The Sad and Ugly End of British Socialism

Former-Scotland-secretary-014
Look at them.  Look at what has become of the “people’s” party in Scotland. Look at their narrow, ugly, sad hatred that blinds them to everything else. They only know their own hatred and resentment.  They only want you and I to share it.  They seem to actually believe that serving up their twisted souls for us to look at will serve them. They think that this is what a family of nations looks like.  They think that this is better. His manifesto commitments aside, I really want Ed Milliband to look at what and who he is leading, and just how contorted by loathing they are.  Just how deep their obsession goes. And to ask himself. can I trust the judgement of people who think this is a clever piece of campaigning?
Have they considered what it means to win, if this is how they win? They are not only manipulative of the fears of their core voters, they are mendacious on so many levels.

Don’t they know that they are burying themselves with this? That even if they win, they are being contemptible in how they go about it? That the means they use will overcome the end they seek? The Yes campaign is not breaking the Union. A union whose party of welfare and progress has been reduced to this is bankrupt of ideas as well as morality. It is already broken. The Yes campaign, it is becoming clearer by the day, is recognising something that is already reality. The resurgence in our already existing independent political culture evident everywhere in the humour and energy and invention of the Yes campaign embodies the independence that it argues for. We are not the cause of the death of empire or of British welfare-ism and solidarity. The death-hauntedness of the No campaign radiates from every word they speak.  They exhale the breath of the grave.

We are getting away from the corpse of the good things Britain used to stand for, which were once embodied in the Labour movement…because the corpse is beginning to smell. And this wee squib from Margaret Curran, this wee nugget of hatred and fear is what death smells like. This second-rate provocation of anxiety in those very people who Labour’s policy in recent years has been to ignore…while flattering and facilitating the rich in the hope of some handouts…this denigration and disenfranchising of their own supporters has rendered those voters confused, vulnerable and unrepresented. Not content with betraying its own supporters and every principle they were supposed to stand for, these exhausted, venal creatures now argue that hope is for fools and social change is a pipe dream and a lie told by a demon called “Salmond” who had the effrontery to steal “their baw” in 2007.

They want their baw back and they want Salmond destroyed.  And that is the beginning and the end of their vision.  Their myopia will not let them see anything beyond the narrowest and most banal Party interest.  I suspect they barely know Scotland exists except as a property to be recovered.  I don’t think they give a damn what happens to any of us as long as they can use our fear and our insecurity to “get” Salmond.

And when I look at them twitching with hatred and resentment at their twisted attempts not to face their own moral and political failure, all I see is slow, ugly death.  The sad, slow, ugly death of the British Road to Socialism.  It’s not just in the upper echelons that Labour have been corrupted by their embrace of the money changers.  Even the footsoldiers are bereft of hope.

At best they are projecting their own venal, desperate helplessness on to the rest of us. At best they genuinely are pessimists who regard the “socialism” they still croak out at Party conferences in wee Scotland…as a joke. But I think their decay goes deeper.

These people voted with the Tories to make a law that caps spending on social welfare in case it interferes with the low tax, no tax plans of the rich, who are the only constituency they take seriously any more. They are using the fear and helplessness they helped to cause in our society to snuff out even the hope for change in the hearts of the people they so sloppily claim to love, as they cry their gin soaked self-pitying crocodile tears at their abandonment of the poor to the privatised market forces to which they are the fawning acolytes. Every bit as much as the Tories, they are the Temple Whores of Capitalism.

The political culture this field tested, focus grouped slime oozes from is one of decay and corruption, gasping its last foetid breath. They insult me. They insult you. Worst of all, they insult the people they persuade against hoping for any better life.
They have no life, no hope, no energy, no integrity themselves. And they want us to agree with them that life is shit. They want us to endorse their failure to find life . They can imagine no life beyond the life they have already written off. They want their spiritual death to be the death of the rest of us too.

