Everything that revolts me about being in the British Union was on display yesterday in the House of Commons. The pomposity, the absurdity, the false, sense of importance was there on show for the world to see. The English MPs still in their own minds eye believe that they are some sort of world superpower who have an influence on the worlds affairs. They do actually believe other countries pay attention to whatever they say. At its heart is an English exceptionalism that defies the facts of the nation’s geography and its waning economic and military power.
Post 1945 was the time for the UK to renew its democracy, its institutions and more importantly its view of itself. The world had changed and moved on, sadly the English haven’t, they are still living in imperial times. Now though instead of having an empire in all the continents of the world the English Empire now consists of Scotland, Wales, six occupied counties of Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. Yet to listen to them yesterday you would think the Empire of Queen Victoria’s era was still intact and thriving. The English Establishment still attend their imperial schools and universities. They still study Greek and Latin, English Literature and recite Kipling and Shakespeare at the drop of a hat. Meanwhile, the advanced nations of the world learn computer skills, global economics and science.
Since 1945 the English establishment has been trying to turn the clock back to pre 1939.Then the workers knew their place the middle and upper classes were never questioned and always obeyed. They accepted whatever paltry wages were doled out by incompetent management. There were no Council houses, no NHS, no welfare state. The plebs knew their place.
The brown people of the Empire gave up their wealth so that the English ruling elite could live good lives. Gun boat diplomacy of the 18th and 19th century were still believed to be the answer to all England’s woes. Now 76 years, after the end of WWII the English still revel and bask in the glories. Most of those comfort dreams are just that, false images of a time and life that didn’t really exist.
Post 1945 terminal decline has been the fate of Mother England and its empire. As our European and global neighbours recovered from the carnage of war they renewed their nations democracies and industries. The UK being a conservative, class riven society tried to halt or ignore all the global changes. They carried on regardless as if the war had not altered anything.
While Germany, Japan, India, South Korea and the other nations of the world invested in new technologies and sciences to improve their wealth Mother England tried to keep up the pretence of global power and policeman. No investment in their industrial base beyond minimal. The government only made short term policies. One financial crisis followed another. The £ from being a global currency retreated and diminished just like the empire. Only a few nations bothered to peg to it in the post-war $ era.
Even the humiliation of Suez could not bring the Brits to their senses. As each week passed another country seemed to leave the empire. By now the British were not strong enough to prevent it. The politicians believed by hanging on to America’s coattails they could still be a power broker and important in global terms. Status and superiority trumped reality every time.
Currency devaluation, industrial strife, decrepit industries lack of investment all crippled the economy. Every new government promised good times were around the corner. They all failed to halt the rot. None of them had the courage to face the reality. The UK was out of date and out of time. An unelected head of state, and second chamber, patronage and baubles were of no use in a 20th century post war world. No politician though had the courage to face that reality.
The UK was on the verge of being a failed state. By the mid 1970s it was critical. The most potent symbol of Britain’s 1976 economic crisis was the sight of Chancellor Denis Healey turning back at the airport as the pound plummeted. The next day he announced that Britain would be applying to the IMF for a huge loan. And on December 15, 1976, he signed a Letter of Intent to the IMF, committing to significant public expenditure cuts in return for a $3.9 billion loan.
https://www.chathamhouse.org/publications/the-world-today/2016-12/britains-big-bailout-december-15-1976
1970, British Petroleum made its first discovery of commercial oil in the large Forties Field in Scottish territorial waters, although oil was not produced until 1976. By 1974, it was apparent that North Sea oil could provide a massive source of energy, and also revenue. The UK Cabinet considered a white paper on policy towards North Sea oil and the associated tax regime. The first oil was brought ashore by an American company, Hamilton in 1975. The White Paper was reflected in the terms and conditions of the fifth round of offshore petroleum licensing in 1976. In response to the oil crisis, the government also encouraged a short-lived expansion of coal mining.
