The purpose of Scottish Independence is not to replicate the UK state on a smaller scale with a prettier flag. The purpose is to eschew the imperialist past, stop invading other countries, and build a fairer and more equal society both domestically and internationally.
I thank God I was alive and campaigning in 2014 when for a joyous few months a better world seemed within our grasp; genuine transformational change to a better society was almost tangible, we only had to reach for it.
In all the speeches I gave in that campaign, I concentrated on international relations, because others were covering domestic policy comprehensively and brilliantly, and because Independence at essence is a factor of international relations: it is the standing of a state in relation to other states.
The more radical vision I proposed was well received everywhere. I spoke of a Scotland without enemies, without nuclear weapons or aircraft carriers, with genuinely defensive defence forces, not part of the organised aggression that is NATO.
I remember Glasgow Green erupting in cheers when I quoted James Connolly to a huge crowd:
When it is said that we ought to unite to protect our shores against the ‘foreign enemy’, I confess to be unable to follow that line of reasoning, as I know of no foreign enemy of this country except the British Government
I should add that having then addressed grassroots meetings of every conceivable size over months, on pavements, in meeting rooms and church halls or on stages in parks, not a single person ever turned round and said to me “Oh no, I think we should stay in NATO” or “I think Trident is essential”.
Well, we lost the Independence referendum, though it was far closer than anybody had imagined a year previously. The energies of the Independence movement were all diverted into the institutional structure of the SNP, which became temporarily dominant in Scotland.
But there all the energy and enthusiasm, all of that idealism, was dissipated by the leadership of a political class who turned out to be just the same as the political class at Westminster. Corrupt, greedy, self-serving and desperate for “respectability” and their role within the UK Establishment.
This has been brutally hammered home this week by Angus Robertson, the Scottish Government’s external affairs and culture minister, meeting the Israeli Deputy Ambassador to the UK in the midst of the current accelerated phase of Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians.
Thank you @AngusRobertson for welcoming us to wonderful Scotland.
Discussed the unique commonalities between 🇮🇱-🏴 and also emphasized the urgent need to bring back our 115 hostages.
Looking forward to cooperating in the fields of technology, culture and renewable energy. pic.twitter.com/sh2KeqRa9j
— Daniela Grudsky (@DanielaGrudsky) August 12, 2024
A Scottish Government spokesman confirmed that areas of mutual cooperation had been discussed before John Swinney, alarmed at the criticism from the membership, dribbled out a statement to say it was “essential” to meet the Israeli diplomat to “call for a ceasefire”.
The Scottish government spokesperson’s account aligned with Israel’s account:
The spokesperson said: “They discussed areas of mutual interest, including culture, renewable energy and engaging the country’s respective diasporas.
In 1985 my first big job in the FCO was running the South Africa (political) desk during apartheid there and while Thatcher was Prime Minister. As the US and UK stood alone against international calls to sanction and boycott South Africa, the Thatcher line was that contact was essential to promote reform.
The contact was of course in fact pretty well devoid of any advocacy of reform, other than a hurried mention so civil servants could say it had been raised. Instead, it was all about making money from apartheid.
Forty years on the SNP is pulling the same stunt as the Tories did over apartheid South Africa . As the ever brilliant Robin McAlpine put it:
Let me be really, really blunt; if calling for an end to genocide is only one item on your agenda for a meeting, you’re an appalling human. ‘Please stop killing Palestinian babies, oh, and would you like a Scotwind contract and an invitation to the Edinburgh Festival’? Fuck right off.
Swinney and Robertson are of course long term Zionists, as is almost the entire UK political class (and mark my words, there are few members of the British political class with their feet more firmly under the UK political structures table than Swinney and Robertson). Indeed, as I have previously explained, Zionism is a necessary badge of entry to the UK political class.
Here is Robertson with former Israeli government spokesman and Israeli Ambassador to the UK Mark Regev:
And here with Zionism's Lord Haw Haw, Mark Regev. pic.twitter.com/uqGm0eia9k
— Mark Hirst (@Documark) August 15, 2024
And here Robertson is with Israeli President Herzog, who was quoted directly by the International Court of Justice as giving an example of genocidal speech which was among the markers that justified their finding of a case to answer on genocide. Herzog also has signed bombs ready to drop on Gaza.
