The English/British have been at the dirty tricks since the days of William The Conquerer. Just think how William Wallace was tricked, captured and murdered. Contrary to anything you were taught or told about the days of Empire, love of being colonised and impoverished by the English was not a universal feeling enjoyed by the enslaved nations of the world.
Imperialism is described as a policy of extending a country’s power and influence through colonization, use of military force, or other means.It is the other means that is the most sinister. After centuries, of practicing the art, the English are probably the world’s foremost exponents it’s use. They have certainly been at it for the longest.
It was during the Boer War that the British decided to centralise and make subterfuge more organised and departmentalised.
The war in South Africa from 1899 irrevocably changed the character of British spying policy from one of disdaining the behaviour of the continental European states to one of imitation of their methods through acceptance of the premis that a fully functioning secret service needed to be established in Britain in order to ensure national defence in peacetime. Not only was press and cable censorship instituted, but the communications of enemy and neutral states were intercepted and deciphered where possible and steps were taken to exploit Britain’s dominance of the global communication system in the course of hostilities. Nowadays that extends to your mobile phones your computers, all and any electronic devices you have. As I publish this, it would not surprise me if the first person to be alerted is a remote listening device in Cheltenham. There are trigger words that alert them. In the early days they were obviously not so sophisticated as what we have at GCHQ today.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26014122
When the British reminisce over WWII they love to almost satirise how our very clever chappies at MI5 fooled the Huns. Indeed on MI5’s own website you can still find them boasting about their operations from back then.That Anglo obsession with WWII is it seems unending, even with the spooks.
During World War II, the Security Service played a key role in combating enemy espionage, intercepting German communications and feeding misinformation back to Germany.
The Service achieved great success in uncovering enemy agents in Britain, some of whom were “turned” by the Service and became double agents who fed false information to the Germans concerning military strategy throughout the war. This was the famous “Double Cross” system, a highly effective deception that contributed to the success of the Allied Forces landing in Normandy on D-Day in June 1944.
https://www.mi5.gov.uk/world-war-ii
In more recent times undercover policemen have been exposed by the media.
Two undercover police officers secretly fathered children with political campaigners they had been sent to spy on and later disappeared completely from the lives of their offspring and the women they had duped.
In both cases, the children have grown up not knowing that their biological fathers – whom they have not seen in decades – were police officers who had adopted fake identities to infiltrate activist groups. Both men have concealed their true identities from the children’s mothers for many years.
Until recently it was not known that police had secretly fathered children while living undercover. Not the sort of thing the authorities would boast about, granted. One of them who adopted a fake persona to infiltrate animal rights and environmental groups in the 1980’s eventually admitted what he had done during his time on this sanctioned, and tax payer funded operation.
He admitted that as “Bob Robinson” he had conned an innocent woman into having an 18-month relationship with him, apparently so that he could convince activists he was a real person. She later took legal action against police chiefs. After years of denying, lying and obstructing eventually the Met fessed up.They agreed to pay £425,000 to a woman who had no idea the father of her child was in fact an undercover cop.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/jan/20/undercover-police-children-activists
In their efforts to defeat the IRA during the troubles, the Brits used some truly horrific methods, to try and defeat the IRA. There were incidents of collusion between the British Army and loyalist paramilitaries throughout the conflict. This included soldiers taking part in loyalist attacks while off-duty. Giving weapons or intelligence to loyalists, not taking action against them, and hindering police investigations when evidence surfaced. The Army also had double agents and informers within loyalist groups who organized attacks on the orders of, or with the knowledge of, their Army handlers and their bosses back in London. Those, same bosses have their superiors and ultimately they answer into and for the British Government.
The De Silva report found that, during the 1980s, 85% of the intelligence that loyalists used to target people came from the security forces. A 2006 Irish Government report alleged that British soldiers also helped loyalists with attacks in the Republic of Ireland.
There are no lengths the British won’t go to protect their interests. In Africa and India it was to keep the populace cowed and broken so that the British could rape, rob and pillage their nations at will. It is estimated that throughout the duration of British rule the Brits stole £45 Trillion from India leaving it an impoverished third-world country. When they were eventually kicked out in 1947, the poverty was almost universal such was the level of pillage and theft by the British.
