Once upon a time
“Dry your eyes. On your feet.”
Sometimes the world’s random turns throw up a charmed piece of timing. That was the first tweet that I read on 19th September 2014, sitting on the side of the bed, eyes burning, wondering what on Earth I could possibly do with a day for which I’d bought champagne, but which broke my heart before dawn.
I’d resisted Twitter for a while, then fallen in love with it, weirdly comfortable with the disembodied voices of strangers. Small phrases, 140 characters: at its best, little postcards that made me smile, laugh or think.
For whatever reason, that tweet cut through, its arrival perfect to give me a virtual shake. I’d tell the writer – if I knew who they were – that I managed to carry out half of their instruction to us hollow-eyed, political orphans that day, though I failed miserably for a while on the first bit.
Today we should have become independent. We’re not, and it’s not okay, but since I don’t think we can ignore the power that time and timing can possess, and since words are all I’ve got, I’d like to tell you a story.
Once upon a time, in a summer of hope, Yes In The Park happened. It rained on the Saltires, we wielded chips and cheese like shields, and I bought a bracelet with a tiny Yes charm on it.
What can I say? Small things make me happy and a piece of big politics on a girly pink bracelet pleased me so much that I wore out the catch inside three months. I threw the original pink bracelet in the bin and restrung the beads and the Yes charm onto a piece of leather and carried on wearing it, even after we lost.
November 2015. It’s freezing and I’m carrying too many bags on my way to work. By the time I felt the length of leather slide down my wrist, it was too late: my tiny, silver YES had fallen off somewhere between Gilmour Street and Renfrew Road. I retraced my steps for a bit, but the rain was falling sideways and I knew it was pointless.
Besides – maybe it was fitting. The dark irony of losing my charm wasn’t lost on me. I chucked the beads that I did manage to find – most of the unimportant pink ones – into a drawer and decided I’d try to find a new charm on the internet.
It wouldn’t be the real one – the one I’d worn through knocking doors, stuffing things through letter boxes and casting my vote – but wasn’t that just dewy-eyed nonsense? What did it matter, really? It had cost me less than a fiver.
A week later, after work, I walked back to Paisley Gilmour Street station. It was “head down, just get through it and get home” weather. Something glinted on the pavement. I walked on a few paces, then stopped in my tracks in a sudden flash of realisation and turned back around – and there it lay.
Ever seen a woman laden with bags of marking do a happy dance? It’s not pretty, let me tell you. Neither was the grinning like a fool all the way home on the train. The Yes was a bit scratched and bashed, perhaps a bit duller than before, but still in one piece and unmistakably mine.
Seven days had passed. Seven days of stomping pedestrians, people with suitcases, taxis for the airport, students and street cleaners. There was no reason at all why it should still be there, why I should be the one to find it, or pick it up. But sometimes the world, with all its random misadventures, is beneficent in its timing. A tweet, a lost charm… a second chance.
I know it’s just a wee story, a short telling of nothing much at all. But we’re human. This sort of stuff is what we have. It’s the everyday magic that feeds us.
Today there should have been concerts and fireworks and speeches and a new born nation rolling into the Easter weekend on a wave of optimism, determination and a couple of Nurofen. But while I feel wistful about what could have been, I’m full of hope. There’s an unfolding happening, and there might yet be special power in this particular bit of timing.
We’ll get the chance to hold Yes in our hands a second time – a little scuffed maybe, but imbued with more character than before. Then maybe, if we keep thinking in ways touched with dreams, we’ll get our happy ever after.
Still Yes
Nice…
Keep on, Keeping on Lynn, The dream will never die..:)
A beautiful story and it’s end is still to be told. You summed up succinctly how we are all feeling today. Thanks.
Ye see yon birkie ca’d a lord,
Wha struts, an’ stares, an’ a’ that,
Tho’ hundreds worship at his word,
He’s but a coof for a’ that.
For a’ that, an’ a’ that,
His ribband, star, an’ a’ that,
The man o’ independent mind,
He looks an’ laughs at a’ that.
Nice story! I enjoyed that.
Beautiful.
Everday magic
Unfolding
Timing
Yup
#stillyes
Are you joining us on Saturday Lynn?
Lynn they think we are gullible acolytes who will fall back in to our comatic slumber and be good Stepford unionists..
You and I know that aint gonna happen.. 🙂
The dream will never die.
WAS YES! 🙂
AM YES! 😉
ALWAYS YES! 😀
If at first you don’t succeed..
Try, try and try again.
It was my grandfathers mantra for Scotland, it’s people, it’s geniuses, it’s warriors, it’s leaders.
“a little scuffed maybe” or battle scarred. I kept all my YES materiel and still have a poster up in one window.
“Dry your eyes. On your feet.” Might have been Robin MacAlpine. He used those words in a post he made elsewhere that day. I remember it vividly and I think I know how you feel.
Thank you for writing this, Lynn. It has greatly cheered me.
Liberte Egalite Fraternite (oh and the pursuit of hapiness !)
Tomorrow belongs to YES !!
Chapter 2. Cannot wait to read it.
We follow in the footsteps of greats like Ghandi and Mandela who did not want to conquer the world,but only to allow their country to make decisions for itself rather than take orders from a colonial master.
Wonderful.
The unionists are truly miserable, and hopelessly negative.
The pro independence side genuinely positive, and life affiirming.
To want your country to be independent is normal, and not a false utopia, as the unionists would like people to believe.
Lynn, the belief and the magic was always in you and not the charm, your still here and sharing this story, so are we.
That’s the real magic. Ta.
On the morning of the 19th, my daughter texted to ask how I was.
“Sad,” I said.
“Don’t be. There is now a foundation of over 50% of people my age who are passionately for independence. Before this all started most of them didn’t care. Next time around be it 10, 20, or 30 years they will start as Yes and the support will grow. The foundation has been laid. It has not been for nothing and people keep saying to people vote for your children’s children. I’m certain my children’s children will be born in to an independent scotland.”
This brought me to tears, and still does.
I bet most of us have a wee story about that morning.
It was Robin McAlpine – dont think it was a tweet though. Article somewhere on what needs to be done next.
“Everything will be all right in the end.
If it’s not all right, it is not yet the end”……. Patel
I’m halfway down that, thinking Ok, stu’s wearing a pink bracelet, hey, that’s fine he’s comfortable in his own skin,wait,why is he going to work in Paisley? Really must learn to read under the title.
Thank you Lynn for a lovely piece of writing to end the day.
Re Dry your eyes
It was indeed Robin McAlpine, I remember reading it with a heavy heart.
link to bellacaledonia.org.uk
Aye till I die.
Don’t underestimate the English as colonisers. They do not give up their colonies easily. The Referendum was probably fiddled…there was no Exit Poll.
