Wings Over Scotland

….but not for much longer!

If you ever need to do a cartoon of Slobodan Miloševi?, just draw Lord Forsyth.

Exactly. As England drags itself into the past, with knuckle dragging homophobic, racist bigots like ‘no surrender’ Arlene, Scotland is looking forward.

It really is time we left those dimwits in London to get on with it. Our focus and that of the Scottish Government should be here, in Scotland, and getting us out of this cursed, unwanted, undemocratic ‘union’ with England. Enough of ‘helping them save themselves’. Time for Scotland. Not in a few months, but NOW.

Hearing new passports don’t say European Union on them – it’s all like a really bad dream. except its still happening when you wake up.

Glad Labour sticking to their guns, at the very least for a second vote and CU – May is simply incapable of negotiating with anyone, for her it’s my way or the highway.

It sums up Brexit and the state of UK politics in one simple cartoon – an amazing skill Chris

Geez oh, I was sitting eating my toast when I saw this, bloomin near put me off. Needs a health warning.

Great toon Chris, says it all really. Come on Scotland, time to move forward to our own brighter future. Not backwards with tis bunch o’ eejits.

The middle hit, is creepy Forsyth, and i don’t mean Brucie!!

Scot Finlayson says:
6 April, 2019 at 8:21 am
sorry,

but who`s the middle one ?

Michael Forsyth.

Chris, my Saturday has now officially commenced. Top toon,reminds me of Victorian Dad from the Viz, all self righteous, controlling, smarmy twats who don’t belong to this century and in most cases the last century either.I know what’s best for you , but with morals of an alley cat. Forsyth, the whispering ,ermine wearing creep, Arlene and her coat of one colour

@Scot Finlayson

That middle chap is Michael Forsyth, Baron Forsyth of Drumlean, Secretary of State for Scotland in John Major’s Conservative government (1995–97). Last seen in the Lords opining about tyranny WRT having to change the way the Lords operates to accommodate debating and passing the Cooper amendment, given the time constraints in the Commons. He is best known, I suspect, for being “in charge” when the Conservatives famously no MPs to Westminster.

Curly Moe n Larry but naebody’s laughin .

Well done Chris .

The freak of nature on the right with cast off demob suits, probably got a copy of mein kamph by his bed, the neep on the left’s pin number is 1690 and as for that slithering little turd in the middle………….

The worlds moved on and these ballons want to keep returning to Brigadoon.

Brilliant. As flattering a portrait as those relics deserve.

Another classic Chris, Nice one.
Knuckle draggers having a wee march through Inverness today, I still can’t see the connection with a modern Scotland.

Very good Chris.

.
Chris,

That is both brilliant and utterly depressing.

I feel like vomiting.

All over those three clowns.

Someday, Chris, in an as yet distant but Independent future, your drawings may well be referred to as ‘Old Masters’. But even if not, your genius will always be recognised in this generation.

Brexit has become a global soap opera with no equal, not even Donald Trump. Watched by a worldwide audience which includes both the wealthy and political classes, everyone is forming an ongoing and very negative opinion about the Westminster Government, the UK Parliament and the British Establishment. As part of that opinion, the performance of both the PM and the Leader of the Opposition, leaves a lot to be desired, as Chris Gray points out.

link to chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com

“The personal and political dislike between May and Corbyn is visceral, probably greater than there has ever been, at least in my lifetime, between the leaders of the two main parties. Apparently despite that, but actually compounding it, are their resemblances. As I have written before, they are “remarkably similar in their grotesque rigidity and their slightly tetchy muleishness born of a mediocrity of character, intellect and judgement”. Both, moreover, are instinctively tribal.”

Larry, Curly and Moe.

A peculiar, bilious attack on the Irish from Robert Hardman in the Spectator. Check the cartoon – Scotland missing from the UK map being carved up by the dastardly EU officials.
From Stu’s twitter – can’t archive.

link to spectator.co.uk

Indy2014 and Brexit both demonstrate that Scotland lives still in the deep shadow of the British Empire.

As Spring approaches, I’m reminded that nothing much grows in shadow, including Independence. It’s something we have in common with all British Colonies, as was and for some, still is.

It goes without saying, that deep shadow lies mainly across the minds of No voters.

It does make Scots look quite pathetic.

I wonder how many layers there are of archaic UK government in Scotland. I mean Lord Lietenants, Lords, Crown Estates etc?

Daily Hail back up to SNP Bad mode as they fear Independence calling.
Scottish schools bad as our kids are violent and one, that’s 1, kid fired an
Air pistol at a teacher.

This seems to trump the higher school violence ratios in England and the HUNDREDS
of Youth Stabbing deaths in London alone!

The Hail has uncovered e-mails to Hollyrood that declare indevuduals are unhappy with Scotrail
Services. They forgot to mention that our rails services are more reliable than those in England,
How the rail operators and Abillios EU contract cannot be broken at this time.