All of this begs the question, what other undisclosed meetings and contacts have @theSNP @scotgov been having with Israeli officials that weren't inadvertently revealed by Zionist representatives?
Scottish Government is not usually so coy!
Full disclosure needed. https://t.co/saruo7LMwg
— Mark Hirst (@Documark) August 15, 2024
Note Kirsten Oswald front left, Nicola Sturgeon’s close political ally. These last photos were taken before last year, but Israel’s illegal and genocidal actions have been in train for 76 years, not just 10 months.
First Minister John Swinney has a terrible record of collaboration with Israel.
Eden Springs was an Israeli settler owned water company, bottling water from the illegally occupied Syrian Golan Heights. They opened a subsidiary company in Scotland which was the subject of much controversy a decade ago, with a huge and successful boycott movement, especially among students.
As Scottish Minister for Trade and Industry, Swinney actually gave Eden Springs £200,000 of Scottish government money to help them overcome the effects of the boycott.
Before that, as SPSC reported in 2012, John Swinney made a rare foray into the BDS arena: A subsidiary of Eden Springs, an Israeli water bottling company operating in Britain “turned successfully for help from the Scottish Government to deal with what the Israeli company called ‘a wave of protests…that is threatening the future of Eden Springs UK’”.
On January 5th 2010, a meeting took place between Eden Springs’ UK Managing Director Jean-Marc Bolinger and Scottish Minister John Swinney. The Scottish Government the following year gave £200,000 of Scottish taxpayers’ money to Eden Springs, some of which will end up as profits in Israel, taxed there and freeing up state funds for military aggression and further dispossession of the Palestinian people.
So, to use the modern phrase, Swinney and Robertson’s Zionism is a feature not a glitch. The SNP is just like the other parties in being led by career politicians for whom Zionism is an essential belief for admission to the UK Establishment.
This episode has served to highlight the difference between the continued aspiration of the Scottish people for a better state, in which foreign relations are conducted on ethical grounds, and the actual SNP political class who have precisely the same cynical and transactional approach to politics as their UK peers – they see it essentially as a tool to make a fat living.
The key point is of course that everybody cares about Gaza because of the immediacy with which we can see the devastating genocide on our mobile devices. The political and media classes cannot gaslight us that it is not happening.
Ordinary people look at creatures like Robertson with horror. Swinney is counting on the summer holidays and the traditional extreme deference of the SNP membership to enable him to ride out this storm.
Despite the best effort of the traitors to Independence who run the SNP, the extraordinary thing is that the dream has not died. Support for Independence has not fallen even as the SNP itself has dwindled to a despised rump of its former representation.
A huge well of support remains for anyone who can invoke again the spirit of 2014.
We are not far off that day. As come it will for a’ that.
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A further interesting article – on the USA’s part in propping up the Neo-Nazi regime, in Ukraine, and how the POTUS (Biden) saying – that there are no US boots on the ground in Ukraine, is misleading.
“As the Ukraine war enters its most perilous phase, with Kiev’s forces fighting inside Russia, the United States is operating a formal “sensitive activities” detachment that is active in providing direct military support to the beleaguered country. The detachment, never before disclosed, is run by U.S. special operations forces, and with its Ukrainian counterparts, provides on-the-battlefield support, including near-real time targeting intelligence, operators say.”
https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/americas-shadow-war-in-ukraine
They call it mission creep.
Some politicians in the UK are boasting about how Challenger 2 tanks are being used on Russian soil! As if being part of some new Banderovite Axis recreation of Operation Barbarossa is something to be proud of. They’re presumably firing depleted uranium shells ‘on Russian soil’? Which would have been seen as an unimaginable escalation at the start of this. Reported also, that the UK govt would also like authorise Storm Shadow use too, that is, were it solely their decision and were French and US agreement not also required.
