A Guest Post by Campbell Martin.
I’m Campbell Martin. I’m a journalist and author, and a former Member of the Scottish Parliament.
I recently had a conversation with Roddy MacLeod, Barrhead Boy of Through A Scottish Prism. Roddy reminded me of a time when some people considered me to be a rising star of the Scottish National Party, which, in turn, reminded me of an article in a newspaper from when I was an MSP. The article stated: “Martin is spoken of as a possible future leader of the SNP,” but it concluded with a quote from an unnamed SNP parliamentary colleague, which said: “Yeah, but there are a number of us who will do whatever it takes to make sure that never happens” – and they did.
I was elected as an SNP MSP in 2003…and expelled by the party in 2004. That has to be some sort of a record. It only took them a year to decide they had to get rid of me. I was the first SNP parliamentarian to be expelled by the party and the first MSP of any party to be expelled.
My ‘offence’ that led to my expulsion was to have publicly criticised the ‘leadership’ of John Swinney – the Doyen of Devolution – and to have argued that the SNP should be demanding ‘independence, nothing less’, rather than seeking to manage the devolved Scottish Parliament within the United Kingdom.
My time at the Scottish Parliament actually started in its first days, in 1999. I was employed as the Parliamentary Assistant to the legendary Kay Ullrich. In addition to constituency work, I helped Kay in her role as the SNP Shadow Minister for Health and Community Care. In 2000, when Kay became the SNP Chief Whip, I moved with her to the Whips Office and took on the role of SNP Whips Administrator. This position meant I was privy to a lot of sensitive information about SNP MSPs. In my autobiography – Was It Something I Said? – I set-out some of the issues we had to deal with in the Whips Office. I’ll refer to all three of my books at the end of this piece.
Back in those very early days of the Scottish Parliament, I remember having a conversation with a few SNP MSPs about how many people on the SNP floor of the parliamentary offices would actually be working for the other side, for the British State. It seemed to us to be a certainty that there would be British State assets amongst us, both MSPs and staffers. It was, and remains, insane to think that the British State would not have infiltrated the SNP, a political party that claimed to have as its raison d’etre the break-up of the British State.
The difference between those early days of the Scottish Parliament and today, is that the British State assets in the SNP have, over the intervening years, risen-through the ranks and now hold senior positions that have allowed them to influence party policies and direction, such as adopting a lack of urgency in delivering independence…and that’s putting it mildly.
John Swinney has always been a devolutionist. He once told me he admired what Tony Blair had done with the Labour Party, and his ambition was to re-create that transformation with the SNP, to create New SNP. His plan was for the SNP to copy New Labour by moving the party from its traditional, moderate left-of-centre position to adopting a moderate, right-of-centre position. As happened with New Labour, Swinney’s vision was for New SNP to become a Tory-lite party, and that is what happened when he succeeded Alex Salmond as party leader in 2000.
Swinney almost killed the SNP, which was why I spoke-out publicly, calling for him to resign and for Alex Salmond to return as party leader.
I was expelled in 2004, just before Swinney resigned as leader. He orchestrated my expulsion, which he demanded should happen before he tendered his resignation. Within a couple of weeks, Alex Salmond returned and saved the SNP.
I was approached about re-joining the party, but I asked why I would want to be a member of a political party that had broken its own constitution and rules in order to expel me, and I declined the invitation. I served the remaining three-years of the parliamentary term as an Independent MSP, sitting beside a legend of the independence movement who also found herself outside of the SNP, a woman who became a great friend of mine, Margo MacDonald.
Having saved the SNP, Alex Salmond turned around the party’s fortunes and took Scotland to the brink of independence in the 2014 referendum. Sadly, the immediate aftermath of the referendum saw what I believe was a rare error on Alex’s part: he decided he should stand down as leader. I don’t think he had to stand down, but as a man of integrity he probably felt he failed to deliver for the independence movement. I think that judgement was too harsh. If Alex had remained leader of the SNP in 2014, I firmly believe Scotland would be an independent country today.
What we got, though, when Alex stood down, was a return to devolutionist leadership of the SNP. Nicola Sturgeon was the new leader, but Devo-John (Swinney) was back in a very influential position. This also brings us back to British State infiltration of the SNP.
Within espionage circles there are four accepted reasons for why people betray a cause. The acronym for those reasons is M-I-C-E (Mice), which stands for: M – money; I – ideology; C- compromise; and E – ego. Compromise is, essentially, blackmail. I’ll leave it to others to decide who within the SNP might fall into each category.
It’s also worth mentioning that there are different types of traitors. Not everyone is an agent of MI5 or Special Branch: some are known as ‘assets’. Their job is simply to listen to what they hear from colleagues or party members, and pass-back anything they think would be of interest to the British State. Agents are different: they have been placed within an organisation, such as the SNP, and have been given specific tasks to carry out. Tasks such as undermining the organisation and neutralising its effectiveness in challenging the control of the British State.
How many British State agents and assets are there within the SNP? Who knows? Well, obviously, the British State knows. I will say, though, that I remember reading a statement made by a former Special Branch agent who had infiltrated the Socialist Workers Party. The SWP was a tiny left-wing political party, but it had been so heavily infiltrated that the agent recorded in his statement that he felt when he attended some meetings most people there were either MI5 or Special Branch. Agents and Assets didn’t know each other, they were all carrying out their roles independently.
If the British State had so heavily infiltrated a tiny socialist party, how much attention would it have directed to a Scottish political party that had risen to the brink of power?
Today, after all that has happened, I still see some SNP loyalists claiming the party has not been infiltrated. That assertion is just insane.
During ‘the troubles’ in the north of Ireland, the British State had infiltrated the IRA to such an extent that one its agents was a man called Freddie Scapiticci, codenamed ‘Steaknife’. Scapiticci was the IRA’s Head of Internal Security, and he was an MI5 agent.
In the 1970s, when British governments feared powerful trade unions, particularly the National Union of Mineworkers, a Special Branch agent was a man called Joe Gormley: he was the National President of the Mineworkers Union. You can’t get higher than National President, and he was a Special Branch asset.
In the bitter, year-long Miners’ Strike of 1984-85, papers prepared for then Tory Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher showed MI5 were receiving reports from one of their agents called Roger Windsor. Windsor was the Chief Executive of the NUM.
Still, though, SNP loyalists argue the British State has not infiltrated the party.
In 1984, a woman called Cathy Massiter went public about her former work as an MI5 officer. One of the reasons Cathy Massiter gave for leaving MI5 was that the job had changed, she said it had become more political. She added that the role of MI5 had changed from counter-espionage to domestic surveillance.
Recently, I spoke with a senior serving-officer of Police Scotland. They spoke on condition of anonymity and stated there were some questions they would not answer.
I started the interview with the core question: has Police Scotland infiltrated the SNP? The officer replied that they could not answer that question. Before I said anything more, the officer added, ‘Although, by giving that answer, I have probably told you what you want to know’.
Police Scotland does not actually have a Special Branch, but if you press them on the matter, they do admit to having officers who carry out duties that are normally associated with the work of a Special Branch.
One other thing the Police Scotland officer said chimed with what Cathy Massiter said when she left MI5. The officer said that since the creation of Police Scotland, the job had become much more political. They felt that the most senior officers in the force were taking direction from politicians and Civil Servants. They also offered the opinion that the same relationships existed in the Crown Office Procurator Fiscal Service.
If that is the case, it certainly explains some recent prosecutions in Scotland. It would also throw light onto the comment by outgoing Police Scotland Chief Constable Iain Livingstone, when he told The Times newspaper that, “our close relationship with Nicola Sturgeon complicated the criminal investigation into the SNP’s finances”.
I used to know Nicola well. We are both from North Ayrshire and cut our political-teeth fighting a dominant Labour Party in our local area. We also later served together as SNP MSPs, albeit for only a year, before the party expelled me.
Nicola’s leadership of the SNP – with the input of Devo-John Swinney and Angus ‘BBC World Service’ Robertson – has returned the party to the brink of disaster. Back in the mists of time, I once suggested that Swinney and his clique were not interested in independence. They would take it if it fell into their laps, but they were never going to fight for it. All they wanted was to get their backsides onto the back-seats of Ministerial Mondeos and to be ‘important’ Government Ministers in a devolved Scottish government within the British Union.
How captured the SNP has become was encapsulated for me in the final letter Nicola Sturgeon wrote as First Minister of Scotland. It was a letter of resignation to the English King, Charles III. The final sentence of the letter, just above Nicola Sturgeon’s signature, read: ‘I have the honour to be, Sir, Your Majesty’s humble and obedient servant’.
No-one who sees Scotland as a progressive, potentially independent country, could have signed their name to such a grovelling letter to the pinnacle of the English/British establishment. To also see Nicola and then Humza Yousaf bow their heads to the English King confirmed the total capture of the SNP by the British State.
When I saw Nicola’s letter and the bowing and scraping to the English King, I was reminded of an incident that took place in Ireland in 1916, shortly after the Easter Rising by Irish freedom-fighters.
Edinburgh-born James Connolly was the Commander of the Irish Citizens Army at the rising. He had been so badly wounded during the fighting that the British had to strap him to a chair in order to execute him by firing squad.
A few days later, Lillie Connolly, James’ widow, went to the British headquarters to retrieve her husband’s effects. She was met by the man who had ordered James’ execution, Major General Sir John Maxwell, who held out his hand as Lillie approached him. Lillie held his gaze and her hands remained firmly behind her back.
One of the many messages Scots need to learn from Ireland is the actions of Lillie Connolly. Some things do not deserve civility or respect or obedience. She faced-down the authority and power of the English. While Scotland has leaders who bow to the English King, and who sign letters as the King’s ‘humble and obedient servant’, Scotland will never be an independent country.
The SNP is completely compromised, it has been captured and controlled by the British State. I’m now in my sixties and for the first time in my life I am thinking that I might not see independence. In the last two years, four of my best friends have died. They all supported independence and voted SNP. They never lived to see the sun rise on the morning of Independence Day. I know all of us have lost such friends who fought so hard over the years for independence, but never lived to see it.
The reality we face means we may have to go back to square-one and start all over again, build the independence movement all over again, through the Alba Party led by Alex Salmond. There are so many of us who built the SNP from a party on the fringes of the political spectrum to a party the people of Scotland trusted sufficiently to put them into government. If we have to do it all over again, we can. This time, though, we need to look out for those whose loyalties lie not with the interests of Scotland, but in maintaining British State control of our people and assets.
You have to hand it to the British State, it has played a blinder: today’s SNP is so corrupted by British agents that it has sidelined independence and embraced gender policies that make the party unelectable. For the British State that is job done.
However, the people of Scotland are the sovereign power, not the SNP. In terms of the Independence Movement, the SNP is the past. The future is Scotland United for Independence. One pro-independence candidate in each constituency that the people can unite behind.
Despite the SNP, independence is still achievable.
Finally, I mentioned my books. My life-story is covered in my first book – Was It Something I Said? – including my time in politics and what actually happened during my time in the SNP Whips Office, and as a Member of the Scottish Parliament. My two other books, Outspoken – Part One and Outspoken – Part Two, take us through the eventful last ten-years of Scottish and UK politics, from the Independence Referendum to the present day and the British State capture of the SNP.
All three are available from Amazon Books. If you don’t want to buy from Amazon, they are also available from Lulu Publishing.
I joined the SNP in 2013 having returned live in Scotland in late 2012. I worked through the referendum and all subsequent elections also doing two stints as a Branch Convenor. Exasperation with the Sturgeon leadership finally led me to resign in 2022.
