The radical road up Salisbury Crags got its name because pro-democracy labourers building it held meetings there to avoid bans within the city of Edinburgh, back in the era of Peterloo. This is precisely where Historic Environment Scotland are banning tomorrow’s Independence rally, and if we accept it we are turning our back on our heritage.
As somebody who has addressed half a million people in Hyde Park, I find the notion that political events may not be held in Royal Parks ludicrously spurious. Holyrood Park is a park – the clue is in the name. We are not asking to occupy the Palace. Where can you hold a political rally if not in a park?
In Stirling, the AUOB march was forced by the council on a route to Bannockburn that avoided the town centre entirely and wandered through leafy lanes to ensure nobody could see the demonstration. What is happening in Edinburgh is still worse.
I have been constantly explaining that we are now in a Catalan situation. The Establishment will do everything they can to prevent a second Independence Referendum, and local authority offices, quangos and media outlets form their outward defensive barriers – before you even get to the Scottish Office, and the dirty tricks that will be played by the UK security services.
The Tories have already announced that Westminster will not agree to another Indyref before 2027. We have a fundamental stand to make on whether we accept that a parliament in England dominated massively by representatives of England, has a veto on the self-determination of the Scottish people.
One day, all supporters of Independence are going to be forced to get their heads round the fact that London is going for the Madrid solution, and we are not going to achieve Independence without using peaceful, non-violent routes which are nevertheless going to be deemed illegal by the Establishment. Making a political speech in a Royal Park tomorrow is precisely the start of such challenges.
Our rally starts in Johnstone Terrace, where my father was born, and proceeds right past my current home. This is my ground and I am, as a citizen, going to stand for my rights here.
au contraire monsieur, you can use it to order snails in snooty restaurants.
It’s interesting to read that France’s Little Corporal President Macron, said to the French people be like General de Gaulle, and don’t complain about things in France.
Macron whose popularity rating has slipped to just 30% has just seen his Minister for the Interior resign over national security, or rather the lack of it.
Macron has pushed forward a armed private security force to bolster the Police Nationale, and the Gendarmerie Nationale, which the exiting Interior Minster claimed were spread a bit thin.
One wonders if like British politicians, who have stakes in companies that often are favourable when it comes to dishing out the contracts. That the neoliberal, Little Corporal, and his political allies in the Palais du Luxembourg, and the Palais du Burbon, will benefit financially from these new armed private security guards.
Just a thought.
That tends to happen when you get a centralised state police force. Anyone for Police Scotland?
On the contrary Charles undef the SNP’s governance police numbers in Scotland have risen, not to mention a recent immediate pay rise to boot, sadly neither can be said of police forces south of the border.
How do you get “centralised state police force” from “private security force”?
Ernest Marples as Minister of Transport in 1959 owned a company contracting to build the M1 and he was not averse to closing railway lines either. He did however skip off to Monaco to avoid being prosecuted for tax fraud by Inland Revenue
It’s hardly a right of self determination if the parent government can veto it, is it?
My favourite Holyrood Park story is when the Mormons asked Historic Scotland for permission to build a vast pilgrimage church and visitor centre there as a memorial to their missionary Orson Pratt, who had preached on Arthur’s Seat in 1840. Permission was politely refused, but instead they were allowed to dedicate a park bench.
If there’s anyone left that has confidence in Nicola Sturgeon, let them watch this video posted on her twitter feed a day before the SNP conference: https://mobile.twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1ypKdYdNobvGW
I actually find this video embarassing and enraging. For some reason it keeps you waiting about two minutes before she says a thing. That’s two long minutes to wait for the most vacuous detached-from-reality political message I think I’ve heard in my whole life.
Instead of opposing Brexit outright, she encourages us to work hard for what she calls a Norway-style deal. What the fuck is she on? There’s no question of a Norway-style deal, it isn’t even in the spectrum of possibilities.
It gets better…
Instead of a plan for independence and indyref2, we need to “have hope for the next generation” who some day might join other small nations in being happy and prosperous and healthy… is this a fucking joke?
Hope for the next generation? That’s her words. “Hope”, just fucking hope mind you, no more than hope, “for the next generation”.
What about this generation? Should we just curl up and die like Nicola?
Wtf is going on? Someone explain this to me. Do they have something on her? Is she really on the MI5 payroll?
In amongst those bombshells there’s the usual piss about public services and the disadvantaged. More baby boxes and named Guardian crap to look forward to?
I’m stunned. Not a word of encouragement or anything about today’s demo either.
Get this loser to out now. I want independence before Brexit, not “hope” for the next generation.
We are screwed as long as she stays in the job. Mark my words.
Behave yourself Hautey, for someone who wants independence, you’re quick to condemn the only party in Scotland capable of helping to deliver it.
For someone who claims to be a indy supporter, you sure dont grasp points too well. We are leaving the EU, whether we like it or not thanks to Westminster and the people of the England, who hold the lions share of the UK vote. Norway isn’t a EU member but has access through EFTA, and the EEA to the Single Market.
That’s what Sturgeon meant, I agree the clip wasn’t well thought out or inspiring, but lets not lose the heid just yet. Let Brexit unfold its disastrous consequences, then we can strike out through a indy vote.
Keith Brown was at the AUOB march today in which police reports via social media claimed a 100,000 people or there abouts were in attendance. Brown too repeated that we must let the Brexit disaster unfold then launch indyref2.
Thanks for that party political regurgitation on behalf of the Kiss Your Ass Goodbye Party.
I guess you too have given up and now only “have hope for the next generation”.
Scotland the brave…. lol
Hatuey
That’s the sort of emotional down you get after building up someone to an impossible height and then being disappointed. Don’t worry, it happens to many people. Previous objects of veneration followed by disappointment include Mr Jeremy Corbyn, George Galloway, Mairhi Black, Alex Salmond, to name but four. There is no cure, so it’s best not to catch the disease in the first place. And that can be achieved not by NHS medicine at the expense of the general public but by repeating to oneself thrice daily:
“Do not go a-whorin’ after false gods !”
