A Guest Post by Ron Hardie.
Step back six or so years to the tail end of 2014, September to be precise. A majority of Scottish voters have rejected the opportunity to be an independent nation leaving the whole population wondering what happens next. Will the result be respected? Will the Vow be delivered? Will Scottish notes continue to be scrutinised in England? Well, immediately Alex Salmond the First Minister of Scotland stepped down and anoints Nicola Sturgeon his successor. A perceived safe pair of hands, the perfect person to forward independence benefiting from support at 45% with the goal of upping this and waiting for a ‘material change’ in the UK political landscape while trying to address the remaining division.
During those six years, Scotland leads the way in healthcare, education and policing, but only in comparison to the rest of the UK, not other similarly sized countries. The UK voted for Brexit as a whole, despite Scotland voting to remain in the EU, which was an obvious and definite material change to the UK status quo and thus allowed the Scottish government a mandate to push for another independence referendum. In those years there were anectdotal No to Yes voters, but few, if any confirmed the other way aournd. Yes, there was still division, there will always be people who do not want to be part of an exciting independence journey who prefer serfdom to Westminster instead. Despite this, several more independence mandates were asked from the Scottish people as the nation lurched through two UK general elections. The people delivered the votes so that the Scots government could progress ahead, after all, campaigning from a 45% starting position can only be good thing right? Wrong. It was not good enough. Nicola Sturgeon spent years trying to save England from the Brexit they craved instead of manoeuvring Scotland out of the UK. Unpopular bills were put to Holyrood such as gender reform and the hate crimes bill, which could surely have been put on the back burner for an independent Scotland to discuss?
Stepping towards the present and in 2020 we are hit by Covid. Instead of controlling borders, a start to eroding the holds that Westminster has on Scotland, Nicola follows orders from BJ. Yes, some deviations with dates but we know who calls the shots and we see a horrific number of deaths within the UK. These deaths are not representative of nations with a 5-6 million population which Scotland has. Being tied to BJ and his murderous regime leaves the Scottish government as guilty as he is. If it is deemed Nicola did well then so did BJ, if it is deemed he is grossly negligent then so is Nicola Sturgeon.
And now we come to 2021 and the Scottish Elections. For 10 months or so before the elections the Independence for Scotland Party (ISP) were talking about how to utilise the list vote of the Scottish d’Hondt voting system to maximise the amount of independence supporting MSP’s in Holyrood. The SNP did not like this and the ISP sustained horrific unsubstanstiated daily attacks as they dared to promote not only Scottish independence but also that the rights of women should not be eroded by recent ideologies of people with too much time to think and nothing to worry about. Not for the want of trying, the ISP were never going to gain traction into this election as the SNP bully boys and girls and others had seen to that.
However, with six weeks to go before voting day Alex Salmond announced that the Alba party will be standing on the list only. Launched online and supported by the pro independence media, the first few days gather thousands of members, 2 MP’s and numerous councillors, however instead of being embraced by the independence movement, Alba was vilified by SNP members and tribalistic followers. The leader of the SNP smeared Alex Salmond, an innocent man, at EVERY opportunity. Despite Alba promoting a vote for SNP on the constituency and Alba on the list, the SNP ignored this. The doctrine had come down from upon high that list votes should go to SNP despite polls, mathematics and experience indicating these votes would count for nothing except letting unionists who failed to get voted on constituency in on the list.
For six weeks the Alba party, despite seeing no limelight themselves, definitely put independence front and centre of the campaign. I believe the SNP and the green party mentioned independence and/or referendums more in those six weeks than they had in the previous five years. The sheep lapped it up using any excuse as an opportunity to attack Alba meanwhile soundbites and ‘commitments’ to holding an independence referendum were wheeled out as often as Gordon Brown.
