We are told there is no route to independence — not now, not ever, not while Starmer wears the crown of Westminster. We are told that poverty is policy, that disabled people must bear the weight of “reform,” and that Scotland’s voice in the union is conditional, not respected. And yet — from Keir Starmer to Douglas Alexander, not one of them can tell us what a democratic path to independence even looks like. They speak of stability, yet their silence breeds contempt. They speak of progress, yet cheer welfare cuts while shielding obscene wealth.
Meanwhile, George Galloway — no friend to independence — admits the British state is collapsing and still dares to back our right to choose. When even unionists defend Scotland’s democratic right, and the SNP says nothing, where is the leadership we once trusted? Scotland does not need permission to exist. We do not need Westminster’s blessing to be heard.
This is our call to every activist, every disillusioned voter, every builder of the movement — lift your voice. Not for parties, not for politicians, but for the principle that Scotland decides. No more compromise. No more retreat.
Independence is not a dream — it is a democratic necessity. And we will not stop until we claim it.
This is the main thrust of this week’s Through A Scottish Prism podcast. The panel consisting of Lloyd Quinan, Eva Comrie, Allan Petrie and Phil Boswell give us their opinions on this and many other topics.
Cr FR
Scotland cannot be denied her independence if enough people want it. It really is as simple as that at the end of the day. Eventually, those who want independence and are constantly denied it, will turn, but they need to be prepared for the backlash and have every argument at their fingertips. These arguments should not be based on sentiment, but on hard-nosed facts, chiels that winna ding. These facts will not make a sound legal argument unless they can be shown to have led either directly or indirectly to where we are now.
We have acquiesced, to a lesser or a greater extent, for over 300 years, and that compliance needs to be questioned. Who did the complying? Why did they comply? The Forty-five was a direct result of Scottish nationalism just as much as it was an expression of the Scottish rejection of the Hanoverians in favour of the ousted Stuarts, and it was the closest that we came to challenging British rule. Had Prince Charles Edward Stuart kept up his march on London, it is likely that he would have won because the royal family and many of the government were packing up to leave.
We will never know if Prince Charles Edward Stuart would have restored Scottish independence had he won. Too many so-called leaders have let us down badly, selling out to London and London rule. It’s a moot question now, but I, for one, am not at all sure that he would have restored our independence when push came to shove and the lure of the British throne hove into view, and it might well have led to civil war proper in Scotland, tearing north and south apart and creating two separate parts as happened in Ireland. Even today, we must be very careful of those who would divide us – and they are not all in London.
Folklore in the Scottish traveller community claims that many travellers are direct descendants of the Pictish people, so a very much older existence than 500 years. Whether that is true or not, encampments often were on ancient Pictish sites and standing stones were revered. Scottish travellers and Gypsies are different groups, albeit there is intermarriage to some extent, but they have very different heritages and histories, culture and languages, and that should be highlighted, too. Many travellers took to the road after Culloden, having lost their ancestral lands, their chiefs and/or the heads of families having been killed on the battlefield, and the names of many travellers can be found in both Highland and Lowland clann names, such as McPhee, Stewart, MacDonald, Whyte, Campbell, Robertson, etc. Many of them were Catholic, too, though not all, of course.
I would really like to see a study done on those travellers who settled after WW II, forced off the road and into houses, and who were only very gradually accepted by the settled communities of Scotland. Many lives were blighted by prejudice, although, it has to be said, that many people did accept the travellers among them, and the travellers themselves could be cantankerous and wayward, often drinking to excess, so it could be a two-way process. Good and bad in all communities.
What is really chilling about the travellers of Scotland, apart from the removal of their children, was the 1930s eugenics programme that was carried out on many of the children, in particular, with the full co-operation of the British government (and Scots would have been part of that government). They were measured and weighed, their heads examined, just as the Roma, Sinti and Jews of Germany were. Had Hitler invaded the UK successfully, the travellers, in common with the Scottish Jewish population, would have been exterminated in the death camps. Anyone who thinks that is an exaggeration should read the history of the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands, British territory, where Jews, those who did not manage to escape, were transported to Auschwitz and other camps.
Turning to the war on Gaza and the British participation in this, if you thought RAF jets were owned by the RAF, think again say Craig Murray in a well researched piece.
The RAF squadron targeted for a repaint by Palestine Action due to its involvement in supplying Israel’s genocide, does not in fact belong to the RAF at all. It belongs ultimately to Polygon Global Partners LLP, a Hedge Fund.
Through a chain of seven companies, which Craig takes reader through, the direct ownership is with Airtanker Ltd, which gives its address as RAF Brize Norton. It owns, maintains and operates the RAF’s Voyager refuelling aircraft, which have been providing mid-air refuelling to the Israeli Defence Forces as well as carrying, in their cargo role, munitions to the IDF.
This most certainly puts a quite different perspective on our government and its military. Moreover, the air tanker jets which a privately owned but in RAF livery could potentially also be being hired out to the Israeli Military the IDF or any other military around the globe.
Its a shocking disclosure and exposes the British military to be a front for for private enterprise franchised weaponry for hire. And the government play up the military as a source of national pride when in reality this exposes the military to be a two bit gun for hire.
But do the folks care. Or maybe more to the point do they actually know what is going on. I truly wonder about that.
“Scotland cannot be denied her independence if enough people want it.”
And there is the salient point.
You lost the 2014 referendum.
In Sturgeon’s de facto referendum last year, your share of the vote dropped to 30%. You also lost 39MPs & over 500k votes
Last month you lost Hamilton, with LESS than 30% of the vote.
“hard-nosed facts, chiels that winna ding” right there.
Oh, I agree, Sam. If we do nothing to bring about independence, we are not going to get it. That is the SNP motto now: nihil agendo. Do nothing. I didn’t lose Hamilton; the SNP did. I am not SNP. I hope they no longer exist after 2026, such has been the damage to Scotland and the people. We need to start again – and we will.