If they could articulate anything other than resentment of the life of others, I could respect their arguments. I have been waiting since the campaign began to hear a case for the Union that didn’t rely on accepting and celebrating and using the worst things about people, and never appealing to the best. I have been stunned at how second-rate and vapid and bitter they have been.

Is this Britain? Is this the best that Britain can offer.  The campaign for this sceptred isle has swung between carping negativity and overblown sentimental love bombs dreamed up after ten minutes worth of bored inattention in some advertising agency. It’s stunning how little energy they can drag out of themselves.  It’s hard to believe, sometimes, that they know or care a damn.  Which isn’t great politics, let alone “a family of nations.”

The irony is that there is better thought out, more sincerely felt and far better expressed affection for our neighbours on the Yes side than the No.  They have never got beyond the elementary cretinism of thinking this is all about them

When it’s all about us.  Becoming grown ups.  Who will be much better members of exactly the same family of exactly the same nations once we are grown ups.

Anyway, I’m tired of listening to them. I’m tired of giving head room to the same many times repeated many times refuted terror tactics they are using on their own people. I would find it impossible to live in any society if I thought as little of people as every utterance of the No campaign, over all these months, so clearly proves they do.

Damn them they are wrong. Human beings on both sides of the border are better than they pretend. England and Scotland and Wales and Ireland are not fated to be second-rate, just as we are not fated to be supplicants at the rich man’s gate.. We all of us have the chance to declare that we at least aspire to be so much better than that, and better than anything they have offered or threatened , better than any qualities they have demonstrated by their words and deeds in this debate. Better Together, in fact.

 We will be better together if the relationship changes to reflect the reality of both the divergence of our political cultures, and the convergence of the creative and cultural continuing union of all the people’s of the Atlantic Isles.
Oh.  On the minor point of the currency, should it need saying again.

A) we already have a Scottish Currency.  It’s called the pound.
B) After independence, we’ll continue to use it.
C) The rest is negotiation.
 
And looking in Margaret Curran’s crystal ball.

Comments (49)

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  1. jdman says:

    6 more weeks and we can be rid of these cretins forever!

    1. hutchy says:

      curran labours equivilant of thatcher ,a hectoring ully ,who pretends to be what she is not , having an accent does not make you working class

  2. James Davidson says:

    everything peter describes in this excellent article, IS “the establishment “. The campaign for us, was never going to be, like blowing over a house of cards. It was ALWAYS going to be more like an assault on Edinburgh Castle. we’ll never break down the walls of Tory attitude, built up over hundreds of years, & reinforced by Thatcher. BUT, we ARE, all of us at the “rich man’s gate” with our battering ram, & as long as we DON’T get tired, there will be a breach through which, we CAN, storm the fortress.

  3. Tioc says:

    I hope that SLAB can find its soul again, become the party of the people it once was, this travesty we see day in day out are but a sad reflection of what they once were.

    1. rabthecab says:

      To do that they’d need 1st of all to dump Jonah Lament who, whichever way you look at it, is a total liability.

      Then they would need to renounce UK Labour & its swinging to the right policies.

      After that, people may give them the opportunity to prove that they’ve changed, and to come up with policies that would advance Scotland as an independent nation (but I wouldn’t hold my breath as it might take some time!)

  4. Alasdair Frew-Bell says:

    Even if the British state were by some miracle become “perfect” in all respects would that invalidate the desire to reclaim Scotland’s national integrity by restoring her sovereignty as an independent state? Whether yes or no our worldview has been changed by the pre-referendum debate, however defective that debate may have been. There is no going back to the comfortable complaisance of the North-Brit mindset.