My deep poitical background was in the socialist ‘hard’ left of the 70’s and 80’s in England. Then, we all assumed that we were infiltrated even though our groups were small. Infiltrators probably didn’t feel the need to contrive policy changes as we were never going to achieve power.
I often discussed the likely activities of the British state within the SNP, and a few people could see it, but the matter never seemed to gather momentum. Too many accepted the ideology that a parliamentary majority on it’s own would be a enough to gain independence – and now here we are where that view has taken us.
The aim of independence for Scotland is revolutionary. On their own reformist tactics will never take us there. The SNP has taken a ballpoint pen to a ‘battle’ and experienced the inevitable outcome.
The movement has to change it’s approach or wither – “simples”!
Thank you,Campbell Martin! This pretty much ties in with a lot of my remarks about this issue. While I don’t have the ‘history’ of being in ScotParl where ‘things’ happen, where ‘things’ are said, and ‘things’ done, I can see very clearly the results of said ‘things’. And it doesn’t take a genius to work out what is happening to the SNP & the Independence Movement.
I’ve said it often on a certain ‘platform’ that MI5 are at work – and there they are, the trolls, BOTS & sock puppets all telling everyone I’m off my rocker and the wearer of fine aluminium headgear. Certainly, they need to keep that thought in people’s minds that its scaremongering to mention MI5 but anyone with half a brain understands WM and it’s protection rackets. They didn’t get where they are by playing nice. And SNP have taken up the mantel and are showing themselves to be heavily invested in that WM Department.
But it’s good to have a recount of your history, your background, what has been said and what has been achieved. It makes understanding of what’s going on, so much easier for those who haven’t followed the machinations of the rogue party. We who ‘put it out there’ now have a reference of what is really going on. Thank you so much for putting this to paper (so to speak!) to provide such a reference. I shall be using it OFTEN, I fear…
Take care of yourself! I have no doubts you are seen as a ‘pothole’ in the WM road and I’d hate to see you break your chassis in it! There are a few people I really get concerned about (Sara Salyers & her group, as they bring news of the real power of Scotland & the reason why we’ll never have SNP in Scotland United). Members of SALVO, liberation, etc. with their historical research are, I have no doubt, in the line of fire (METAPHORICALLY speaking) and I have no doubt WM are frantically turning pages of the manual to see what THEY can be accused of & jailed! The more information you & all who serve Scotland put out, the more people know it & the less likelihood of being able to jail us all! But EYES OPEN, yeah?!
Thank you.
Confirms what many suspect.
I detest the current SNP leadership, who history will condemn, with good reason for taking the English royal’s shilling.
Slightly older than you, I will haunt them from the depths of hell for denying our people their right to our Country’s Independence.
The title traitor is apposite.
As someone in my 70s are you sure? 😜👍
THANK YOU, Campbell Martin. Fairly set me back on my heels – but I’m so much wiser having read your article. Now, regarding Scottish politics, everything has fallen into place.
Thank you Campbell Martin. I am with you all the way.
I joined the SNP in 1962 at the age of 16. 1962! When few were really aware of the SNP. MY grandfather was one of the founding members of the Party in 1934. Independence is in my blood, I have spent over 60 years campaigning for it. Nearly 50 of those years as a member of the SNP.
I was absoluted devastated in 2014 when we so narrowly missed the goal, thanks to British Establishment lies but I believed that one more push would do it. And it would have done had Alex Salmond not done what he thought was the ‘decent’ thing. A mistake he will, I know, regret for the rest of his life. But Alex is an honourable man, he believed he had failed Scotland. Sadly too, his judgement failed him when he put his belief in a traitor and hailed Sturgeon as a worthy successor. Worthy??? She is not fit to lick his boots but Scotland realised this too late.
Is it too late? I don’t think so if we can rid ourselves of the cesspit of corruption that is the NuSNP.
WE, the Sovereign people MUST stand up and be counted. We are fighting this battle on 2 fronts, against the British State on one side and its allies, the traitorous NuSNP on the other.
Can we do it? I believe we can. Scotland United, an independence candidate in every constituency is the only way forward.
I am 77 years old now but I am determined that my 100th birthday card will come,not from some parasitic English monarch, but from the President of the independent Republic of Scotland.
A really thought-provoking article from Campbell Martin who makes a strong case for capture of the SNP by the British state via their agents and assets. MI5 would be neglectful of their remit if they were not burrowing into the organisation looking for ways to bribe, blackmail and influence the direction of the SNP.
How appropriate that MICE is the acronym used to categorise the various classes of betrayer, given the timidity of the SNP leadership since November 2014.
I would just add that in “the immediate aftermath of the referendum saw what I believe was a rare error on Alex’s part: he decided he should stand down as leader” that Alex Salmond’s other significant mistake was to stand down from the leadership in 2000 allowing dishonest Devo-John to take over the reigns at that time.
Thanks Campbell for this info.I knew it was bad but not this bad. Bloody British State. Boy do we need to free of this evil dictatorship. Eat your heart out John Le Carre. A best seller Campbell no doubt about that. Take care.
Reference to John le Carré is apt.
le Carré developed his position through life from a distrust of the Anglo/American security state, to a loathing. This can be tracked through his novels.
le Carré included hidden truths in his fiction.
le Carré died an Irish citizen.
Two cleverly concealed principles of spook tradecraft may be of particular interest in the present debate.
Firstly, in Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy; Karla ensures that Bill Haydon is subordinate to Percy Alleline.
Secondly, in Smiley’s people; Sir Saul Enderby tries to palm failed officer Nigel Mostyn off on the BBC.
Well observed. My thoughts exactly, and I doubt even a divorce will save the situation.
An excellent piece from Campbell.
I would only add two observations.
There are indications that MI5 has an arrangement whereby the US State Department acts as a deniable cut-out.
Various MPs and MSPs have established links with the State Department. Indeed at present we have a First Minister, Cabinet Minister and junior Minister who are alumni of the State Department’s, International Visitors Leadership Program.
The IVLP is presented as a benign, educational outreach operation and this is at least superficially believable. Delve into the details of the IVLP and something is not quite right.
Our FM, Humza Yousaf was identified as a “future opinion leader” and inducted into the IVLP in 2008 when he was in his second year as a humble parliamentary aide to his MSP uncle. Education Minister Jenny Gilruth was in Washington as part of an IVLP delegation in 2016, 35 working days after being sworn in as a rookie MSP.
Perhaps most curious of all, MPs, Patrick Grady and Angela Crawley attended the same IVLP trip as Gilruth and yet failed to declare this gratuity in their HoC Register of Interests (despite the trip taking place while the House was sitting).
The notion that the State Department acts as a conduit for MI5 is not without controversy amongst the spook watching community. Here I would suggest that the relationship between MI5 and the State Department is one of quid pro quo. In support of this I cite wee Simon Bracey-Lane of the Integrity Initiative “volunteering” to work for Bernie Sanders in his Primary campaign against Hillary Clinton.
As a curious aside, of seven elected Scottish politicians known to be IVLP alumni only Yousaf is heterosexual. Here “known” is important as members of the British American Parliamentary Group are mysteriously exempt from declaring gratuities from the American state in their Register of Interests. Membership of the BAPG would include Ian Blackford.
This brings us to Kezia Dugdale who also attended that 2016 IVLP event. Dugdale is now Director of the John Smith Centre for Public Service. The JSCfPS is a registered charity that has never published accounts. To legally achieve this feat of obfuscation, the JSCfPS hides under the umbrella of respectability offered by the University of Glasgow. While this may be technically legal, it speaks oddly for an organisation with the strap line “Promoting Trust in Politics and Public Service”. Who exactly funds this political influencing exercise?
The Board of the JSCfPS includes Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill. Smith is widely understood to be an ex senior officer of MI6.
Behind the headline “mission statement” of the JSCfPS, its true purpose (as I see it) is to generate a conveyor belt of middle class politics graduate clones who will form successive generations of career politicians, devoid of ideological conviction. Utilising an invisible web of networking these compliant young apparatchiks will begin the established process of career advancement from office worker to researcher to SPAD to MSP.
Free from accepted political conviction, the tenet of faith that holds this fellowship together is an unwavering commitment to Poststructural dogma.
Here, the JSCfPS is not targeted at any one party or movement, but rather is focused on a diminution of public engagement with politics itself. Poststructuralism is the preferred instrument of the Anglo/American security state for Distraction, Diversion and Division.
I could go on to speculate as to who funds the JSCfPS (and that would be informed speculation), but this comment is already too long.
Recall Vivian, That Glasgow University has form in these matters. During the travesty that was the trial Lockerbie trial GU appointed Andrew Fulton as a ‘professor’ in the Law School – despite his having no academic credentials whatsoever. He then joined an ‘expert panel’ on legal aspects of the trial in the Netherlands.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/may/23/lockerbie.scotland
That was until his true status got out:
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12241031.spy-link-professor-faces-dismissal/
“THE deputy director of a Glasgow University team set up to brief the world’s media on the Lockerbie trial last night looked certain to be dismissed following allegations that he was a former MI6 spy.” In fact, he was MI6 Station chief in Washington.
While ha was at GU (where I made his acquaintance) he was involved in creating the Scottish North American Business Council. We can guess what that is really about!
GU was fully implicated in this subterfuge – its Chancellor at the time Sir William Kerr Fraser had been head of the ‘Scottish ‘Civil Service – and he was involved in appointing his successor in that role – Muir Russell to become the first non-academic in it 550 years existence to be become the university’s principal.
GU is deeply embedded in the British secret state – so the John Smith Institute is no surprise.
Many thanks for that Boab. I was in fact entirely unaware of this saga.
Shades of court certified imbecile Dugdale being awarded a Professorship despite lacking a PhD and any teaching experience.
I prepared an expose of the JSCfPS for an international audience earlier this year in Lobster #85.
I’m afraid it was lost in the editing process. Perhaps I will redraft including your observations.
Sent from my iPad
Thanks Vivian,
Fulton went on to be Chairman of the ‘Scottish’ Tories.
The Scottish North American Business Council (SNABC) was run out of GU’s Research and Enterprise Office – which was run by a guy who subsequently got convicted of fraud in the Czech republic.
The present Principal Anton Muscatelli is a banking economist, who has attended Bilderberg – and who (I nearly said ‘astonishingly’) was appointed by Sturgeon as one of her economic advisors.
Muscatelli is (in)famous in GU for having put up Fred ‘The Shred ‘Goodwin, the man who crashed the Royal Bank of Scotland, for an honorary doctorate when he was Dean of Business.
If you want a laugh have a look at the Oration he gave Goodwin on that occasion. For example Muscatelli said:
“Having seen for himself how banking can go spectacularly wrong, Fred Goodwin obviously decided to show the business world how to do it properly.”
Apart from being hilarious, it is a terrifying indictment of the sort of ‘advice’ that Sturgeon sought.
Such imbecility is not really funny.
Muscatelli’s embarrassing address can be read in full here:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/award_of_honorary_degree_to_fred#incoming-21940
Check out PDFs for Oration (1 to 3)
Such gems as
“Fred Goodwin is widely acknowledged to be one of the most successful business leaders on the UK”
“Mr Chancellor, Today we honouring Fred Goodwin for his remarkable achievements in helping to turn one of Scotland’s banks into a global player, and his wider contributions to society”
That is the standard of ‘leadership’ running Glasgow University – and the standard of advisor sought out by the traitor Sturgeon.
