My generation are known as the ‘Baby Boomers.’
The years 1946 -1964 are determined to be the definition of my age group.
It was a very different world we grew up in being pre-digital, pre-internet.
It wasn’t until 1969 that all TV programmes were even broadcast in colour.
The majority of UK couldn’t afford colour television sets back then.
A basic colour set was £200, a huge amount of money for the times.
Putting that into perspective I earned £8 a week in 1969.
Everything was it seems, less complicated, everything was more ‘local.
Globalisation wasn’t even an idea then, let alone a reality.
Our entertainment was simple until 1955 we only had BBC TV and Radio to entertain us.
The revolution in media you all enjoy now began in 1955 when ITV/STV launched their services.
The last year of the ‘baby boom’ 1964 they introduced BBC2 to our screens to give us 3 black and white channels.
You could only watch BBC2 if you changed to a square aerial, that was the extent of advanced technology back in the day.
As children our main entertainment was playing on the street, football, skipping ropes, hopscotch, hide and seek, ring bell scoosh and various other low, cost games kept us happily amused and skinny.
Come a Saturday morning if you didn’t play school football and you were lucky enough to get some pocket money the Saturday Morning Minors awaited you at your local cinema.
What will seem strange to anyone now under the age of 40 is to imagine that every district had several huge cinemas, there were no multi screen complexes.
While writing this I was remembering all the cinemas accessible from my home in the west end of Glasgow.
Just taking the area of Anniesland to Dumbarton Road and Byres Road we had 7 cinemas I can remember.
These were all packed out on a Saturday morning for the minors and the afternoon Saturday Matinee showing.
The morning show consisted of cartoons, a main film and an adventure serial so you would come back the following week.
There we were introduced to The Lone Ranger, Superman,Davy Crockett and other assorted heroes, all in black and white cinematography of course!
The afternoon shows were when the real pictures were shown.
(I still refuse to refer to them by the Americanism movies.)
My heroes moved up a notch, number one and still to this day is John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Gregory Peck, Kirk Douglas, Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda.
My heart belonged only to Doris Day until that Gallic temptress Brigitte Bardot arrived on the screens vying with Sophia Loren and Jane Fonda for my schoolboy adoration, devotion and dreams.
Cowboy and War Pictures were the genre that held the most appeal in those days.
Clever marketing when you think that our parents, the big cinema goers were the people that had fought and endured the war.
It also helps explain the mindset of the boomers today.
We were fed a diet of plucky Britain facing down the nasty Nazis and British greatness prevailing.
I remember going to see the epic World War Two film, The Longest Day.
The story of the D-Day landings in Normandy on June 6th.1944.
It is an entertaining account of that momentous historical event.
Entertaining as it is, it is not 100% accurate and is laced with drama and beauty to encourage a greater audience.
The film begins the night before the landings.
The allies in London sent out coded messages over the radio waves to let the French Resistance know that the day of liberation was upon them.
These pre-defined messages were different for each part of Northern France.
The group in the film were to be alerted when they heard a certain phrase in the broadcast.
They had instructions which targets to destroy when the code was given.
I cannot recall the exact message something like ‘John has a red apple to eat tomorrow’ and the group of resistance fighters in the movie sprung into action.
The high command back in England had given them specific targets to attack.
The plan was to disrupt the Germans ability to react to the troops hitting the beaches.
Railway lines, Telegraph and Telephone Poles, Electricity Generation, Bridges, Roads anything to cause confusion and disruption to the Germans and to keep as many away from the beaches as possible.
While this distraction was occurring on the ground by air and sea the allies opened up their big guns and dropped thousands of bombs.
Their task was also disruption, to destroy as much equipment and manpower to render the enemy less capable of addressing the main conflict on the beaches.
Today we face a different kind of battle but we are in a war, one of ideology and governance.
In Scotland we face an invasion of a different kind, this time by the forces of imperialism using information technology as their weapon of choice.
The Britnats want to keep us occupied and compliant and with help of their collaborators the House-Jocks they are being very active.
They are trying to distract us from the main battle by using disruption and division as a tactic.
Nowadays of course they did not need to use coded radio messages to alert their disrupters.
A simple text to those in the resistance will suffice, a staff meeting at 77Brigade HQ and Tory Darkmoney HQ is all that is required.
A memo from London to the House-Jock Parties giving them the smears, lies and red herrings to deploy in Scotland.
This was upon us the moment the English Parliament decided on an Election Day.
I am sure I am not the only one noticing a sudden explosion of new Facebook and Twitter followers.
We are all seeing more and more of our timelines becoming active and disruptive.
I am getting more and more abusive tweets and emails to my blog account.
The Unionist fifth column have been called to arms and they are active among us now!
This ‘battle’ is not about blowing up railway lines and telegraph poles, it is about sowing divisions among our support.
Not only have I seen an increase in number of new accounts some older low follower Twitter and FB accounts have suddenly become very active and very disruptive.
They were always there, it is just that over the past few years they have been quiet, occasional tweet lots of likes and agreeing but nothing controversial.
Overnight they have become Che Guevara fae Govan!
We now have alleged Yessers that think Nicola and the SNP need replaced.
She no longer believes in independence, she is happy being just First Minister, she is a sell out these voices imply.
Nonsense and utter drivel yes, alas some of our own gullible or scorned followers give these agents of unionism succour.
People who have genuine issues about timing of the referendum or Section30 or GRA are seen by the agent provocateurs as wonderful opportunities to manipulate.
They are looking for people they think they can use to split the SNP and YES Movement, too many of our own are willingly allowing themselves to be used.