  5. bringiton says:

    Hatred is often driven by fear and the fear of the British Labour representatives here in Scotland is that of redundancy.
    I wish they had put as much effort inton saving other people’s jobs than some are doing now for themselves.
    They won’t be able to con socialists in Scotland with the “vote Labour to stop the Tories” mantra as the chances of a Tory administration here are about zero.
    Operating in an open and transparent manner at Holyrood will be something Westminster MPs are unaccustomed to and many simply won’t be able to make the cultural change required.
    This,combined with having to do work on behalf of their constituents rather than the party whips must make independence seem like a horror movie for many and a change of career seem more attractive.
    If we want social democracy here in Scotland,we must not turn Holyrood into a mini Westminster.
    A written constitution will go some way towards this but fundamentally,we are going to need new political parties who will represent the electorate and not the party machine.

  6. Clootie says:

    These Labour luddites have been consumed by a hatred for one man.

    Have they forgotten what this referendum is about. One side building the arguement for a Fairer Independent Scotland. The other side explaining the benefits of the union and the case for Westminster Rule..

    For the Labour Party it has become the restoration of Labour Party Power in Scotland. This power is not to enhance the lives of the Scottish people it is instead just POWER. The machine is all that matters. The future of Scotland, the socialist values abandoned to win middle England, The maintenance of the House of Lords to force up that influence, QUANGOs for Labour placements.Partyand Power is all important.

    Labour now represent Self and State and not the people.

    They see the Referendum as Alex Salmond’s project. If they defeat Independence then they defeat Alex Salmond. The SNP will then crumble and voters return to Labour.

    The campaign no longer belongs to politicians. It is our future and we care about our fellow Scots AND the generations to come.

    SNP/Greens/SSP/RIC/LFI/BusinessforScotland/ Those without party affiliation etc are working together to gain the opportunity to build a better future for Scots.

    Labour are working with the Tories in self interest.

    Regardless of the vote outcome the current crop of “professional” party cogs are finished. The people of Scotland want people who represent THEM and not the interests of the Party OR Westminster.

    Perhaps one day we will see a return to original Labour Party values in Scotland.

    New Labour was a shock to many. However the Tory/Labour alliance to protect Westminster is a major shock and highlights how far they have travelled from their roots.

    “I never left the Labour Party, they left me” – Jimmy Reid. Many Labour supporters have also observed that, others are taking longer to realise that simple fact.

    It is the manifeto and it’s implementation that is important NOT the logo on the cover.
    95% of the YES campaigns objectives would have been shared by a Labour Party of 40/50 years ago – what happened?

    1. JimnArlene says:

      These Labour luddites have been consumed by a hatred for one man.

      Have they forgotten what this referendum is about. One side building the arguement for a Fairer Independent Scotland. The other side explaining the benefits of the union and the case for Westminster Rule..

      For the Labour Party it has become the restoration of Labour Party Power in Scotland. This power is not to enhance the lives of the Scottish people it is instead just POWER. The machine is all that matters. The future of Scotland, the socialist values abandoned to win middle England, The maintenance of the House of Lords to force up that influence, QUANGOs for Labour placements.Partyand Power is all important.

      Labour now represent Self and State and not the people.

      I think it has always been thus, all for the party and sod the people. Redistribution of wealth, unto the pockets of the parties leaders. They long since lost any semblance of socialism.

  7. Tony Philpin says:

    The political leadership and professional political class in both the Scottish and UK Labour Party have sold themselves for several pieces of silver – personal power instead of service; company directorships; quangocracy; ‘consultancy’; a seat in the House of Lords; Middle East peace ‘ambassadorship’; or setting up personal foundations to self promote their own legacies. The current and upcoming generation are still smugly “intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich” – well, why are we surprised ? For this is their new class, they serve its and hence their own self interest. There are just so many privately educated Blairite ‘meritocrats’ whose dislocation with everyday life and the people the allegedly serve is almost complete. The fear and loathing of SLabs who can see the SNP and Greens filliing the vacuum they have left in socially responsible, caring and communitarian policies is frightening in its visceral nature. The hatred is there and it blinds them to their duties and responsibilities to their constituents and the whole of Scotland. I hope, in the fullness of time, that their utter betrayal of their roots and principles will be taught in History classes throughout Scotland and the UK as one of the greatest failures of British politics. The title of this piece is itself misleading – for there are few socialists of any distinction in the Labour Party.