Of course a false god does not have to be a physical person (eg Nicola Sturgeon), it can also be an association (eg, the SNP)
lol
“Mr Jeremy Corbyn, George Galloway, Mairhi Black, Alex Salmond, to name but four. ”
How so Charles care to elaborate?
Absurdly, but unsurprisingly, you leave out the most blazingly obvious example of someone venerated as a demigod by the corporate media and Neocons on left and right – and now a complete joke figure who brings ridicule and obloquy on any cause he attaches himself to. That’s right – Anthony Charles Lynton Blair.
Jude
Of course you are absolutely right – Blair is also an example of a “false god” within the terms I set out. There are many other examples from across the board of public life – another example would be Harold Wilson.
Most politicians in fact.
“Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word.”
“In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.”
“Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses; they last while they last.”
“In politics it is necessary either to betray one’s country or the electorate. I prefer to betray the electorate.”
Charles de Gaulle
Actually, Charles, I’m stunned that the snp support base accept this, and its them that disappoint me, not her. I can’t believe it.
Well that’s what happens when people keep up with what’s happening Hatuey and are being more realistic than you are at the moment.
You’re exactly right. In fact, you’ve never been so right in your life.
People who keep up with what’s happening are basically brainwashed — exactly what i said before.
Stop bloody insulting people just because they have a different view Hatuey. I am NOT brainwashed!
Jo1, if you really think reading British newspapers and watching the News on TV makes you informed, you’ve basically got a screw loose in my opinion. I stand by that 100%.
Conversely, if you think by not reading the papers and watching the news, I have an inferior grasp of reality or something, then you are the one that is being insulting.
The SNP don’t make sense right now. Address what i am saying — they don’t make sense.
Independence is supposed to be a keystone of SNP policy, the principle they were founded on. They’re basically banning all discussion of it at the conference. They wouldn’t even let Craig Murray hire a room on the fringes for a chat. Why aren’t they taking part in or promoting these demonstrations? Why? It’s not like there’s lawlessness involved. Why are they suddenly talking about independence in terms of “hope for the next generation”? Where’s the mandate, the triple locked mandate?
These things matter. They’re real and deeply troubling. You don’t feel troubled or perplexed because your papers and your leaders don’t want you thinking about them. That makes your grasp of reality inferior, not mine.
Hatuey
You haven’t a clue what I read or where I get my news. You know damn all about me so stop making sweeping assumptions based on nothing whatsoever!
You’re hitting out in all directions, calling people “brainwashed” and accusing them of being stupid or “having a screw loose” because you’re so immature you can’t cope with engaging in a debate about something important. You’re so arrogant that you think you’re the only one who cares about Scotland’s future and the right way forward. You think you’re the only one entitled to an opinion. Some super-patriot who is more committed than anyone else. Well you’re wrong. You’re also not worth engaging further with when you have such contempt for views that don’t mirror your own. So knock yourself out with the insults. From now on I’ll just scroll past your posts.
Jo1, you haven’t addressed any of the points I have made here. The only thing you refer to is a statement I made around 3 days ago suggesting that reading newspapers and watching tv news is likely to have a negative impact on your ability to understand the world. I stand by that view but I have moved on and you keep bringing it up.
As for knowing “damn all” about you, something you point out as if it is a weakness, that’s a red herring too. It goes without saying that I didn’t claim to know a thing about you and don’t want to know a thing about you. I merely concluded that someone who argues in favour of reading newspapers and watching tv news would read newspapers and watch tv news.
I would have happily ignored you but you addressed comments to me and I merely responded. Some consider that politeness.
It’s conference time, though, run along and soak it up. Let me predict that Nicola will make a few vague references to an independent Scotland in the future without any clear plan to get there. Everyone will clap.
The SNP is not an independence party, it was, but it mellowed to gain office and is now a stronger voice in Britain party.
“Previous objects of veneration followed by disappointment include” just about every politician ever elected.
And nice to see that the NHS are somehow implicated in “a-whorin'”.
And how horribe that the general public seem to have been conned into giving expenses to the NHS when they could have been giving expenses to those wonderfully philanthropic fracking corporations. Oh wait – they are anyway!
Or even the false gods of continuing Thatcher’s legacy?
Perhaps Neo – Liberal Economics too as it’s worked so well in the UK?
I don’t know who’s going to be disappointed first.
Charles, NHS medicine is not “at the expense of the general public”, it is to the benefit of the general public.
http://www.thisisgoingtohurt.co.uk/
You really write the most ridiculous things. What do you think happens to the money that runs the NHS? Having worked its magic of improving health, most goes straight back into the economy of course, employing people and supporting businesses.
Except for the lumps creamed off to PFI, shareholders etc. because successive “centerist” governments worshipped the private sector, especially finance.
Such as this outfit. INTRA HEALTH – stealers who are nibbling away at the body of the NHS
https://companycheck.co.uk/company/03783310/INTRAHEALTH-LIMITED/companies-house-data
Denis Campbell October 7, 2018
The Observer
Private health firms squeeze out GP-run extended services
‘Creeping privatisation’ of local family services is compromising patient health, say critics
Dr Paul Williams, Labour MP and local GP. Photograph
Profit-driven firms are squeezing traditional GPs out of running family doctor services because of rules that NHS bosses and ministers both believe harm patient care, the Observer can reveal.
/..
Doctors, MPs and campaigners have hit out at the “creeping privatisation” of general practice, with private companies being handed contracts ahead of groups of GPs.
http://www.execreview.com/2018/10/private-health-firms-squeeze-out-gp-run-extended-services/
‘Hartlepool & Stockton Health, a not-for-profit GP collective that provides appointments at three Teesside surgeries, is a case in point. Despite high patient satisfaction scores and offering 25,000 extra appointments a year outside usual surgery hours, it could lose out to profit-driven companies. Several private firms, including IntraHealth, have expressed interest after it issued a tender worth up to £1.1m a year for the extended-hours service from 2019-21.
