Wings Over Scotland

There’ll always be an England.

But there will not be a UK for much longer.

It is one thing when foreigners confuse England for Britain and ignore Scotland entirely. It’s another when the UK government does it. That is the point when political union becomes an articulation of English nationalism and English fascism.

It’s coming up for an election year in the U.S. and Trump is saber rattling trying to provoke a conflict with Iran, a trade war with China and encouraging a Tory government to no deal Brexit which will assist in destabilising Europe, which – of course – would suit the American very nicely.

Who would have guessed eh.

Typically cringey shit ‘journalism’ from the bbc.

Like something an ignorant student intern might produce.

A more hard hitting relevant piece might be how ‘england’ got it’s arse kicked out of Basra and Helmond by a few rag tag insurgents.

Brave stoic england no more.

One of the instruments of fascism is to replace reality with an alternate universe where only the Dear Leader and Overlord and his history has happened.

When Scotland becomes independent and the BritNazi Establishment parasite withers and dies, many in England will wake up from a slumber, a drugged stupor induced by the poison this parasite injects onto the populace to stun them.

It will be a relief for billions of humans through the planet, those that know what horrors the BritNazi Establishment has bestowed onto millions of innocents.

Native Americans, slaughtered in their hundreds of thousands.

Aboriginal Australians, classified as “fauna” and hunted for amusement.

Indians and Irish, invaded, colonised, pilloried, pillaged, deported, famished and ultimately partitioned.

Africans, enslaved and sold like property, and apartheid inflicted on them – Nelson Mandela incarcerated as a terrorist.

Chagossians evicted from their island, and all their animals, pets included, gassed and left to rot.

Scots oppressed, invaded, their homes torched, forcefully removed from their centenary family land, deported, their heritage denied for centuries.

What kind of beastly bastards can lord their history with this – and more – and still dictate onto others?

No self-awareness, at all?
Are they humans?

This does not surprise me at all. Been in many conversations I’ve the years when this error is made. They do not like being corrected.

The same BBC travel site has an instagram account. One picture has a caption informing us that North Uist has one of the most irregular coastlines in Great Britain.

Do you have to be geographically and historically ignorant to be employed at the travel section of the BBC?

David Agnew siad:

“I for one never felt British. Why would I? It was never my identity. To me it was a collective pronoun and how could you ever feel affinity or a connection for grammar unless you are punctuation?”

This highlights how it is not possible to be an ethical rationalist and patriotic to Britain, which is supra-national entity. In order to be patriotic to Britain, one has to imagine the constituent nations did not exist before yoonyawn, and that they do not exist at this point in time. In the mean time, this supra-national entity must poses a cultural character of sorts, in order to function. The full-English Brexit exposes the nature of this character to be culturally English, xenophobic and authoritarian in nature, i.e. an expansionist form of English nationalism.

I am not British, I am a Scot. I used to watch the old war films on TV and inevitably the main characters would talk about England. Even Basil Rathbone talked about England fighting the Nazis alone during his films as Holmes.

England has never fought alone. Half the world’s population assisted it admirably. They airbrush anything from history which interferes with the gallant and heroic view they have of themselves.

From the time of the Crusades till present they have created a fantasy world, but one which they really believe to be true.

National pride is one thing. Delusion is something else.

The dead included:
DICK, JOHN ROWAN, Seaman, (no. LT/JX 224890), Royal Naval Patrol Service, Son of Thomas and Elizabeth Dick, of Girvan, Ayrshire; husband of Mary Ann Dick, of Girvan.
DUNCAN, ANDREW WATT, Chief Engineman, (no. LT/X 412ET), Royal Naval Reserve (Patrol Service), Son of William and Isabella Duncan, of Rosehearty, Aberdeenshire; husband of Isabella Duncan, of Rosehearty.
LEE, WILLIAM, Leading Seaman, (no. LT/X 18212A), Royal Naval Reserve (Patrol Service), Son of John and Margaret Lee, of Garrabost, Isle of Lewis.
In addition, there are two further casualties simply classified as ‘British’: MCCRINDLE, ALEXANDER ALLAN, Seaman, (no. LT/JX 198997), MCKENZIE, ANGUS, Stoker, (no. LT/KX 114362.

Brian Carlton is an American. They say England when they mean Britain a lot over there. Doesn’t excuse the the BBC for publishing it unedited of course.

@ John Wood @ 2.47pm

Yes John…and he was right yon character Private Frazer…”we’re doomed”…but only…only if we stay in the UKOK ….They don’t like it up them hence the ‘war’ fund they have set up to save the Union….we better watch John or our names ” vill also go on ze list”…not from the BritNat secret Service cause seems they let you get away with any old shit in Brexit BritNatLand especially leaking documents …..that’s easy peasy apparently…any old hack for sale can access and publish them…then a couple nights later said hack can appear on a major news channel reviewing papers and defending what she did ….only in Brexit BritNatLand Lol.

Oh England my Lionheart indeed….more like pussies the way they are letting the uber w*nks take over their country..hell mend them cause this was a long time in the making.

Scottish, never British.

Rev

I should know better after all these years but you managed to push all my buttons with that article.
It is mainly because I have suffered that crap all my life. They cannot tell the difference between England, Great Britain and the U.K. They wave the Union Flag when England are playing.

