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The British Union is moribund. It has in reality been in this state since 1979.The Union has long outlived its purpose and usefulness. When Thatcher dismantled and sold off the British assets, she was also selling off the ties that bound the union together. British Coal, Steel, Telecom, Rail, Shipbuilding, Leyland were the industrial giants that stretched throughout the island of Greater Britain and in the six occupied counties too. The British Trade Unions in all these and ancillary industries were tied together in unity against the right- wing bosses. The struggle was for all the ‘British’ working classes. There was a sense of belonging and common struggle among the 4 home nations. Those left in the modern day Labour Party still try to play this card. It is a fantasy, those times are gone, sadly inside the once mighty workers party there is a band of folk living in denial and past glories.Like dinosaurs they are unable to adapt, and just like the prehistoric creatures they will become extinct. The Thatcher meteorite struck decades ago.
In removing these unifying industries and crushing the trade unions Thatcher created a long-term inevitable death of the political construct known as The UK. She may have made her pals in the city throughout the 1980s and 90s even wealthier with her actions. The cost though was the very union itself, not just the Trades Union Movement. In creating the services industry economy, she dreamed of, she broke the bonds of collectivism felt by the working peoples of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In breaking the industries and unions, she inadvertently also killed off the Labour Party another unifying tenet of the British working classes. The short-term joy of the Tories will be utterly destroyed when they finally realise the British Union is the biggest casualty of Thatcher and neoliberal economics.
Over the past 40 years, a few people have become very wealthy while the majority have become poorer. Those that inherited wealth made in the days of the empire and slavery have been able to top up their fortunes. Those at the bottom of the pile have only felt despair and hunger. The obscenity of the gap between rich and poor in UK is testament to the politics of greed. That greed has been eating away at the heart of the people. In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland for decades. It has resulted in independence movements that want to end the union. A United Ireland looks ever likely. The border poll that the Unionists dread may well be here long before Scotland makes its move. ^The people in the Celtic nations never bought into the Thatcher view of Self! Self! Self! While England kept voting Tory and Tory Lite, Scotland and Wales kept faith with the Labour Party. To this day Tories while the dominant force in England remain reviled and fringe players in the Celtic countries.
Kinnock and Blair realised that the Labour Party was unelectable to the English people. A Party that believed in the rights of the poor and disadvantaged would not find favour in England. Instead of trying to persuade the English that solidarity and socialism was the solution, they decided to abandon their base instead. To dupe the voters they gave themselves a facade of supporting the disadvantaged while in reality they became Tories by another name. With the election of Sir Keir Stammers the Tories and right-wing ideology is now firmly back in charge in England. Scotland was first to see through the Labour charlatans and when they sided with Tories in 2014 they were finished with Scots. Wales it seems realises now too that Labour is not the solution to the woes of the working man or Cymru.
The English working class too have become disillusioned sadly they did not have a competent left of centre, social democratic option. In searching for solutions the English flirted with the extreme right of UKIP, then latterly accepted the extreme right-wing Tories as the panacea to all their problems. Very soon it will become clear to our English neighbours they have made a huge mistake.
The English disadvantaged population took out their frustrations on the EU in 2016 they believed the snake oil salesmen Johnson and Gove and like turkeys they voted for Christmas. England, it seems never learns. In 1979 they easily fell for Thatchers con, now they have once again allowed themselves to be duped by the same party of vagabonds and thieves. The reality of Brexit and the fall out from Covid is going to have a profound effect on the lives of everyone in this broken political union. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all have lifeboats. Unfortunately, our English neighbours have no such safety net. When that becomes obvious, I worry that civil unrest will overtake English society. It will not be a pretty sight. I am glad I no longer have any family down there.
Scotland has some decisions to make. We can sit tight and keep giving the SNP mandates and accept the continued refusals of Westminster to hold a plebiscite. We can try to find legal recourse which could literally take years to reach conclusion. Alternatively we can wait for the chaos that engulfs the political union and then make our move to leave by the backdoor while nobody in London is looking. The best course of action by far though, is to take matters into our own hands.