You are stating the obvious, Clark. The NHS is certainly for the public and it is also paid for by the public (through inadequate National Insurance contributions and the rest – most of it – through general taxation paid by the general public.
Yes but to fund it properly would require employers to pay a greater proportion than they do. After all Social Security Levies are modest in the UK compared to Continental Europe thought Switzerland has no employer contribution. NHS is beneficial to lower income groups and the unhealthy at the expense of the middle class healthy – it would no doubt benefit the healthy middle class to decant the unhealthy lower income groups out of the mainstream healthcare to avoid cross-subsidy. That is all an insurance-based system does.
NHS has been starved on the capital account for decades. The GP Contract changed the “doctors” to “contractors” and gave the Secretary of State power to transfer the Contract to “other providers” which was the gateway to HCA and United Health and the rest of the US Corporations.
Instead I would prefer to see full-service private hospitals including A&E offering their services to augment the NHS and provide more capacity especially in Physiotherapy and other vital ancillary services hobbled by the NHS
Thanks George, can I add Tony Bliar to that lineup. Perhaps he should be the first mentioned.
Hatuey, there is nothing else really to hold on and our leaders are united in their ignorance of today’s/or in future of the three threats to our existence.
These are Global warming, a world nuclear confrontation and the emerging technological advances like AI and genetic experiences with human genes.
Our politicians order to polish turds and ignore what little democracy is left for us, soon to be an exercise in humouring and entertaining.
I have no time for party politics anymore, but….Iam getting involved in local close community based issues.
Its important to persist with hope, take your queue from communities that stand up to corporate bulldozing of what regulates us.
Hang in there
:
cue !
😉
.
:
‘LIKED’ !!!
Meanwhile Indian PM Modi has signed a multi billion dollar contract with Russia to purchase their S-400 missile defence system. The impressive system can strike 80 different targets almost simultaneously.
Modi may well be lokking ahead, with its mortal enemy Pakistan, and its long running friendship with China in mind.
Brazil hold its election on Sunday. Leading the race to become Brazil’s next commander-in-chief is a pro-torture, far-right dictatorship-admiring former paratrooper called Jair Bolsonaro who currently enjoys about 32% in the polls.
Aye RoS, world affairs are just a laugh a minute right now.
None more so than the incompetence of the British governments handling of Brexit, of which I’m sure the world is having a jolly good laugh at.
Okay, but you just said we should be arguing for brexit with a Norway-style deal. Let’s pretend that’s a serious proposal and let us see you tell us how that resolves 1) satisfying the English electorate in terms of regaining their sovereignty, and 2) the Northern Ireland question.
You won’t answer because Nicola hasn’t gotten that far.
In case you didn’t notice, you’re grappling with the same problems that May is grappling with now, which puts you more or less on the same side. You’re also completely ignoring the votes and wishes of your own country who voted to remain in the EU, but knock yourselves out — English voters come first. Brexit means Brexit.
And that’s the gist of it. The SNP are now pro-brexit.
Norway seems to have control of its fishing grounds and its oil and to have a large export market on its doorstep.
Remember that both India and Pakistan possess nuclear deterrents. We don’t hear much about the details but I think both have signed up to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, unlike Israel.
– “the NPT non-nuclear-weapon states agree never to acquire nuclear weapons and the NPT nuclear-weapon states in exchange agree to share the benefits of peaceful nuclear technology and to pursue nuclear disarmament aimed at the ultimate elimination of their nuclear arsenals”
There are five “nuclear-weapon states”, the US, Russia, China, France and the UK. Each has both nuclear power and nuclear weapons. They are also the five veto holders on the UN Security Council, but we’re assured that’s just a coincidence. All could be said to be in breach of the NPT for doing bugger all to rid themselves of nuclear weapons.
India and Pakistan have never accepted the NPT. They both have both nuclear power and nuclear weapons. Saudi Arabia invested in Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, and is believed to be able to order from Pakistan at will.
Israel has never accepted the NPT. It has nuclear power, and nuclear weapons that it refuses to confirm or deny.
North Korea has nuclear weapons, and has been in and out of the NPT like a rat-catcher’s dog. Each time the US threatened North Korea, it abandoned the NPT and returned to developing nuclear weapons, and each time the US backed off North Korea halted development and rejoined the NPT. It recently developed H bombs, causing Trump to start treating it with respect.
Libya had a nuclear weapons development programme. Tony Blair persuaded Gaddafi to abandon the programme, and we all know what happened to Libya a few years later.
So the NPT is SNAFU, but not half as bad as it could be.
There have been just over two thousand tests of nuclear weapons, which is about one seventh of the current global total, so the total fall-out from a nuclear war wouldn’t be as unimaginable as people tend to think. Sharp Ears, I think I found the following link from you originally:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=856fWEltiXo
Above I wrote that the five nuclear weapons states had done little to rid themselves of weapons; credit where it’s due, they have reduced the total number of nuclear weapons to about a third of the peak number, but the ones they have now are “new and improved” over the ones they decommissioned.
Thanks for the corrections and clarifications Clark. You are very knowledgeable.
When will they ever learn?
https://youtu.be/ZgXNVA9ngx8
And also South Africa. But nothing happened to Nelson Mandela when South Africa gave up its nuclear development programme, hence your “point” about the fate of Ghaddafi is of doubtful validity.
A mixture of non secateurs and garbled history with a bid of misinformation. Classic Charlie stuff.
Ask David Cameron and Dr David Kelly about their role in South Africa giving up nuclear weapons………
http://truepublica.org.uk/united-kingdom/david-camerons-secret-nuclear-weapons-deal-raised-17-8m-for-conservative-party-funds-sets-pretext-for-war/
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread783366/pg1
Oh and take a look at John Bredenkamp
None of these countries have.
What India wants is the radar system and independence from USA. Pakistan needed the bomb to hold itself together since it is so fissiparous and Kashmir is a useful point of contention. Pakistan needs to keep both borders (to Afghanistan) and (to India) boiling to avoid them becoming meaningless as the tribal boundaries erode the Islamic Republic.
