What we could be
Posted on
November 06, 2018 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
…if only we could find the courage among ourselves.
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A tall tale
Wee Books
Video
Probably a robbery
Transphobia
So many independent nations. Scotland’s soul is screaming to join them, if her people could only listen.
Scotland’s brains are in chains.
Ah can dream, can’t I?
Everything everywhere else has escaped touching Labour’s imagination.
1928, the huts were given to ordinary people. Nothing in Scotland was ever for the ordinary people, they are just allowed to live here.
Oddly enough the Norse influence didn’t translate into a greater support for self determination and democracy. In fact it has been used to dismember Scotland by the LibDems in Orkney and Shetland and by Labour in the Western Isles.
Some of us have achieved what others have not. We on Wings and others have overcome hundreds of years of imprinting and control through the usual State techniques of bribing those who claimed to lead us into a better life, with trinkets and baubles of State
The truth is ugly. They led us into subservience for their own gain, and now they wish to banish us completely by removing our identity on our food and other products.
There are those who still cling to the idea of being British ,somehow believing that title includes them in a role of importance. British however is a euphamism for English colony.
The ordinary English have shown they do not worry about Scotland leaving, therefore the Westminster determination of holding on to Scotland signifies very clearly they perceive us as having value..
When you consider our natural resources that value rather explains itself. In any field of human activity the old adage holds ever true .Follow the money. It’s in Scotland.
Norway appears to take democracy seriously. In the UK, we take FAKE democracy very seriously.
The British Establishment with its system of Class and privilege would be unworkable in a true democracy.
Democracy needs no propaganda or brainwashing, but the UK government depends on both to maintain its position and thereby maintain and control the power and wealth of the Establishment.
Seems pretty obvious – unless of course you’re a British Nationalist, in which case, from the point of view of true democracy, you’re virtually brain-dead.
But it’s simply not true ever nordmann does not have a hutte.
I found myself going through the full range of emotions watching this. Uplifted and inspired by the economic, social, and democratic model of a small independent country which has so much in common with Scotland, and at the same time angered and saddened at the potential that has been squandered and ripped away as a result of Scotland being subsumed into the abhorrent UK. Brexit should be the final straw for most Scots and if we don’t react to it and grasp the opportunity that independence would afford us we deserve everything that’s coming as part of Little Brexit Britain.
Oops. Meant to say –
Scotland’s brains are in English chains.
Oh come on this nonesense that the Danes backed Napoleon is utter rubbish.
This is the British version of history.
The Danes refused to take sides, the French diplomat scared of Napoleon told him they were taking his side.
The English had already threatened the Danes with not taking their side andbused this as an excuse to attack Copenhagen and gave Norway as a war prize to Sweden.
Get the history correct!
Don’t lose faith in the people.
We are swimming in a pond that is filthy with vile creatures and murky propaganda and where our strengths and aspirations are cynically undermined incessantly. The Swedes respected Norway, and we should not underestimate how important a difference that makes.
It is not a defective mind which chooses subjugation but a damaged mind, like that of a wild animal which is too afraid to escape its cage when the door is open. Is that the animal’s fault? How many animals in the same predicament would react in exactly the same way?
It isn’t a frailty, but a conditioning.
As it says in the song when will they ever learn when will they ever learn ??? I refer to the no voters
A thoroughly enjoyable and thought-provoking hour spent in the company of Lesley Riddoch there.
Don’t just click the link and then run-away because it’s an hour long. Plan to watch, sit down, listen and enjoy. It’s a heck of a lot better than the typical BBC evening offerings.
Speaking of which, why can’t we see this sort of thing on our publically funded media?…..
Where’s that ruling from the Supreme Court on the pwer grab? Haven’t they had enough time to make a decision or do the powers that be fear a backlash in Scotland at this time would not be in their interests?
Andrew Gallagher Except Norway is not in the EU either but in EFTA
Wow!