It will get much worse now as the new Tories seek to crush our identity again.

Why do people still vote for a “Union” which is in fact an occupation by another nation.

“What’s your name?”

“Don’t tell him Pike”

I had to correct a lady from Georgia who described me as English, she got the message.
Why do some people think that the English are wonderful, competent etc. They are just lucky, methinks their luck is about to run out.

It’s the BBC. What does anyone expect. They’re either stupid or ignorant, possibly both.

Back in the day before IT, when I wandered the highways and byways peddling my wares, or some such, I stayed over in hotels the length and breadth of England.
You had to fill in a wee card with your name, address and nationality.
I was Scottish then, I am Scottish now, and will be to my dying day in Independent Scotland.
There is no such nationality as ‘british’.
Even the ‘english’ don’t believe that, except when a Scot is winning at tennis, or cycling, or the Gowff.
Of course when there star starts to wane, they revert to being ‘the Scot’.
England won the war.
Get over it, Sweaties.

Cageybee its the Royal Scots who claim to be Pontious Pilates bodyguard, but since they only go back to 1633 thry are strecthing it a bit…
link to en.m.wikipedia.org

Gosh. Alex Salmond trial pencilled in to start just as BREXIT happens. What an astonishing coincidence.

link to bbc.co.uk

Republicofscotland says:
12 July, 2019 at 3:48 pm
“Lets not forget that past history has shown brave Scots that became cannon fodder, were expendable, (General Wolfe quoted as such) to further the British/English empire.”

Sigh… of course they were expendable. Widespread tendency on here to make statements of the bleedin obvious.

Anyone who voluntarily signs up for, or allows themselves to be conscripted into, fighting another country’s wars can expect to be held in contempt and disdain, and yes indeed be “expendable”.

It has always interested me that Russia and the Soviet Union were seen as interchangeable just like England and Britain. Russia and England have much in common in their disrespect of those around them. Maybe it goes some way to explaining the imperialist mindset of Corbyn and his exploitative following.

Like others I am Scottish not British and having lived for decades in England, no-one has ever been confused by my explanation that I am a Scotsman living abroad.

Among the first things removed from a slave is his/her identity. I do not have the slave mentality. It saddens me how many people of Scottish origin are so afraid to throw off the yoke. I trust that the tide is turning as Brexit exposes the true weakness of those who will always wish to subjugate them. Fear and lack of self-confidence are difficult but not impossible to overcome. Many of us have already achieved it and I am confident that each day a few more find a reason to have a backbone.

You guys did’nt read to the end para’s.
England morphs into Britain a coupleof times.
I remember Obama, intervied on our BBC, God bless, in 2014, said exactly the same thing. When it was obvious he meant the UK.
Corrected by the BBC shit, no f****** fear, my regard for him went toon the stank.

Capella @ 4.22pm
Thank you for the link, although it makes me boak to click the BBC link.
I am so gutted to see him flung under the bus in this way – this whole Alex Salmond case is farcical.

Most history books referring to the uk from union up to 1st WW, written in the uk refer to the uk as England!

All foreign written history books written during this period refer to the uk exclusively as England!

Unless you manage your own affairs, you are invisible!

Looks like uk is going to war with Iran in the US”s new foreign venture, talk of buying more war ships, what a vile and pathetic breed of human the tories are!

Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother

See how much they like titles, she gave herself two Queens in hers so’s she’d be more important than her daughter who was only one Queen, and they’re still doing it, awarding themselves *honours* so the furriners and the commoners will judge them as more Royally and importanty sounding, CBEs MBEs Barons Baronessess Earls Dukes Viscounts Knights Lords, they even gave Universities the right to hand out honorary Doctorates to folk who don’t know anything about the subject of the Doctorate, that really bangs the idea of meritocracy right on the head,or how about Bishops in the House of Lords, I mean how much sillier can they get, a special *House* to put Lords in to keep them separate from *The Commons*

What worlds in their minds do these England folk inhabit?

Now if one didn’t know any better one would think that those people had an inferiority complex and were covering it up by self aggrandising, I don’t think that though, not me, I’m Scottish so I have virtually no right to think at all

Anything else Memsaab, Saab, I’m bowing lowly as I walk backwards…..quietly

Still majoring on BBC Scotland website political section ” – Blogger ordered to pay Kezia Dugdale’s legal expenses”. Now 4 days old.

I remember,many years ago on holiday in Spain, talking to a Dutchman who passed the remark that it was good that we were all together in Britain when I said I was Scots. I replied that it would also be good if the Netherlands were ruled from Germany, one convert later peace was established.

As I wrote in a recent posting, I used to get annoyed about this kind of thing, but now I say “keep it up”. It demonstrates to the PSBs just how delusional their pathetic one-sided attachments are.

England England England England England England

🙁

@Dr Jim
Scotland was implicated in British imperialist shenanigans and was also a victim of them so with that total experience Scotland has much wisdom to offer.
As for Iran,
link to cbsnews.com

As I thought……Scotland doesn’t exist.

I already posted the comment below on the previous post, not realising the present one had already opened. It was originally a response to some contributions which were discussing whether or not, or to what extent, votes in elections to Holyrood can be counted as a valid expression of the will of the Scottish people. Someone had seemed to hint that the sovereignty of the people in Scotland had been ‘restored’ in 1999, when Holyrood was established. My original intention was to take issue with that view.