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/cabinetpapers/themes/north-sea-oil-gas.htm
This is when the very English trait of deception kicked in. Scotland had a massive natural resource of oil, England needed it and of course had no intention of paying the going rate or sharing it. So subterfuge, lies and bribery were needed. Bribing enough compliant Scots with safe seats at Westminster, British baubles and ermine always, worked. Hiding the truth from the Scottish people was also remarkably easy. A compliant 4th Estate all owned and run by England would ensure and continues to ensure Scots do not know the truth.They hid the McRone report that told of fantastic wealth for an independent Scotland.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/how-black-gold-was-hijacked-north-sea-oil-and-betrayal-scotland-518697.html
Despite all the nonsense you hear about the GERS deficit or Scotland being too weak, too poor and too stupid know this Scotland and its resources keeps the UK afloat. It saved the UK in the 1970s and allowed Thatcher to destroy our industrial base throughout the 1980s and 90s.Today it is still funding the UK HR2, London sewers, Crossrail, Trident, Buckingham Palace refurbishment, Westminster renovation none of these could happen without Scottish resources.
This present lot of crooks and vagabonds still improve the infrastructure and lives of southern England with Scottish resources. Scotland is the only nation left for England to exploit. It is estimated that during the imperial time of India the British stole around £45 TRILLION yet just like Scotland the Indian people were told they were a drain on the English tax payer.
The aftermath of colonialism results in the former colonies being rightfully resentful of their former imperial overlords. The British Empire that of course, the sun never set on spanned the globe. It is why the English are one of the most disliked and despised nations on the planet. Never in my lifetime has any nation approached the UK and asked it to be the honest broker. Never has a nation that seceded from London control ever asked to return to the fold. All of those nations exploited by the English elite have gone on to improve their nations and citizens lives. Scotland will be no different when our time comes.
That is why yesterday’s antics at Westminster were so cringingly embarrassing. Nobody in the rest of the world cares, what the English Parliament thinks or wants. Equally humiliating was the debacle of Question Time as a load of English exceptionalists passed judgement on Afghanistan and its plight. Who do these people think they are? Are they so pompous that they believe anyone cares what they have to say or think? Blair took us into Afghanistan so he could curry favour with a useless American President. There was no justification in that act of aggression. It was all done to appease and profit the American Military Industrial complex.
It was never about protecting the west or nation building. Back then the Taliban had even offered to hand over Osama Bin Laden to a 3rd party nation.onnegotiable said Bush. The US wanted war it fuelled profits and played to their macho ego. The UK always the US bitch since 1944 was a willing participant hoping to keep alive the myth of British global power.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/14/afghanistan.terrorism5
Now the nation most likely to influence in Afghanistan is China. They won’t arrive with bombs and soldiers. They will descend upon Afghanistan with money and engineers. There is a new world dawning it is not about military might. It is, all about soft power and influence. Resources are finite, the nations that control those control the future. Scotland is blessed with natural resources, it is time that we were controlling them and not a foreign country exploiting us any longer.
Independence is more vital than ever. It is time we took it!
That arrogance is reflected in all things – the Olympic Games , anyone watching would believe we swept the board with our talented young, they did very well but others did better and with less money invested.
I’ve lost count at the number of times 1966 , the year I married , has been held up with false pride – other nations seem to get over their success by the next four year championship.
The Mother of all Parliaments is an embarrassment to any thinking adult. It’s foreign policies shameful and murderous.
I agree entirely with your sound historical essay and the ramifications for so-called politics in Britain today. These blind emptyheads in Westminster are indeed an embarrassment and their immature posturing over Afghanistan is nauseating. The worst thing that happened to that unfortunate country was England, and still potentially is. They now probably have their best chance if they can secure support from other nations on their own terms; but not the UN which is controlled by the world’s greatest warmongers and terrorists. As for embracing our role in the welcoming refugees, you can forget it. We are presently embarked on a policy of deporting people who have given their entire working lives to this country; of dividing families who invested in the belief of a united and undividable Europe; and of fomenting hatred against any of our citizens who have a different colour of skin. It’s all posturing, to imply Britain is an advanced well-respected state. It’s not. I’m a bit disappointed too, that Nicola continues to dance to their tune, frightened of saying the ‘wrong’ thing: frightened of incurring the wrath or even disdain of Westminster and their media acolytes. Your final comment refers to ‘taking independence – methinks you’re right.
Successive governments, tory and labour alike, have all played the game. The elite get rich, the rest of us pay for it, and thank them for it. Scotland needs out for sure, before they start on the next round of asset stripping. How are we going to make it happen though. SNP are dead in the water with sturgeon at the helm, nicely done the british state, and too many Scots are completely brain-dead colonialised to know better.