Diversity, Consensus, Newspaper-reading, Media-savvy, Constitution, Banning of nobility, A hundred years of compromise and coalition, The dissolution of the Swedish state, 1905. PR since 1924, Money in municipalities, Template for oil, Money banked, Nation building, Stone upon stone, Non-ethnic, Non-discriminatory, Civic Nationalism, Democratic institutions.
Speechless.
@manandboy says: 6 November, 2018 at 11:30 am:
” … The British Establishment with its system of Class and privilege would be unworkable in a true democracy.
Correct, manandboy.
Domocract and monarchy cannot co-exist and make no mistake a constitutional monarchy is still a monarchy. What’s more the one we in the Kingdom of Scotland are in is an illegal fraud.
In 1688 it was only the, (3 country), Kingdom of England that became a constitutional monarchy. The Kingdom of Scotland, though retaining a monarch, had already taken the Divine Right of Kings totally away from the monarch of Scotland and made the monarchy the monarch of Scots but in 1320 that legality was ratified by the then international authority, The Holy Roman See. When the Pope accepted the Declaration of Arbroath.
The monarch became the protector of the people’s sovereignty so are designate King/Queen of Scots. Not so in The Kingdom of England. where from 1688 until the Parliament of England went into permanent recess on 1 May 1707 the English monarch had to legally delegate their sovereignty to the Parliament of the Kingdom of England but that was the parliament that ended and has never sat again.
So under just what law is the Westminster Parliament of the United Kingdom Sovereign? It is claimed to be, “Her Majesty’s Government”, but under Scots law that is illegal and Westminster stopped being the parliament of England in 1707.
Which is why the Scottish Claim of Right has never been rescinded and it is now part of what the ECJ is considering right now.
Getting-your-vote-out is key in all elections. I’m of the opinion that, at he moment, Yes has the needful majority to win Independence. Given that we’ll never win in the leafy, pampered suburbs or amongst those who historically hold a sectarian agenda, why should we waste our time trying? How much evidence and leaflets through their doors do “NO” voters need in order to change to “YES”?
I often despair when I hear or read the words of those who argue that by being “nice” to the opposition we’ll somehow win their hearts-and-minds for Indy. We won’t, necessarily. Winning Independence will be about getting-the-vote-out, not trying to convince those who have no interest in freedom and democracy or our arguments.
Oh, and the opposite of “nice” isn’t “nasty” in this context; it’s much more like: ‘We’ve got to keep-up the momentum to get-our-vote-out when the time comes, as it will, and we really don’t have the time or the energy to waste on lost-causes’.
Wow!
Just invested in een o yon new fangled TVs and savoured this as my first watch.
I feel the question to No voters would be :
“£ Millions & £ billions of food, drink & oil money has gone & we are still impoverished with child poverty, infrastructure poverty, poor life expectancy etc , so what is going to happen to change any of these factors ? ”
We know there is only one route for improvement, we need to continue to question others, who failed to see it before.
As I type , up comes George Reid , followed by an excellent narration from Alan Bisset, jings he is so right in his summation post 2014.
These films just make me more angry at the people who would go to any length to stop us being normal like the rest of the world, outvoted ten to one in an archaic benighted Union by uninformed people who couldn’t give a toss about Scottish people, oh they give a toss about what belongs rightfully to us and make sure we don’t own what we should own while they spend they’re time interefering in our business that’s none of there’s
The people of England wouldn’t have a clue how democracy’s supposed to work if they fell over it because they’re too used to looking up at their *betters* instead of looking them in the eye and I should know, half my family are from the midlands and every one of them thicker than the one before, all hate people of colour, mistrust all foreigners and believe every other country is a shithole and England, (scratch that) *Britain* is number one because we’ve got the *Royals* and *history* Ooh and they all want to be like America, how thick is that, Oh and they all voted for Brexit even though they freely admit they know nothing whatsoever about it, but as long as they’re getting rid of the foreigners it’s all good
I should mention the entirety of the Scottish side of my family is for Independence, every single one, yet still the uninformed English side keep insisting we’re wrong no matter what we say or what we prove them wrong on
They just know better and that tells you everything you need to know……No respect!
