An appeal to reason
Posted on
January 17, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
The final chapter of “The Claim Of Scotland”, along with the index.
Tell it like it is one last time, HJ:
“It must carry little conviction to assert that Scotsman alone could never manage their own country without some benevolent stranger breathing down their necks and supervising their every movement.”
And that, mes amis, is that. 46 years of progress, eh?
This book should form part of the School curriculum in Scotland. It is imperative that the truth about the shameful way in which England has behaved towards Scotland, its people, languages and culture right up to the present day gets told to our young people.
In recent weeks, I have heard unionists state on many occasions, that the union has been successful for over three hundred years. The real problem with that statement however, is it is only England that has benefited – and at Scotland’s expense. Since oil was discovered in the 70’s in Scottish waters, London has repeatedly and quite intentionally plotted, lied and deceived the people of Scotland regarding the true wealth of Scotland.
Such deception continues right now in 2014, from the mouths of both English and Scottish based unionists. Witness yesterday’s disgraceful scenes in the Scottish Parliament, as Labour MSP’s cheered the bare faced lies from Lamont that Scotland is subsidised by England. Hard to believe most of thos Labour MSP’s are actually Scottish.
So, yes, little has changed since this book was written, the lies from London are all the same, the flimsy childish arguments against independence are all the same, but most importantly, the patronising arrogant ‘England knows best’ attitude of London and the English establishment towards Scotland and its people has not progressed one day from the signing of the treaty in 1707.
For this and many other reasons, I will be voting YES for an ending of the unwanted, undemocratic union treaty in September 2014. It will be a glorious day indeed.
Say it again , Robert Louis.
A thousand thanks again for this Rev. A valuable and enriching find
Robert Louis and The Penman.
I concur. What a book, the final chapter mirrors exactly the attitudes we hear from the likes of Hague and Darling today.
On nearly every page the author seems to anticipate our present day concerns and shows how little things have moved forward.
Glad to have read it all. We better get our fingers out and do this thing in September.
O/T
Russia Today in a few minutes, coverage of IndyRef with Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp
Thank you once again to the Rev and contributors.
Wells said Robert Louis above.
300 years of being slapped about and ridiculed.
400 if you include the century of semi independance under those stuart muppets.
Meanwhile various ("Quizmaster" - Ed)s and “proud scots” have invented myths over the centuries that have served the ” Brit” ruling class only too well , clouding the harsh reality of exploitation and colonisation.
The labour partys relationship to Scotland , as Ireland has been to quote
“neither honourable , internationalist nor socialist!”
Vote yes to provide a future for Scots and their children.
Thank you.
Great TV interview by Business for Scotland, dealing with what Hague was saying today, unfortunately it wasn’t covered by UK TV, but Russian Television, so not so many people see it.
Really clear and concise, brilliant speaker.
Slightly o/t
For those who missed Tory boy William Hague’s patronising speech to all of us earlier today in Glasgow, here’s a wee reminder of all that William Hague is and stands for;
http://youtu.be/JA0qQZfbDak
Enjoy 🙂
A brilliant book. A must read.
Ah sorry Robert . I couldnae possibly watch that.
Was reminiscing aboot Port Glasgow women.
Was once in the port glesga area and got 2 crates o tennents for the price o one fae a local off licence.
Put the crates in the front seat and went to regent street in Greenock for some diesel before heading home.
Gorgeous wee blond was fillin up next to me , leaned in ma passenger windae , eyein up ma two crates and said” fancy a wee bit o barterin handsome? fancy tradin sex for beer???”
Gied it a wee bit o thought for a second and said ” aye hen. what kin o beer have ye got?”
Fascinating book. A wee donation winging its way for all your efforts.
I have a text recognition programme on my computer. If folk are interested, I can run all of the scans through it, rejiggle the formatting, and save the whole shebang in Word or PDF. That way, it would be much more easy to print out, upload on to kindles, and the like.
Kenny
I don’t know when the pdf fairy will be magic-ing up the rest.
http://scotspot.net/
This bit’s really good:
Perhaps the strongest argument for independence is that without a change of heart in England modest measures of self-government, even if they were permitted, could never cure the ills from which Scotland suffers. The central government would still be too strong, and English nationalism is so deeply engrained that the interests of Scotland would always be sacrificed to the real or imaginary interests of England. The sad facts of history lend only too much support to this contention; and even to-day the habit of deriding all Scottish claims without any attempt to understand them is enough to make some Scotsmen despair of any solution short of independence. Is it too much to hope that our English brothers might at long last develop a truly British patriotism which would regard Britain as something more than an England possessed of a few recalcitrant provinces not yet completely assimilated?
Such is the essential problem with devomax or federalism: it’s entirely dependent on the good graces of an institution which does not grant those things freely.
“I have a text recognition programme on my computer. If folk are interested, I can run all of the scans through it, rejiggle the formatting, and save the whole shebang in Word or PDF. That way, it would be much more easy to print out, upload on to kindles, and the like.”
That’s be super-peachy, and handy for searching/quoting.
“Fascinating book. A wee donation winging its way for all your efforts.”
They were Wilma’s efforts, really. But I’ll buy her a pint if I see her 🙂
@CameronB
Typing now. Halfway through chapter 10. Redundant?
Cannae be! I retired twelve years ago. 🙂
Albamac
You’re a star.
@CameronB
Not yet, but soon enough I suppose. 🙁
🙂
Sorry, I hope not too soon. 🙂
Question Time, from Dundee next week folk,s, anybody going
a few choice quote,s from Scotland,s Claim, & a mention of
excistance of J H Paton book,on air, will make people
quarious, olso, can be found, on Wing,s Over Scotland,
Crystal baw,s or whit.
