The literal translation of plus ça change is, the more things change, the more things stay the same. This is the week that the GERS figures were released by Westminster. (Government Expenditure & Revenue Scotland.) It is better known as ALOUD (A Load Of Unionist Dung) This is a Mickey Mouse School of Accountancy method of presenting a Profit & Loss for the nation of Scotland. It is configured on numbers only ever seen by the UK/English Treasury and is based mainly on estimates. It was the brainchild of a posh boy ‘scottish’ Tory Ian Lang. He was one of the many London’s man in Scotland House Jocks.
He is quoted as saying,”I judge that it is needed at present in our campaign to maintain the initiative and UNDERMINE the other parties.”
It has succeeded and more. Nowadays it is, not just the Tories that use these fictitious numbers and estimates as a big stick to beat and demean Scotland and our aspirations towards independence. Every year we have to listen to the usual House Jock suspects telling us just how we are too poor to be independent. All the English registered parties and their tame media join in the attacks on Scotland. They assure us it is only because of the generosity and largesse of our benevolent English neighbours that prevents us from starvation and being a failed state.
Throughout the year numerous tame Jocks use the subsidy myth to try and dampen the desire for independence. Sadder still is that our Scottish Government give this annual GERS lie credence by referring to them. They should not give them the oxygen of publicity. Instead, they should deny and ignore them at every opportunity. The ridiculous thing about GERS is that even if they were true they would bear no resemblance to the expenditure or income of an independent Scotland.
This lie about Scottish finances is believed by the majority of people in England too.Yet, despite this certain prominent UK Government figures are reportedly looking to impose new obstacles to thwart Scottish independence. They intend to achieve this by legislating that more than half of Scotland’s entire electorate would have to vote Yes in any independence referendum for the result to be accepted by England’s politicians! Why would any English MP, PM or Chancellor want to stop this huge financial drain on the English tax payers? Surely they should be encouraging Scottish independence in every way possible so as to relieve the poor English taxpayers of such a cruel burden?
That is, of course, a rhetorical question. All but the most stupid of the stupid are aware that it is Scotland that subsidises England. Every Indian, African, Cypriot, Maltese, Emarati, American and all those that were ever controlled by London know why!
England has never been able to stand in its own two feet. It has had to conquer, rob, lie, murder, commit genocide to keep its country afloat. Stealing other nations wealth and resources is what England has been doing since the 11th century! England is the only country on the planet that doesn’t want to be independent. Indeed, it is totally dependent on Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and this is why they fear being left to manage themselves.They are incapable of standing on their own two feet!
I am old enough to remember the 1978 Devolution Act. That was when a treacherous Anglo-Scot, George Cunningham introduced the 40% rule for the upcoming referendum on a Scottish Assembly Although “yes” won a majority of those voting in the referendum, as the “yes” constituted only 32.9 per cent of the electorate, the Labour government decided it would not proceed with devolution. This set in motion a series of events that resulted in Margaret Thatcher, 18 years of Tory Government and the destruction of everything we held dear being destroyed by her obsession with neoliberal economics.
Although this was a direct betrayal by the Labour Party, for decades, they tried to blame the 11 SNP MPs for bringing down their own government. This was a lie. They themselves brought down their own government. In his memoirs Jim Callaghan, the PM laid the blame squarely at the feet of his own party.
Now here we are 44 years later and this time an English Tory Westminster majority wants to stifle Scottish democracy. Never in the history of the Union, has any government been given a hurdle of 50% of the entire voting population to overcome! There were no minimum % requirements when we entered the Common Market via referendum, nor was there any when we left the EU via the Brexit Referendum.
It is only when Scotland starts to exert its desire to move towards independence that our English politicians deploy their undemocratic nonsense. What sort of Union of equals is this? Those that try to deny Scotland is viewed and treated as an English colony need to explain that to us all. This though would be a step too far. I do not think the Scots of now would willingly accept this blatant removal of our democracy. At best civil unrest, at worst open rebellion would ensue. That likelihood is not lost on some of their very few rational supporters in Scotland.