On personal note – I knew Fred Goodwin when we were both students at GU. He was a plonker even then – and a disastrously expensive plonker subsequently. But I had no idea that I was drinking with the guy who was going to crash the entire UK banking system.
But then, unlike Prof Muscatelli I’m not a banking economist – but also unlike him, I do know a plonker when I meet one
Thanks Boab.
For those perhaps not familiar with this long running and incestous saga,
take a look over at wikispooks.com
e.g.
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Andrew_Fulton
I have not been for a look over there for quite some time, but am somewhat surprised to now find for example that the wife of the Late John smith now does not have a page dedicated to her long, interesting and noteworthy life, appointments and experiences.
How can this be?
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/John_Smith
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Elizabeth_Bennett
Curiouser and Curiouser.
The SNP must be so disappointed that the general public still wants Independence and it’s been riding at 50% for years. The leadership of the SNP along with the greens has pulled out every Waco policy to try and turn the public away from voting for Independence, but wait the SNP is still going to win or should I say win a victory but not the war. The SNP is on course to lose seats at the next Westminster election with only 30% of the public still wanting to support them that means the other 20% don’t and who will they vote for!
The SNP and Sturgeon took our constitutional case to the British supreme court and made no attempt to win it, sturgeon even employed a QC who was apposed to any idea of Scotland being Independent this was a victory for Sturgeon and I feel sure she was going to secure Scotland place in the union for a long time to come, but she couldn’t foresee what was coming over the next couple of months. Sturgeon stood down not because of this 600K, she isn’t even bothered about it. She left in a hurry because of the Bryson question, is HE a Man/Woman and to make this your career policy and not to be able to answer the simplest of questions, the answer being, he would always be a man. Because of this she had to stand down as she was petrified of the public turning their back on her and because of that she wouldn’t be re-elected.
The SNP has a new plan one that might destroy the SNP for good but they hope will destroy the matter of Independence for good! The plan at the behest of the British state to go into the next Westminster election and lose seats but claim to have won a victory by winning the majority of seats but not winning the majority of votes casted 50% plus 1 vote. They’ll then go to the international community and asked to be recognized as winning Scotland’s Independence. This will fail, and will allow the British government to say that the SNP lost in the supreme court and now the international community as they have stated they don’t recognise Scotland as a country. This will close the final door to Independence they hope and therefore the SNP will be able to give up on Independence for good. The additional jeopardy is if the parties stand as Scotland United as the Alba party advocate and this also fails to get 50% plus 1 vote of the votes cast this will be a bigger stick to hit Scotland with. Is the leadership of the SNP bothered, no I don’t believe so. This has been their plan since Sturgeon took over.
We are all taking taken for fools and the new daft idea the SNP has drummed up, is this so called Freedom Chain which to lead no where but will promote the SNP.
Angus Robertson is the one in the frame for me.
I read your first book, & have your second & third in my kindle for reading when I next go on holiday..I really enjoyed it, & in it you state that you found out Swiney (Deliberate) in his desperation to get the late great Margo out of the SNP, decided to place her in 5th position on the list so that she couldn’t possibly win from that position.. You found out about this & alerted her to what his plan was, allowing Margo to resign from the SNP & stand as an Independent. Yes you were able to see & hear a LOT that was going on in your time in the chief whips office. I have been a lifetime supporter of the SNP from my very first vote, I am 73 now, I did the ground work and the leafleting for them. Winnie of course was who brought me to the SNP, But Margo in my opinion was without a doubt one of the very best. Especially after Winnie left for Europe..
Margo also knew that the SNP were infiltrated, I remember the very first March & Rally in Princess St Gardens
when she talked about the SNP being infiltrated by Mi5, she actually told us straight “THEY are among you..” Standing next to you.. She was right way back then, & that infiltration did get worse & today it is hard to pick out anyone in the SNP who you could honestly trust.. As for me, there is NO-ONE I would trust anymore, I fear that no matter the party, they will find their way in..
I was happy that Sturgeon was taking over from Alex, if anyone had to replace him it just HAD to be her, after all, He mentored her.. Nobody should be able to question Alex’s Loyalty to his country, & he has been the BEST FM ever since HR came to be..
Then in 2015, while in London at the cenotaph, the press and Broadcasters focused on Sturgeon and the scowling LOOK she was giving to Cameron, who stood next to her.. You looked at those close ups & just saw the hatred in her face for him & probably all Tories.. hmmmm
What many don’t know, & “CaltonJock revealed” that same day still dressed in her black outfit with the feather in her hat, Sturgeon & Boris went on walk-a-bouts, There are photo’s to prove this, CaltonJock provided them, I saved them & use them now & then to show she didn’t HATE the Tories as much as she was making out..
Out of all the people to go walkabouts with, she did so with Johnson, yet when he arrived on his first visit to BUTE house, she made a big deal out of ignoring him, not even shaking his hand.. She ushered him and his cortege in as quickly as possible.. Sturgeon was bought without a doubt, & in my opinion it started that day in London in 2015.. Hence why she fought NO election in 2017, also making clear that it was not an election about INDEPENDENCE, she knew, that the UNIONIST parties were going to work together, Kezza made it clear that any seat where Tories came second to SNP, she advised labour voters to vote TORY.. They did and Alex among others great MPs lost their seats..
I left the party that year, as I knew for sure then, that under Sturgeon & Swiney, the SNP were no longer an INDY party but a party of devolutionists, happy to settle for power & status. As is often said, Our enemies are not always strangers, they are people we admired or voted for. In 2021, for the first time in my life I had NO party to vote for, Alba/ISP did not stand anyone in my area, and for the life of me there was NO way then nor could I ever today, VOTE SNP ever again. my whole family feel the same way.. I was always SNP, but my family came over to them from Labour. Coming from a mining family. I joined Alba on the day of its launch. If any politician can free Scotland from WM it will be Alex, yet, I still can’t believe with all the INFILTRATION of English over the years that he will still says he will use the same franchise.. Any new builds in any town these days, are not for the locals, we live here and can hear and see the English people moving in around us. They get priority and anyone who says they don’t is lying..
We see in Northern Ireland how the dark state targeted Republicans with assassinations, working in conjunction with loyalists terrorists groups. The infultration of political parties by MI5 and the special branch is nothing new, we even have a Westminster Labour party being infuriated at the very top with spy ring of right wing stougges, look at Starmer. UK, Ok is one of the most undemocratic corupt countries in the world. We have been to slow to realise what was going on in the SNP the destruction of internal democracy in the SNP was a construct of the security services to gain control and ensure their Unionists spys cant be removed easily, the same model used for Corbyns Labour party. A AUOB approach to the next election is the way forward however we must get behind Alba .One thing that sticks out a mile how much we have been betrayed by the SNP is the level of migration from settlers and the SNP staunch defence of the voting franchise. The main reason the latest census results has not been realised by the Colonial SNP administration. We will soon be a minority in our own country. They have any potential referendum rigged in favour of the Union. What is worrying currently is the so called cyber attack on the electoral records, who is eligible to vote and where they live etc. The Torys now control the electoral commission for a reason they will gerrymander our elections doing forward to keep up us in their coercive Union continuing the theft of our resources . This information will be used to fix future election through the postal votes.
They will blame everyone else Putin ,the Chinese for tampering with our elections .we see how they rigged the vote in Salmonds constitution taking the votes away to count them separately unprecedented at the time. There was over 1400 complaints of deliberate miscounting in the 2014 referendum not one investigated. It time to get the UN involved to monitor the elections going forward. Everyone must sign up to Decolonialisation process being organised by Salvo to get Scotland recognised as a colony. The infultration in the SNP is beyond redemption we need to call out the facts of the situation and let the public know what the colonial masters game is. The UN Decolonisation process ensures that the media is unbiased and elections are conducted fairly. Its also time for Alba to stop playing the colonial masters game and publicly denounce the rigged voting franchise for what it is.
@Alastair 11.17am
Couldn’t agree more Alastair, if not already we will be the minority by the time another referendum comes along. It isn’t just parties that the BRITISH establishment infiltrate it is the countries they fear leaving Little England to fend for itself.. Remember even George Osborne said that IF Scotland were to leave the UK, Then England would have NO status on the world stage.. (or words to that affect) The only way they can be sure of keeping Scotland as Northern Britain IS to send us English who have either sold a house or have been offered resettlement here in Council houses. I know in my area, that everyone is moaning about all the new house builds and yet they (locals born here) can’t get a chance of those houses.. People are forced to pay extortionate rents to private landlords, where most of their salaries go to keep a roof over their bairns heads these days.. This has got to be addressed by every party standing for election. Especially the ones winning councils.. As it is obvious councils have also been infiltrated to where houses built are already gone.. The infiltration is everywhere now.. And growing.. Our only hope of Indy is if Scotland does vote under a Scotland United banner, but there is NO way that the SNP can now afford to play along.. I read earlier that they are forecast to lose 30seats now at the next GE.. Obviously those seats are supposed to go to labour, if they do, then surely the people including those in ALBA & ISP & SSP will admit that this infiltration is real.. Because I can’t for the life of me see any Independentista voting for any UNIONIST party, but absolutely do see English settlers doing just that.. I know NOT everyone living here from England is a NO voter or a Unionist voter.. But that is why the infiltration of more and more settlers is happening, we came too close in 2014.And that was with a rigged referendum, That will NEVER be allowed to happen again..There has to be a different route this time..People must VOTE ALBA or a candidate standing as ScotlandUnited. But Scots really need to get backing Salvo & Liberation.scot..
My biggest fear for the next Holyrood election is a campaign slogan of “SNP 1 Green 2”, and I’m pretty sure a lot of which applies in this great article to the SNP relates to the Greens too, except they were probably much easier to infiltrate, being green everywhere…
I have suspected as much for years and it is good to have the dirty parasitical world of politics revealed by someone who has experienced it first hand.
Now what?
There needs to be a rethink. I would like to see the back of the SNP asap and a bit of public education taking place. How do we know the same thing is not going on in Alba? Not saying there is, but how does a party mitigate against becoming the host to the next infestation of blood-suckers preying on them? Salvo know what they are about, though they are not political, they can surely educate by revealing all their research into documents which reveal our true history and where it has taken us thus far. Every secondary school has a history teacher!
I’ve suspected infiltration of the SNP for a long time now not because I’m smart but because It’s blatantly obvious all you have to do to see it is look,
The SNP are the proverbial Cuckoo in the nest of the Independence movement they are beyond salvation and until they’re removed and replaced Independence is sadly going nowhere.
Excellent analysis by Campbell Martin that merits the widest distribution. Have bought the books, and highly recommend others do so if they are able to.
Gratifying to see an extending ‘anti-colonial literature’ now rapidly developing in Scotland, including Campbell’s insights from the inside as it were, Gareth Wardell’s fantastic ‘Essays’, Salvo’s excellent papers, and even my own applied theoretical research findings in ‘Doun-Hauden’, added of course to several pro-indy bloggers, groups and publications all of which also form part of an expanding anti-colonial literature.
Postcolonial theory reminds us that this kind of output forms an essential part of the decolonization process, which we are still in and experiencing, and where a subjugated and exploited people must begin to better understand their colonial ‘condition’ and their urgent need for liberation. This literature also reveals colonialism as ‘force’ and as a crime against a people.
