10 Years On
For all of those who couldn’t make it to Saturday’s sold-out event at the IMAX:
As for the next 10 years, that’s another question.
The event was thoroughly enjoyable, and definitely worth the 16 hours on trains there and back (Standard Class, by the way, despite what that shifty Salmond character tried to claim on stage. Never believe a politician.)
Not least because I also got to see the World’s Best Mammy.
But everyone that I met was absolutely lovely, whether fellow panellists or audience members (including a good smattering of former MPs and MSPs like Angus MacNeil, Neale Hanvey, Margaret Ferrier, Kenny MacAskill, Eilidh Whiteford and more).
I had chocolates and sweeties and home-made raspberry curd and other presents thrust upon me, as well as what one kind gentleman described as “a note” but turned out to be rather more, and the reception when I walked into the hall to take my seat in the front row (where all the panellists were sat to facilitate easy changeovers) before the start of proceedings brought a lump to my throat.
I didn’t get nearly enough time to talk to people before or after – I didn’t even manage to say hello to Dennis Canavan, so my apologies to him, and only got seconds with people I’d have liked a serious chat with – and four hours flew by in what was an engrossing but still pretty pacy show.
Everyone I did speak to afterwards seemed to have had a good time and many said it had lifted their spirits, although I don’t think it altered the grim political situation we face now that the supposed party of independence has so formally and comprehensively given up the fight.
Whose job does John Swinney think it is to make independence the settled will of the electorate, if not his? He’s the one who gets paid for it, and he’s the one with the powers. He is, after all, the First Minister of the country. It seems, though, that he’s passing the buck to the rest of us and telling us that he’ll only bother his backside once we’ve done all the hard work.
That’s a heck of an ask, but at least those of us in the IMAX on Saturday did manage to draw a crowd, unlike last night’s events by the SNP-backed fake “grassroots” of what now passes for the “mainstream Yes movement” in Edinburgh and Aberdeen.
(As far as we can tell, promised rallies in Dumfries and Orkney didn’t even happen at all. If they did, not a single soul posted a tweet or picture of them.)
The SNP has been lavishly funded – by both its members and the UK state – to the tune of tens of millions of pounds for the last decade with the ostensible goal of building support for independence, but has failed miserably and now blames the rest of us for its failure. Apparently it’s US who need to “get our mojo back”.
But the SNP spent most of those 10 years jealously sidelining, vilifying, persecuting and even imprisoning every Yes entity that it didn’t directly control.
It was the SNP that went to war against the likes of Alex Salmond, Mark Hirst, Manny Singh and of course this site, and now they feign shock and dismay that few people – and certainly none with any detectable record of success at anything – want to stick their heads above the parapet for a cause in which the SNP itself shows no tangible interest or sense of urgency.
The last 10 years have been, by any measure, a total unmitigated catastrophe for the Scottish independence movement, and the blame for that lies solely and squarely at one door – that of the SNP. They were in charge, and they made SURE they were in charge, elbowing out anyone they saw as competition.
But nothing about the party has changed. Not a single lesson has been learned. That was demonstrated yesterday, in breathtaking fashion, in what must surely be the most shameful day in the Scottish National Party’s 90-year history, as it voted with the Unionist parties against the only remaining democratic route to independence. There is no possibility of a way back from there.
Scotland’s future is as an independent nation? Yeah, that IS hard to believe right now, and as long as the SNP is in command it’s impossible.
Just over 100 years ago, a parliamentary party ostensibly seeking Irish independence but which had become a roadblock to it was destroyed at the ballot box and cast into permanent oblivion. Just a few years later – though not without conflict – that goal was largely achieved.
There can be no such bloodshed in the fight for Scotland’s freedom. But in political terms the only hope now is to follow the path of Ireland a century ago. The SNP are the enemy, and there will be no independence until they are destroyed and replaced.
The party’s “rebels” – some of whom I shared the stage with last weekend – need to bite the bullet and decide what side they’re on: independence or the SNP. We cannot afford to waste the next 10 years as we’ve wasted the last.