Here’s what needs to happen. When and if this affront to democracy so much as goes out to discussion ALL Scottish MPs need to act in unison. They must immediately leave the Palace of Westminster and refuse to return until this anti-democratic imperialist arrogance is withdrawn. Any Independence MP that refuses or does not comply with this edict must be named and shamed to the Scottish nation.They should also have their party whip withdrawn and be deselected the same day.
Speaking in Edinburgh in February 2020, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she intended to invite Scotland’s ‘elected representatives’ to ‘come together to endorse a modern Claim of Right for Scotland through a new Constitutional Convention’ to: ‘declare that it is for the Scottish Parliament to decide whether and when there should be an independence choice and build support for that principle amongst civic Scotland.’
Another broken promise sadly! Now is the time to call that convention Nicola, no delays, no ifs, no buts, just do it!
The history behind Nicola Sturgeon’s call for a Claim of Right for Scotland
The Proclamation made in Edinburgh this week should be the sign for Nicola Sturgeon to understand that the people of Scotland are no longer willing to wait on her or Westminster procrastinating over Scotlands desire to make its own decision.
The time is ripe to pile the pressure on to the incoming Prime Minister. The Union is creaking at the seams. The smell of rebellion is in the air in all parts of the UK.
The Royal High School is lying empty. Reopen it immediately and start holding Scottish Constitutional Convention meetings. Call on Scotland’s best and brightest to provide the solution to our withdrawal from the accursed Treaty of Union. Enact our Claim of Right and uphold the Proclamation They entire movement will fall in behind you if you do this. If you do nothing and allow this suggested democratic abomination from Westminster to grow roots the Scottish people will never forgive you. Now is the time to be bold and brave. If you do not have the stomach for the fight, step aside before you are swept aside!
It should be noted that it is an English government. There is no gov of GB in the treaty and the English government stated that UK was their (England’s) adopted political name. Likewise, there is no law of GB. There is Scots and English. It is English legislation that is being drawn up and has no legal standing in Scotland unless Scotland signs off on it.
In reference to colony status by the English establishment, they do not view Scotland as a colony. Firstly, Scotland was never conquered. To them they think of Scotland as having voluntarily exterminating themselves in order to unite with England as part of a Greater England. As they stated “under the new name of UK”. Secondly, while they try to imprint the narrative of the first they acknowledge and recognise the sovereign nation state of Scotland. They have repeatedly stated that the Scots are sovereign and during the Scottish referendum stated in a paper discussing the form of indy Scotland may take that Scotland is independent within GB. And thirdly, despite constant requests for the Scottish government to govern itself the Scottish government (MPs) and their devolved admin (MSPs) refuse to do so. They defer governance to their treaty partner then complain that they are governing Scotland. Our hands are tied they protest in the hopes that the Scots would be too stupid to realise that Scotland is a sovereign state first and foremost and a party to a treaty second. Thus the Scottish government has all the authority it can ever need to act on Scotland’s behalf. Deferring governance is a political choice. It is not law. It is not constitutional and it is a deliberate breach and violation of Scots sovereignty and trust.
It is often claimed that Scotland should apply for the inferior status of a colony with the UN but what Scots should do is contact the UN as a sovereign state notifying them that a member state and signatory party to the VC and UN is fundamentally breaching both and attempting to suppress their treaty partner via multiple fundamental breaches and violations to the 1706 treaty and the 1707 Act ratifying it. The CoR should also be highlighted and the Declaration of Edinburgh given to them. The rights of sovereign states, which is what Scotland is, has far higher standing as sovereignty being the highest authority is universally and internationally recognised and upheld. This point even the English establishment concede.
The next move I agree with. The Scottish government should now acknowledge and uphold the Proclamation of Edinburgh or forever be known as the Scottish government that sold out Scotland just as those who ratified the treaty are remembered today.
On September 1st 2022. Scotland declared the treaty terminated. It was denounced by the people from across the country in Edinburgh and as such is the day of independence. Like the battles before that were fought to retain Scotland’s independence, it may take time before those with vested interest in the status quo catch up but the act of Salvo has been enacted and the people of spoken. It now lies with the people to force their own government to comply.
