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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“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.”
With due respect Craig you also campaigned vigorously to remain in the EU. The idea that Scotland might be able to remain in EU but leave NATO is laughable. They are two cheeks of the same backside.
I don’t agree. There is no obligation for EU members to be members of NATO.
I don’t think that’s what WoC means. The EU is an alliance of western states that supports the same viewpoint as NATO. There’s still talk of the EU forming its own military.
“The EU is an alliance of western states that supports the same viewpoint as NATO.”
That also is not true. The present regime in Brussels is of that view. The last was not; it had much more independence. I deduce that the next may also not conform to your supposition.
The European Parliament just reelected Frau Genocide president for another half decade. Keep up.
Xavi
I have done, you haven’t read my post. Most commenters appear to think that a current regime’s policy is permanent, for ever, as you seem to. What is the case now has always been the case and always will be, in this thinking. But it’s only been the policy for five years; that’s not very long for an extremist new policy.
The EU turned out to be an entirely colonial project and precursor to the long -planned Great Game , NATO Get Russia Campaign in Ukraine .
Craig manages to support British Atlantacist colonialism in Europe at the same time as resenting British Occupation of Scotland.
Britain ‘s Divide and Rule policies set its two main rivals Russia and Germany against eachother in WW2, but when the Soviets lost 26,000,000 soldiers fighting Nazism, US and Britain gave the bankrupted Soviet Union the Cold Shoulder.
Craig is brainwashed by the FCO anti Russia prejudice, while it turns out that USUKIS corporations like Google and Amazon are storing vast quantities of data on Palestinians, in order to indivudually target them and their families.
Read the cookies policy. I consent to my location being used to blow up my family.
Britain is now actively working for a new World War between the Muslim world and the Zionist world.
40 000 US troops are deployed in the region of Israel to deter any kind of military invasion of Israel.
Craig Murray, the shoogley peg , Scottish Nationalist. I detest every aspect of every kind of Nationalism.
Ireland is in the EU, but not NATO
SNAP!
And Austria is also EU but not NATO
There are moves in Ireland to change that, but the Irish supreme court opinion is that a referendum would be required and the polls suggest there is a large majority against joining NATO, about 75% against.
“The idea that Scotland might be able to remain in EU but leave NATO is laughable. They are two cheeks of the same backside.”
=======
That explains why ardently Europhile Ireland is also a member of NATO, does it not?
That was then. Scots have since recognised that ‘EFTA’ will suit an independent Scotland just fine, thanks very much.
Away and gaslight somewhere else.
In my humble opinion – Alex Salmond made one big fatal error, with regards to the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum – and that error was enfranchising everyone – in many other nations non-nationals do not get to vote on constitutional matters. Salmond however, thinking he was – forward thinking, gave everyone the vote in 2014 – and it turns out, that Scots did vote yes in 2014, but 72.1% of folk from the rest-of-the-UK, mainly from Down South voted no.
Of course there was no legitimate union in the first place – it is held together with lies, deceit and a plethora of Scots in influential, and well paid positions that want the status quo to remain intact, at the expense of the many.
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2024/06/02/fictional-kingdom-fraudulent-state-2/
I doubt very much – that there will be a second independence referendum – its open to far too much abuse, anther route will have to be found. Of course Brexit, was also a golden opportunity to leave this illegal union – but Sturgeon sold us out on that one.
How do you intend to distinguish “nationals” of Scotland from English people who happen to live in Scotland?
1. By sending squads to ask neighbours to confirm who is and who isn’t a hated English immigrant. (They will know.)
2. By forgetting the “No True Scotsman” logical fallacy and by assuming that anyone who was born in Scotland but who has spent too much time in England, or who has English friends, or who has family in England, and who supports a union between Scotland and Englland, can’t be a true Scotsman deserving of the franchise, because no true Scotsman would allow English influence to rub off on him to such an extent.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman
It’s called voter suppression:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_suppression
Poo is just as smelly in Scotland as it is in Trumpworld. The same goes for nationalism and exceptionalist self-delusion.
What nonsense. It is really very easy to compile an electoral register that contains only those of us born in Scotland. Many other countries restrict constitutional matters to its own nationals.
The whole issue of Scottish independence is about SELF determination. In the context of Scotland only SCOTS count as ‘self’.
This concept is guaranteed by the UN in terms of its Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Peoples (and who can now doubt after the Supreme Court Judgement that Scotland is England’s captive colony?)
You can find the relevant matter here on the UN website:
https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/declaration-granting-independence-colonial-countries-and-peoples#:~:text=All%20peoples%20have%20the%20right,economic%2C%20social%20and%20cultural%20development.
“All peoples have the right to self-determination; by virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development”.
Lazy anti-Scottish racist bile just doesn’t cut it!
Brilliant. This is just the kind of article the National should have been publishing today, expressing the outrage of the majority (and not just of Indy supporters). Instead they are just offering more swill from liberal Zionist Ruth Wishart, who has made no comment on Robertson and Swinney but on Friday posted this: “Can neither the right wing Israeli govt. or the heartless Hamas begin to understand the utter misery they are prolonging?”
https://x.com/ruth_wishart/status/1824507926876147804
In the spin of Establishment Scotland, all would have been well if only Israel had a more ‘moderate’ government (reflective of an essentially good people) and some colonial cop like Abbas had been in charge in Gaza … What deceivers like Wishart want people to ignore is the central role being played in the Genocide by ‘moderate’, non-‘right wing’ governments across the Western World. Without them, this Genocide would not have lasted 10 days let alone still be going on 10 months later.
Just a quick reminder that there is no such thing as a ‘liberal’ Zionist , due to the existence of a majority non-Jewish indigenous inhabitants in the land known as Palestine who need to be ethnically cleansed , deprived of their basic human rights or genocided in order to create the zionist entity known as Israel.
https://lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com/news/2010/03/there-is-no-liberal-zionism.html
Sorry Craig, I am with George Galloway on the need to keep the country whole. There was never a chance that any future Scottish republic would be that different from the UK because the Scottish ruling class is no different from those in England and Wales.