  8. Angry Weegie says:

    Wow! Harsh words, but the saddest thing is that it is all true. In the rest of the UK, Labour can only think to ape the Tories, but, in Scotland, ever since 2007, their only policies have been “get Salmond and the SNP” and their only votes are against anything proposed by the SNP.

    On the doorstep, I often hear “I’m voting no because I can’t stand Salmond”, but when asked what they would like to see instead of the vision from Yes, they have no answer.

    It never ceases to amaze me that SLab have managed to replace the thinking part of so many people’s brains with that single thought. Will any of them wake up from their bad dream before the 18th? We can only hope so.

  9. Tog says:

    Well over the top and as this shows the irrational hatred is on both sides of the SNP/Labour divide. If you at either side you can find negativity just look at for instance Pete Wishart. I am optimistic for Scotland whatever the result is and can’t and won’t embrace anti politics despair

    1. Robert Graham says:

      if you’re looking for turn the other cheek you are in the wrong place after the vile relentless onslaught by bitter together yes thats right bitter i am going to turn a blind eye because enough is enough lets return fire with fire and i dont bloody care if the poor wee souls feelings are hurt in the process you say despair not from the “YES” side we are looking forward to doing so many things differently .excited you bet we are

  10. junemax says:

    Splendid article that also echoes my own thoughts. I’m genuinely shocked at the intellectual deficit disclosed – and even unabashedly paraded in front of us by these Labour No politicians. Their descent into not only gutter tactics, but out and out juvenile stupidity seems to know no bounds. I just wonder who would be minded to vote for them ever again. I guess it will be about as many as attend Jim Murphy’s plastic box talks!

    1. junemax says:

      A wee addendum. Hatred is of course another manifestation of jealousy. Our FM and his team have steered the country well given the restraints of WM. We are even with all our troubles the envy of many in the rest of the UK. The SNP have done what Labour didnt even try to do. The Bedroom Tax, Nuclear weapons SNP policies would once have been Labours. But jealousy corrodes from within and its death throes are ugly.

  11. Dougie says:

    1888 keir Hardie is attacked in the Streets by angry unionists his crime wanting Home Rule
    Labours core policy
    2014 Labour are those angry unionists,
    Defending a corrupt system on behalf of the Tories in effect supplying the labour to break the Strike
    The labour and Unionist party and paid Scabs
    Keir they betrayed you
    Scotland they are betraying us for baubles, power, and Tory cash

  12. The most apt description of Slab was Alex Massie not exactly a nationalist so it was all the more jarring in his critique. He stated that Slab hadn’t recovered from the 2007 election defeat nevermind contemplated the freefall of 2011 and that it was at least a decade since they had an idea. There whole split purpose has become more Mr Hyde and his even more mendacious brother. They have bred a fundamentalism against the SNP who politically are closer to their core values in Scotland while simultaneously moving further to the right in rUK in order to chase swithering Tories in marginals. The result has been the selection of the most insipid careerists representing traditional Labour voters in safe seats in Scotland. Such has been the success of this policy it has given rise to the most socialist leaning voters to quiz the actual point of voting. I suspect if the momentum of electorate engagement continues the idea of a cushy seat may just become somewhat harder but only if we don’t succumb to the “they are all th same” no they are not and we must dispel this and the safe seat from the public mentality. Labour have grew contemptuous of the electorate in these areas and partly we as a collective are to blame.

    The vitriol against Salmond and the campaign to personalise has again insulted the people Labour are at the forefront of the campaign while the Tories take a backseat but the reality is they are fighting over votes in England if we continue to relinquish power to WM our nation will be ill served as we have no influence politically that is the reality. A No vote will enshrine our democratic deficiency in the minds of the WM elite that is a fact and any Labour voter in Scotland needs to ask themselves why would you undervalue your voice politically.

