All. In. It. Together.

c4om2u8w8aec3vr-jpg-largeThe toxicity of contemporary politics is striking as values seem to circle the sewer. Last week Sir Nicholas Soames was making barking noises when the SNPs Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh was trying to speak in the so called Mother of All Parliaments. UKIP’s leader Paul Nuttall admits today that he was lying on his website that he lost a “close personal friend” at Hillsborough. Arthur Thackeray is retained as an assistant to David Coburn despite being on the sex offenders register. David Irving makes a hate-speech in the Glasgow Hilton – at what Paul Hutcheon called “Without doubt the foulest event I’ve ever covered as a journalist” – saying that “he liked living in the north of Scotland because it reminded him of the England he was born into, when “England was white”. Amber Rudd tells us that the “UK Govt does not want to “incentivise” refugee children to come to Europe”. Suzanne Moore describes David Davis’s behaviour towards Diane Abbott: “The tropes of misogynoir are easy to see: the black woman is always both desirable and undesirable, and reduced to a sexual identity. Currently a Conservative councillor has been suspended for portraying her as an ape wearing lipstick. Alan Pearmain retweeted this completely unacceptable message, adding “Can you tell me what’s wrong with this tweet?” Murdo Fraser is reduced to shouting: “Indyref2? Let me put this as simply as I can: You had your referendum. You lost. Now shut up.” Slavering in anticipation at the very idea of excluding people from democratic participation, the Scotland in Union board member Neil Lovatt declares: “Strange that the nats think that EU nationals will be getting to vote, post Brexit they certainly wont”. And Ruth Davidson talks hysterically of ‘fratricidal conflict’.

There’s a desperation in the air from the right and the far-right as Trump’s regime staggers from farce to crisis. This is the politics of the gutter from a powerful but clueless emboldened right. Angry bitter and directionless they are staggering about drunk on power.

But there’s also a mundanity. Labour are in disarray, launching another F plan, a “a new covenant of nations” they are calling it.

c4kyboewyaejne2The world is going to hell and Labour launch a botched re-tread of some vague story about ‘federalism’. Clearly they’re toast in Glasgow but if they lose Stoke to Nuttall there will be no hiding place for Corbyn. What’s left of the Labour Party’s response is so pitiful it’s made even people who have tried to back Corbyn even against all the evidence, even against all the obvious media bias, simply give up.

Being tied to Britain means being dragged into all of this.

Talking of the abandonment of the Dubs Amendment and the proxy war against Yemen, the journalist David Pratt wrote:

“In its execution it carried with it the political duplicity and double standards that have become the hallmarks of Prime Minister Theresa May’s Government. This is a government that sells arms to the Saudis who bomb Yemeni civilians but that talks of “British” values and upholding human rights.” If refugee children, often alone and always vulnerable, are not fully deserving of this, then we have no right to speak meaningfully of ‘values’.”

When I put it to Kevin Hague that this descent into the pre-Brexit madness and the collapse of the “Partnership of Equals” narrative would make it more difficult for a Better Together campaign next time he relied: “frankly fuck you telling me that’s not credible”.

There’s a madness in the air. In Mississippi they’re going to reintroduce the firing squad as a means of execution.

Deborah Orr talks of a ‘shameless betrayal of the Brexit low-paid’ concluding that “in this troubled age, nothing much thrives except absurdity.” The danger is that as the lies that were told to deliver power and to prevent change come home to roost, those that were lied to are so desperate and undermined that they turn not to progressive and radical solutions but to the absurdity of UKIP and the Tories and the politics of hate.

This is about a defense of values and a re-articulation of why another Scotland is possible. We need to create a defense against the viral politics of Trumpism, the mayhem of Conservative rule and the degenerate culture of racism and misogyny.

 

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Comments (24)

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  1. manandboy says:

    Haven’t been here for a while, but now I think I will stay – for a while – but please, keep your eye on the compass and steer a straight course for Independence.

    1. Dougie Blackwood says:

      I’m with you manandboy. This is the sort of stuff that I’m happy to share with anybody that will read it. I’m not into a lot of the other stuff that Bella has been publishing recently.

      It’s a fairly clear statement of where we are now and where we are headed. The lunatic right will scoff but anybody with an ounce of humanity will see the truth of this story and be disgusted by it.

      We are on the slippery slope to a fascist oligarchy led by the Tories and their pals in the tabloid press. The only escape is to cut all ties with Westminster and set our own course for a caring society where all are welcome.

      Where’s that starter’s pistol.

    2. Graeme Purves says:

      I can’t agree with that. Bella must be more than a fanzine for independentistas. That is too constraining and would get terribly repetitive and boring. It needs to provide commentary on contemporary Scottish politics, society, culture and environmental issues from a radical, progressive perspective.

      1. Mungo says:

        Does it? To what end? Without independence we’re just pissing in the wind.

    3. Patrick says:

      That is right !
      Did you listen this?
      Church of England gay marriage vote thrown into chaos after members ‘get confused and press wrong button’
      The report, which was rejected last night after the House of Clergy voted against it by 100 votes to 93, said that the Church should preserve current teaching on gay marriage, which says that marriage is between one man and one woman and gay couples cannot marry in church.

      Now some Clergies said it also could happen with Brexit don’t you?