India wants the latest tech to avoid becoming a backwater. They made a real botch of JV with Russia on PAK-FA aircraft demanding source codes and access to self-modify yet having terribly low productivity in their fabrication facilities. Now that BRI is on offer from Russia and China I don’t see India or Pakistan falling out of step
Republicofscotland: “Keith Brown was at the AUOB march today in which police reports via social media claimed a 100,000 people or there abouts were in attendance. Brown too repeated that we must let the Brexit disaster unfold then launch indyref2.”
You’d think 100,000 people out on the streets supporting the very cause that the SNP was founded on would merit some words of encouragement from our great leader. Can we at least be assured that she had a nice little Thatcheresque outfit on today and that the colour of her heels matched perfectly?
If the SNP engaged in the Indy debate and got behind us, there would have been a million people on the streets today, and next week, and the week after that, until independence was achieved.
There’s something extremely peculiar about all this.
Other countries seeking independence have national days of protest, general strikes, boycotts, and leaders that provide encouragement and support. They’re all total amateurs though, right? They don’t realise that the best way to get independence is to do and say nothing.
I wasn’t looking forward to the SNP conference, but now I can’t wait.
Btw, I couldn’t care less what former Royal Marines commando Keith Brown thinks. Is he the guy they sent to dampen our expectations and chill us out? Didn’t the people of Scotland learn during the SLAB years that loyalty to politicians and parties is a recipe for disaster? Loyalty is a problem, not a solution. I can’t believe I need to explain that.
Something. Extremely. Peculiar.
“Something. Extremely. Peculiar.”
Hautey, the only peculiar thing is, the way you’re panicking like Redvers Buller at the Battle of Colenso.
Like I said on the conclusion of Brexit is probably the best time for indyref2.
Hi Hatuey, I am a bit perplexed by your slating of the SNP, and I can’t figure out what you are expecting them to be? They aren’t radicals, they are a political party working within the system.
And within that system, particularly as the party of government, they are restricted in what they say and do. The cannot, and will not, ever declare UDI. If you listen carefully, Nicola Sturgeon has said time and again, that it is us that have to want independence, and say so. I have already talked about the Claim of Right, and that gives citizens of Scotland the right to have their voice heard and those voices to be acted on – the SNP are just the vehicle to make our wishes reality, as they said they would do – but that has to be a majority of people in Scotland. And we have to demonstrate what we want. That’s why rallies such as the one today are hugely important, and they do make a difference. It is indeed us that need to take action. Why blame the SNP for our own inaction? It is our choice, and each one of those SNP politicians only has as much say as any one of us; they aren’t special or unique.
But our country IS unique, in that the people legally, recognised internationally, have a choice. It has to be a majority decision. Any result of an independence referendum or poll is in no way certain, the weight of the state propaganda machine is against it, decades of indoctrination are against it, Westminster is against it. Convincing people that it is normal to want independence for your country is an uphill struggle, and that so many people think otherwise shows how badly poisoned our minds have been. It IS the normal way of thinking.
The change in opinion isn’t likely to come about by anything the SNP say or do at this stage, as so clearly demonstrated by your comments, it is going to be from people engaging each other, by showing just how much we’ve been lied to over the decades, by telling people how much we aren’t told, by telling people that they really are good enough, by showing a glimmer of what really is possible, and by not being judgemental.
Contrary, I’m sure you mean well. But everything you say hinges on opinion polls when you get right down to it. I don’t accept that opinion polls are legitimate when you have a society that is pumped continually with lies and propaganda from virtually every available news and media outlet, 24/7.
This isn’t some vague notion of injustice that is peculiar to me. Just this year the OSCE condemned Turkey for undue media bias prior to its recent elections;
“the conditions for campaigning were not equal, with the incumbent president and ruling party enjoying an undue advantage, including in excessive coverage by government-affiliated public and private media outlets, the international observers concluded in a preliminary statement today…”
Can you even imagine what they’d say about the Scottish media and bias, when;
“During any election, the media provide an invaluable channel of information between the
candidates and the public. By providing an arena for public debate, and by informing citizens of
the positions of the candidates and parties, the media enable the electorate to make an
informed decision when they go to vote. The importance of this last point cannot be overstated,
as the ability of voters to make an informed choice is one of the key aspects of a democratic
election…”
GUIDELINES ON MEDIA ANALYSIS DURING
ELECTION OBSERVATION MISSIONS
by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions
and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR)
and the Venice Commission
Actually Hatuey if you read: Contrary makes some excellent points (reminds me of a particular Obama speech). I won’t try to repeat, because I think Contrary does a good job. I would suggest others read his post carefully.
Actually, Andrew H, I read contrary’s post carefully. And I responded to it carefully.
I don’t think Obama represents anything that we should look up to or take very seriously. He was one of the most disappointing presidents ever.
Contrary’s suggestion that the SNP are somehow entitled to stand back and leave everything to others is ridiculous in what is supposed to be a democracy. If the SNP believe that then I have every right to slate them and will.
What do the SNP do in the meantime, business as usual? Nothing? And presumably, if the leaderless people miraculously achieve what has never been achieved before by a movement without leadership, the SNP will re-engage…
This is all starting to sound very familiar. Just why do people think Scottish Labour were dumped by the Scottish people?
Hatuey, I didn’t mean you read it. I meant other people. I have never understood why thick people think they are smarter than the rest. You must know it from school – they would have written C on your report card. I suppose you justify that with some kind of notion that school was just a bunch of brainwashing and you prefer to just think things out for yourself. I don’t have an opinion on Scottish independence, but I recognise something that is well written vs something that is written by someone who is plainly thick and it annoys me immensely when the later talks down to the former.
– “Something. Extremely. Peculiar.”
SEP – Someone Else’s Problem:
– ” An SEP is something we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a blind spot.
– The Somebody Else’s Problem field… relies on people’s natural predisposition not to see anything they don’t want to, weren’t expecting, or can’t explain. If Effrafax had painted the mountain pink and erected a cheap and simple Somebody Else’s Problem field on it, then people would have walked past the mountain, round it, even over it, and simply never have noticed that the thing was there”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somebody_else%27s_problem
Brexit?