I think Belarus’ president, Lukashenko, may be right, in his recent interview, in which he claimed, in conducting this incursion, Ukraine are trying to goad Russia into using nuclear weapons against Ukrainian cities. Some crazy last attempt by Kyiv, to bring the NATO cavalry charging in to save them from defeat.
Where does this nonsense about the regime in Ukraine being neo Nazi come from? Ukraine is a democracy valiantly resisting an invasion by an ex-KGB dictator. I hope the Western powers give them everything they need to drive out the invaders with all their evil-doing.
Слава Україні!
MJ: “Where does this nonsense about the regime in Ukraine being neo Nazi come from?”
Maybe from stuff like this: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-66914756
Do read past the headline before dismissing it.
All those straight-arm salutes and the swastika emblems/ tattoos / flags also give the game away a bit too. Subtlety is obviously not their strong point.
I did read past it, that a Canadian commission found ‘no evidence tying Ukrainians who fought with Nazi Germany to specific war crimes’.
The Galician division was part of Ukraine, that saw Nazi Germany as liberators from Soviet rule (though that freedom didn’t outlast the war).
It’s no more to do with Zelensky’s Ukraine, than the Nazis have to do with present day Germany (even if Germany’s foreign policy is not much better than other Western powers).
MJ around 2000 the crimes of the Wehrmacht in the east were being prominently reported in Germany due to a new generation of historians, Omar Bartov amongst them. The basic thesis is, the campaign in the east was a racist genocidal slaughterfest and anyone involved was probably guilty of war crimes. It follows from this that anyone who fought with Germany stands indicted of the same crimes
You may remember the Canadian parliament giving a long standing ovation to SS trooper Hunka recently. To wear the Deaths Head and hear the Fuhrer call you and your fellows “political soldiers” whilst butchering in your elegant Hugo Boss designed uniform, was to know that one was all in with the Nazis – if they perished so would you. I saw it on Hunka’s face – those conversations with pessimistic long dead fellows who predicted Hitler’s defeat meant ruin and death. But he hung on, living quietly in Canada, waiting for his final curtain call – vindication, he didn’t do nothing wrong.
Are you surprised that a country providing safe harbour to large numbers of SS personnel could not tie “SS-Galicia” to “any specific war crimes”?
will: This sounds as though there is no firm evidence that Hunka personally committed war crimes. Guilt by association won’t do. But suppose people like Bartov do uncover evidence that he did, and he is subsequently disgraced and punished (so far as that is possible for very old men). It doesn’t make Zelensky’s country, modern Ukraine, a neo-Nazi state. I wish them good luck in fighing off the Russian invaders.
MJ the SS was considered a criminal organisation by the victors, with good reason – guilt by association will do
Hunka was a member of a criminal organisation responsible for the murder of millions of human beings. While I understand he was not prosecuted, as many weren’t, should he really be adored by the Canadian parliament?
It makes Ukraine a state that is willing to venerate Nazi’s. Just because Bandera is considered the founding father does not mean he was not a mass murderer. He was the scum of the earth, along with all his OUN fellow-travellers. Murdering tens of thousands of civilians in massacres can’t be justified – anyone who does this is just a sick fuck, it doesn’t matter who it is
Do you know what they did?
Guilt by association is the entire basis of the English (and Scottish) law doctrine of joint enterprise (or common purpose) M.J. A woman phoned in to Nicky Campbell’s show on 5 Live the other day, saying that her partner had been been banged up for 22 years under that legal monstrosity – which, don’t forget, was also the reason that Derek Bentley was hanged aged 20, despite telling the kid who actually committed the murder to hand over his gun to a police officer before the fatal shot was fired.
The Waffen SS also had Norwegians, French and Belgians: so that makes those countries also Nazi States?
The Waffen SS also had Norwegians, French and Belgians: so that makes those countries also Nazi States?
Yes, for as long as the Nazis were ruling them.
The Waffen-SS recruited the scum of Europe, Bob
It is a question of numbers and Galicians and more widely Ukrainians volunteered in significant numbers, far in excess of most other collaborating groups by many times.
