right. The poshboys have shown those Russkies who has all the friends! The Forest Brothers in Estonia are waving their sticks and they mean business!
This sort of article, Mr Murray, suggests your post FCO career might be as a politician in Holyrood!
I am half English, half Welsh and am intuitively in favour of retaining The Union. However I lived in Scotland from 1986 to 1993 and even then, it was clear to me that the societal values of Scotland were very different to those in England. I was there when Maggie Thatcher imposed the poll tax on Scotland when clearly it should have been trialled in the Tory Shires! From then on, the Scottish populace had completely broken the bonds of respect with England.
My original position 30 years ago was that England needed to sell the benefits of a union of unequals if it wanted to hold the line. Now, I feel that even if you do that, the Scots will just try and use you, so it is now a status quo of sullen attrition. I am no general for such a battle, so I steer well clear now.
I see no true independence for Scotland out of the UK and in the EU as currently constituted. Is Brussels really better than Westminster? I doubt it…Scotland is 7 million in 450 million in the EU rather than in 70 million in the UK. It will be like a Baltic State, Portugal or Denmark. There may be arguments about why that would be better, but if they exist I have not heard them.
But I do relate to the subliminal feeling that if you truly hate the English, whatever you have afterwards is likely to be less unhealthy, even if less economically enriching in the shorter term….
“But I do relate to the subliminal feeling that if you truly hate the English, whatever you have afterwards is likely to be less unhealthy, even if less economically enriching in the shorter term”
Bad luck then for the 9% of the population of Scotland who were born in England (minus those among them who are Scottish, plus English residents of Scotland who were born in Scotland, for the pedants).
People who hate everyone of a certain ethnicity or nationality need a hard knock around the head, whoever they are!
I do not “truly hate the English”, too harsh a word for me.I do detest Westminster and despair that a bunch of liars and fools comprise the UK government and hold sway over me. I absolutely do not trust Teresa May.
As you have lived in Scotland, so I have lived and worked in England, and I agree there are societal differences, serious differences, I’ll resist the temptation to expand. It is time for Scotland to assert herself and depart this dreadful union..
:
Apart from probable? membership of the ever aggressive NATO, just WHAT is wrong with the ‘Baltic States’ and does this include Scandanavian countries or is that what you mean?
Denmark is a Baltic state as far as I know (it has a Baltic coastline, in part), and designated by the UN as the most content country on Earth. Don’t know why that is, but may be:
32 hr work week
$20.hr minimum wage
FREE univesities
Free Health care
Free child care.
Amazing what can be achieved when too much of your budget does NOT go to paying for WMDs, and an overbearing military.
Even if Denmark isn’t designated ‘politically’ as a ‘Baltic State’, the point I’m making REMAINS valid: I see no reason that and independent Scotland should want to seek to be “better” than Denmark in the way that exploitative forever war-mongering leeetle inGRRRland thinks itself “better” than other countries.
.
.
RJ – ” I doubt it…Scotland is 7 million in 450 million in the EU rather than in 70 million in the UK. It will be like a Baltic State, Portugal or Denmark”
Ireland has a population of 4.8 million. Its GDP per capita in 2015 was $61,600. Denmark’s was $53,400 (population 5.7 million). The UK’s GDP per capita in 2015 was $39,900. I’d have thought once Scotland becomes independent, and it it kicks out neoliberalism then it could become as wealthy per capita as Ireland. Being a member of the EU doesn’t mean that huge numbers of children need to live in poverty. For the UK as a whole that stands at 4.1 million now and will rise to 52 million by 2022 (according to CPAG if I remember correctly).
Ireland is a money laundering office for American corporations. It’s GDP figures are meaningless.
This young man at the Z**n*zi anti-Corbyn protest today is wearing a T-shirt commemorating the terrorist called Menachem Begin who commanded the terror attack on the King David Hotel in 1946 and who was also guilty of many other acts of terrorism.
Isn’t that against the law?
(Amended so as not to waste mods’ time.)
This young man at the Z__n__i anti-Corbyn protest today is wearing a T-shirt commemorating the terrorist called Menachem Begin who commanded the terror attack on the King David Hotel in 1946 and who was also guilty of many other acts of terrorism.