The election has now come and gone, and so went Alba for just now, not through endeavour but through shitty MSM and horrid posturing from the SNP, as they didn’t break through. The independence message was lost to that of the Status Quo and the gradulist / MI5 approach of Nicola Sturgeon. This meant that two score unionists, at least, got MSP status, MSP finance and their parties retain the influence to continually talk Scotland down as well as claiming an end to independence mandates.
In the six days since the election the MSM have gone from hourly news updates about Scotland’s constitutional debate, to daily updates and now nothing, nada, nowt, hee and indeed haw. As people get back to working away in their cosy comfort bubble, independence is being swept under the MSM carpet. Nicola likes this as she leads a FOURTH term as government for an independence party. I don’t see a fourth term as something to celebrate if your goal is independence…
Those who have read my wittering’s know I like to tie them to something. Well, guess what. In 6 years no independence movement, in 6 weeks Alba trashed by the SNP, in 6 days independence kicked down the political path. 666.
As a mega fan of the Omen movies I find this rather interesting especially as Damien’s only friend of 40 years is ‘a pike’ swimming in the Thames that he named ‘Old Nic’. I wonder if Peter has checked his wife’s head for a numerical birthmark?
Did AS really ‘anoint’ NS? She was simply next in line. He played no part in her promotion. Other than stepping down.
“For me as leader my time is nearly over. But for Scotland, the campaign continues and the dream shall never die,” he said.”
It seems Brian you are an entryist if you don’t know Alex mentored Nicola and anointed her into the role. As it turns out a huge mistake for him, the party and the movement. She is the worst ever leader of the party
There was word at the time – rumours, really – that Roseanna Cunningham was to be his stablemate in the dual role of leader and deputy leader, but that fell through, apparently, for whatever reason, so, yes, Alec Salmond mentored her, possibly seeing her as a project he could mould to some extent to carry on the good fight. Oddly enough, for a man who has gone through what he has, he was always supportive of women in politics.
It is rare that the mentored follows the path of the mentor precisely, but I have mentioned before that draughty hall and listening to all the candidates for the leadership when John Swinney stepped down, and Nicola Sturgeon didn’t entirely convince me then, that independence was her priority. It was a priority, certainly, but it seemed that it was Alec Salmond’s. It was just a feeling, nothing more, but just say that, personally, I’m not surprised that things have turned out the way they have.
Brilliant post! I will be adding Ron Harvie to my most liked site blogs. Now that Rev Stu of WOS is considering closing his blog, we need other blogs to be put forward to give relevant information.
Life is too short to waste on face book sites spouting untruths on what the SNP stands for, or what they will deliver.
It’s all pie in the sky thinking, It’s in no way fact.
I’ve never had a cult mentality & I don’t intend to cultivate one now. I support ALBA for many reasons.
One is ALEX SALMOND, another is the economic policy they have in leaving the Union. There are many more, The ALBA party to me, is strong on commitment to Independence & are the best party with plans to succeed & get the best deal with WM on leaving the UK for the people of Scotland.
ALBA is a party that puts Scotland before party. The SNP puts party before Scotland. That says it all.
Amen or should I say A-fkn-Men we need an exorcist to remove the Moo for Noo from the top of Holyrood pity Chucky and the bride of Chucky are primed for succession in “constitutional” terms…
Horror show, naw it’s fkn comedy act if weren’t so fkn serious….
The beguiled voting public are soon going to realise exactly what they voted for and what they have lost.
The vow was but a worthless lie. Westminster are now relentlessly taking back control. Sturgeon has surrendered every policy that her party were mandated to stand for. Independence, brexit, throwing off the yoke of Tory misrule.
We’re even heading back into lockdown it seems due to the huge re-emergence of the virus in Sturgeon’s very own back yard – such is her failure.
But the beguiled and misled are going to wake up, or should I say ” woke” up.
With real (!) priorities like GRA and the Hate Crime Bill parents and grandparents are soon going to wake up to the new curriculum that is going to make it mandatory to teach, or should we say manipulate the minds of very young children into the ways of gender fluidity and all the rest of the woke new age thinking.