These revelations explain why it is no mere coincidence that we see absolutely nothing of a similar anti-colonial nature coming out of the SNP colonial administration, only plenty of evidence now to explain why “the party machine shows itself opposed to any innovation” (Fanon)necessary to free the people. Gareth Wardell also covers the matter of ‘collaborators’ which always exists in colonial society, and in Britain today we can see some of the consequences of that former empire. And as Fanon (and Campbell) also tells us: “colonialism secures for itself the services of these confidential agents by pensioning them off at a ransom price”.
Oor verra ain Burns of course alluded tae oor ‘parcel o rogues in a naition’ and ‘bocht an selt fer English gold’ lang syne; so its not as if us colonised Scots dinna ken know how the game is being played out and the sort of tricks got up to by our ‘procurer’. Postcolonial theory provides us with the template, as well as the path to liberation.
https://salvo-cor.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/THEORETICAL+CASE+FOR+SCOTTISH+INDEPENDENCE.pdf
It is not in America’s interests to see an independent Scotland. Even if England lost interest, the Yanks would not let it happen. The cold war never ended. Democracy only works when it suits the real masters of this world, ie the yanks. Otherwise, why isnt catalonia independent now, despite a 90pc yes vote a few years back.
Clearly the snp was hijacked after the 2014 vote, as it was too close for comfort.
But the main plan after 2014 for our masters was the idea to split the vote. This was done by setting the snp down a dead-end but also by allowing the creation of alba etc. As long as the pro-indy vote is split, the ultimate goal of independence cannot be reached. Once alba takes enough votes off the snp, both sides will be drawn into a blame game on who is stopping independence. it will be the political equivelant of the old firm with hatred for each other taking over any common goal.
but what else could real nationalists do, but set up a new party. cos it was obvious the snp was a done deal. the changes to the nec showed that. and for MPs and MSPs to stand by and watch the democracy taken out of their party and do nothing, really was the end.
also think of the Wings. it has focused all our attention on how bad the snp is. but it is so well written and has such amazing information that we have to look at who is behinf it. and i dont mean one man. i will leave it there. but without wings the new parties would never have gained popularity. without wings the potential to split the indy vote would never have happened. it may not make a difference at the rutherglen by-election but it will soon. and thats when the indy movement will start tearing itself apart and blaming each other. then it really is ‘game over’ and victory to westminster/washington.
it sounds crazy but our only real option is to become the next state of america. then when the country collapses we will be defacto independent from our masters in london.
Drivel, can’t work out if an SNP or unionist troll!
Your website is a breath of fresh air Roddy in that it allows differing opinions without descending into personal attacks. The problem with Wings is that the forensic picking apart of the SNP is interspersed with jokes about people’s weight, or some other personal trait. Such things are unnecessary and actually harm the movement in general. That is why I say that splitting the indy movement was the number one priority of the British state, and part of that is by creating tension and hatred for each other, despite being on the same side. The first time the SNP lose a by-election narrowly, with Alba taking 5% of the vote, just wait for the vitriol to spill out. Scots fighting each other, instead of the enemy, has historically always been our problem. Yes the SNP is captured and is now run from an office in Westminster and ultimately Washington. Yes real nationalists had to set up a new party, given all the terrible things that have happened since 2014. But eventually we will all have to come together, so it is important that people in the free media keep the tone positive without diverting into personal attacks.
The American State has a far worse record than even the British one for infernal interference in the affairs of other states, and this is where our Scottish diaspora could help us in future – by keeping pressure on the US to let us leave the UK. After all, that was precisely what the Irish diaspora did, and still do, in relation to Irish independence, but, then, Ireland is less important geopolitically than we are.
I doubt that splitting the independence vote (SNP against others) will have a long-lasting effect, Maxx. The SNP and Greens have become an encumbrance to the movement because they simply do not want independence yet, if ever. Ireland descended into violent insurrection when the Irish independence party under Redmond fell. If we want to avoid that, we have to use everything at our disposal, and that should start with valuing what the Union has bequeathed: all the evidence we need to show that we have been treated like a colony despite the existence of the Treaty and sundry other documents; and to build on those foundations with the political campaign at the ballot box.
We should be demanding FoIs on every aspect of Scottish governance by Westminster and Whitehall – every aspect, every signed document, every deal done in our name, without our consent because how can just over five million people outvote 55 million and counting? Did anyone ever discover where the postal votes went on their journey to the count? Did they leave Scotland? Who counted them? Were there overseers from all the parties? How did the Tories and Labour get access to the final envelopes which should not have been opened till the day of voting? Where are the separate records from the Electoral Commission for each type of vote, as well as a final tally? As far as I have been able to gather, these questions remain unanswered. I’m not saying we should rake over cold ash, but we should have learned the lesson – that we cannot trust the British State to play fair with us, even though it might have done nothing untoward on that occasion.
I think Alba need to take some vetting lessons from Sinn Fein on how to eradicate parasitic hosts from infiltrating them.
As the article informed you the head of Provos security was a British asset so I think SF have no lessons to offer.
Bob: Sinn Fein was infiltrated from top to bottom. Several of those who rubbed shoulders with Gerry Adams and Martin MacGuinness were later outed as British assets. Now, Sinn Fein is riddled with ‘woke’/’trans’ infiltrators, as is the SNP/Green coalition. Infiltrators can take various forms, but they all have one objective in mind: to destroy the party/organization from the inside; and they are often the very last people you would suspect. Gerry Adams and Martin MacGuinness were stunned to learn the identities of those who were feeding information back to the UK.
What is very different about this latest infiltration is that it has not been controlled by either the Americans or the British, and therefore, it is vastly more dangerous because its objective is the undermining of the entire West – and both America and the UK are equally at as much risk as the rest of us; indeed, I believe that England is at far, far greater risk because that is where the seat of power lies at the moment. To my mind, this is an excellent time to boost all other avenues to independence, utilizing every scrap that we can to help us. Nothing should be ruled out or automatically ruled in either.
ALBA has much in common with the SNP in its approach, and much that is different, but, in essentials, it is sticking to the same general format. Whether that is strategy to deflect, I could not say, but it has to try and entice the big hitters/dissidents within the SNP to its ranks if it is to be able to fight the SE, where it needs to win. It must also declare independence the moment it does win and not wait for negotiations with Westminster/Whitehall on independence itself which will greatly weaken its position when it does come to negotiations on the share-out of assets/liabilities.
It must also take all the evidence that SALVO/Liberation have accumulated and amassed and use it against the British State to force a decent settlement AFTER independence. This is where the courts come in and where Westminster and Whitehall will be held to account, if it comes to that – which I believe it won’t in the longer term. No point in wasting all that work when we can lay it before the UN with the implicit threat of placing it before the international court for the world to see.
Infiltration is a reality. What we need to do is acknowledge it and use it to help us. Feeding false information is an excellent ploy and can tear away the camouflage from the traitors. Keep them guessing, on their toes, never sure. In other words, play them at their own game.
Good article , even if the thoughts and information contained in it should come as no shock – surprise , even – to anyone who has watched in horror at what has become of the SNP and , by extension , the Independence cause .
All the more troubling then that Alex Salmond in a recent remark said when asked if he could foresee a future reconciliation with his – almost – nemesis replied ” it would be a shame if there wasn´t ” . Really ?
I´m sure we´ve all had serious falling outs with close friends and thought we´d never see the day when we would be reconciled , only for , with sufficient time and perhaps more understanding , such a reconciliation to occur ; I know I have .
But , thankfully , no one has ever attempted to do to me what Sturgeon tried to do to Alex .
And not only the vicious attempted political assassination of a once ” close friend and mentor ” , she also – as far as I´m concerned deliberately – sabotaged everything Alex had done to not only rescue the SNP from the somnambulant zombie Swinney leadership , also taking our country to brink of Independence , some might aver , over it .
The capacity to forgive and forget is one of the most admirable traits anyone can possess .
Some things , though , are so downright * evil * they preclude such forgiving forgetfulness .
What Sturgeon done to Alex and Scotland are in this category . I have much respect for the man but I seriously doubt he has the requisite sliver of ice in the soul required for the momentous task of restoring our country´s stolen autonomy .I hope I´m wrong
I
Sometimes politicians need to give ‘political answers’
Especially to the loaded question he recieved on this matter.
No such * diplomacy * from Sturgeon when asked the same question – an unequivocal ” Nope ” was her reply .
That may make Alex the better person – which he undoubtedly is .
Is a conciliatory nature sufficient for the task ahead ? Let´s see .
Perhaps Alex thought it would sound good to be conciliatory but he must know that he dodged a bullet with that yin. If it hadn’t been for the jury he could easily be dead by now.
No – when a sociopath offers you their hand you reach for your coat instead, then put as much distance between you and them as possible.
Nasty Nic’s a narcissist.
By winning the civil judicial case as well as successfully defending himself in the criminal trial against all charges in her eyes he will have bested her. Twice.
The mask slipped and her visceral dislike because of (the far superior in every way) Alex Salmond was there for all who wished to see.
Salmond looks like the statesman, Sturgeon the embittered intellectual pygmy and failure.
[PS The last I heard there were still on-going criminal trial perjury and Daily Record leak enquiries.]
A. Salmond is a realist and pragmatist, Robert, and thank the Lord for that. We should rule nothing out, and nothing in without seeing first how it will help us to achieve our aim of independence.
Likewise the UK will have done a full economic study on the impact of England also becoming independent. Add to that matters of ‘prestige’ and it would make it plain that the UK union ending would have one main loser. They would do whatever they could to avoid that happening.
That was clear in 2014.
https://fortune.com/2014/09/17/scotland-uk-independence/
Also for consideration, we should reference COINTELPRO.
Are the hierarchy of the SNP good faith actors seeking to deliver Scottish independence or have they been captured by the British Security State?
If they were truly acting against the fixed interests of the British Security State, they would presumably be subject to COINTELPRO or a modified variant there-of, updated to incorporate the Internet age and an environment where msm has been reduced in bandwidth and systematically forced under the control of a tiny coterie of oligarchs.
COINTELPRO originated in the pre-Internet world. Nonetheless it remains the basic instruction manual for covert, counterinsurgency as practiced in the developed world. Some additional tactics may have been evolved to suit the present day as revealed by the Al Jazeera documentaries on New-New Labour. Equally, some techniques may have been modified (as we shall see).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO
The purpose of COINTELPRO can be summarised as Distract, Divert and Divide.
From the original document there are six key tactics. We can take them in turn, each time asking the question; is SNP HQ being subjected to interference in this form? The examples given in the original document relate to radical, racial and class based activism in 1960’s America.
1) Create a negative public image for the target group (for example through surveilling activists and then releasing negative personal information to the public).
Analysis: At this point, the hierarchy of the SNP are if anything protected by the Security State. Sturgeon’s inner circle have mair skeletons in their cupboards than the Natural History Museum, yet breeze through life unconcerned by potential exposure by either the State or msm.
Alex Salmond on the other hand was clearly subject to a complex conspiracy to damage him, incorporating various branches of State and its compliant msm.
2) Break down internal organization by creating conflicts (for example, by having agents exacerbate racial tensions, or send anonymous letters to try to create conflicts).
Analysis: This may at one time have been a tactic directed at the SNP. As with tactic number one, there is no evidence of State infiltration of the SNP to create internal strife and division. The Stalinesque control exercised by a pathologically “cautious” HQ on ordinary members renders this technique simultaneously unworkable and redundant.
3) Create dissension between groups (for example, by spreading rumors that other groups were stealing money).