One story had a positive message on good work carried out by one MSP.
As his party was never mentioned, we can bet he is SNP.

Back again with Scotland the most taxed area in the UK story.
As expected they refuse to accept the MAJORITY of Scots will
Pay less tax and the higher earners, just like me, are happy to
Pay a couple of quid each month to remove the need of food banks,
Children living in poverty and period poverty.

Money put to good use and not tax breaks for international multi million pound operations.

They truly are in the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Someone saying that a pro-independence poll is showing 37% for and 63% for staying in UK,I have not seen this has anyone else or is it just SiU crap.

Nice one Chris, enough to make you reach for the pitchfork.

Drove in and out of Glasgow just now many bridges occupied by the good folk armed with their Saltires.

If you are on the site I salute you and thank you you made me smile.

I don’t have any time for Michael Forsyth, but for the strangest reason, whenever he crops up, there’s a distant and far away bell ringing in my head that Forsyth was one of the very few Unionists who properly understood the Constitutional ramifications of Devolution.

I have no source to quote you other than a dim ghost of a recollection in my head, but Forsyth knew, and warned, that Devolution was a Constitutional minefield, and that drawing a map through that minefield would inadvertently reveal what a pack of lies the UK Constitution actually was, leaving grievances and arguments about Scottish Independence largely vindicated.

It made me think Forsyth was useful. Not for his “Toryness”, Unionism, or “honesty”, but because he was “one of them”, but one of them who understood the Constitutional truth about Scotland, and that when the game was up, when that Constitutional truth was unravelled, it would be Unionists like Forsyth who would be instrumental in confirming that truth to those die hard Unionists who will never listen to us in a million years. He knows.

I don’t like Michael Forsyth, but he knows what we know. He knows the Union is living on borrowed time and that ultimately, we win. If he had more grace and decency, he might even be worthy of respect as an honourable adversary who might at least be torn to distraction by some diligent argument for Unionism, – but then he wouldn’t be a Tory in the first place. He could, but for his own prejudices, help the rightful dissolution of the Union be a smooth and equitable affair, but it would seem he hasn’t the character that such a thing would take.

But instead, he knows the truth, but peddles the lies regardless, so that makes him the lowest of the low. If memory serves, Ian Laing was a stablemate, and his GER’s creation was equally wilful in its derailment of the truth for Scotland. Their colourful coat of many weasels will sit comfortably on both of these “gentlemens’” shoulders.

And somewhere in a shed, they are probably strangling the poor weasels for Fluffy’s red poncho as we speak.

@Breeks

I think your memory is right. Warned Thatcher to be careful of how to treat Scotland etc. (still a Tory though) 🙁

@Scott
When i hear SiU i reach for my gun….just joking, honestly! After all they’re just such nice guys….just joking, honestly!

OT I had no idea so many ridiculous , so called journalists wrote for the Spectator .Many moons ago I used to read it irregularly.

I have just read the piece highlighted on the Rev’s twitter about Ireland having the cheek to be happier with the French than the British . Someone should tell the writer to read about the evils visited on the Irish by the brutish.

I did discover that the eejit who wrote that particular piece was a Daily mail writer – which explained much!

Mr Cairns , that cartoon disturbed my morning.

Telling it how it is…

Just reading a bit of history,

have read that the three lions of England should be the three leopards of England,

and then some pish that the English confused leopards with lions.

@msean 12:39pm

And he’s still doing it from the HOL

The 18th century is their happy place. A safe space to retreat to in times of stress, although some have never left.

At 11:25 Terry Callachan wrote:

“I was talking to an acquaintance last night about the rising popularity of gin ,he said he buys Gordon’s London gin ,I happened to mention that Gordon’s gin was actually first produced by a Scotsman who went to live in London with his parents and I said it is now actually produced and manufactured in Fife, gee, that touched a nerve, I knew he was a britnat but he went crazy got so angry just didn’t want to talk about it .”

Just as well you didn’t tell him that Pimms, that quintessential English summertime drink, is also manufactured at the Cameronbridge distillery in Fife. Your acquaintance would have burst a blood vessel !!!!

First Class Chris, most enjoyable.

OT good article in the National today from Dave McEwan Hill over the poor ferry service between Gourock Dunoon. What the west coasters need is more infrastructure projects just like tne new Aberdeen bypass, borders railway, Edinburgh trams and Queensferry crossing, A9 upgrade etcetera. When are the west coast and islanders going to see some?