It was always an Utopian Idea that a future Scottish republic would be a saintly state that only does good in the world. The reality is that any future Scottish state would be an appendage of the United States of America. Yes, it won’t be able to invade foreign countries on its own because it would be too small and probably cannot afford to build a powerful military required to do so. But it would be like an English-speaking version of the Baltic States. It would support Israel and do whatever USA wants it to do.
And after you become disillusioned with the American-controlled Scottish republic, would you start seeking for the creation of Glasgow Republic, The Independent State of Aberdeen, Edinburg Free State as a panacea? How about fight for your country (UK) instead of thinking of Utopian Ideas that can never lead to anything productive. (By the way, I was born in the UK. Although, I spend most of time nowadays in Nigeria).
There’s a centrist elite, who basically share the same company and all think the same, yes. Default Atlanticism is their creed.
They fail to grasp, or simply choose to ignore, the fact that successive administrations in the US have built an economy based on massive debt ($35.17 Trillion and counting) held together by sticking tape. And the only way the US can continue to service that debt is by remaining the world’s top dog with the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. This is why the US can’t afford peaceful co-existence and mutual respect with the likes of arch competitor China, and to a lesser degree, with China’s partner and fellow de-dollarization advocate, Russia. The US has to use sanctions and would use military force to preserve their top dog status. Hitching ourselves to a country that seems headed for an inevitable future catastrophic showdown to preserve its hegemon status, is not a sensible place to be. Not just Scotland, all Europe needs a Paltrow-esque conscious uncoupling from the US and NATO’s obligations.
“Sorry Craig, I am with George Galloway on the need to keep the country whole. There was never a chance that any future Scottish republic would be that different from the UK because the Scottish ruling class is no different from those in England and Wales.”
Chima from Sharp Focus on Africa.
On the above that’s what colonialism does – the political class in the country being treaty as a colony, find ways to make agreements with the colonising country – its totally expected, that – the Scottish colonial government basis everything on the society of the coloniser – only independence can change that.
https://salvo-cor.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/The-Socio-Political-Determinants-of-Scottish-Independence.pdf
On George Galloway – haven’t you noticed that he – professes, independence for just about every other, group, or nation, of people but his own.
I tend to think an independent Scotland would be more like the Republic of Ireland. Not in NATO, in the EU, an independent foreign policy which is not afraid of critism of the zionists. And keeps out of international conflicts other than the occasional UN peacekeeping role. There are huge numbers of Irish Americans in the USA, who are hugely influential in US government policy. In view of that it is quite remarkable how Ireland manages to avoid towing the US line on many issues.
Imho, that’d very much depend upon who shapes that new beginning and in the process gets to define Scotland’s militarism vs neutrality debate. There’d be lots of external and internal pressure for Scotland to try to punch beyond its weight; mainly pressure from the US, and urged by the likes of George Robertson et al. It’d be a battle between centrist NATO/EU conformist Sturgeonites vs Salmondites, if you will. For they may have both been dominant leaders of the same party, but they obviously have very different political and ideological underpinnings and worldviews.
The current leadership of the SNP offer very little hope of carving out a different, dovish identity for Scotland. The SNP are treading water at the moment anyway, under the dry, uncharismatic centrist, John Swinney. Much as anyone with any memory of his last stint as leader, predicted they would be. Such a shame, as there’s so much support for independence, and the SNP- full of closet unionists – have effectively decided to trash their party, rather than embrace and leverage that support.
I sometimes wonder just how much Ireland doesn’t tow the line. I am aware of the Irish view on Gaza etc.
The top ten companies accounting for over 50% of Ireland’s corporate tax revenue are USA owned. Apple, Microsoft, Google, Pfizer, Meta, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic (a medical device company), Coca-Cola and MSD (Merck, Sharpe and Dohme). Given there are so many tech companies in that list that Ireland’s data protection body is often the first port of call for complaints and is known as a bottleneck for decisions and 75% of their decisions get overruled later in the EU.
https://archive.is/8NJCr#selection-1951.0-1951.29
https://archive.is/ZjhDB
I often wonder why Ireland didn’t chase an AIPAC-like organisation in the USA. The American Irish Public Affairs Committee :).
And there’s this: https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2023/05/08/who-protects-irish-skies-the-secret-air-defence-deal-that-dates-back-to-the-cold-war/
. The agreement rather than the Russian Bomber aspect, which is more than likely reciprocation for the rarely reported “games” the US/UK and NATO play around Russian airspace.
IMO, as a sassenach, Scotland’s independence will not be decided by the Scottish people regardless of how many want it. It will be decided by Westminster, Washington, Brussels and maybe Tel-Aviv. Ireland and Catalonia along with Yugoslavia are examples of how the system ‘works’.
Alex Salmond appears to be a busted flush, so independence is in reality an amorpheus blob with no head. I cannot see any progress in the near future, so good luck with your dream.
Well, yes, but I think it would be better to consider Scottish Independence in terms of revolutionary relations with the living planet. I can recommend Shourideh C Molavi’s recent book Environmental Warfare in Gaza which ties some of these above threads together. It is a new political-economic-cultural system we need, indeed one that looks outwards and encompasses all life. What we see is a failure both of theologism and humanism as a basis for government. We, and by we I mean all life on Earth, need systems that support the health of the planet.
#biocracynow
What would happen to the landed gentry and their land in an independent Scotland? Would the peerage remain or would it be expunged , its fortunes released and poverty alleviated?
A lot of Scotland is owned by foreign entities registered in tax havens. Danish billionaire Anders Povlsen alone owns 220,000 acres.
If only there was a precedent for the act of reversing enclosures, but I would include rewilding, perhaps in the sense of Half-Earth Socialism (or Timon of Athens).