Analysis: This may very well be applicable to the broader, Yes movement, but hardly applies to the SNP. The management board of AUOB was fractured by such rumours. I question the State’s dogged pursuit of the Natalie McGarry case, v’s the COPFS‘ catatonic handling of Operation Branchform. Could the SNP suffer collateral damage through such State activity, for example through decreasing membership subs? Yes; but if the hierarchy has been captured by the State, it is hardly in a position to complain.
4) Restrict access to public resources (for example, by pressuring non-profit organizations to cut off funding or material support).
Analysis: With the SNP, the contrary applies. Party finances are substantially supported by the State through Short money. For financial year, 2022 / 23, £1,178,000, not inclusive of individual, Committee allowances that may be clawed back by HQ. Of note; Short money isn’t ancient Parliamentary practice, it was first introduced in limited form in 1974 and has subsequently expanded.
5) Restrict the ability to organize protest (for example, through agents promoting violence against police during planning and at protests).
Analysis: Again, the contrary applies. The State doesn’t seek to restrict the campaigning of the SNP. Rather, SNP controlled Glesga Cooncil is less than welcoming to AUOB. SNP high heed yins are conspicuous by their absence at AUOB marches or any other grass roots demonstration.
6) Restrict the ability of individuals to participate in group activities (for example, by character assassinations, false arrests, surveillance).
Analysis: Oh the irony. The specific examples offered apply exactly to the opponents of the current SNP hierarchy within the Yes movement.
So, in summary the hierarchy of the SNP is not the victim of a programme of Security State, covert, malicious activity. Rather, that description is applicable to the Yes movement with SNP HQ playing the role of State sponsored agent of disruption.
Should this feel all very conspiratorial, the stuff of tinfoil hats, I would strongly argue to the contrary.
Such covert, anti-democratic, State activity would in fact be LEGAL.
The Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Act 2021, allows for, criminal conduct to be ‘authorised’:
Reference section 5.
5)A criminal conduct authorisation is necessary on grounds falling within this subsection if it is necessary—
(a)in the interests of national security;
(b)for the purpose of preventing or detecting crime or of preventing disorder; or
(c)in the interests of the economic well-being of the United Kingdom.
If the Security State has shown itself capable of Distraction, Diversion and Division, is it in its interests to proceed to Destruction? The assumption has to be; No. A permanently divided Yes movement presents the ideal scenario for the Security State. Cut down a diseased tree and a new, vigorous sapling will take advantage of the gap created in the canopy.
“… Alex Salmond on the other hand was clearly subject to a complex conspiracy to damage him, incorporating various branches of State and its compliant msm… ”
Much as I agree with your analysis, Vivian, we must remember that the British Civil Service mandarins in Whitehall, who are the masters of the Scottish branch civil service, warned their Scottish branch colleagues that making the policy both retrospective and aimed at former FMs would be a daft and dangerous enterprise.
While it is very evident that the British State will, and has often, used the security services to quell national movements for independence, civil rights, etc., much of what has happened in recent years in Scotland has been home-grown. The Scottish branch civil service was instructed by ???? to prepare a net that would catch Alec Salmond. It was Alec Salmond that they wanted caught, and anyone else was small fry. Was it simply to prevent him from reinvigorating the independence movement? Yes, but more than that: they needed to ensure that the party (SNP) would stagnate while the global corporate agenda continued its momentum, and that is precisely what happened. That British State operatives and informants coalesced around this new infiltration was sheer karma for the British State and the American influence, and Nicola Sturgeon and her clique, backed to the hilt by the ‘woke’ infiltration, were being jogged along on the strings that were pulling them. Gullibility and stupidity was, and remains, rife in the Sturgeonite camp.
By early 2015, the SNP was already heavily infiltrated by the latest threat to independence: the ‘woke’ movement, and it was cemented into place when the Greens came on board. It would be comforting to believe that the British State was behind its infiltration, but there must be room for doubt, as England, which the British State was set up to protect, is just as vulnerable to this global, corporate menace very much rooted in the next phase of global capitalism, very different from anything that had come before. If we understand that this phase will rely on the crushing of individualism, the destruction of the family unit and the social ties that bind communities, we will understand better what is happening, with our young being deliberately and coldly targeted, and we might be able to fight it successfully. This is where we need to box clever and ally ourselves with those in England and other parts of the UK who are also fighting this menace. It does not mean that we are allying with them on anything else, decidedly not, but it means that have matured enough to have learned the game.
Campbell Martin’s piece is excellent, but we must not blame everything on the British State, albeit it will always take advantage of our vulnerability. That means that we are not paying attention to our own weaknesses and vulnerabilities – and to the vicious, nasty bad faith actors in our midst who speak with a Scottish accent.
I would add the Americans to that litany of bad faith actors. Our nuclear arsenal and our geopolitical position vis-a-vis NATO will almost certainly have ensured that American agents are also in situ in the SNP.
Like Campbell Martin, I, too, thought that the party was veering off-course under John Swinney, and wrote that Alec Salmond should make a come back – which, of course, did not go down well with some, and I was deeply disappointed that Alec Salmond stood down in 2014. Having listened, in a small community hall in rural Scotland to Nicola Sturgeon, as the female half of the leadership dup bid, I was not convinced by her and would have preferred Roseanna Cunningham as Mr Salmond’s ‘running mate’.
Sinn Fein/IRA was so heavily infiltrated that, when Gerry Adams and Martin MacGuinness actually discovered (after a break-in at a British Army barracks in NI) secret documents detailing the scale of operations in NI, by the British security services, they decided to turn tack and become legitimate in order to fight through the ballot box.
Sadly, but predictably for them, the ‘woke’/’trans’ infiltration which was yet another form of the infiltration, coming from America via London, and based on “just be kind”, the exact same infiltration that has destroyed the SNP and the Greens from within, is very likely to scupper their ambition to take Eire via the ballot box, and to rejoin the two parts of Ireland.
Stupid people, as well as self-serving ones, are essential for any undermining of a political movement, and it appears that both Scotland and Eire are overrrun with stupid people – perhaps even more than they are overrun with bad faith actors. Sometimes, both flaws reside in the same person. “Just be kind” is all too likely now to end Sinn Fein’s chances of reuniting Ireland, while, at the same time, destroying Scotland’s chances of regaining its independence any time soon, as the icing on the infiltration layer cake.
Indeed, where all the other layers were detected and had the possibility of being neutralized, the ‘woke’/’trans’ infiltration, based on being nice to ‘marginalized’ people was, and is, in the guilt-ridden West, a surefire way to undermine defences against other kinds of infiltration. However, England itself, and the Tories, are not immune from this latest infiltration – which rules them out as being the actual instigators of this particular Scottish and Irish infiltrations, although they will have made hay on Scottish and Irish gullibility while the sun shines. This particular infiltration is global and corporate, and, in the end, is probably far more dangerous to hopes of remoulding our societies back into decent, liberal, social democracies.
In the end, the evidence unearthed by SALVO and Liberation, well-known since 1707 to both Scottish and Westminster/Whitehall elites, plus the deliberate breaching of the Treaty, will become the foundation on which the political fight via the ballot box is renewed – and it will be renewed. Of that, there is not a shred of doubt. It is as certain as the infiltration of the SNP, the Greens and Labour, all three being anathema to British State ambitions.
Well said Lorna, thought provoking.
Thank you, Bob. I’ve never been a big player, just a very small cog in the wheel, unlike Campbell Martin, but I have followed politics, both here and internationally, all my life, and, like everything else, patterns emerge, waves come and go, but I have been dedicated to independence for Scotland from my early years. Now, I am not confident that I will see it – and I’m the third generation to have been wedded to independence – but that is not important. What is, is that those who come after me might see it – and I believe they will.
Against all the odds, I believe it is closer – much closer than we imagine right now – but we should not squander the opportunities that will come soon, and, above all, we need to accept that there are powerful forces lined up against us. Powerful forces have been lined up against us in the past and we overcame them because we used everything at our disposal, including the infiltrators and traitors in our midst to confuse, led the huge weight of the opposition to their destruction through their own hubris and arrogance and, above all, combined to do it.
I suppose everyone will remember the case of the young man killed on his motor bike by a woman driver exiting an RAF base. She was on the wrong side of the road when she drove out of the base right into the path of the motor bike rider who was killed by the impact. Of course, the reason she had made this mistake, absent-mindedly, was due to the fact that she was an American.
It was what happened subsequently which revealed the shadowy purpose of Ann Sacoulas being present on an RAF base. What followed was not an arrest and charge because Ann Sacoulas fled the country pretty soon after the incident. The media here, of course, hurriedly put out the story that Ann Sacoulas was a diplomat who had claimed diplomatic immunity and left the country, the impression given that regrettably she was entitled to do so. However, the story began to unravel a bit when instead it was claimed that her husband was the diplomat and as his wife, she was entitled to diplomatic immunity, which is nonsense.
However, her husband was not listed as diplomatic staff at the US Embassy. It’s true that there are people employed at embassies whose roles are nothing to do with diplomacy but are shadowy personnel involved in intelligence gathering, for example. Anyway it was obvious that neither the American or British governments wanted any probing into exactly who the Sacoulas husband and wife were and what thy were doing so made up the diplomatic immunity story which our media did not really question.
It was obvious that both governments had wanted Ann Sacoulas hurried out of the country to the US as they did not want her in a British court. It is perhaps obvious to all but the BBC that Ann Sacoulas was (allegedly) taking part in surveillance from an RAF listening station. Who was she surveilling? Well that was the British people since the British and US governments have a cosy little arrangement where they spy on each other’s populations. The grieving family could try in vain to have Sacoulas brought back to face justice but as has been shown again and again, both governments don’t care about individual citizens who are expendable in their ‘great game’. We are like ants to them.
Both Craig Murray and CaltonJock have written about the Harry Dunn / Anne Sacoolas story.
‘Smoking gun’ text reveals Foreign Office AGREED to let Harry Dunn’s killer fly home ‘on the next flight’ (Daily Mail)
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/forums/topic/anne-sacoolas/
“The Disgusting Lies on Harry Dunn’s Death Must Stop 107
April 24, 2020 ”
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/04/the-disgusting-lies-on-harry-dunns-death-must-stop/
https://caltonjock.com/2021/12/14/wife-of-american-spook-to-appear-in-british-court-over-the-death-of-teenager-harry-dunn-but-only-via-video-link-from-the-usa-and-if-found-guilty-she-will-serve-her-sentence-in-the-us-julian-assange-s/
Any politician, or prospective politician, who claims to want to see Scotland regain its independence, yet is desperate to attend Westminster as an MP, cannot be trusted.
I blame salmond for the loss of the referendum in 2014.
He should have played the martyr card in the last weeks of the campaign. He had it in his hand but his belief in his own self importance meant it was impossible for him to use it.
Utter drivel which unionist party is yours?
I was a member of the SNP for 35 years. I knew Campbell Martin, he was a member of the Salcoats or Ardrossan branch back in the 80s. I was a member of the Dalry branch. Maybe Campbell remembers me.
Anyway, forward to 2012 when the SNP won an overall majority at Holyrood and a referendum was the inevitable outcome of that historic vote.
I knew immediately that Salmond was going to be a problem in the campaign.
I acknowledge that Alex Salmond navigated the path to the victory in 2012. But, Salmond was a divisive figure. All SNP activist in the run up to 2014 were repeatedly reminded ‘ I would vote Yes but I cant vote for that man’ or similar. Poll after poll showed that he was unpopular with certain ‘demographics’ namely women.
Fact.