HYUFD = patronising British Nationalist.
Who needs you telling people on Wings that Norway is not a member of the EU. Vast majority of people on Wings would know that. Andrew Gallacher never said Norway was a member. You cannot even spell his name correctly.
What is the point of HYUFD.
A number of days ago HYUFD promised to post very little in future. Another broken Britnat promise.
HYUFD just pissof as you promised.
Another thought provoking video. I have friends from Norway and from Scotland who now live there.
My Norwegian friend got a shock at how bad our schools were when she came over to study here. Put it this way she came top of her year for English and it was just one of the languages she spoke.
She moved back with a Scottish husband to be fair.
Anyway it was great to see a Norwegian speak English with a Scouse accent.
I also love the idea of scrapping the nobility..let’s get that in any constitution.
If MSPs vote to bring in the smacking ban, we can be like Norway:
Good parents living in fear. Social Services ripping apart caring loving families because on occasion, as good parents, they have smacked their child as a chastisement:
link to bbc.co.uk
I am, after watching this brilliant programme – livid.
Of course we could thrive and succeed as an independent nation, but, it is clear, after we win Indyref2, the British Establishment and its running dogs in the media and the BBC will lie, cheat, distort, steal and litigate to deny us that freedom.
They will call-in every favour they can to keep Scotland tied to England, and, the “hidden establishment” will use every trick at their disposal to prevent true freedom.
A final thought – that film, and the others in Lesley Riddoch’s terrific series, could not and never will be shown on TV in Scotland.
If they were, a Yes vote in Indyref2 would be a skoosh case.
But, they will fail.
Hit the button too soon in my last pat.
Final paragraph should read: “But, they will fail to deny us our freedom.”
Couldn’t watch it all. Just made me feel so angry about how Scotland has lost out on so much.
Thanks, Lesley. And thanks, Phantom Power.
I always knew this would be the hardest to watch… What a severe indictment of Westminster choice to have first past the post over proportional representation. It’s not that proportional representation doesn’t work… It does work. And it’s amazing.
Biggest impression for me is, I now know why British Labour is such a powerful opponent of Scottish Independence… It was Labour who made all of Scotland’s oil decisions, not Scotland. It was Labour who lied to Scotland about how much the oil fields were worth. It was Labout who set up the conditions where Scotland’s oil wealth could be sliced, diced and privatised by the Tories. Labour and Tories have been equally harmful to Scotland. And that really is saying something.
I guess is going to be SNPBaaaad from all of them all the way to independence.
@ Robert Peffers
said: “Which is why the Scottish Claim of Right has never been rescinded and it is now part of what the ECJ is considering right now”.
Are you referring to the:
THE UK WITHDRAWAL FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION (LEGAL CONTINUITY) (SCOTLAND) BILL ?
I thought it’s the UK Supreme Court’s judgement that is awaited?
link to supremecourt.uk
link to hansard.parliament.uk
link to constitution-unit.com
No, he isn’t.
Cubby He said ‘Brexit should be the final straw for most Scots’ ie leaving the EU but Norway is not in the EU
Robert Peffers Norway, the subject of this thread, has a constitutional monarchy and it works perfectly well
Let’s stop talking to ourselves as we’re already converted. Talk to people in London, in Brussels, in The Hague, in Strassburg, in Oslo and in New York instead. Reykjavik, Riga, Tallinn, Paris, Helsinki here we come.
That was a wonderful presentation. Good to see the Norwegian political scientist sees our nationalism for what it is and admires it. I think we can monetise the renewables, those in the sea and riverbeds because those are Crown Lands which even now are devolved. Scotgov gets the rent for that development array off Aberdeen which so annoys a certain US President. Those floating deepwater turbines Equinor are developing will also pay rent.