@Scott Finlayson

The Armorial Lions being derived from the Armorials of the House of Plantagenet, French (from Anjou) in origin.
The French referred to them as Leopards but they were definitely referred to and adopted as Lions by the time of Henry II and three of them became the de-facto arms under Richard III (Lionheart) The Plantagenets in England were two Cadet branches (see War of the Roses) of the Plantagenet Royal House
It would be more correct to wonder why the French referred to them as Leopards and which animal they had in mind at the time, the confusion lies with them more than the English armorial.
It’s a well used wee dig in conversation, to find out what Englishmen know of their history; but deriving, if anything, for some kind of retort to the neverending 196* “Three lions on the shirt” refrain, but English Lions they definitely are, if they were ever meant to be Leopards originally, the English Plantagenets changed it irrevocably.

Slightly o/t though maybe not much given some of the characters in the cartoon. Front page of Irish Post was depressing this morning with news of Apprentice Boys parade in Glasgow on Easter Sunday going past Catholic churches for what I assume will not be a joyous ecumenical event. I hope in an independent Scotland that sort of nonsense will soon become a thing of the past.

Forsyth was Thatcher henchmen who covered up her crime. He is an evil little gutter snipe of monumental proportions. A filthy little evil con man. He covered up their crimes when people were starving and suffering unneccessary hardship. He and Neil are the lowest of the low. Nothing changes with these crooks.

He even describes the EU as an unelected consortium, while that thing has been troughing in the HoL for years. The unself aware irony. He can rot in hell. If there is any justice.

The only question anyone has asked. Calling out that low life.

Just watched an advert on *what you’ll need when we leave the EU* if you want to travel

And they do it all in cartoon style with a ladies soft and gentle voice advising us

It goes a bit like this *You’ll need you’ll need you’ll need you’ll need you’ll need

I really really demand NOT to need to return to those days when it cost you a fortune for the stuff you NEED before you even buy a ticket

Watch how arrogantly angry the people who voted for this shit get when they realise they can’t just jump on a plane anymore, or the train, or a boat or even a bus to a European destination they used to take for granted for a weekend jolly

Let’s hear it for the *nobody told us about that* clowns then

Shouting *We’re British* just put them in the outsiders long wait queue where every I is dotted and every T crossed to make sure they’re an eligable person to be ALLOWED to enter the EU

That’s what *I’m British* just got them

Yeah no sectariansism in England they have foreigner and people of colour hatred so they’re pretty well sorted for hatred there

O/T

What’s with the picture of the long haired cat which has been shown on every single on-line newspaper for the last few days?

Simon Curran at 1.41: Glasgow City Council (or whatever it is now called) – and even the Scottish Government – should immediately be bombarded with objections. Deliberately provocative marches of this kind need to be removed from our streets, once and for all.

I know it is tricky to define these things, but Orange Walks on in such areas, routed past Catholic institutions, should be banned. Everyone knows what they mean, and why they want to pass that way. They cannot be compared to legitimate and peaceful forms of demonstration for other causes.

Surely we do not have to wait till independence to take action on this sort of thing. Decent people of all religious persuasions and none – and not just church-going Catholics in the places affected – are opposed to this. That means most of us, no matter what our politics or our religious background.

It is not just a Glasgow problem. If local authorities in Glasgow and elsewhere haven’t got the courage or the will or the guts to deal with it, the Scottish Government should get directly involved. In my opinion, it’s time it did. The least we can all do is contact our MSP, and urge some action.

Decent people don’t defend each other, and affirm each other’s right to go about their business peacefully, without being harassed or threatened on the streets. If they don’t, offensive anti-social behaviour and even downright thuggery will soon take over.

We might not be so far away from mob rule as we think. If you don’t believe me, just contemplate what’s really happening down south. There are extreme Brexiteers seem to think they can get away with any kind of behaviour they like. Juts consider the way MPs have been harassed outside Westminster, going in and out from their place of work. And look at some of the people, not just Orange Order but Nazi-saluting types, that have been on show there in recent weeks, with virtual impunity.

They weren’t demonstrating for peace!

Sorry – correction needed to previous post, which (at the beginning of its fifth paragraph) should read as follows:

‘Decent people NEED TO defend each other, and affirm each other’s right to go about their business peacefully, without being harassed or threatened on the streets.’

NOT ‘don’t’, which made nonsense of it. Thank you.

ORANGE PARADES – and the remarkable coincidence.

There are Catholic churches in only 2% of Glasgow’s streets.
By a remarkable coincidence, the only streets in Glasgow suitable for Orange parades are those same streets.

The English are past masters of the art of dissembling. The notion that they are a tolerant people is part of the scam. However any intolerance is not of a reasoned or intellectual kind, that is something crazy Europeans do, but rather born out of laziness and in the view of the essayist, critic and philosopher George Steiner, indifference. However, it is an indifference that has left and continues to leave a trail of confusion and ‘colateral damage’ in its wake.

gus1940 3.40

I have no idea whether or not publicly burning a uj flag would be good, bad or indifferent for the independence cause.

Wouldn’t even necessarily have to be “public” as such, just film it then upload online, having accompanied the action with a suitable statement outlining why Scotland’s continued subjugation under the WM boot demands such an action.