That I suspect will coalesce with the wider awakening of exactly what Sturgeon and the gang are actually about and delivering.
Good post. It pans me to say it as I wish It wasnt true, but the mentality of the SNP 1 and 2 ers is similar to that of Unionists in 2014. They cant see or are unwillingly to see the incrimental changes that occurs with this Tory government and also they are afraid to see the small changes that could be made by a pro independence part ie Alba to push for independence. Instead of taking that opportunity NOW which was presented to them, they have played it safe. Like unionists maybe there life isnt going to change that uch, so, instead of having trust and faith in the process of change and something different, they have retained the status quo (Deja Vu 2014) and have chosen to plod along in pretendy land where they tell themselves that “its coming..be patiemt”. Whether they truly believe that, well, thats up to them and there conciencess.
The UK media (BBC in particular) and the SNP leadership pulled out all the stops to prevent ALBA gaining traction before the Holyrood election. In spite of this, ALBA did make an impact IMO. Certainly the topic of independence was discussed – far more than the BBC or SNP would have wished, and quite a few vulnerable SNP seats were saved by independence supporters actually being motivated to turn out and vote. It looks like Nicola is already starting to backtrack on a referendum date. It is vital, therefore, that ALBA, Alex Salmond and the other big hitters stay in the game. Their time will come. I think a significant number of people who considered voting ALBA 2 actually decided it wasn’t the time (yet), still in the middle of a pandemic etc. Most folk are no daft – they know that the unionist politicians would benefit, but such is voter inertia – people (aside from occasional, Damascus conversions) tend to change slowly. Those people who stuck with SNP 2, knowing what they were doing, are now watching how this all unfolds. Of course there is another huge group of people who just didn’t discover the ALBA message soon enough (thanks to the efforts of the BBC and SNP), but the message will get through eventually. ALBA still has a lot to play for and a vital role to play in the coming years. Things are so unsettled at the moment – during times of turmoil, seismic events can quickly appear out of nowhere. ALBA needs to be prepared for the next opportunity, which may come quicker than many expect.
Nope, GB did NOT vote to leave the EU as a whole. There are only 2 signatories to the 1707 Act of Union – Scotland and England. Wales and Northern Ireland come under England. So only HALF voted to leave. Namely England. Scotland voted to remain. And if looking at it from a component perspective it is still only half as both Scotland and Northern Ireland voted remain while Wales and England voted leave. England having a majority population in the state does NOT grant them majority say. There is NOTHING in the treaty of Union that grants dominion based on majority of MPs or population.
And it is not Westminster that holds authority over Scotland. Westminster includes SCOTLAND, Wales and Northern Ireland as well as England. The only country that has any kind of legitimate authority over Scotland is Scotland. There is NO GB government and there was no Greater England continuator state created in 1707 despite the English government and its establishment pretending otherwise. Indeed, nor despite Scotland”s representatives acting as though there was. It would appear that when all things Scottish were illegally banned following the uprisings no-one bothered to inform the Scots that they were no longer under an illegal dictatorship. Even the English political party system and the way the binary parliament is used is not legitimate. Again, these are not in the treaty of union so why play along? Convention? Convention is not law. Just as there is no parliamentary sovereignty, again a mere convention which is why the English government attempted to write it into clause 38 of the withdrawal agreement despite it fundamentally breaching the treaty of union.
It was also not unionists that gained seats but the English political parties and their representatives. Scots should not be afraid to call them what they are.
Why nitpick these things? Because it is symptomatic of a colonial mindset. Scotland may ACT as a colony but it is not one. It is legally an equal partner with equal authority to the state of GB and it needs to either act accordingly or dissolve the treaty. The Scots have 300 years of a false narrative to undo and that starts with the mind and how the Scots see themselves. If they cannot free their minds then what is the point of reasserting their statehood? They would only act exactly the same with regard the English government and any other country it enters into an international trade agreement with. Scots need to stop viewing Scotland as some hopeless case held captive by a foreign country and acknowledge their strength and true status -that of a sovereign nation state in a voluntary trade agreement as an equal partner which it can dissolve if it so chooses. Not if it’s mere trading partner grants permission!