However, as usual, I failed to stick to that initial good intention, and what I eventually wrote became my usual far-too-long article-length comment. I apologise for this to those long-sufferers who will undoubtedly – and with perfect justification – groan, skim down and skip it. To them I say, just ignore this and scroll on, as you are entitled to do.

I nevertheless post it just in case there is the odd occasional lurker, or contributor, who might enjoy or profit from it, or even from a very small part of it. I also revised it slightly before posting it here, and tried to take out some of the typos (although I probably added others).

Wull says:
12 July, 2019 at 2:56 pm

The constitutional argument is not that Westminster ceased to have sovereignty over the Scottish people the minute the Holyrood parliament was set up, but that Westminster has never at any time held any ultimate sovereignty over the Scottish people. The Scots did not ‘regain’ their sovereignty in Scotland in 1999, courtesy of the bounty of the Labour Government of that day; they had never lost it in the first place, not even in 1707.

For many long centuries prior to 1707, sovereignty in Scotland already lay with the Scottish people. It did not lie in any ultimate sense with either their parliament or their king, or even both of these combined. That combination of ‘monarch in parliament’ as sovereign had already become the case in and for England in 1707, when the Union Treaties with Scotland were signed. But it had never been the case in the Scotland, nor did the Union Treaties make it become so.

The Union Treaties can be said to have fiddled with some secondary or tertiary elements of the way both the Scottish and the English systems of government worked, albeit in different ways in each case. But they did not touch or mitigate anything of primary constitutional significance in regard to either of the two parties involved. The fundamental constitutional law of Scotland remained as it always had been – especially the no. 1 principle that the people are sovereign in Scotland, as articulated in the early 14th Century (although the assumption no doubt goes a long way further back than that) – and the (significantly different) foundations of English constitutional law also continued as before, and in force for England, without alteration.

That is why the UK, from the moment of its creation in 1707 right through until today, has always had two constitutions at work. There are two sets of constitutional law, two radically different ‘foundations’, actually operating simultaneously, within that entity known to the world as the UK. One in Scotland, and a different one in England.

The English one also operated explicitly in Wales from the 16th Century onward, when Henry VIII imposed it – although I suppose it could be argued that he did so illegally – and it still effectively operates there. Likewise, if the English constitutional assumption did not already operate in all of Ireland beforehand, it came to do so from the 1800 Act of Union onward – until the birth of the Irish Republic, soon after World War I ended. Thereafter, the English constitutional assumptions continued to operate only in ‘Northern Ireland’, that ‘hived off’ part of the island which the UK retained (although the Republic continued to claim it).

Within the current UK, therefore, the Scottish constitution operates in Scotland, as it always has done both before and after the Union was created, and English constitutional assumptions operate in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

In general (although there are notable and worthy exceptions) many English people and most if not all English politicians, in particular those who sit at Westminster – and, unfortunately, even a few Anglicized Scottish ones – have a great deal of difficulty in getting their heads around these simple facts. They are not difficult facts to understand, and anyone with a basic grasp of the history of these islands and a rudimentary knowledge of the law(s) there operative, can easily get hold of the required information and work it out for themselves.

So why is there such widespread ignorance about this in England, or among the English population?

The problem is not with the availability of the material or with the very average intelligence that is required to understand the points at issue; it is with the will. If you don’t WANT to understand the reality of the situation, you won’t understand it. In fact, if you deliberately WANT to misunderstand it – or you simply DON’T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT IT – that is precisely what will happen.

And if you WANT to carry on with your own particular fantasy concerning what you think the UK ought to be, but isn’t – rather than engaging with the reality of what it actually is, and always has been, both in terms of its legal foundations and present and ongoing existence – then you will remain exactly where, and become precisely what, you WANT to be. Namely – a fantasist living in your own fantasy-land, in a world of make-believe which you have imagined for yourself. You will have made yourself immune to the true situation, at least in this respect.

You will even think that those who point out the realities to you are the fantasists, dismissing or denying or ignoring them accordingly. And you will do so when in fact the fantasist is you, not them. The reason you will act in this arrogant way is to defend your fantasy, even to make it impregnable, so that reality can never penetrate or even touch it. That is how important your ‘false imaginings’ have become to you. Having no doubt been developed – at least in England’s case (i.e. on the case of English culture and identity) – over many centuries.

When I talk of ‘fantasy’ and ‘fantasists’ I mean exactly what these words convey, because there is something fundamentally wrong, inherently flawed and downright mistaken with what I can only call ‘the English imagination’. I do so with apologies to those good English people who are more realistic and well-informed of the true situation, and who therefore do not subscribe to that ‘English imagination’. But it is avery real thing, all the same. Let me explain.

Insofar as the UK, like any other piece of ‘political geography’, is an ‘imagined space’, the typically ‘English imagination’ (as I have termed it) regards the whole of the UK as ‘England writ large’.

The most frequent manifestation of this is the way and the ease with which they interchange the terms ‘English’ and ‘British’ as if they were synonyms, which they are not. To which we may add likewise, and as a consequence, how often the word ‘British’ is used subtly, or not so subtly, to turn successes in other parts of the UK into English successes. While any failures occurring n or to any part of the UK furth of England is presented ina way that makes it remain entirely the failure of that part alone, and not England’s.