You get scum everywhere – Norges, Danes, Dutch, even a few Brits joined “the Black Corps” but GaIacia was able to supply cohorts of willing recruits, enough to support the replacement of considerable combat losses. The Nazis were unable to get many Brits to join, despite making a concerted effort in the POW camps – maybe twenty joined the St George legion. Many, many thousands of Galicians volunteered
I can’t respect the notion that these Galician recruits or the “Trawniki Men” were fighting communism. The Nazis considered the Eastern peoples “Untermensch” – all of them. “General Plan Ost” spoke of the deaths of 50 million or more Slavs. The leaders of the collaborators knew of this, they knew the Nazis would create no states in the conquered territories yet still they fought and before not too long acquired a theatre-wide reputation for their genocidal brutality, in excess even of their German masters
So how should the Eastern Armies conduct themselves? According to Hitler with maximum brutality, “shooting anyone who even looks askance at us”
Your comment suggests you are somewhat short of information concerning this matter. If this is true, I would suggest you read Richard Rhodes “Masters of Death”, an introductory text that does a decent job of explaining the dynamic of mass murder on the Eastern Front. Some of the scenes Rhodes describes are difficult to believe, are difficult to even imagine but they are just snapshots of a wave of killing that roiled the East that has few equals in history, with a body count in the tens of millions, the majority of whom were Russian civilians
Appreciate your patient explanations here – you have more of it than I appear to on the subject. Anyone saying that the Ukraine doesn’t have an on-going Nazi problem is willfully ignorant at best, certainly after all this time. If they hang out on blogs like this, ignorance can hardly be offered as an excuse. They are simply apologists for Nazis.
Also, thanks for the tip with Rhodes – they don’t have it in the library, but Abe books has a second hand paperback for under €10. I’ve read some books by Antony Beevor and others by David Glanz, Laurence Rees and so on – your tip is one to add to the list.
Actually, a new forum thread dedicated to book recommendations might be an idea.
‘Masters of Death’ is available as a pdf file:
https://epdf.tips/queue/masters-of-death233cf2711236702660ff9788762302cd27301.html
Just wait 30 seconds for the timer to elapse then complete the captcha, and you can download the full text.
Justin: Much appreciated, unfortunately the link timed out without connecting. Maybe it’s down, I’ll try later.
Rhodes’ book is a description of the Einsatzgruppen murdering a million Jews or more. They followed the German Army Groups as they advanced into the Steppe. Most victims were shot, though various ad hoc attempts at automating the killing process were attempted, e.g. “Gassing Trucks”
The wider context has been supplied by deeper probing into the conduct of the Ostheer through those four years. Recent research has revealed a disregard for civilian life which grew in intensity and was not concentrated in the Police battalions and the SS, but was widely exhibited across nearly all German and Allied formations. The building of massive defence lines was a calamity for civilians. Often built in winter, all civilians would turned out of their homes and shot on sight if they attempted to return to their dwellings. There were many other genocidal occupation policies in place – deliberate starvation etc. This was not direct planned massacre but grew from the founding principles of “Mein Kampf” and the conduct of the Axis troops during “Barbarossa” – the rule book was being re-written to accommodate the enemy being considered “subhuman”. Bartov’s “Barbarisation of Warfare” is quite short, but the data, generated by the paper work of the Army Groups and their subordinate formations seems conclusive to me.
Democracy? the US-Ukronazi putsch regime is as democratic as the British government.
M.J.
Well said.
The recent successful Ukrainian counterattack into Kursk oblast has upset some posters.
Name-calling Ukraine a Nazi state is a coping mechanism.