Gibraltar also voted to Remain – so you could say that only two fifths voted to leave.
Good point.
Sturgeon was far more motivated to crush Alba than talk about, or campaign for, independence. The pathetic ruse of ‘both votes SNP’ delivered unionists seats, as she surely knew. That was more important to her than any coalition of independence parties. Plus of course she reacts with fury to anybody challenging her self-anointed ‘leader of the nation’ pose. An independence party consistently challenging her with coherent arguments in Holyrood was more than she could handle, and would expose her lukewarm, obfuscating commitments. Her influence on Scottish institutions is overbearing and undemocratic. So Alba, or any other movement like AUOB, is a threat to her manufactured dominance of Scottish politics.
Power is far more important to her than the mirage of independence she maintains when she needs votes. Already she is busy kicking the can down the road. Her social engineering agenda is where her and her allies place all their energy. Education, health, and the economy take a back seat to that. And she can always blame Boris for all that, as she consistently does, without showing the slightest inclination to stand up to him and use some of her capital to challenge him. A hand-wringing suburban moralist who has quietly changed the SNP into a neoliberal organisation which, as the recent NEC fiasco demonstrates, treats its own members with contempt and indifference. An indication of how she and her coterie view their entitled positions and benefits with regard to the general population.
The pseudo ‘woke’ element infiltrated the party in early 2015 (to the extent that it was beginning to make a difference). Nicola Sturgeon’s entire career has been played out under this pseudo ‘woke’ agenda; she has promoted and placed people with that agenda into every niche. Simultaneously, independence was put on hold. The two are inextricably linked. Until the pseudo ‘woke’ agenda is realized, there will be no independence. Stonewall and its other trans lobby arms dictate the agenda, both from within the SNP and from within the Greens, and, frankly, they have played a blinder.
It was incredibly short-sighted to try and separate the two causes of the pseudo ‘woke’ agenda and independence, (as many men in the independence movement did, believing that the former was a distraction, a women’s issue), precisely because they depend upon each other as Stonewall painted us all into a corner of our own making. These b******s have deliberately, and with precision tactics, ensured that independence will not happen any time soon. The other problem with them is that gaining total access to all spaces and rights of natal women will never be enough. It will just be the start.
Queer theory, which is what we are seeing now, depends on a whole host of laws being overturned from within in order, at the end of the day, to facilitate so-called total freedom. What kinds of freedom and for whom? Sexual freedom, mainly, and not for women and girls, not for children of either sex, not for animals in bestiality, not for gay men and women – indeed, not for anyone or anything that cannot give legal consent, or where consent is coercive, which queer theory would sweep away, whatever it says.
Queer theory is just another form of ‘Ubermensch’ Nietzschean philosophy, but of a particularly sexual nature – that is, the sexual nature of a substantial number of the male sex, in the main. Even the pornography that many young men, older men and boys are consuming right now is dangerous to, and dismissive of, females’ autonomy and females’ own sexuality – throttling, demanding anal sex and other ‘rough sex’ models having led, in recent years, of documented cases of capable homicide, where women have been left to die of injuries inflicted during ‘rough sex’. The men who inflicted these fatal injuries received derisory sentences because consent was presumed. Already, we are seeing how consent can be eroded, but who consent to being killed during sex? Men, too, will suffer in the longer term even if they think that this is just dandy right now. Already, penile dysfunction is on the rise, and some men will never know the pleasure of a stable and loving relationship with a real woman as opposed to a pornographic ideal.
What happens in private is private, normally, but pornography is being taken to such extremes of behaviour and taken out of the private into the public at an alarming rate, and it is against this background that women’s safe spaces and rights are being infiltrated by men, many with paraphilias such as autogynephilia, cross-dressing, voyeurism, obsessive touching. This is what women are (not) being asked to condone because women are being silenced.