Angus is half German and is a fluent German speaker. He was born in 1969. In all probability his German mother must either have been born around about world war 2 which means in all probability his German relatives were actively involved in the war. Maybe he is caught up in the German guilt complex where atonement is perceived as supporting Israel no matter what.
More likely just crude career calculation. Angus knows devotion to apartheid Israel is non-negotiable if you want to go places in UK politics and be accepted by the Establishment.
Great Article Crag.. Very well Done Thanks.
That Picture of Robertson With Israel..Sickened me to the Core..In the Week of another 100 Plus slaughtered.. News of Mass Gang rapes by IDF… Despicable act
At Palestine Protests in Freedom Square I was Approached 3 times By the same Israeli Zionist: “But the Palestinians Are… ”
“This is the Third Time YOU have approached me …with your lies … Now Fuck off!”
The Zionist club made me think of James Stevens Curl’s definition of a cult:
“ • it is destructive
• it isolates its believers
• it claims superior knowledge and morality
• it demands subservience, conformity and obedience
• it is adept at brainwashing
• it imposes its own assertions as dogma, and will not countenance any dissent
• it is self-referential
and
• it invents its own arcane language, incomprehensible to outsiders ”
— James Stevens Curl, Making Dystopia; The Strange Rise and Survival of Architectural Barbarism.
On gaining independence please raze the parliament buildings. Have a look at it in situ, it’s just a crazed mish-mash, a cobbling together of disturbing outlines, zero context with its setting, as Curl says ‘dystopian’. How can one work in that place? Well, perhaps they don’t.
That architecture is one of the signs of the cult.
No matter how many BTL comments over the years have eruditely demolished both the theoretical and practical “cases” for Scottish independence, our host remains immune to logic and returns to the subject again and again as if for the first time. It is his and, more generally, the “progressive liberal” modus operandi. It works like this.
First of all, one must remember that liberals/the “middle class” “…educated to the highest levels to fill positions in the professions and the State’s apparatuses, run and reproduce ideologically (via the “education” system) the capitalist mode of production “on behalf” of the capitalist class.”. Most are unapologetic about this role and support it wholeheartedly, but a few play the “progressive” game. Just as pacifists and conscientious objectors attempt to cover their cowardice with a cloak of moral superiority, so “progressive” liberals cloak their shared “conservatism with a small “C” by interminably waxing lyrical about the faults of “the system” while rejecting any possible alternative. This quote from his last post illustrates the method perfectly:
“I have however now finally shed the last of my illusions and I am obliged to acknowledge that the system of which I am a part…“capitalism”…is a force for evil.”
Note how he is careful not to state that he has therefore abandoned liberalism (the source of his previous “illusions”) and become a socialist/communist (the only logical conclusion if this statement is anything other than performative), leaving the way clear for years of further spondulix-earning verbals.
Nice work if you can get it!
“No matter how many BTL comments over the years have eruditely demolished both the theoretical and practical “cases” for Scottish independence, our host remains immune to logic and returns to the subject again and again as if for the first time. It is his and, more generally, the “progressive liberal” modus operandi. It works like this.”
John S.
What are these – independence demolishing comments? I’ve yet to see one that shows that Scotland cannot return to its pre-1707 status – not that there was a legal union in the first place.
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2024/06/02/fictional-kingdom-fraudulent-state-2/
This strikes me as sophistry in an attempt to disguise an ad hominem.
You call that Poetry
My favourite example of the phenomenon you observe, John, was from a couple years ago, when our host stated that, given the choice between compensating the shareholders in every UK energy company that he wished to see nationalised or imprisoning them, he would opt for the latter. This was a few paragraphs after writing the words: ‘I am not a Marxist’:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2022/08/the-great-clutching-at-pearls/
Nice try at sticking our host with an out-of-context quote. You missed out the “if” at the beginning of the bit about compensating or imprisoning, and the very next 5 words: “I suggest we do neither”.
Thanks for your reply Townsman. I would respectfully suggest that our host’s original ‘if I had to choose’ phrase is adequately covered by my ‘given the choice’ wording. Let’s see, he is claiming that, if there were only two options available, he would rather imprison investors in energy companies (at a cost of around a grand per week) than give them a single penny in compensation – and yet somehow doesn’t seem to think that that’s in any way Marxist. Maybe your argument sounded better in your head.
Funnily enough, he didn’t write that, given the choice between compensating the owners of big houses that are valued at around three times the UK average – so that they may be allotted to large families in London for whom their six-plus kids currently have to share one damp room in a council flat largely as a result of the mass immigration he strongly advocates – and imprisoning them, the British State should imprison them.
P.S. ‘I suggest we do neither’ is 5 words by my maths.
That’s a lot of words to say, “Fair cop.”
Here’s some more words for you, Glenn. Let’s assume, hypothetically, that some Reform UK MP wrote the following on TwitterX: ‘If I had to choose between giving unemployed people benefits and shooting them, I would shoot them. I suggest we do neither.’ Would ‘Reform MP says he would shoot unemployed’ or ‘Reform MP suggests unemployed shouldn’t be shot’ be the more accurate headline?
Anyway, the point I was trying to make – which seems to have gone completely above both yours and Townsman’s heads – was that our host apparently thinks that shareholders in UK energy companies should have their shareholdings confiscated without compensation, but doesn’t seem to think he’s a Marxist even when advocating Marxist ideology – and to compound matters, he also stated that he’d rather see the shareholders imprisoned than compensated. If I’d reproduced exactly what he wrote verbatim, it wouldn’t detract in any way from my point. There’s no ‘fair cop’ about it – and anyone who thinks there is needs to have a word with themselves.
(If anyone’s wondering why I didn’t thank Glenn for his reply, it’s because he doesn’t want me to – I aim to please. Also, Townsman’s original comment referred to ‘the very next 4 words’ – that seems to have been subsequently corrected – if anyone’s confused by the P.S. in my previous comment.)