Well said X
I had chocolates and sweeties and home-made raspberry curd and other presents thrust upon me, as well as what one kind gentleman described as “a note” but turned out to be rather more, and the reception when I walked into the hall to take my seat in the front row (where all the panellists were sat to facilitate easy changeovers) before the start of proceedings brought a lump to my throat.
That brought a tear to my eye!
Weird how really nice things make you cry.
Very happy for you Stuart.
Glad you had a good time and that your very good looking Mammy really loves you.
Everyone I did speak to afterwards seemed to have had a good time and many said it had lifted their spirits, although I don’t think it altered the grim political situation we face now that the supposed party of independence has so formally and comprehensively given up the fight.
Makes a change from all the marches & rallies. Which may no longer have any relevance but hey if people enjoy them why not?
Maybe more of these events and fewer marches might be the way forward.
I am totally in favour of people having a good time.
Another decade?
I’ll be 71 FFS.
This latest from Wilderness of Peace (Oor Ain Al) is a moving tribute to his late great aunt. He invites readers to submit their own tributes to fellow travellers now-passed.
Most of the regulars here could name stalwarts who are no longer with us. That’s just from the contributors here. Off the top of my head, Robert Peffers, Liz G, Smallaxe. And we all have friends and family members who never used social media but were every bit as passionate about independence as the rest of us. Many of them have also left us over the past decade.
At some point we have to accept that ‘giving up’ simply isn’t an option, no matter how bleak it all seems. Waiting for full disclosure in the hope of some ‘truth and reconciliation’ process to be opened up is futile – even the sketchy outlines we can discern from what is known are damning enough but the full nauseating horror of Anglo-State dirty tricks will not be accessible at all (if ever) until most of us have long-since shuffled off.
So, if this important marker has any positive value at all it may be the simple fact that we’re still here. And so is this site.
Would any of us have dared predict as much ten years ago?
I posted this on Facebook and they took it down within minutes, as they have done with many of your posts Stu.
Mibbes a wee word from you to Nick Clegg would be in order.
“a note” but turned out to be rather more
Tut! What a tease!
If you didn’t have time to speak to everyone all the more reason to have more of these events.
Great article. Sorry couldn’t make the Imax ,, but fills me with hope like-minded independance supporters still exist. Thanks Stu.
IanB , you’re just a spring chicken – in 10 years time , if I make it , I will be 88 and may not be able to remember my own name far less how to find and fill in a voting slip.
I do miss the folk you mentioned , especially Smallaxe.
The independence movement isn’t getting its ‘mojo back’ while large parts of it are full of people with little interest in independence unless it means them retaining the power they have, or as a shield to push things like Trans ideology or the SNP’s gradual turn towards neoliberalism and authoritarianism from social democracy.
It’s not helped either by nonsense like ‘believe in Scotland’. Independence isn’t going to come by wishing it to happen so what’s the purpose of BIS apart from being another Scottish establishment campaign to pretend it’s for independence when really, it’s just to keep a vanishingly small number of loyalists happy.
Not that the rest of the independence movement is in good health. It isn’t. At best, it’s fractured with civic nationalism & intelligent thought and debate becoming rarer however what the SNP, Greens and the swathes of supposedly Indy supporting celebs are doing is turning Scotland into a political, social and cultural wasteland where the very few dominate and the rest of us matter only when an election is coming up.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but if we’d realised on the 19th of September 2014 that the following decade would see the SNP reduced to not even a devolutionist position (when was the last time you heard any SNP figure demand more powers to be devolved to Scotland?) and has instead, become a party of power interested only in itself and the interests of a small minority of people, you’d cry or laugh. That’s not even taking into account the rise of Trans ideology, the derlicition of the Greens abandoning eco-socialism for a sniff of power not to mention that party (and the SNP) kicking out people for knowing what sex is or posing a real or imagined threat to the leadership.
We’re in a state of limbo til 2026 when we see how badly the SNP are after that & I assume Swinney resigns then just maybe they’ll be an actual leadership contest that might just bring forth someone brave and intelligent enough to not just push for independence and competent government, but to clean the SNP out from top to bottom.