Transfer this mentality to constitutional realities, and the obvious ‘English assumption’ is that the so-called ‘British Constitution’ is uniquely, and nothing other than ‘the English Constitution’. And those who subscribe to this view are going to be astonished, even outraged, by anything which suggests otherwise, or even qualifies to some extent that assumption. This remains the case no matter how well documented, how legally and historically established, and how recently and continuously affirmed that ongoing fact – the reality of what we might call ‘the Scottish constitutional difference’ – might be.

The ongoing existence and reality of the Scottish constitution is a simple fact which the ‘English imagination’ almost necessarily evades, and denies.

I say ‘almost’ because it doesn’t actually have to evade and deny it; in practice, it does so by choice. Yet there is also an underlying logic (we might call it an ’emotional logic’) which makes the English psyche CHOOSE to go down this particular route. It could choose to pay greater attention to the facts of the matter, thereby becoming more rational about the whole thing, but it decides not to.

The precise way in which the ‘English imagination’ imagines the UK, and the specifically English way in which it envisages and talks about ‘Britain’, are essential to English identity. Or, rather, to what English people see as their identity – although they could in fact and even quite easily learn to imagine that identity differently (especially if more ‘reality’ – including the Scottish reality, not as they imagine it to be, but as it actually is in itself – were allowed to penetrate it).

The English – those vast majority of them, that is, who are imbued with what I have called ‘the English imagination’ – are in flat denial of what I will now call ‘the Scottish fact’. That is to say, they simply deny the reality of that fact which is the Scottish constitution. They deny its existence, its ongoing actuality, its force and its relevance, even to them (because if you are in a Union with another people or country you have to make an effort to understand them, and where they are coming from, not just physically but culturally and politically and in every other way). Those of ‘the English imagination’ have to deny ‘the Scottish fact’ (and in particular the Scottish constitutional fact) because that fact undermines, at the most basic and fundamental level, the (inherently false) picture that their minds have built up of ‘their’ – what they call ‘our’ – (beloved) ‘country’.

(They even refer to it as ‘our’ Union, with an inflection which may unconsciously and paradoxically be using the word ‘our’ in a way which excludes rather than includes. (The manner and style in which Mrs May recently talked about Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP seemed to suggest that ‘they’, and anyone who had even the slightest sympathy for ‘them’ or ‘their’ agenda, were no part of ‘us’ or even of ‘our’ UK. Even though ‘they’ are actually citizens of the same UK! But then, the Tory Party does seem to have problems with the idea of citizenship. They have often played fast and loose with this notion in the past, guided by no greater principle than whatever seemed to be to their, or ‘our’ advantage – i.e. to the advantage of a Tory government, or of its conception of the UK’s immediate needs – at the time.)

The depth of this problem should not be underestimated, especially as it affects ordinary English people, and not just their politicians. It is not enough for us Scots simply to lampoon it, or despise what is a very deep-rooted cultural reality in England. The way we ‘imagine’ our countries is no small matter, affecting something very deep within us. If that is true for us, as Scots, it is laos true for the English, as English. Even when we don’t like what our countries or their leaders do, we still belong to them, no matter what. They are connected and interwoven with who we really are; we are rooted there. The stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, about our ‘place’ and ‘our history’ and ‘our origins’, the way we imagine the ‘space’ we inhabit, and the contours we presume it to have – all these ‘imagined realities’ have a real effect on us. These stories that we tell ourselves are an essential part of the web and the woof that forms our – our what? – well, quite simply, our very ‘selves’.

Insofar as the English people do not tell or attempt to tell the true story of the ‘space’ or ‘place’ they inhabit, or don’t to correct whatever may be false in the story they tell themselves – insofar as they refuse any attempt to question the underlying assumptions on which their story is based, and which has an effect on the choices they make, their action in the world – insofar as this is happening (or in the latter case not happening), something unhealthy is going on. To be ‘in denial’ is not to be in a healthy state of mind. Especially when what you are denying is something as real as Ben Nevis. Because the Scottish constitutional fact, and the manner in which it remains a constitutive element of what the UK actually is, and always has been, is indeed as real – and as undeniable – as Ben Nevis. The constitutional landscape of the UK does not exist without it.

The ‘English imagination’ affects the English collective psyche, and both have an effect on English action in the world. England stands in dire need of a re-ordering and re-interpretation of her own history, so as to see her contribution to the world in fresh ways, on the basis of which she will then be able to launch herself more authentically into the future. Such re-conceptualizing the past means shedding some old, old stories, incorporating others which were suppressed, and reaching a new synthesis concerning who the English nation really are, and what they want to be and become. Even after the UK no longer exists, that will include understanding afresh what the UK actually was, even constitutionally. Which will mean taking the Scottish constitutional aspect of the matter seriously.

This re-ordering of the historical imagination – and it is one of the strong points of the English imagination that it IS very historical, even if that goes along with the tendency to distort and exploit history – is bound to happen after Scotland becomes an independent country again. At present, however, England is stuck. In a time-warp, basically.

She can’t genuinely modernise herself unless this kind of thing starts happening. But so far, sadly, she resists, even vehemently. As if hanging on for dear life to the railings of a sinking Titanic. As Scots, we can help her – and ourselves – into the contemporary and future world. By becoming independent from her.

