Long, long time ago…
The independence referendum of 2014 was called by Alex Salmond the leader of the SNP. As part of that referendum, Alex Salmond had negotiated the Edinburgh Agreement which included a Section 30, with the UK Government.It was a joint declaration by both Governments to respect the sovereign will of the Scottish people.At no time did Alex Salmond concede the referendum was in the gift of the UK Parliament.
We can be sure that during the 2014 independence referendum the British State had no compromising information on Alex Salmond otherwise that information would have made the front page of every UK newspaper and been featured in every radio and television broadcast.
After the loss of the referendum, the reaction of the disappointed Yes voters was to flock to the SNP, the party of independence. Alex Salmond resigned and anointed his successor; Nicola Sturgeon. The General Election of 2015 saw the Yes movement unite behind the SNP and the first past the post system awarded the SNP 56 out of a possible 59 MPs.
The Westminster Tory majority meant an EU Referendum was now looming. In anticipation of this the SNP in their 2016 Scottish Parliamentary manifesto had a commitment for a new independence referendum if there was ‘a material change of circumstances such as Scotland being taken out of the EU against its will.
On June 23rd, 2016, the UK voted to Leave the EU (52%), Scotland overwhelmingly voted to Remain (62%).Nicola Sturgeon on the morning following the Brexit Referendum stated that an independence referendum was back on the table and called for the UK to remain in the single market. Events moved swiftly and after losing the EU referendum, the UK Prime Minister Cameron resigned and was replaced by Teresa May.
In December 2016 the Scottish Government produced ‘Scotland’s Place in Europe’ (SPiE) which set out a differential deal for Scotland, one where Scotland remained in the single market even if the rest of the UK left.
Early 2017, Sturgeon set out plans for an independence referendum in Autumn 2018 or Spring 2019, when the terms of Brexit should be known.
Up until this point the strategy pursued by Sturgeon seems reasonable, but from now on the strategy would fail to advance Scotland’s interests and arguably hinder the route to independence.
In April, 2017, Theresa May calls a UK General Election for June. Initially, it was expected the SNP GE campaign would be run as a mandate for an independence referendum. But, for whatever reason the SNP did not deploy that strategy.Instead, the SNP decided on, ‘Strong Voices’ whatever that means.
The Tories energised their base by talking incessantly about opposing an independence referendum. Although the SNP had an independence referendum in their manifesto, they downplayed independence during the campaign. The 2017 campaign was a flop, polling analysis shows that up to 500,000 SNP voters stayed home. The only saving grace being that they didn’t revert back to supporting the unionist parties. The strategy or lack of one cost the SNP dearly. This is when a good leader would have acted and sacked her CEO, COO all of her advisors and brought in a completely new team.
The SNP lost seats, but still won the election with 35 seats, their second-best performance ever. But bizarrely, SNP fail to trumpet another great election victory and allow Davidson to be heralded as the victor of the 2017 election in Scotland. Later that month Nicola Sturgeon updates parliament that the independence referendum is now in the long grass.
In the 2017 GE May lost her majority and had to rely on the DUP.She had trouble in her own party and was finding it impossible to get any EU deal through parliament.
It would be an obvious strategy for the SNP MPs to push the plan described in ‘Scotland’s Place in Europe.’ Sadly, Scotland’s Place in Europe (SPiE) is hardly mentioned again by the SNP or their representatives in either Parliament. Of course, we can never know, but the SNP could have offered their 35 votes in return for a SPiE differentiated deal. That would have seen Scotland stay in the single market and possibly prevented Boris ever becoming Prime Minister. The 35 SNP votes switching sides would have passed May’s deal at the third attempt. The UK would have a softer Brexit, and Scotland would be in the single market. Why was this deal not offered?
As early as 2018 it was clear that Brexit was likely to result in a loss of Holyrood powers. This has since come to fruition in the Internal Market Bill. Instead of shouting ‘Power Grab’ from the rooftops, the SNP focussed their energy on the ‘People’s Vote’ campaign. This presented a couple of issues; setting a precedent for a confirmatory referendum in the event of a Yes vote and it diverted attention away from the SPiE differentiated deal for Scotland. Why did the SNP decide a People’s Vote was a more important campaign than the Power Grab or a differentiated Brexit deal for Scotland?
