Boris Johnson’s latest day trip to Scotland has got our dead-tree media and the House Jocks in a bit of a lather. The anti-Scottish media now have the opportunity to scaremonger about a second independence referendum. Indeed even that arch unionist Knight of the realm Sir John Curtice joined in the hysteria.
BORIS Johnson’s argument against holding indyref2 will “wash away”, according to the UK’s leading polling expert.
Professor Sir John Curtice, of the University of Strathclyde, warned the Prime Minister as he visited Scotland that he could no longer use the pandemic as an excuse not to hold another vote.
https://www.thenational.scot/news/19490658.boris-johnsons-argument-indyref2-will-wash-away-john-curtice-says/
Fortunately, it is all a load of bollocks. Anyone with half a brain knows that there is no SNP plan to hold an Independence referendum anytime soon. Thank goodness for that, for if there were to be a referendum we would most certainly lose it, and probably by a bigger margin than in 2014.
I know and appreciate the Wheesht For Indy crew do not like hearing truth and reality and would rather live in the world where Nicola has a secret plan and just like a good old Hollywood Movie, good will prevail in the end and we will all live happily ever after in a Nicola super independent Scotland. Where every day will be Christmas and everything will be spiffing!
Unfortunately in the real world here are the facts. The SNP has not discussed independence, an Independence referendum, post independence policies or anything regarding independence in the past seven years. All of the questions that harmed us in 2014, currency, EU, borders, pensions have not been addressed and ready to present to the people. There is no money to fight a campaign. The YES Movement is divided beyond recognition. It bears no resemblance to the united campaigning force that Sturgeon inherited in November 2014.
We now have YES Groups scattered throughout Scotland all operating in isolation.Now Scotland, SIM, AUOB, as well as other offshoots have sprung up, again all working independently of each other. There is nobody pulling all this together. Sturgeon has shown herself by her actions to be a divider, not a unifier. She should have been nurturing and leading the YES Movement as well as the SNP from day one. Sadly she has led neither, she has ignored the YES Movement and used the SNP for her own private agenda, not for the independence cause.
There has been zero preparations made for a campaign. Nor as I look throughout the YES grouping do I see anyone else at present that is capable of bringing us back together. There are more personal attacks by so-called pro independence supporters on other independence supporters than by Unionists.It wouldn’t be so bad if it was disagreements on policies, sadly it is mainly over ideology.
A Pro independence journalist gets imprisoned for reporting the truth and barring the two Alba MPs and Angus, Brendan all our other elected voices remain silent. They are more concerned about not offending Sturgeon than to be offended about the injustice wrought upon Craig Murray.
The SNP the main flagship of our movement seems more intent on cooperating with Westminster than on attaining independence. Nicola Sturgeon this week was pleading to have talks with Boris Johnson about a united UK strategy for economic covid recovery rather than getting Scotland out of the Union to recover.
Regrettably, she will never hold talks with Colette Walker, Dave Thomson, Chic Brodie, Alex Salmond to further Scotland’s cause. It seems she thinks it is more important she secures a parliamentary deal with the Greens rather than get a deal with the entire Yes Movement. That tends to confirm the suspicion that gender issues are her priority, not Scotland’s freedom.
This site has made its position clear on an Independence referendum. I do not support such a method as our best option to achieve our independence. Since 2014 another 500,000 +non Scots from mainly England have arrived in Scotland. Thousands more of our rural homes are now second home holiday houses for English owners, entitling them to a vote in any referendum. Put yourself in their place. If Scotland was the dominant force in UK politics and you were able to sell your hovel in Scotland to buy a huge house in England and a vote came along Edinburgh or London control how would you vote, for English independence or Scottish rule from Holyrood?
I don’t blame the English No voters in Scotland. I blame us for letting it be an option. It harms our prospects as the 2014 data clearly shows. Be assured if ever England decides on a plebiscite to leave the UK they would only allow English born voters a say. No other nation on the planet permits foreign nationals a vote on Constitutional matters, why should Scotland be any different?
Fortunately, just as Sturgeon is not keen on a referendum any day soon, neither is Johnson. If the Tories were not so stupid and full of so much arrogance and pomposity they would agree to an Independence referendum immediately. It would destroy our cause for decades because for sure we would lose badly.
For once I am glad that two such incompetents are running the governments of Scotland and the UK.
Sturgeon The Betrayer.