We also make it clear that we’re nae too poor to be independent (there’s lots of poor independent countries) we’re just too poor to afford the level of public spending we enjoy as part of the UK. That’s all.
Nonsense, we will have far greater levels of spending on public services! You unionists are so glaikit!
“England has never been able to stand in its own two feet. It has had to conquer, rob, lie, murder, commit genocide to keep its country afloat. Stealing other nations wealth and resources is what England has been doing since the 11th century!”
This statement caught my attention. I’m going to do something a bit unpopular and try and give some history that better explains the English point of view, in the hope that Scots will go and get their books out, do some real research and resist picking up historical knowledge from just films and television.
You’ve got to remember that the English people are themselves an oppressed, conquered, colonised people. Yes, 1066 was a long time ago, yet in lots of little quirky ways the effects of that conquest are still with us…..in language, social strata, architecture, customs, mores, land ownership etc etc.
England wasn’t just conquered and occupied, but completely crushed….by the Normans who imposed a totalitarian regime, ferociously crushing all dissent and stamping on the least hint of rebellion.
Skipping the peasant’s revolt of 1381, the next big change in ‘English’ society was the Black Death which reduced the working population to such an extent that the balance of economic power swung in favour of the serfs,villeins and labourers.The aristocracy and landowners had to make concessions. However, after a century or two, the countryside started to fill up with…..heaven forfend……people, peasants , thousands of the bleeders….all settling on ‘common’ land getting in the way of upper-class hunting parties and spoiling the view.
On top of that, the prisons were full to the brim and the streets infested with beggars and thieves. So….no doubt stimulated by voyages of discovery of far-off lands over the oceans, some bright spark came up with the wheeze of transporting all this excess, useless population to those far-off lands where they would be gainfully employed in hard labour, carving a living of sorts out of , as they saw it….pristine wilderness.
And thus began colonialism(English-style) The Spaniards had been at it for decades and had displayed to all that cared to look, how handsomely it rewarded the effort of ocean voyages. The downside was genocide, war, and murder, initially of the colonists rather than the indigenes.This idea that colonialism was some sort of dawdle has to be knocked on the head.
In Elizabethan times, one of the first English colonies simply disappeared without trace…..Roanoke Island in the Carolinas. Jamestown was nearly snuffed out twice by Indian massacres due to English ignorance and an over-trusting nature.
On top of all this, was extreme reluctance of the English populace to take part in those expeditions no matter what wretched condition they found themselves in…..but there was a solution….give the prisoners and homeless a choice….to be hanged by the neck, flogged to near death and imprisoned for years…..or get transported to the colonies. Not too much fun being a poor Englishman in those times, eh?…..being ruled over by a bunch of stuck-up descendants of robber-barons that acquired their powers some several centuries previously.
Meanwhile in bonnie Scotland, Scots weren’t doing too badly in comparison.Incomes were about 80% of that of England but there was little taxation. There was good trade with the continent…Poland in particular. There were thirty thousand Scots families in Danzig(now Gdansk). Taxation was very low. Scotland was traditionally a low tax country. Think about that. Imagine looking after yourself and your family all on your ownio, without government help. How unusual ! What a strange people those Scots of yesteryear were…..unlike the nation of mendicants we have now. I mean, imagine going through life without a supply of ‘free’ incontinence pads or Zimmer frames. What a brave, stoic resourceful people our forbears were.
My point is that English colonialsm was not a consequence of an inherently sadistic, conquering nature but started out as survival…… pure and simple. The country was becoming over-populated in relation to its agricultural output…..and sadly that situation is true today….so money has to be made by fair means,…. or foul, if necessary.
By contrast, Scotland has a tiny population in relation to its land and sea territory. It can easily become self-sufficient in water and food if it puts its mind to it.
It’s there for the taking…..but you haven’t got much time and if you want it…..then….. you’ll have to DO something about it…..not just talk about it, if you want it……..But…..maybe you don’t want it. Maybe you just want to sit back.like a powerless, couldn’t-care-less slave, a non-entity, a lazy, ignorant, stupid zombie.