All those swastika tattoos must be fake then. Here’s a selection of MSM articles going on about The Ukraine’s nazi problem.
https://askeptic.substack.com/p/the-msms-ukraine-amnesia
Russia thinks it gives its invasion some legitimacy but it needs to get its own house in order first. They’ve employed mercenaries in Ukraine, including the Wagner Group, with neo-Nazi ideology.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/20/russian-mercenaries-in-ukraine-linked-to-far-right-extremists
https://www.euronews.com/2023/04/13/when-russia-calls-others-nazis-it-should-be-taking-a-hard-look-at-itself
https://www.newsweek.com/russian-neo-nazi-rusich-telegram-putin-war-crimes-1873703
If you still have any doubts about the Ruisch Group who have committed atrocities in Syria as well as Ukraine:-
https://www.counterextremism.com/blog/violence-oriented-right-wing-extremist-actors-russia-rusich-part-2
Didn’t your mother ever tell you that two wrongs don’t make a right?
Ukraine’s sole virtue as a state is that it has been invaded by Russia. Making the Russians look bad doesn’t really affect that.
Here’s a picture of Patriotic Alternative leader Mark Collett and his ex, Eva, in happier times, Johnny*:
https://x.com/LouiseRawAuthor/status/1109478192295878656
In 2009, nearly a million people in Britain voted for the BNP, whose leader at the time, Nick Griffin, told a courtroom ten years earlier the following: “I am well aware that the orthodox opinion is that six million Jews were gassed and cremated and turned into lampshades. Orthodox opinion also once held that the world was flat.” Is the UK therefore a Nazi state?
* She’s not the only person in Britain with Nazi tattoos. To wit, here’s one of my favourite stories from dirty Leeds: A few years ago, a local businessman was outed as being covered in them after being obnoxious to the staff in his doughnut shop. One of his mates (who apparently had never seen him topless) was quoted in the local paper thus: “I still can’t believe he’s a Nazi. I mean, he’s a vegetarian and everything.”
Ukrainian Nazis are feted by a U. K. media-political class that affects to abhor anti-Semitism above all else.
Boris Johnson recently hosted hard-core Azov Nazis in the U. K. Parliament, without a squeak of misgiving from the “anti-Semitism” media-political complex.
🙂
Very funny! 😎 😎 😎
You are quite the wit. Don’t forget China, though – another advanced democracy.
Mind you, in a world where actual democracy is vanishingly scarce, the lack of it is hardly to be singled out.
Its been widely reported by the Western media – that Hamas rejected a US bartered deal – that would include a ceasefire, and the release of the remaining Israeli hostages – held by Hamas, and prisoner exchanges – that’s not exactly true.
“More specifically, Hamas objects to the fact that the proposal doesn’t include a permanent ceasefire or comprehensive Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.”
There were other stipulations – that favoured Israel – which you can read about below.
https://www.axios.com/2024/08/18/hamas-rejects-us-ceasefire-hostage-proposal
It’s a good job dead people can’t sue for libel. Lord Haw Haw was a paragon of impartiality compared with that odious shit Regev.
Now Richard Medhurst also got the 24-hour ‘terrorism’ treatment for the crime of journalism. Sounds as if it might have been even more dramatic in his case:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYa-cb7MzIo
Disgusting. Yet we constantly hear police complaining they do not have the numbers to effectively police society.
Also yesterday, heart surgeon turned comedian Bassem Youssef was banned from “free speech platform” twitter for pointing out that zionists smear genocide critics as antisemites.
I wonder how much the security services, eg. GCHQ, are enabling the identification of dissenters to ‘the authorities’, along with support from the big media platforms …
Good to see our taxes used for oppression of society rather than assistance. Know your enemy.
I remember the Grayzone exposed the desperation of Mi6 asset Paul Mason to have dissenting voices silenced. You can be sure there are other establishment ultras out there who are just as twisted and obsessed.
Protesters at the Democrat party convention in Chicago unfurl banner saying “Stop Arming Israel”.
Audience boos when it sees the banner and erupts into chants of “We love Joe”.
https://x.com/prem_thakker/status/1825739025606390163
Joe Biden: *commits genocide*
Barack Obama at Democrat convention: I really admire Joe’s decency
Liberals: *crying, clapping*
https://x.com/BarackObama/status/1825774696618487824
Didn’t he repeat his considered opinion about the need never to “underestimate Joe’s ability to fuck things up”?