I used to think many years ago that Sturgeon and her gang were not very good at promoting independence never mind achieving it but deep down they were for independence. Now I think they do not want independence and will never deliver independence. If this lot led us into an independence referendum it would be a disaster.
For example, every year they provide a propangada gift to the Britnats by producing the GERS report. This is what is behind all these people who vote no saying my heart says yes but my head says no. They often quote the fictitious £12b to £15b annual deficit from these reports saying we cannae afford to be independent. The Scottish government/SNP have done nothing in all these years to remove this propaganda. Anyone remember the promise that Derek McKay would produce a different report. As Roddy says in his article the current SNP only pay lip service to independence.
Sturgeon and her gang just love being in power as colonial administrators for Westminster. They are devolutionalists just like British Labour in Scotland.
Sturgeon The Betrayer is her legacy.
It’ll be interesting to see how the SNP and Alba deal with the Covid borrowing explosion figures. We already know how it will be sold by the unionists. ‘Scottish Secretary Alister Jack said: “The Scottish Government’s own figures show clearly how much Scotland benefits from being part of a strong United Kingdom, with the pooling and sharing of resources that brings. The UK Government is currently supporting more than 930,000 jobs in Scotland – a third of the workforce”. How so?
‘Public sector net borrowing in the financial year ending March 2021 is estimated to have been £300.3 billion, remains the highest borrowing since financial year records began in FYE March 1946’.- ONS.
So the UK borrows much more than normal due to Covid, as most other countries have had to do (not Norway apparently), and then passes a new debt to Scotland, which is fine in theory because that is what Scotland would have done as an independent nation (but obviously excluding all tory dodgy contracts for the pals additional costs).
‘To shine a light on one of the greatest spending sprees in Britain’s postwar era, The New York Times analyzed a large segment of it, the roughly 1,200 central government contracts that have been made public, together worth nearly $22 billion. Of that, about $11 billion went to companies either run by friends and associates of politicians in the Conservative Party, or with no prior experience or a history of controversy. Meanwhile, smaller firms without political clout got nowhere’.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/12/17/world/europe/britain-covid-contracts.html
So passing on additional massive borrowing costs due to tory corruption is the UK supporting us? Not quite.
GERS must be due fairly soon. Let the fun begin.
“That tends to confirm the suspicion that gender issues are her priority, not Scotland’s freedom.” that one is a bit too tip-toe over thin ice, it is a stone cold certainty…not a suspicion.
The other thing is this, if not a referendum, and I agree totally with you on timing – nothing has changed, no progress has been made on strategy, we have no leadership – as yet, fine job by sturgeon on breaking it all apart, then what mechanism do we have, and how can we change the franchise if we have to go this route?
They are for sure playing good cop – bad cop on us, so obvious. So, will ALBA rise and take on the mantle, are they talking to these other YES groups to bring them all together, will they produce the policies required and the constitution and stitch it all together. I bloody hope so and soon, before sturgeon plays her joker – for the state.
By just mentioning only a referendum, you are playing into the unionists hands by helping keep it mainstream. What is needed is the highlighting of what other options exist. The Treaty of Union, United Nations, International Law, Scots Law, a majority of MP’s/MSP’s etc. These do get mentioned occasionally, but like the wider Yes groups, it is fragmented. Besides a referendum would only be worthwhile if it wasn’t hamstrung by various UK fixes – who gets to vote, financial support against it from unknown sources, massive media bias, another % barrier as 1979, who knows what else and all leading no doubt to claims of “it was only advisory” should it not be what the UK wanted.
It is time to forget about a referendum and start highlighting the other options, that if the SNP were serious about gaining independence, that they’d be highlighting. By placing much needed attention on the other options, it would widen the scope and seriousness of intent, and as well as clarifying the way forward, it’d become clearer who actually wanted to push for independence and those who only wanted to pretend that they do.
At the moment it’s not even about independence, since the UK has a veto on Scotland even just seeking to be able to make a decision on independence. I imagine that many of our European neighbours must be completely baffled by why Scotland is being so timid in dealing with the UK on this. With Brexit, the EU certainly learned just how pointless or untrustworthy so many dealings with the UK Government were to prove, which no doubt is why so many final agreements were legally binding. The UK Government’s since 2014 have done more than enough to prove that there isn’t any point in further trying to deal with them with regards to independence. It’s time to highlight the options that don’t include a UK Government or a gold standard referendum. It’s time for the political games on independence to end and for the legal and constitutional matters to become centre stage. That is the only way that this will be resolved.