Personally I’d applaud it but that’s just me. The blustering fury of the bigots and britnats would be a joy to behold.

@Referendum1707
@gus1940

publicly burning a uj flag

IMO it’s not a good image. It has violent undertones and is the sort of mob behaviour you see in less gentile societies. We Scots don’t need to carry out such acts.

Also, many people see it as their flag. While we see it as symbolic of colonial domination and interference, they don’t. They see it as a personal attack. We need to encourage don’t-knows and ‘soft’ Brits to vote YES to iScotland because ‘Britain’ has gone to the far right. We want iScotland to look like a beacon of order in contrast to the chaos of the UK.

No flag burning, please.

I’m quite happy to see the Union Flag disappear and be consigned to the history books.

re. burning flags. Bad idea and not necessary, IMHO. We have Moral Law and Moral Reason on our side.

Anyone know if the Church of Scotland are still wedded to British nationalism?

Reason, Morality, and Law: The Philosophy of John Finnis
On the Most Fundamental Principle of Morality

This chapter explores John Finnis’ several formulations of the most fundamental principle of morality. The best known is that one should always choose and otherwise will consistently choose morality with integral human (revised to ‘communal’) fulfillment. Another formulation requires choice responsive to unfettered practical reason. Underlying the latter is responsiveness to the integral directiveness of practical reason. This last one locates the most basic connection between free choice and practical reason.

Keywords: basic moral principles, integral human fulfilment, unfettered practical reason
link to oxfordscholarship.com

Natural Law: Basic Principles, Objections, and Responses
link to thegospelcoalition.org

MORAL PRINCIPLES ARE NOT MORAL LAWS
link to jesp.org

LAW OF STATES, LAW OF PEOPLES:
Three Models of Sovereignty
link to law.upenn.edu

twathater @ 5.08
While I agree that “the people” need to take a more active role in directing ” the government “,it is something that needs to be handled very carefully..
If it would only take one or two nutty politicians to get to put an issue to a referendum, that may take us down a road we would regret being on.

EG. ( of which there are many but let’s take one that’s not current)
It has been said that given a referendum,most “people” would vote to bring back Capital Punishment.
Yet the awareness doesn’t seem to follow that there are NO laws for killer’s,or paedophiles, there is only THE law.

Therefore “the people” would in effect be voting to give ” the government ” the right to kill them too!
A power most people would then say they don’t think a government should have.

The people aren’t always the answer,because the trouble with democracy is that it assumes that 99% of idiots make a better decision than one well informed person.

We could learn from the way the (N) word is now not used in the US.
They cannot make a Law to ban it because of their Constitutional freedom of speech,yet,no serious person,or person who wanted to be taken seriously would use it today.
It was educated, not legislated, out of the discourse.
We cannot run and vote to make the government change every thing that annoys us.
We need a balance!

Galamcennalath @ 5.41
As long as that extension is not really to be running down the clock on us….
We’d have time to deliver a Yes vote,but we also need time to gain Indy before the next Holyrood elections.
Because Westminster will pull this no agreement shit to be able to use the next Holyrood elections to reverse the Yes vote.
If Westminster have learned anything from this Brexit shit show it’s that the one with the deadline is the one with the disadvantage.

Terry Callahan @ 5.40
I think it really a case of pick yer battles Terry.
Right here right now those marches are no the immediate problem!
If they are threatening or provocative now they’ve always been threatening and provocative… Aye?
Yet now they are more constrained if they step out of line than ever they were.
One things for sure we will definitely be stuck with them if we stay in this bloody Union but we will soon be rid of them when we leave it…
So eyes oan the prize eh!!

Burning any UJ flag would suit a unionist paper for PR. Anyone supporting such an idea is supporting the unionists.

I once knew an Orange-man from Yorkshire – born and bred there – who worked in Africa for a couple of years. While there, he fell in love with an African lady and married her. It was decades ago, and at that time marriages like this were more rare than they are now, not least in Yorkshire housing estates. And ignorance and prejudice about race were not lacking.

So he was a bit worried about the reception his wife would get from his relatives when he took her home so he could introduce her to them. When I later asked him how it had gone, he said it had turned out fine. They liked her and accepted her, no bother. He looked very relieved, and I thought I had understood why his previous anxiety seemed to have gone.

Then he whispered to me: ‘Of course I never told them she’s a Catholic. No one must ever let on about that. And I warned her never ever to mention it. If my family ever found that out, that would be the end of everything! Luckily they don’t know. And must never know!’.

That was what had been making him so anxious all along.

What is all this ‘sectarianism’?

When you think about it, it’s another form of xenophobia. A very visceral form of it. And just as bad, if not worse. Orange Walks deliberately routed to make Catholics feel uncomfortable … Their whole purpose being to make these fellow citizens insecure in places that are actually their homes … As if they had no right to be there … ‘This is our territory, not yours: Get out of here!’ …

Where have you heard about all that kind of thing before? Where, and how did xenophobia flourish in that oh-so-civilized mid-20th Century?