Move on to the summer of 2014. Unionists were becoming desperate. Remember The Vow (or was it The Pledge). They were in a panic. And Salmond had a trump card to play. He knew it. He had ‘The Martyr Card’ up his sleeve, and had he played it who knows? what the outcome might have been.
We all know what the Martyr Card was. I’m too tired of spelling it out. I was banging on about it , to anybody that would listen from 2012., but I will remind you of the numbers.
Yes lost by 10% . A swing therefore of 5% would have won independence.
This is the question. Had Alex Salmond played his card and promised, in writing, legally, (lawyers and all that) and said something like, ‘If Scotland votes Yes I promise to step down as FM before Independence Day’ would 1:20 No voters have been persuaded to change their vote?
If you are going to smear someone get your dates right. It was 2011 tge reaction not 2012. and the only people saying they couldn’t vote for Alex were either unionists or halfwits.We were voting for independence not an individual.
“We were voting for independence not an individual.”
=======
Those of us committed to Scottish independence were indeed doing that. But there were potential supporters who thought they would end up with an Alex Salmond-led, fully independent Scottish Government and recoiled at the prospect. I tried to reason with such confused people in debate “below the line” in a number of publications.
It does no more good to dismiss them as halfwits than Hilary Clinton’s rage against a “ basket of deplorables” helped win her the US presidency.
I don’t know Mr MacKinnon. But I was making exactly the same argument in the years 2012-2014 as the one he calls “the
martyr card”. Has it not occurred to you that Mr Salmond himself, immediately after the narrow defeat if 2014, realised that his failure to make such a declaration was one of two reasons why the referendum was narrowly lost? (The other, of course, was “winging it” and losing the first TV debate to an impeccably prepared Alistair Darling).
Oh look there are two of them.
I think it was Tommy Sheridan that absolutely destroyed this nonsense back in 2014. It would be like a person finding their ideal house in their ideal area at a really good price saying no I prefer to remain homeless because I don’t like the colour of the curtains. As I say only halfwits and unionists
I made this point rather clumsily to Alex a few years back, and felt I offended him in doing so. My point being that by the close of the campaign the British Nationalists had made him much of the focus of their attacks: “Salmond’s Scotland”, “Salmond’s Indy”, “Salmond’s this, that or the other”.
I felt that in the closing days of the campaign, had he issued a statement that after winning, he would serve for a limited time, before stepping down (job done) he would immediately take all the momentum out of the BritNat attacks, as they had made it such a personal campaign, rather than attacking issues.
I think Alex felt that it would have instead taken the heart out of the Yes campaigners and would have been detrimental to our efforts, and I agree. My point was a hypothetical response to their personalisation of the campaign, a purely “what if” alternative history line of thought. His standing down afterwards was pure old school politics, and was probably the last ever honourable political act in UK politics. As if the defeat of 2014 wasn’t bad enough, in doing the “right thing”, he inadvertently set the ball rolling for the destruction of the SNP, by handing the reins to Sturgeon and her cabal.
James Cassidy 10 August 2023 1.43pm
You say,
“I made this point rather clumsily to Alex a few years back, and felt I offended him in doing so. My point being that by the close of the campaign the British Nationalists had made him much of the focus of their attacks: “Salmond’s Scotland”, “Salmond’s Indy”, “Salmond’s this, that or the other”.
I felt that in the closing days of the campaign, had he issued a statement that after winning, he would serve for a limited time, before stepping down (job done) he would immediately take all the momentum out of the BritNat attacks, as they had made it such a personal campaign, rather than attacking issues.
I think Alex felt that it would have instead taken the heart out of the Yes campaigners and would have been detrimental to our efforts, and I agree. ”
I disagree. I think that had Alex Salmond issued a statement in the days before the referendum (along the lines of), ‘if after a Yes victory on 18/09/2014 I will help to set up a cross party Scottish commission to negotiate independence, I will then step aside from the negotiations and I will take no further part’.
Had he said that (or words similar) it would not have ‘taken the heart out of the Yes movement’ it would have inspired it.
More than that: he would have shown Scotland (and the rest of the world) that he was a man of principle, a man prepared to put The Cause before his own ambitions.
The first president of an independent Scotland. Salmond had the right to that dream. What a sacrifice that would have been seen to be. How would the British establishment have dealt with it?
But he could not do it. He had the chance to play the Martyr Card but it was beyond his intellect.
My opinion, for what it is worth is, I think his ego prevented him from even contemplating the option.
When talking to people in the run-up to the referendum, I came across a number of people who said they did not like Mr Salmond, but they were invariably Unionists and would have voted NO, anyway. They didn’t like him because they feared him. On the other hand, those in the devolutionist camp of the SNP also talked him down and there was a definite, if under-the-radar, anti Salmond movement within the SNP.
In the referendum, the first round debate against Mr Darling was damaging, but, again, the arguments were the same old-same old, and it was more like a lift going downwards at a rate of noughts in the YES stomach department rather than any boost to the Unionists. The next part of the debate brought the lift back up and the balance was restored. We lost the referendum because not enough Scots turned out to vote YES at the polls, and too many relied on the postal vote which was used against us by both Tories and Labour announcing the results in advance of the polls. If we are to win our independence, we need to pre empt their moves and drive them into a cul-de-sac. We have been burned so many times and still have not learned anything. Oh, yes, the Brutish State infiltration is certain, but do we really need to shoot ourselves in the plates of meat to help them?
Sorry to make the point but Charles is King of Scotland as well as King of England. A Scottish politician acknowledging that isn’t grovelling to England.
Until the Act of Union ends, cope.
Sorry to make a point ,there is no such thing as a King of Scotland. Any 5 year old educated in Scotland could have told you that. Ignorance the lifeblood of English and British Nationalists.
You may be surprised how many halfwits voted in that referendum Roddy I know of one personally who said to me a week before the vote ” I’m voting NO cuz ah canna stand that Alik Sammin he just wants ah the eil” I told her that Alex Salmond isn’t on the ballot paper but it just didn’t penetrate (you know what it’s like), I don’t know if she’s a unionist but she’s definitely a halfwit but sadly I don’t think she was particularly unique
Thank you Campbell Martin for a thoroughly informative narrative.
You confirm only too clearly what so many members were too misty eyed to recognise was going on around them. 2014 was a watershed. The independence movement ran the establishment close. Closer than we may dare to realise and for that reason the establishment intervention had to be stepped up onto a full war footing.
Salmond had to die politically and be removed through incarceration and the MI5 machine, Police Scotland and assets in the Party and the civil service did their bit. And they did it too to Craig Murray, Mark Hirst and others. This is a British State every bit as brutal as a despot African rogue state despot. And make no mistake they will kill if needs be – ergo SNP lawyer Willie Macrae or Irish nationalists lawyers Rosemary Nelson and Pat Finnucaine. It is what they do, and they have done it around the world. When subterfuge doesn’t work its slaughter time – ergo Kenya, India and most of the colonies in between.
Campbell Martin’s comment that ” one of the many messages Scots need to learn from Ireland is the actions of Lillie Connolly. Some things do not deserve civility or respect or obedience ”
Our establishment is an animal, it will unless stopped, act like animals do, and as we have seen, but all too often try to ignore, it does act like a predatory vicious animal. Clearances in Scotland, Irish Famine, famine in the Bengal, the extermination of all of the indigenous aborigines in Tasmania, the deliberate spreading of small pox into North American indigenous Indian tribes through giving them contaminated blankets, the depravity of the British establishment knows no bounds. But that is whose ass quislings like Sturgeon or Swinney or now Humza now kiss in adoration.
A good article Campbell Martin. Education, education, education is a mantra that is so true. Educate yourself to what is going on around you, who is the cause of it, and then people will, as they have done in so many ex British colonies around the world, gain their independence.
Semper vigilo should be our watchword.
“Our establishment is an animal, it will unless stopped, act like animals do, and as we have seen, but all too often try to ignore, it does act like a predatory vicious animal.”
Yes Willie, the true nature and policy of colonial oppression is well documented globally, and Scotland’s colonial history and ongoing predicament is becoming ever more difficult to refute, laced with its immense contradictions and hypocrisies as portrayed by the colonizers education and political system.
As Aime Cesaire describes the consequences, this only goes to prove: “that colonization dehumanizes even the most civilized man; that colonial activity, colonial enterprise, colonial conquest, which is based on contempt for the native and justified by that contempt, inevitably tends to change him who undertakes it; that the colonizer, who in order to ease his conscience gets into the habit of seeing the other man as an animal, accustoms himself to treating him like an animal, and tends objectively to transform himself into an animal.”
)well said Willie, a good proven documented post. No one can call this anything but the truth.
I completely agree with Campbell’s article. The very idea that the secret services would not be monitoring, infiltrating, coercing and otherwise seeking to destroy or even better, control, the SNP is palpably absurd. Why would they be so derelict in their duty to what after all is, as they see it, the greatest existential threat to Greater Londonia, aka the UK?
Those indy supporters of my vintage may well remember in pre-internet days the guy sitting in the corner at wee local SNP meetings of maybe just 10 folk, taking notes. The guy nobody knew. The guy who would just smile if you asked if he was a reporter.
When it became clear that under Swinney’s tenure, we were heading towards dropping independence, I resigned from the party for a short while, rejoining when Alex Salmond returned. Currently, I have once again resigned from it for similar reasons but this time I do not really see the possibility of a repeat correction from within the party. I fear the dark artists have had too long to work their evil and have been well funded.
The actions of Campbell, John Mason and Bill Wilson were instrumental in bringin about that first correction. We should all thank them for that.
Also I would like to personally thank Campbell for for his endorsement of the aims of Independence First which we more than gladly included on our endorsement leaflets and endorsement page along with many other poliiticians, despite his supposed and completely undeserved, ‘black sheep’ status at the time.
The SNP currently have the majority of seats of any Scottish political party in both Westminster and Holyrood. I also believe they have been infiltrated, but would suggest the majority of “Spooks” would be Civil Servants or Advisors, easier to replace. As for ALBA, waiting for them to become a major party, will take far too long, Labour appear to have more support than them. By the time ALBA become a political force, they will be well and truly infiltrated as well, and Holyrood will be long gone.
The complacency of the Scottish people is also a problem, yes they are angry, but not angry enough to get out in the streets in large numbers, like before Covid. Instead they are waiting for the SNP to do what they were elected for, I would suggest an invasion of Holyrood, but that might defeat the purpose. I hope Salvo can get International Law into the fray, as nothing else can force Westminster to comply.
Which country has won their independence in a courtroom?
Kosovo, arguably. They declared UDI from Serbia (without a referendum BTW). Serbia took them to the UN confident that the UN would agree with the Serbian Constitutional Court ruling that the Kosovan UDI was illegal. The UN referred the matter to their judicial body, the ICJ. Unfortunately for Serbia, the ICJ ruled that Kosovo had done nothing illegal by declaring UDI. Kosovo is now a pending member of the EU and is being assisted in acquiring the entry acquis by EU civil servants. And here is the kicker, the UK was in the very first small tranche of countries to recognise Kosovo the day after the UDI.
Kosovo was a US State Department decision. All a out hurting Serbia a Russian ally. The UN like the EU the World Bank the IMF are all extensions of US foreign policy. This US why anyone thinking the UN will help Scotland escape the union is deluded. The US views UK as its aircraft carrier in the North Atlantic and Faslane as their property. They will keep England happy at all times. Just look at them on Ukraine
And as a thank you, Albania gave refuge to the Mojahedin el khalq, Mosad’s happy little assassins cult.