@ CameronB, Albamac
You mean you’re transcribing the whole thing? If I’d known I’d have got out of my blocks sooner. But I can process the remaining six chapters, save you the bother?
@CameronB
Philosophy:
Into every life a little wean must fall. 🙂
@Kenny
Sure thing, Kenny. Many hands…
REV when,s that crowdfund launch due.
@Albamac
Righto, I’ll do that this evening (I’m expatriated and hence 5-hours behind). How can I send the end-result to you?
Also, in the off-chance that nobody’s suggested as much already, perhaps the Rev could stick the converted PDFs into his new repository?
@Kenny
“perhaps the Rev could stick the converted PDFs into his new repository”
I’ll leave it to you to tell him, Kenny! 🙂
@Kenny
“How can I send the end-result to you?”
Mail to albamac at scotspot.net
@Albamac
I think I just did; he’s omnipresent! 😉
@Albamac
Cheers, I’ll sent it on to you sometime tonight.
It is noteworthy that the Establishment in the shape of William Hague, this very day, demonstrated the paternalistic tone of his predecessors in likening Scottish aspirations for self-government to ‘romantic notions’. C H Paton ably gave vent to this and to the real problem – that until Unionist Scots stop becoming part of the Westmister Establishment, acqiescing in the inferiority of Scotland and indeed offering the bullets for the likes of Hague to fire, we will never achieve the objective of a re-vitalised country.
I agree with the SG’s strategy to make the transition as smooth as possible but we have to escape the intrinsic, hereditary privilege that runs in the veins of English/British culture. It is that hope that we will move in short time to a republic with a written constitution and full democracy where the people are in charge that keeps me going. We don’t need the notion of projected power which drives the likes of Westminster and the BBC. We just need to be content with being a force for good in the world by ensuring that we have a healthy, well educated populace that is confident in its own skin.
“REV when,s that crowdfund launch due.”
About five weeks.
Re: Crowdfunding – love the idea of the Wings sign on the ” Cutty Sark ” bridge billboard on the M8
Very rude of me not to have thanked Wilma as well. 🙂
Sincere thanks to everyone involved in the dissemination of this book, an incredible addition to the shared experience across generations.
This last chapter, or selected quotes and snippets could make a very powerful contemporary speech and should be delivered to every mailbox in Scotland and to every secondary school pupil.
Print off ten each and hand them round. Better still, print off millions and airdrop them over our neighbours in the rest of the U.K.
An aerial appeal to reason!
Wings over U.K.
What wonderful comments have been made through all the chapters. I knew this book was dynamite when I read it at Christmas but had no idea how to spread the word.Then I thought of this wonderful website and Reverend Stuart.
I will forward the whole book and he can have it for reference. When there is another rally maybe we will meet up and I can take up the offer of the pint!
Between this book, this website and inspirational speakers like young Saffron we will become an Independent Scotland.
Great book,still relevant after all this time. I recognised many points in it,esp re broadcasting,which obviously needs some kind of reform whether a Yes or No prevails.Was it only me,but when STV fell out with the ITV network a few years ago,it’s programming improved by miles for a time.
Thanks Wilma for sharing the book,and thanks to Mr Paton for writing it.
My sincere thanks to Wilma, Rev Stu, Albaman and, in anticipation, Kenny, for what you have done.
I think that this book may well be the dynamite, that so many of us have been waiting for, to really cause the justification for the independence campaign to explode into the public consciousness.
I fully intend sending it – by any and all means – to every person I know who is currently doubtful about Scotland’s reasons and capabilities for reclaiming her rightful position within the other independent nations of the world.
I think that this is a genuine ‘YES’ vote winner!
This book has been a master class in prescience. The man was a true visionary. Greatly indebted to you Rev for printing this and I am only sorry I did not come across it in my younger days, would have saved me a lot of personal thinking time.
Of course, a lot of the ideas in that book were or became common beliefs amongst nationalists many of which discovered independently by many of us on the way. So in some ways, it is a wee bit like how the present generation always imagines they have invented sex.
But if it had reached the percentage readership of such ground breaking works as Das Kapital or Mao’s Little Red Book or even the Beano, I think we would have been a lot further along the road, a lot quicker, to normal levels of self government.
@Wilma
If you hadn’t passed this on to Rev Stu I would never have known it existed. Typing it up and getting it out on the web was all that I could do to help with its distribution.
I type at around 50 words a minute, but that’s not really quick enough when you’re anxious to get it out as quickly as possible.
Now Kenny has jumped in to help with his OCR software, saving hours of typing. That’s a big boost!
Thanks, again, for sharing this with us. I’m sure that Wings readers will make great use of it in the coming months.
I love Paton’s effective use of language, propositions so apposite today, and revealing : such as ” everywhere we come up against the political assumption that economic co-operation depends on domination by the central government “
Many thanks to everyone for their kind comments. Now that Albamac & Kenny have got this in hand many more people will have access, which was the idea when I initially got in touch. I am so pleased that everyone agrees with me about the understated authority of Mr Paton, so at odds with today’s articles being scrutinized in “Panic Stations”.
I haven’t read it yet – I resisted the temptation to join the rush to get one of the copies that were on sale, and I intend to read it all in a oner. A pdf would be great.
Chapters 1-12 (pdf) are up on scotspot. Kenny is running the rest through his OCR software, so I’ll get on with doing those when he passes the files to me.
I’ll catch up with the mobi files ASAP. It’s a multi-step conversion process and it’s a bit fiddly.
@Morag
When I’ve finished the individual chapters, I’ll put them all together in a single pdf.