When you look back through history, it is very hard to find any countries that managed to break away from London rule via the ballot box. The imperial attitude that pervades in England is not amenable to democratic decisions that don’t suit them. The largest global Forum in the world reached a consensus among the nations of the world about the Chagos Islands. The UK Government had acted illegally against the islanders, and these islands sold by the Brits to the Americans should be handed back to the Chagos islanders. This did not suit London, so they chose to just disregard world opinion. There will be no UN sanctions against the UK. Their bestest buddy the bully known as USA will veto any attempt by the world’s nations to discipline their bitch state of England.
https://theconversation.com/chagos-islands-uk-refusal-to-return-archipelago-to-mauritius-show-the-limits-of-international-law-127650
London has only ever reluctantly ceded nations back to the rightful owners. India, Ireland, Cyprus, Yemen, Kenya, Malaysia to name just a very few needed to resort to full-blown rebellion to remove the London parasites. The British Establishment view other nations as sources of income and exploitation. The home nations are no different. Unless the SNP has some cunning plan then it will be down to the people themselves to take back our nation. Going to Westminster cap in hand and saying pretty please won’t bring us independence. Telling our own supporters protesting at the border they are racists so as not to offend House Jocks and foreign media doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence that the SNP are up for an Independence struggle. Humza really needs to apologise to the movement for using Unionist type slurs against our own supporters. The British Establishment has centuries of imperialism and chicanery to fall back upon to protect their wealth. Playing fair and trying to be nicey nice to these financial vampires is stupid in the extreme. Appeasing an anti-independence MSM with financial stimulus is also another worrying action. Refusing to acknowledge their own members concerns and worries while pandering to a tiny internal single issue grouping is, also somewhat disconcerting. Refusing to allow open discussion on alternatives to Section 30 is to say the least bizarre. I would respectfully suggest if the SNP has a solution to the Independence conundrum now is the time to share it with the members and the YES coalition. Otherwise, we will just need to wait on our English neighbours destroying the union from within and then picking up the scraps.
Playing by Westminster rules will not work, they will defeat us, every time. Independence needs to be taken, not politely asked for as we have been good little colonialists. The polls say the Scottish people are ready. The YES Movement has been ready since 19/09/2014. The union has never been weaker now is the time to push and agitate for independence. Sitting waiting for something to happen elsewhere is not a smart strategy. Making something happen is the only strategy that makes sense. Make a decision and make a call, the people will follow and take back our country.You have independence in our grasp. Do not miss this opportunity to be decisive.
I think this is the quintessential article I have ever read on Independence and our struggle.
I also agree on Yousaf’s ill-judged knee jerk reaction. Beware twitter brain farts. He should indeed apologise.
Last word, I love the line, “The Thatcher meteorite struck decades ago.” I would add, and out of the pit crawled Tony Blair.
Thank you for this, you are the only well known and respected blogger saying what I have been saying for the last year or two.
Let’s get others to put down the challenge to the SNP.
What really are you going to do to save Scotland and its people from the new domination by Tory far right elite.
We need an answer now.
Not the baying calls of help us get another mandate for Holyrood. That tune is done and dusted.
We want action on the 3 mandates you already have.
Humza Yousaf is an absolute disgrace, to brand people as racist just to ingratiate himself with the Unionist press is disgusting, not only is it a slur on these people it’s a betrayal, these are sort of people who would have campaigned to put him in his highly paid job free of charge and all they ask in return is for him to at least try and do what they elected him to.
Humza may be a brilliant politician but as a human being he falls well short of the mark in my opinion
Graeme I would suggest his outburst points him out as a very poor politician that has been promoted way above his capabilities.His predecessor would never have made such a knee jerk idiotic and tasteless comment. His position should be untenable, it isn’t of course the Party really is losing the grip on its entire ethos.