The turbines on the private estates are lost, at the moment at least, but there are ways.
I am excited by the large scale heat pump technology using water as a heat source. Here in Dundee we have the Tay estuary and the sea. In New Zealand most people now have heat pumps. Our youngest in their house in Dunedin has two. In concert with a woodburner they do well. There is scope for us to do that bigger and better.
I’m not afraid of heating a house with electricity. Water takes a lot of energy to heat it, but it also stores a lot of heat. Better to use it heat the air instead. They have a gas range which uses bottled gas, NZ has a gas field on and offshore in Taranaki. Not enough for UK style reticulated gas though, but enough for bottled gas for cooking with.
No more reliance on Russia for imported gas, we could do the North Sea for cooking and recalcitrant industry but I can see industry shifting.
BTW one advantage of a heat pump is you can run it in reverse in summer and get cooling. You can’t do that with gas central heating.
I actually had to stop watching and then restart watching small chunks at a time because I felt I would explode with anger watching it all in one go. Why are some Scots so convinced that Westminster governments are best placed to run Scotland? I despair of these numpties, I don’t want them having a say in running Scotland. Incredibly jealous, I wish I was Norwegian.
Another great contribution from Lesley and highlights why she uses Norway so often as a litmus test.
All I can say is: Should be added as a link in any new Blue Book release and maybe even linked in its own category in the Column on this web page AND distributed as far and wide as we possibly can.
In summary it’s the positive case for independence writ large.
That was an absolutely brilliant documentary comparing a future of an Independent Scotland with that of Norway.
Hats off to Phantom Power and Lesley Riddoch, this wee film would make any No voter from 2014 question their decision. It’s a shame that it will never be shown on mainstream TV before we become Independent.
I’m certain though that it will one day be aired on an Independent Scottish Television channel. It’s class and well done to all who made it possible.
Hi Dr Jim at 2:04 pm.
You typed,
“The people of England wouldn’t have a clue how democracy’s supposed to work if they fell over it because they’re too used to looking up at their *betters* instead of looking them in the eye…”
That input immediately caused me to recall this:-
link to youtube.com
So…Survation now trying to tell people that what their own poll of 20,000 clearly says, is wrong !
Why ?
Well, because the result suits the Indy Narrative of course!
WOW!
Just WOW!
Fantastic production from Leslie Riddoch and Phantom Power. Just waiting to see it on the BBC et al. Well we know we won’t and the reasons why, however when we become Independend they’ll be at the forefront of our SBS and’ll get those who are still brainwashed up to speed. Be prepared for the media reporting a massive rise in the distribution of high blood pressure medication.
Brian Doonthetoon@7.43pm
Your on fire with your links tonight. Another great classic.
Tackety Beets@1.35
Is yir new telly yin o them internety thingy hings that ye git yatube oan, an awe they ither sources o faktyul news, so ye diny hae tae ogle at the Empire?
If so? welcome to the future.
What a breath of fresh air, the Norwegian cool, calm, logical approach so different to the fevered atmosphere we (or others) seem to cultivate in our own society.
On my brief visits to Norway a couple of things impressed me. Late one night when police were chasing a suspected drunk driver (they rightfully are very, very hard on drink driving) a police car skidded off the road in the snow and hit a couple of pedestrians. If memory serves, one was killed and one was seriously injured.
The very next day the powers that be met and passed a law that the police would not engage in high speed chases to apprehend a suspected criminal endangering the public. All other methods, road blocks, etc were to be used. The police are there to serve the public not to harm them.
Driving to work every day I remarked to a Norwegian friend that I noticed everyone kept to the speed limit and hardly anyone overtook when driving. The wry remark came back, if you have to overtake to get to work on time maybe you should leave for work a little earlier.
I saw a picture of a middle aged man, bare chested with a couple of young children in his arms on the front page of a newspaper. Kids obviously very comfortable as was the man, all smiling. I asked a friend, “who is that?” the reply “oh he’s the minister for children and families with his kids”
These things made me sad and embarrassed for my homeland.