Insofar as the English nation, as a ‘collective entity’, continues to acquiesce in imagining a false and radically distorted picture of what they consider to be ‘their’ country, those who subscribe to the ‘false consciousness’ which inevitably ensues will continue to do damage to themselves and others.

There is an underlying English assumption that the 1707 Acts of Union which constituted the UK and brought it into existence amounted to nothing less than – at last! – the eventual success and complete vindication of the project to absorb Scotland into England which Edward I had launched four centuries earlier, at the end of the 13th Century. However we may regard these Acts of Union, and whatever feelings we may have about them, they most certainly were no such thing.

This unstated but underlying English assumption about the Union being the accomplishment of Edward I’s designs may be an English cultural fact of far greater importance than most people – including most English people – actually realise. Most people’s conscious knowledge of history is very limited, but history and the way history is interpreted nevertheless have their effects on them, in all kinds of subliminal ways. For England to progress in this modern world of ours, the English psyche needs to be exorcised of the ghost of Edward I, and have done with him.

If the Edwardian imperial dream continues to exercise so much leverage (even unconsciously) on the English imagination and on the psyche that goes with it, the falsity of the premises on which that dream rested now need to be exposed afresh. So too with the damage which has ensued from subsequent manifestations of the same spirit, constructed on the same inherently false foundations. The lie at the bottom of all this, which also underlay so many other subsequent enterprises down through the centuries, and in which so many post-1707 Scots also colluded and greatly profited, needs to be explicitly rejected. Not just by the English, but by all of us. This will never happen, however, unless Scotland becomes independent, and the UK breaks up. That will encourage both parties to the erstwhile Union to have a long, hard look at themselves until – exorcised of ghosts that no longer serve any useful purpose (and actully never did) – both our countries will be able to forge ahead, making their own new, revised and hopefully positive and peace-oriented contributions on the world stage.

Yet the ghost has not yet gone.

The old and now thoroughly bankrupt and discredited premises on which so much of the English political imagination still rests are inherently intertwined with the Brexit fiasco. The outcome of the Brexit referendum was hugely influenced by this false English consciousness concerning what England/Britain is. It is this false consciousness which now needs to be eliminated, for England’s and the English people’s own good (and everyone else’s good as well). The only way this can be done is by the Scots exercising their constitutional rights in a forward-looking, future-oriented way. When Scotland brings the UK Union to an end and becomes, once again, an independent country within the concert of nations, the English psyche and the assumptions which underlie it will change. Not automatically, perhaps, but simply because it will have to.

England will no longer be what it seemed to be, especially to the English in their own understanding of themselves an their mission or destiny in the world. The Scots’ action in removing themselves from the Union changes the whole trajectory of English history, as previously conceived, especially by the English themselves. In fact, that trajectory had already changed course, moreover in an irreversible way, soon after the end of World War II. In 1947, in fact, when India became independent. The end of the Union and dismemberment of the UK will only be the final stage of a movement that became fully manifest then, although it had already been under way since well before World War II began. England will become, even in the way English people imagine her, just that: England, and nothing more. Despite her initial resistance to this unaccustomed reality, she will soon enjoy (and even enjoy enormously) being herself – simply herself – again.

Shedding our pretensions about ourselves is always, in the end, a liberation. If that is true for individuals, it is also true for nations. Scotland will have to learn this too, and be liberated from whatever is false in our own cherished conceptions of ourselves. And in the process come to the realisation (at least some of the more extreme idealists among us) that we too are not all that we pretend to be … !

The condition for England becoming her true and – let’s make a value judgement – undoubtedly better self is that Scotland first takes off, and does the same for herself. As Scots, we have a duty to help our southern neighbour shed her false consciousness, so that she stops harming herself, and others.
There is a direct link between ‘false consciousness’ and ‘self-harm’. This is so not just for individuals, but even on the part of massive collective entities – or ‘identities’ – like that of England and the English people.

Come on Scotland – save yourself from England; and help to SAVE ENGLAND FROM HERSELF!

“Who do you think you are kidding Mr Hitler if you think old England’s done” .
Played even now on repeats.
England has publicised itself for over 300 years but it seems to me it is terrified of Scotland leaving the Union as it really would have to “stand alone”.

Jeremy Chunt giving us some great ammo on BBC1 right now. Some splendid comments about democracy that show him to be the lying two-faced Chunt that he is.

Boris up next.

In Japanese the official name for the UKGBNI is EIKOKU ie England. Multiplied many times this is the stark Unionist reality. We should not beat ourselves up over this, it’s history. Lets just excise this parasite and move on.

No one blinks an eye, on the Politics show as proposals to either threaten or bribe Ireland over the border issue are aired.

link to mobile.twitter.com

A lot of Scots are guilty of referring to the Nederlands as Holland, pretty similar to calling the UK England.

I am sure most people reading here called the USSR Russia. As well as every one from there Russian even though only half the population was.

Stravaiger @ 7:24 pm

As you report from Hunt’s responses: “How can I be a foreign secretary who stands up for democratic principles in somewhere like Hong Kong if I’m not prepared to stand up for democratic principles at home in this, one of the oldest most robust democracies in the world. I’m someone who says we are known for being the country where people like me do what the people tell us to do…”

But on his ‘democratic principles’ there is even more than denying a Section 30. It is clear that Hunt, and the Tories in general, are so concerned to get the UK out of the EU BEFORE a General Election because they are afraid of what such a democratic test of their BREXIT position – the position let’s remember of a minority government and one about to have a new PM in power with no real personal democratic mandate – might reveal.

