“Do an expository article on The Vow”
An expository article exposing what?
(1) There was nothing concrete in The Vow in the first place, it was vacuous puff.
(2) In so far as it said anything, it WAS upheld. Holyrood got some significant new powers (chiefly around tax).
(3) We analysed that stuff in depth at the time. There’s nothing left to say.
https://wingsoverscotland.com/?s=%22the+vow%22
(4) We’ve already said everything we can legally say with regard to the relationship between Clegg and Lloyd.
https://wingsoverscotland.com/all-the-jolly-boys-and-girls/
(5) The public isn’t listening about independence any more. A decade of inaction from the SNP has convinced them – correctly – that it’s going nowhere any time soon, so why waste their mental energy on it? That won’t change until the SNP is destroyed, so that’s the current priority task.
Genuine question for Wightman…
“IF” the complaints levelled against Salmond were indeed fictional, and the “evidence” was concocted by disingenuous individuals colluding with each other, (who knows, perhaps the same individuals who’s actions were already tainted by bias, and thus had an axe to grind), at what stage, and on what evidence did Wightman dismiss this possibility?
Why, in detail, did he choose to adhere instead to the dubious and unsubstantiated narrative which accused Salmond, but which the Trial jury comprehensively dismissed?
I’m so fed up with this idea that people (and it’s not just always women) who make allegations should be believed without evidence, and the findings of courts should be ignored.
Surely we have seen enough of the high profile and powerful trying to hijack the #metoo movement for their own ends by now?
I’m so disappointed with Andy Wightman’s behaviour in all this.
‘The most generous interpretation of his actions is an attempt to deflect attention from his own gross failure to properly and impartially fulfil his duties at the Parliamentary inquiry. The less generous interpretations, readers can consider for themselves’
I’ll go with that.
The rest of the article is precise enough for we the general public to understand. I don’t suppose we’ll get much more than bluster and innuendo from Wightman the Land Reform man. Maybe when the truth comes out and twitters version of the knowing wink just doesnae work any mair.
‘(5) The public isn’t listening about independence any more. A decade of inaction from the SNP has convinced them – correctly – that it’s going nowhere any time soon, so why waste their mental energy on it? That won’t change until the SNP is destroyed, so that’s the current priority task’.
50% or so seems to be interested in independence enough to support it as it stands. They are not interested in the now fake SNP other than to see them get what they deserve, which has already started. To focus only on the SNP is pointless. One thing at a time doesn’t work. It’s not a game of chess. The amount of information that is available to make the case for independence and against staying within the UK is staggering, but it’s scattered all over the place. If the objective is independence, then having that as the priority is what’s needed. Sorting out the SNP is just part of it. Besides a powerful and comprehensive case for independence would in itself play a big part in helping address the SNP’s political failure to do so.
The ‘who’ of driving for independence is a massive blockage at the moment, but that doesn’t mean that the ‘why’ of independence shouldn’t be strengthened and promoted. At the rate and way that the UK is going, not getting ready for independence is crazy. Politicians come and go. Independence doesn’t. That is the priority.
Wightman says in his tweet: “I said there is no evidence they are false”
Right, where is the evidence they are true? A historic statement that cannot be properly probed and corroborated and Wightman’s blind desire to believe it does not constitute evidence.
Looking at “cause for concern H”, it seems to me the complainer had just made a complete arse of something and did not take well at all being reprimanded. It seems more a case of a bruised ego rather than “harassment” per se.
In that “cause for concern” it says that the reprimand was “about a trivial matter”. Well how trivial the matter was will be for the reader to decide. Speaking personally, after all what I have read of the case I do not trust neither the judgement nor a single word coming from the accusers, civil servants, prosecutor, crown office, members of the Fabiani Farce or government officials. Not one. As far as I am concerned, they all should bloody know better than to waste taxpayers’ money in this utterly scandalous and unjustifiable fashion when there are children in Scotland below the poverty line.
I will decide how trivial the matter is when I can read in detail what the matter is and the full context where it took place. Until then, and as the “matter” has been carefully and deliberately “redacted out” of the “cause for concern”, it is impossible to establish if it was trivial or not. Consequently it is not possible to establish if the reprimand was deserved or not, nor if if it was proportionate. Without that information, this “cause of concern” is meaningless.
“Cause for concern A” reads much bigger than it really is simply because of where it has been framed to be: a hotel room. As soon as you read “hotel room”, instinctively you think in a closed door and a bed close by. But a sitting area is a hotel room. A conference room is a hotel room. A meeting room is a hotel room. If the exact same thing had happened at the hotel reception it would have been laughable. Again, it appears to have been deliberately extracted from its context to make it look worse than it is. It does not say anything at all of what kind of hotel room it was, what time of the day it was, how many people were present or the circumstances in which it happened. It has been worded to make you think it was completely out of the blue. As an independent reader, I consider this lack of information about the context suspicious therefore I do not see it as a valid “cause of concern” either.
With regards to “cause of concern G”, for goodness sake, do these women think they are still in the school playground that they run to tell on someone because they pulled their hair and touched their chin? They are portraying women as delicate flowers who cannot stand for themselves. Again, as in the other two cases above, we are not told anything about the actual context where this happened.
After reading these, I have to ask, are these women or Wightman serious?
Don’t these people have any ethics or professionalism at all?
I think Mr Salmond is duty bound to bring these bastards to book because it was he who put the sociopath there in the first place. Bring them down then retire.
They must be absolutely sick that they failed to jail him when they had packed the entire procedure against him but they are still trying to ruin him professionally. Politics across the globe are breathtakingly crooked and staffed by truly the worst kind of people with the puppet strings almost visible.
Ian @ 5.51
Great post .
It’s a testament to the strength of the case ( & desire ) for Independence that despite the almost unbelievable mess the post-Salmond SNP have made of EVERY.FUCKING.THING the support is still holding at circa 50% .
I understand and – with a couple of caveats – agree with Stu’s prioritising the elimination of SNP above all other issues . Though they’re doing a pretty good job of that themselves .
There are other things going on , nonetheless . Be a shame if the righteous cause of eliminating the SNP became an ” idée fixe ” at the expense of other – arguably as important – subjects .
eg , I share the general appreciation of David Davis , specifically for his 2nd attempt to shine a light on the contemptible attempted political assassination of Alex , and for being a decent human being / politician .
No comment however on the equally admirable ( on this issue anyway ) Andrew Bridgen for his attempt to get justice for the many vaccine-injured victims of the Covid Hysteria , and , like DD , shine some truthful light on the political machinations that caused them . Notable that the * Chamber * was almost empty for his address : good to see Neal Hanvey stayed to listen ; unlike the SNP walking dead , predictably .
Granted the latter is ” not related to Scottish Politics ”
Except…. it is .
Because the same arrogant ” we know best n the public will believe what we tell them n who cares if it doesn’t ? ” attitude , the same intelligence-insulting , infantilising narratives and the same frantic post-event attempts to bury all evidence of their culpability and/or pass the buck is evident in both instances . The Brit State has been more successful in this than the bungling amateurs of the Sturgeon Cabal : SHOCKA !
Of course , it’s in the former’s interest that maximum damage is inflicted on the latter – or , rather , on the real object of it’s malice , ie the Cause of Scottish Independence itself .