The entire time spent by the British in India stealing and raping resources they deployed dirty tricks and propaganda to hide their crimes. While stealing this huge amount of Indian resources, they constantly told the people of India they were too wee, too stupid and too poor to be independent. They also told the them it was only because of England’s largesse and kindness that India survived at all. Does it sound familiar??
At the height of the Irish troubles, it has been admitted that MI5 and the security forces had many people placed in the highest echelons of the IRA. Some were uncovered by the IRA and taken care of, others continued to work right up until the Good Friday Agreement was signed.
It is beyond inconceivable that the British/English have not got people placed inside the Scottish Independence movement. Indeed, rumours abound around several sitting MPs and MSPs.
I fully expect that Alba Party too will be getting special attention from London’s spooks. For now the SNP threat to the union has been nullified. The Union is safe for as long as the present leadership of SNP focus on Gender issues, and attacking the independence movement and not on driving the Scottish independence cause.
The Alba Party with its ranks full of the fundamentalist supporters of independence poses a greater threat to the Union and the pillage of Scotland’s resources than any other political movement on mainland Britain. We will need to be aware of those that try to sow division or unrest amongst us. It is in British interests that this party does not make a breakthrough in Scotland. They would not be doing their job if they have not already placed some of their people in our midst.
These people will have been trained in the black arts. It is because of their training that you will never suspect them or believe anything you hear about them. Alba is new, it is exciting, it gives us hope. That is exactly why the Brits would love to destroy it. Always be vigilant, especially of the ones that try to tell you this is nonsense, or mock this. Be cautious of anyone that tries to tell you that the Brits will not be interested in Alba or the independence movement. The sun never set on the British Empire because God couldn’t trust the English in the dark. Never forget that!
Saor Alba gu brath.
What a brilliant article Roddy; that last sentence says it all.
Thank you
All true and common knowledge among the few , but not so well by the many nowadays.
A most excellent and informative article Roddy. Many thanks!
Yet people still believe that this stuff only happens in the movies. Where the hell do they think the movie makers get their ideas? My OH has a theory that if a govt wants to do something outrageous they get Hollywood to dramatize it first – then when it happens for real, many individuals just believe it was something that happened in a film.
Yes, Roddy. The English/British Gov. have had a great deal of experience in dishonesty and subterfuge and we Scots need a regular historical reminder of their success in that field. I’m pleased to note, though, that the Auld Alliance still holds. That’s possibly a fear for them – not a pleasant experience to be squeezed top and bottom!
Setting myself up for the sneeringly bigoted ‘house jock’ comment again but so what?
There’s not a country in the world that doesn’t have some sort of ‘security service’ and few if any of those don’t play dirty.
Do you think Putins version aren’t deployed here too? The independence movement is a great path to destabilise and irritate the UK government so there’s probably a few nations with assets monitoring or acting here.
Why so much effort on condemning the UK government for defending the union – what else would you expect them to do?
The Yes movement is moving apart, blaming each other and ignoring the simple fact that everyone who believed Sturgeon since 2015, everyone who bought into the “I’m with Nic” hysteria around her coronation and still excuse her woeful incompetence to this day is responsible for where we are today.
“A big spy did it and ran away” is easier to believe than admitting “we fucked up”.
Wow someone that only read the strapline and Cicero. Away and read the article then come back and comment. Try next time not to show your stupidity. As Mark Twain said, best to remain silent and be thought a fool rather than speak to confirm it!
Oh I read the article, From the Boer war to the ‘troubles’ it is a litany of aren’t the Brits (English) nasty and it’s all their fault we can’t get out of the UK.
It’s all irrelevant to Scotland. They don’t need to cripple the Yes movements – the self-inflicted wounds from the “England is our imperial master” mob along with failing to hold Sturgeon to account are doing everything they need.
As long as the indy movement stick to grand conspiracies and echo-chamber support, keep pushing strategies and tactics that will never be adopted and keep blindly rejecting anything that doesn’t fit their persecution narrative nothing will change.
People like that are doing far more to support the union than anything Johnson and Gove could dream up.
At least in 2014 the message was about what we could do – a message of hope. Now it’s all wailing and gnashing of teeth, persecution and despair – good luck winning over undecided voters with that!
Away an bile yir heid Uncle Jock get aff your knees.