Depressing.
I see the only hope in the medium term as Salvo. For 2026 let’s get behind the ISP. They are not following Westminster rules.
Personally I am sad the way the SNP has failed us. Regrettably the list system will get them seats in 2026.
I actually hate all politicians. Self serving edits.
I campaigned in East Ren in 2014
Unlike other SNP branches I heard about, our branch was delighted to promote the WBB.
We had boxes of them.
We, in ER, knew our district was going to vote No from canvassing.
One street I posted the WBB in Newton Mearns, every house was a unique build
Art Deco, ranch style, gothic, with 4/5 top of the range cars in their driveways.
I remember thinking these people have no reason to vote yes.
So I wasn’t as surprised as some it was no but I was still as upset.
We hoped the Yes vote in other areas would more than overturn ours.
Bla bla bla SNP indy ("Tractor" - Ed)s bla bla ..Homemade Raspberry curd. Stop the bus.
Very interesting interview. I was particularly interested in the talk about swearing.
You see twitter as the pub and Wings as the workplace.
I see Wings as ‘the pub that went online’ well at lease BTL on Wings
All the same characters here as you used to see in the pub.
I did get carried away awhile back writing stories about ‘the pub that went online’
I didn’t give much thought to ‘the landlord’ (except that his da became his ma) it was total fiction!
I suppose the landlord is there to keep everyone in order and it wouldn’t do if he swore! Ah no?
I have no objection to swearing in fact I see it as authentic ‘Scottish Poetry’.
I fuckin’ love ‘Scottish poetry’ aka bad language.
If the ‘Reverend Landlord’ chose to swear I would have no objections in fact I would be more inclined to believe him if he tossed in some ‘Scottish poetry’ now and again.
Ian Brotherhood
Ignored says:
19 September, 2024 at 12:14 pm
At some point we have to accept that ‘giving up’ simply isn’t an option, no matter how bleak it all seems…
I have always felt the “100 of us still left alive” sailed dangerously close to extremely liberal defeatism. Looking the left and right, I wondered who, amongst the other 99 was not as totally hardcore as the last 5 or 10 of us…
If Highlander was right, and in the end, there can be only one, then I might shit my pants a bit, … but I know who it is. 😉
Why aren’t these events more often – where people like yourself who support indy – and point out the truth of the matter with regards to a plethora of matters in Scotland attend.
I sure yir wee mammy – would be glad to see you a bit more often – and these events give you an excuse to head home – now and then.
Well said.
Worth mentioning that it was the Wee Blue Book (downloaded as Pdf) that convinced my usband and myself to vote Yes. We discussed the vote right up until midnight and then, confronting Gordon Brown with the Wee Blue Book, we each made our decision for Yes.
Without the Wee Blue Book I am faily sure we would ave voted No, ie Devomax.
Well said (even though you’ve made me cry.)
The Yes “movement”, as an atomised cohort of diverse individuals, hasn’t gone away. I’m such a one and I know many others. What is required is a Party with a like-minded leadership to make our case. The tragedy is that none of us can currently see any evidence of that like-minded Party, in any shape or form. Unfortunately, Salvo doesn’t do Party politics and very few of the business-as-usual politicians (the majority of them) have looked closely into exactly what that organisation is putting forward. So, we can only expect more of the same old, standard-grade stasis.
We are living in a Spookocracy. This is not a term of my invention.
“A counterintelligence state (sometimes also called intelligence state, securocracy or spookocracy) is a statewhere the state security service penetrates and permeates all societal institutions, including the military.”
At Westminster, we have a Prime Minister described by that levelheaded, old, one nation Tory, Peter Oborne (always worth a listen) as the “MI5 candidate”.
Starmer would not of course be the first, Blair was always suspect. The Security Services are believed to have plotted to bring down the Government of Harold Wilson. Wilson came dangerously close to disrupting the status quo when he (and Barbara Castle) proposed a Tripartite model of economic cooperation along the West German lines. The longer term solution was to infiltrate the political process and control it from within to avoid future crises.