However Mr Hunt reassures us that we in Scotland will have our interests over Brexit taken into account through having Scottish Tories in his negotiating team! When did a majority in Scotland vote for any of this?

Any silver lining? All grist to the mill for explaining to the EU and wider international community of the case for Scotland having their diplomatic recognition and support when we decide to dissolve the Union and regain our independence.

Or as Blackadder said

“If I should die, think only this of me.
That I’ll be back to get you.”

Farmers in Scotland are now crying out for help because Scotch beef (the envy of the world) is under threat from the undercutting of its price by supermarkets selling *yes you guessed it British beef* the origin of which we know not where and as all of you will know is placed right next to Scotch beef always at the lower price to encourage the buyer, they do it with Pork and other products too, I’ve been warning of this for years now

Morrisons again is the biggest culprit for this, in the land of Fish, Scotland, Morrisons sells fish that comes in a van from England, like Bass, Yorkshire brook trout,even their sea fish comes from Grimsby, and they’re extremely proud of it

I bet they are

I was watching itv news while reading this post and these comments , and just to reinforce Stu’s piece there was an item on itv regarding the netball world cup with as usual how wonderful and exceptional the engerlish woman’s netball team are , there then followed a wee scrolling up section that highlighted that there had been an increase of 65% popularity for netball in Scotland with a wee Saltire flag at the top , it then went on to show that the popularity in Wales had increased by 28% with a wee Welsh dragon flag at the top , they then went on to show that popularity in Engerland had increased by 22% topped by a wee !!! ( UNION JACK ) are they ashamed of the real engerlish flag ???

Speaking of Canada…

link to youtube.com

What have you become, England?

Ye need tae huv a guid word wae yerselves

The Scottish parliamentarians of Labour and the Lib Dems who helped promote the so called Vow in 2014, should, if they still favour the union, be willing to publicly attest that they believe this Vow delivered its promises.

They could easily do this by posting footage on their social media. Holding a placard saying something like ‘The Vow delivered and Scotland is leaving the EU and must submit for now to being governed by Boris Johnson’.

These Labour and Lib Dem people won’t do any such thing of
course. Frauds tend to continue with their charades as long as they can. Even after it’s clear to everyone else that a charade is what it is.

What a terrible article, written by a journalist from the USA, but edited by some BBC person so that it is all England, England, England. (As Conan pointed out.)
Note that in quotes from fellow American, Joseph Schwarzer II, director of North Carolina’s Maritime Museum System, the correct use of Britain and British is very apparent.

So it is NOT a failure on the part of the US educational system, either the author or the BBC editor chose to use ‘England’ deliberately, instead of ‘Britain’ throughout the article.

Here’s a better article on the topic, which includes the fact that Canadians were among the crew of the Bedfordshire:
link to offbeattravel.com

P.S. I remember reading an article on these British war graves in the US some months ago on Yahoo. I don’t remember it being so full of references to England as this BBC one. 🙁

robertknight @ 10:01 pm

You write: “Earliest memory of a sense of being ‘Scottish not British’ came from Clive Dunn’s warbling refrain of the Dad’s Army theme, which included “if you think old England’s done”.”

Me too Robert. It brings back difficult memories even now of watching this on TV – week after week- sitting next to my father, a Scot and ex Royal Marine who had experienced a VERY, VERY hard war! Hurts still to think about it.

(And I never spoke to him about it.)

Many very interesting posts above, including the two longish ones from Ian Mohr and Welsh Sion. Thank you very much to both of you and to all.

Helana Brown at 3.59. We were inPoland last year and while on atour the guide said ..germans q here french q here english q here, when i shouted out where do us Scottish q, there was loud applause from the polish people who, then started to q beside us, so we are not alone

@me at 11:27pm

I can’t find equivalent census data for England, they just don’t ask the question.

However YouGov are quoted on the BBC in June as finding (taken from a graph) …

16% identified themselves as ‘English only’
66% identified themselves as ‘English’ and ‘British’
7% identified themselves as ‘British only’

… a quite different view on ‘Britishness’.

England’s days of threatening anyone are almost over.

Threaten Ireland, when the EU has Ireland’s back? It would be a joke it it wasn’t that some English Nationalists are serious.

If Brexit isn’t reined in, it will be the equivalent of Thatcher’s deindustrialisation and the banking crisis combined. Maybe worse. England is in for its biggest shock since …. well a long time. Serious economic damage concurrent with a massive loss of international influence and prestige. It’s genuinely hard to think of a historical equivalent.

Nice timing for the warning from the BBC director-general

about the assault on truth.

link to archive.is

@ Footsoldier – the Ministry of Truth is omnipresent. I hope you dented their armour.

Dont know how the rev feels living in bath, but living down here in Dorset for oh, many many years now. (I’ve got fcuk all in common with a worker from Manchester, liverpool, or wherever in engerland). Went on a day trip today to lyme regis and axminster with my English wife and family and grandchildren. Met loads of lovely smashing people, weather fantastic. Brilliant time. Beautiful part of the English countryside. But inwardly felt, I’ve got nothing in common with these people. Felt like a stranger when I spoke with my accent . Is this the Brexit effect creeping in? Who knows. Anyroads I’m coming hame on Monday for a holiday. Must be why I’m on a high.