Thank you for your condescendion, LA.
Ever heard that if you’re explaining, you’re losing the argument? That’s quite a lot of explaining you’re having to do, there.
No, I haven’t come across that expression before, Glenn – probably because it’s not true. As a very recent example, here’s a barrister affording himself the thankless task of trying to explain to Peter Hitchens on TwitterX why Lucy Letby is very likely to be guilty of killing seven babies (and attempting to kill eight more), whilst all Hitchens can do is criticise his ‘style’ and insinuate that these days anyone can become a KC.
https://x.com/SCynic1/status/1825230667933745555
Is m’learned friend losing the argument? I would say not. Anyway, you know what they say, Hitchens Major got the brains, and Hitchens Minor didn’t get the looks.
“ Just as pacifists and conscientious objectors attempt to cover their cowardice with a cloak of moral superiority”
I am not sure this is correct John – I ask you to consider the Jehovah’s Witnesses sent to the concentration camps in Nazi Germany. I have read several accounts of this, from fairly dry history books with little detail to actual transcripts of interviews with camp personnel from various camps who asserted passionately that the Jehovah’s Witnesses were not cowards nor did they dwell in any form of moral superiority. Many of guards who were interviewed had developed massive respect for these people and their almost inhuman courage and their almost inhuman kindness. I was arrested by their statements regarding how they were won over by the prisoners who had offered a moral example that had profoundly affected most of the interviewees. All of the interviewees hated them when they first started guarding them
As a person who abandoned all forms of metaphysical thinking by the age of ten, the story was hard to process. It was the faith of the Christian martyrs but in the 20th century and widened my understanding of the term “humanity”
Calls for the SNP – MSP, and Zionist – Angus Robertson to be sacked – the same should apply to the FM, and Zionist John Swinney.
https://archive.is/gf9QJ
“The purpose is to eschew the imperialist past”: meaningless – the Imperial past is past.
“stop invading other countries”: oh, for heaven’s sake, the idea that the UKexit would stop the rump UK from acting as a US lapdog is absurd. Indeed, if Scotland were to join NATO it would be a US lapdog too, with even less power to say “no”.
“and build a fairer and more equal society both domestically and internationally”: yeah, yeah, yeah. But you’d probably want Scotland to join the EU, a body devoted to avoiding the sort of free trade that might enrich backward countries.
Bah, humbug.
The only even half-persuasive case for independence is to get independence from London – but that’s not specific to Scotland. Much of England probably feels the same.
“ the sort of free trade that might enrich backward countries.”
So-called “Free Trade” does not enrich backward countries – see “Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism” by Ha-Joon Chang, The data presented therein seems to refute your simplistic assertion
The imperial past is not past – now the wealth management funds and whatnot are the new emperors
In case you haven’t noticed the “trickledown theory” ain’t working – we need a solution and for that we need a discussion of the alternatives – you are a democrat aren’t you?
I would agree with your last point about London lol
All my experience says that political parties are the surest way to corruption. It took 30 years to make the German Greens, originally a Pacifist party, to the most warmongering and genocide-excusing one in Europe, for example.
The meaning of a political party is to sit in the government. And the people who are tempted by that are the carreerists. For the moment there is no structure to keep the corrupting forces in check.
“It took 30 years to make the German Greens, originally a Pacifist party, to the most warmongering and genocide-excusing one in Europe….”
It took about 30 minutes to do it to the Graun.
Scotland is a colonized and exploited country. This extends to the colonization of its thought, and the seduction of its ruling classes into sympathy with the dominant country, England, and its organ of government, Westminster. An organ filled with members, ho ho.
Scots aren’t taught our own languages, or our own history. They want to put a racetrack over Bannockburn. I’m sure it’s entirely accidental that there is a desire to deface the most sacred site to the independence cause. And one of huge historical significance no mater what side of the independence argument you stand on. This is blowing up the Buddha’s territory. Purely a business decision, I’m sure.
So saying the Scottish managerial class is not keen for independence should be no surprise, their bread has been buttered and their minds compromised by their education and their bank balances, not to mention the constant wall to wall propaganda every Scot has been subjected to from birth. This is of course the members of the managerial class that are actually Scottish, and not imported from abroad, largely our neighbour to the south.
You only realize the weight of that propaganda pressing down on you once it has been lifted from your shoulders. By leaving, I’m sad to say. Of course now I live in a new reality distortion field, but it doesn’t stop me from being able to now clearly recognize the pernicious nature of the one I left behind.
The Westminster government needs our water, our renewable energy, our oil, which magically hasn’t yet run out, our whisky, our land. It needs those resources because without them rump UK would have a very hard time servicing its astronomical debt.
Independence first. Then the independent nation of Scotland and most importantly the sovereign Scottish people can decide on its membership of international alliances such as the EU or NATO, the disposition of its lands and resources, the determination of who or what might act as a head of state, if such be deemed necessary. Only after independence is won should those decisions be made. Throwing them up as roadblocks beforehand is foolish. Brexit still happened, and a detailed plan of how it was going to be done was not furnished in advance, nor did any proposal remotely resemble the reality of what has followed, so folk demanding details of Scotland’s entire economy, political positioning, etc. in advance so they can nit pick can politely be told to go and do one. Brexit proves you can make a change happen, and work out the details afterwards. Over many years of transition (which are still not done!). If the Scottish people want the change to happen, they will be ready to work out the details afterwards, over many years of transition.
Cheers.
I agree with those who don’t want a mini-me independence and a good place to start would be to get rid of the boss class.
Reminds me of This Clip
Craig Murray speaking at the Huge All Under One Banner March – Part one (4 May 2019) – YouTube, 9m 8s
Check Shai Masot 2017 Al Jazeera. Angus Robertson. Robertson has been here before and it was reported back then.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/2/14/shai-masot-courted-snps-angus-robertson-ahead-of-trip
He has a major problem on his hands. This isn’t a one off with Robertson.