There is a similarly related phenomena called the bystander effect, whereby you observe something happening but assume somebody else is already doing something about it and so do nothing:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/basics/bystander-effect
Well said, sir, assuming you are male. How do we call the judiciary to account?
So the company that Judge Robert Altham’s sister runs was apparently an “advocate” for the North West Energy Task Force.
(If you didn’t know, NWETF is the industry front group administered by PR nasties Westbourne Communications which morphed into Lancashire For Shale.)
The judicial code of conduct states concerns may be raised regarding the judge’s impartiality if family members are “politically active” or have “financial interest” in the outcome of a case.
” Something. Extremely. Peculiar.”
Politics is peculiar. politicians invent a problem so that they can win approval for solving it even though it didn’t exist before they created it. I know nothing about Scottish politics except that it is based on a premise that the Scottish people do not accept, that they are a colony of Westminster.
Anyway far more peculiar in my opinion is the fact that the Muslim groups in the UK, such as the Deobandis, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafis and even the Naqshbandi Sufis all support Islamic jihad which is an open tool for neo-colonialism. The destruction of Syria, Iraq, Libya, Somalia , Yemen and Afghanistan has been wrought by these religious puppets and none of them is prepared to ask the obvious question, why the Muslim imams support the destruction of the Muslim countries and people for the benefit of the enemies of Islam.
The answer is, that all of them are playing politics, like Nicola Sturgeon, which involves accepting the false premise of the colonial aggressors that the colonisers must at all times be appeased. Jihad is in effect a tool of the imams against Islam, not for Islam just as Scottish Independence is used as a tool against Scotland.
The mosques have to have a video link to MI5 and they continually and fawningly re-iterate the colonial policy of Jihad against the Muslims and Islam to gratify their owners in MI5. In Scottish politics is this pro-establishment hymn-singing also accompanied by large crocodile tears and hand wringing at the awful consequences of bum-licking by political tongues?
There are no words to describe the dirtiness of colonial power. God raised Hitler against the arrogance of the British Empire. Everybody else was pretending to enjoy the taste of defeat like Cadbury’s milk tray. Russia , undoubtedly assisted by China, are challenging the status quo in Syria. So it would appear that God has raised a new opponent to imperial arrogance because their imperial importances so rapidly forgot the lessons of two previous world wars.
God raised Hitler against the arrogance of the British Empire.
Plenty of arrogance there, but wasn’t he raised by Allah against the Zionists?
Anyway, ever considered that Islam was and still is a colonial power? Mecca and Medina are very far from Nigeria, Bangladesh, Spain or Kazakhstan.
Blasphemy!
“Islam was and still is a colonial power? Mecca and Medina are very far from Nigeria, Bangladesh, Spain or Kazakhstan.”
You really could spell out what you mean by this statement because it really makes little sense as it stands. It does contain a true statement that Mecca and Medina are far from certain places but is incomplete in that it omits other places like Japan, Australia and the whole of North and South America. Come to think of it the Vatican is also far away from Argentina, Chile and Peru.
Antonyl, does that mean all strands of missionary Christendom, their bolt holes outside the middle east, here in Europe, offer blasphemic views to the few thst are listening?
Are you afraid of a popular Islam? Afraid that a usuary system will ruin the City?….:)
What a stupid comment. You clearly read Manga. Hitler admired the British Empire, his favourite film was “Tales of a Bengal Lancer” and he marvel how Britain ran The Raj with just 300,000 troops. He was Anglophile. His only problem was he spoke no English and relied upon a Johnnie Walker importer called Ribbentrop because he spoke English but was married to a fervent Nazi and they soiled the carpet in London after the highly popular German Ambassador to Court of St James died in office.
Hitler was happy for the British Empire to continue and that was part of his offer in May 1940 which Churchill had to obstruct by ordering bombing of German cities. 10 May 1940 Churchill PM and 15 May 1940 Order given to bomb Germany with 96 bombers attacking Gelsenkirchen on 16 May.
Whatever Hitler was and no matter how evil his schemes he did not start out to dismantle British Empire or have Britain as an enemy.
I’m with you Hatuey, for comprehension of the shift see Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Runs as a democratic socialist, can’t describe what that means following her election, then glorifies USA Senator John McCain in her eulogy (warmonger and global slaughterer and friend of ISIS).
It starts as leadership without ideology, slips to public statements without meaning or solidarity, descends to nebulous remarks and abuse of office to prohibit alternative voices (see Craig Murray), finally thwarts and destroys the initial movement and leaves it paralysed. Can and should be uprooted early as one would diseased rootstock in the orchard.
But the prime example for this was ‘Change we can believe in ‘ Obama who started of from the beginning with an escalation of the drone programme and continuation of business as usual.
Obama was bagman for the Pritzker Family from Chicago who built their Hyatt empire on being bookkeepers to The Mob. Obama was fake from top to bottom, appointed to the Senate other than elected when his predecessor was arrested. Chicago Politics is a cess pit and Obama knew how to swim in sewage and was malleable. He scooped votes and let the Military Industrial Complex and Banker Overlords walk all over ordinary Americans giving Geithner control of the Us Treasury so he could cover his tracks from the NY Fed creating nay forcing Oligopoly in the US Banking System with taxpayer funds
Tweet from the Scottish Sun, saying the latest Survation poll puts independence support at at least 50% in the event of Brexit, more in the event of a no deal:
https://mobile.twitter.com/camusson/status/1048691898955833347
I personally think everyone in Scotland should want independence whatever, Westminster rule has been toxic since the union started.
According to the BBC it was 20 thousand.
Who to believe?
Maybe Jo1 has a method for dealing with these sort of situations. I definitely don’t.
According to the bbC..
Hat..there’s no point in showing you the Fotos . Videos, but that’s Fine, the Fucking bbc.. ??
there were at least 113,000 of us there, bbC try to cancel almost 100, 000 of us The Upper estimate is well beyond 213 K. . wake up
JEEZ..