But don’t give up…you will win in the end.
But your oil wells may be empty.
Our movement gathers no moss.
Our movement is all.
We will be free.
Great piece,still yes,even more so after the way things unfolded from the 19th September onwards.
Thank you, Lynn.
Yes, wistful is what I have feeling the last 24 hours. I am comforted by the thought that we will be independent in my lifetime – so not too far away as I’m 65. Been waiting for this since I was 17 so can wait another couple of years.
AllyPally @ 10.48
Your daughter is right, not just her generation but also the teenagers too young to vote last time will be able to vote next time and will embrace independence as their right. Our future is in the hands of the young people of Scotland and they will not let us down.
SNP x 2 and EU In.
I can’t wait to get this bloody election out of the way.
It is hard and could be very divisive if we all don’t try very hard to maintain respect for those who marched with us in the referendum but who are now fighting us for the votes.
It is even harder to engage respectfully with the completely unscrupulous liars in the NO side.
And harder still to remain polite in face of the very often completely idiotic nonsense that so many of our people still swallow and repeat because they read it “in the paper”
But we must.
Heard a nice aphorism today. “When you are arguing with a fool, make sure he is not doing the same”
@Graeme James Borthwick
I don’t think that many contributing here underestimate Westminster, not the English people note.
If the oil wells were empty then I also think we could deal with that too.
The issue?
A Tory government that less than 15% in Scotland vote for dictates and decides our spending. I for one would prefer an elected Scottish government to do that.
Thanks for that Lynn.
I still have my YES on my car and home window. Still have my SNP love hearts on the windows of my house from the GE and will be adding more SNP signs for my MSP to win in May.
I’m never giving up!
I have stayed away from social media today. I avoided the leaders debate as I could not bear to see the pack ‘worrying’ the way they do.
I hate the yoons negativity and their hideous tax and spend/cuts mentality. As if life is one big accounting sheet.
I’m fed up the obsession of the left on what is ‘progressive’ and who is ‘prolier’ than who. I was a bit sad today but I ‘m glad I read that piece. It sums up a lot of what I feel.
I just want my country to be independent.
Love it!
That’s a keeper. 🙂
More ‘aye’ now,
Than ‘no’ then.
There’s talk of something happening on Saturday… What’s happening on Saturday?
Keep up the great work – this site is one of the most important things on the internet. Forever grateful. :o)
On the 19th, I walked down the street to thank the person who had put a very large YES sign in his garden, on the main drive through the village.
When I got there he was in the process of bringing it down.
I told him, I wanted to thank him, put out my hand to shake his, and lost my composure completely, and so did he.
Pretty sure neither of us are the crying type normally. We’d never met before.
Met him again within the month at the local SNP meeting. See him yet.
And then in the week before the Westminster elections, a full moon, and the airoplane tracks criss, crossed and made a perfect saltire, made a wonderful picture… As did 56 MPs entering WM with us at their backs and them at ours.
Not going away, not giving up, and aye yes for aw that. Best wishes and thanks to all.
Michael McCabe says:
24 March, 2016 at 11:01 pm
Aye till I die
Let’s hope that’s not too soon?
WOS on the back windae of the car. Ecosse sticker also.
The dream will never die.
Loved the article.
SNP x 2
Rev.Stu tweets it was “best ever Scotland Tonight”
Why? What did I miss?
Was Stu on it?
I am all of a fluster.
Loved it. Thank you.
Nice one and a happy ending – positive thinking, friendly persuasion, good humour, good banter- you summed up how a lot of us are feeling today, but tomorrow is another day and we will be free one day. SNP SNP AND EU AYE
A good read. Over the decades I have campaigned with many people who did not live to see how far we have come to where we are. In the early 1960’s support of Independence was about 10% but went up a bit after the Hamilton by-election in 1967 then fell back.
We still carried on regardless through all the years trying to persuade the voters. Many readers to this site don’t realise how far we have come as you did not live through the barren electoral years as many of my generation did. I find it sad that many who gave their all for an Independent Scotland could not join me in May last year and enjoy the sweeping away of all those Unionist MP’s.
The SNP now have set roots within Scotland that we could only have dreamed of years ago. The new MP’s are working well in their seats and the voters in the these seats will see that their votes will be cherished. This will help to break down the barriers between the SNP and support for Independence. I appreciate there are supporters of Independence out with the SNP but we would not be in the present position without thebyearsnof campaigning of
Great to read! Never give in to the yoon bullshit but never forget we face probably the most malicious and shameless liars in the world today. As in
link to archive.is
“Nevertheless, New Zealanders may have also voted for the status quo because that is what people tend to do. From a British perspective it is difficult to look at Thursday’s result and not be reminded of the Scottish referendum in 2014, when 55% voted against the break-up of the UK and 45%, who had made the most of the running in the campaign, for an independent Scotland”
The Britnat shyster here is using New Zealand’s flag ref. Only a yoon shyster can take a ref on a countries flag on the other side of the world and do his BetterTogether worst with it.
Scotland is not New Zealand, shock.
“But your oil wells may be dry” but my cup runneth over.
I felt down, like most, for about 3 days. I realised then, that I actually felt stronger, the anger was still there, on mute now, but oh the hope, belief in what we were trying to achieve, well that was just through the roof.
I felt nothing today, no sadness, no anger or humiliation. This was just another day on the road to independence.
As for the oil, Westminster just might have one hellava bill come independence day.
Loved that story. My one abiding memory as well as the crushing despondency and intense sadness was walking to work in the early hours of the 19th and on the day before was a plethora of no posters in a posh suburb of the capital ( Morningside)I noticed every single one had been taken out of the windows, this was 6am!! Ashamed? Why?
On 19th September 2014 one of my wife’s best friends phoned to say she was gutted at the result. Thanks to social media I was able to tell her that 7000 Scots had joined the SNP overnight and the fight goes on. The rest is history.
[…] Once upon a time […]
What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value.
Our road has many miles to travel, but we are truly blessed by the quality of character of our traveling companions.
Independence isn’t a political view it’s a state of mind. A belief in a better tomorrow, pitted against us are complacency and fear, and that never wins in the end.
My last sentence that I tried to edit but pressed the wrong button should read as:
I appreciate that there are supporters out with the SNP but we would not be in the position of where we are today if it were not for those no longer with us who campaigned for Independence.
Scotland- No place for nuclear weapons.. sticker.
A3 generic logo posters ready for the windows.
Nice anecdote, and it’s good to hear kindred spirits who feel as passionately about freedom for their country as I have always done.
It’s not about public spending, the NHS or Universities etc etc.
Scotland is more than that to me.
Much more.
Dry your eyes and on your feet.
Very apt for that day. We all had a greet.