Watched bbc’s candy floss heids interviews of *unt and brump earlier , I mean REALLLLLLY are we going to be governed by one of these imbecilic spiv chancers , they haven’t a feckin clue

Neil was dizzy with *unts continuous going round in circles and answering every question with the same answer , even when pulled up about it he just continued to spout the same pish ( Oh BTW did I mention I was an entrepreneur )

Brump just waffled and harrumphed and continued talking over Neil ignoring the questions , I must admit it looked as though Neil was ready to strangle him ( I know how he felt ) how anyone with even half a brain could consider voting for these amoebas is beyond me .

Wake up Scotland these cretins will destroy you and your children and grandchildren’s futures

FFS Nicola get us away from these moronic arsewipes

There’ll always be an England,
AS LONG AS SCOTLAND’S THERE.

Enjoy it while you can, those of you south of the border.

@ Wull – you can contact Stu using the email in the Contact tab in the header. I thought your long comment on sovereignty was very thought provoking and could do with more discussion. Everything BTL us quite ephemeral though. Once we move on it’s hard to continue with a topic.

The Ministry of Truth marches on, in spite of Tony Hall’s latest denouncing of “fake news”.

A British historian belittles the Soviet battle of Kursk. The Russians (all of them) against “historians”.

We’ve always been at war with Eurasia.

Kursk WW2: Why Russia is still fighting world’s biggest tank battle – link to bbc.co.uk

From ‘The National’,

So there we have it, final confirmation that the current SNP leadership has no plans for independence, other than to pathetically keep begging London for permission to hold a referendum. Angus McNeil, MP, had put forward the idea of using an election as mandate for independence, if section 30 is refused, but the SNP leadership have decided it cannot be debated at conference, and in doing so issued an incredibly insulting and negative statement too. They will ONLY use a section 30 – which we know will NOT be given.

So, look, I’ve gone from being an avid SNP supporter for more than ten years, I was at the hydro cheering NS as she took over as leader, to finally leaving the SNP this year because it was becoming clear the current leader merely liked to talk about independence, rather than do it.

My worst fears have now come true. It is freaking obvious that Westminster will continue to refuse a section 30, so we will never have a referendum, according to the SNP leader, and therefore we will never have independence.

If you want to know what happens to a political party that no longer represents the people who voted for it, then look at the SNP. Want to know what a political leader who has forgotten the people who put her there, look at Nicola Sturgeon. The current leadership is now content to sit back, and do sweet f all to gain independence. Oh, occasionally, she’ll give a stirring talk about ‘it’s coming yet for a that’ and so on, and will talk tough about how ‘Westminster MUST’ give us a section 30′, but she knows it is bullish*t. Westminster and the future Prime Minister has made it crystal clear they are NOT giving a section 30, ever, period.

So Nicola Sturgeon can carry on bleating pathetically about big bad Westminster not giving a section 30 until the end of time. It will make no difference.

Maybe it is time for the SNP to debate another motion at conference, ‘getting rid of this pathetic current leader, and replacing her with somebody who has the ability and desire to tackle Westminster head-on.

I have been thinking it for some time, but now we know for sure, we will NEVER get independence, with Nicola Sturgeon as leader of the SNP and First Minister. It seems her job is just too cosy, for her to risk it all. Independence is something the SNP talk about, and so it will be for another hundred years. Besides their is gender and stuff that she clearly thinks is more important, and, it seems, interesting to her personally.

And to those on here who defend the current SNP leadership, do please set out exactly how independence is going to happen, if their is no section 30 and NS refuses to consider an electoral mandate. Magic???

And that raises and important question. Just what is the point in electing a lot of SNP MP’s, if the current leader is not prepared to go for independence. You may as well vote Labour for all the good it would do.

So you may as well all start embracing brexit and all that will follow, because the SNP have now made it clear, that when it happens, despite their rhetoric, they are going to do sweet f all to prevent it, or to seek independence. This is nothing short of an utter betrayal of Scotland.

Link to the story in The National. You need to read to the end, past the nonsense bullish*t statement from ‘the SNP’ ,in order to find out what Angus and Chris think about this.

link to thenational.scot

Robert Louis 07:38

What nonsense – away and start your own party.

Anything other than doing it legally gives the other side strong ammunition to attack and there are other scenarios. Most political pundits thing there is a strong possibility of a GE and that could throw up opportunities when the Brexit Party and Labour are brought into the mix and SNP could hold balance of power. Plenty to play for on current strategy.

As to conference debates, I shall need to check that out.

Bob Mack is right, for a start what is England? Named for invading Angles who, with the invading Saxons were pushed west by Danes and other Scandinavians. ‘England’ is a polyglot, mixed race place from the start. Then came Francophone Vikings placing another strata on top of that mixed society, one we are still stuck with.

In the wars with the French there were long Welsh people recruited. Especially once their specialist Longbow skills were recognised. But as with the Cricket team the ‘and Wales’ gets left off the official histories of ‘England’s’ victories.