It’s not actually about religion: it’s about territory, and tribe. ‘Us’ against ‘them’. ‘This is OUR territory, NOT yours!’ And the mentality underneath it is very very similar to – if not exactly the same as -the extreme Brexiteer mentality … ‘This is OUR territory (or ‘country’): Foreigner, Go Home!’

It’s even very like Mrs May’s deepest and most important red line: the anti-immigration one.

Orangemen identify themselves as ‘British’. They ARE ‘the British’, in their own feeble minds – Loyal Brits to a man (and woman)! And they identify Catholics as ‘the Non-British’, even ‘the Anti-British’ or, simply, ‘The Enemy of all things truly Brit’. And they hate them for that. At bottom, true-Brit Orange-ists and true-Brit Brexiteers have much in common: they are fundamentally the same kind of xenophobes. Fuelled, finally, by very similar hatreds.

In fact, Brexit played into the one and same mentality. A mentality which you find in some parts of England just as you find it among some people in Scotland, even though it might express itself slightly differently from place to place. And to different degrees in different people.

Orange-ism is one particular (and particularly virulent) expression of that mentality, standing at one extreme end of it. But there are other extreme ends of it as well, which you can find all over England. The mentality in question now has a name: you can call it ‘the extreme-Brit’ mentality.

The Orange Order has got that mentality. So does Tommy Robinson. Nigel Farage (despite the fact that his surname sounds more Arabic than English) has it. So too does Teresa May. Boris Johnson (despite the fact that his grandfather was Turkish) played into it, and played it up, to his undying shame.

This extreme-Brit mentality is the opposite of modern Scottish nationalism. With its inclusive and civic moorings, the Scottish nationalism of today is nothing like it. The Extreme-Brits don’t realise this, and can’t understand, so they continually misconstrue contemporary Scottish nationalism as a blood-and-soil thing, which it clearly isn’t. They are projecting their own blood-and-soil ‘extreme-Brit’ mentality onto us, when in fact it has nothing to do with us.

Such unwarranted projection demonstrates how deeply mired in their own ‘blood-and-soil’ nationalism the ‘extreme-Brits’ actually – and sadly – are. They see themselves in other people. Instead of examining themselves in order to face up to their own failures and defects, they project their own virulent badness (or diseases) outwards, thereby exonerating themselves.

They feverishly bolster their own whitewashed and self-justificatory image of themselves by vilifying and denigrating us. Nothing new here – it’s all been done before. Read 20th Century history – in particular, the horrors of it.

With regard to the SNP, we shouldn’t forget how its moorings in a civic and inclusive form of nationalism were established. This happened definitively, and above all, through adopting the thoroughly modernising notion of ‘independence in Europe’, as a fully-fledged and fully participatinmg European nation. .

That move finally released the SNP from any vestiges of the old Brit mentality that until then still, somehow, held it back. It also delivered the SNP from a ‘kailyard sentimentalism’ that was parochial rather than genuinely national (and international), turning inwards instead of outwards, looking backwards rather than forwards.

As a consequence of adopting a fully pro-European stance, the SNP really did become a Party, and independence potentially a concern, for ALL Scots. It could now attract new Scots as much as old Scots, Catholic Scots as well as Protestant Scots, Muslim Scots as well as secular and atheistic Scots, English Scots and immigrant Scots of all kinds, Scots of all kinds, with all kinds of backgrounds, from everywhere and anywhere.

This was the birth of a Scotland belonging to all, and with which all Scots could identify.

The SNP thus became the Party of the new Scotland – the Party of Scotland’s future. Moored and geared to that future, freely thirled to what WILL be, and not just what once was. Scottish nationalism was less and less associated with an out-of-date Romanticism that looked back with a sentimental tear to a misty-eyed past, and became a viable and vibrant force.

It wasn’t just the oil and the new economic possibilities that did this; it involved a huge sea change in mentality. It brought to birth a nationalism that was also internationalist in outlook and socially of our own day and age, accompanied by a cultural and intellectual renaissance to match. And there was hope – without hope, nothing can happen. Despair and inertia are first cousins, and they play off and confirm each other.

Commitment to future full EU membership as an independent nation – independence within the EU – made the SNP what it now is. Any ditching of it will be a backward step. There were other factors also involved, but that commitment was the definitive step that made the SNP the thoroughly inclusive expression of civic nationalism that it is today.

We shouldn’t forget this. And we shouldn’t be surprised to find that what we and the SNP are now up against is its genuine ‘opposite’. That opposite – total opposite – is the ‘Brit mentality’ we have been talking about, the mentality we are now so painfully witnessing on constant display as the Brexit iceberg looms directly in front of us.