Re spoiled papers – Downloaded from the HoC Library and truncated from an excel spreadsheet:
I only hope that my crude attempt at formatting will work here….
Constituency name Electorate Invalid votes
Aberdeen North 75,925 115
Aberdeen South 77,328 178
AbrdnshireN & MorayE 70,058 170
Airdrie and Shotts 70,199 95
Alloa and Grangemouth 70,680 74
Angus Perthshire Glens 76,668 224
Arbroath & B.Ferry 76,149 161
Argyll Bute S.Lchbr 71,756 216
Ayr, Carrick Cumnock 70,340 120
Bathgate Linlithgow 72,185 92
Brwckshr, Rox Selkirk 76,438 138
Cthnss, Sthrlnd ERoss 74,627 122
Central Ayrshire 69,413 123
Coatbridge Bellshill 72,667 115
Cowdenbeath Kirkcaldy 71,845 106
Cmbrnld Kirkintilloch 70,350 170
Dumfries and Galloway 78,541 162
Dmfr, Clyde Tweeddale 71,900 133
Dundee Central 74,221 153
Dunfermline and Dollar 72,824 140
EKilbride Strathaven 76,414 131
East Renfrewshire 74,626 141
Edin East Musselburgh 76,188 206
Edin North and Leith 78,411 173
Edinburgh South 70,838 125
Edinburgh South West 73,784 147
Edinburgh West 76,490 137
Falkirk 73,584 131
Glasgow East 68,987 143
Glasgow North 67,579 166
Glasgow North East 72,610 81
Glasgow South 70,219 144
Glasgow South West 68,871 51
Glasgow West 69,028 186
Glenrothes Mid Fife 70,655 124
Gordon and Buchan 69,605 166
Hamilton Clyde Valley 75,480 183
Invrclyde Rnfrwshre W 70,126 101
Iness Skye W.Ross-shire 77,927 168
Kilmarnock and Loudoun 74,628 134
Livingston 78,043 121
Lothian East 75,456 132
Mid Dunbartonshire 73,603 132
Midlothian 73,554 162
MorayW Nairn Strathspey 77,243 167
Mwell Wishaw Carluke 71,777 125
Na h-Eileanan an Iar 21,325 53
North Ayrshire Arran 72,176 161
North East Fife 69,762 147
Orkney and Shetland 34,236 106
Paisley RenfrewshireN 71,103 144
Paisley RenfrewshireS 71,574 133
Perth Kinross-shire 77,261 142
Rutherglen 72,674 129
Stirling Strathallan 76,284 242
WAbrdeen Kincardine 72,994 161
West Dunbartonshire 69,074 123
The lawyer for the prosecution at Salmonds trial was very well briefed and tried every which way to infer wrongdoing on Alex’s part. It failed because most of it was lies. If a QC at the time with all the resources of the Crown could not provide evidence I fail to see how the Inquiry could simply by asking those who made these accusations.
It stinks.
So, if I am reading this correctly we have Wightman and Cole-Hamilton who have both made it clear they were biased against Alex Salmond, taking part in the inquiry. FFS.
Reading all this makes me furious all over again, it brings the corruption unfairness, and injustice right back at you. How Alex lives with this every day beats me. He is a strong man, that’s for sure and I hope one day he gets justice.
Re spoiled papers
The numbers are certainly small and I admit much smaller than I would have expected and hoped. But the numbers tell their own story.
For example, let’s start with the constituency mentioned by Muscleguy. According to the HoC library, For GE 2019 the number of spoiled papers in Chris Law’s constituency was 92. For GE 2024 this number raised to 153. That is a 66% increase and this is despite Alba having a candidate in this constituency. If it only a question about voting for a pro-indy alternative to SNP, you would expect the numbers of spoiled ballots to go down, not up.
Of significance is that Law went from having a crushing over 12,000 majority in 2019 to a 675 majority. oooft!
Interestingly, in Alyn Smith’s constituency and according to the HoC library, for GE 2019 there were 105 spoiled ballots. For GE 2024 that number raised to 242, that is the highest number of spoiled ballots of all constituencies in Scotland in 2024. That is 130% increase in spoiled ballots. I think Mr Smith can proudly boast about achieving the most in something during this election- He appears to have driven the largest number of people in all constituencies in Scotland to spoil their ballots.
In David Doogan’s constituency, the number of spoiled ballots went from 92 in 2019 to 224 in 2024. That is 143% increase.
In Joanna Cherry’s constituency, the number of spoiled ballots went from 91 in 2019 to 147 in 2024. That is a 60% increase.
In Brook’s constituency, the number went from 105 to 173. This is roughly a 65% increase.
It is interesting that in the constituencies of Edinburgh where the seat was not held by SNP, the number of spoiled ballots hardly changed. In Ian Murray’s constituency, the number went from 122 in 2019 to 125 in 2024. In Jardine’s constituency, the number went from 124 to 137. So there is definitely something linked to the SNP responsible for the increases seen.
In some constituencies the number of spoiled ballots actually decreased. This is the case for Angus Brendan McNeil’s constituency, where the number of spoiled ballots went from 65 in 2019 to 53 in 2024. But Mr Brendan McNeil run as an independent here against the SNP, so voters had an alternative.
In Neale Hanvey’s constituency, the number of spoiled ballots went from 108 to 106. Again, here Mr Hanvey was running against the SNP and represented an excellent alternative to the SNP.
John Nicholson’s constituency went from 131 spoiled ballots to 74 in 2024. But this time, Eva Comrie was standing as an independent and Kenny Mcaskill for Alba in this constituency. So voters were spoiled for choice.
Martin Day’s constituency (Linlithgow and East Falkirk) went from 105 spoiled ballots in 2019 to 92 in 2024 (Bathgate and Linlithgow). Again, in this constituency there was an alternative as ISP candidate to vote for, John Hannah
Let’s look at East Refrenshire. This is Kirsten Oswald’s constituency. The number of spoiled ballots went from 176 in 2019 to 141 in 2024. Again, this constituency had an alternative to vote for: Colette Walker from the ISP.
While it is only symbolic, indeed it seems that the presence of an alterative pro-indy candidate/party had an effect on the number of spoiled ballots. If the political parties do not get themselves in gear and serious about independence, that number may just increase in 2026.
I mangled a song for my own amusement; to pass some tedious time I had lying about the place. And I decided to bless readers here with a dazzling display of wit by sharing my lyrical musings.
Andy painting, Andy tired
Andy take a little snooze
Tie him up when he’s fast asleep
Send him on a pleasant cruise
When he wakes up on the sea
He’s sure to think of us and you
He’ll get out the whitewash
And he’ll paint over what’s true
What a jolly deceitful thing to do
Well, that used up a minute. Not sure what to do next while twiddling my thumbs waiting for independence…hope it doesn’t take too much longer to arrive.
The absolute worst thing about the ‘Union’ is its limitless pedestrianism; its boundless capacity to bore; its infinite humourlessness; and its titanically tedious and mercilessly mundane machinations.
I know that the mindless monotonousness induced by the mere thought of the ‘Union’ is the least of Scotland’s worries, but the beckoning hyperbole of boredom and the lure of alliterative lunacy got the better of me.