Humza has lost the plot. A Justice Secretary who says he has no power over justice in Scotland. So what is the point of the role he holds. The persecution of Salmond and then Murray and Hirst is shameful but Yousaf looks away. I listened to his excellent speech at George square last November. Words are cheap – actions are the true measure and Humza you have failed miserably.
I don’t think Yousaf needs to apologise, he’ll hang himself when he jails the first independence supporter using his hate crime bill.
we can run indyref2 without a s30, but we risk it falling into shambles if unionist boycott it, a vote where only 40% of the population vote risks being ignored by other nations. the reason westminster continue to do this is they want to stop people having vote on independence
however, now the polls are swinging our way, another option raises its head, with snp support on 55% when the snp release their manifesto for the next holyrood election, they could state simply and uniquely that a vote for the snp is a vote for independence, effectively turning the election into a plebicite on independence.
im not sure if the snp will do this, it will depend on the polls closer to the election, and i doubt they will say anything on the subject until the last moment, ensuring unionist participation in the election.
the point i am making is this is an option,
I see what youre saying about H Yousaf but in his position he is doing the correct thing, lawyers dont always say what they think, in court
They say whatever is necessary to win
HY will have had a wee laugh at the bunch in the van and two cars and the white protective suit protesting at the border….as many many folk did
It was not a protest that merited all the hullaballoo in newspapers and tv and radio and first ministers covid update on twitter and questions in westminster
A few folk protesting in scotland make headline news whilst many many very important things are simply ignored by these same media
All part of englands westminster propaganda war against scotland
If you wrote on a lavy wall that the ball didnt cross the line in 1966 youd be in the newss too maybe interviewed by BBC they overreact
Terence, as I have said to you before – you get a lot wrong. This post is another of your errors. Surprising that you defend Yousaf as he would no doubt call you a racist for the positions you hold. Perhaps it doesn’t bother you.
Terence, as I have said to you before – you get a lot wrong. This post is another of your errors. Surprising that you defend Yousaf as he would no doubt call you a racist for the positions you hold. Perhaps it doesn’t bother you.
Cubby…you call me a racist just because i do not agree with allowing english people who have lived in scotland a short time, to vote in a scottish independence referendum.
Here is a good description of how i feel about it
Humza has a job to do its part of his job to condemn actions such were seen at the border but i do believe that even those who condemn what happened have some sympathy for the message conveyed , people are genuinely worried about the numbers of people who could decide to flee lockdown in england and travel to scotland to recoup their health
In 2011 census, 459,000 Scottish residents were born in England; 54,000 were born in Wales and N.I. giving a total of 513,000, therefore nearly 10% of our electorate is RUK.
Of our total population, 62% identified as Scottish only. Worryingly, 18% identified as Scottish and British. As expected, the largest cohort ,25% of people aged between 65-74 years, were in this group.
The highest Scottish ‘identifiers only’ live in N.Lanarkshire; Inverclyde; East Ayrshire; and West Dunbartonshire. Significantly amongst the poorest areas of our country. This figure is 90%.
The lowest ‘Only Scottish identifiers’ are , not surprisingly, in Edinburgh (49%) and Aberdeen (55%) two of the most prosperous areas. I find these statistics worrying, because unlike some on here, I believe that identity is the key to our survival as a Independent nation, not ethnicity. However, ethnicity i.e. country of birth, not race, is a determinant in the UK context, because of the imperialist brainwashing that has gone on for centuries.
RUK immigrants have for the past thirty to forty years dominated the senior positions in our public service institutions e.g our Universities. They are the voice of Scotland in many sectors. A short listen to BBC Scotland radio or our tv networks demonstrates the overwhelming ubiquity of non Scots in senior positions. There has been a welcome increase in non UK professionals, but they are only a leavening of the anglocentric dominance of our society.