Marty , everyone who reads BB and Roddie himself , of course , are well aware of the utterly malign influence Sturgeon and her flock of pet lambs in WM and Holyrood have had and continue to have on our cause : this site has been one the most vociferous critics of them , but there’s only so much you can say about that without deadening repetition .
We know where they blame lies within our movement , the point of the article is to remind us of extreme likelihood of infiltration from outside forces .
You complain about the lack of a message of hope , well , ALBA is that hope , pretty much our only one , therefore it’s absolutely correct to be aware of anything or anyone that seeks to undermine from within the Party that represents that hope .
The only risk I would caution against is straying into paranoid suspicion : another tactic of State security services ( as you rightly say , every country nowadays has such services , though as Roddie says also , the British/English State probably has the longest track-record in such things ) is to sow suspicion within the ranks of those they wish to destabilise , creating a poisonous atmosphere of distrust , often leading to innocent people being accused of betrayal , sometimes losing their lives in the process
Thanks for taking the time to post a rational reply Robert – it’s good to know that open discussion isn’t dead – yet.
I agree with you about repetition – I’m just looking at a different area of it.
I’m long past fed up with people who think that attacking Westminster/England/Boris is the same as making a positive case for independence. It gets lots of likes from those already convinced but does nothing to swing the undecided – the critical group that must be won over.
Ffs Marty, your attitude is akin to reading the desserts menu in a restaurant and then complaining that there’s no meat. Just as a restaurant dedicates different menus to different occasions, so Roddy dedicates different articles to different subjects. If you’re expecting the entire political landscape to be summarised in one article then you need to look elsewhere instead of complaining here.
Everyone is well aware that there are many issues and nuances involved, and in particular that Sturgeon the Betrayer and her Gang of Sycophantic Rogues is the most immediate danger. The very next danger after that is the predilection for people, such as yourself, to rip into positive contributors like Roddy without either thinking or caring, and without making any sort of positive contribution of your own. I respectfully suggest that you read the range of contributions that Roddy and others make, and then digest your meal in the whole.
Lyn, Marty is a unionist House Jock!
You are almost right, Marty, when you say that all countries have security services and that their methods are often very iffy. If I worked for them, I’d be far more worried about the overturning of societal norms and biology than I would about Scottish independence. When push comes to shove, the West will try to stick together whether they are French or German or Scottish or English or American or whatever, because the threat is a shared one. The Western ethos runs through all of Western society, and, while it is far from being perfect (very far, actually) it is marginally better than the alternatives. However, the anti biology lot aim to overturn all that from within. Any society in the past that has given in to excessive sexual licence (we’re not talking Puritan here or about more enlightened sexual mores) has fallen. Indeed, in historical terms, the excessive sexual licence – the overturning of established biological reality, in particular – has been the red flag warning sign that something in that society is fundamentally out of kilter and it is followed by complete collapse – and, ironically, it is not because women are being trampled, which they are, but because men are weakening themselves and their grasp on their role as decent men. It is usually accompanied, as well, by excessive wealth concentrations in the hands of the few, some form of human slavery, a roll-back on liberal education and the excessive oppression of females that goes into the realm of cruelty. It could take a number of years yet, but that will be, by far, the greatest threat that the West will encounter and our taking our independence will be small beer compared to that. But, hey, what do I know?
You know a lot, Lorna, and you are, sadly, very right.
I can’t help thinking of how this poisonous development amplifies the threat posed by Hungary, for example, to the values of the EU and to EU-wide rule of law, by sullying and confusing LGB rights with LGBTQ+++
Orban poses as a defender of “traditional Christian values”. One of his weapons is to stir hatred and opposition to LGB people. The EU, up and including the EU Council, is in uproar. LGB rights are well recognised. Orban’s intolerant legislation is in clear violation of EU law and EU lawmakers want to draw the line.
And now we make him the gift of adding to gay rights: T, Queer theory, men in women’s safe spaces, drag queens in children’s classrooms, sex education curricula so … lewd, frankly … that schools themselves forbid parents to sight them… ? All this is just grist to his mill. It is the last thing we need in the struggle with the illiberal authoritarians of Central Europe.
LGB is all about the other… to whom am I attracted?
T, Q ++ is all about the narcissistic self… who am I? How do I feel?
We weaken our civilisation.
Glad to see in print what a lot of us believe but are deemed conspiracy theorists if we articulate it. Thank you