Apologies to the memory of David Bowie for ruining his ‘Andy Warhol’ song lyrics.
@ Sarah
The number of spoiled ballots went up from 6,944 in 2019 to 8,025 in 2024. It is a modest 15% increase, but an increase after all which may start a trend. Unless the political parties get in gear, the number may just increase even further.
However, what is most interesting though is the fall in turnout and what this represents for the election to actually be considered democratic. The establishment of course is keeping quiet about it.
For GE 2019, the official percentage of “valid vote” (which does not include spoiled), was 68%. The official percentage of “valid vote” in 2024 was 59%.
Okay, if you look at the result overall, 59% is low, but still a healthy 9 percentage points above 50%.
But if you look individually to each constituency, then the picture changes quite dramatically. In 2019, there was no constituency in Scotland where the number of “valid votes” was 50% or less. Well, there is now. In 2024, there is already one constituency for which the “valid vote” is below 50% – Glasgow North East. The percentage of “valid vote” in this constituency was a meagre 47%.
In my personal view, that constituency should have not declared any candidate as a winner because the majority of the constituency refused to cast a vote for any political party. That is a point blank rejection of the system not the endorsement of labour.
That they ignored this as if it the people who do not cast a vote did not count, despite surpassing the number of people who actually vote for any of the candidates, is undemocratic and demonstrates the UK is not a democracy at all. If the ballots had included the option “none of the above”, this option might have actually won in this constituency.
It is obvious majorities are only considered by the UK establishment when they are majorities for what the establishment wants. If they are not, they are simply ignored or buried. The candidate officially selected as “winner” in that constituency has a “majority” of a minority. That is not democratically representative. The election should have been repeated in that constituency with different candidates.
Besides this, there were 3 constituencies for which the percentage of the “valid vote” was just 51%; another three for which the percentage of the “valid vote” was 52% and one for which the percentage was 53%
Ruby and James Che were right. No voting was the way to go on this election. Sadly, despite their strategy having been successful in at least one constituency where the percentage of “valid vote” fell below 50%, the entire establishment machine in London and Scotland are deliberately ignoring if not downright hiding it.
For what is worth, I wish to congratulate the no voters in the constituency of Glasgow North East – the establishment may have buried your victory, but there is no doubt you won the election and you won comprehensively by 53% to 47%.
In addition to this, it was fascinating to see that the electorate in 2024 Scotland for a GE has miraculously increased from 4,053,056 in 2019 to 4,078,303 in 2024. How is that even possible if the number of mortalities in Scotland have been surpassing the number of births for at least the last 5 years is beyond me, unless of course we are being supplied with free voters from England, Wales or NI, because migrants from outwith the UK and asylum seekers are not entitled to vote in UK GE unless they naturalise. So, where exactly do those extra 25,000 voters come from?
I cannot wait to see how much the electorate for 2026 has increased compared to 2021 in Scotland after all the migrants from England, Wales, NI, outwith the UK and all the asylum seekers are included in the census. Never mind that mortality has surpassed number of births for several years on a row and therefore the natural population keeps decreasing. The figure for the electorate in Scotland seems to only be moved one way and that is up.
“David Clegg, MI5?
What a suspicious character”
Suspicious indeed.
Let’s think about the picture published by the Rev years ago about a trip to the USA for the jolly boys and girls.
Clegg was in that picture. We know what his role has been in the smearing of Mr Salmond
Liz Lloyd was in that picture. David Davis revealed Lloyd as the source of the leak
Neither Clegg nor Lloyd have been disciplined or held accountable despite leaking and publishing that information being against the law. Are they MI5 assets who might be exempt of prosecution if they break the law in the name of “national security”?
Dugdale was parachuted to the Smith Centre. What is she doing?
What about the other boys and girls in the picture of that trip to the USA? How many of them were involved in the Salmond affair and what are the other ones doing to put to good use the “leadership training” they received? How many of them are MI5 assets?
What about Evans? She was the main responsible for the generation of an unlawful complaints procedure using taxpayers money. She was also responsible for keeping the civil case going by hiding information from their own counsel. She sent the infamous message of failing to win a battle but not the war which clearly shows her “political impartiality” is a myth bigger than Jupiter. Yet, like Lloyd, she was never disciplined never mind sacked. She was never held accountable for what she did or for all the wastage she caused to the taxpayer. Why? Is she also an MI5 asset who is entitled to break the law in the name of “national security”?
It has been reported elsewhere that the crown agent David Harvie was, at least at some point, MI5. Is this the reason why he was not disciplined either despite seemingly lying to the parliamentary inquiry and abusing power to gag the inquiry and suppress information from the public? Is this the reason why, instead of being held accountable, he was sent away from the Crown Office into some sheriff court out of public exposure?
How many of the Lord Advocates are MI5 assets? Could this be the reason why none of them were disciplined or held accountable for the malicious prosecutions or for abusing power to gag the inquiry, suppress information from the public or allow the civil case to continue by hiding information from the government’s counsel?
How many of the alphabetes are MI5 assets?
How many of the civil servants involved in the complaints procedure were MI5 assets? Could this be the reason why some of them were allowed to submit reports or speaking by phone rather than actually being interviewed and properly scrutinised with questions like the rest?
Are Sturgeon and Murrell MI5 asset too? Could this explain why operation branchform has not progressed noticeably for so many years?
How many current cabinet ministers and their staff are directly or indirectly involved in the case and might have a vested interest in keeping the lid on the information down?
How many in the higher echelons of the SNP are MI5 assets?
Mia @ 12:46 pm
How many …. are MI5 assets?
All of them, and more, seems the only plausible answer, especially considering the ongoing immunity from prosecution; ‘authorised crime’ it is called, according to the Act.
Should we expect anything less ‘whenever colonialism is imperiled’? And ‘the native seldom looks for justice in a colonial environment’.
Which all fits rather well with postcolonial theory, where the colonial hoax and racket depends on these ‘confidential agents pensioned off at ransom prices’:
Mia @12.45pm.
Of course they are assets for the English security services how else could this have happened, incompetence? I think not, as for David Harvie a one time Scottish Crown Agent, Craig Murray outed him as Mi5 a few years back.
Harvie entered the court when Craig Murray was about to be sentenced and had word with the judge.
For me any Scottish politician who takes up their seat in the foreign parliament in England is helping to maintain the union whether they realise it or not.
Wightman playing amateur armchair lawyer is cringe-making. He actually thinks he is being terribly clever, lol. But his agenda is plain as a pikestaff (whatever that is).
It is notable that chooses a double negative (there is no evidence that the allegations are false). No, you cannot prove a double negative, it is a rhetorical device to make it seem that what has not been shown to be true is still somehow a fact, despite his admission that there is no evidence). It is an illogical and misleading, incoherent statement designed to imply, by innuendo, that just because it wasn’t proven in court that the allegations are still ‘facts’, which allegations clearly are not. So something that does not exist, as far as everybody can tell, still exists. This is worthy of Paul Daniels, or indeed any two bit internet conspiracy theorist. See any ‘not proven’ conspiracy theory regarding alien abductions, UFOs 9/11 etc etc. Just because the evidence isn’t there doesn’t mean those things didn’t happen. See, it’s easy if you try. Or as Donald Rumsfeld famously said, ‘just because we don’t have evidence of the Russian super missiles/pland to attack us, doesn’t meant they don’t exist, in fact it proves that they are so cunning we don’t know about it’
Yes you can ‘prove’ anything, float any allegation with this technuique, And so Andy does, in his most pompous barrack room lawyer way. Let’s see if we can apply it to him. So they’re allegations that Andy murdered someone, but has successfully hidden all the evidence and would get cleared at a trial. He has abducted children and keeps them in his basement, but no-one has produced a shred of evidence for it. Yes, but despite the lack of evidence and lack of criminal conviction, it doesn’t mean these allegations aren’t true. What impeccable logic.
