This week both Holyrood and Westminster entered recess for the Christmas/New Year break. It has me thinking, who gets more holidays, politicians or school teachers? Which group gives the most to society? Well that is an easy one, not the self-serving politicians for sure.
Teachers are transparent and want to enlighten and enliven minds. Politicians want us kept in the dark with zero knowledge or awareness of their antics. That much was very evident on this final week in Edinburgh and London.
Air Chief Marshal, Sir Richard John Knighton, KCB,ADC,FREng. took this week to give us a lesson in Supreme Russophobia. He warned the nation that, Russia’s military strength is increasing and it is something we should fear! He doesn’t explain exactly why we should fear Russia, he just assures us we need to not only be afraid, we also need to prepare our sons and daughters what it means to be prepared for an “array of real, physical threats.”
This is a direct quote; “Sons and daughters, colleagues, veterans, will all have a role to play. To build, to serve, and if necessary to fight, and more families will know what sacrifice for our nation means.”
I take so many exceptions to that statement. I have and always will oppose all wars and conflicts. What though grinds me the most is the “our nation” bit. We know when Anglos and Brits refer to the nation, they mean England, nothing more, nothing less! For them UK, Britain, England are all interchangeable and mean England only on every occasion, except when there is some fighting to do!
For the record, if you check out Sir John’s Wikipedia you are informed that this warmonger has a first class degree in Arts from Cambridge in 1991. Not like Sun Tzu the Art of War more your paint a still life and read a bit of Shakespeare Art!
He lists the Kosovo War as his singular piece of military experience. For those that are not aware of this conflict, the sole RAF involvement was bombing Belgrade, Serbia from 40,000 feet. Knighton was in a support role as a senior engineering officer in No1 Squadron, and he was based in Italy hundreds of miles from the actual fighting!
This guy, now wants to tell us to sacrifice our children against Russia, the world’s greatest nuclear power with an estimated 6,000 nuclear warheads. A Russian army comprising of over 1.5 million fighting men and women. An army that is now battle hardened and is in the process of defeating a US/NATO force in Ukraine.
To give you some context, the UK possesses 225 nuclear warheads and has an army of 74,000 however, only about 19,000 of them are fully combat-ready soldiers. Colonel Douglas MacGregor, a retired US officer and Gulf War veteran who also served as an advisor to the US Government at the Pentagon. He has referred to the UK Army as a “boutique army” that would last a matter of days in any conflict with Russia or China. In other words those sons and daughters that Knighton wants us to prepare for war would be slaughtered in quick time!
Starmer and Badenoch and other assorted Anglo politicians have also been banging the war drums against Russia. However, this week they upped the stakes and deployed Blaise Metreveli, Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). She is a very interesting character. This week she was another one telling the nation about the big bad Russian threat to us all.
What our complicit and corrupt media didn’t tell you about the MI6 Chief was this: her paternal grandfather was a Ukrainian Nazi, Constantine Dobrowolski. During WWII, Dowbrowolski, defected from the Red Army and became an intelligence officer for the Nazis in the Chernihiv region of Ukraine.
He was a committed Bandera/Nazi supporter and archival documents tell us he was a notorious figure referred to as “The Butcher” who participated in executions and collaborated with the SS. He also signed off all his letters and communications to his superior Nazi commanders with the words “Heil Hitler.”
Personally, I find myself uncomfortable with all the known Nazis that were readily integrated into western society post 1945. The UK, US and Canada in particular welcomed known war criminals with open arms post-war. Our leaders deemed the Soviets a bigger threat that any Nazis and their war crimes were quickly ignored in the ‘cold war’ years.
That these two should this week deem to lecture us about big bad Russia and to prepare our children for war, I personally find offensive. The reality in Scotland is this, never in our history has Russia or China or Iran or North Korea or for that matter any other nation apart from England threatened, invaded, murdered, enslaved, and committed genocide against Scots. Our history shows us which nation poses the biggest danger to Scots, and it is not Russia.
Since 1707 and through every war including the Gulf Wars it is always the Scots that are the spearhead or the rearguard at any retreat. The 51st Highlander division was sacrificed at Dunkirk. It was the Scots in WWI that took the highest casualties per head of population of all the participating nations. It was the Black Watch that were the spearhead in both Gulf Wars. The Scots Guards, Welsh Guards and Ghurkas were the spearhead in the Falklands war. The Nigels arrive after all the heavy lifting! Too many Scots have died in countless English Imperial wars. Enough is enough, not another single Scot should die for Mother England and it’s warring ways!
Remember the words of General Wolfe in Canada as Mother England fought the French in Quebec. “Send in the Highlanders, no great mischief if they fail.” That is how the Scots, Irish and Welsh have always been viewed, as a resource that can be used and abused for Mother England!
This was the main topic for our Through A Scottish Prism Podcast this week. Our panel of Allan Petrie, Eva Comrie, Phil Boswell and Lloyd Quinan give their views on this and other topics of the week as they appertain to Scotland.
This is likely to be our last podcast of the year, unless, of course, our useless politicians get up to any nonsense over the festive season.
May I, on behalf of us all at BHB and TASP wish you and yours a very happy Christmas and a healthy and prosperous 2026. This could be the year we finally leave the union, that is of course, dependent on you!
re the Brit Security State MOAP ( mother of all psyops ) that is this unfolding Red Scare ” * we * must prepare for war ” ( funny how none of the enthusiasts for such think to mention that the object of such imminent threat/terror is a nuclear-armed power ); I’m surprised none of the panel asked the obvious, and for us most relevant question…..where are the SNP/GOV on this most critical of issues; why is there such a deafening silence from them, both in WM & Holyrood? Where are * our * supposed representatives, cowering under their WM benches/HR closets in case, eg the terrifying Russian Menace sails up the Thames or invades Morningside? Or even more scary they have to take a stance contrary to the dominant narrative being shoved down the public throat? No it can’t be the latter, as they, the Snivelling Neutered Party, have already pledged their compliance with their Brit State Overlords warmongering lunacy
This situation, the manufacturing of a threat-requiring-massive-military-build-up, should be being used by the SNP/GOV to put a simple choice to the people of Scotland – do you want your loved ones to die, be horribly injured – in body & mind – if so, for what?