Isn’t that against the law?
The URL for the photograph contained a banned word. I’ve made a link at Tinyurl. For a picture of the young man wearing a terrorist t-shirt at today’s protest, click here.
Any MI5 officers reading this?
How hard do you try to “prevent” people from adopting the kind of extreme racist ideas that that pro-terrorist young man in the photo clearly has in his head?
Preventing such people from keeping their British citizenship after they’ve signed up with the IDF might be somewhere to start.
…and if MI5 were reading this….then MI6 (or worse still, Police Scotland)….would be round to pay you a visit for your anti-sem***c rants ubder the guise of ‘Hate’ speech (their latest full on fad)….albeit it would take Police Scotland 10 minutes to come and get you for hate speech….but 3 days if you were in a car smash in a filed 20 miles from their headquarters
Inclined to agree with Craig Murray. So far our Independence Movement has been admically peaceful and long may that continue..Last Friday’s demonstration at the Scottish Parliament was exemplary. Unlike British England, no riot police, no violence and no arrests just a couple of bobbies strolling around listening to the speaches. But, we are dealing with the British State and it’s long history of
war, violence, human right abuses, state thuggery and suspected nerve agents attacks.
How long can we continue with peaceful negotiation, peaceful protest and peaceful diplomacy while our democratic process is being undermined, ignored and degraded by a right wing Unionist cause orchestrated from an unelected London government and House of Lords. The peaceful protests in Ulster in the late sixties and seventies give testament to the depths of inhumanity the British State like it’s Spanish counterpart will fall.
If Nicola Sturgeon has to flee to another Independence State we would expect protection.
Do you think the support for the UDA in Glasgow, Motherwell, and elsewhere in Scotland (a “right wing Unionist cause” if ever there was one) was “orchestrated” from London?
“The peaceful protests in Ulster in the late sixties and seventies give testament to the depths of inhumanity the British State ”
Oh you don’t need to go that far back, lets see the miners strikes, in which Thatcher and the HO allowed the police to beat the living daylights out of the miners. The British state even made it difficult for the miners to claim benefits, so their starving children and wives relied on handout from Joe Public.
Closer still were the beating and horse charges into the crowds in Trafalgar Sq circa 1990, with regards to Thatchers poll tax. Still we found time to welcome the evil dictator Pinochet into our bosom, but shunned the Shah of Iran because we had no further use of him.
“… in which Thatcher and the HO allowed the police to beat the living daylights out of the miners.”
The police and serving members of the UK military *dressed as police*. Fixed it for you.
Well expressed Graham Brown.
The assumption that unionists would be alienated if Nicola Sturgeon refused to support the government’s anti-Russian hysteria is questionable. There are plenty of unionists who are horrified by May’s response to the Skripal poisonings – and who are also horrified by the Spanish government’s response to the Catalan referendum.
Agreed. I am a unionist and I would not hesitate for one moment to praise Nicola Sturgeon if she were to stand up against the British government’s anti-Russian drive. And the same would go for any other SNP, Labour, Tory, LibDem, UKIP, Green, unionist or separatist politicians who did the same.
It’s great to give credit where it’s due. A person who can’t do it is at risk from acquiring political rabies or a gang mentality.
but she won’t…and she didn’t….because Nicky Nacky Noo is a Globalist to the core…..who else wanted Independence just to be a slave to the unelected Eurocrats of Brussels…..”out of the frying pan….and into an even bigger one”…..Independence????…..in the EU????….after the EU said an Independent Scotland would not be admitted into the EU…..do the maths folks…….the EU HATES Nationalism and are eroding every other countries identity as time moves on…..that’s why the EU is what it is……all countries under one flag….and hopefully (for them) one currency…..ruled by Bilderberg representatives….not duly elected representatives….how much more Orwellian can yo get??/….just coz it seems good, looks good and they (Brussels) tells you it’s good….doesn’t make it good…..the only ones benefitting are the ruling and business class….in that order….and when the rulers leave office….they move into the business they did most favours for….and that’s it, that is what it is
I totally disagree with the article, but others have covered that, as has Sturgeon.