Wightman, you are first year undergraduate writing an essay which you smirkingly hand in as proof that they entire reason and evidence based legal system is wrong in every acquittal it has ever made. Grade F, for fail.
Well it looks like the House Jocks and Westminster will force the Commonwealth Games onto Scotland, for other nation don’t want them, the Australian state of Victoria had the sense to dump them, but England’s weakest minded colony Scotland more than likely will host them in what is commonly known a a bread and circuses act, where the heads of Scots are turned away from the myriad of problems that afflict Scotland today and onto these now defunct Imperial games.
Of course you can watch right now the Olympic Games or as they are better known this year the J-en0cide Games, of course Scotland isn’t competing in the games as Scotland’s athletes, but you wouldn’t know that by the over enthusiastic Scottish athletes eager and willing to rub shoulders on the track with the country’s athletes that’s committing J-en0cide West Asia,
@ Ebok
Re. The theoretical contract between elected officials and their constituents.
As I’ve suggested multiple times before, let’s change the game and offer a much more meaningful and powerful direct contract between constituents and those individuals they specifically elect to represent them.
Is that not one of the most significant reasons to want Scotland to return to self-governing status in the first place; So the Scottish people have a better more purposeful type of democratic control on steering our country’s trajectory on a course that we want.
This perpetual skipfire of the Kingdom of Scotland being in the “equal” Union with the Kingdom of England but us rarely ever getting the governments we actually vote for because we are outvoted by a factor of approximately 10 to 1 is bad enough.
But to add an extra level of impediment to controlling our Country’s democratic processes and destiny through a devolved administration packed with politicians representing English Parties, elected through a voting system designed and implemented by Unionists which gives the impression of being more fair due to its guise of having a proportional representation element, but which actually just serves to have Unionist cuckoos in the nest to stifle progress.
How daft are people to continue playing along with this horseshit.
Factor in the quickening of the political party system which is now riddled with shills and grifters punting their agitation and /or globalist woke bullshit we end up rather poorly served.
Conventional use of the Master’s tool will not dismantle the Master’s hoose. So we break with convention and approach this differently.
We have witnessed how the powers that be influence outcomes, a task made much easier for them because Parties appear to be so corrupted and packed with unsavory individuals that can be used to taint the prospects of the all too occasional good individual.
We remove that Party aspect and work locally. But as can be seen from ballot spoiling ideas and I4I candidates, this won’t happen with just musing online in a wee bubble a few months before and democratic event. It will take years to put in place on the ground in our respective constituencies. There are generally existing YES groups but they really have to consider changing tack now. If what remains of these YES groups are of any worth they will have to drop all allegiance to Parties and work locally to help identify 57 local honest respected individuals, and there’s 5 years (maybe less due to repeal of Fixed Term Parliament Act). We work the 50% of Scots that want to return Scotland to self-governing status and elect representatives to end the union.
There’s a reason we will get nowhere listening to ADHD like political commentators who spend far too much time online distracted by the current political circus antics leaving them precious little time to consider other ways of doing things, and just how much effort tasks take to accomplish in the real world away from online bubbles.
We don’t need and can’t rely on “leaders” from afar, that is a route for the weak and unimaginative, instead we need to step up and find the strength in ourselves and use that to deliver locally. That way we are much more able to do what needs to be done on our own terms and much less vulnerable to be attacked by the powers that be.
Effijy @ 9:14 pm
“The Greatest Ever Commonwealth Games was held in Glasgow according to their own officials.”
Unlike Paris, which as we can see in the Olympics opening ceremony has a vast number of vessels using the Seine, Glasgow has turned its back on the Clyde, the council preferring to install low bridges which inhibit navigation; added to the fact the Tories sold the port and river to offshore equity funds, just like most Scottish utilities. And ditto the Forth and Tay. Sunak-Forbes freeports simply add to our colonial exploitation resulting in Scots having the lowest GDP-per-capita in north-west Europe:
“If someone made false or true allegations of sexual harassement against Wightman, would they remain anonymous as those who made the false allegations against Alex Salmond?”
Not automatically, no. A judge would have to make an order. The Salmond complainers were not legally protected until the first day of the trial, the anonymity order was passed because of James Doleman.
@ Dan
re Peter Bell’s proposal for a new Independence Party .
I’ve previously thought/said I didn’t think there was * space * for another such and that it could be more effective to unify the non-SNP Independence Parties/Entities against the latter : in the process attempting to bring ( what remains of ) the broader Independence Movement together under a CREDIBLE I.P .
Those reservations remain , but , at this stage in * game * I’m open to * any * coherent suggestion that might further our cause
Peter’s proposal – it’s intention & orientation – has merit .
The question will be if has sufficient merit to gain the requisite traction for lift-off .
That remains to be seen . I’m happy to support it nonetheless .
Though , like yourself , I’m extremely circumspect another Political Party is what is required ATM .
Time will tell
Hatey McHateface @ 5.01pm says
“Right up to the moment, as evidenced by thousands of historical precedents, when the kindly, altruistic immigrants have reached the critical mass they need.”
Sadly our wee village,almost certainly the last sizeable one in the Highlands to be colonized, has exceeded critical mass and the indigenous population is fucked. From a population of around 1200 about 20 years ago we are down to about 850 in the last census, owing to emigration of indigenous population when the very major employer closed, older/childless couples from down south arriving, air b&b’s and holiday homes.
@silverfox (5.25) –
We’re keen to hear first-hand testimony from those affected by what you describe.
If you’d like to write your account of what’s happening (no word limit) we’ll publish on Off-Topic Scotland. People are, understandably wary of raising their voices on this issue so you could use that name or any other pseudonym you prefer.
Just mail, anytime, to offtopicscotland@protonmail.com and mark FAO Rab.
(Same offer extends to anyone else who is concerned.)
Andy Ellis
Ignored
says:
Hard as it is for locals, and much as we might want to see things done differently, what % of the Scottish population live in the Highlands and what impact will they have on achieving independence?
Not many people live in the Higlands silverfox so in the grand scheme of things they don’t matter certainly not when it comes to achieving independence.
@ Rab Clark
Aye, there’s plenty bonnie rural areas in Scotland that have and continue to endure the influx of white flight from Englandshire.
I took a hurl on my motorbike up a glen in Perthshire last year and stopped several times to ask groups of locals directions. All voices were English with not a Scottish accent to be heard.
I spoke to a health worker last year and they stated there were 200 newborn children in oor locale but only 20 bairns to both Scottish parents.
Maybe Oor Ellis who speaks for the majority don’t you know could pen an article informing us of the benefits of loads of aged auld crumbly English folk rocking up here in their retirement and outbidding oor local indigenous young uns and buying up all the hooses.