Now I wonder why not…
The words “Democrat party convention” offer a broad and helpful clue. Literally no one – except perhaps the waiters and waitresses – attends such an event unless they have, or hope to have, their snouts firmly in the trough. Of course they “love Joe”; it’s the price of entry.
The oppression just keeps getting worse.
“On Thursday, as I landed in London’s Heathrow airport, I was immediately escorted off the plane by six police officers who were waiting for me at the entrance of the aircraft. They arrested me – not detained – they arrested me under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act of 2000 and accused me of allegedly ‘expressing an opinion or belief that is supportive of a proscribed organization’ but wouldn’t explain what this meant,”
— Richard Medhurst
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240820/independent-journalist-arrested-under-terrorism-act-in-uk-1119835150.html
First there was Julian…then Alex..and Craig… now the Judge Nap.. Scott R..now Richard M..
We can see where this is going Eh..
https://www.facebook.com/596444578/videos/1055809472722866
What are some good books on Scotland and Ireland for someone that know too little about the history of these nations?
‘ When Scotland was Jewish ‘ by Hirschman and Yates might be useful.
“Ireland since the Famine” by F.S.L. Lyons was the book used in my history classes for modern Irish history. You could do worse than start with that. It’s a formidable book. It covers modern Irish history so not medieval or ancient history.
“Atlas of The Irish Revolution” from Cork university is another beautiful book but it’s pricey at about 60-70 euro.
https://www.ucc.ie/en/theirishrevolution/collections/atlas-resources-for-schools/
I don’t know about Scottish history books.
Thanks for the replies, will look those up.
The F.S.L. Lyons book is comprehensive. I’d also recommend the Green Flag trilogy by Robert Kee.
As far as I know there has only been the one theoretical framework analysis and related textbook which fully explains the urgent need for Scottish independence:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=doun-hauden&i=software&crid=2TB6EG6CCTQ6R&sprefix=doun-hauden%2Csoftware%2C96&ref=nb_sb_noss
Hi Craig,
*IF* there is another referendum on Scottish Independence and *IF* the result is the same as last time THEN would you give up campaigning for it ?
Regards,
David
Campaigning, like many other things in life, requires money. Where would the money come from? Do you volunteer to funding such a campaign?
Meanwhile, our host does a lot by letting us know what to think independence would bring to the great nation of Scotland. Once it is free of foreign lobbies like the one he underlines.
I paraphrase a rather witty exchange on the comments section of another site.
Q: If the Brits had an agent inside the IRA codenamed Stakeknife, is the SNP’s equivalent called Spurtle?
A: Only if you like marmalade in your porridge.
The vile occupying force in Gaza – that’s committing genocide – has struck another school, with missiles killing at least ten Palestinians. The attack on the Mustafa Hafiz school comes as Israeli strikes on schools in Gaza are up to ten in one month – killing around 180 people in the process.
The usual nonsense from the Israelis, that Hamas fighters were using the school as a safe house, was reported . The Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor debunked the Israeli’s claim that a previous school – the Al-Tabieen School in Gaza City, bombed on the 10th of August – was housing Hamas fighters.
Three US-made 2,000 pound bombs were dropped on the Al-Tabieen school – with devastating effects for those within.
The Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor debunked the Israeli’s claim that… the Al-Tabieen School in Gaza City…. was housing Hamas fighters.
Yes, I came across that in article on Al Jazeera’s website a few days ago…. Israel would have us believe that Hamas are so stupid and suicidal that they keep on using schools and hospitals etc where thousands of civilians are sheltering despite the fact that Israel keep bombing such locations anyway.
In other words, the Human Shield line is a Big nazi-type Lie, because it doesn’t deter or prevent Israel from bombing such locations, so therefore the people sheltering at such locations do NOT act as a Human Shield for Hamas.
“they keep on using schools and hospitals”
Have you got any sources for this statement?
I didn’t know they used schools or hospitals at all
Why are you asking me such an asinine question Will when I was making the point that they obviously DON’T use schools and hospitals etc as it would be suicidal of them to do so? AND finished by saying that it’s a Big nazi-type Lie! AND, I’ve made the point on this website at least a couple of times before during the past few months.
