Today I am joined by Yvonne Ridley and Phil Boswell. We discuss the weeks news in Scotland. Does Nicola Sturgeon have any idea what a No Fly Zone entails? Should one Russian plane or helicopter be shot down thus would be an act of war.Scitkand with UK’s Nuckear deterrent 30 minestrone Gkasgiw would become a prime target. Is that really a situation Nicola Sturgeon thinks is acceptable or sensible? We discuss is thus just another bandwagon fir Nicola to jump upon or has she relinquished her CND principles too?
Later I am joined by Heather McLean,Denise Sommerville both Zlba Oarty Council candidates in Dundee and Ayr South respectively. Weduscuss the coming campaign, Local Authority funding and their own main priorities. Enjoy their enthusuasm and commitment to their neighbours and communities. Everything as always, viewed Through A Scottish Prism.
If I’d known your guests would be talking in the same terms, and the articulate Irish politician in the Irish parliament do the same thing, I wouldn’t have bothered writing 3,000 on the Ukraine! Sheesh!
You are too kind sir
Nah, both were welcome. Was it just me or was that female politician seething with rage at yet another blow to women and children. Take note, Nicola. You are seriously p*****g off a lot of your own sex these days, while you advocate war and cosset men in frocks.
Excellent two-parter, Roddy. Yvonne and Phil on great form, as is your good self. I’ve been getting it in the neck from some quarters for being a know-it-all. Maybe I do comment on most things in the blogs, but it’s because I’m interested in lots of things. The one thing I will never do is just believe what I’m told without giving it a bit of scrutiny, and I have been appalled at the garbage that it being served up to the people of Scotland and the UK, as a whole. It’s actually worse than the Iraq war lies, and it’s almost as if the drum beaters would love to see us all die in a conflict we cannot win – that no one, not even the Ukrainians can win.
There never was a point at which they could have joined NATO. Yet, their politicians, like ours, indulge themselves by spouting nonsense, getting their people all fired up as ours are being fired up for something that was always going to end in tears. The reality is that it is America, leading the rest of the West by the nose, that has invaded many more countries without a by-your-leave, that has caused vastly more havoc in the world than either Russia or China put together.
That is fact, so what purpose does it serve anyone to state the opposite except to stoke up anger against Russia – which has invaded another country, of course, but was given every opportunity to do so by the Ukrainians themselves and NATO (America)? There is a much bigger strategic purpose afoot here and the West’s bluff has been called by Russia, which, itself, will pay a heavy price in economic terms error for invading Ukraine. We can only feel heart sorry for the Ukrainian people and try to help them as much as we can. Naive and unthinking politicians are the bane of every country in the world, as are the war-mongering ones.
Since the rural burghs of Scotland were turned into larger districts, then the larger districts became regions, we have had a slide away from local control of all kinds of services, housing and planning being but two. I know the world has changed and moved on, but we are a small country and a small community, and I agree that introducing party politics into the local arena was a gross mistake, but, again, what is, is, and it would be almost impossible to turn back the clock. I would hope that an independent Scotland would re-organize itself and roll back to re-establish at least some of the better aspects of local authority control of local projects, such as social housing, planning, etc., and bring back many of what used to be local authority services under local authority control again, with tradespeople being employed under the local authority auspices to carry out maintenance duties on local authority estate and leaving private trades businesses to service the rest of the community from the private sector end.
Tory privatisation has been a disaster on both a local and national level and Thatcher’s abolishing the embargo on taking large amounts of money out of the country has led directly to an impoverishment of the social and economic sectors to such an extent that everything now falls on the shoulders of those least able to afford it. There is absolutely no reason why nationalised industry/services/business cannot work well with proper scrutiny and regulation. The myth about the private sector being naturally more efficient is tripe, and we all know it, even those who push that lie. At a certain level, of course, at SME level, private enterprise is efficient where it does not impinge on state-owned, social business, but privatisation per se and across the board, without regulation, is deliberately negligent. The thing is that people at the bottom cannot go on paying over-inflated, private sector prices, and eventually they stop purchasing, and businesses fail, middle-class jobs go, while, at the top, the (Tory) beneficiaries line their pockets and the pockets of those they favour. People on the right say that the UK would never have a socio-economic revolution, but those who say that haven’t taken their model far enough. We have yet to reach that fabled tipping point.