This is the old Brit-Nat mentality which is currently fighting like a mad dog – (‘mad dogs and Englishmen!’ come to mind) – to survive. It does so in total denial of the blatant and obvious fact that it has long since had its day. The world has moved on. It did so a long time ago. And no matter how hard the Mighty May and her unmerry band or Boris the Brexiteer and Muggins Mogg try, they cannot turn back the tide of history. A tide which, in fact, has already washed away the sand castle on which they have planted their tattered red, white and blue flag. Along with everything else they stand for, and are vainly trying to resurrect – the ghost of Englands past!

Time and tide wait for no one.

Just watch the Brexiteers (of whatever stripe) who are all over our screens – and Westminster politics – today. Fighting like ferrets in a sack (of their own making: they freely and willingly jumped into that sack themselves). And see them, and their Brit Nat mentality for what they really are.

How that expresses itself here in Scotland may be externally different from how it expresses itself in England. But it’s exactly the same mentality underneath. The drum-bashing Orangemen parading in front of Catholic churches in Glasgow and the pin-striped sophisticates on the Brexiteer bandwagon in Westminster are all fundamentally of the same ilk. And share fundamentally the same slogans: ‘Foreigner, OUT!’ ‘This is OUR territory, NOT YOURS! OUT! OUT!’ ‘WE are in Control here: YOU have NO RIGHT TO EXIST here: OUT! OUT! OUT!’

I don’t know if it’s true, but I am told that ‘slogan’ is a Gaelic-origin word meaning ‘battle-cry’. These people are at war. And the war they are waging is against their own neighbours.

This is what blood-and-soil nationalism looks like, and it isn’t pretty. Whether it expresses itself as a movement to disunite Europe and rid ourselves of the hated foreigner in our midst, or as a movement to dis-lodge Catholics from our country and make them leave, it is one and the same xenophobic thing. One and the same uncivilized, anti-civic and unjust thing.

What we are witnessing, whether in the halls of Westminster or soon, it seems, in the streets of Glasgow, is the very antithesis – the total opposite – of that civic nationalism which Scotland and the SNP have so rightly espoused. That same civic nationalism, allied as it is to an internationalist and pro-European perspective based not primarily on economic gain but on human rights, to which we must remain fully and unreservedly committed.

We must oppose our antithesis in every civic and civil way possible. For the good of all. Don’t forget: ‘The Brit-Nat (Bull-) Dog has an Orange Tail’. Always did. Still has.

Do you remember the 1930s? Of which we may currently be hearing a gradually increasing echo …

Even as we watch the goings-on inside the crumbling Westminster parliament building. Even as we see pictures of those outside it making Nazi salutes … apparently unhindered by watching policemen …

Take no pleasure in the disintegration that is happening down south, in the heartland of our southern neighbour. Don’t let anyone tell you that it couldn’t happen here …

Be aware; be wary, and act! Before that little echo gradually increases a little bit more … and more … and still more … until, suddenly, before we know it, it has become a tidal wave, an unstoppable tsunami … which could overcome us all …

Even the tail of an angry animal can do a lot of damage. And could even encourage others to do likewise. What isn’t nipped in the bud remains on course for flowering fully …

CameronB Brodie says:
6 April, 2019 at 5:32 pm

“”Anyone know if the Church of Scotland are still wedded to British nationalism?””
……

Was it ever? After the Treaty of Union when the Patronage Act was passed and applied to the CofS against the terms of the Treaty they petitioned Parliament on an annual basis to repeal the legislation and raised two expensive cases in the Court of Session to try to get the Act repealed. And of course there were the two seccesions from the Church because of it. The first in the 1730s and the Great Disruption in the 1840s when almost half the congregations left the CofS and around 10% of the ministers. Thus the Free Church of Scotland was formed.

The Act was repealed around the 1870s and full right restored to the congregation and Church to conduct it’s own affairs.

No monarch has ever been head of the CofS and the church has gone to great lengths to maintain that position even to the extent of dismissing some venues for the General Assembly because it would mean the monarch’s representative crossing the floor of the Assembly. An absolute no no.

The Church has also taken position on issues that by no means fit with Britnat sensibilities. For example, it very publicly and vocally supported the Scottish Government when it released Megrahi. Another example would be its position on nuclear weapons. A position Lord MacLeod of Fuinary campaigned for and was ultimately successful.

These are a few examples of the top of my head but over the centuries the position the CofS has taken on various issues have rattled the British State.

‘The houses of parliament’. An anagram for ‘loonies far up the thames’. Says it all really. Scotland are you awake?.

Put this up on Twitter earlier today:

‘Whether you are a remain or leave voter, would you support the prosecution of the British govt for criminal negligence?’

Yes or No.

500 votes cast so far, 98% Yes.

Ending the union will cut the throat of sectarianism. A swift cut and Scotland’s people can begin to climb out of the the British midden.