Can you not read?
Philippe Lazzarini – head of the UNRWA, has said in a post on X:
“That the ongoing war on Gaza has resulted in a tragic toll over the past 10 months, with at least 289 aid workers, including 207 from UNRWA and 885 health professionals, having been killed.
“Many were killed in the line of duty while providing humanitarian assistance or medical care to the injured & the sick. Alongside them more than 160 journalists & media workers were killed,” Lazzarini said adding that “The war in Gaza broke all existing rules of war.””
These numbers are shocking, to say the least – especially the killing of health professionals, who are trying to save lives. Let’s not forget that Western countries are backing this, and still supplying the weapons to keep it going. QQ
Independent British journalist, who is critical of Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip – Richard Medhurst, speaks about his arrest.
“Richard Medhurst said that he was arrested on Thursday at London’s Heathrow Airport and held in custody for almost 24 hours.”
The redoubtable, Kit Klarenberg was also previously arrested – in similar circumstances; as has our host.
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/08/20/731706/Journalist-Richard-Medhurst-arrested-UK-Israel-Gaza-war
So what is nationalism? Do you have to live there to be able to claim you are a nationalist? Is it genetic or lifelong attachment regardless of origin? Is it loyalty to the collective or demanding the exclusion of some and the dominance over others?
Welsh nationalism is inclusive, cultural, pride in history, literature, poetry and song, of repelling colonial invaders. The castles show how hard the invaders kept invading though.
What is Scottish nationalism? My cousins have no wish to learn Gaelic even though their father was a broadcaster in Gaelic for many many decades. They see that as backward and irrelevant. The clearances are a source of grief, still, and controlling resources which benefit England is good motivation.
And what of Zionism? Is Israel and the Bible really at the heart of it or have the Jewish diaspora always mistreated their host nations? How many countries have they eventually been expelled from? Is Israel the most important identifier for Jewish identity?
Can we send all the Orthodox Jews to Israel in exchange for the citizens of the former British Protectorate of Palestine? Two million of each, and they can enjoy the beachfront at Gaza without killing everyone who already lives there, while the Palestinians will have tidy houses in London, Birmingham, and elsewhere in exchange.
Seems a very civilised exchange to me.
Of course if all the Scots, Irish, and Welsh were to return from around the world it would be very clear that colonialism was exported more than imported. The Welsh integrated though. Elvis is a Welsh saint’s name. Preseli is in Pembrokeshire and his mother was Gladys, but his grandmother was full Cherokee.
“So what is nationalism?”
The colonized group only become nationalists in order to free themselves from oppression (Fanon). In postcolonial theory this is referred to as ‘defensive nationalism’ and where the colonized seek to defend their culture and their being from imperialist oppression, the latter referred to as ‘aggressive nationalism’, i.e. colonialism. Hence not all nationalism is the same. The root of colonialism or ‘aggressive nationalism’ is fascism (Cesaire). Scottish nationalism is therefore about decolonization and liberation of an oppressed group (i.e. the Scots), unlike British/Anglo nationalism/imperialism which is about the domination of other peoples, their cultural obliteration, economic exploitation, and external political control:
https://salvo-cor.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/THEORETICAL+CASE+FOR+SCOTTISH+INDEPENDENCE.pdf
Just came across the following from October 23rd whilst doing some research, which I’d not heard about before:
‘Hundreds of Hollywood celebrities praise Biden’s handling of Israel-Hamas war’
More than 300 of Hollywood’s most famous names — including Madonna, Chris Rock, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jerry Seinfeld, Bradley Cooper and Tyler Perry — are praising President Biden’s efforts in the Israel-Hamas war as they urge him to “not rest until all hostages are released.”
In an open letter to Biden posted Monday, the group of performers, producers and entertainment industry honchos thanked the 46th president for his “unshakable moral conviction, leadership, and support for the Jewish people, who have been terrorized by Hamas since the group’s founding over 35 years ago, and for the Palestinians, who have also been terrorized, oppressed, and victimized by Hamas for the last 17 years that the group has been governing Gaza.”