I don’t think the yoons would have been greeting if it had been a yes. They seem an unemotional bunch, only concerned with their wallets.
When we win, I doubt anyone will weep for the UK.
Marcia at 11.36
I was a counting agent at Hamilton in 1967 and I don’t think, nearly fifty years later, that I’ve ever had a better feeling. But 1967 was some year. The Hamilton by election. Scotland thrashes the World Champions at Wembley. Celtic win the European Cup. We thought we would be a few years to independence.
It’s been a long, long road,
What a lovely piece of prose.Well done Lynn.
On the morning after the referendum I removed the Yes stickers from my car and replaced them with some new SNP ones.I moved immediately into “hold their feet to the fire” over Devomax mode.We all had our own coping strategies.
The Unionists won the referendum on the promise of Devomax.They have now delivered the maximum power to Scotland that they’re prepared to let us have.Thats our lot.Its not enough.I’ll be donning my Yes badge again before too long,I suspect.
Most Scottish children are growing up in a household with atleast one Yes supporter.Tick Tock.
@Marcia
As one of those who chose not to join the SNP I only have this to say.
I have great respect for you Marcia as it undoubtedly was you and all the other stalwarts who got us to where we are now. There has been a massive shift in Scottish Politics as I’m sure you’ve noticed.
I am one of them and although late in coming to the party am no less dedicated than you are in the goal of Independence. I think you know that already.
Since I even started reading this site I always looked out for your posts, they helped inspire me to do a bit more.
Marcia, what do you drink? I’m due you one and your not far away 🙂
Lovely piece of writing Lynn on a day I feel frustration, anger and disappointment.
What a wasted opportunity. I watched the leaders debate, watched them debate all the measures we have to deal with all the fallout of poverty without actually having the big levers to improve the economy. It seemed pretty unimportant because the measures that are required to transform society all lie at Westminster.
The measures to grow renewable technology rests at Westminster.
The controls of almost all taxes rest at Westminster.
The measures to grow exports rest at Westminster.
The measures to increase the population and taxbase rest at Westminster.
But if there is a problem now in Scotland it can be, has to be mitigated by the Scottish Government.
If you want me to pit up a shed don’t give me an empty toolbox. And don’t ask me to cook a big meal with a couple of forks and a pirex dish. We need the full bhuna.
Honestly- looking at the yoons crowing about deficits makes me so angry- there’s a big graph on how shite we are in the guardian (which I won’t even commit to archive) and even though their figures of income and export are distorted already they canna help themselves and have to use the old false axis trick to make it look like our expenditure is about 3 times that of our revenue.
What other purpose is there for setting the base of the y axis at £45billion? This endless deception… well, it must end. And why do we get everything divided into revenues with oil and without oil. It is in our waters. Even some of “their” oil is in our waters. Its our fucking oil!
Lets see graphs of London expenditure against revenue with and without the financial sector. Lets look at how London’s finances were performing without the financial sector during the financial meltdown.
England’s deficit doesn’t exist as a term. Nor does Wales have a deficit apparently. And Northern Ireland doesn’t have a deficit either. No- but a wee google and you’ll find page after page on Scotland’s supposed deficit- a country which up until now had zero capacity to borrow and even now has very little control over the major levers of growth.
If you want to tell me why we are better together a good place to start would be demonstrating how well off we are. Telling me 310 years in an asymmetric union has destroyed our economy is not an advert for another 310 years. It does not appeal to me for another single day.
I’ve never removed the “YES”, “Yes2”, “Bairns Not Bombs” “SNP Dundee” and “Red Tories Out” stickers from the back of my van.
We’ll get there…
@Tam Jardine
Sometimes I think I’m capable of posting just what you post. Nice post and well said, gives me breathing space.
@Tam Jardine
Thank you.
You have said what I want to say.
Loved that.
One thing I will say is this.
We could have all been born into an independent Scotland.
Think what that would mean, all our energies and creativity going into just normal living and striving to make our country one we can be proud of one our children can be proud of.
But we were not, we were born into a country which does not have normal levels of self government but one which is ruled by a numerically much larger partner with an elite which has very different ideas from us.
So for many of us, we have had to devote a significant portion of our energies, creativity, money and time – in some cases several decades – to a cause we might sometimes be brought to wonder ‘is it really worth it?’.
I’m sure many of us have at times thought ‘Fuck it, if most of our fellow Scots are too lazy/stupid/feart to take their heads out of the sand and face reality, then I might just as well join them. And some, me included, may even have tried to ‘escape’.
But then the unfairness, the exclusion, the compassion gap and the just plain wrongness of it all niggles and niggles till soon we are driven back to the cause. We have no choice.
It is not something we would have want to have done, it is something we need to do. No diversion or hobby this.
Yes, we might feel resentful, at times, that this has taken a significant portion of our lives. I’m sure most folk would immediately say they would far rather have lived in a time where such demands were not a factor.
But we should also remember too to be grateful. Grateful that we live in a time where we have the opportunity to right a great wrong, not many generations have that and I’m sure it has caused each and everyone of us to examine ideas on fairness, democracy, culture and identity to a much deeper level than we might otherwise have done and have doubtless grown as human beings because of it.
@Tam Jardine
Great post. Income tax powers are like a toolbox with a single hammer.
The hope is that the Scotland Bill powers, however limited, are a taster for more to come. That people start getting used to having certain tax powers in Scotland, and start to ask themselves – Why are we restricting ourselves like this ?
I would like to see Nicola to make that point in these debates.
If it wasn’t for the SNP we wouldn’t have these new powers in the first place, but we need FAR more.
I’m having to pretend I’ve got something in my eye here. That was beautiful Lynn, and I think true for most of us on this site. We’ll get our happy ending, because we’re the ones writing the story. I don’t even mean Yessers, btw; I mean everyone in Scotland. I wish everyone (including the strident no voters) understood that – the future of Scotland is a future that all of us will make together.
We’ve been so much more confident since the referendum as a nation, and so much more prepared to stand up for what we want in Scotland. It is making a vast difference. I think we’re finally breaking free of feeling that we get told what to do, and are actually now telling our politicians and the media, for that matter, what it is we want. I don’t think that particular genie is ever going to go back inside the bottle in Scotland.
So we’ve had a great win when you think about it, not a loss. The next step is independence – there’s just a feeling of inevitability about that. The other wonderful thing the Ref showed us is we can make a huge difference as individuals and as a collective. So we really do have a say in how our country develops after independence. The awakening of the Scottish people and the belief that we can make change happen and do have power and a say in things has been the most wonderful thing I think I’ve ever seen. It makes it impossible for me to be very sad that we’re not currently celebrating Independence Day; that will come.
Lovely story.
Beautifully piece and my blog of the day, because it is not just positive about independence, but of life itself.