By the autumn of 2019, we had a new, Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. The UK government was stuck, Johnston couldn’t pass his Withdrawal Agreement and the opposition had Johnston in a bind. There was even talk of perhaps installing Corbyn as PM or a government of national unity to pass a soft Brexit bill.
Johnston is desperate for a general election he introduces a bill to evade the fixed term parliament act, but without a majority he still needs support to pass his bill. This once again was a chance to use the SNP leverage. Once more our lack of strategic thinking beats us. Rather than keeping Johnston in office but not in power, surprisingly, the SNP announce they will support a general election. Jo Swinson believes the LibDem polling and backs the SNP. Boris now has the majority he needs. In the end the SNP votes are not needed, and they abstain with the honourable exception of Angus McNeil who votes against. In December 2019 the Tories under Johnson won an 80 seat majority. Now unhindered and beholding to nobody the Tories could enact any Brexit deal they wanted, and they did!
The SNP won big in Scotland, there was once more a manifesto commitment to an independence referendum which is promised in 2020. It was, however a pyrrhic victory.
Immediately after winning Sturgeon announced she would set out the next moves on independence on January 31st 2020, the date the UK officially leaves the EU. Many independence supporters were expecting an announcement of the 2020 referendum date. They were to be sorely disappointed.
January 31st Sturgeon presents a section 30 as the gold standard and stresses any referendum must be a ‘legal’ and ‘legitimate.’ She once more kicks the independence referendum into the long grass stating she wanted one in 2020, but it may need to wait until after the Scottish parliament elections in 2021.
By promoting the section 30 route as the ‘gold standard’ and talking about ‘legal’ and ‘legitimate’ Sturgeon undermines all other routes. She also uses words, and phrases introduced originally as unionist narratives. The section 30 route is not a credible plan. Johnson has a mandate not to grant a section 30 and polling reveals that Tory voters in both Scotland and the rest of the UK want him to stick to his mandate. The section 30 route has no chance of success but is continually presented by Nicola Sturgeon and her supporters as the gold standard to the glee of unionists who can present any other route is not legitimate.
March 2020 and COVID strikes. Sturgeon pauses the independence campaign (what campaign?) and for the rest of 2020, she devotes herself entirely to Covid daily briefings boosting her personal approval ratings.
Meanwhile, Johnston got his Brexit deal and his Internal Market Bill (the Power Grab) through Westminster. The Power Grab is in play with 3,000 UK Civil Servants, recruited. Their task will be to govern Scotland.
The effects of Brexit and the Johnston majority government have given Yes a sustained and growing lead in the opinion polls throughout 2020 and into 2021. The British State is at its weakest, a bad Brexit deal, poor handling of the pandemic, an Irish American US President and isolated from the EU. It is time to strike.
But, Sturgeon once again changes the timing of the independence referendum and in interviews states that she will consider independence after she has dealt with the economic effects of COVID and then kicks the independence referendum into the first half of the next parliament 2022/2023.
The SNP tactics and strategy have failed to bring any advantages to Scotland or to bring us closer to gaining independence.
Scotland has been dragged out of the EU against our express democratic will, we are suffering and will continue to suffer the hardest Brexit. We are being ruled by Tories we didn’t vote for, our parliament is being stripped of its powers and we have undermined credible escape routes.
We are under five months, from the Holyrood Election. Once more Nicola Sturgeon is using the same old election rhetoric regarding a mandate for an independence referendum.
I saw Satan laughing with delight.
The day the music died ——very well put and every time l see wee Nicola on the TV now with her long suffering Covid face l get annoyed .The Murrel’s are the problem now and if we want self determination they have to go as there is no compromise with Johnston and co .
Excellent precis of the new SNP’s path to Devo Minimis.
Especially so since it separates it from the ruthless internal politicking,feeble policy making,ideological posturing and political vendettas, of which, each can stand alone as indictments of the current leadership.