He who dares, wins.He who does nothing, loses.
Plus ca change. Plus c’est la meme chose. Somethings change and some remain the same.
The fight for territory and survival is a good example of this French saying.
@AWoLsco
Whilst I applaud your intention:
“I’m going to do something a bit unpopular and try and give some history that better explains the English point of view
”
to attempt to bring readers’ attention to some potted history,
I will here refer the curious to an excellent recent article by Grousebeater, concerning an excellent recent book ‘reevaluating’ English history.
“The English Delusion”
https://grousebeater.wordpress.com/2021/08/18/the-english-delusion/
TLDR: Not recognising that the ‘common-folk’ were dominated by an invading ruling elite is entirely missing the thread that runs throughout the centuries of Empire, and begins well before.
So “the English point of view” becomes a more nuanced thing. Is it that of the Ruling Elite, or that of the common folk?
Similarly if I were to assert there was “A Scottish point of view”. Would that be the view of the Colonial Administration, or that of the indigenous ethnic Scots?
😉
Oh and while we are at it…
“However, after a century or two, the countryside started to fill up with…..heaven forfend……people, peasants , thousands of the bleeders….all settling on ‘common’ land getting in the way of upper-class hunting parties and spoiling the view.
On top of that, the prisons were full to the brim and the streets infested with beggars and thieves.
”
You are of course entitled to take that view.
I would invite the curious to discover for themselves the horror of “The Enclosures”
That period on English history where a large fraction of the population which was (numerically) still almost entirely rural and lived off the land, were driven from that land and thus into penury, disposession, destitution and starvation by the Ruling Elite, who preferred to Enclose that land, and which instead of growing grain (food) as previously, made fortunes from running vast flocks of sheep and selling the wool for cash to the new and burgeoning wool trade.
One might read Tom Divines enlightening book “The Scottish Clearances” which details how an analogous process was imposed upon Scotlands Rural poor from the ~1600s onwards.
😉
” bring readers’ attention to some potted history,”
I like the ‘potted’ bit. But of course it has to be ‘potted’ in a blog like this. You surely don’t expect me to expound on English history in its entirety.
“the English point of view” Is it that of the Ruling Elite, or that of the common folk?
So far….90% that of the ruling elite. Occasionally, however, the views of the common folk are revealed in Bill Shakespeare’s works and the odd TV programme like Upstairs Downstairs. I’m a bit of a Kipling fan myself in this regard.
“It’s Tommy this and Tommy that,
and chuck ‘im out , the brute,
But it’s…… “Thank you Mr Atkins, when the guns begin to shoot.”
“All scum oiks and chavs the lot of them” one minute…..the next…..
“Good god, Perkins. I don’t where we’d be if we didn’t have those heroes of the Durham Light Infantry holding the line against the Gerries.”
As for the riches of the British Empire……Where did all that go? The gold and diamonds of South Africa, the copper of Zambia. The riches of India. The rubber of Malaya. The trade of Singapore. Tread the streets of Manchester , Glasgow or Burnley today and say to someone….”This used to be the richest country on Earth”, and they would immediately say ” You’re going mental.”
“A Scottish point of view”.
Historically, not possible to give a true answer. There were so many different factions all separated by geographical barriers….the borders, the highlands, the islands, catholic, protestant, covenanters, royalists, whigs, aristocrats, chiefs and chieftains and mercantile burghers. Really, the only bit that was governable was the central lowlands. In truth a true ‘Scottish’ point of view only started to emerge in the (19) 20’s and 30’s with the emergence of the SNP and the end of the British Empire….in other words, Scots were no longer susceptible to English ‘magic’. and started looking elsewhere for solutions to their present -day problems. The good news is that the factions have gone….but we have no champion (or allies) to lead the way forward…as yet..
We are on our own…..purposeless, directionless and rudderless. riddled with corruption and dishonesty, with English and Scottish government agents all over the place.