Thank you
OT The New Zealand flag.
Rejection of the design was NZ Labor inspired. They hate the centre right Government of NZ who initiated the campaign and cannot get a foot in the door election wise. And the NZ media used the ‘ my grandfather died for that flag.’
Labor are petty minded but strange to say the Kiwi PM is a monarchist.
Right mixed up wee country.
This story brought back a memory, buried deep not forgotten but barricaded away with the unpleasant memories we don’t want to remember.
The day started well for my wife, up early proudly standing outside a polling station greeting people as they arrived and smiling and wishing them well when they left no matter how they voted. By early afternoon things took a turn for the worst as a bunch of labour supporting orange order thugs stood beside her being down right abusive.
My wife can handle herself, she’s strong minded and intelligent so it was more of an annoyance than anything else. I knew some of them as she was in an area that I was brought up in so it came as no surprise that they were abusive towards two women standing for the yes side. Afterwards there came the count and the abhorrent behaviour of the Tories and labour support who were there just finished off one of the worst days of her life.
the unpleasant memory I buried is my wife crying tears of despair when she gets home, she’s not crying for herself or because of any loony yoons,, she’s crying for our son, who doesn’t have a voice, who won’t be able to stand up for himself, he’s one of many people who can’t, who rely on others to live as normal a life as possible and 55% of the people in his country have just let him down.
It took a few days to come to terms with the result and start the positive fight again, I think the yes movement has become stronger since that horrible day and we’ve seen what the Tories are doing to the disabled so her tears and feelings were warranted, they were tears from a mother who like many will fight till their last dying yes movement breath to protect their children.
I’m thinking I might not bury it so deep now cos there’s love, pride and hope in this memory.
Yes forever.
That’s us all back together again then – now a quick group hug and get on with it xx
Awa to the hills to the caves to the rocks
we’ll hae nae usurper we’ll couch wi the fox
but tremble false whigs in the midst of yer glee
Ye’ve no seen the last of my bonnets and me
Great story Lynn. The second chance will come again for indie and this time it will be taken. On a similar optimistic note, try reading this and not being moved. With youth like this (my daughter in this case) coming through and stubborn old Yoon goats diminishing, its gonna happen.
bellacaledonia.org.uk/2015/03/03/our-future-in-our-hands
Lynn: You made an old man cry. But your name is synonymous with Scotland’s quest for freedom. The Blair’s of Ayrshire have always been in the forefront of any quest for Scotland’s Freedom.
Sir Bryce Blair was an adherent of Sir William Wallace but was executed by the English at the Barns of Ayr in 1296.
His brother’s son, Roger, was knighted by King Robert the Bruce for his services before & at Bannockburn.
Chin-up we will never give up our right to be free.
Ma wee A4 ‘YES’ poster, hiznae moved aff ma front bedroom windae. In its no gonnae, eethurr.
belter lynn, inspirational stuff
i was crushed on the 19th of sept, i binned all my yes stuff about 5am
but through the subsequent weeks of darkness, chinks of light have appeared, your bracelet is but one example.
post the 19th was about the snp, the next few weeks will also be about the snp.but after the holyrood election it will be time to change hats, in a few weeks time, it will be the time for YES,
the first action of the reborn yes will be the distribution of the wee black book. this is the event that will draw the strands of yes back together, it will also kick start the next yes campaign.
question stu?
will you be producing a hard copy of the WBB, and how many?
yesnef got its mojo back tonight
Can we crowd-fund to cover the costs of publishing the Wee Black Book
The moral is that you are the charm.
Scratched and scuffed as you may well be,after such an emotional defeat.
You,and everyone like you are the charm….and the yes is in our hearts,not in simple trinkets.
Sorry, don’t know how to do the link thing.
May I recommend The Flame Still Burns by Strange Fruit.
You will get it on u tube. Hope it up lifts you all a wee bit. Turn the amp to 11.
Nice story BUT…
So sorry to strike a discordant note, but I find this post and much of the Still Yes outlook unhelpfully sentimental and insular.
I don’t think there will be a re-run of last time; the situation will be different. Not to say that we won’t win independence and a better, fairer society but it will be hard-fought over several years to come.
Have discarded Yes nostalgia – keen to move on. I just campaign/canvass for all I’m worth. Both votes SNP. EU Remain. Get the corrupt and incompetent unionists out of local government.
More interested in No voters than Yes. They’re the ones we have to persuade and in their own terms, not by being sentimental or superior but through convincing arguments and understanding.
I came home for the referendum. On the morning after, one of my children called from London, knowing what a state I would be in. I could barely speak, but she said to me, “Don’t be sad. This could be the beginning of something even greater than you have imagined. Winning by a small margin would not have been the result you really need. You need most of Scotland with you.”
In the days and months that followed I realised her wisdom. The swelling ranks of the SNP, the election of 56 SNP MPs and hopefully a rout in the Hoyrood election. It shows that the inexplicable result in 2014 was not the settled will of the Scottish people.
There is a time for everything and ours is yet to come.
Lynn … that is ACE !! and typifies the TRUE Scottish spirit, unbowed, undefeated, forward-looking & community spirited …. to quote the most famous extract from The Declaration of Arbroath (6th April 1320) …”for so long as but one hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for Glory, nor Riches, nor Honours that we are fighting .. but for Freedom, for that alone which no honest man (or woman) gives up but with life itself”
Aww Lynn, I loved your tale!
Like many, I expect, I thought it was the Rev speaking! He’s a real softy after all, I thought! Ah well.
At first I thought, one day thousands of years from now, archaeologists would find your charm, and that was it’s destiny, to guide the future back to this incredible time.
But you found your lovely wee charm, against all the odds! That is special. And deserves to become a hand me down = )
That wee charm is a part of Scotland’s history.
Aye, it is hard that this was not our day of celebration. But I believe that there is a good reason for that. What we are forging now is being anealed in fierce fires and will emerge as strong tempered steel. That is what we need and it is what we are making.
The yoons won the battle, but lost the war on the 19th. Our time is coming, Scotland has awoken from its long slumber and will not go back to being passive about it’s future. Independence is coming, possibly sooner than you think.
I…I…I…think I have something in my eye, excuse me, sniff.
I have so many great memories from 2013/2014… The BBC Demos, The Rally in Edinburgh, George Square numerous times, The Yes Bar, the ‘Autumn Leaves’ film premiere, Songs for Scotland gig… the list goes on.
That kind of hope and engagement never dies… it just makes you hungry for more. Haste it back.
We were out canvassing last night, and guess what? you will not see any unionists doing the same, no sign of them in our area ever.
It may be a long slog to get there, but we are still doing it.