This is not to say that MPs and MSPs are necessarily serving officers of the Security Services, they are more usually individuals who fall under the control or influence of Thames House and Vauxhall Cross. The training manual refers to MICE. Money. Ideology. Compromise. Ego.
Some agents of the Intelligence Services inevitably break cover at some point. Former Labour MPs, Ian Austin, John Woodcock and John Mann, who were granted comfortable sinecures by a Tory Government for propagating the risible charges of antisemitism against Jeremy Corbyn spring to mind.
Former and serving spooks are more commonly found in the “third sector”, influencing outfits that take young, middle class humanities graduates and mentor them to form a never ending conveyor belt of compliant, career politicians. The John Smith Centre at the University of Glasgow is one such example.
Talking of breaking cover and revealing the fingerprints of the Intelligence Services, the key here is to look for good, ol’ fashioned self interest. While the treacherous, faux, Labour MPs listed above were rewarded with Peerages, in Scotland, the more commonly used means of providing remuneration for defenestrated politicians is via academic posts. On losing his seat in the crash GE of 2019, Stephen Gethins was employed with indecent haste by the spook infested School of International Relations at the University of St. Andrews. Gethins rose to the status of Professor within a couple of years, a highly unusual state of events for an academic ingenue. Similarly, failed politician, Kezia Dugdale was made a Professor with no Doctorate and derisible claims of teaching experience by the University of Glasgow. The UoG has form in this, making a senior MI6 officer, Andrew Fulton a Professor of Law in 1999, in order to spin the events of the Lockerbie trial at Camp Zeist to the world’s press. Let’s not forget Mike Russell’s laughable short stint as a Professor, also at the UoG.
So, what’s been happening in the last ten years? Well, the Security Services have been busy accumulating influence and power in the hierarchy of the SNP. Clearly, the Security Services can’t afford to have their distinguishing imprint detected on figures within the SNP and visa versa. Here Thames House and Vauxhall Cross rely on the services of Foggy Bottom. This is a well established relationship based on quid pro quo. Before the Patriot Act demolished the protections put in place to prevent the US State from eavesdropping on its own, law abiding citizens, GCHQ Cheltenham used to perform that task, with presumably a reciprocal arrangement being conducted on British citizens by the NSA. More recently, we have wee Simon Bracey-Lane of the Institute for Statecraft volunteering to work on Bernie Sanders primary run against Hilary Clinton.
Tell-tales of the US State Department are all over NuSNP. Graduates of their International Visitors Leadership Program include, Humza Yousaf, Jenny Gilruth, Patrick Grady and Angela Crawley. MP for Glasgow South (until recently) Stewart McDonald, attended the Woodrow Wilson Centre for International Scholars. Having around 100 SNP MPs and MSPs directly linked to the State Department is neither practical or desirable (the greater the number the greater the risk of detection). Nonetheless, those who are connected form an inner cadre, a Mafia of the mediocre, networking and providing mutual support to reach otherwise unattainable heights like a Catalan castell.
For the rest of the herd, all that is required to attain their complicity is a unifying cause célèbre. In the SNP this takes the form of Poststructuralism and its more recognisable manifestation, Identity Politics. By a combination of prejudicial vetting conducted by Jackson’s Entry (to eliminate free thinkers and attain a supply of brain-dead cannon fodder) and criminal naivety by branch associations, the salaried ranks of the SNP were ripe for dictatorial control. For every Joanna Cherry, there are a dozen Kirsty Blackman’s or Anne McLaughlin’s. Most of these numpties would be hard pushed to get a job stacking shelves at their local ScotMid. Paying them £90k pa as an MP or £72k pa as an MSP will buy their unquestioning loyalty to the party top-brass (lest deselection be mooted). Beyond material wellbeing, these sheep need to be told how to think. Catastrophically thick individuals like Karen Adam are only too happy to slavishly repeat the mantra determined by the Cult leader.
In summary, electoral politics is irredeemably fucked. This was almost unavoidably the case. Sinn Féin were an exception, a micro party that came out of nowhere to grasp a geopolitical, perfect storm in the shape of WW I.