Highlighting other options is exactly what Ihave been doing for sometime now. Let me refer you to my blog post Our Independence, Our rules
Yes that was a breath of fresh air, but now it’s back to a referendum again. Anyway let’s see what is discussed at the Alba conference or if the alternative routes to independence starts to gain any real and widespread traction elsewhere. I know the msm will be desperate to hide any mention of them and stick with their neverendum referendum focus.
As for the alternatives to a referendum, this is clearly a complex matter with varying statements and laws being referred to, such as in this 71 page document –
https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-9104/CBP-9104.pdf
‘As a matter of law, a referendum is not required for Scotland to become independent,’
‘There developed a general consensus that Scottish devolution or independence should take place if a majority of Scottish MPs committed to that course were returned at a UK general election. Successive SNP manifestos made clear that negotiations with London would follow such an electoral outcome. This appeared to be accepted by successive Conservative Prime Ministers. In her memoirs, Margaret Thatcher stated that: As a nation, they [the Scots] have an undoubted right to national self-determination; thus far they have exercised that right by joining and remaining in the Union. Should they determine on independence
no English party or politician would stand in their way,’
For all it’s complexities (UK law, Scots Law, ToU, Interational Law, UN etc), the answer to how Scotland can become independent will lie somewhere within them. One thing that is sadly all too clear is that it’s unlikely that a post 2014 SNP will establish it, so it’ll have to come from others.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-30/scottish-court-dismisses-case-on-independence-referendum
Well said, Roddy.
Cubby’s remarks at the top, about the annual GERS (Government Expenditure & Revenues Scotland) figures, reminds me that last year, or was it 2019, I asked within the SNP for an explanation of when and why the SNP government had adopted the idea of GERS, and now publishes it as its own version of reality.
First, we all know, or should know, it was originally a Tory strategy in 1992 designed to undermine arguments for independence. Second, it’s full of estimates so it should never be taken as accurate but it is, every single effin year.
I didn’t get an answer to that simple question.
We should as a matter of urgency roddy start pressuring our representatives to start thinking of, discussing ,and researching other options.
I have been trying. I am glad to see my suggestion to just open drug consumption rooms might be getting taken up.
I joined the snp in the dark days at the end of Thatcher.
It was always a broad church, there were always splits, the Fundamentalist vs devolutionist being the biggest.
But then, both sides upheld core principles:
-free speech
-equality
– democracy.
They were so fundamental they were unspoken and taken for granted on both sides.
The TRA debate has split the Party far more than anything that has gone before. Is it because the common ground of those principles is gone?
When Mike Russell was CEO and Jim Sillars was his ‘old volcano’, neither side would have ever dreamed of withholding election results from the membership -even though they numbered less than 10 000. It would have been a matter of principle.
The leadership looked after their members better when there were fewer of them and they were more valuable.
Let’s bury the referendum idea for good. According to many we don’t need it. The Scottish people are sovereign and as they were not consulted before the 1707 Treaty was signed – in fact not one single parish in Scotland agreed that it should be signed – it’s time we ordered the WM/English Government to withdraw ie destroy the Treaty. Burns described what took place in his poem/song “Sic a Parcel o’ Rogues in a Nation”. Surely there is no other argument.
What force or guile could not subdue
Thro’ many warlike ages
Is wrought now by a coward few
For hireling traitor’s wages. “We’re bought and sold for English gold” – Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!
On Sunday we 15th August our first Prism Show after the summer break (Craig Murray one last w/e was a, special) my Guest of the week will be discussing the Treaty of Union with NE and the possibilities, we have to use it as, a means of regaining our independence.
A big thank you! That is something we can really look forward to on Sunday 15th August.
As you , me and others have said repeatedly the referendum issue is just another TRAP supported and used by Sturgeon and Bozo to continue the status quo . A sure and fair way and I would assume the international community would support is the plebiscitery way , which was previously acceptable to all interested parties.
Unfortunately the prospect of the NEW troughers having just won 5 years more gravy supping would have fits if it was even suggested they call a new election to implement that route , but even to pursue that route the parties would have to state unequivocally in their manifesto , that if majority of party elected to government negotiation would begin immediately on the disbursement of assets with Scotland declaring independent STATEHOOD and the resiling of the TOU , is there any way that the ALBA party could steadfastly promote this route during the next election which I think is the local election