Being YES is like being scottish, and I believe you don’t just have to be born in Scotland to be scottish, its more that feeling of wanting things to be fair and just, a part of a society that puts the person before property or party.
Independence is right for us and a few years after we achieve it, the naysayers will wonder why they ever opposed it.
We keep chapping the doors, we keep talking our country up, we never accept the shite from westminster and its pet media as normal and have SNP always puts Scotland and its people before party politics, well independence is coming.
And if you watched the “leaders debate” last night fits to stop us.
Sunny day for the canvass.
May 2016/17 to get rid off more lying, devious unionists. Independence can’t come soon enough.
The Tory/Unionists have crashed the Scottish economy again and are gloating about it. Give them a good sent off.
A lovely story well told.
I think we all need to remember Bruce and the spider. SNPx2 will be a start!
link to caltonjock.com
link to caltonjock.com
The Herald captions are out of sync with the photos.
A comic.
I’m just greetin’ – again.
Brilliant!
Great uplifting article Lynn.
Not only was I feeling down yesterday, but the day before I had to sit in the company of a yoon going SNP bad yada yada, Forth road bridge fiasco yada yada New forth crossing chinese steel yada yada, new southern general disaster yada yada, police scotland a disaster yada yada. Thousands of Immigrants on benefits yada yada.
Sun shining today, clocks forward at the weekend.
Things are looking up
O/T links
Tories-sneak-out-land-registry sell off
link to archive.is
MoD does not know how much deterrent will cost.
link to archive.is
Artist taxi driver talks to Sakina Sheikh about the nightmare of TTIP
link to youtube.com
Osborne responds to labour
link to youtube.com
I myself am on a knife edge. I cannot in truth say I am getting more positive, but instead ever more cynical.
I cannot reconcile the YES optimism and momentum, losing to a NO campaign which could not put boots on the street.
What does that mean? Did the NO campaign understand it wasn’t required for victory? Are we YESSERS spending our efforts on matters which might promote a sense of inner well being and confidence, but which don’t actually win?
Relax, that isn’t a criticism; a YES presence on all fronts is vital. We Independentist’s now “own” YES to the extent the next referendum will see YES and Independence being joined at the hip.
So how can such a feckless, unlike-able, inarticulate, badly organised and poorly supported NO campaign which could not provide a single argument in favour of the Union walk away in victory towards the ermine overcoat wardrobe?
I feel like we are missing the Heiniken factor; the beer which reaches the parts that others can’t reach.
It might make me unpopular saying so, but winning in May won’t change anything. We already have an outright majority for an SNP government. We also have near universal SNP representation at Westminster. So can someone please explain how, like YES, this full spectrum of SNP representation is being held in check by the same “invisible” unionists who need to bus in supporters to pad out their assemblies? What am I missing here?
We all dwell on the Labour Party, then we dwell on the Tories, then we pity the Lib Dems, but these parties are already irrelevant up here. The boast a token presence, and a presence with a chequered past. Victory is no longer about beating them. They are beaten. Whipped. Run out of town. Afraid to show their face…. Yet power still eludes us. They enjoy power, presence and representation way beyond their means.
We are fighting to win battles that are already won, but these do not give us our freedom. It is the battles we haven’t won yet where our path to Freedom lies. We have yet to win the war of propaganda, even a stalemate is beyond us. Hellfire, it seems we can’t even sustain a formal grievance on the matter. This is where our future is being determined, and we remain helplessly outgunned and ineffectual.
I cannot get excited about May. Win, lose or draw, the morning after propaganda is already written, and the pro-union storm troopers and siege engines won’t even be put on alert. Look at the scarecrows already manning their barricades.
We’ve still got the big YES sign in the shed ready and waiting!
O/T links
link to athousandflowers.net
link to lawrenceserewicz.wordpress.com
link to bipartisanreport.com
Meant to post this a while back
link to theconversation.com
Friday the 19th of September was a rather odd day for me. I hadn’t taken the day off, and so had to go to work. That meant no staying up during the night to watch the results come in. However, from around 4.30am onwards, I awoke, picked up my phone, and saw the first half dozen results.
I just knew there and then.
At 6am, I got up, got washed and dressed and sat and studied for 2 hours before going to work. At the time, I worked in a major insurance company (I can’t say who), but was based within their Head Office in the same room as tax auditors and legal staff. There is a moment in that day that will stick in my memory until the day I die. A moment of crystillization you could say. It made me growl and I realised then that we were not ‘Better Together’. So much for the healing of wounds and coming together.
As I sat quietly at my desk trying to ignore the rest of the world, an individual from one of these teams came in grinning like a Cheshire cat. His colleagues looked up, smiled and then laughed. And then they all got up and started high-fiving each other. I could hear them saying how Scotland had voted the correct way and stopped oblivion from happening. I just sat there looking on in disbelief. Here I had countrymen of mine cheering against Scottish sovereignty.
You have no idea how much I seethed at that point. In the injustice of it all. For myself, I had been out canvassing for literally a year. I had ran myself into the ground, for not only I was canvassing and working, I also had to find the time to stay on top of my Uni Course that I was also doing. For a year, I had gotten up, studied for two hours, went to work for about ten hours, came home, canvassed for two hours, and then studied for another two after that before going to bed. Then I simply repeated the process for the next 300 odd days until September 18th 2014.
And yet, here were these clowns; privately educated; never did one second of canvassing; hadn’t participated in any real debate …were crowing about …’their victory’. I wouldn’t even call them ‘weekend warriors’. They had done sweet FA in the Referendum, but yet, here they were celebrating as though they had led the campaign personally.
What did I take from that moment. Not a lot. I shook my head in derision and disgust and just got on with the day.
However, as time went by, I realised I was the better person; not in an ‘us and them’ way. But because the Referendum had changed me mentally, and had made me a better person overall by making me wore worldly-outlooking. I had gone out on to the streets, in all weathers, visited places that shocked me to the core as I saw depravation like never before, engaged with the public, met new friends with whom I still canvass with to this day. I understood what it was we in the ‘Yes’ campaign had been trying to do; to make Scotland a fairer, more equal and more united society. A better nation.
Better Together’s campaign in which they tried to hold up teh same set of values has crumbled into ashes. I have watched the lies and deceivement of that campaign unravel over these last 18 months. Now, the key party of that campaign is divided and at each others throats, both over Europe and over a budget that was insensitive and disgusting. Better Together? Well, apparently not.
In the end. We were right; they were wrong. We are still here and still going strong. The Better Together campaign will struggle to revive itself again the future. So divided that they are. At this point, they would not be able to agree on the colour of the sky.
A lot has passed in that time. I still do the odd bit on canvassing (not as much due to Uni commitments) and I am away from that company (now based out in one in Livingston and practically next door to my house. Trevelling you could say, is fantastic. No more commuting).