It does seem clear to me that the 2003 UK Act needs amended so that the competency of the EAW is checked BEFORE the subject is arrested and caused distress, as the UK is likely to keep the EAW after Brexit this is still important.
And that the actual European formatting of the original EAW agreement is also faulty and needs amendment, and perhaps there is already such an inititative from the EU Parliament, to be adopted by the Council and members (and co-operative non-members) of the EU.
The chuckers number at least 27:
Britain, United States, Germany, France, Poland, Lithuania, Czechia, Denmark, Italy, Netherlands,
Spain, Latvia, Romania, Croatia, Hungary, Estonia, Canada, Norway, Macedonia, Ukraine, Sweden, Finland, Albania, Belgium, Ireland, Iceland, Sweden
So at the moment we have a “Dirty 27”, but the list may well grow.
Say hello; this is one of the sides in WW3
Britain wanted to expel officials from the Russian mission to NATO, but Belgium vetoed the idea. Watch this space. NATO is surely deeply involved in this.
The following 8 countries have said they will NOT be expelling Russian diplomats:
Portugal, Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Malta, Slovakia, Slovenia, Luxembourg.
In western Europe, let’s hear it for Austria (who clearly take their neutrality more seriously than Sweden, Finland and Ireland do) and also for Portugal and Luxembourg!
No western diplomats bothered coming to the commemoration in Serbia yesterday of the victims of NATO aggression. Hardly surprising, really. It probably won’t surprise many people that Croatia and Serbia will be on opposite sides in WW3.
Will all of the D27 countries now be leaving the OPCW? What point is there in paying the membership dues if you refuse to wait for its report, preferring to accept whatever the British government tells you?
Is the EU imploding before our eyes? An unproven accusation of poisoning brings about this ganging up against Russia? What’s afoot?
You mean the West, or NATO, not the EU.
I’d say they’re uniting rather than imploding? Or do you have in mind how neutral Austria and NATO’s Portugal and Luxembourg aren’t playing along with the Dirty 27? Greece too is an interesting case. “Neutral” Ireland, Sweden and Finland, though, are all on-side. Turkey? I doubt the western NATO members could give a toss whether Turkey expels Russian diplomats or not, at least at the moment. Two fingers up from Sweden or Finland would be a fail, though. It seems to me there is a powerful western unity and that the senior echelon at the EU and NATO will be high-fiving like maniacs today. What am I missing, @Velofello and @Laguerre? I’d love to think the west was divided, but it doesn’t seem to be. This looks like the most successful campaign to unite a war-fighting alliance to piss all over a global weapons-control organisation that there’s ever been
You’re missing that it’s all bluster. The west (US) spent nearly 40 years (and many many trillions of dollars) developing developing missile defence systems that just don’t work. Russia and China (fearful of the implications of missile defence systems) appear to have developed a range of weapons that the west can’t defend against. In any confrontation with Russia and China I would expect the west’s conventional forces to be superior, but that’s the problem; why should Russia and China just take a beating when they can bring their new weapons into the mix. All US aircraft carriers and bases gone in an instance!
Now it could be that Russia and China are exaggerating the efficacy of their new weapons but I wouldn’t want to find out, would you?
The money spent by the West on it’s military and wars has been wasted. Any opportunity (if ever there was one) to defeat Russia and China militarily has gone.
By this time next year the talk between the powers will be of arms control and detente (because, the west can no win a war against the other powers, will no longer be able to afford it’s military spending and the military [in it’s size, scope, deployment, stance] will no longer be justifiable).
Whats afoot is preparation for WW3.
First demonise and use propaganda against the target.
Second, gather an alliance of weak minded followers for support against the target,
Third, use a sneak attack against the target.
Method can be seen in any schoolyard any day by the local bully boy/girl.
Well done Craig for stirring things up , the endless excuses some people use for inaction is pretty suspect ,don’t do this or they will do that , we can’t do this or it will upset them and just bring down the heavens upon us . I seem to remember something that was published by the Rand Corporation in America it was to do with tactics used by people to infiltrate and undermine the aim of an organisation or movement , and support for inaction was one of the many weapons that was employed ,
Not everyone on Independence supporting websites are who they seem to be, while they promote the voice of reason I wonder if there is an agenda at work .