Well, okay, independence needs a mission statement. Speaking from Wales, our plucky little nation has struggled along with greatly reduced funding from Westminster and no more from Europe, within which it was the poorest region and therefore a beneficiary of EU largesse. We have no NHS dentists and private dentists are oversubscribed, as the pay from the government is peanuts and they do not want to work here. Most people have almost no teeth after a certain age. Farmers turn up at A&E having tried to pull their own teeth with pliers and get sent away with 2 paracetamols. There is insufficient homecare, no rehabilitation services, and a long drive by ambulance to the larger hospitals 80 plus miles away in emergencies. The Daffodil Standards allow doctors to bump off the elderly. Labour has tried its best and has its heart in the right place.
Israeli arms factories have bought up former MOD sites and protesters who did criminal damage are serving long jail sentences. Universities and the civil service have been gutted of staff at every level, and PhD students teach undergraduates for an hourly rate.
The former president of Armenia is proposing a federation of small nations, to compete with larger nations.
I have argued for Wales to have a national bank to create the investment needed. It has one, to a limited degree now. The UK Labour Party is proposing a national wealth fund. This did seem a positive move however Austerity is still theft – and seeing Labour has just sold off its 40% stake in British Gas to Macquairie global pollution profiteers this does not suggest a decent economic prognosis.
Colonialism plunders sovereign wealth and assets and we are being plundered by the global hedge funds like Veolia, Serco, and others.
So what’s occurring? As they say down yere. What’s the economic plan for independence? And how do you disengage from foreign companies tax avoiding and obtaining sovereign territory, land and assets?
Our constitution is embodied in the monarchy, and our national integrity is bound to it, to keep out further predation. Antisemitism as justifiable criticism is just one approach to challenging entrenched advantage. Freedom of speech needs to be safeguarded alongside rule of law, and human rights legislation.
I have come to the realisation that decisions are made by powerful individuals who get past gatekeepers one way or another. The best politicians don’t always get elected. Some of the worst create the narrative and harmful alliances with no accountable oversight.
We are where we are and the levers of power are out of reach, but challenging the official narrative is one way to try and stop the extermination, torture and starvation of the citizens of the former British protectorate of Palestine
@Pete
“Today I learnt that polio had broken out in Gaza. Given the Zionist track record in the area I would not rule out the use of a biological weapon, whatever the cause I cannot see the Zionist allowing the ceasefire to bring vaccines into the region, it is more important than ever that the war criminals supporting the genocide in Gaza be brought to account, the international criminal court needs to get its act together.”
Two more facts:
1. In 2024, Israeli soldiers fighting against Palestinians in Gaza are being vaccinated against the very same polio virus that is spreading among … the Palestinians they are terrorising and slaughtering in Gaza.
2. Zionist forces (let’s call them what they are: Jewish fascist terrorists) used biological weapons in 1948, including when they spread typhoid in the water supply to the city of Acre. (This is now admitted in the fascists’ own press, such as Haaretz and the Times of Israel.)
Speculation: it seems likely the polio virus in 2024 was put into Gaza deliberately.
To get a handle on this, imagine that a crowd of armed neo-Nazis surrounded your house last week and shot your father dead in your kitchen with a crossbow, and then this morning a crowd of armed neo-Nazis belonging to the same party and carrying the same flags surrounded the house you fled to, and at lunchtime you found someone had shot your mother dead in your bathroom with a crossbow.
Poisoning the water supply to a besieged population isn’t much of a step on from cutting it off, as was famously claimed to be the Zionists’ “right” by the wretch who now occupies 10 Downing Street. It really isn’t. Both actions are crimes against humanity.
Anybody left on the SNP payroll is clearly working for the British state. That’s why the movement dumped them
As for “The Purpose of Scottish Independence”, clearly the people need to understand that independence is decolonization.
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2024/05/25/the-three-phases-of-decolonization-lessons-for-scotland/
This morning I tried to make a comment but found a Paypal paywall in the way. Anyone know what happened?
—
[ Mod: That’s a technical matter for the Blog Support Forum: see https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/forums/topic/cant-post-comment-getting-sent-to-paypal-page/ ]
Craig said:
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.
And around half of Israeli Jews say Israel should not obey international law in Gaza, as reported by Middle East Eye yesterday:
A new poll has revealed that 47% of Israeli Jews believe Israel should not obey international law and moral values during the course of the current war in Gaza.
The poll’s findings were released on Sunday by the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS).
The same poll suggested a majority of Israelis believe the prison officials accused of sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee should not face criminal charges and just be disciplined by the army.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/half-israeli-jews-say-israel-should-not-obey-international-law-gaza
And a couple of days ago when I checked Tony Greenstein’s blog to see if he’d posted any new articles recently, I learnt something I’d not come across before:
Nor was Gallant alone in identifying with the Nazis. ‘Finish them’ is the most popular car bumper sticker in Israel today. When the war began Tel Aviv was flooded with stickers ‘exterminate now’……
https://azvsas.blogspot.com/2024/08/the-board-of-deputies-has-made-british.html
Just about every time I check out a Times of Israel article (as I happened to do a couple of days ago) there are lots of people posting comments in the same vein.
Also just came across this Haaretz article from last month. It’s behind a paywall, but some of it is visible:
One in Four Israeli Jews Would Leave Israel to Another Country if They Could, New Survey Finds
One in four Israeli Jews and four in ten Arab Israelis would leave Israel and emigrate to another country, if given a practical opportunity to do so, according to a new survey, whose results reflect a steady distrust with….