Absolutely fantastic cartoon!

I’ve never read such nonsense in my life as I’ve read in this thread. Send the Union Jack back? What? Eh? We’ll need it to fly above Bute House or wherever, whenever the foreign head of state or government of the rUK comes back to visit.

What we’ll do with all the rest of the Union Jacks I don’t know, I guess we could send them back, though hotels and such like to fly a foreign flag when there’s a guest from there staying.

twathater @ 6.55
It would certainly be some discussion 🙂 I’m all for tougher sentences,and the right to die.But I’m a huge advocate for the loss of liberty being the punishment and therefore prisoner’s rights.
The main thrust of my train of thought is what powers do I want the government to have over me and mine in any circumstances?… AkA The person dividing the food eats last…
But you’re right it’s a discussion for another time and place.
Anyhoo..
I also listened to Wee Ginger Dugs podcast and never picked up on Calum Baird saying that, well spotted!
It’s bloody annoying when this stuff happens,but I guess with the way we’ve all been indoctrinated towards the narrative of the British State it’s probably unavoidable!
Don’t you find yourself having to constantly re- translate the phrases in yer head to get away from writing and speaking that way too…
Great fun correcting the kids though 🙂 I can make them roll their eyes almost continuously :-)…
But its working!!!

Re Orange marches. Don’t ban them but let them march round and round the Ibrox track, Surely everybody would be happy with that.

@ Clootie at 12.32

I’ve been out all day, so only just seen your post.

Yesterday I was speaking to my çontact from AUOB. It sounds as if they would be very grateful for your vests, but she didn’t know how to let you know.

I suggested that she post on here, but she has not yet done so as far as I can see. They do have a Facebook page, if you can access that.

@Golnut 6:20pm & @Scott Finlayson

An interesting wee O/T from the usual.
Yes, since Henry & Richard it was definitely lions and as agreed, Lions are indeed a well known heraldic emblem. The whole leopard thing is rather odd though and leads down interesting avenues.
From the Greek ‘Pardos’ for a panther like cat, where “Leopard” itself is an amalgam of “leon” = lion & “pardos” = panther – Similarly the latin “Leo” and Pardus (or Pardulus) a Leopard is literally a “Lion-Panther”
Today lions are in the genus “Panthera” (Panthera Leo Leo being the Western Cape Lion) Bearing in mind also, that although such beasts as lions and panthers had been witnessed by few people directly, outside exotic captives, the Barbary Lions of North Africa & Egypt would not have been unfamiliar to travellers – so perhaps it really is just linguistics rather than the unlikely scenario of being too dumb to know what a lion was.

It’s not beyond argument to suggest that the French “Leopard” was attempting to adhere to a nascent taxonomic description where the English utilised the truncated “Lion” as the specific species in the Panthera genus, such that there should be no confusion – It may well have been a source of contention even at the time.

Yeah bugger all to do with Indy or Brexit but it’s nice to take a breather.

Public policy that undermines national economic performance and social cohesion encourages crime, so is doubly immoral.

Theories and causes of crime
link to sccjr.ac.uk

@Wull (6.21, 6.40) –

Excellent comments there, cheers.

😉

ben madigan @ 7.19, I agree with you on the principle that re-routing the Orange marches is what needs to be done, at least for now. I am not sure how practical it is to put them out in the countryside. It would be nice if more than a wee bit unrealistic to think that a breath of fresh air might help to clear up the marchers’ (rather confused?) minds.

You will have seen what manandboy says at 3.30 pm: ‘There are Catholic churches in only 2% of Glasgow’s streets.
By a remarkable coincidence, the only streets in Glasgow suitable for Orange parades are those same streets.’

If that is right – and I have no reason to doubt it – the real question is this: Why do the authorities in Glasgow permit the Orange walkers to pass through precisely these streets? And why don’t the police object to it, and prevent it?

Passing in fron of Catholic churches is obviously intended as a provocation. There is no good reason for allowing it. I have seen the same thing also happening in other places, for instance in some parts of Ayrshire.

Attempting to stir up or obstruct fellow citizens, who are going about their perfectly legitimate business (they want to pray peacefully in their church), is not a legitimate expression of anyone’s ‘Kulture’. That would be self-evident to anyone, especially anyone in the EU (since Liz also pointed out that the EU protects cultural rights). Catholics also have a ‘cultural right’ to pray in the way they deem fit, without being harrassed or unnecessarily disturbed.

Surely the civil authorities have good reason for sorting this out in a way that would be entirely legal, and which would ensure that Orange marches are re-routed to avoid going past Catholic churches.

I know one place where they actually time their march so that it arrives in front of the Catholic church just as worshipers are arriving to pray, and they stop marching and stand there for a considerable amount of time. So as to obstruct people from crossing the street at that point, which they want to do in order to enter their church. It’s obviously deliberate. And the polis stand idly by.