The Mojahedin el khalq’s previous base of operation in Iraq has become untenable by the NATO invasion of said.
Chic: Kosovo actually declared independence BEFORE Serbia acted. That is the point I make in every thread: Scotland has to declare itself independent BEFORE it can bring or defend an action in the UN/ICJ. It must be a state. However, SALVO/Liberation’s work on our behalf (and this has already been started by others in the broader independence movement by their placing of relevant petitions and documents with the UN) is likely to form the basis of a case, itself, based on breaching of the Treaty and the Claim of Right, as well as sundry other Scottish constitutional documents, as the foundation before the political solution at the polls. It simply has to be a two-pronged attack strategy.
BB is right in that the British/American alliance (really just American) in the UN would tend to suggest that we would be ignored, and I certainly agree with his ‘aircraft carrier’ analysis, although I would extend that to the whole of Europe (albeit France an German, at least, are reluctant hosts, but we have to try, and we can never be sure that they would not spike our poll results either. The point is that we have to make as much noise as possible, as far and wide as possible, make our case and win at the polls. We might be able to garner pragmatic ‘friends’ at the UN, especially those on the Security Council who want to give the UK/American alliance a bloody nose? If those do not work, then there is only one other way, and I may be mistaken here, but I do not believe that either the UK or America would want conflict here.
What I do think would happen in extremis is that they would broker a deal that would see them both being close allies after independence. It would be, by no means, a perfect solution, but might be all we could hope for realistically, and, as far as the nukes are concerned, we might be able to negotiate a removal to a site in England – might. It is always wort trying anything; nothing ventured, nothing gained; but, right now, too many are too afraid to make the necessary moves. We might end up worse off and still in the Union at the end of it, but we are scheduled to become a great deal worse off very soon, in any case. The Union, as ever, is the fundamental problem.
Aye Roddy, no arguing that the authority of the UN has been greatly undermined by the USA and UK in more recent years. Not that long ago the UN ruling on the Chagos islanders would have been a big story and exerted a lot of pressure on the UK but now, it barely got on to the MSM radar.
But to be fair to the UN I don’t see a lot of evidence to say that they are actually agents of the Anglo-American monster. After all, the USA has refused to ratify some UN treaties on Human Rights and on the Law of the Sea. Trump pulled out of most of them although Biden has rejoined, sort of.
There continues to be calls for the USA to leave the UN in America and an oft voiced opinion that the UN is anti-American.
Closer to home, the UR cabal that runs the UK have been pretty clear they would be willing to go full-frothing rogue pariah state in order to hold on to Scotland. The hope is that the decent ordinary English folk might not be so keen on that status. It feels like a long overdue reckoning is coming for
the cabal of corruption down there.
Let me give you two instances which prove it beyond a shadow of doubt. The refusal of UN to investigate Nord Stream. The refusal of IAEA to admit which side is shelling Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station. The refusal of UN to call for peace in Ukraine.We also had case ofvUS refusing visas to Russian delegation when it was Russia’s turn to chair Security Council. UN remained silent.
If we vote for the SNP is it a vote for the continuance of the British state? If so, what’s the point?
I have to concede Roddy that in recent times there does seem to have been a shift from principled judgement to nuanced support of the AngloAmerican cause. The first warning sign I picked up on was the non recognition of self determination for the Donbas states even though they were referendum backed. The earlier refusal to acknowledge the South Ossetian referendum was forgiveable because they wanted to both leave Georgia and join Russia at the same time, a double action which has always been considered a no no.
Stalin made a big mistake when he created the Soviet Socialist Republic of Ukraine in 1919 by combining the the ‘Ukrainian’ region West of the Dnieper with the ‘Russian’ region East of it but I suppose such is the hubris of all dictators, he envisaged the USSR lasting forever. The break up of the USSR and the subsequent behaviour of the Kyiv Government to the Donbas should have commanded UN support for their independence back in 2014 but the UN did not do so. Such an action may well have lead to a much less disastrous course than that which we are witness to now as well as being a morally justifiable one.
My feeling is that, on a wider scale, the impending loss of World hegemony to the BRICS has compelled the Money Monster collective of greedocracies in the West to seek a spoiling proxy war. Ukraine being the chosen ‘beneficiary’. I’m sure the parasitic elites in some Western nations are willing to fight to the last Ukrainian if it will help keep their entitlement to piratical interventionism going for while longer.
I don’t want to agree with you but things are playing out to the scenario you describe.
Greedocracies ,brilliant I am going to pinch that.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/19715693.neil-mackays-big-read-snp-activist-willie-mcraes-death-state-sanctioned-murder-says-ex-police-officer/
An article published in the Herald regarding an ex Police officer’s belief that Willie McCrae was murdered by the state.
Anecdotal commentary is that McCrae had the evidence of a paedophile ring at the heart of the Thatcher government that was being used to blackmail and keep certain politicians in line. Campbell Martin refers to it as M-I-C-E beig the acronym for the security services tools of using money, ideology, compromise or ego to influence events. It is how the British security apparatus works. It is their stock in trade.
After numerous burglaries and extensive surveillance Willie McCrae, who had taken to keeping files personally to hand, he probably signed his death warrant that Friday when he said that he ” had got them ”
But they got him first with a bullet in his head on a remote road near Invergarry. Makes you realise what our independence movement is up against. And Alex Salmond. They didn’t kill him, but they did try to kill him politically and incarcerate him.
Oh how there are none so blind as those that cannot see as to what goes on around them.
Scotland does not have to declare itself independent before it can bring or defend an action in the UN/ICJ. In fact it would be better if it did so without declaring UDI.
Scotland would not be a recognised state upon declaring UDI, that can only be claimed when a majority of other nation states recognise it as such. UDI is a final option if all else fails but recognition cannot be imposed on other countries and may take a long time to establish without UN support. Kosovo was not recognised by a majority of the World’s nation states when Serbia took them to the UN. That only happened after the ICJ ruling.
The fastest way to gain UN support for Scottish independence is to claim UK infringement of the ICCPR a legal treaty which covers, among other things, the right to self determination and to which the UK is still a signatory. However given the increased possibility of the UK leaving the ECHR, which is pretty much a subset of the ICCPR, it should be noted that upon exit from the ECHR the clock would be ticking on the UK also leaving the ICCPR. Such an action is no longer unthinkable, especially in the context of them needing to hold on to Scotland.
On the brighter side, the siege mentality, which was the main thing the Brexiteers had to invoke in order to bring about Brexit, may have fallen, according to polls, as the realities of Brexit have started to kick in. Even if there is still enough of that mentality left to persuade the majority to go along with exit from the ECHR it is a whole new different and time consuming ball game to then go on and persuade the voters that it is now not just the nasty Europeans that are against us but, effectively, the entire World. Which is what would be required to leave the ICCPR an act which would consign the UK to rogue, pariah state status and membership of a very small and internationally distrusted club. So there may still be some time. The caveat is that the ultra right cabal still has control of the MSM, UK political parties and largely even the justiciary.
So time is still a consideration and not just for oldies like me who would quite like to see indy before we depart this mortal coil.
The quickest way to enlist UN support is as follows.
Establish that you are a ‘people’ (a UN term). i.e, that you have an accepted geographical territory with. recognised borders. Also that you have a political/cultural identity and direction which is distinct from that of the host state.
That there is reasonable grounds to think that a majority within that territory are in favour of self government/independence..
That the host state is failing to allow or identify a mechanism whereby your right to self determination can be exercised in a reasonable time frame.
That all local remedies have been exhausted.
That is pretty much it. That is all you have to do.
In my opinion, we can make that case now. The danger is that last condition.
We have been here before. In 2006/7 I was a member of a group which compiled a complaint dossier which was lodged at the UN.
We had established that the second condition was met by uncovering hidden poll results which showed that support for independence between the formation of the SP and then averaged 54% Yes. During that period, reported support for independence, by the MSM and various reporting bodies stood around 25-30%. Reported as such even to our elected representatives. The reported figure was a massaged one. Usually by selecting the ‘Independence in Europe’ option from a polling question with maybe 5 options in total.
We met the last criterion by the simple and somewhat hopeful expedient of writing to the Government citing the 54% for straight independence Y/N polling and asking for a referendum as per our rights under the right to self determination enshrined in the ICCPR.
To our surprise we received an official reply saying no referendum.
We then wrote a second letter asking them to specify what alternative mechanism could be used to exercise our right to self determination. To our even greater surprise we received another official reply saying ‘there is no alternative mechanism’.
We were therefor able to lodge a complaint of infringement of international law by the UK Government refusing our right to self determination under the ICCPR, fairly confident that they would consider it grounds for a case at the ICJ.
Ironically, what happened next was that a resurgent SNP under Alex Salmond with a manifesto promise to hold an indy ref. won a minority Government victory. While great news in many ways, it did mean that the last condition ‘all local remedies must be exhausted’ was no longer met and we had to withdraw the claim.
The reason I have gone through that little bit of largely irrelevant history is to emphasize that final point.
The UN will not even consider a complaint if all local remedies have not been exhausted. Period.
Currently, all local remedies have, more than arguably, been exhausted. The Supreme Court, even though operating illegally outside its remit and as an agent of the UK Government, nevertheless has denied Scots the right to unilaterally hold, even an advisory referendum. Vague suggestions that another referendum may be ‘allowed’ in 30 or 50 years time is also effective denial as it is way outside what would be considered a reasonable time frame by the UN claims committee.
The case is there to be made, right now, under established UN terms for any ‘people’ wishing to exercise their right to self determination, including independence, but who are being prevented from doing so.
Laudible as it is to establish Scotland’s historical status as an independent nation and the validity of historical documents defining Scottish sovereignty or establishing whether Scotland is a colony, de facto or otherwise, I am very much afraid that they, certainly the last two, will be grasped with glee by the BritNat establishment as potential provarications. That is if they can convince the UN that they amount to ‘local remedies which have not been exhausted’.
I would be surprised if the UN did buy the pretext that Scotland might be able to exercise its right to self determination after years of procrastination through a BritNat centric court system. After all, we could all tell them right now what that fair and considered final adjudication will be. And then we would be back to square one, which is the normal supplication for self determination through international law that we could do right now anyway.
And by then, the UN may have been undermined into complete irrelevance (see exchange between Roddy and me) or the UK could have left the ICCPR or every last drop of oil and gas has been stolen from the North Sea so they don’t care anymore.
Bottom line, I do not think parallel approaches are logically compatible and I know which one the BritNats would prefer.
How do we get standing at the UN?
As far as I can remember and things may have changed over the last 17 years the complainant has to be an individual citizen who is complaining that his/her human right has been infringed by their Government. They can represent a group but not a political party. We used the son of one of our office bearers because he was completely apolitical, disliked politicians with a vengeance although he always denied being an anarchist.
As stated by Craig Murray ex Anbassafor, Daniel Hack senior Scottish civil servant eho worked at UN and by a leading Scottish KC onky national governments abd UN Agencues can get standing at UN or ICJ. Anyone telling you different is mistaken or misleading you.
An article written on this in 2022. The publishing of this found me subject to a smear campaign and threats from Salvo Chair.
https://www.barrheadboy.com/chasing-unicorns/
Charles: I don’t think I said anything about recognition, which would come after independence. I also think that, on the face of it, we signed a Treaty that led to the creation of the UK, and, it seems to me, that, legally, we need to build our case on consistent and deliberate breaching of said Treaty and the CoR, on which it rests. We did not sign up to an already existing state, but two separate, independent states signed up to the creation of a brand-new state.