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-07-17/ty-article/.premium/one-in-four-israeli-jews-would-leave-israel-if-they-could-new-survey-finds/00000190-c202-d3e0-a5fd-ebb7ad1e0000
And skwawkbox posted an article with a short video (3 minutes) a couple of days ago entitled: Zionists launch barrage of ‘racist’ insults against anti-genocide protesters in cafe:
Peace campaigners including kids called ‘pigs’ and ‘f***ing animals’, while Black woman told ‘look at your face, it’s disgusting’
A group of Zionists launched a barrage of insults, threats, abuse and a false accusation of antisemitism at anti-genocide campaigners, including children, for daring to enter the same café in Regents Park where they were sitting. The incident happened on 5 August.
https://skwawkbox.org/2024/08/17/video-zionists-launch-barrage-of-racist-insults-against-anti-genocide-protesters-in-cafe/
To save any confusion, the video clip is at the end of the article. There’s a link to Migration Films on Instagram just under the video clip where you can watch the full seven minute video (if you have an Instagram account)
Peace-loving people confronted by war-mongering people in a cafe. Says it all really.
The imperative to escape the union on foreign policy grounds has become even greater in the intervening decade. It is now clear that Westminster is even more invested in civilisational war and the US hegemony than Washington itself.
Many speculated last week that Britain was probably behind the Kursk suicide op. A Times article over the weekend confirmed this. Kursk is only the latest effort by London to keep the US in the civilisational proxy war against Russia – and it appears Washington has finally had enough of this.
Genocide Joe of all people has stepped up as the voice of reason and told Keir Starmer for a second time that he cannot let Ukraine use UK supplied long range missiles to fire upon Russia targets deep within Russian territory.
The British ruling class have a lot more to lose from the US Empire’s collapse than the US itself does. The Empire is basically on the line in Donbas and British politicians and journalists know it.
Discussion here:
https://x.com/KernowDamo/status/1825291989711245413/mediaViewer?currentTweet=1825291989711245413¤tTweetUser=KernowDamo
The sabotage of Corbyn ensures the UK will be permanently under the rule of people committed to civilisational war and propping up a declining US Empire. Unfortunately lweek appeared to confirm that the Scottish political class are very much from that same school.
Iain
“Kursk suicide op”? A bit overheated.
So far this “suicide op” has been a remarkable military success.
Russkiy TV is panicking.
https://youtu.be/GA5wp9p7V5s?si=EGN-BKJAtD1YFSNi
“European beasts and German fascist scum”.
Charming.
Presumably you agree that Ukraine has every right to defend itself and to counterattack as it sees fit?
Against the nationalist-fascist Russian regime?
No?
Sophistry, the Ukrainian government was overthrown by the US-Ukronazi putschists, which set off a civil war with the Donbas loyalists. The Russians counter-intervened after spending years trying to get a diplomatic settlement and have been systematically smashing the US-Ukronazi regime. Fighting Americans and nazis, what could be a better casus belli?
Current Ukraine government was democratically elected in 2019, the far right coalition saw it’s share of the vote halved to 2% and reduced to one seat.
Since 2014 Ukraine has been fighting to defend itself against foreign interference in its internal affairs by a state that no longer accepts its right to exist. How’s that for a ‘casus belli’?
Pears Morgaine.
As far as I’m aware – currently – Zelensky has not been re-elected – which means Zelensky and his clique – are “governing” Ukraine, without being elected by the Ukrainian public.
Election postponed because of the war. Like the UK 1939-40. So what?
“Election postponed because of the war. Like the UK 1939-40. So what?”
Pears Morgaine.
Yes – that ma be so – however this time we are backing the Nazi’s (Neo) instead, of fighting against them.
From Zelensky’s own mouth.
“‘I told [Graham]: If the United States & Europe give us financial support… I’m sorry, I will not hold elections on credit, I will not take money from weapons and give it to elections either. But if you give me this financial support… then let’s quickly change the legislation & most importantly, let’s take risks together”
And.
“During the interview, Zelensky said he had told Graham that $135 million was needed to carry out the election during wartime.”
Zelensky was doing an interview – in which he was asked about elections – and what he said to US Senator Lindsey Graham.
Is the West, not giving enough funding and aid to the Neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine already? do you think – US and European citizens should suffer more austerity – in order that we keep on funding a vile military dictatorship in Ukraine.
In my opinion – Zelensky doesn’t want to hold an election, simply because he’s likely to lose it – with more and more Ukrainians seeking a peaceful solution to the war – maybe the US doesn’t want to see elections either – the war has been very profitable for the US Military Industrial Complex – and the US Senators, it has in its back pocket – the same can be said of the UK – and the EU.
I’m talking about the UK’s reckless role in the conflict, disapproved of even by Washington. I have no interest whatever in your tedious deflection.
Iain
What do you believe the British role in the Kursk counterattack to have been?
And why do you disapprove of the counterattack? (I think that you do?)
Did objective independent western MSM ever tried to guesstimate Ukrainian losses? Is media supposed to engage in war propaganda?
So far this incursion has been a propaganda success!
Is it madness or desparation or a genius move? RF did not move troops from the front line yet and the pressure on the front line is big.
Ukrainians of all people should know that “Slavs” react with anger and not submission!
Ukrainians and Russians and others did not defeat Nazis by being cowards.
How accurate these figures are I do not know, but I still prefer yesterday’s Russian MoD update on its Telegram channel of the Kursk situation, to JK redux’s claims about the “success” of the incursion.
“Since the beginning of hostilities in Kursk region, the AFU losses have amounted to 3,460 Ukrainian troops, 50 tanks, 25 infantry fighting vehicles, 45 armoured personnel carriers, 262 armoured fighting vehicles, 115 motor vehicles, five SAM launchers, seven MLRS launchers, including three HIMARS and one M270 MLRS, 25 field artillery guns, four electronic warfare stations, four units of engineering vehicles, including one counter obstacle vehicles and one UR-77 mine clearing vehicle.
The operation to neutralise the AFU units is in progress”.