  2. Mark Rowantree says:

    Even if Imwere, perish the thought a Unionist, I have to say I would be hugely concerned about the quality of the discourse of the status quo in Scotland.
    It seems that they have little to contribute apart from inchoate calls to an Imperial British and Protestant identity that had passed its sell by date half a century ago.
    Despite mealy mouth protestations to the contrary, there seems little doubt that the No campaign will consist in the main of a reactionary call to turn the clock back to 1945.
    Unfortunately, such longings, no matter how earnestly expressed are never satisfied. Even less credible from a progressive standpoint is the supporting role likely to be played by the Labour Party in Scotland and the the Liberal Democrats.
    Both of whom see the continuance of the Union as a veritable sine quo non of their existence.

    1. Caium MacRae says:

      Some could read this blog and think that your comment that those leading unionism are hankering for a return to the 1940’s is heavily exaggerated, I don’t, there is evidence to support it.

      They are looking to the commonwealth, that’s gone, its run as a fan club for liz, when she goes, it will go. There is no golden dawn of trade with India, we have nothing they can’t make for themselves at a quarter of the cost. Yhey are also looking at the US, I think we can imagine how that will end!

      Values, all in it together, pooling and sharing and we are hearing you. Patently not the case, only a fool would swallow this tripe, but clever people peddle it to Scots, knowing its tripe.

      Yesterday a new and cyber attack centre opened in London to much fanfare and £2Bn cost, the location speaks volumes, London must have! No one in the media questioned this going to London, why?

      People need to start looking what is Scotland going to be like in 2025 without independence?

      Simple answer would be a dependent malleable basket case entering its 15th year of austerity from London. I hate to say this of my fellow Celts, but look at Wales, they are reminiscent of 1970s Scotland, a begging bowl mentality foster by labour. Sadly rather than crossing to PC, the welsh have embraced ukip, this I do not understand!?

      There will be no golden dawn or return to some sort of imagined paradise that existed in the past within the uk. As it stands the uk looks to be loosing all the hard working you people from the EU and those economic drivers being replaced by a million pensioners from Spain, France and Portugal. As well as the disruption to peoples lives, this will not be good for the NHS in England!

      The lies peddled by Dugdale and Davidson on the union, will come home to roost. This appears to becoming all to apparent to those in labour and tories who know the electorate, hence their shrill shrieks on the union. The fFrst Minster has only to bide her time and pick the right moment!

  3. ronald alexander mcdonald says:

    Excellent piece Mike.

    Tragically, very little of that will have any influence if there is going to be another referendum. Pensioners and English born will kill it stone dead.

    Hope to hell I’m wrong.

    n

    1. Caium MacRae says:

      There is always an assumption that the young are nationalist and the old unionist, not always, in some countries old people remember the failings of the state they would seek to escape, whilst the young never experienced the havoc caused by previous governments.

      People in or approaching retirement for indy ref 2 will remember mrs thatcher, mrs may is mrs thatcher mark 2!

    2. Heidstaethefire says:

      You are.

  4. JOEH says:

    I agree with most of the comments made by Mike Small, but cannot agree with what he has to say about President Donald Trump. He is fighting a battle of the magnitude never seen in History, against a corrupt and devisive “Establishment” hell bent on getting their own way, by whatever means at their disposal. Are Millions, and a majority of the American population, all wrong?

    1. Mathew says:

      a majority??

    2. Jim Bennett says:

      JoeH…est laugh this morning…..hahahahaha…my sides are hurting from laughing so much at your pish!

  5. Willie says:

    Yes good article that nails where we are.

  6. john young says:

    Problem joeh is that most if not all Americans know nothing and care less of others outside of the USA.

    1. MBC says:

      Most of those who voted Trump don’t read newspapers and are unaffected by his bad press.

  7. Mathew says:

    I’ve been surprised at how strong the pushback against Trump has been in the USA. The womens march was huge, the Judiciary stood firm against the travel ban, the media are asking difficult questions of the Administration, as are Democrats like Elizabeth Warren.
    And the shambolic nature of the first few weeks of the Presidency have been an absolute gift for comedians like Samantha Bee, Stephen Colbert and Melissa McCarthy.
    The problem is – can they keep pushing back for 4 years? (if he lasts that long).

    1. Mathew says:

      I watched bits of the latest Trump press conference last night – the guy is batshit crazy!
      The Trump team’s communications with Russia in the run up to the election is building nicely towards a Watergate sized scandal.
      I just can’t see him lasting 4 years.

  8. bringiton says:

    What Trump does within the borders of the US of A is between him and the American electorate.
    However,when it comes to global issues that do affect us,e.g. climate change agreements,then we need to be able to stand up to him and dissuade some of his crazier ideas.
    Bully’s only understand credible threats and the only viable threat to his power on this side of the Atlantic is the EU,which is why of course he wants to see it dismantled.
    Little England will achieve nothing on it’s own,even if they succeed in dragging Scotland along with them they will be used and abused by the Trump administration.
    Of course,there is always the possibility that England’s Tories have no wish to oppose Trump in any way and will do whatever he tells them.
    That sounds plausible to me given BoJo and May’s conduct of late.

  9. Willie says:

    Ah, Trump bad, Blair, Cameron and May good. We know the script

    1. douglas clark says:

      No, it is incredibly simple, they are all bad. They rule, we know the script, bad folk rule, and folks like you love them.

      Idiot.

  10. Jo says:

    “Pensioners and English born will kill it stone dead.”

    Sadly it’s comments like that which turn even a lot of yes people off.

  11. Jo says:

    I bet you didn’t think it could get worse Mike. And now, today, we have Blair on the comeback trail urging us all to “Rise up!”

    : (

    1. Doubting Thomas says:

      That was a Scheme song!
      Don’t think Blair would even know who they were!

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