Still, the FM has pretended to read a lot of books, the way anthony charles lynton blair used to pretend to read the bible.
Absolutely spot on Denise. All the more reason for Sturgeon and Murrel to go.
Satan would have been laughing with delight had the SNP got into bed with the May and the Tories in 2017. That would have caused untold damage.
It is the purpose of a political leader to determine what’s best for the country she leads, undoubtedly Scotland remaining in the single market. To make it happen by any means possible and persuade voters that she did the right thing. A leader doesn’t cower afraid of headlines in the unionist press. And any half decent politician could have presented a deal that saw Scotland stay in the single market as a good deal for Scotland.
Wouldn’t you rather be in the single market today
Any half decent politician? Jesus Christ himself could not present an alignment with the Tories as a good thing to a large percentage of the Scottish public.
Well replied Denise. It was the Jan 2020 speech which turned me absolutely right off. With the SNP not on for Indy and heading down the woke rabbit hole who could I vote for?
Then the ISP being formed was announced, keen for indy and supporting women’s rights. Great! in gratitude I joined and am now heavily involved.
So Sturgeon in both denying women’s rights and voices and kicking the indy can repeatedly down the road is responsible for my joining an opposition Yes party. Well done FM.
Well laid out Denise the operchancitys missed would make the deil greet, now we have the F arse Force to contend with Murrells need to go and go now .
Ah, but – “the secret plan”. Aye right. Great post Denise – I just wish more people could see through the scam.
They do pride themselves on keeping secrets, apart from the monstrosity we have for an establishment media.
Everybody else can go sit in the dark.
Bizarre that these perfectly fair criticisms are out of bounds for debate in the SNP as it is currently managed.
Nicola Sturgeon is certainly no strategist and neither are the people who advise her. I’ve known this since 2017 but it still makes depressing reading to see it all laid out. Everything has been done as a reaction to actions by the WM gov.
Liz: any kind of referendum should have been recognised as being unattainable at best, and unwinnable, at worst. I simply do not believe we can win another indyref even if we hold one. The polls are high, yes, but they were showing the same kind of thing in Quebec the second time around. Every PRE independence referendum to date for the past 50+ years, has been lost, and all for the same reason: on the day, so-called ‘soft’ NOs went with the status quo. Those lost referendums are: Quebec (twice); Scotland; Catalunya, New Caledonia. So-called ‘soft’ NOs will do the same in any second Scottish referendum, making it utterly pointless to chase after their votes. I have been trying to get that across for several years now. I’m an old boiler in an anorak, and I study trends and patterns. I hate to keep on saying it, but any kind of referendum is a dead end for independence. We need to find the way out by another route entirely.
I totally agree. We should not be pandering to soft No’s we need to move soft Yessers to Hard Yessers because it’s going to be a fight and people need to know that and be prepared.
If only she’d taken advice from Alex instead of stitching him up. We might have been independent now. There is a tiny clique around her. Their focus is maintaining her popularity and SNP wins, not independence. That’s why she never risks upsetting the unionists too much. But that strategy will never get us to independence. To get independence we will necessarily upset unionists
It would be very interesting, Denise, and very instructive to find out when the Stonewall Diversity Champions first penetrated Holyrood. This is the main tentacle of Stonewall’s umbrella for business, government, public bodies, private businesses, etc. to ‘teach’ the how to approach diversity, with particular emphasis on trans issues, and how to embed the SDC into their whole ethos. We might find that the pseudo ‘wokists’ have been beavering away in the SNPG longer than we thought.
Nicola Sturgeon’s mindset appears to reflect their ideological approach: if someone disagrees with you, first, ignore them, then single them out as an individual or group, then, no matter how illegal or unsavoury or undemocratic, forge right ahead with your plan. I could be very wrong here – and I’ll be happy to admit it if I am – but her whole strategy seems to be consistent with, and run parallel to, the ‘woke’ agenda. The Salmond affair, the GRA reform, the hate crime legislation all show this ‘totalitarian’ mindset of ‘my way or the highway’, or worse, ‘no way’. I thought, too that it was a strategist’s nightmare, but I am beginning to believe it might be something far worse than that: that Scotland is being screwed by people and an ideology that cares absolutely nothing for independence, the Scots or Scotland. We will be pummelled and punched into shape whether we like it or not.