There’s always a tendency to overestimate your enemy’s losses for obvious reasons. Some commentators have been claiming that Ukraine doesn’t have that much kit to lose.
Crispa
Did the Russian MoD mention Russian casualties?
“There’s a centrist elite, who basically share the same company and all think the same, yes. Default Atlanticism is their creed.”
How did it come to this, after the 2015 victory?
It’s true of every country in the Anglosphere.
Every single English speaking country has a managed democracy: it’s a feature, not a bug. For some ungodly reason, Anglo elites will simply not permit truly organic democracy to function by respectfully allowing the electoral chips to fall where they may. The UK, US; New Zealand, Australia and Canada – We all have systems in which the electorates get to choose from handpicked, prevetted parties & individuals. The great win for the establishment is in the fact that so few of the general population seem to realise just how deliberately limited the actual choices are.
The public sense something is amiss; that’s why faith in democracy is rock bottom across the Anglosphere. Look at the US – the worst example of ‘managed’ or fake democracy, and Kamala Harris’s transformation from zero to hero; only last year she recorded some of the worst negative ratings of any VP in US history – she was underwater – to use the political parlance. But thanks to typical US political showy media hype, and razzmatazz, she’s now presented as some sort of coming messiah. Her rise is being manufactured.
A story of modern slavery aboard a Scottish fishing vessel:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd9dnk34k41o
The ziofascist shapeshifters are alarmed – their Crown is trembling as the Multipolarists are on the move clearing their nests of the centuries long colonialist infestations
I understand it is difficult for the Scottish Psyche – having long ago been turned into the service of the Empire Building in its various guises, as it’s hardy soldiers, engineers and colonial slave masters; after the destruction of an independent Scotland early on by the very early bankruptcy of their ‘National’ Bank and its resourceful peoples.
That is a load of baggage to unpack and admit – to plead guilty as charged!
Without that underlying psychological liberation as the Ziofascist Empires stalwarts – independence from the Ziofascist Crown and the Unipolar Rules Based Order they willingly built and are PROUD of, that is the Lady Macbeth blood stain that will never be erased and it leads only to the impossibility of ‘Scottishness’ as a independent peoples.
Easily corrupted.
The illegal apartheid entity must be disowned and the Levant liberated back to its native semetic peoples – but that also requires acknowledging the grand earlier colonialisms, which consist the establishment of the other 4 Eyes and a lot of slave colonies and its peoples with Scottish names.
Until then, the ziofascist Crown will hold sway over Scotland and it’s compromised peoples.
Know what I mean?
” to eschew the imperialist past, ” What does that even mean? A woke ‘de-colonising’ of history, trying to pretend it never happened?
There are a handful of posts here trying to portray Scotland as just another oppressed colony of the evil British Empire. One way of eschewing the imperialist past I suppose but like it or not Scots were active participants in the empire, providing administrators, military and settlers. A greater proportion of Scots owned slaves than any other part of the UK and cities like Leith and Glasgow were built on the back of slavery. Scottish workshops made many of the manufactured goods (including firearms) traded for slaves and the ships that carried them.
https://www.wluspectator.com/articles/scotland-and-the-british-empire
Pears Morgaine.
Yes indeed – many Scots made a living off the back of English ran empire, however many more didn’t – and from the Malt tax to the stealing of Scotland’s North Sea assets – consecutive English governments continued – and still do in exploiting Scottish assets.
It wasn’t ‘English run’, that’s just the point.
I see that our ‘socialist’ leader Herr Starmer (ich bin ein zionist) is releasing all the criminals from prison to make way for all the ‘right wing’ protestors, at least they’ll be safer in prison than on the streets with all the criminals. Also, Yvette Balls is now planning to make ‘mysogny’ a terrorist offence, so careful with your comments concerning the ‘people’ in frocks.
Stevie boy one woman is killed by a man, who most often she already knows, every 3 days in this country. Misogyny needs to be a designated hate crime. Raab was tickled pink that he didn’t have to include it because hate crime is defined as an attack on a designated minority group and women aren’t a minority so you can hate them as much as you like. Hate crime is a public order offence. You get a police Caution and your name goes on the PNC record. That should be sufficient to stop the majority of bullying, assault, and entitlement crimes which would be offences if committed against disabled or racial minority groups.
Alyson. This is not about Misogyny, this is about the creeping loss and abuses of everyones freedoms under the current Labour Government. Any new laws will not work the way you might imagine.
Ann Widdecombe, Reform’s Home Affairs spokesman, said Ms. Cooper’s plan was not necessary.
“If you commit violence against women and girls, that’s already a crime,” she said. “If you preach misogyny, that’s already a crime. What exactly isn’t a crime?
“They should enforce the existing laws and stop looking to create crimes, which is what they’re doing.”
https://dailysceptic.org/2024/08/19/fears-labours-misogyny-extremism-law-would-threaten-free-speech/
The whole concept of ‘hate crime’ is misconceived. Threatening and abusive behaviour was already a crime so it did not require any government to come up with its pet list of ‘protected categories.’ If such behaviour was clearly rooted in racist or bigoted views then that was to be taken into account during sentencing. Once you have protected groups then you are implementing a two tier justice system.
Alyson, the notion that a police caution and being put on the PNC will scare citizens into line is a very middle class assumption. Notice the percentage of rioters- the ones being handed exemplary sentences that will supposedly scare the living daylights out of them- who have already served serious prison time. You can’t name and shame people who are shameless.
Actually hate crime definition was effective. Protecting racial minorities and disabled people put a stop to Paki bashing and Spaz bashing for entertainment. What’s in a name? Name calling can be stopped or reduced by public shaming, if there is the political will to do so, and this can stop much of the progress from name calling to actual violence
Who defines the hate crime ?
Who says that a name is offensive ?
Who says what is fact and what is faux ?
Who says that hate crime definition was effective ?