  13. Louise Robertson says:

    I love the idea that Another Scotland is Possible and can’t wait to escape the negativity and small mindedness described by Pete Arnott. Recently I was watching the very moving debate about dignity in dying until Norman Tebbit stood up to speak against it voicing the reason that “the vultures” would be pouncing after their families money. It just seemed so obvious that this reflected his view of his fellow human beings. I have been pounding the doorsteps canvassing and talking to loads of people over this last few months and their hope and optimism has filled me with a belief that we can indeed create a fairer more equal society, one where we encourage each other to reach our full potential and the resources are there to enable it.

  14. Jim Monaghan says:

    as a yes voting Labour member who doesnt the support the ludicrous idea of giving up fiscal authoriy and monetary sovereignty by enetering a currency zone with the UK, I read this artcile as saying that I am not welcome in the YES movement. I find it a disgraceful piece that can only alienate people and divide our movement

    1. Malcolm says:

      So will this article make you vote No?

      If you trust Labour, why are/were you voting Yes against their extremely strong advice?

      Where does it say Labour voters are not welcome in the Yes movement?

      What will Labour’s policy be on currency if it forms the first government in independent Scotland?

      Isn’t it the case that so many Labour voters are voting Yes because of the very faults of Labour that this article points out?

  15. Wullie says:

    As a Yes voting Labour, rhubarb, rhubarb, I think this piece is right on the money and obviously hits a nerve.
    Labour led by the odious Lamont are at the very pits in Scotland. The rocks will melt before they ever get my vote back.

  16. DaveW says:

    Peter, How on earth can you possibly describe the present Labour Party as socialists? What single policy do they have that is socialist? Their last connection with socialism was when Blair ditched Clause 4 in the 90s and since then they have been proto-tories of various hues.

  17. Leathersofa says:

    Jim, you don’t think it’s irrevocably divided already? I don’t see how the current parties can survive after 19 Sept whatever happens. Surely the Yes/No divide will dictate what parties exist in future and the LP will split down the middle, the Yes faction going to whatever new Yes alignment emerges and the No faction to the No? The great truth that has emerged from this campaign is that old party allegiances are now out of date. We are all defined by our vision of the future, not the past, and anyone who has a positive vision of the future belongs with Yes. Including, of course, you.

  18. Stephen says:

    Wow! Wonderful, eloquent and entirely accurate. Great stuff – I only hope Labour supporters manage to read it as I’m quite sure they’d instantly recognise the sordid reality you so profoundly articulate.

  19. James Dow A voice from the diaspora says:

    If Slab can so easily dispose of it’s founding ethos like the first line in their manifesto HOME RULE for SCOTLAND in fairness they should change their founding name as well to something more representative of the current party. Perhaps The Loyal Unionist Party of Scotland.

  20. James Dow A voice from the diaspora says:

    A Scottish trait as described by others, great allies, long haters, appears to manifest it’s self in Labour followers sense of loyalty and revenge . Never mind your Nation ” Get Salmond and the SNP”

  21. Albatrosstraveller says:

    When Fred the Shred wasn’t hung,drawn and quartered or at least given a life sentence for dragging the UK and beyond to their knees, I felt that was the end. An apology from him was all that was needed. He was knighted. Now for me that was beyond belief. A few million other people couldn’t believe it either so to avoid an uprising his knighthood was taken from him. I’m still waiting for someone to explain to me why him and everyone involved with ‘the brilliant idea of further lining their own pockets’ weren’t rounded up and stripped of every property, bank account, bauble and asset they all own and thrown into the gutter to be among the people whose lives they had destroyed. We wouldn’t have a National Debt and Alec Salmand wouldn’t have had to think of a way to get Scotland away from the clutches of duplicitous Westminster. I’m a Yorkshire woman I’ve lived in Scotland for the last 25yrs and I shall be voting Yes. Its a shame Westminster and the House of Lords aren’t being abolished but one thing at a time……..