For my part, I put what little faith I can muster into the likes of Salvo. Whether you believe that they can attain direct results is almost immaterial. I tend to believe that the United Nations is as fucked as UK politics. As long as the mass media parrot the US line about “rules based order” and ignore actual, international law, the UN is a distraction. In this case, might is unfortunately right. Nonetheless, the message Salvo have to impart is essential as an educational and campaigning tool. This is how we energise the Scots folk, by making them aware that their sovereignty is (or at least should be) in their hands according to our Constitution.
If the UK wide Freeports & Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are even close to being as bad as they seem (no company business tax for 10 years, government grants for companies, deregulation, reduced workers rights, no EU membership etc), then they will make the last 10 years seem like a picnic. The SNP are fully onboard with this. Independence vs two governments in the UK continues while the hole just gets deeper. Much deeper.
https://x.com/EuropeanPowell/status/1835339185533694375
https://www.gov.scot/publications/green-freeports-in-scotland-letter-from-cabinet-secretary-for-finance-and-economy-to-uk-government/
Wasn’t it summer 2019 he did the interview in Bath with you?
I’m sure it was because that’s when it was becoming blatantly obvious the SNP didn’t give a fuck about independence/money was missing/etc etc. Robin McAlpine had also been warning us for at least a year or so before that.
Bit more than a couple of years Alex…. 🙁
About 13 mins in, AS asks Stu if he’s ‘over-cooked the self-id issue’. And while he also says he’s playing ‘Devil’s advocate’ in his questioning, it’s not the first time he’s said something similar.
From memory it also happened after an interview with Stu on his online show – the issue had been discussed during the interview but AS raised it again in his remarks after the interview, saying something about Stu giving it too much attention.
Maybe AS isn’t taking the issue as seriously as he should be, which is a bit strange, given how it’s destroyed the SNP and been used to divide the Yes movement.
I’m also not sure that the questioning of whether the SNP could be salvaged was ‘playing Devil’s advocate’ either – wonder if AS thinks it could still be done.
2 more years of hell and then rebuilding has to start. Every vote for a Np candidate is a nail in the Coffin. For Independence to start their can’t e 1 vote for them.
” ‘This is my time’ or ‘No, this no longer is our time’. Time flows into a man or state, makes its home there and then flows away; the man and the state remain, but their time has passed. Where has the time gone? The man still thinks, breathes and cries, but this time, the time that belonged to him alone, has disappeared.
There is nothing more difficult than to be a stepson of time; there is no heavier fate than to live in an age that is not your own.
Such is time: everything passes, it alone remains; everything remains, it alone passes. And how swiftly and noiselessly it passes. Only yesterday you were sure of yourself, strong and cheerful, a son of time. But now another time has come – and you don’t even know it,”
The SNP is the burning car wreck that needs to be pushed off the road to independence.
Vivian O’Blivion
Excellent & informative as always. Thank you..
I agree about the UN. Do you think BRICS countries will decide to just fck it & start a new? I’ve heard much commentary they’re as pissed off with the *rules based order according to only one country* invention too.
Something like 15,O00 economic sanctions imposed by the USA, while the UN has only officially imposed 847. They’re a law unto themselves.
Angus Robertson & Alyn Smith are two other dodgy individuals. Robertson being the architect to immediately dismantle internal party democracy at the SNP. They’re all totally captured.
Also agree about Sir Kid Starver. He’s itching for a war to stamp some kind of authority & MI6 already fckd up in Kursk. All despite being told those missiles they want to use are useless because R has moved its aircrafts. It seems like he’s going rogue on someone else’s behalf much to the annoyance of Uncle Sam..
I can only assume the kompormat was offered protection on condition they work to kill indy and promote devolution and in return get top job.
Hauntingly the leader of the National Socialists in Germany, 1945, blamed the German people for the catastrophe that he had caused and wished them all dead
Vivian O’ Blivian;
another spectacular post – you should write a book!
And the following post by Ian re.”Freeports” (lol) immediately made me think that the second post is immediately connected to the content of the first.