English exceptionalism took us out of Europe and down there Boris is still some sort of hero. Next wave of immigrants coming from Afghanistan will be the latest – oh look, a squirrel – while they continue on raping and pillaging, now in plain sight. They simply don’t care, they have the game utterly sewn-up.
So, we need a plan Z, we must walk away from the treaty of union. It has been smashed and obliterated on the rock of this english grandeur and we should stand it no longer. How on earth we make that happen is beyond my crystal ball, but if enough of us stand up we have a good start. More of this please, we need to shake people to the core and out of their dumbed down reverie…let’s all be eating cake…
Since I got rid of television in Feb 2014 – phoned the BBC and told the poor soul who answered that I wanted nothing more to do with them and why – I am spared the anger engendered by the programmes you mention, Roddy.
I can still visualise the incredible superiority displayed by most English politicians but now I’m able to laugh at their antics. They’re taught to behave thus in school. However I remember visiting an English friend who taught Art in one of their “best” schools. Her flat was at the head of the staircase leading to the boys’ dormitories. She told me this was to deter the masters who invariably tried to get in beside the boys. Obviously I’m not going to give the name of the school except to say it’s incredibly popular with aristocrats and the very rich. At the time I told my friend I couldn’t understand why fathers would send their sons there knowing what was likely to happen to them. She said the conditioning was part of the set-up.
Having watched The National Roasdshow with Michael Russell last night, sadly I do not see a way out of where we are.
Firmer direct action is required from the yes movement Roddy. That direct action must not start at first against the English, but against sturgeon and the snp. We have given them the power to represent us which they continue to fail to do. Loud aggressive direct action MUST be taken against them to force them to act and force them to repeal the treaty of union asap.
Irishman Murphy, of GERS is CRAP fame, nails it again:
Withering Britain
https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2021/08/19/withering-britain/
😉
Great article. Has there ever been a better time to go..? Yet sturgeon will be lockstep all the way. We really need to challenge this. The brutish state will hang on to the death to its largest and nearest cash-cow.
“ They still study Greek and Latin, English Literature and recite Kipling and Shakespeare at the drop of a hat. Meanwhile, the advanced nations of the world learn computer skills, global economics and science.”
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Unhelpful dichotomy. Not either but both. The “warrior-scholar” balance. The first opponent is self. Scots above all should know this by now, having been invariably defeated by Scots.
So true.
If after independence day we do what the French did to collaborators, there are going to be a lot of newly bald Scots…
Until the Scottish Government loudly reject the GERs propaganda data we are all wasting our breath. Their weak approach to Westminster propaganda is shameful.
We have a weak party in control of Holyrood who have no desire to pursue Independence and appear quite happy to be mocked by the insulting data paraded by the media every year.
The New SNP are an affront to our Nation.
Defiance should be the natural reaction of those seeking independence from the hugely disfigured and undemocratic ‘Mother of Parliaments’, but it’s compliance that’s the name of the game, lock-stepping us into the resurgent imperial ambitions of the British Nationalists. The sub plot of Brexit’s taking back control was always about securing Scotland as a region in perpetuity, that plan is working beautifully under the SNP colonial administration. The silence is deafening.
The political booby-trap in the Scotland Act has manifested itself spectacularly and the Executive has the law within itself, a dreadful conflict of interest that has rendered it unaccountable to meaningful parliamentary scrutiny into it’s puzzling conduct. Meanwhile we have Scotland’s very own political prisoner languishing in HMP Saughton as the villainous rogue blogger in the vicious Sturgeon Salmond pantomime, victim of a contemptuous and uniquely biased mis-judgement that has traduced the reputation of Scotland’s legal system, now become a world leader in the assault on freedom of speech.
I really did dare to think that we were better than, to borrow a phrase, this ‘clusterbourach’!
“Michael Oswald’s film The Spider’s Web reveals how at the demise of empire, City of London financial interests created a web of secrecy jurisdictions that captured wealth from across the globe and hid it in a web of offshore islands. Today, up to half of global offshore wealth is hidden in British jurisdictions and Britain and its dependencies are the largest global players in the world of international finance.”