You’re effectively giving away your rights to ‘the establishment’. As said above’ we already have plenty of laws to protect everyone, why do we need more ? I’ll tell you why. It’s because TPTB want to move away from rigorously defined and legally tested criminal activity and move to wooly undefined scenarios that can be manipulated to trap the ‘enemy de jour’ – which could be you ! Wake up.
Who defines these hate crimes and so on? Governments, then parliament, then the House of Lords. A hate crime is where discrimination is at least a motivating factor.
Sounds like you don’t appreciate such laws. Neither did your mates who are now deservedly being banged up for racially aggravated offenses.
By “wake up”, you’re doing quite some ‘manspaining’ there to Alyson, who couldn’t possibly understand what misogyny is really about and is totally asleep/mistaken to think any further protection is needed – evidenced by the almost non-existent levels of violence against women, no doubt.
Besides, to ‘wake up’ is to be ‘woke’ – good on you for championing the cause, SB!
Of course it’s easy for a Government with a comfortable majority to pass some new law. That’s going to garner headlines and they can fill in some days on their spin grid. Actually enforcing existing laws is a different matter and most of the time some court report from Doncaster or wherever isn’t even going to make the local news.
They’ll be offered amnesty by joining the military – like Wagner – and copycat Ukrops.
Because most kids don’t want to sign up and die or kill.
The Clash. Call Up
https://youtu.be/-ScaGjwkg2Y?
As can be seen very clearly to all who care, most of the damage done to Scotland has been by Scotsmen (or women) who have been handed power – and it doesn’t matter much by whom. Most of the time we either elected them and they turned rogue, or they were rogue to begin with.
I think until such times as the Celts figure out how they want to be governed and how much power they want to give to their governors, dreaming of blue-skies days of independence are a waste of time.
When we finally decide to elect grown-ups, we won’t need to play at such semantics “was was it a treaty, was it a colonial land-grab, was it an empire’s invasion” and we will just declare independence with the full backing of the people.
In my view, the smaller the government and the more reduced the powers, is the way forward.
For the sake of clarity, that means less socialism and less European Union. Independence has to mean individual independence and individual responsibility.
Big State cannot ever equate with independence.
That ‘small state’ Scottish Nationalism is of the kind that lairds in kilts used to get excited by back in the 1930s.
Do you mean corporation running the country on behalf of the “small state”?
What was the Mussolini quote?
The English government, are deepening ties with the Neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine – Kit Klarenberg has suggested, that the so called peace talks in Doha (Qatar) were a ruse – to allow the Ukrainian forces to push into the Russian region of Kursk – with Westminster, playing a big part in the setting up of the attack.
“When the war in Ukraine began in 2022, the Conservative defence secretary at the time, Sir Ben Wallace, authorised the Ukrainian military to use British equipment inside Russia provided it complied with international law, which permits offensive attacks against airfields and supply lines in self-defence.
The decision Starmer and Healey took last week was not a policy shift but a change of tone to be more open about Britain’s role in a bid to persuade key allies to do more to help — and convince the public that Britain’s security and economic prosperity is affected by events on the fields of Ukraine. A senior Whitehall source said: “There won’t be shying away from the idea of British weapons being used in Russia as part of Ukraine’s defence. We don’t want any uncertainty or nervousness over Britain’s support at this critical moment and a half-hearted or uncertain response might have indicated that. We should be proud that we’ve donated kit that is helping Ukraine in their defence.”
To ensure a united British front, Healey and David Lammy, the foreign secretary, have set up a joint Ukraine unit between the MoD and the Foreign Office. Aides stress that the pair have made seven joint foreign trips, including a first one together to Kyiv while in the opposition and their first as ministers to the Middle East. “We are incorporating defence into our reset of our relations with allies,” a defence source said. Healey and Lammy also held a joint briefing, with officials, for a cross-party group of 60 MPs on Ukraine at the MoD.
Starmer has also asked the National Security Council to draw up plans to provide Ukraine with a broader range of support. Last week he sent John Bew to Kyiv. Bew was foreign policy adviser to the last three Tory prime ministers but has agreed to stay on to help the new government with his huge range of contacts.
“It’s not just about the military support, but it’s about the industrial, economic, and diplomatic support,””
Times archived.
https://archive.ph/wQ2A2#selection-2381.0-2403.108
” I speculated earlier was probably Britain behind Kursk suicide op. Lo and behold, a Times article confirms this. More broadly, contents amply underline Kursk latest effort by London to keep the US in the proxy war – and it appears Washington has finally had enough of this.
Times reveals up top heavily promoted footage of British Challenger 2 tanks in Kursk was a conscious, deliberate decision made by new PM Keir Starmer and his defence secretary John Healey. British equipment is said to have “played a central role” in the “counterinvasion”.”
Kit Klarenberg.
“British equipment”. Out of date, stripped down husks so that our Nazi friends cannot pass over the ‘outdated’ technology to the Ruskies when their asses are kicked yet again. Moscow really must be wetting itself with this bombastic nonsense. In a serious conflict with Russia the UK would not last a week, and in that week they still wouldn’t have received the operating instructions for the ‘independent deterrent’ from uncle sam … what a f*cking joke. What are they smoking at the MoD and Westminster ?
There’s been a lot of speculation – about the Neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine – being able to use English long range Storm Shadow missiles, and for the Ukrainian forces – to be able to fire them deep into Russian territory – with whatever PM is in Number Ten telling Zelensky that he can’t use them.
Well – its not Number Ten that’s stopping the Neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine, from firing the Storm Shadow missiles deep into Russian territory – no; its Washington – that’s telling England’s PM, that he cannot give Zelensky permission to use the missiles, to fire them deep into Russia – Washington rightly fears an escalation in hostilities if permission is given.
Times archived.
https://archive.ph/x5Uwj
Go on Washington, give them permission. You would be doing the UK a favour if you enabled Putin to drop a bomb on Westminster.