But as to the issue of independence. It is happening; slowly …but it is happening. The Unionists can see their ‘Britain’ is in a complete and financial mess; has lost all ‘social and moral’ respectability thanks to the Unionist parties of Westminster; has lost its way in the UK, Europe and the world; and has seen the UK breaking further apart before their eyes. Their Referendum ‘victory’ didn’t heal the United Kingdom; it broke it politically, economically and socially. Eyes are turning the other way. People are seeking alternatives.
Yesterday, on the day that was meant to be our independence day, I just told those who were a bit down to look what had happened over these last 18 months, and that simply …our day will come.
And it will.
For me, the biggest antidote to the utter devastation felt on the 19th September was the realization that I was not alone.
I have never been actively political yet had this overwhelming urge to join the SNP. It then started to leak out that tens of thousands of people were doing the same thing. Yes voters were not slinking off into the night. There were people as hurt as agitated and as determined as me to do something, anything, to right what felt like an enormous wrong.
There was no advertising campaign, no recruitment drive, yet in the hours and days after the 18th tens of thousands of people, unbidden, were making the same decision. The movement for independence, far from being dead or even wounded, was more alive than ever.
Since then we have had rejuvenated, packed out SNP conferences. The utter joy of the 56 being elected. The sight of them being treated with contempt in Westminster keeps the fire burning. The union jackification of products keeps the fire burning. The overwhelming media bias keeps the fire burning. The fire will not go out until we are free. The loss in September will be viewed by historians as a minor skirmish
SNP x 2
Lovely story Lynn, and glad you found your charm, a token for all of us.
We are far from finished in fact we have just begun.
I too a sorry for the people who did not live for today, we live in interesting times and our independence may come swiftly, I have watched some wonderful things happen that way. The Berlin Wall for instance.
“…a little scuffed maybe, but imbued with more character than before.
I loved that, Lynn. What a great story. That sums up the YES movement perfectly. The yoons thought they had destroyed us. They thought we were out for the count, and yet within minutes of the result, we were up again, standing taller than ever, people were flocking to join the SNP. They are in no shape to fight IndyRef 2, they destoyed themselves in the process, and we will be stronger, experienced and more clever than before. No wonder they are terrified of another indyref. After their costly, phyrric victory, the angry yoons quickly realised that they could never defeat us, and that we will win eventually. No wonder they are so bloody miserable. 🙂
If you are thinking you are being controversial… I can’t be certain what the real result of the Referendum was.
My blank Referendum ballot (no barcode/serial number), along with the 51/49 poll days before and the SNP getting 50%+ in GE15, all suggest to me that Yes is at no less than 50% and it has not been since a good bit before September 2014.
The Politicians can say all they like about the result of the Referendum being legitimate… Issues such as no exit polling and my ballot paper suggest otherwise to me. My confidence in the result we ended up with in 2014 is less than satisfactory and leaves a bad taste.
Myself, I just got pished.
Great story and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, thank you 🙂
What Brian McHugh said above : “My blank Referendum ballot (no barcode/serial number)”
Same for mine, infact it was almost as if the ballot paper was a poorly aligned, faded photocopy. No serial number, no barcode, nothing. It just didn’t sit right with me at the time and I felt something wasn’t quite right.
The ballot papers for the GE last year on the other hand were as I expected – neatly laid out and had a barcode.
I honestly believe that there is a wealth of talent and potential within Scottish people that will be released come Scotland’s Independence.
In life there are grey areas between right and wrong.
Scotland being Independent is, and will always be ‘right’, for the rest of time.
Let’s make it happen sooner rather than later.
Telling lies, cheating and trying to fear people is no way to win any Referendum.
EU membership benefits Scotland and costs nothing.
UK membership costs Scotland £13Billion a year and a £300Billion Oil Fund.
Skozra, we are not alone. I also raised an eyebrow at Glasgow and Dundee both having the lowest % turnout rates, who just both so happened to be the Yes strongholds… particularly with the engagement levels and even folk who don’t even live in Scotland coming back to vote. Was it 85% total turnout? I have yet to meet anyone who didn’t vote on that day.
Thepnr 12.13
Thanks mate. High praise indeed. Difficult to sum up feelings in a few paragraphs – Lynn’s piece of writing is a beautiful example and the Rev’s timing in publishing it yesterday is impeccable as ever. Will see you the morn.
Remember Wingers- Waxy O’Connor’s in Glasgow Saturday afternoon/evening. More details off-topic
The braying, open mouthed triumphalist screaming of the Unionists on the night of the 18th September have nothing to match that small story, that’s why they will lose.
Maybe 18th September 2014 was our Bunker Hill. As Colonel William Presscott, commanding the Congressional troops, lead the 1200 men under his command in the retreat from Bunker Hill, he said, “I would like more defeats like that”.
The first battle in the creation of an independent country.
Brian McHugh, I realise for some here that we may have indeed been cheated out of Independence does not sit well but the British Establishment is not known for being fair or decent regardless of the picture it likes to paint. The Irish went through similar hoops before resorting to the gun. When they can squeeze no more money out of us they will hand it to us, other wise we will have to continue to struggle and hopefully someone else in the world will take our part.
The other way, England votes out of EU, and decides to make a clean break from Sweatie Socks, only hoping.
Great wee story Lynn. Polls still say that support for independence remains solid. We’ve still got some way to go but we’ll get there in the end.
The memories of that day will live with me for the rest of my life. The scenes from George Square were truly disturbing to say the least.
The inspiration for me to carry on came from my son he had been at the Parliament building to wait for the results coming in, there were many people from all over the world there with him, as he realised that it was a No vote, he sat with his head in his hands in tears.
A young foreign student approached him and said to him not to be sad, to be proud, that Scotland and the Scots through having the referendum had woken the world up to democracy. I wish I knew who that young student was to thank him for giving my son hope, to let him know that he was not alone, and in turn, gave me hope too. We all picked ourselves up, dusted ourselves down and carried on.
The biggest inspiration for me is the good people who participate on Wings and the Rev for his tenacity in keeping us all informed of the bullshit coming from the established msm, my utmost respect to each and every one of you.
The unionists have only bought themselves some time, we will be independent one day.
Of that, I am very sure.
I was distraught after 18 September 2014. It was a bereavement. And it was then that I fully understood, for all the intellctual arguments back and forth, this was an emotional matter of identity. And I think – and hope – it has given me an insight into how the British nationalists will feel when they finally lose so that they can be best comforted and reassured. Although I do wonder if they will be a bit more violent and obstructive in their reaction.
It never fails to amaze me that while the unionists and their media proclaim how patriotic they are.
At the same time they gleefully take every opportunity in doing down their country and its people.