  22. booyakashah says:

    Except the pound is not yours to have and you have no right to demand it if you leave.

    Use the Euro or your own failed currency and I’ll happily wave goodbye to you.

    Its all or nothing. Make your choice.

    1. teddysue says:

      We will use any currency we wish, stop us at your peril.

    2. teddysue says:

      We will use any currency we wish, the “failed currency” you refer to is Pounds Sterling. Ta Ta!!

    3. You just don’t get it. At the present moment the pound sterling is the currency of the United Kingdom and is also an asset of that UK. When Scotland regains its independence the United Kingdom, as it is currently constituted, will CEASE to exist. In that situation who does the pound belong to – all parts of the former United Kingdom.

      ‘Use the Euro or your own failed currency…’

      There is no automatic entry into the Euro. Every member state, except the two that currently have an opt-out, is required to satisfy five criteria before it becomes a member of the Eurozone. Sweden is a member state of the EU but is not a member of the Eurozone – it considers the two year participation in ERM II to be voluntary. All that has ever been said by the EU officially about that is that ‘it is up to the people of Sweden’.

      The following is an extract from ‘Articles of Union: The creation of the United Kingdom’ –

      ‘Act of Union, 1707

      The Treaty of Union was not a magnanimous, indeed unprecedented, act of altruism in which England rescued an impoverished Scotland – as it has sometimes been portrayed.

      Certainly the Scottish balance of trade appeared far from healthy, with imports hugely exceeding exports.

      Scottish government was also hard pressed financially. But several caveats are necessary. The impoverishment of government doesn’t necessarily mean the impoverishment of the country.

      The adverse balance was calculated on taxed trade, not on trade conducted. The balance took no account of imported goods re-exported or reprocessed as manufactures for domestic consumption.

      Above all, the balance took no account of the invisible earnings from thriving Scottish carrying trade from the Baltic to the Caribbean.

      The financial capacity of Scottish commercial networks was powerfully demonstrated in the first four months of 1707, before the union became operative on 1 May.

      ….

      By agreeing that reparations and investment should be met by the raising of taxes to English levels, the Scots were effectively financing their own dividends from union.’

  23. moraghannah says:

    I’m a Yes, but I don’t think a currency union is good for Scotland. I’m also hopeful that Labour stick to their guns because it would be a handy back-up if the radical, non-corporate, non-SNP Yes campaign don’t manage to pull their finger out and block the currency union. I think Labour are the wrong people doing this for the wrong reasons, and I feel no love for them for doing it, but at least someone’s doing it.

  24. hamishsg says:

    I am always amazed at the anger and vitriol that seems to be embed into the word ‘Tory’, so much so that I can only believe that it is not an actual hatred for the Conservative & Unionist Party per see, but a more personal animus aimed at actual individuals. The wholly, in my opinion, inappropriate reaction to Lady Thatcher is a microcosm of the issue, along with the oft repeated misinterpretation of facts and figures from 35 years ago.

    The thought of an independent Scotland is a truly stunning idea. And all those commentators who align that with other small, successful countries are right in that Scotland should be able to ‘stand alone and prosper’. But apples are not oranges and the real issue, surely, for Scotland is the paucity of its intellectual leadership. Has it really come down to the ‘least worst numpty’?

    Why must the assumption be that an independent Scotland must be a socialist country? Where did this ‘tradition’ come from? If anything Scotland’s tradition was one of enlightened Liberalism. Where education and a lightly observed faith combined to produce people that changed the modern world in so many ways. One could even argue that Scotland’s diminution truly gathers pace once Scots stopped being what made them great and started to believe that hard work, individualism and endeavor were secondary to collectivism, rights and rules.