Anyway I promised Nevermind some footage –
There were Hundreds of Yes Bikers.. I missed the start, Some of those Machines were just amazing art, Engineering.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75DntZd8dvg
” Child Poverty ..in One of the Richest countries in the world “..Tommy Sheridan –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZzpFD8NdK0&t=2s
Youtube wont allow my video of Tommy Shepard.. Bastards.
Amazing footage Brian. Loved the bikes! Thanks for posting.
You missed my point,Brian, it that’s okay. Why won’t YouTube allow you to post tommy shepherd?
Thanks for that motorbike/ excellent AUOB over stimulation, Brian, you had some great weather, we had a days drizzle here.
Its all your fault if i get a motorbike next year….;)
THANKS
Ray Galton died today. In his obituaries you might have heard that he met his script writing partner, Alan Simpson, at Milford Isolation Hospital when they had TB treatment. Later Milford Hospital became a convalescent hospital and a centre from which care assistants were sent to help post operative NHS patients with washing and dressing who had been discharged to their own home.
All gone. Under Hunt, in whose constituency Milford Hospital is located, it has been reduced to a shadow of it’s former self. Just a few beds there now. The site is large and it was flogged off to a property developer ( most probably a Tory donor) who built a large housing estate for private sale.
That’s the way the Tories wreck OUR NHS
Branson of course won the contract for Surrey’s community health services. When it ended, it was taken back by the CCG (Branson sued them and was given a large financial settlement for non-renewal – he is full of chutzpah) and a GP has set up a company to run a very basic and probably a non existent service.
Funny isn’t it how previous generations – though poorer – thought mental hospitals should be in green parks to aid recovery and sanatoria in idyllic spots with lots of verdant land and trees around. Whereas modern “compassionate” people know that a pill from Big Pharma and profits from property development make for a happy and contented society like you enjoy nowadays
Seems like Salmond was incorruptible but not so sure about Nicola. SNP needs to get a more radical leader.
A more radical SNP leader would suit Westminster just fine. Nicola Sturgeon’s disciplined analytical style stymies the fevered attempts by the Scottish press and the BBC to fault her and so their alternative strategy is to big up on Ruth Davidson, a political facade.And I expect that Davidson and May get along just lovely. Birds of a feather.
The discussion about Scottish independence assumes that once indipendent, Scotland will be so free that it would be able to do everything for the good of Scotland and the Scottish people. But reality is not so simple. Independence will only change some basic controls from Westminster to somewhere else be it the IMF, EU or whatever and will also mean a mountain of new legislation and treaty renegotiations as has been shown by the complexities of the Brexit negotiations.
I have no axes to grind nor am I trying to justify one argument over another and I am also aware that those who have devoted their time to this problem would have deep thoughts about this. But the current problems with the world would never get solved by further subdivisions of nations without tackling the inherent problems with the overall system of international law and finance. Within this system dominated by a false or non existent respect for national sovereignty whether by propaganda, financial undermining or by blatant military aggression will just make small nations more vulnerable.
Scottish politicians either as individuals or as representatives in Westminster have consistently punched above their weight in British politics. The Tory hold on England will only be strengthened by Scottish independence and will leave a rather sore and vindictive enemy south of the border, yes a hard border probably with barbed razor wire and watchtowers.
I am of course exaggerating but the current international system is rotten to the core and becoming more introverted into smaller units will not make the problem go away.
The slightly biased ‘Freedom House’ (Soros?) just released their state of the world analysis. They rate the UK fairly highly for freedom and democracy (whilst ignoring the soft-assassinations attempted on opposition politicians in the last year) “Freedom” did mention that the OSCE got a limited view of the UK 2017 general election, complained about non-transparent funding, and didn’t mention the spooks favourite “voting postal”, in a quick read, Scotland did not exist.
While the government enforces robust protections for political rights and civil liberties, recent years have seen concerns about increased government surveillance of residents, as well as rising Islamophobia and anti-immigrant sentiment. In a 2016 referendum, UK voters narrowly voted to leave the European Union (EU), through a process known colloquially as “Brexit,” which will have political and economic reverberations both domestically and across Europe in the coming years.
Reverberations!
SA, you seem to be arguing that Scotland should sacrifice its right to be independent at some nonexistent altar of world peace. I’m just trying to imagine what people in India and other parts of the empire would have made of that with their “subdivisions”. Would your theory apply just as comfortably to Hitler’s colonial possessions in Eastern Europe or is it just in Scotland that you worry about subdivisions?
You then argue, conjuring up another altar for us, that the Tory hold on England would strengthened by Scottish independence which almost leaves me speechless — it’s English people that vote Tory, not us, and because English people vote Tory we have been basically raped and dragged through a bunch of wars and degradations, Brexit being the latest.
Nobody up here thinks for a second thinks that independence will turn the country into a socialist utopia. Some of us don’t even want a socialist utopia. There are constraints on all countries. Independence will however allow Scotland to stamp out child poverty, create jobs and prosperity in a country that has something like 5 of the most deprived areas in the EU, and inch closer to a system that’s democratic, giving people a semblance of a meaningful say in their lives.
Ah yes the degradation that is Brexit.
Consider the state of Wisconsin – known as the cheese capital of the US. Consider its production of Parmesan cheese, an industry segment started by Italian immigrants. Wisconsin produced Parmesan cheese found a ready market in Mexico – where willing buyers and willing sellers met to buy and sell cheese.
The along comes the EU and enters into a “trade deal” with Mexico. One consequence is that Mexico can only market cheese as Parmesan cheese if it has Parma as its manufactured point of origin. The consequence of this is that the profitability of the Wisconsin cheese industry is adversely effected and the price of cheese for Mexicans increases.
All sounds great – just look at the problems besetting Mexico. Do you think that the situation for the average Mexican is improved by having the EU come along and start price gouging on cheese.