The only other explanation for this very strange change of tack is that either Nicola Sturgeon has been nobbled, or someone close to her has, or that she knows something that she has not shared with the rest of us – and it’s not that secret plan. Has she been leaned on? Has she been threatened? Something out there explains this peculiar path we are on courtesy of the SNPG, which is quickly becoming a Stalinist outpost, and we need to find out what it is.
One comment Denise.
IIRC the Westminster Tory Regime publicly announced plans for their Edinburgh Administrative Hub in summer (June?) 2017. It will have been in planning long, long before that.
Recognising the longstanding patterns of Priviledge and Patronage that characterise the British State, the land and development contracts would have been sewn up for some chosen beneficiary long before that.
Does anyone here happen to have the expertise to easily dig into that?
😉
Something happened in 2017. I’ve always been a bit suspicious of the May Sturgeon meeting at the Crown Plaza March 2017. Why in a hotel ? And that is when everything changed.
Pure power play.
May going to Bute House would confer a modicum of respect for the office.
An audience at a posh hotel places the FM as an object of May’s indulgence.
Sorry, bit of a long post this, but I decided to look back at what the media were saying back around then.
I was sufficiently struck by what I found to record it here (with links).
Plus I have a question. 😉
Metro:
“British Prime Minister Theresa May meets with Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon at the Crown Plaza Hotel on March 27, 2017 in Glasgow, Scotland”
https://archive.is/M7aXV#selection-807.0-807.149
https://archive.is/M7aXV#selection-817.0-863.0
“A two-day debate over whether the First Minister should seek permission to hold another ballot between autumn next year and spring 2019 started in the Scottish Parliament last week but was halted as news of the terror attack at Westminster emerged.
thumbnail for post ID 6537902 London attacker Khalid Masood wasn’t linked to Islamic State, say police »
The vote was delayed but will be held today, with the Scottish Greens expected to help the minority Scottish Government pass its motion asking for a mandate to take forward discussions with the UK Government on the details of a section 30 order, the mechanism to transfer the legal powers for a vote.”
The Mail:
27 March 2017
https://archive.is/re3cs
For clarity, can anyone identify the man in photograph 7 who is sitting between Nicola Sturgeon and her chief of staff Liz Lloyd ?
The Mail:
https://archive.is/TYgsn#selection-1055.0-1071.13
“Sturgeon signs independence vote request
30 March 2017
”
https://archive.is/A2rHA#selection-951.0-959.379
“MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Earlier in the day, May said she and the cabinet agreed that the government should call a general election on June 8.
“This means that this will be – more than ever before – an election about standing up for Scotland, in the face of a right-wing, austerity obsessed Tory government with no mandate in Scotland but which thinks it can do whatever it wants and get away with it. In terms of Scotland, this move is a huge political miscalculation by the Prime Minister,” Sturgeon said in a statement.”
The Mail:
15 May 2017
https://archive.is/rYY8N#selection-931.0-931.122
“Sturgeon swipes at May for ‘playing to gender stereotypes’ after PM says she and her husband have ‘girl jobs and boy jobs'”
So a quick review of the reported news agenda shows a swing from:
Scotland, Europe, Independence, Indyref2
to
General Election, Gender Issues.
I was actually surprised that this stuff was much more obvious than what I had remembered.
A cynic might ponder if the Theresa May team was steering the agenda, and the FM merely blown along with the prevailing political narrative.
An inquiring mind might indeed ponder “Why did they meet in a hotel ?”
A realist might consider:
– this is an introduction and justification for the soon to be made public narrative that there should exist a facility / Building / Hub in Scotland where these kind of high level meetings between the two governments can be counducted.
Surely it can’t be that simple?
A combination of news and agenda management by UKG and the FMs utter inability to think and act strategically?