But then as history has shown there were others in Europe who also professed themselves as being patriotic, Quisling, Degrelle, Laval etc who sold out their peoples and countries.
Of course their fellow country men and women certainly didn’t view them as patriots, they had another description for them, collaborators.
Helena, certainly not resorting to the Gun… The pen is mightier than the sword. 🙂
Democracy is all about confidence in it… my Referendum experience left a shortfall of that necessary confidence before the result was even announced.
Thanks for that uplifting story Lynn. Sometimes things are just meant to be, and one of those things is Scottish independence. It will come even if I am not still around to see it.
Some outstanding posts on here.
As Almannysbunnet says:
“the biggest antidote to the utter devastation felt on the 19th September was the realization that I was not alone.”
And not only are we not alone. We are growing. Onwards and upwards.
nana @ 11pm
Oh nana thank you!! Read Lynn’s blog and happy she found her ‘yes’ then scrolling down to your piece… then I read the link… I know you just posted a link but it made me cry with laughter!! I read it as ”wipe your eyes on your feet” Silly I know but after feeling down it just struck me as maybe prophetic??? Just wondering now WHO’S feet we will use? Hope springs eternal and we will succeed! Hail Alba!!
What a lovely story Lynn, that really connected with me somehow. What is meant to be WILL be:- you finding your charm, (against all the odds) and Scotland becoming a free and democratic nation – (Despite the BBC and MSM shills)
It WILL come, and sooner than they thought.
Well said Lynn, dunno how long champagne keeps but my bottle of “The Widow” is still in the press. 🙂
Depressingly the NZ folks have voted to keep the Union Flag add-on. Back home it’s a sectarian symbol in Ireland, ditto in Scotland & adopted by the right & National Front in England. It unifies nobody.
Had spent the night sitting up waiting for my husband to get back from the count after watching the results come in. Tears had dried on my face by the time he came home.
But for me the worst was seeing my son’s face in the morning, that is when the enormity of the No vote hit me. Realising the future the No folk had chosen was to subjugate the generations to come.
By teatime we had joined the snp. Later that night I switched on my computer and saw others had done the same.
Not ever going back to what was, only looking to what will be and hopefully will be soon.
Both votes Snp
Thanks for sharing that. Stories like these make a difference. We need them to keep strong and reignite hope during the down times.
Still Yes, always yes
Yours Aye
Hevvabeccywoss 🙂
The history of Scotland is losing battles but winning wars. So it goes.
Friends, neighbours, fellow Scots, do not despair. We shall overcome and we shall deliver to our children the promise of all our ancestors – that our children’s children shall inherit a better world, a better Scotland than we did.
I know as an English Scot, an immigrant to this land, that always in my heart I see their faces, unborn, unknown but loved yet. And I see their hope.
The Dream shall ever die.
Hail Alba
I left the exhibition centre count Aberdeen in the early hours of the 19th. broken hearted. Only one thing will end that pain and that is an Independent Scotland.
…one day
Nice!
Lynn nice piece of writing.Most of us wishing for a free Scotland are hardcore there is no going back.I cannot imagine giving up the dream otherwise i would lose part of myself.I dont covet one square inch of England i just want our”wee bit hill and glen”.
Still got and wear my yes rubber yes wristband and it aint coming off ever!!.
@Nana… etal
All good posts.
We will overcome! 🙂
Last night on the TVs there was a repeat. No surprise there. It was Billy Connely a audience with. The audience comprised many well kent faces of TV and sport. Many now dead. Any way they were laughing their socks of as Billy played the court jester and did his country down in just about every sketch. No friend of Scotland. Made his money and fucked off.
Scotland is unfortunate in its location……. we are needed by England and America(not for the oil, thats the redherring) and both dont and never will allow the Scottish people the opportunity to be a nation? Id say for certain that a number of Yes votes and others who “Never Really” voted were used in the No win..
PROVING IT WILL BE THE HARD PART,,,,,,,,anyone fancy being spied on and followed for the next 20yrs of their lives??? go for it.
Like some others here I too didn’t have the foresight to book a day of work for the 19th.
I had spent the 18th completely elated that this was the day Scotland was exercising true democracy, and would hopefully get the right result. I remember thinking, I wish I could live the rest of my life like this, what a feeling.
I went to bed not long after the polls closed and had my alarm set for a only a few hours later to catch the results. Well that didn’t go as planned. I actually can’t remember if I stayed up, or went back to bed, I do remember knowing early on we weren’t going to make it.
Work was strange. I worked in a bank office in Edinburgh at the time, and the vast majority of my colleagues were actually yes. The mood was subdued to say the least. I was pretty much a zombie. One of the few no people tried to make a light hearted remark, and I cast him a glare and said I wasn’t in the mood. He shut up instantly. He’s actually a brand new guy, mad Scotland fan and travels all over to see them (I know, work that one out). I later found out he didn’t even vote, that’s how much a no meant to him. And they still won.
On the way home that day I was standing on the surprisingly quiet platform at Haymarket with the result swimming round my head and I thought of my wee boy who had just turned three. I cried. A grown man. This was supposed to be for him. They robbed him off a better life, just like they robbed generations before.
Well you can’t keep me down long. And just last week my wife delivered a beautiful baby girl. So yoons, I’m doubly determined for the next one.
Aye, aw yoan money, bit nae yis fur failing health. Scoattlin’s health iz fine, bit wid bae even healthier wae ah chinesht diet ah independence.
A good omen for the future lynn.
What a lovely, beautifully written article.
My charm is the wee silver Wings badge I got from Stu on the High Street in Edinburgh as we were all assembling for the 2013 indy march. I pretty much decked a guy in a wheelchair to get it in the scrum! (Not totally true – I kind of fell over the wheelchair as it was in the way, and went back for a second badge to make sure the guy I’d tripped over actually got one.) I’d be pretty upset if I lost that, more so than the later crowdfunder perks. I’m wearing it now.
We’re on a journey, and sometimes it takes a little longer than the initial fresh-faced optimism imagined.
Brilliant idea robroy! The wee black book needs to be disseminated as far and as widely as humanly possible. Every single person throughout this land needs to read this, and that takes money. If everyone paid their share…….
Lovely story.
I had an interesting, if not infuriating day on the 18th. I was handing out leaflets at the polling station. A couple better together representatives were doing the same and we had a good laugh – just small talk and no politics.
Then the bride of Dracula took over their leafleting. A proud Tory she happily told me. I welcomed her and tried to engage in small talk. But she wanted to engage in a political argument with me so I duly obliged. Her son’s were in the banking sector in the city you see and so she felt like she was clued up in the economic sense. The problem was, the stuff she was coming out with was utter guff and she couldn’t back it up with any knowledge. It was nice to politely tear her a new one but her reaction was incredible. In the end her exact words to me were “I DONT WANT TO KNOW. I DONT WANT TO HAVE MY MIND CHANGED”
On the 19th I had arranged to drive to the lakes to meet up with English friends – people I really wanted to catch up with.