The EU is a manifestation of evil – and the normally spineless British seem to be the one people who are prepared to slay the monster. You utterly disregard the plight of the poor in order to continue with your meaningless virtue signalling and your slavish devotion to the chains that imprison you. It is a bit rich to complain of English colonialism given your attachment to the “third way” colonialism of the EU – of which the example of the US/Mexican cheese trade is only one small cog in a giant wheel of exploitation.
Loony, the Scottish people voted overwhelmingly to stay in the EU. The English people voted to leave. The point I made very clearly was that we are sick of being dominated by English politics which, to our palate, is as vile as the rancid chlorinated chicken you’ll be eating next year.
And let’s not pretend for one minute that you give a toss about American cheese makers or Mexicans. You go around scraping little pieces of disinformation from websites in order to do two things: 1) try and sound educated, and 2) attack the EU.
Your vision of Britain slaying a monster is actually hilarious. Britain is about to disintegrate, the only thing keeping it together is lies and brute force. And there’s no slaying here. Brexit is basically begging that the EU will help it keep the lights on.
Rule Britannia.
“Mexico can only market cheese as Parmesan cheese if it has Parma as its manufactured point.”
That sound very like Scotch whisky and its numerous imitations. According to your argument if they are as good as the original, then they are identical to the original and may take the usurped name rightfully. I never understood why the name cheddar cheese has absolutely no protection, so we have Orkney Cheddar, Canadian Cheddar and even Mongolian Cheddar too. Perhaps the cheesemakers of Cheddar itself were slightly less bright than their colleagues in Emilia-Romagna.
Hatuey
I am not really arguing anything too strongly, just observing that Scottish independence may have some unexpected adverse results and that it may may not produce the effects you desire.as in ‘The road to hell is paved with good intentions’.
I am also bemused that the same people who use the argument that we want to have the option to be bound to the rules of the EU, wish to break up an even older association with many shared interests.
“Would your theory apply just as comfortably to Hitler’s colonial possessions in Eastern Europe”
You do like polemic without knowing history. Why was it “colonial” for Hitler to take Western Poland which had been German since 1770s but not “colonial” for Poland to seize Teschen in 1938 which was “Czech” ? Why was it not “colonial” for France to seize “The Saar” ? Why was it not “colonial” for Poland to try seize Danzig which was an international city ?
You use terms emotively rather than with any precision. Borders are simply what you can defend.
Independence will only change some basic controls from Westminster, well here are a few basic controls Scotland will assume:
No nuclear weapons; foreign policy- assistance not aggression towards other countries; ensure no privatisation of water; protect our NHS from privatisation;Scottish revenue retained in Scotland. Meaning?you may ask. For example, income from oil and gas from Scottish territorial waters presently all goes direct to the UK Treasury, ex- Regio is the term devised by Westminster.
Oh, and presently if you look out to sea due East from let’s say St Andrews, you will be looking onto English waters, yes really.
Oh and we would no longer be charged for exporting electrical generated power to England.
I could go on.
“No nuclear weapons; foreign policy- assistance not aggression towards other countries; ..”
Now will that mean that an independent Scotland will come out of NATO? Is that spelt out and argued in the Indy manifesto? You may find that it would be difficult to do so as it is now a precondition for new statelets joining the EU to do so without joining NATO. In case you also have not noticed European Foreign policy, which presumably an independent Scotland will have to abide with, is no different and part of the IS Nato alliance against everyone else. And that is just foreign policy.
income from oil and gas from Scottish territorial waters presently all goes direct to the UK Treasury
Not true. A lot of it goes to the people drilling the wells, pumping the oil and marketing it. You imply Oil in the North Sea has been nationalised which betrays your mindset.
You might consider what value N Sea Oil has if it is cheaper to extract in Libya but since Brent is sweet it can also be obtained from Iraq or Russia. The static notion that oil was discovered off the Scottish coast in 1859 and is an everlasting pot of liquid gold is one that might need re-evaluating before you invite the 5 million people in Scotland to share in this updated “Darien Scheme”
Tens of thousands of Scots turn out in capital demanding second independence vote (PHOTOS, VIDEO)
https://www.rt.com/uk/440500-edinburgh-march-independence-referendum/
100,000 estimated.
You were there too.On a Pebble..Sharp Ears
Cheers Brian. Good on you all. You Scots have much more spirit than the English. It pleases me that my three brothers and myself had a Scottish grandmother on my father’s side.
Compared to the RT reporting, the BBC downplayed your march. They say under the headline ‘ Tens of thousands of people have marched through Edinburgh in support of Scottish independence’ You have to read down to see this quote ‘Gary J Kelly, of organiser All Under One Banner, said he believed around 100,000 took part in the march.’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-45770801
They used to do the same on the numbers marching for Gaza in London during and after Cast Lead.
As dear Harold Pinter said ‘ It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn’t happening. It didn’t matter.’
‘In a few sharp sentences, Pinter pinned down the willed indifference of the media to publicly recorded events.’ –
Passionate Pinter’s devastating assault on US foreign policy
Shades of Beckett as ailing playwright delivers powerful Nobel lecture https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/dec/08/books.nobelprize
As
.
The silly s*ds at the BBC produced 5 versions of that report – https://www.newssniffer.co.uk/articles/1674768/diff/0/1
Throughout you can detect their fervent hope that the march would be cancelled and use of the park withheld.
The same on the previous report
Indyref2 rally ban ‘remains in force’
https://www.newssniffer.co.uk/articles/1674472/diff/3/4
“You Scots have much more spirit than the English.”
If only. After the Scots’ grudging acceptance of her poll tax experiment, Margaret Thatcher reckoned that the English would be just as docile. And we all remember what happened next.
Running battles in Trafalgar Sq, against mounted police 1990, I think. Thankfully there was no sabre charge into the crowds, unlike in Peterloo.
You Scots have new invaders who are acquiring estates according to the BBC.
Clothing magnate Anders Povlsen has had a love of Scotland ever since he bought the 42,000-acre Glen Feshie estate in the Cairngorms in 2006.