Why is this significant? Well, as the identification element of the census demonstrates, as we become more anglicised as a society, we begin to lose our self awareness as a nation. The media and big business have colluded to increase this effect.
There is a class element in this: predominantly wealthy RUK people selling inflated priced properties and fleeing to the better parts of Scotland: Aberdeen, Edinburgh, the highlands and islands‘Perthshire, Dfs & G, and the Borders.
There is also evidence that as they attain the top jobs that they recruit their own. Thus, we have the example of hardly any Scottish University heads or Edinburgh Festival Directors etc.
We have an open border. As Brexit progresses, there will be more RUK coming here. The Rev’s poll showed up to 4 million English would consider moving here. They will not be coming here to become Scottish. Unless we vote ourselves back into national sovereignty, only then will those migrants have the choice of becoming Scottish by taking on our citizenship. More ominously, the birthrate in Scotland is now at its lowest since the 1850s and there are less indigenous Scots residing here than since the First World War.
Therefore, in order to break our colonial status, we need to enforce long term residency qualification for voting until we can sustain the numbers to win, and lose the wide open electoral franchise, which is unreciprocated anywhere else in the world . Quebec lost out to Anglphone emigration. Similarly, our namesake New Caledonia lost out in its Independence from France because residents with French identity outvoted the native Kanaks. Old Caledonia must protect itself from being outvoted back into existence.
Terence, glad to see you have made a fundamental change to your position – namely
“I do not agree with allowing English people who have lived in Scotland a short time, to vote in a Scottish referendum.” Neither do I.
Previously, you stated people not born in Scotland but living in Scotland could not vote no matter how long they have lived in Scotland. So I agree a residency time limit should be introduced. No more English students at Edinburgh Uni voting on Scotlands future. We may, however, disagree on the residency time period ( you do not state your current view) but I am glad to see that you have moved away from your previous blood and soil nationalism to a more rational and inclusive approach.
I am also pleased to see that you are no longer posting silly inflated numbers for the number of English people living in Scotland. Posting unsubstantiated nonsense figures did nothing to help your argument.
The rest of your post is valid . I will certainly not call you an English hating racist in future if you stick to what you posted but would Humza the person you defend in your first post do the same. I doubt it.
Thatcher made a lot of folk in the south rich. Next time you are on a flight out of London, look down. Wall to wall swimming pools. That was what opened my eyes as to why they voted for her. Very different to the empty industrial sites around Scottish cities.
She was the arch exploiter of Scotland and its assets.
Cubby…..i have never held the view that people living in scotland who were not born in scotland should not have a vote in a scottish independence referendum , never.
I have often said scotland should apply the british rules in scotland namely the rules for british citizenship, we should call them the scottish citizenship independence referendum right to vote qualifying rules
Get english people who want to vote in a scottish independence referendum to answer questions on scottish history and swear allegiance to scotland and say they must have lived here for five years continuously basically we should apply the very same rules that england applies to everyone else
As for inflated numbers about how many people living in scotland are english i do believe it s way higher than the half million you and others continually quote which is the figure from the 2011 census.
Furthermore there are many many english people living in scotland who never ever take part in a census because a census is only every ten years , we have a huge number of english people who come to work to study to serve in hm forces for short enough periods that mean they never ever take part in a census in Scotland but are nevertheless here and are replaced by another batch who likewise dont stay here long enough to be counted in a census
I think the true figure is about 700,000
The next census was to be this year
We will see what it says
It will of course continue to allow many many english people living in scotland to identify as british rather than english
You are free of course to believe what thee british state tells you about how many english people live in scotland
Terence, I stupidly thought you had changed but no. Straight up a barefaced lie in your first sentence. No point in discussing this further with you. Britnats lie all the time and I don’t care for it. I am not accepting it from you either.
100%spot on . Look at history and you will find that before any Scottish leader started to fight the English he first had to defeat the Scots. The embedded unionists within the ranks of the SNP are the Scots we have to defeat. The ones within the leadership will be the most difficult