“and support for inaction was one of the many weapons that was employed”
I’d think support for illegal action was also one of the many weapons that was employed.
What do you want the SG to do – break the law? Remove the law and the courts and insititute direct decisions by the Justice Secretary – “You’re innocent”, or “you’re guilty because I say so”?
That would be better than befehl ist befehl.
Should La Sturgeon not be replaced as leader by a more experienced, more honest and more gutsy SNP politician? I nominate the excellent Mhairi Black, every true independentist’s wet dream. What say reelguid and Republicofscotland??
Mhairi Black is an idiot…..a puppet to lure the young and the uneducated who haven’t been snared yet
Some people might judge that he is having a lot of ‘Good days’ recently. Directing readers to places that are totally unknown to readers of the usual suspects of the printed and online propaganda purveyors. Perhaps you could appraise us of the details of your objections.
What veneer?
Sturgeon is a Globalist…she has no intention of Scotland becoming independent….and if we ever did become Independent, she would hand it all over to Brussels….and there are many unionists who think the same and voted that way because they knew Sturgeon and the current SNP had on intentions, let alone the backbone, to govern Scotland without UK or EU handouts….I voted Indy….and I voted Brexit….apparently one of the few who wanted complete autonomy from State and Superstate control…..I also recall you Craig were Pro EU at an earlier point, calling Brexit a mistake….do you still hold this view when you see what the EU is like over the Catalan issue….and their Russia ‘did it’ vitriol……and lest we forget the EU and Spain were dead against an Independent Scotland being in the EU (which is fine with me)….because the EU hates Nationalism…..some of us Indy Brexiteers knew this and were shouted down by the Indy diehards who wanted to stay in the EU….Independence means Independence…..not subservient to the unelected EU politburo fascists….and if you think that’s a it harsh on the fascists of the EU…just ask the Catalans…..then ask the Greeks…and on a final note….do people here know that Sturgeon is the highest paid in all of the UK government bodies….more than dim witted Theresa May gets…..amazing huh….she’s a Globalist through and through playing the game for City of London Bankers pay cheques for her fake opposition and Nationalism
Your own contribution seems a bit dog’s-breakfasty to me, John. I mean you cite the premise that “Carlos Pigmounter and Carla Poncer are criminals in the eyes of the highest Spanish judicial instance”, which nobody disputes. What people are disagreeing about is what may or may not flow from that. A state’s judiciary wants somebody arrested and extradited. That doesn’t make it right for them to get what they want. Perhaps it would be right in this instance. If so, you’ve got to argue it.
So, the fascist EU call them criminals and you bow down to them…..John….next you’ll be telling us Putin killed Skripal…even though he ain’t dead yet….if indeed he exists….getta grip of yourself man
ask her former colleagues in Barcelona what they suffered when she was in charge? perhaps you will have a better idea of how unpleasant a person she is.
A professor briefly in charge of the Education Ministry? OK, you tell us what her colleagues suffered.
Absolutely spot on sir, sturgeon needs to be more aggressive in the push for independence by starting with standing shoulder to shoulder with Catalans in the same position as ourselves. She should close down the Spanish consulate in Edinburgh to start with.
The Catalan situation is entirely different from Scotland. Besides, the Scottish Parliament does not have the power to do that and would be quickly closed down on that pretext. Are you wanting another Northern Ireland?
CM – ‘Nicola referred to “the fact our justice system is legally obliged to follow due process in the determination of extradition requests”.’
Let’s hope that the legal system takes into account the human rights of Clara Ponsati given the brutality of Rajoy’s thugs during the Catalan independence referendum – https://spanishpolice.github.io/
I’d have thought that any democratically elected government of a nation (e.g. Catalan, Scotland) have a right to run a referendum on whether that nation wishes to become independent. How can it be treason to represent the interests of the electorate?
I met a young group of Spanish Doctors a few weeks back. Gently sounded them out about Catalonia. They were very heated about the corruption of the Catalan state, said most of them didn’t support independence, the rest are being deceived, their grievances are phony, fake news, their leaders frauds who should be arrested. They became quiet when I reminded them of the hundreds of recorded beatings.