This planet supports two human biological sexes (with variations on those two basic biological sexes) but never, in the history of humankind, have women ever been allowed full autonomy. Things are actually getting worse for all females, young, middle-aged and old. I was accused of someone on another blog of being a ‘Mary Whitehouse’. My stance is more that of Cassandra of Troy, but I hope, against all hope, that someone in power listens because I have no political, social or economic traction, and don’t want any.
Freedom from prohibitive state laws sounds good, on the face of it, and appeals to the libertarian, but the thing about any philosophy, political, social, economic, is that you ask delving questions of it and look at its underside. Always. Asking questions and getting rational answers does not apply in the world of the pseudo ‘woke’. The fight ahead will not be just for our independence as a nation, but our survival as an independent nation of the liberal West.
Well said, Ron. Sturgeon’s SNP is a party of devolution, not independence. It’s now up to the likes of yourself, barrheadboy etc to keep putting as much pressure on Sturgeon as possible; she must not be allowed to ignore this latest mandate for indyref2.
Keep writing/emailing SNP politicians, keep writing/emailing to The National and pro-indy websites.
Hopefully the AUOB marches will be resuming soon.
Lorna, I agree with all you have said. However it does seem that the Woke nonsense is now prevalent in so many countries. There does just appear to be a small chink of light appearing where there is now resistance in Germany and Spain.
The apparent huge rise in children with mental health problems is certainly likely to increase exponentially when they are being taught that they can now declare themselves to be whatever they want and then subsequently find that life is not like that and they can’t realistically have whatever they want all the time regardless of the effect on others.
Why was there so little discussion about this topic by any Political Party (except Alba) in tge run up to our recent Holyrood election? Are all these politicians agreeing on this topic or just to afraid to raise their heads above the parapet?
I agree, Margaret: women, to some extent are able to make their own choices; but children are particularly vulnerable, and we have to protect them. I really believe that the tactics are to take women out of the equation first before moving on the children whose trans identity/gender from birth must be established for the movement to be at all coherent, even if that is completely irrational.
Lots of decent people who are trans will be mortified by the suggestion that they would ever harm anyone, but they have brought it on themselves by their massive expansion of the trans umbrella and their utter determination to infiltrate and take over women’s spaces and rights. I have yet to hear anyone from the trans lobby (or government, for that matter) justify the expansion to self-ID and into women’s spaces with anything like coherence and rational argument.
Any reading of queer theory can leave no one who is rational in any doubt where it will all end. Like all imperialisms and colonizations, this is no different: it is one group of people, privileged, trying to overcome and eliminate another. It is trans women – born male, the most privileged group overall on the planet, and, again, any study of history and social history will uphold that premise, whatever individual men or groups of men believe or have experienced – who are the greatest threat to social stability precisely because they threaten all of women’s advances. I think – long time since I studied political philosophy – it might have been Marx or Engels who said that women are the slaves of slaves. Trans men are no threat to men, and it is very likely that their transitioning comes from a very different place.
Germany and Spain do appear to have instituted a pushback, but the power of this trans lobby is huge, and it has the backing of large corporations throughout the West (mainly America, of course), of governments and of many people utterly and wilfully blind to its realities and their own precariousness. If it is allowed a free hand, it has the potential to derail the liberal West, and that is no exaggeration, by overturning long-held norms and science-based facts that have proved themselves to be essential to the existence of human societies. It would be the ultimate irony for Scotland to regain its ancient independent status only for it to collapse as a part of Western civilization.
Queer theory is okay as a philosophy, as an aspiration, as a dream for those who have a huge and, perhaps, ‘not-quite the norm libido’ and little foresight, but, as a reality, it is extremely dangerous to women, children, those of mental and physical ill health, animals and everything and everyone whose consent and welfare are absolutely necessary to human/animal interaction – and it is supremely supremacist.
Your email with “Tester” came up as page not found.
The clue was in Tester 😁😁