Since then he has used his company Wildland to buy 220,000 acres of northern Scotland, making him the country’s second biggest landowner after the Duke of Buccleuch.
https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/highlands/1575020/danish-billionaire-landowner-to-take-over-petrol-station-in-tiny-highland-village/
A Danish billionaire whose family founded the Lego empire is buying up Scottish country estates – brick by brick…
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201710161058274329-lego-founder-scottish-estate/
Couldn’t find the link so the above are from the press.
PS We only have the Russians in England.
Interesting. He’s buying up estates that were previously owned by….? Hardly worth worrying about. Most Scottish estates are owned by rich English people.
The real question is what he is going to do with them. Much of the Highlands is stuck in a low value state of too many deer eating young saplings and leaving very little but deer, sheep, heather and a few birds. Regeneration of forests take 1-3 generations and will not happen if shooting is the priority,
Two ways of doing that; charities crowdfunding from the people, like Trees for Life and the Carrifran initiative; or a billionaire with a mission.
I know nothing of this Dane, but he bought things put on the market by others. He may just be a rich boy who likes shooting and fishing, but equally he might just be a wilderness philanthropist.
The English have welcomed dodgy billionaires from everywhere, not just Russia…..
Well climate change might make the Highland weather more temperate and kill off all the midges so an ideal location for a few “eco-towns”.
More like land loss due to sea rises, of which England definitely won’t escape.
True. What with that and Brexit an independent Scotland will need somewhere to put all the refugees from rUK.
Nawaz* of Quilliam (see https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2009/11/quilliam_founda/ )
is very impressed by the content of today’s front page article in the Observer**. In a conversation with a caller, when describing the Observer as being to the political ‘centre’, he compared it to the Guardian which he called ‘left wing’. LOL
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maajid_Nawaz
** Theresa May bids for centre ground with appeal to Labour voters
Prime minister says the Tories are the only option for moderates
Labour voters should look afresh at the Conservatives | Theresa May
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/oct/06/theresa-may-bids-for-centre-ground-with-appeal-to-labour-voters
Yes indeed, with a lovely soft toned pic of the dear leader in prime position.
You’d almost think the Observer has an agenda.
.
“and we are not going to achieve Independence without using peaceful, non-violent routes ”
however
“march was forced by the council on a route to Bannockburn that avoided the town centre entirely and wandered through leafy lanes”
wasn’t it a peaceful, non-violent route? Nowadays a march is seen by the public more through an online publicity, good photos and videos, so leafy lanes do not have to be derided.
Still, parks should be “commons”, for all people.
Good luck on your rally.
I could MAYBE accept the rerouting of a march to avoid the town centre IF it was being done across the board. For example, IF Orange Order marches were being rerouted THEN I would consider that this might not JUST be a move against AUOB. But, to date, only ONE local authority that I’m aware of) has DARED try to reroute the OO, and that was Glasgow’s SNP. They only did that to avoid a ‘trouble spot’ on the advice of police and the OO took the hump and withdrew from the march. Obviously spitting on priests is more important than the rest of the march for them?
And on your other point, isn’t there a UN convention about the ‘Right to Self-Determination’ I think it’s important to note the word ‘Self’ in that. If you need ‘permission’ to hold a vote then you are CLEARLY not able to ‘Self-Determine’ are you. On that basis ALONE it should be the Scottish Parliament’s decision on whether to hold referenda on the subject or not. My knowledge of the agreements on NI are limited BUT, I think even NI has a better deal on this than we do.
Secondly on the point of IndyRef2, wasn’t the Edinburgh Agreement written in such a way that there would be no second vote unless there was a ‘material change’ in circumstances? If so, I think Brexit EASILY qualifies us for a second vote.
I doubt that any such vote will be given though. It will be TAKEN…
Just for information, it was reported recently that Danish billionaire had purchased more land in Scotland making him Scotland’s largest private land owner in 2018.
Sorry I left out his name, Anders Holch Povlsen. According to wikipedia, he owns 221,000-acres of land in Scotland, making him the largest landowner. This has risen from a 2012 level of 120,000 acres (49,000 ha), when he had bought two further large estates, the 24,000-acre Ben Loyal, and 18,000-acre Kinloch Lodge, both in Sutherland, in addition to a 47,000-acre estate he bought in Inverness-shire in 2006 and a 30,000-acre estate near Fort William that he bought in 2008.
In 2013 it was reported that Povlsen had bought the 20,000 acres (8,100 ha) Gaick Estate in Inverness-shire earlier that year, bringing his total to 150,000 acres (61,000 ha), second only to the Buccleuch Estates as Scotland’s largest private landowner. In addition, Povlsen had bought land in the Borders specifically to trade it with the Forestry Commission, in return for 1,000 acres of woodland to add to his 43,000-acre Glenfeshie Estate, south of Aviemore. Povlsen bought Glenfeshie in 2006, and expanded it by buying the 4,000-acre neighbouring farm of Killiehuntly.
In 2015 he bought Aldourie Castle on the banks of Loch Ness for £15 million. In October 2016 he bought 18,000-acre Eriboll estate in Sutherland for £7 million.
I will be disapointed if nobody in the rallyvmake any reference to “Blood of Bannockburn” by Sabaton 😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oi7xBe5-M8k
Nice Post Jack
So Nikki Haley has been forced to resign because she spilled the beans to the NYT about how nutty the Trump White house is.
It had ti be portrayed as a resignation, and she can come back anytime she wants to avoid any conspiracy talk.
Is there any link to a picture of the 100000 crowd? You would think that the crags at the top of Holyrood Park would be an ideal vantage point to show how large the attendance was. But all I have seen if snatches of the walk with two or three thousand in frame (though obviously not the whole attendance)
The Old Bill would have plenty from helicopter videos, you could ask them for a clip, though I doubt they’d oblige.
‘Say No to Trump’s Plan to Crush Protests in the Nation’s Capital’:
http://www.justiceonline.org/take_action_now_stop_trump_new_laws_to_crush_protests_in_washington_dc#/5/
Trump wants to ban Demos in Wshington DC.