That time I saw a load of grey haired auld retired geezers from England racing about my local in a fire engine putting oot all the fires hasn’t happened yet. That’s why some rural fire stations can’t muster a crew when the pagers go aff because there are not enough young folk able to live and work in these rural areas.
The stats in this article are worth considering.
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2023/03/26/healthy-demographics/
Ellis…
“Aren’t the issues being experienced in the Highlands common to lots of other areas? The same can be said of Cornwall, the Lake District, parts of Wales, even the East Neuk of Fife”.
Being priced out of your future ability to live and work and raise a family in the place of your birth, with all the associated family, social, linguistic and cultural ties and dimensions, simply because foreigners with different social, linguistic and cultural traits have financial clout which you can never hope to match, (Not just the English I might add), is nothing to be sniffed at.
We’re witnessing the modern clearances of the indigenous populations of the Highlands and Islands and our wonderful SNP Govt. isn’t and hasn’t done shit about it.
Chickens are coming home to roost when Doctors, Teachers, Nurses, Dentists, Lecturers, plumbers, electricians, mechanics and everyone else required to make communities function can’t live in the areas where they’re most needed because properties are snapped up at ridiculous prices just so people can retire “up north” and run a f**king B&B!
Andy Ellis
Ignored says:
27 July, 2024 at 6:26 pm
Hard as it is for locals, and much as we might want to see things done differently, what % of the Scottish population live in the Highlands and what impact will they have on achieving independence?
Hard, is it?
Therein lies the same Neoliberalism which dispenses with craftsmanship and honourable built-to-last tradition, in order to secure the minimum cost as the sole and sacrosanct governing criterion.
I see the world differently, thank god, and I value Scotland’s rural communities because they typify, and contribute towards, the living essence of Scotland; land of the Scots. Aye, I know, there’s not much left, but still…
I value Gaelic because it exists, not by how much it costs. What would it be “worth” to know what Pictish language sounded like, or what their oral traditions were? Pictish music…
Once upon a time, progressive societies built libraries to protect their literature and culture, and I don’t suppose a single one of those libraries was intended to turn over a profit, but they still put their heart and soul into building them. Scotland, where Scottish society exists for the Common good!
Fast forward to today – survival of the richest. Aye, who have we to thank for that invasive “culture”? Scotland of the Enlightenment? Where once it was unlawful to profit from another’s misfortune? We all know the answer to that.
Fuk their money. Invest in our culture, not theirs. Feed the wolf that’s indigenous, and feed it better than it we’ve been feeding the pare critter lately.
Scotland is a wealthy and profoundly beautiful Nation, and it is absurd that our young despair at the future Scotland offers them. If the place was governed properly and the grasping parasites removed off their back, our young should be thriving, here, and there should be queues at Immigration for Aussie, NZ, and Canadian diaspora coming back to the Auld Country to “top up” the Scottishness in their veins because “being” Scottish is still a badge of honour in a grubby world of greed.
Your NC500? I’d put a big fkg gate on it. Road Closed on the Sabbath. Welcome tae Scotland. An’ me an atheist annaw….
Hatuey @ 1:14 am
“If we were independent, I’d take a very different view and happily open the doors to a couple of million migrants”
That’s a big ‘if’, at the moment. And some basic understanding of what occurs in a colonial society might be of advantage.
The reality here is what previous census data tells us, since records began; that population change of such magnitude has probably already occurred in Scotland, and has merely intensified since devolution (i.e. ‘democracy without power’).
Moreover, historically, the organised removal of several million of Scotland’s people began not long after annexation (i.e. the Union hoax) in the 1700s, peaking in the 1920s/30s, and continuing well into the 1970s.
We should remember that population management (e.g. displacement of a native people) is one of the key levers of colonialism; here there is an emphasis on reducing (and replacing) the indigenous population, as well as eradicating their ‘national consciousness’ through the colonial/cultural assimilation process.
A colonized people are effectively ‘out of the game’ in all matters and respects. This is why they must seek self-determination (i.e. decolonization) in order to survive and exist as ‘a people’ and as a nation.
A colonially oppressed, hence much diminished (obliterated, even) people and culture must be allowed to ‘self-recover’; decolonization is therefore not about ‘opening the doors’ to large numbers of other peoples mainly from/via the former imperial/oppressor power.
What you are proposing is that Scotland should remain subject to existing ‘colonial procedures’ even after independence / decolonization; which negates the purpose of liberation, i.e. ‘self-recovery’ of ‘a people’ and culture.
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2021/10/26/determinants-of-independence-demographics-2/
Al Jazeera news, yesterday, had a feature about the island of Santorini and how it’s being strangled by tourism.
It’s enough of a problem in itself, catering for such huge numbers, but the serious long-term damage is caused by those ‘tourists’ who think ‘Hmmm, yeah, I’d like a wee slice of this’, then buy a property, use it a few weeks of the year, rent it out to other tourists the rest of the time, wreck the local housing market for the islanders and generate ill-feeling all round.
Sound familiar?
” Immigration to Scotland should be opposed and put on hold until we are independent and that includes immigration elsewhere in the UK. Unless you are able to prove you have a job and somewhere to stay, you shouldn’t be allowed to come here and make the existing problems we have due to shortages worse. ”
Agreed . Good to see you add a bit more nuance to your position on Immigration , H .
For my part , I have no problem with what may be called ” organic Immigration ” , ie people/families choosing to come to Scotland to escape hardships of various kinds and/or simply improve their material prospects . Haven’t humans perennially done this ; Scots included ?
What I object to is Immigration – Mass Immigration – being used by the wrong people for the wrong aims .
It is documented fact that , eg the EU , has been & is deploying a strategy of virtually Open Borders , the results of which are plain to see in countries like France , Greece , Germany etc .
It can’t be stated often enough that there are nefarious entities whose intent in flooding European nations with vast numbers of immigrants from wildly different cultures is to eliminate National Identities , sow discord and have even more people fighting amongst themselves for whatever crumbs fall from the Neoliberal/Capitalist high table . Ditto in the U.S & the West in general .
Immigration along with * Gender * lunacy , the * Racism * Industry , ” Climate Emergency ” and the ongoing attack on Free Speech are the weapons of choice of the Elites that are inflicting incalculable harm on our Societies , with the ultimate aim of imposing a World Government on us : or as close to one as possible .
This partly explains the absolute refusal of the Elites to interact with and treat as equals those countries that refuse to bend the knee ( and the intellect ) to the New * Progressive * World Order embodied by the fanatics in the E.U , US * Democratic * Party , ( the Republican Party not much different ; nor , for that matter the UK Labour Party ) , Big Tech/Pharma et al . Not only treating such countries , eg *ussia , *hina , *ran etc as inferior species but actually waging relentless aggression – Economic and/or Military – on them .
They won’t , ever , succeed in bringing those last named countries under their dominion .
They may , however , * succeed * in destroying large swathes of the Planet & it’s inhabitants in the attempt .
We should be glad there are still some countries with total commitment to resisting Elite Psychopathy in the World ; because it seems there are none – or very , very few – in the West doing so . That is to say , ” very , very few ” of the Political Class in the West ; the actual peoples of the West are not onboard with this shit but are having it rammed down their throats whether they agree or not.