I have noticed particularly since Saturday and Nicola’s rousing speech the activity of dissension has grown to almost hysterical levels.
The most distressing thing for me has been seeing some people I have great admiration and respect for being sucked into the anti-SNP narrative.
My mute and block buttons have been in meltdown.
I saw one tweet where a new 12 follower account bedecked in saltires launched an abusive tirade about the English.
Dozens of YES supporters rightly incandescent with outrage responded without checking out the bio.
We have all done that at some time just jumped in without checking, it is the wrong thing to do!
When we do that we are giving the troll account access to our followers.
Their abusive tweet gets more exposure than if we had just ignored it and blocked them.
Next time you see an abusive ridiculous tweet or post, check out the bio before responding.
Low numbered, aged egg accounts just block immediately there is a very high likelihood they are paid trolls.
The other accounts that you have been interacting with for some time who have just recently become hyper critical of SNP or YES Movement or of certain individuals you need to use your own judgement.
When you see disruptive posts and tweets, think Railway Lines, Telegraph Poles and Cambridge Analytical.
Personally I have adopted a zero tolerance policy, you must do what you think is best.
The SNP are riding high in the polls in, the Tories are imploding, Labour are languishing and Liberals are deluding.
I refuse to allow myself to be distracted by trolls or fools that might in any way affect the outcome of this election.
It is time to park everything except winning this election.
All other matters can wait, we have a country to win first.
Some great tactical advice there Roddy! I hope that I have been following it. A reminder will do me no harm!
Totally agree. My block list has doubled recently. I find zero tolerance is the only way. If they are shut out they can’t distract. BTW 🎶🎶 “We are the boys and girls well known as, the minors of the ABC….”🎶🎶 Don’t ask how I still remember that☺️☺️🤷🏼♀️
The bigger question of course is where did the years go?
Baby Boomer: I was born in ’49 and remember a lot of that stuff. Fondly. Oh yesterday, leave me alone! (as Spike Milligan said).
On the other topic, yes, there has been much suspicious piling-on at criticisms of the SNP’s relaxed attitude to the pursuit of independence. I contributed a little myself but have since desisted, seeing the crows gathering.
Hopefully our signal won’t be drowned by noise. There are a lot of us out here, we are active, and we do want independence (not just a kindlier version of the Labour Party) and if the SNP goes to sleep on the job they will not easily be forgiven.
I understand your concerns James however we are like the punter in the Casino we have just placed our bet on Black we cannot change it now the croupier has announced ‘ no more bets’ We have to wait and see where the ball lands.
The Scots (and the Irish) are tribal in nature; we pray on our knees and our neighbours. We are quick to pick sides in a scrap. We often shoot first and ask questions later; we perceive an injustice and we act quickly to right that injustice without doing due diligence. Crucially, we will often pile-in to the fray, blissfully unaware of the motives of those behind the scenes who orchestrate the squabble.
We should never forget that the British empire achieved world domination because they were masters of Divide & Rule. As you rightly point out, this is the tactic now being employed to drive a wedge into the tiniest of cracks in the Independence movement wherever they are exposed. We should remind ourselves of this every day.
I have great respect for the quality of Peter Bell’s writing but I think he has been a little naive lately in allowing his frustrations to spill over into his otherwise excellent observations. He has been openly critical of several snp MPs and even of Nicola herself – shock horror! Proof if it were needed that he is not part of the cult of Nicola, but he is damned either way – because many of Peter’s followers have been even more naive in assuming he is boycotting the snp, and assuming they should do the same. That is patently not the case. Anyone who can read intelligently can see the bigger picture in Peter’s blog.
But Peter is not alone… Grouse Beater and Craig Murray both have personal issues with the snp hierarchy which spill over into their respective blogs. Lesley Riddoch was on a similar trajectory last week when she said she would seriously consider setting up a rival Independence party. Thankfully she has nipped that in the bud with a clarification on voting snp just a few days later.
AUOB has a bit of an internal squabble at the moment and there is too much emotive language being employed by Neil Mackay, albeit with the best of intentions.
Wings has caused much consternation by suggesting setting up a list party for Holyrood. Mr Campbell can be divisive at the best of times but those calling out his actions are perhaps being a little foolish. Each criticism exposes a crack which will be exploited by the British state.
Sometimes I think social media (and print media) should have minimum standards of education for participants before an account is activated. It would certainly help to rid the various platforms of (predominantly unionist / brexiteer) knuckle-dragging types who generate disbelieving double-takes when their posts are read. However it would mean many MPs failing to gain access to platforms where their obvious stupidity can be called out in public.
Blocking is probably the best tactic. But we should be wary of blocking our own, particularly when they are doing an otherwise great job for the cause. Those with a high profile should remind themselves of Divide & Rule each time they touch the keyboard.
Ironically it was the BBCs involvement in the war as shown in films like TLD, and later in feeding western propaganda to the other side of the iron curtain that made us believe the BBC was an honest broadcaster. We should have realised then it was just another organ of the state.
There has been a lot of criticism of the SNP From folk like Stu Campbell, Peter Bell, Grouse Beater etc all for various reasons and whether it’s justified or not I don’t doubt their commitment to independence for one second, it’s been a difficult time for all indy supporters recently and much of it born out of inaction and frustration.
But now with this GE we’re entering a new phase and hopefully all indy supporters and bloggers will unite and move forward together as one and win our countrys freedom
Graeme
Great advice and analogy there.
P.S. Does 1965 make me a Millennial then? 😉
Another excellent and eminently sensible post. Sadly other posters like Wings have totally lost the plot in recent weeks.