@ Sharny, had my own car wrecked, (plus 6 others) by a nutter being chased by the Polis, so agree with this. Nobody hurt badly thankfully!
An excellent production and very interesting for me as a Scot living most of the year on the outskirts of Oslo.
I have often wondered why the Norwegian media rarely discuss Scottish independence after all we are their near neighbours and we are having discussions concerning Norway all the time. My initial thoughts about this were that the UK government had somehow ‘warned’ off the Norwegians about getting involved.
However, having listened to Erik Waerness the Senior Vice President of Statoil/Equinor, I wonder if the reason the Norwegians are not so overtly supportive is that they don’t want Scotland to get a slice of their own cake. Waerness is not particularly encouraging or supportive when asked about Scotland’s oil opportunities and he plays down the profits from wind energy. He then finishes by talking about the opportunities for Norway in the UK.
@ Fred says, good to hear no serious injuries.
Only good crash is the one you walk away from.
Great documutary here from Leslie Riddoch. Having lived and worked in Norway during the late seventies and early eighties , it was so noticeable that the Norwegians were so far ahead of the “U.K.” oil industry in terms of Health & safety , working conditions & employee welfare etc. A government and people in control of their own future and destiny . Social democracy at its very best. Great memories of May 17th in Stavanger. “ take skall du ha” Leslie.
This should be required viewing for any No voter. We have the resources so why are we not independent? It makes no sense when you compare these other small successful nations with such a high quality of life to Scotland struggling with high levels of inequality and poverty while unable to utilise our vast potential wealth.
Heather @ 2.29pm
Well said. Great post.
It makes no sense in normal circumstances but Scotland and its people live under a constant barrage of Britnat barrage that has created a conditioning in a lot of people that Scots and Scotland is crap. Slowly but surely more and more people are rejecting this conditioning.
@Arabs for Independence: “I have often wondered why the Norwegian media rarely discuss Scottish independence… My initial thoughts about this were that the UK government had somehow ‘warned’ off the Norwegians about getting involved.”
That didn’t seem to stop various activists from Høyre (the party of the current Prime Minister) showing up to help the No campaign back in 2014. But I guess that kind of intervention is OK.
“Waerness is not particularly encouraging or supportive when asked about Scotland’s oil opportunities and he plays down the profits from wind energy.”
Statoil, erm, Equinor is not exactly a force for good in the world. I read an interview with the CEO in Kapital magazine recently, and despite some involvement in renewables, he once again indicated that the company is reluctant if not outright obstructive about investing in renewable energy, insisting that there has to be good money in it for them to bother at all.
Remember that this is a company majority-owned by the Norwegian state who flaunts its climate and environment credentials internationally. Indeed, this lens should always be used when reviewing the company’s behaviour. Maybe it is “convenient” to look the other way when such an important national asset indulges in destructive, unethical and exploitative projects involving tar sands or shale deposits.
Such good money comes from exploiting other people’s misery, I’m sure, needing some creative carbon accounting and some foreign aid spin to keep those international credentials buoyant. And as I’m sure you know, the addiction to oil wealth, regardless of how well it has been managed, emboldens the oil and gas lobby to the extent that genuine “green” policies are quickly curtailed and those proposing them ridiculed or vilified. It also obstructs the diversification and renewal of the economy that the Prime Minister claims, rather superficially, to be pursuing.
I seem to remember one of the US oil majors actually using the “we may have been part of the problem, but we are part of the solution” rhetoric. Well, Statoil, erm, Equinor: unquestionably part of the problem.
Great job Leslie. Very positive and informative. Probably the best of these films to date.
towards the end of the superb Riddoch/Phantom Power film, there is aerial footage of crowds beginning to spread out over Holyrood Park at the end of the Edinburgh march. There is something quite beautiful about it, as if folk are spreading out to reclaim their country.