Not only has she utterly failed to ‘make the political weather’ as has been said of acknowledgedly successful previous leaders like Chaberlain or Roy Jenkins, it appears she is unable to even see which way the wind is blowing. 🙁
It could all hev been so different. 🙁
As per usual a very good & honest take on where Scotland stands today under this present leadership. I always look forward to your take on the politics of Scotland Denise, as I know you know much more about the SNP than most of us do. I agree with you on every point you make..
Stonewall is just the vanguard of the pseudo ‘wokists’,aLurker, and journalists in Canada and the States have traced it back to Big Tech, Big Pharma, Big Business. The people, the donors and big cheeses behind this movement, are in the vanguard themselves of the next wave of predatory capitalism.
Denton’s, an international legal firm, designed the ‘woke’ takeover and capture of all aspects of society. Stonewall Diversity Champions supply all the tools necessary to run their fiefdom from within companies and government bodies. It is terrifying, and it goes way beyond trans issues – again, just a screen for something else that we are just not seeing clearly right now, but I suspect we will soon. I know that all sounds very paranoid, but, when you have it within your power to shut down people, groups and free speech, you are paving the way for some very nasty stuff coming down the road.
Predatory capitalism comes in waves, in patterns of ‘progression’ which is actually very regressive in practice, and we have just left the financial scandal one without any resolution really, with the very rich still having salted away billions at the expense of Joe sn Josephine Bloggs. The next big bucks earners could be nightmarish if Big Tech and Big Pharma, Big Medicine, etc. are involved.
I’m not saying that good cannot come out of them, too, of course it can, just as good came out of finance, the industrial revolution and every other capitalist venture (it is always a two-edged sword) but who would have predicted that our children would be taking harmful puberty blockers and our young people of both sexes would be cutting away their birth sex organs? The runaway train is gathering speed at a terrifying pace now and it is taking our rights and freedoms with it.
Thank you, Denise, for an excellent post. Surely, with so many intelligent, honest Indy campaigners like you, we’ll achieve our goal very soon.
Thanks for the article Denise. Great to see the timeline laid out with such clarity.
Interesting to note all seems reasonable until early 2017, then it all goes pair shaped. Do you know of any particular event that might have led to independence being sidelined or NS change of tack?
It’s also interesting to note that she’s surrounded with a tiny coterie. That is precisely how dictators operate. They surround themselves with Yes men. NS clearly doesn’t want to be confronted by anyone who may disagree with her vision. She’s got to go.
Lorna raises an important point re: Stonewall. She must have been aware the GRA was universally unpopular yet determined to press ahead anyway. It makes no sense.
“Early 2017, Sturgeon set out plans for an independence referendum in Autumn 2018 or Spring 2019, when the terms of Brexit should be known”
And we now know! A shitshow.
“The SNP tactics and strategy have failed to bring any advantages to Scotland or to bring us closer to gaining independence.”
Stop attacking the SNP, stop attacking Sturgeon, and start thinking about Scotland. Opinion polls showing a huge lead have only really been around since we knew what kind of Brexit was coming. Those were the tactics.
I have family in the west coast fishing industry, family who are farmers – I live in the Highlands – and they moved to SNP only in the last 6 months due to the Tory crapolashow.
You are one of the bleating ‘love Alex’ gang. He’s one of my heroes, but Sturgeon steered this ship well since he handed the baton on. Trusted in a way you’ll never understand evidently.
Also your claims about Tory ‘progress’ ignore their total media control – its not ‘SNP losses’ its stupid Labour people voting ‘yoonyun’. Do some analysis of the data and see.
Above you have laid out the standard moaner grievances – but Covid19 broke the model, and brexit taking 4 years! Who knew?
And why are we here?
Who has manifestly failed to protect Scotland from any of the sh1tshow?
Why do you think she’ll do better over the next 6 years?
Are you kidding me.
Who has managed to grow the size of the independence pro population? Or was that osmosis?
Failed to protect? Raised taxes to help, paid healthcare staff more, and become a respected leader on the world stage. All while under Tory austerity.