Of course the people are being led by the nose Lorna. It is the way of the world and unless societies take steps to facilitate open and objective discourse then the donkeys will go wherever they are led.
Society, at all levels is composed of individials. It is therefore essential that individuals all play their part. Indeed the ruling elites are individual too, and small in numbers as they may be, they play their full part in forming the society that they want.
The recent clamour from many of our citizenry demanding action against Russia, wanting to kill Putin, shoot down Russian jets, commit economic suicide for the masses (but not the corporate armaments and other interests) and and generally unquestionly getting behind the Boris Johnson rhetoric is another grim example of nose lesding.
But I digress for it may be that I am a heartless, pinko, commie, left leaning, troublemaker who doesn’t know that dulce et decorum est in pro patria mori is where we all want to be.
But until I change I will continue to try and read qestioning blogs and fight for open media and discussion.
Good comments Lorna.
Thanks for another good discussion. I have found myself muting people I never thought I would have. People seem to be jumping on the bandwagon of hysteria over Ukraine, yet are happy to ignore what their own government are up to. Incredibly depressing when you see folk you think are more worldly wise react like Pavlovian dogs.
The BBC will see this as their equivalent of thatcher’s falklands moment. They’ll get back to good ole fashioned foreign correspondent war reporting. They’ll no doubt win awards. In fact our own ‘pro-indy’ journos are already saying they are well worth the licence fee already. I might agree if they showed content like this about the Yemen…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GhsPkdFusJI&feature=youtu.be
But they won’t.
Yes Scott – I’ve had to temporarily delete my Facebook account. So sick of the nonsense. When I try to point out the Neo Nazi sympathies of the Ukrainian Govt I’m told it’s just Russian propaganda. Was not surprised to find this little gem on you tube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUgKTfe-IqA
Such a good discussion. It’s crazy how much crucial information about the Ukraine conflict the western media is not reporting. Particularly also the extent of nazism in Ukraine (not that that’s an excuse for Putin’s invasion). Did you hear about NATO’s tweet on international women’s day in which they said, ‘happy international women’s day and especially to those fighting in Ukraine’ with a photo of a female Ukrainian combatant attached? And then people noticed that the woman in the photo had a neo nazi symbol on her jacket and then they deleted the tweet. It’s very strange and the propaganda is frightening.
A comment I read in an Irish journal about the million plus souls who died in the Irish faine of the 1840s said this –
“Using the opportunity of the Famine to enact a programme of social engineering was both morally reprehensible and inhumane, and had horrific consequences for the poorest and most vulnerable”
Same could be said today as war rages in Ukraine and economic misery for the many, but not for others maybe shows.
Ukraine was engineered, was planned, it didn’t just happen by accident. Somebody did the sums, weighed the pros and cons. But who?
Great discussions folks.
The SNPs repeated failure to deliver on indy despite being given six pro-indy majorities of seats in Scotland by the people – 3 at Westminster and 3 Holyrood – is a key point. Election of one majority of nationalist seats is usually enough for liberation of any colony, which proves the SNP has deserted the cause.
The SNP elite has clearly ditched Nationalism and embraced Liberalism. Liberalism is about promoting Western/US/UK Imperialism which is opposed to independence/decolonisation – unless its from Russia or China. Sturgeon’s rhetoric on Ukraine and her bizarre policies reflects these Liberalism ideals and values which are bourgeoisie priorities and will do nothing to bring about the liberation of Scots from colonial oppression or eradicate inequality.
Real pro-indy politicians need to first understand what independence means – it means decolonisation as the first priority of the people; policies on all else necessary to repair the wretchedness of the people and prevent the continued exploitation of their land and resources can only come afterwards.
Good to read and listen to the recent posts with lots of interesting chat. Yeah, these political situations will only intensify and get worse, having a direct consequence upon the people of Scotland the longer our independence is wanting and kept waiting.
As there are important aspects of independence being (and yet to be) discussed in the run-up to our elections, am going to take a step back again from commenting on the Indy Pages for a bit and return to reading. Keep up the excellent work all, maintain current heading and here’s to the fifth of May (thumbs up)