Hatuey 12.54pm:
“…but I don’t have any sense of culture, I don’t know what it is, and it’s artificial to me.”
With respect, Hatuey, therein lies a fundamental problem. A Scot’s sense of culture is very real. It doesn’t need explaining, one Scot to another, and is probably something that can’t be explained to a non-Scot unless they themselves have a deep sense of their own culture.
An inner sense of Scottishness is what breathes life into the independence movement. Art, music, literature, language, customs, the native soil, the folk who went before – it’s all of this and more. Just as it is in other cultures. No mystery; nothing unusual. Absolutely to be treasured though.
To see this being wantonly neglected by the very people we vote for in favour of self-interest while doing their masters’ bidding is shocking. Easier to turn a blind eye. The least they could do, as well funding things that matter such as rebuilding Glasgow School of Art, would be to reinstate comprehensive Scottish studies into the curriculum. It wouldn’t take a great imagination to make space in the school day…
As Hugh MacDiarmid said in a speech at Glasgow University over fifty years ago, “It is the cultural questions, the language and literary questions, that have been the decisive factor in the national regeneration movements of many European countries, and it will not be otherwise with Scotland. No nation was ever restored to its proper dignity owing to a demand for merely practical measures, better wages, better conditions of employment, better transport and all the rest of it. These are vitally important, but they are subsidiary and first things must be put first.”
MacDiarmid observed that, back then, “Scotland is emerging again, culturally at any rate, into the modern world as a separate entity with something of its own to say, some contribution to make to the common pool of culture that no other people can make.”
We can’t afford to take our culture for granted.
Farage could be PM in 2029 once it all plays out; this is bad for us he is a viciously bigoted little englander, an anglo supremacist who thinks the English are the Master Race and maybe a lost tribe as well (“should have taken the Hess deal”)
– to people like that Scotland = a region of England and no amount of historical documents, or tight arguments from the likes of Xaracen matter. What matters here is power – and we don’t have any, or any leverage with the outside for protection.
Scots need to wake up; this country is going to be over-run, carved up, sold off, split, and the bit the indigenous people are left with, poor, overcrowded and dependent. Just because it didn’t happen overnight does not mean it is not happening, look what happened to the middle east (- civic nationalism doesn’t work with ethnoracial-supremacists.)
On wings we have covered – the pillage of the hydrocarbons, the theft of the wind, the bad decisions, the awful infrastructure and lack of investment, the UK’s crazed obsession with all things nuclear, the desperate comparison with our peers in EFTA – and making the point you cannot even try to fix any of this without independence, and yet people seem complacent and passive as this all seems rather abstract; they are in the eye of a hurricane, where all seems calm, failing to notice the upcoming and more direct threats to their very existence. The anglo “has a plan” for you, boy, many evil plans are in play.
– there is going to be looting and restructuring you have never seen. There will be good jobs and good homes in nuScotland, but they are not for you, they are for middle class anglos (cheap by SE England standards, unaffordable to the Scots); the Scots will also likely be dumped upon by large numbers (relative to our population) of aggressive 3rd worlders, who will have special protections in law, even complaining about them will be a “hate crime”. Note that the furore over the “asylum seeker”/refugee nonsense, where everyone gets called “far right”, conveniently hides the other side of the thing, internal clnisation from “nice white people” (don’t notice that, just blame the brown people). Calling people who are mostly working class and socialist “far right” is a nasty, but effective, form of guilt tripping; ignore it.
A couple of infographics you might have seen are “Palstine from 1948 onwards” and/or “Red Squirrel/Grey Squirrel habitats, UK, 1900 onwards”.
– you can see “interesting” trends and I reckon something similar is planned for the Scots, the natives, the people who were here before the johnny come latelys, the rightful owners and rulers of this land.
the trend is clear – the Scots are going to be offered a “2 state solution” with their own little strip, the M8 corridor.
When we all end up on the reservation, will we even be allowed a casino?
SteepBrae @ 2:25 pm
“MacDiarmid observed that, back then, “Scotland is emerging again, culturally at any rate, into the modern world as a separate entity with something of its own to say, some contribution to make to the common pool of culture that no other people can make.””
Aye, MacDiarmid was well ahead of most Scots intellectuals, never mind politicians; many of the more culturally assimilated privileged native group basking in a ‘state’ of cultural confusion, and illusion (and yet still), especially those gey few elite natives permitted into the higher echelons of British academia.
Postcolonial theorists subsequently confirmed MacDiarmid’s cultural thesis, in that:
– a peoples culture is the central feature of their national consciousness;
– without this national consciousness there can be no desire for national independence;
– independence is about ‘the struggle for a national culture’, and;
– independence is therefore ‘a cultural emotion’.
Which also helps explain why ‘Culture’ is the number 1 determinant in the only theoretical framework to be developed explaining the subject of Scottish independence:
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2021/06/27/paper-one-in-the-10-part-baird-series/
Axed minster Lorna Slater intends to stand again as co-leader of the Scottish Greens next year – Slater’s botched Deposit Return Scheme cost the Scottish taxpayers million, and its not over yet the waste management firm Biffa which is in the process of taking the Scottish government to court over the scheme – is seeking £200 million pounds compensation, which again will be left to the taxpayer to pick up the bill if Biffa are successful.
Apparently Green insiders are not happy that Slater wants to stand again for co-leadership of the party.
Hatuey @ 12:54 pm
“every economic boom in history had an abundant supply of migrant labour at its heart”
Scotland is not needing ‘an economic boom’ far less mass immigration to achieve it. What Scots need is our rightful share of our own national wealth, and from which we can then afford to provide our people with adequate services, utilities and opportunities.
Scotland is already a very wealthy nation, the problem we have is that the native folk do not receive their proper share of this wealth, much of which is plundered by external interests.
Based on Scotland’s very low (i.e. artificial) GDP-per-capita compared with our near neighbours, I have estimated the cost of colonial plunder of Scotland’s assets and resources to be £150 billion or more per annum. This is the price of the UK Union, of our being subject to colonialism:
SteepBrae, no offence, and I mean that, but your definition of culture falls to pieces as soon as you try and define it in any detail. Feel free to prove me wrong; I wish you would.
We can see that in historical terms the idea of national culture came along just when it was needed, as a pretext for carving up Europe into nation states.
They put a lot of effort and money into that sort of thing; and they had to, because it was very difficult to explain what farmers in Calabria had in common with industrial workers in places like Milan, etc. (nothing)
Benedict Anderson’s landmark book ‘Imagined Communities’ covered these trends in great detail across various regions as they were incorporated into nation states;
“The nation is imagined as a community because, regardless of the actual inequality and exploitation that may prevail in each, the nation is conceived as a deep, horizontal comradeship.”
In Britain, believe it or not, the imagined idea of Scottishness and Scottish culture was essentially defined by English aristocrats and Scottish Unionists. It was these sort of people that gave us The National Wallace Monument which, with its British Imperial Crown on top, was intended to celebrate the Union, not Scottish nationalism. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEdODi0_kTM
I don’t need to explain to anyone here how Britishness itself was imagined and invented. You can go through other countries and you will find the same artistry in their national origins.