You are one of those with the magical – slap your face three times and … independence! It has to come via a referendum of plebiscite. Choose one or the other. Pick a time when most likely to win. Tell me that time pre-leave the EU (no material change). Oh bugger – Covid19 hit before the deal was known.
You are a wishful thinker who wants to blame 1 person. Over the next 6 years – I see us as independent.
What’s the point of a huge Indy supporting population if the mechanism isn’t fired to achieve Indy? There is likely to be sod all left of Scotland in another 6 years. Everybody knew what a shits how Brexit would be – in fact many of us warned in 2014 what the future would be like with a No vote. Maybe if your farming/fishing relatives had bloody listened instead of trusting the No camp we would have been independent by now – and, hopefully, with a far less corrupt govt than currently sits in Holyrood. Sorry absolutely no sympathy for farmers or fishermen who voted No and put us in the position we are in now. They had no confidence in Scotland then and are simply seeing independence as an escape route from their own self inflicted troubles now. And, yes, I am saying “We told you so”.
Brexit was promised as a ‘single market like’ the whole way. Scotland would not have suffered so badly. Indyref2 was predicated on ‘change’ but that didn’t happen until now.
You are damning people who rely on income – now living on nothing. They chose because of the main lie – ‘vote No for the EU’ – and got shafted – they have changed now. You have no sympathy for people losing their livelihood – thats sad. Covid19 is killing lots of people and their livelihoods – do you hate them too?
‘We told you so’ – they now know, they didn’t back then. Thats the point of ‘now’ being the time.
Tell me Bert what you think because it is something that bothers me. I was quoted as saying Salmond was like Wallace and Sturgeon would be the Bruce but now I’m feeling she’s more like Balliol. The 2017 thing does make me wonder but what really gets my knickers twisted is this whole Salmond conspiracy. The fact its rotten and blatantly rotten is bad enough but what I can’t understand why the majority unionist press isn’t really going for the jugular on this? Its a huge open goal yet most of the population don’t really know the ins and outs to this, if they did Sturgeon would not have these ratings and would be under pressure to resign. Why are they basically giving her a free pass on this? I for one would thin they would love to be going to town on this considering some the tame bullshit they have previously tried to scandalise. It really is do or die in these elections if they are not put back which is something I think will happen even though there is no need but if they do go ahead and the SNP don’t come out swinging they are finished. Indy won’t be but it will be seriously delayed.
As you have seen yesterday – an announcement concerning the Yes movement and May is coming. We have been badly hampered by Covid19 due to the Tory idiots in London. But lives are being lost – 3 in my family down south – and many in Scotland – priorities intervened in a bad way for sure. Sturgeon has – as said – won international plaudits – and the EU is responding with support for her and indy now … post Brexit in effect.
My expectation is full again – but too many in this forum and this article itself show impatience without looking at the situation. The material change has now happened, and the support for indy has shot up.
Blaming the ‘SNP’ is dumb. Its as if ‘Alex’ is the only solution – when the SNP actually got us all to indy1 and now to indy2.
Politics has fallen into the presidential model of ‘person X’ being the most important. As noted, I admire Salmond, would help pay for a statue when indy comes, he was the totem back then. But … the SNP under Sturgeon have been steady in a howling gale of circumstance.
“The fact its rotten and blatantly rotten is bad enough but what I can’t understand why the majority unionist press isn’t really going for the jugular on this?”
The Majority Unionist press have been watching these poll results with dismay but the Salmond/Sturgeon scandal was being held in reserve until they needed it. They’ll need it very soon in the #SNPBad effort during the May Holyrood election campaign. This is their heavy artillery and they will wheel it out nearer the time, when they know it will inflict most damage.
Cracking but depressingly honest synopsis of events as they have unfolded. Nothing but nothing is going to change until the Shyster Sturgeon and her cult are removed from any decision making process within the SNP.
What is most galling in this scenario is that people elected to the office of MP and MSP under the auspices of the SNP, a political party which purportedly claims to have Scottish Independence at the heart of its agenda, appear oblivious to concern that no progress is being achieved. I use the descriptor people rather than politician as to date painfully few of them have yet demonstrated that trait.