Get ’em out!
Test
@VO’B 2.32: excellent account of the sad state of affairs in Ukanian politics, largely replicated in the EU because of a political class also drawn from the “Mafia of the mediocre”, as you put it, and gradually put in place via the WEF and American institutions such as their security services and the State Department (to think I canvassed for the likes of Angela Crawley: weazels rip my flesh!).
Party politics are now hopelessly corrupt and ignore constituents in favour of the party donors whose wishes the MPs are told to vote for without question by the whips.
Democracy is dead.
What next?
P.S. It occurred to me on holiday that Swinney is about as useful as a hotel toaster.
Yes, it all fits with what Clare Daly said too regarding the EU parliament. They’re not there to serve their individual countries but to follow orders like robots.
What’s next? My guess is Fascism. Its already showing where they’re not going to bother with elections (U) assassinate opposition (USA) or just refuse to accept an election result (France) lol
@ Vivian O’Blivion
“The Security Services are believed to have plotted to bring down the Government of Harold Wilson. Wilson came dangerously close to disrupting the status quo when…”
Very interesting. The key question for me is who/what is currently controlling/managing the Security Services and what/who are the current links between Security Services, political parties, the COPFS and the Civil Service in Scotland.
Were Humza and Swinney the chosen “MI5 candidates”? We all know the leadership “elections” of them both were beyond dodgy, and as far as I remember, Murrell had secured the “help” from GCHQ for the first leadership election. Swinney was simply catapulted to the post without even an election.
Vivian: wholeheartedly agree. I can see no alternative to explaining the fall of the SNP except that it has been utterly compromised throughout, just as Sinn Fein was before Adams and MacGuinness restructured it. I don’t believe the SNP can be saved, especially after the vote the other day. I am disappointed that Mr Salmond doesn’t see that, but he put his heart into that party, so it is understandable. It broke his heart, as it broke so many hearts. I think he will come round to see the futility of trying to save it from itself.
Moixx: yes, I, too, have been a bit puzzled by the less than wholehearted condemnation of self-ID, but I believe it’s a man thing. A lot of men do get it, and I think that AS gets it on one level, but underestimates its destructiveness if left to go its own way. Post modernism/poststructuralism coupled to ‘trans’ is a recipe for complete disaster in the West. Too many men still don’t get it because they see it as a ‘woman’s issue’. It is actually an issue for our entire Western civilization, which is in danger now of tumbling into authoritarianism and unrestrained barbarism. It is a kind of Traniban for the West, where women and children will be allowed to die prematurely, and the economy will cave in on itself and create abject poverty.
Basically, we have entered a period of time when sexual proclivities of all kinds, of every deviance, for the foot soldiers, now outweigh every other consideration, and the corporates and big industries that produce drugs and medicines, etc. are right behind them. It is a form of madness that has gripped our societies since the advent of the internet and access to unlimited porn to suit every taste known to man and woman, and many known to nobody but those who live their lives entirely through their sex lives, even if only vicariously.
We have witnessed it in the past – in the late Greek era, the late Roman era, etc., and it is almost always a prelude to societal collapse. That is a massive weakness. Every politician who speaks on behalf of the people needs to understand just what this is, and not to underestimate it. I hope that AS will not underestimate it and see that it is not a case of ignoring what is probably the main issue today, in Scotland. It is not progressive, but regressive. Women and children, gays and lesbians and animals will be the losers, but, most of all, it will bring down our Western societies in a heartbeat if we do not face up to its utter toxicity.
@scottiedog @ 4.41
Pushed off the road by a fuckin big Tank.
Yes, it all fits with what Clare Daly said too regarding the EU parliament. They’re not there to serve their individual countries but to follow orders like robots.”
Geri @6.21pm.
MEP’s – vote to take Europe one step closer to war with R – I suspect many European citizens, will be very angry at these warmongering US stooges – that pass for MEP’s – bring back sane voices such as Clare Daly and Mick Wallace – before it too late.
“In a resolution, MEPs want EU countries to lift current restrictions hindering U from using Western weapons systems against legitimate military targets in R.”