I was feeling gutted and just empty. This was made all the worse at the services on the M74. As I parked up to go to the loo, a bunch of folk wearing ‘NO’ regalia got out a minibus – all had English accents. They too were southbound on there way back victorious. I wanted to speak to them but just felt too angry so I left it.
I met with my friends who being politically engaged understood a lot more about the referendum than the English press was telling them.
They shook my hand and remarked on what a fantastic campaign YES had been. I reminded them that we lost to which one replied “no you didn’t. Things will never be the same again”
He was right,
The worst I ever felt was on the morning after the 1992 general election. There had been a huge amount of impetus behind the SNP’s “Free by 93” campaign which just seemed to evaporate in the last 5 days before the election. There we were, 13 years after the 1979 referendum with yet another Tory government we did not vote for and no sign of there being a Scottish Parliament. That day there really was a sense of despair. On September 15th 2014 I did not experience anything like that same feeling.
On the day in 2011 when the SNP achieved it’s majority I said to a guy I worked beside that there would now be a referendum on independence. I also thought, “Oh shit! This could bury us for good if it goes badly”. The reason for my pessimism was based on the experience of the referendum of 1979 and the feeling of dread about what then happened to Scotland during the following 18 years. There was also the reality that although support for the SNP was relatively high, support for independence itself back in 2011 hovered around 25 – 30%.
Although the referendum was lost, on the day back in 2011 when the SNP won the election I would have bitten the hand off you for the offer of a 45% Yes vote. Our opponents never thought we would get near that figure. If they had then they would never have allowed us to have the referendum. The 2014 referendum has changed Scottish politics for ever and the independence genie will not be put back in the bottle. September 2014 was our deposit. We will collect on it after the next referendum.
I expected to be gutted on the 19th but I wasn’t. I stood there in the counting hall in Kelso watching Generation Yes crying its collective eyes out and didn’t join in. My subconscious seemed to realise how far we’d come and that this wasn’t the end of the road after all. And Cameron’s EVEL speech didn’t do any harm in that department either.
I couldn’t bear to read Salmond’s speech in the National yesterday, but I’ll keep the paper and maybe read it later. I’m spending Easter with a No-voting friend so I’m just keeping my mouth shut for now.
The worst I ever felt was on the morning after the 1992 general election.
Me too. Especially as I was living in Sussex and had nobody to share my feelings with.
I joined the SNP the following week, determined to do whatever I could. This is why I say to the 2014 joiners, “I know exactly where you’re coming from!”
We’ve come so far since then, and we’re still travelling.
Thanks Lynn for cheering me up. Like Marcia and Dave I joined the SNP in the 1960s before Hamilton. We’ve had so many ups and downs over the years but we have never been closer to Independence. I hope I see it soon.
My daughter lives in NZ and she didn’t vote because she felt that native KIWIS should be the ones to decide.
Re the debate last night. It was tedious for the most part. I did think Glenn Campbell was less intrusive than before (probably as a result of the QT fiasco) and I did like his attempts to get Kezia to answer how their tax rebate would operate. Answer came there none. I thought Nicola looked tired and fed up having to be the butt of countless ‘fiscal deficit’ questions. I do hope we are going to hear more combative responses from SNP spokespersons. No more “mr niceguy”
Never remove my sticker from the back of my Land Rover, it is still there.
Thanks for that! Made me feel the way I did when putting my cross on the ballot, full of excitement & hope.
Thank you so much for all your kind comments.What a lovely bunch you are! I loved reading about your September 19th’s – they’ll be happy stories next time I’m sure. Hope to write for you again sometime. x
I remember being so excited to finally have my opportunity to exercise my right to self-determination. Since the age of 7 or 8 I couldn’t understand why Scotland did not have self-rule. I really believed we had a good chance.
However when I started to watch the results coming in, I quickly saw from the faces of the No side that they were gleeful. They knew they had won, even before the votes were all counted. Nobody has yet answered my question of why the postals were sent to England to be counted.
I was devastated by the final result, and yes, it was grief. However, I like many, joined the SNP officially, and I know in my heart we will get there. The next time though, we must ensure that the vote is completely and scrupulously fair in how it is carried out.
I would like to think the days of the security services are not tracking and following the SNP’s (and our) every move are well and truly over, but am not convinced. We must be smarter, sharper and more cunning than the establishment.
What I AM convinced about is that not only that we can get independence, but when we achieve it, Scotland will be way better off than we imagine. For starters all these amazing people who have tirelessly campaigned for it can start instead to use their energies and enthusiasm to make Scotland richer, fairer, and alleviate poverty. We have Can you imagine if every personal living in Scotland could reach their full potential? Wow. I have eternal hope.
Lynn, there’s an old saying my old granny always liked to use:
“Whits furr ye wull no go bye ye!” It was meant to be!
Great story and thanks for sharing.
@Sheryl Hepworth
I missed your post this morning, so pleased you got a laugh and your own post made me chuckle.LOL
I’ve no doubt that a record number of Plaid Cymru members would have turned up to celebrate Independence Day – we kept on bumping into them during the week of the referendum. But events since then show that Scotland is on course for independence – keep up the pressure.
[…] Once upon a time […]
There is still a burning desire
Tell me about it!
I thought, after starting my own personal journey on the road to independence, in 1946 as a wee Edinburgh schoolboy, inspired by many of the greats in the city way back then.
There have indeed been highs but also many, many lows. I thought I was perhaps immune to political disappointments.
I wasn’t but perhaps I fared much better than many Yes supporters much less less exposed to so many hard knockdowns.
If anyone is interested in a fairly concise history of those political ups and downs they might like to check out this website :-
link to siol-nan-gaidheal.org
Even if Siol-Nan-Gaidheal, (Seed of the Gael), were expelled from the party many years ago just bear in mind that so were both Alec Salmond and Margo McDonnald.
@Taylor says: 24 March, 2016 at 10:39 pm:
“The dream will never die”.
Perhaps not, Taylor, but some of we older guys and gals micht be weel awa, (and thus free), and really independent afore our country is free.
I’m intending to hang on until that happy day. Though it is becoming an increasingly sair fecht as the years roll by.
@Returnofthemac says: 24 March, 2016 at 11:30 pm:
“WOS on the back windae of the car. Ecosse sticker also.
The dream will never die.”
Personally I don’t want the dream to die – I just want it to become a reality.
I think what keeps me going is the fact that the No side are such terrible winners.
Their resolute bad grace about their victory gives me all the courage I need to stay the course. They’re obviously terrified.