Mind you, it’s a couple of years since I saw that – maybe (aye, maybe! that’ll be richt!) they no longer do it! Re-routing would not be such a difficult thing to do.

Fireproof jim @ 7.41
I suspect they won’t remove the dark blue at all!
They are too invested in the jack as a recognizable brand.
It’s always really ment England to them anyway
It’s no something I can see any reason to object to either.
Our Saltire is a different shade of blue,although i did like the darker blue better,it’s really just a brand too!

Has anyone heard anything about the OO march in Inverness?

OO marches harass catholic worshippers, Yes shops etc
They also inconvenience ordinary people who are in town for shopping, socialising etc
They prevent businesses from carrying on their usual trading.
They would certainly constitute a “noise disturbance” if they marched through a residential area

I am glad to see we agree they should be re-routed – so the options are to holod them in a remote, isolated area or to have a closed (ticketed) event in a stadium-like structure, which they would have to pay to rent and cover all associated costs like police, security, clean-up etc.

Bet being hit with those expenses would soon reduce the number of OO marches

Wonder if the leader of the DUP would agree with the Baron of Drumlean that the British Border in Northern Ireland is not an issue.

Here’s the deets:

Begins at 9pm till midnight, every single night

link to indylive.radio

The names are all beginning to log-in

Request a song to PLAY from here (simultaneous broadcasting)
link to webcomradio.co.uk

jabberwocky is your radio host

Crazycat

Thanks for getting back to me.
I can access the Facebook page but can not see any contact point.

@Liz g “Sending them back seems the correct thing to do,don’t ye think”

But Liz, think of all the museums that could be given them free for their exhibitions! They’d have to be given instructions as to display of course, or they’d hang them upside down …

@ Clootie

I’ll see if I can find anything out tomorrow afternoon, when I’ll be at another meeting.

I’m not expecting anyone from AUOB to be there, but I might be able to get contact details, rather than relying on chance encounters.

Alternatively there might be people there who are organising the Ayr march with AUOB help, and they might liaise with you.

I’ll try to update you tomorrow evening.

RE: the shade of blue of the Saltire.

This is from:-

link to en.wikipedia.org

“These variations in shade eventually led to calls to standardise the colour of Scotland’s national flag,[13] and in 2003 a committee of the Scottish Parliament met to examine a petition that the Scottish Executive adopt the Pantone 300 colour as a standard. (Note that this blue is of a lighter shade than the Pantone 280 of the Union Flag).
Having taken advice from a number of sources, including the office of the Lord Lyon King of Arms, the committee recommended that the optimum shade of blue for the Saltire be Pantone 300.[14] Recent versions of the Saltire have therefore largely converged on this official recommendation. (Pantone 300 is #005EB8 as hexadecimal web colours.)”

It also says,
“In the case of the Saltire, variations in shades of blue have resulted in the background of the flag ranging from sky blue to navy blue.
When incorporated as part of the Union Flag during the 17th century, the dark blue applied to Union Flags destined for maritime use was possibly selected on the basis of the durability of darker dyes,[11] with this dark blue shade eventually becoming standard on Union Flags both at sea and on land.
Some flag manufacturers selected the same navy blue colour trend of the Union Flag for the Saltire itself, leading to a variety of shades of blue being depicted on the flag of Scotland.”

I’m happy with Pantone 300 for OUR flag.

Don’t worry if you’ve got a dark blue Saltire, wae global warming it’ll bleach in the Scottish sun we’re gonnae get

Why is every Yoon troll blurting on about “our family of nations” every five minutes, we were never ever in our history a family of any such thing, because none of the nations of Scotland Wales and Ireland were ever treated as “Family” we were only ever for the use of or killed

Who do these Yoons think they’re trying to kid wae this nonsense rewriting of historical Britishness again

re. English/British culture.

Cultural Studies and the Sociology of Culture
link to rochester.edu

Human Communication in the British Cultural Studies Tradition
link to people.ucalgary.ca

British Cultural Studies, Active Audiences and the Status of Cultural Theory
An Interview with David Morley
link to research.gold.ac.uk

The culture question: a view from the UK
link to tandfonline.com

You lot seem more concerned about a parade that takes place and probably passes in a few few minutes. Rather than a church that has buggered millions of children and exploited women in workhouses. And of course the support for Hitler and Mussolini.

Yesindyref2 @ 8.58
Well then,we’re gonnay need a lot more museums 🙂

After Independence, who will the Loyalist show loyalty to? A foreign state?

Wull @ 9.45
Good night Wull and right back at ye my friend.

galamcennalath says:
6 April, 2019 at 9:45 pm
After Independence, who will the Loyalist show loyalty to?

Would that not still be Lizzie or her heir, presuming we don’t immediately become a Republic, as she/he will still be Queen or King of Scots – with no doubt obligations to stay here for 6 months per year?