It’s really quite absurd that they managed this in places like the United States, Australia, etc., as they bludgeoned and poisoned the real natives (or nationals) into extinction, but nationalism doesn’t let facts like that get in the way of a good story.
I’m afraid, then, that the only explanation or justification for Scottish independence, rests on the simple idea of self determination, i.e. those who live here ought to control and manage their own affairs, and not national identity (which really wouldn’t be worth defining even if you could).
Re the Olympic opening ceremony..
It was an embarrassment & shows how far the West has sunk in the toilet to think that shit would be “entertaining” to anyone but the fcking depraved.
The whole Z bullshit worshipping their false God.
Regards immigration – it’s manufactured by the neo cons to strip countries of their culture, traditions & language. When a place is saturated with a population that doesn’t give a fck about anything & has no historical connection to the area – it’s easier to plant an outsider to oversee its assets. Colonialism is still alive & well. The yanks stole America the exact same way. Free land to anyone who could buy the boat fare.
I find it hilarious that it’s all falling apart before their very eyes as their so called “democracy” currently has Macron refusing to fck off, Z the unelected warhawk, unelected Harris to replace Biden & the EU slithering around looking for ways to remove Orban & Yahoo (a wanted war criminal) attending congress barking out orders on who to arrest for not bowing to his illegal occupation & NATO bumping up the prices cause more wars are on our horizon.
Oh & sanction, sanction, sanction, protectionist bullshit flounces..
BRICS must be pissing themselves laughing at the shit show on full display. Traditional, family orientated & with conservative values watch on at the fcking horror the yanks like to call the envy of the world. They must be thinking thank fck we’re not like them.
A new world order is coming & it’s not a moment to soon or it’ll be bairns gyrating for the next opening ceremony.
Hatuey. I have some sympathy with what you say about national culture. Here in England the question of what is English culture is also aired rather tediously on a regular basis. S-called British culture gets even more ephemeral.
When you try and define national culture, it tends to slip though the fingers. In fact it is sometimes outsiders who have better handle on the bigger picture. and this is where I would disagree with you – there is such a thing as national culture but it is almost impossible to define and always evolving and in that I agree that an independence movement driven by nationalism (is it ever anything else?) should primarily be about political self-determination for whoever is living in the nation.
In the 21st century anything more ‘ethnic’ and national cultural oriented is likely doomed to failure anyway as it creates division within the culture (whose culture?) and division is the enemy of autonomy.
@Dan: “#RestlessOvines”:
. We need more Restless Native action nowadays and no mistake…
“Somethings very much amiss in the insect world this year.”
Agreed: we’ve had pipistrelles for as long as we can remember flying around here and I’ve hardly seen any this year, and no ladybirds, honey bees or even earwigs. For some reason bluebottles seem more plentiful, however.
What still brings a lump to my throat is seeing the hazy mountains of Scotland diminishing, beautiful rank upon rank, into apparent infinity from a peak such as Schiehallion.
Toaty but independent countries like the Netherlands and Belgium would kill for such a landscape and yet we in Scotland seem happy to give it away for others to exploit while we sink into more and more poverty.
Wake up, Scotland, FFS.
Robert Hughes @ 7:49 pm
“could the same not be said of just about every country”
Our near neighbour independent countries far higher gdp-per-capita than us (i.e. double and more!), despite Scotland having even more resources than most, suggest the external interception of our national wealth to be far more extensive than for any of them. The opportunity cost of this ‘colonial plunder’ also has to be taken into account – e.g. Scotland is clearly not a competitive economy internationally, and hence suffers from zero economic growth.
‘Democracy without power’ is the colonial/devolved reality whereas independent states do hold and use their national power to more effectively deal with national priorities, including preventing economic exploitation.
A key function of government is to halt excess interception of economic rents. Successive UK governments however have promoted and facilitated such interceptions in Scotland, e.g. through privatisation of public utilities and monopolies, and licensing of natural resource extraction with zero royalties going to a Scottish treasury (the latter non existent); plus inadequate investment in infrastructure, and punitive factor costs such as high energy prices; electricity cost is four times higher in Scotland than in Norway.
The economic ideology of Westminster towards governance of Scotland (or any colony) is largely geared toward our exploitation. Only independence and reclaiming sovereignty offers the possibility for a new government regime to halt this exploitation.
There’ll be no super power. That gig is up.
American dominance is over no matter what puppet they choose in November. The world is turning it’s back & it’ll be multi polar. Just in time. The yanks now think they’ll colonise space lol. They also didn’t sign the world treaty not to have nukes there either. They’re a threat to everyone & everyone is moving on away from them.
BRICS is already happening & there isn’t a thing they can do to stop it as countries are not buying American debts, the Anglo Americans can’t be trusted with other countries currencies, other countries assets, with international laws, with treaties & agreements & they sanction the fck out of poor countries while asset stripping.
They’ve shafted the EU too with their sanction shit that even they will abandon them if they’ve any sense at surviving what little they have left. They’ve already blew up their gas supply, insulted China over trade & Taiwan & trashed their economy. They’re busy looking around themselves to find they have absolutely hee-haw that doesn’t depend on the yanks.
They told U & Brussels to start punishing Hungary & Slovakia to cut off their oil supply from R – so Slovakia, in response, turned off their supply of diesel & lights. Now there’s no cash lines in U for ppl to get money. Way to go guys! That takes a special kinda fckwit not to see that one coming ..
They’re so fecking thick that it’s painful to watch. Like threatening China they’re next on their war list – ummm, hello? Do they forget who supplies the nuts & bolts for their military toys? That’s another thing that will stop – American puppets influencing everyone elses governments too thick & too dumb to see obvious long term problems ahead.
The yanks are trillions in debt with interest alone. They’ll go back into their box & be a pariah state alongside I (which will probably no longer exist) for the same reasons. They’re also itching for a war they can’t even win right now. They’re being gubbed by mountain ppl used to herding goats & want to use nukes ffs.
Or civil war will take up all of their time cause ppl are angry now at the military complex that’s completely trashed their world status, their economy, trillions wasted on wars & over 800 military bases they can no longer afford to maintain along with all their warring in places they’d be unable to find on an atlas. Couldn’t happen to two better countries. Report card reads “Needs to learn to live with others & fast”
When a distinctive and recognisable Highland peoples with their own language, settled way of life and homeland are cleared off their land and evicted from their own country to far off places to make way for sheep, it’s hardly surprising that Scots names abound in Canada, the Antipodes and other far flung places.
That they took with them their culture and national characteristics is, perhaps, reflected in the many Highland Gatherings and Clan Societies to be found in those lands.
It is understandable that to any who lack a national sense of identity or culture this intangible and indefinable, yet still genuine emotion, remains an enigma.
Perhaps it is best summed up in the native language of the Gael by the word, “Cianalas” .
As with so many words in this fine language only a native speaker could truly grasp the full depth of meaning and emotion in the word. So, I trust I may be excused if I suggest it holds the meaning of a deep seated and heartfelt longing and affection for a homeland with which you feel a strong connection, though you may never have visited it.
Or, perhaps just, “This is my own, my native land.”
Absolutely right, Geri (9.02am). Not awkward at all and nobody needs to tie themselves in knots trying to show that culture is somehow elusive. It’s at the very heart of who we are. It’s all around us.