But such a question won’t be put, will it? It will join the long list of situations which could have served to impress upon more Scots/Scotland residents the absolute desirability/necessity of getting out and as far away ( socio/politically ) as possible from the demented, degenerate, decaying carcass of England-As-Britain.
Though I agree with Eva when she says we should be focusing on Scotland, and the Independence thereof, this subject – the War with Russia narrative – is going to dominate everything for next few years, at least; for one thing, it will be used to brush aside the entire question of Scottish Independence ( like they need another excuse ); it will attempt to tap into/exploit a spurious ( anglo-centric ) * patriotism *, eg ” whose side are you on? ” bullshit. It will be relentless, inescapable, all-pervading; so any/all islands of sanity in the maelstrom of Reason-erasing propaganda better come together and raise their voices in unison – and loudly. BTW, where’s ALBA on this? They hiding under the bed too?
Even if what we’re witnessing is/proves to be an exercise in sabre-rattling posturing – as has been mentioned – the EUK forces combined would struggle to defeat a fraction of Russian ones – the aim will still be malign and impact – as always – most negatively on the standards of living/quality of life of those already feeling the deleterious effects of permanent Austerity and Neoliberal voodoo economics. Not to mention further impositions of our continually-eroded rights and freedoms.
I’m genuinely horrified how all this War War War hysteria has arisen and is being hyped-up & shoved in our faces non-stop, and utterly disgusted at the almost total absence of critical response from * our * Political Class.
Absence of criticism is bad enough, but actual support for/compliance with the insanity is beyond understanding. Or, is only understandable if we conclude the entire Political Class – both sides of the Border – is just one big bought n paid for Head Nodding Club; and, as George Carlin said…….” we’re not in it “
AN EDITED AI GENERATED RESUMÉ of a recent FT business news item concerning the lastest phase in the career of a bita this, a bita that anglo-irish, old school tory geezer, American interests enabler.
{OpenAI has hired former UK chancellor George Osborne to lead its global expansion under the $500bn «Stargate» initiative OpenAI for Countries. The ChatGPT creator has billed «Stargate» as a way to ensure American companies and values are the foundation of the international «build-out» of so called Artificial Intelligence providing a bulwark against «Chinese alternatives» and a safeguarding of «democratic principles».
The move follows rival Anthropic’s hiring of ex-PM Rishi Sunak. Osborne’s role involves negotiating AI partnerships with governments worldwide, building on existing UK and UAE deals, with 50 countries in discussions about “sovereign AI” systems.
Stargate, announced earlier this year with SoftBank and Oracle backing, has drawn both praise (particularly from Donald Trump) and financial bubble concerns given OpenAI’s ongoing losses. Osborne leaves his investment banking role at Evercore for a London based January start.
The 54-year-old maintains multiple positions including British Museum chair, Stanford lecturer, and Coinbase advisor – adding to his post-political career that included editing the Evening Standard and advising BlackRock. His recent HSBC chair bid, however, failed. The FT piece ( the AI deduces) raises questions re democratic accountability in this tech-power consolidation, noting Osborne’s political history and his new rôle to «leverage» AI tech companies’ global governance}
Anglocentric cultural bias? Anglophone Osborne & mates are not engaged by that but recent American academic studies (check online) indicate the cultural bias, already manifest on the internet, of current AI’s LL models, trained by first language English speakers with conscious or subconscious White Anglosaxon Protestant (WASP) attitudes, they normalize «values» which may conflict with those of the planet’s diverse largely non anglophone cultures and may reinforce negative stereotyping of those cultures as «backward»,
In re the principles of democracy, when did anyone last directly experience those principles in all their thrilling revolutionary, establishment rocking, seismic glory? May the techbros AI toy balloon soon burst.
Foreign interference? all a matter of just whom is doing the «interfering».
I agreei with the earlier comment that the talk of war with Russia will swamp political debate. That of course is what it is intended to do and of course the highest taxes since WW2 is a reflection of how Sir Keir Starmer is trying to to stimulate the economy through military spending.
But look at where this great military power striding the world stage in its post Brexit golden era really is.
High inflation and low growth going forward will further the decline UK living standards, pushing the country behind its economic peers, the UK-based Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) has predicted.
This forecast, set out in the CEBR’s annual World Economic League Table released on Friday, projects that the UK will fall from 19th to 22nd in global GDP per capita rankings by 2030, being overtaken by Hong Kong, Finland, and the UAE. British living standards are expected to slip behind those of former colony Malta by 2035.
It’s grim reading for the mighty UK striding the world stage. It’s even grimmer reading for Scots in a small country endowed with natural resources. Oil, gas, hydro and now renewable energy of which we have a massive surplus should be powering us to a new future. The AI revolution as an example requires huge amounts of power, so why could the data centres not be in Scotland instead of the electricity, or the earlier gas and oil, heading down south.
But instead we get filched and no benefit as the declining UK drags us ever down. But who would have thought now independent ex colonies like Malta, Singapore and our ex protectorate UAE would now be way ahead in GDP.
Ah Scotland, poor wee Scotland, with all its resources being dragged below the waves by the sinking Brittania. But at least we’ll have a war with Russia to talk about.
Happy New Year when it comes.