Any reading of the Treaty shows that we were left with all the trappings of statehood except the political; ostensibly, the same for England. Within a very short time, England began its long run of ultra vires actions and decisions, utterly contrary to the Treaty. The Treaty is still extant in law, both domestic and international. There is no way round it except to resile it on the grounds of breaching and bad faith, and a case could be built very quickly.
BB is correct when he says that the US/UK alliance would frown upon our secession and that it would be a very different kettle of fish from that of the former Yugoslav states or the former Soviet states insomuch as they wanted those to keep the Russians occupied.
First, though, we would have to win an election and make it a de facto referendum, then declare independence immediately thereafter; if we wait to negotiate that independence, we are not getting it because rUK will trot out the Crawford and Boyle ‘subsumption’ argument, and we would be led down a long, long corridor of domestic litigation that could take years. Furthermore, it would be far better and more persuasive if we all united and presented independence candidates instead of one party candidates.
Please give us an example of a non-independent territory that was recognized and declared independent at the UN without any declaration of independence prior to its presentation at the UN. Not trying to be smart; just trying to discover if that has happened. I could find none, but you may have. We have to remember that Alec Salmond, in 2014, would have entered negotiations for our independence had we won the referendum. We would not have been independent. If we do this again, the UK will trot out the Crawford and Boyle Report and claim that we were subsumed. It matters not a jot whether they believe it or not (they don’t; they know very well that they have short-changed us for over 300 years with the acquiescence of the Unionists); it will give them time to asset-strip us to the bare bones.
Lorna and Roddy,
Perhaps I have not been clear enough. I am not talking about anything as ambitious as going to the UN and coming away with independence.
What I am talking about is the right of any citizen to lodge a complaint if a statutory human right has been infringed. In Scotland’s case, the UK Government is in breach of Scotland’s right to self determination because it is not specifying any mechanism by which that right can be pursued in a reasonable period of time contrary to direct extant statutory instruction agreed and signed up to.
They have a legal obligation to describe the mechanism we need to pursue in order to exercise the right to self determination including independence. They are not doing so therefore any citizen can register a complaint that he or she is being denied any means of exercising that right.
If that claim is upheld then the UK Government is given a period of time to respond.
They might come back and say of course there is a mechanism here it is.
They might say oops sorry, here is the required mechanism
They might refuse to respond.
We would then know (as would everyone else) out in the open and in writing exactly what is required (which, yes, might be UDI) rather than their preferred modus operand i, weasel word, no written constitution, hand wavy blah blah nonsense that allows them to shift the goal posts and make up the ‘rules’ as they go along.
Citizens have no standing at UN or ICJ.
It is unlikely that the UN/ICJ would look favourably upon one person taking his/her case to them and where their decision, if favourable, would affect over five million others in Scotland, around half of whom (at present) do not want independence. That one person would, effectively, be forcing over five million others to accept independence (realistically, around half that number because the rest will be independence supporters) because he/she wants it, without a constitutional demand for independence by that nation. Also, as Roddy says, one individual from a nation will not be entertained. It has to be a state. That, as far as I am aware, has always been the position.
You make a very good point, though. One ‘trans’ identified male brought his case to the international community and forced one half of the world’s population (females) to bend the knee to his desire. On reflection, most sane people would regard that as a massive miscarriage of justice. Such would be the case here. Yes, those of us who want independence would like to be able to say: look, I am not receiving my human rights; but the only really acceptable way for that to happen is when over half the country wants independence – and, truth to tell, we are not far off that as we speak. If it can be translated into votes and seats (with seats being the benchmark), and if the election is a plebiscitary one, and if we declare independence on winning, yes, we can bring our case to the UN/ICJ as a state.
However, there is every advantage, well before any vote, in laying before the UN our intention to leave the Union and our intention to show that we have had our constitutional heritage and rights stolen from us illegally in both domestic and international law. In those circumstances, international recognition, I believe, would follow soon after independence. I know it is not a universally popular solution, but UDI based on a simple majority vote should be our aim, I think. Negotiating with the British State will always be one-sided, I think, and may not lead to the desired independence.
Look at how they pushed and dragged Ireland from pillar to post, although a prolonged guerrilla war would have brought them to their knees at the time. Collins and Griffiths calculated that the cost to Ireland would be too high so they settled for a Free Ireland under the monarchy, and they had to wait another fifteen or so years for their republic. Negotiating with the British is rarely a good idea unless you are prepared to accept half a loaf – which might, of course, be the sensible option in the end, and we will have little choice. Pragmatism and realism. Whatever, they will try to shaft us.
No Lorna, you are still not getting my point.
The UN does not confer independence. The UN is there to only provide a generic framework of laws to preempt, as much as possible, acrimony and aggression.
Therefore it does not specify what self determination means, it might just mean some semi-autonomous form of self Government or it might mean independence. It does, however, specify that that choice is up to and only up to the people concerned, free from external political intervention.
It does not specify what mechanism is used to determine the will of the people in regard to the kind of self determination they want. It could be an election result, it could be a plebiscite election, it could be a referendum, it could by by direct democracy, it could be by declaration of independence by the local Government, it could be by declaration of independence by an assembly external to the local legislature or it could be, that pretty rare event, by mutual agreement. What it does specify is that there must be SOME mechanism by which the indicated wish for self determination can be tested and that the host Government makes it clear what that is and also it has to be within a reasonable time frame as well.
Therefore the UN can only rule on whether the actual specified laws agreed to and signed up to have been infringed or not and hence the associated human right infringed or not.
In the case of a successful claim by a Scottish citizen or group in regard to UK infringement of self determination rules designed to enable testing the indicated wish for independence. ALL that would do is force
the UK to be clear on what the mechanism is. Whatever that mechanism is must still then be followed through to an outcome. An outcome on which the UN will have no opinion or influence.
I say ALL, but that little word represents a huge leap forward compared to the present carefully crafted chaos routinely used by UK politicians (or more likely by their Whitehall Mandarin Masters, clutching their copies of The Little Prince). No more goal post shifting, no more ad hoc creative law making, a clear path on which all factions of the indy movement can concentrate and unite on.
Charles, I understand what you are saying, but it will not work while both the US and the UK are members of the Security Council. What I am saying is that we need to be an independent state to get international recognition AFTER independence. No state on Earth has ever gained its independence through a handful of individuals bringing a human rights case. I did not suggest that we try to regain our independence via the UN, but to present our case for recognition to the UN AFTER independence, while, in the meantime, lay the groundwork by letting the UN see all the documentary and other evidence.
Men claiming to be women are removing female human rights as we speak – removal of their dignity, their privacy and their safety – and the UN has backed them in contravention of its own human rights policy. That is, they are backing a handful of men against 51-52% of the world’s population. Catalunyans were beaten senseless during their referendum and the UN did nothing. Spain was not even censured. The Chagos Islanders are still awaiting justice, but the UN does nothing. The Palestinians are being killed at a ratio of about 100 to every one Israeli, and the UN does nothing. The UN will act only if it serves the purposes of those members who call the shots. It served the purposes of the US and the UK for the former Yugoslavia to be dismembered and the former republics allowed their independence – which they declared and did not negotiate with the Serbia for – because they could not halt the process.
Slovenia, the first to declare independence was recognized immediately by Germany and Austria in a swift move that left everyone else standing, and the UN was forced to recognize it, too, setting the ball rolling, as happened in the Baltic states. That is what we need to do, too. Pragmatism rules at the UN, and, more often than not, Goliath wins and little David is booted in the backside and sent home to think again. We need friends like the Germans and Austrians who recognized Slovenia after its independence declaration, but they would have to show no fear of the US/UK axis of power, or move so swiftly that the big boys are caught wrong-footed. The point I was making – am making – is that we need to declare independence immediately on winning another election.
My reading of relevant research on this suggests that, also where the political system fails, a ‘National Liberation Movement’ may have standing at the UN. This is what Salvo and Liberation.scot are in the process of doing, as far as I understand.
Other/related ‘Strategies for Independence’ are summarised here:
https://grousebeater.wordpress.com/2021/08/29/scotland-in-the-21st-century-10/
It is clear from Campbell’s article and books why none of these (or other) options have been pursued by the dominant national party and why, as a compromised entity, it has prevented and blocked ‘any innovation’ to secure liberation.
Thanks Alf, looks exactly like my kind of reading. I have been out of the game pretty much for some years apart from sniping here and there and was unaware of the work others have been doing. I will read it with interest.
PS Does not mean I am back in the game, too old, too tired, too little time left to devote fully to the cause. My conscience is clear, I’ve done my bit.
Yes, Alf, I think that this is precisely what SALVO/Liberation are doing, and I also think – just my take – that it would be worthwhile. In the end, however, I think we are going to have to win at the polls (as we have done on numerous other occasions and blew all the opportunities) and declare independence immediately thereafter. Personally, I do not feel at all confident that the UK would negotiate with us for independence in any way that could be considered fair and reasonable if we went down the referendum route again or even if we won at the polls but waited to negotiate, handing them the advantage of time and pressure. Like they did with the Irish, they would try every trick in the book to keep us attached by some kind of political umbilical cord. It would be unforgivable for any independence party(ies) to win an election on independence and then fail to deliver yet again, or fail to deliver fully, because the initiative had been handed to the British State.
“You have to hand it to the British State, it has played a blinder: today’s SNP is so corrupted by British agents that it has sidelined independence and embraced gender policies that make the party unelectable. For the British State that is job done.”
Unelectable? That’s not what the polls tell us. If anyone has better information, I’d ask them to share it.
I like Campbell Martin. I don’t recall if we ever met. But I know we exchanged views in some way. He is a man who knows whereof he speaks and someone whose views I take very seriously. Everything he says about the SNP being infiltrated by Special Branch and MI5 and others is perfectly plausible. Although I do tend to wonder if the efforts of the British state to destroy the SNP were not made redundant by the sheer ineptitude of the party’s leadership. I can well imagine the Treasury querying the cost of these operations.
But Campbell is correct. We are obliged to assume that the SNP was infiltrated as soon as it looked like it might become a threat to the British state, if not before. Such infiltration is ubiquitous and has been for as long as there have been different factions competing for power. What Campbell says about the SNP is all but certainly true of every political party and organisation which has any kind of public profile. And always has been. Which begs the question, so what?
If this infiltration is rife and has been for all of human history, then it is normal. It’s just the way things are. People may work themselves into a lather of righteous indignation about it. But there is no cure for it. Moreover, nobody wants a cure for it. Nobody who is in a position to administer this cure, at any rate. Because a cure for being infiltrated is also a preventative for infiltrating. If you have a surefire way of stopping others infiltrating your organisation, the same method will inevitably be used against your own wannabe infiltrators.
Another thing that has always existed is the notion of pristine politics. The notion that all undue influence and interference can be removed from politics. The notion that politics can function in some sort of virtual clean room, isolated from anything that might contaminate decision-making on an exclusively rational basis. The problem being that rational decision-making requires inputs from the real world. Choices must be informed. They cannot be made – other than randomly – in an intellectual vacuum.
We think of politics as a ‘dirty business’ only because we can imagine a politics that is ‘clean’. But not everything that might be imagined can have an existence in the real world. In the same vein, the infiltrators are thought of as infecting the political party or organisation. But if they are all infected and always have been, that is their natural state. Our bodies are made up at least as many bacteria and other microorganisms as human cells. The ‘infiltrators’ are part of the working mechanism. In the same way, spies and agents are part of the working mechanism of our politics.