To the list of leaders getting it wrong we must included lionised Nelson ‘England expects every man to do his duty’ regardless if he be Welsh or Scottish or Irish or Manx even.

I suspect this modern resurgence is the English getting themelves psychically comfortable with the pending loss of Scotland and Northern Ireland to the Union. With a Welsh First Minister musing about the prospect of it being just them and careless, arrogant, Nationalistic England and what Wales might have to then consider. Also with the rest of the Celtic nations Independent it makes Wales an outlier. We could copy the Scandics and mint a Celtic Council fostering economic and cultural links and forging aliances in international fora.

England will not like that, they will see it as threatening. But we will have big, powerful friends. For centuries first English then British policy has been to prevent the Continent uniting against them. It was why they intervened on the continent so often. Why Marlborough fought in the War of the Austrian Succession. Why Napoleon was opposed. Why we were drawn into WWI and WWII. Brexit will undo all of that and split the Union meaning not just that the continent will be united against them but they will be ringed by EU states.

I will suggest we should not copy Iceland and scrap our armed forces. We might need them. For a start I fully expect English fishing boats will try it on after Independence and things might come to sabre rattling to get them to stand down. Especially with Brexit Party cheerleaders comfortable with the murder of ‘foreign’ fishers.

Yes, and I’ve just read about the Brexit Party MEP Robert Rowland ( South East England ) who is calling on the Royal Navy to sink as they did with the Belgrano, any EU fishing boat who enters Britain’s 200 mile exclusion zone.

With outright calls to murder from an elected politician one can see how the UK is headed towards an orgy of violence.

Time we had the weaponry to protect ourselves from these murderous right wing bastards who would kill at the drop of a hat.

@Wull at 02.21 – how to contact Stu. Scroll up to the top of the Wings page, click on “Contact”!!!

And a bit of social psychology.

Understanding Social Groups
link to opentextbc.ca

And a bit more social psychology. I hope folk have twigged to this all feeds in to an understanding of how our perception, as ‘situated-self’, is largely shaped by culture. This cultured-self will need certain skills in order to avoid inherent cultural bias, so as to impart impartial judgement. That’s why culturally, we hold judges in high regard, they are thought to be skilled in being impartial.

Fortunately, some of us understand a bit about the neoropsychology of prejudice and stuff. 😉

Affect, Behavior, and Cognition
link to opentextbc.ca

Most of the stuff about the war is racialist anti English nonsense

Can we have a campaign to raise volunteers to fight these dastardly Iranians? Only genuine Scottish cannon fodder should apply.

Tallyho, over the top, Jocks first please !

Anyone else watching Wimbledon and notice the Union Flag draped over the table at the All England Club where the trophies were standing.

You’re some guy Stu. When asked a question you don’t like is it normal procedure for you to block the individual concerned?

I’ve been a supporter of Scottish Nationalism for +30 years and since 2014 have even supported some of your crowd funding efforts. I’m now challenging some of your opinions and you just run and hide?

Not everybody who visits your site ‘adores’ you. You do a good job of scrutinising the mainstream media but for some reason don’t like it when you are placed under microscope.

reminds me of the film was “The man who never was” (1956) the plot was to take a mans body chain an attache case with fake invasion plans in it and dump it off the coast of Portugal making it look like he was a courier who had been shot down knowing that the info on the papers would find their way into nazi hands thereby letting the nazis think the allied invasion would take place away from sicily The body was chosen some poor guy who died of flu but the war office needed the permission of the next of kin. In that scene where they asked the deceaseds father they said You can be assured that will have done his bit for England (or similar) to which his father replied “yes go ahead but he and I are both Scottish!!!” camera panned to two shamefaced military types styttering apologies
I have often wondered about that scene Was this an early nationalist script writer or was it some right minded person trying to get the message across that the English were not the only ones in that war? some people tell me that the secret service actually carried this plan out but the man who never was was really Welsh

Even the UK Labour Deputy Leader John McDonell referred to the UK parliament as “The English Parliament” the other day whe he was interviewed about the possibility of IndyRef 2! The sheer ignorance of the English never fails to astound me. And he wants a pact with the SNP to get the ultimate Englishman PM dePiffle Johnson out of power. The sooner our First Minister and the SNP MPs in the “English Parliament” invoke the last couple of paragraphs of the 1320 Declaration of Arbroath the better. If one looks at how the Articles of Treaty of Union 1706 and the Scottish Act of Union 1707 have been flagrantly broken by the “English” (ie “UK”) parliament over the years it is logical that, under international law, the Treaty and the Acts are defunct so there is no reason why the Scottish Parliament has to seek permission to hold a lawful IndyRef 2. So, let’s get on with it. Oh, by the way it might be of interest that President de Gaulle conferred honourary French citizenship on all Scots born in Scotland so it might be worth getting in touch with the French Embassy consular department and getting a French Passport while we’re waiting for the breakup of the UK of GB & NI and getting a Scottish passport. Oh, another thing while I’m on the subject of passports; has anyone noticed how the coat of arms on the UK passport bears the English royal coat of arms even on ones issued in Scotland. Passports issued in Scotland or to Scots and Scottish residents shoulkd have the Scottish version of the royal coat of arms. Why isn’t the Scottish Govt or the Lord Lyon King of Arms doing anything about this insult to Scotland?