“We all want the same thing: Freedom for Israelis and Palestinians to live side by side in peace,” the letter said.
“Freedom from the brutal violence spread by Hamas. And most urgently, in this moment, freedom for the hostages,” it stated.
Oh, right, so it’s HAMAS that have been terrorising the Jewish people for over 35 years, AND also terrorising and oppressing and victimising Palestinians for the past seventeen years, and Israel, as such, doesn’t enter into the picture. Astonishing.
https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/4271739-hundreds-of-hollywood-celebrities-praise-bidens-handling-of-israel-hamas-war/
I can only assume that the letter received widespread coverage in the US main-stream media. Anyway, I came across the above article by way of a link in this Jacobin article from October 29th entitled For Netanyahu’s Government, Israeli Hostages Are Just a Propaganda Tool, which is well worth reading, even now:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/for-netanyahu-s-government-israeli-hostages-are-just-a-propaganda-tool/ar-AA1j2CMN
(I came across the Jacobin article earlier on my phone…. on Jacobin’s website, but when I did a search for it on my laptop ON Jacobin’s website, there were No Results, so…..)
Seinfeld, at the least, has been a most enthusiastic genocide promoter for many months. Not surprising, given he was over there dressed up in terrorist IDF garb a couple of years ago holding some sort of machine gun (as if he had any idea how to use it), to show what a proud n’ tough Zionist he was.
The Hollywood lot have had a lot of pressure not to give the slightest hint of sympathy to Israel’s slaughter-fest. So if they don’t really care about anything except their own careers one way or the other, it’s not surprising that a good few of them have signed up.
Particularly if they haven’t been known to show any hints of moral authority in the past. It’s useful to have a list of them, though – they can be added to the shame-roll of genocide apologists when the revolution comes.
I would be surprised if any names appear there, that was someone whom we might have previously admired for their principles.
I just checked out UNRWA’s website again (RoS’s earlier post prompted me to do so) and came across the following video:
UNRWA Chief of Staff, Mr. Ben Majekodunmi, delivers remarks at the World Humanitarian Day UN commemoration in Geneva on 19 August 2024.
https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/videos/remarks-unrwa-chief-staff-world-humanitarian-day-2024-un-commemoration (10mins 49secs)
It’s also been posted on youtube and, sad to say (at the time of typing) has only had 55 views in the day or so that it’s been up.
Oddly enough, I have watched it from two unconnected devices since you put that link up, and the play count remains at 55.
mm
Craig, Please let us have your bank details again.
I have several murrays on my bank list and don’t know now which one you are.
Thank you for your brave writings, tread warily.
Craig’s bank details are on this link, Mary:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/support-this-website/
I’m afraid that I see little reason to expect an independent Scotland to be a lot less of a US pawn than the UK is. Look at all the other nations in the region – Ireland, the Nordics, the Netherlands. Not a big difference. And they are mostly moving in a neoliberal direction, too. If independence somehow materialises, the country will just end up being headed by the likes of the current SNP, and they will make sure that the only thing that is left of the movement’s legacy is the part that is not too inconvenient for the plutocracy and the US, i.e. the nationalism itself. If your main goal really is social democracy and anti-imperialism, it seems to me that you might as well just campaign for social democracy and anti-imperialism within the UK. Not that this seems very likely to succeed at the moment either, but at least it is just one very difficult goal rather than two very difficult goals with a tenuous connection between them.
South Africa is a failed state that was better under Apartheid. Morally better? Lord no, I wouldn’t pretend otherwise. Economically, in terms of the objective reality of the people living there, without question. And I don’t just mean the whites. Thatcher was correct, as the many murdered boers would attest. Here is the essential issue with the left. They ignore outcomes. Look right now, today, at South Africa; this is the outcome.
And I therefore must again ask all proponents of Independence (as I am). How much immigration is enough? What is the exact number of non-Scots that is acceptable for a functioning society? What is the actual, definable outcome of mass-immigration? Are we to be South Africa?