Much of the blame for this lies squarely within the sphere of the SNP membership too many of whom have been tamed by the adulation of their leader in the popularity polls. Well please believe me when I tell you without her removal from office progress to Scottish Independence is all but dead.
Jesus Christ isnae an elected SNP politician. Principally owing to lack of political nous and dare I say NAIVETY the arguments were never led at Holyrood or Westminster by the SNP, the people of Scotland were denied the weight of their vote to influence outcomes beneficial to the future of our Nation. Yet another example of the cult of the individual controlling our destiny.
Good work. Well done. Is it unreasonable to suggest that Sturgeon’s been got at by the UK somewhere around early 2017 and has jumped into bed with them. I can’t think of any other logical reason for her about turn approach to Indy.
Why is it that every time I hear or read anything about the Murrel/Sturgeon pair my mind thinks ‘Burgess & MacLean’. Am I showing my age?
The s30 was not to honour the result but to commit each other to a code of conduct during the campaign. However, the question isn’t whether that should have been consigned to the dustbin since it was not followed by the English government but why Scotland permitted, against international law, a foreign country’s government and its establishment to stand as the official opposition in the referendum.
It was not the gift of the English government nor the Parliament of Great Britain to give but of the Scots as per the right to self determination which every sovereign state has, and since this always needs repeating given the number of folk who seem to believe that the English government, simply by calling themselves the “UK” in view of their belief in being a Greater England that subsumed Scotland into it as per the claim of Crawford and Boyle and the English continuator state narrative which is parroted by many unwitting Scots, two independent sovereign states ratified the trade agreement not one. Either country being able to walk away at any time without any reason being necessary. A right which their sovereignty grants.Nor did the agreement bestow dominion over Scotland onto England and the English parliament. Firstly because the English parliament was abolished in order to create the Parliament of Great Britain, secondly, because they are legally equal partners with equal authority and thirdly, because what was ratified in 1707 was a trade agreement not a political union.
The English government made moves against Scotland less than 24 hours after the indy referendum with EVEL, removing and replacing the nationality of Scots with British and branding everything “British” on everything from products to legal documents, the invasion of Syria which was also illegal and opposed by Scotland by a near 100%. Numerous jobs removed from Scotland’s institutions and replaced with English ones, numerous other jobs lost in Scotland and the castration of its renewable sector. All this before England’s EU exit bill was even on the cards. Then you had the new English Act of Union (2017-2019) which has been imposed in all but name with the last piece being passed by the IM (Direct Rule) Act which violates the very foundation of the Act of Union 1707. All this without including the numerous international law violations and still Scots waited for a material change when numerous had been given. And now that the material change that many were led to believe would keep them in the EU despite all logic to the contrary no longer have that material change to use as an excuse for lack of action. Now, they will await yet another material change and with the English government outpost in the Capital of Scotland of which the Scottish government made no noise or complaint over from its inception to its opening is now poised to run Scotland leaving the administration in Holyrood nothing more than a talking shop.The English government who never had the authority to abolish the parliament never needed to. They simply made it impotent. Scotland is therefore served by a government in name only at the parliament of Great Britain in which they consistently refer to the English government and its establishment, much to the merriment of the English establishment, as their superiors and an impotent Scottish administration. Now the Scottish elections are approaching so once again the dangly carrot of indy is put forward to get folk to re-elect a government which has failed to act on any issue directly impacting Scotland. Not because they didn’t have the authority, they always have had the authority to do so. but because it didn’t serve their interests to do so. One wonders just what is it they do want as they have for the past decade refused to put Scotland first unlike their legal partner, the English government, who have always put England’s needs first and foremost (granted it is primarily the richer English folk they had protected).As the old adage goes: Actions speak louder than words.
A well summarised recap of where we were and where we have ended up.
Sturgeon has sold us absolutely short. She has undermined the march to independence.