The last word in link is the name of the country r ad it yourself to the link – to read it -you also need to add U’s name after the word meps.
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20240913IPR23906/meps-u-must-be-able-to-strike-legitimate-military-targets-in-r
@ Geri
” What’s next? My guess is Fascism. Its already showing where they’re not going to bother with elections (U) assassinate opposition (USA) or just refuse to accept an election result (France) lol ” .
You can add Germany to that list : the incumbent collection of * Woke * /Green / Pro-War monkeys ( funny that int’it -” Save The Planet ! “… by helping to blow fuck out of it – JA ! ) that are presiding over the ruination of that country have said they’ll simply ban the * Far Right * AfD for having the temerity to threaten the status quo with their ” Populist ” Politics ( ie responsive to their populace’s concerns ) .
This Nu Democracy is great , eh ?
If Fascism does come ( some might say it’s already here ) this time it won’t be wearing jackboots & glorifying ‘The Fatherland’ (très passe , non ? ) . It will come kitted-out with a male * vagina * n brandishing a syringe in one hand an auto-da-fe ( for heretical binary thinking ) in the other n wearing a gown made from the finest misanthropy
I can’t take any politician seriously now , unless they evince some degree of awareness of and necessary outrage at the total derangement of current events & * worldviews * . HA !
The endless insults to our intelligence/mores , the utter contempt with which the Political/Managerial/Corporate Caste treat the people they’re meant to serve has reached such an extreme degree it’s akin to Fascism ; but a ” Kind ” Fascism ; one that’s ” for our own good ” : one that ” keeps us safe ” .
All you have to do is surrender your worthless autonomy , your meaningless individuality , the unreliable evidence of your own eyes .
THEN you’ll be happy .
@ Geri says: 19 September, 2024 at 4:45 pm
Kursk
I guess another indicator of how low things have sunk is that whereas it used to take around 300 BTL comments before the usual suspects felt bored enough to reveal what they really care about, they now start in around the 30 comments mark.
Oh well.
Let’s all go chapping on doors with a big map of Eastern Europe and ask the bemused Scottish voters to stick a pin in where they think Kursk is. Then ask them to care.
Topper of a post from Vivian O’Blivion at 2:32 though. Great that a plausible, perhaps even believable explanation for the events of the past 10 years can be written without calls to nuke England, or exterminate the Zonalists.
might is unfortunately right
No shit, Sherlock!
we energise the Scots folk, by making them aware that their sovereignty is (or at least should be) in their hands according to our Constitution
Of course, but once again Indy will likely be stymied by the awkward fact that more Scots will probably use their sovereignty to support the Union, whilst less Scots will use their sovereignty to abolish the Union.
It’s a blind spot that continues to bedevil the advocates of “cunning plans” for Indy. Sovereignty is nothing without majority support.
And, of course, it’s not at all helped by those so-called die-hard Indy supporters who STILL can’t stop themselves desiring that the first act of an Independent Scotland should be to bury its independence in some overbearing supra-national entity.
The EU is losing support for that purpose these days, but hot on its heels comes the new proposed saviour – BRICS!
Nothing turns off potential support for Indy like self-id-ing Indy supporters who don’t in their hearts believe that Scotland can ever stand on her own.
I’d suggest we look to Norway, which is neither in the EU, nor in BRICS, but since Norway got geo-politically real and started growing a pair, many of the self-id-ing Indy supporters have gone off that great little country too.
Indeed , even my slavishly loyal brother. Has now realised that the SNP have been at it.
I spent years explaining the Salmond stitch up. But all I got was Salmond is a sleazeball. Now he is thinking , what the hell are the SNP doing?
I know what Swinney is doing. He is hoping that by doing nothing. People will drift back to the SNP out of habit. This has nothing to do with independence. They just want to run Holyrood forever.
It was so predictable, like a Greek tragedy. The SNP became the very thing that history warned then about , over and over again. Too long in power, too long running the parish council. Power becomes a drug, then you lose sight of who you were before being powerful.
You become entitled. That’s exactly what happened to the SNP.