    Why is no one arguing for Scotland to be a place of zero % income tax? A place where all that you earn is yours and that you are best placed to decide where that should be spent/invested? A place where entrepreneurialism is rewarded not punished and that, for example, locally-focused purchase taxes allow for rich and poor to apportionably contribute to the welfare of all?

    Still, considering all the benefits that the Labour party brought to Scotland over the years, maybe it’s a good thing that we are getting away from the corpse which once was the Scottish Labour movement?

  25. ian foulds says:

    Should YES Scotland not advertise that the Unionists grounds for Voting No are really:

    ‘Ah dinnae like Alex Salmond / SNP or both (cos’ they took oor baw)

    and No Currency Union/Plan B

    and then deride these two reasons for not giving a NATION its INDEPENDENCE?

    (especially when Mr Salmond and SNP may not be there forever – as the people decide and the lie has been given to the currency issue)

    1. Let’s all drink to the death of…..what? The last dirt on the grave of the British Empire? The bourgoise notions of New Labour? The idea that Green meant ex-hippy and probably wobbly on detail?. The idea that London is all, and the regions only get a nod? On that alone i’m not sober. As for Tories, how do they sleep?. Labour needed a working “class” to invent itself. That “class” built more or less everything that makes cities inhabitable, cars ,roads, trains. And that work is now hived out to private contractors to maintain. No wonder Slab doesn’t have a leg to stand on. Labour has moved on to 0-hours contracts and valium and there is now a tangible vacuum on the left. Though it may just be an identity crisis. Many questions will be answered after the referendum, whatever the outcome. And quite how the traditional left reconciles its position in the better together campaign is beyond me. Alex Salmond has played a great game, overall. And i hope that Garibaldi is a hero of his.

  26. jamiekay1 says:

    booyakashah, It’s oor pound n were keeping it.

  27. The sooner we can get rid of this lot the better it will be for everyone

  28. macart763 says:

    What Labour party?

    The party of the people haven’t been heard of for some time. Those who currently possess the name are merely an electoral machine whose sole purpose is the winning of elections at any cost and to no end. What they have become and what the have done throughout this campaign has brought them nothing but shame.

    If you cannot care for all of your electorate, you are fit to care for none.

  29. Heather says:

    Great article, describes these self seeking, careerist lackeys to the tories, very well.
    Apt in your description of the negative manipulative tactics of the no campaign, we will be well rid
    in September, it has to be a YES, nothing else makes sense.

  30. Seamus MacNeacail says:

    Great article and encapsulates the fundamental goal of the NO side: the retention and increase in Party power, NOT the welfare or benefit of the people of Scotland.

    I am encouraged by this resurgence of Scottish Independence and National Pride. Unfortunately, in the pasts Scots were brainwashed to believe they were the wards of London and not capable of existing on their own.

    “For so long as one hundred men remain alive,
    we shall never under any conditions submit to the
    domination of the English.

    It is not for glory or riches or honours that we fight,
    but only for liberty, which no good man will
    consent to lose but with his life.”
    The Declaration of Arbroath, 1320

  31. Pat Carroll says:

    Labour ditched socialism in 1994. They have been betraying the working class ever since then.

  32. Seamus MacNeacail says:

    “It may be said of Socialism, therefore, that its friends recommended it as increasing equality, while its foes resisted it as decreasing liberty….

    The compromise eventually made was one of the most interesting and even curious cases in history. It was decided to do everything that had ever been denounced in Socialism, and nothing that had ever been desired in it…we proceeded to prove that it was possible to sacrifice liberty without gaining equality….

    In short, people decided that it was impossible to achieve any of the good of Socialism, but they comforted themselves by achieving all the bad.”― G.K. Chesterton, Eugenics and Other Evils : An Argument Against the Scientifically Organized State; 1922

    When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work, because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is socialism and the beginning of the end of any nation.

    “Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.” – Alexis de Tocqueville

    “Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” – Winston Churchill

  33. John Harvey says:

    My comment is simple- you are only seeing what you want to see and this makes a man blind.

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