ALBA Party to hold latest campaign day of action for independence
ALBA Party will make the rising cost of energy the theme of their latest independence campaign day of action.
Alex Salmond’s party will be taking to the streets tomorrow (Saturday) to ask people why, if Scotland is self-sufficient in energy and gas and generates enough electricity from renewables to power every home in the country, are our energy bills soaring?
Salmond will then himself take part in ALBA’s latest public meeting on independence in Edinburgh setting out the arguments in the party’s Wee ALBA Book “the new case for independence”.
He will be joined by special guests including the Irish historian Owen Dudley Edward’s and former Chair of UK CND Marjorie Ellis Thompson. Salmond’s party have now held over 30 public events on independence over the summer months.
Commenting ALBA Party National Organisation Convener Denise Findlay said:
“ ALBA Party are in campaign mode for the independence referendum that the Scottish Government have promised to deliver next year. Other pro independence party’s may not be out campaigning yet but ALBA are fully focused and are dedicating all of our resources to restoring Scotland’s independence as an immediate priority.
“ The soaring energy bill crisis that is driving much of the cost of living crisis has posed a fundamental question that many Scots are now asking themselves in relation to the constitutional future of Scotland, just why are our energy bills soaring when we live in one of the most resource rich countries in the world ?
“ I’m sure that this topic will be a key discussion at our Wee ALBA Book event in Edinburgh and further to that we are urging our activists to take part in tomorrow’s campaign day of action for independence across Scotland.”
Notes:
A) info on Wee ALBA Book event in Edinburgh Saturday 6th August 2022:
The meetings etc. will, down the line, prove to have been invaluable—a case of hard work paying dividends—I’m convinced of that.
Aye, one of my favourite sayings is “the longest journey starts with the shortest step”
The SNP might have put us all back to the starting blocks but we are already well on the way into the race again – come on YES folks, let’s all do this 👍
The energy price scandal and the capture of national resources on the cheap by corporate interests is a key issue in mobilising huge swathes of non voters in Scotland to join with those already committed to taking our future into our own hands.
The inaction after the Brexit vote in 2016 was disappointing, but nothing compared with the subsequent realisation a few years later that Sturgeons SNP never had any intention to make a push for independence, regardless of what problems Brexit caused. The SNP independence mask was off for all to see in January 2021,or so I thought, but it wasn’t to be. Without a doubt, Brexit was a prime cause for independence and being fooled by the SNP, in my case (shamefully) until that infamous day in 2021, meant that a lot of the momentum for independence after the Brexit vote had been lost. Gutted is the only word for how I felt that day. It seemed that a massive opportunity for independence had been lost for good or at least for a very long time. But not so.
Along comes an energy crisis, with among other things, electricity prices doubling, tripling & maybe more to come. Like Brexit, the SNP had produced a lot of hot air about energy, but nothing of any significance to address it. Their empty promise in 2017 of a Scottish publicly owned energy company could have been very effective and had a significant effect on this situation. But they simply quietly dropped this and went back to producing more hot air about their pet subjects. In the meantime it became evident that Scotland was to suffer an energy crisis, particularly with electricity, because Scotland had to pay the UK’s price of electricity and since that was now being created using two of the most expensive ways of doing so, namely natural gas & nuclear, this meant that despite Scotland’s almost 100% ability to produce electricity using the now cheapest method (renewables), Scotland’s population now face a crisis equal to that of Brexit because it has to pay England’s cost of electricity generation. But when it comes to connecting to the UK grid, Scotland is forced to pay a much higher rate than anywhere in England does. Or anywhere in Europe does to connect to their national grids.
The point is that Brexit and the electricity/energy crisis are two perfect examples of why Scotland needs to become independent – because being OUT of Europe is due to the ‘UK’ Brexit vote and because Scotland is IN the UK, it is now also suffering an energy crisis. The root causes of both of these massive issues is simple -being part of the UK and entirely subject to the decisions that it makes. There is clearly only one solution to this situation and that is being able to make our own decisions and not be over-ruled by a self serving farce of a UK government (and shadow UK government). The UK has no defence over how it has treated and continues to treat Scotland over Brexit and Energy. The current SNP’s inactions of these is also indefensible. These two realities can’t be hidden now and it’s time for their fairy tales to be cast aside and to get adults running the show in Scotland again.
Brexit and the energy crisis provide the two perfect examples of why the UK lies have come home to roost for all to see. And this is just the beginning as long as Scotland remains subservient to the ‘UK’. The privatisations that have either already happened or started in England, such as the water supply and the NHS, will becoming to Scotland as well if we don’t avoid those additional economic and social disasters (as very clearly evident in England) by making our own decisions.
So despite being very despondent by the failure to use Brexit as a lead to becoming independent, I now feel that with an energy crisis now joining a Brexit crisis as unquestionable examples of why continuing to allow the UK to make all the important decisions for Scotland is economic and social suicide. Maybe the critical mass of reasons needed to establish the WHY of independence has now been reached. It seems strange to feel optimistic again about the future when facing such dire issues today, but if it takes a combination of the two huge disasters of Brexit & Energy to lead to an independent Scotland, then the agonising dithering (at best) over the past eight years will have been worth suffering. The path ahead seems clear enough now and any defence of the UK’s ‘strong shoulders’ or more SNP ‘commitments’ will hopefully be ignored for the bs that they are and always were.
Since 2015 I’ve often thought about just what it will take to open peoples eyes to the realties of being in the UK. I think the answer is now there for most to see and as the months go by and the day today realties of life in Broken Britain (as it is now increasingly being called by other countries), will force only the most deluded to feel that staying part of the UK is a good idea. With Truss in waiting, well words fail me. Alba, Salvo, SSRG & the Yes movement will provide the future for Scotland. It won’t be easy since the entire UK establishment will literally throws everything it has against Scotland becoming independent, but as they say forewarned is forearmed. And besides, the UK’s lies vs the increasingly harsh day to day realities of being a subservient part of the UK is an even harder case for the UK side to make. Brexit and Energy.
Another point worth raising is that a foreign country determines who can and cannot stay in Scotland.
While doing the WHW this was one of the points both myself and a Dutch teacher living in Scotland raised when talking about independence with a supporter of the union. The ludicrousness of this situation really should be pointed out.
As the Energy Famine bears down on the people of Scotland more and more the people will demand to know how it is that a country like a Scotland plentifully endowed with wind, hydro, gas and oil in large measure can be so energy starved as the electricity, gas and oil is stripped out of the country.
It is the 21st century equivalent of the Irish Famine where millions died and or emigrated whilst grain which could have fed the people was exported to England.
Of course the English thought the Irish Famine was a good thing. Something that truly needed to be visited on a bog ridden populace good to no man or thing. My, my, my how history repeats. The similarity with the many many hundreds of thousands who will actually go without heating and lighting, and the millions struggling to pay will be a holocaust. A true union dividend in a Scotland endowed with energy.
We must not repeat the holocaust that was the Irish Famine and a famine visited upon them by England. Or allow to be repeated the holocaust Famine that the British caused in India, in the Punjab in the early middle of the 20th Century where millions died.
We must not let it happen.
Unfortunately it was another of Sturgeons Lies to the people of Scotland she really should just resign now and give Alex His real Job back. Electricity produced through the night when people are sleeping isn’t much good for much and just doesn’t get used so counting it as part of what we really need during peak times during the day is just typical Sturgeon’s type of deceit , she must think we are all really stupid to faall for that ?
https://fullfact.org/environment/scotland-renewable-energy/