Nor is it elitist to love the culture of your nation. That’s why it’s so important that every child has the opportunity to learn about their own culture and also respect other folks’ culture.
Artists, musicians and writers have always expressed their love for the country of their birth and its people, language, customs, landscape etc. Our lives are enriched by the legacy they leave us, no matter who we are or what our social status or personal circumstances are. It’s such a mistake to assume culture is ‘highbrow’. If you love your country, you love your country. It doesn’t need an explanation.
The rose of all the world is not for me.
I want for my part
Only the little white rose of Scotland
That smells sharp and sweet—and breaks the heart.
MacDiarmid
Hatuey @ 4:24 pm
“You’re right, I’m not of that culture — I don’t think it exists.”
Our culture really has nothing to do with you. And it might seem highly disrespectful, if not rather imperialistic, for you to suggest that another peoples culture does not exist.
Many Germans would also disagree with you, after recently welcoming over 100,000 Scots mostly dressed in kilts and Scotland tops, and waving saltires, singing national songs, playing the pipes, dancing etc. We may have been the only stateless nation of 32 in the Euro finals, yet without doubt Scots retain one of the most distinctive, admired and well-liked cultures in the world.
Smothered, marginalised and ridiculed we may be by the Anglo-imperial cultural illusion of ‘Britishness’, yet our ‘moribund culture and rusted tongue’ still exists, as does our national consciousness.
Andy Ellis @ 5:43 pm
“Some folk release the safety catches on their Brownings when folk start to talk about culture.”
Such is the history of cultural imperialism, which is ‘force’ (Memmi; Said), its aim the eradication of ‘inferior’ cultures, and with fascism at its colonial root (Cesaire). You do well in its defence.
Frae Medium
“The Scottish Cringe as described by Beveridge and Turnbull (1989) refers to the Scots lacking personal and political confidence in their ability to govern themselves. Beveridge and Turnbull (1989) argue the Scots suffer from a sense of psychological inferiority in which Scots have come to see themselves and they are seen by England i.e. as being inferior to and dependent upon the largesse of England. Sociological theorist Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic violence can be deployed as another means to understand Scotland’s sense of culture inferiority because this notion of Bourdieu is used to explain how the more powerful are able to structure the self-perception of the weak, so that social groups are not only conquered or colonised militarily by a more powerful nation as there is another defeat or war waged that is done via or by culture (Bourdieu and Waquarant 1992) i.e. Scots collude in and co–produce their subordination because they sincerely believe their culture is not equal to that of England. On this matter, Carol Craig (2003) argues that Scots are harshly disparaging to their own culture and by doing so create apprehension in the Scottish persona.”
“Nobody in Scotland wants to admit, for example, that Scots played an important part in forging the British Empire and certainly they don’t want to take responsibility for it. “Nothing to do with us” is the cry, “we aren’t responsible for what happened hundreds of years ago…”
Those same people want to celebrate the Claim of Right and a sense of nationhood that can be traced back a thousand years, according to a recent comment above.”
Very poor from you Hatuey.
Of course many Scots recognise their countrymen/women history in partaking in the illegal union, and slavery – why my home town of Glasgow has many beautiful building (ones that the city fathers haven’t let go to ruin yet) that were constructed from the proceeds of Imperialism in the (US) and Jamaica etc – infact such was the Scots clout in Jamaica that a Scottish teacher designed their national flag.
However not all Scots made a good living under the illegal union – and as for the Claim of Right – only now is it coming out into the open and the public is beginning to realise what they have been told about the union is infact a big fat lie.
The same happened with the McCrone Report and even now many Scots still don’t know what it is – for the foreign media in Scotland that’s acts as though it is Scottish, really doesn’t want to put ideas into the heads of Scots that our neighbour England has been robbing Scotland blind.
The CoR will take time to filter down and into the minds of Scots – their reaction should be one of anger and rage at what the English governments, monarchs and House Jocks over the centuries have done to the Scottish people – even today any Scot that takes up their seat in the HoC is betraying Scotland.
The English spy Daniel Defoe said on the formation of the illegal union.
“The Union has brought the English Court, to be the centre of all the wealth and ready money of Scotland, which should otherwise have circulated in a home consumption, to the encouragement of trade and enrichment of their own people.
“The Scots will be allowed to send to Westminster, a handful of men who will make no weight whatever. They will be allowed to sit there for form’s sake to be laughed at.”
On the illegal union.
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2024/06/02/fictional-kingdom-fraudulent-state-2/
The latest news emerging from Isr*el regarding the so-called ‘Right to R*pe’ debate is almost impossible to believe.
The current situation in G*za is, in itself, justification enough for Scotland to say ‘Enough – we’re off’.
If you’re not a psychopath you can’t understand how psychopaths think. The toleration of aberrant behaviour for pragmatic reasons can only stretch so far but it seems that characters like Ian Murray can happily celebrate the announcement of new trade talks with Isr*el.
We have to get out.
Even if there was no Claim of Right, no economic case for independence, no 50% support for it, we must dissociate ourselves from this unforgivable horror. Saying ‘it’s nothing to do with us’ just won’t cut it. In the eyes of the rest of the world we’re little more than a part of England and we’re up to our necks in this genocide.
So much of our discussion here over the past decade has been premised on the need to persuade wary compatriots of the positive case for independence. That’s fair enough and accords with the democratic process we’ve become accustomed to. But there is another, simpler approach based on simple common decency, one which shouldn’t require lengthy debate: are we party to this madness or not?
If not then we have to take the only course open to workers who have sickened of appealing to brutal management – we withdraw our participation. We go on strike. The ‘union’ we entered with the English parliament is rescinded because we cannot and will not tolerate what’s being done by Westminster in our name – it is diseased and diabolical behaviour and we’ve already been forever tainted by association.
But it’s never too late to do the right thing – if Stephen Flynn has any serious intention of becoming a real leader he should take his beleaguered rump of SNP MPs out of the chamber for the final time.
They’re satanic.
Not just that act but the Hannibal one too.
They’re also accused of brutally sodomising prisoners & remember their prisoners are kids lifted from the street.
Others used are unwilling organ donors as the mass grave uncovered.
Nazis got away with it because colonialism is fascism (& Churchill was an avid fan) we’ve been heading in that direction for a long time ramped up under Bojo who even today collaborates with Nazis in parliament.
Flynn will do nothing. Sure didn’t he hug & shake hands enthusiastically with Z in the house of commons?
Zzs have positioned themselves well. Every institution & organisation is a full paid up member & is polluted with them. Any government speaking out will find themselves sanctioned into next century & ostracised.
Dan @ 8:54 pm
“Deprive the people of their national consciousness, treat them as a tribe and not a nation, dilute their national pride, do not teach their history, propagate their language as inferior, imply they have a cultural void, emphasise their customs are primitive, and dismiss independence as a barbaric anomaly“
Aye, reminds us this is precisely the racist discriminatory role of colonial institutions, and a few heid-the-baw’s btl here tae.
Alex Salmond’s first elected ‘nationalist’ administrations should have swept thaim aw awa, an sooked oot the mankit colonial slump, but they didna. Sae the doun-hauden Scots fowk still pey the price o colonialism, in mair weys than ane, as he did an aw, an mair will.
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