Scotland is an ancient country. It has its own legal system. It’s people have a right to sovereignty. The Scotland Act only came into being in 1998. What right then does Nicola Surgeon have to say now is not the time, give us one mor mandate, only a Section 30 referendum in the absolute gift of a politician in another country can give Scotland the right to a vote on its future.
But that is exactly where we are. Totally and utterly becalmed. Powerless and without a voice and now dragged out of Europe against our will with anothe4 country ready to impose direct rule on the authority we did have over our affairs.
And in the background a Party Leader and First Minister who have paid fast and loose taking control of our old party, silencing debate and discussion, controlling the NEC, skewing the selection committees in a way that a totalitarian junta would do.
And of the collusion between the First Minister, the Police, the COPFS and senior civil servants to criminally conspire to pervert the course of justice trying to jail not just an ex political colleague but also too journalist bloggers, what does that tell us too about our current First Minister and her coterie’s motives and morals.
But this background is changing. The people are awaking from their drugging, their mugging, and debate and discussion is back on the table.
Surgeon and her coterie should go to jail. But it won’t possibly happen. But aside she, her husband, and all the others who have in concert have tried to destroy our movement, the reputations and liberty of many in our movement, should go now. There is no place for that filth in our Country and now there is the will, the mechanisms for the good people in our movement to put into place the steps that will take us to a fairer, more equitable and more honourable country.
Sturgeon, her ilk and people like Boris Johnson, there time is over. And it is through the hard work of many of us, and the bloggers who provide pieces like this, that will help us to do that.
Thank you again Roddy for this continued contribution.
Oh and yes, to all those who postulate that the British State somehow got to Sturgeon and others, that is invariably true.
The modus operandi of the British State is well know. They’ve practiced it often enough all over the world in the former colonies. Brigadier General Sir Frank Kitson wrote about it fifty years ago.
Everything up to symmetrical warfare is in play. Blackmail, bribery, the honey trap, the sex trap real or created, the inserted control into everything from community groups, protest groups, political parties, the control of the media or creation of the state’s own media – its all there.
But these suppressions to retain colonies did not work, not in India, not in Cyprus, not in Kenya, not in Ireland, not anywhere. And they will not work here.
So yes, without doubt, there will be those who will have been helped to go rotten. And we can understand how and why. But they can’t rot all of us. They’ll need to kill us first, and that means all of us.
Thanks for this, Denise, as usual you make perfect sense. Well done.
So to answer my own question above, the man pictured in
The Daily Mail on 27 March 2017
https://archive.is/re3cs
“with Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon at the Crown Plaza Hotel on March 27, 2017 in Glasgow, Scotland”
looks like Crown Agent David Harvie
picture here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-38639858
While most visitors will not look back at older posts, once they age off of a sites front page,
one of the useful properties of links in comments is that later keyword searches
will find them, irrespective of the contemporaneous subject.
Whilst some will not follow links in comments, for others, curiosity can lead to new knowledge.
If you do not wish for this to stand, at this time, then of course as it is your house, your rules.
Fair enough.
anyway, apropos of nothing, Ian Lawson had this to say as part of an article “YOU WANT JUSTICE DO YOU?” on his excellent Blog site “Yours For Scotland”
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2021/02/03/you-want-justice-do-you/
”
Now it is easy to blame all this on James Wolffe, the Lord Advocate but he has not been alone in creating this series of cataclysmic disasters, the Crown Agent and Chief Executive David Harvie must be in the frame as well. I have to confess to not having come across his name before until my sources introduced his name to me and therefore, at their suggestion I paid him a bit more attention. They suggested I have a look to his early career, a period not extensively covered in his biography published on the Crown Office website. They tell me he was for a time an employee of the security services, he later worked for a time in Paisley (to his credit) before joining the criminal investigation team into the Lockerbie Bombing, attending the entire high security trial in The Netherlands before spending some years in the Foreign Office.All things considered my sources suggest I should pay more attention to the second word in his job title than the first. He is of course the Crown Agent at the Crown Office. Word is he leads an increasingly nervous and disillusioned staff with some reluctant to put their names to correspondence relating to these controversial matters
”
Interesting times. 😉