Anyway, the only ones to defend the Catalans were a contingent of very clued up African software engineers.
The oddest thing is, even in English translation, their arguments were uncannily close to the ones which pop up in English language MSM, and on here from time to time. Is there a script?
@ J March 27, 2018 at 00:01
‘….Is there a script?’
What a terrible thing to say – you seem to be insinuating Western MSM are in collusion?
That’s tantamount to saying we don’t have a ‘Free Press’ –
‘Newscasters Agree: A Christmas Present Or Two Or Ten Edition’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM8L7bdwVaA
‘Newscasters Agree: Valentine’s “I Love You” Edition’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44ojS4UNn8I
@ John March 26, 2018 at 22:40
Would it be acceptable to you if Craig cleared all ‘His’ Blog posts through you first?
In my view, Scotland will never achieve independence through the ballot box. As Craig rightly points out, the creation of an independent Scotland is a revolutionary act in itself and to achieve it will take revolutionary measures. Someone to stand on the steps and Bute House and declare UDI. Again in my view, the SNP have lied and misled the Scottish people over Brexit. Scotland has never been a member state of the EU, so how can they leave the EU? If Scotland was independent, it would be facing the same problems as Brexit is causing for the UK just now. How can Nicola state that the SNP are seeking the best possible deal for Scotland post Brexit when that very statement tells people that you’re actively supporting Brexit and in effect, supporting the Tory/Westminster government?
I am no longer a member of the SNP and no longer participate in any of the pro-independence groups on Facebook and the like. It’s difficult for me to remember a time, if ever, that I have encountered such an ill informed collection of people as Scottish Independence supporters online and it is my belief that they are being kept that way purposely by the higher echelons of the SNP. It suits the current SNP leadership not to have people asking questions.
Despite all this, I am still a fervent supporter of Scottish independence but I truly doubt that will happen with the current state of the SNP.
Excellent post which expresses our feeling of betrayal at the lack of backbone in the SNP. Where is the solidarity with Catalonia ? You are right -they are enjoying the status quo and it was sickening to see the SNP representative on Question Time last week supporting Teresa May.
Fasten your seat belts:
‘Here’s John Bolton Promising Regime Change in Iran by the End of 2018’:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49075.htm
‘…Just eight months ago, at a Paris gathering, Bolton told members of the Iranian exile group, known as the Mujahedeen Khalq, MEK, or People’s Mujahedeen, that the Trump administration should embrace their goal of immediate regime change in Iran and recognize their group as a “viable” alternative.
“The outcome of the president’s policy review should be to determine that the Ayatollah Khomeini’s 1979 revolution will not last until its 40th birthday,” Bolton said. (The 40th anniversary of the Iranian revolution will be on February 11, 2019.) “The declared policy of the United States should be the overthrow of the mullahs’ regime in Tehran,” Bolton added. “The behavior and the objectives of the regime are not going to change and, therefore, the only solution is to change the regime itself.”
As the Iranian expatriate journalist Bahman Kalbasi noted, Bolton concluded his address to the exiles with a rousing promise: “And that’s why, before 2019, we here will celebrate in Tehran!”……’
Could Skripal be part of the softening-up process for public acceptance of measures leading up to WWIII?
I suspect so. If (or rather when) it comes, I most assuredly won’t be blaming Iran, Syria, North Korea or Russia, but the Western War Mongers.
Not that I’m likely to be around, because London will go with the first hit on Northwood HQ.
Madrid is on a collision course with human rights as enshrined in the ECHR and mirrored by the ECJ.
EU politicians can and have ignored that, and for pragmatically justifiable political reasons till now.
However, the hubris of Madrid has prevented it from seeing that their EU colleagues have merely given them a temporary space in which to do the democratically right thing. They have missed that one off opportunity.
It has not happened and now the full force of EU law must be brought to bear on Madrid’s indefensible flaunting of those human rights.
Whether Catalan remains in Spain or not, I cannot see how Spain’s ultimate exit from the EU (short of a remarkable and unlikely regime change) can be avoided.
No, Spain will join the UK and Turkey as the third once major imperial power to occupy the periphery of Europe unable to come to terms with the loss of their imperial past.