The Last 5 Days of Britain

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Farage has been to Edinburgh preaching his Golf Club xenophobia.The Orange Order have been here on a charm offensive, pointing to the future. Jim and Douglas have been ‘pooling and sharing’ and Gorgeous George has been here selflessly promoting his London Mayoral candidacy. Cameron has been stretching his sinews in private. Trusted Nick Clegg has been making solemn promises and Gordon Brown has been explaining his Big Secret Plan (Codename: The Jobby in a Box).

Actually that last bit’s not true. It’s not called the ‘The Jobby in a Box’ proposal. It’s called an ‘Iron Timetable’, which is a very serious name.

They are a formidable team.

Now where were we?

Big Food, Big Banking and Big Business are threatening us and it’s being broadcast unfiltered by the state broadcaster, on the hour. Relentless.

The business threats ask us to think: how deferential actually are we?

If you notice yesterday (anywhere really, but check Buchanan St, above) you might think: not very.

But still they line them up: Asda, RBS, B&Q.

Here is the crew that wrecked the economy, that sold your children horsemeat, that still lounges about in a obscene bonus culture behind closed doors, and the broadcasters lap it up. ‘More powers’ they say.

The good news is that people don’t believe them any more. They don’t trust the media, and they don’t trust the political elite.

What’s become clear is that the British Establishment has lost Scotland. It’s over. They might even still ‘win’, but they will have lost.

Three fundamental ties have been broken: the BBC is now completely untrusted. The Labour Party is finished. The idea of a progressive British politics has gone. A lot of the arguments have been about Scottish politics, but what has happened here is people have looked south and seen a barren political landscape. Ed Miliband?  Who? There is nothing there.

And when you begin to bring serious analysis from players about gender, class, ecology, powerlessness and potential, as a whole movement hs begun to do in the last year, the whole rotten edifice of Britain looks utterly bankrupt.

They can ‘shock and awe’ us all they like with threats from big business. It won’t change the fact that after the crash neither Westminster politicians nor any of these figures have the credibility they think they do.

It’s like they are calling on ghosts of authority that have left us long ago.

These could be the last few days of Britain.

Gordon and his cohorts thought that just saying ‘more powers’ a lot, even with the faithful Reithian friend repeating it, would actually be enough. They are like stage-hypnotists. It seems unclear whether they believe the lies they peddle and this is maybe the reason they are failing. There is something deeply inauthentic at root about the Better Together case,

It doesn’t work any more.

The No campaign remains doggedly other-worldly.

With one leg planted firmly in the past, the other dangles still less probably in an imagined future. The slogan ‘Better Yesterday’ sits comfortably with the mantra ‘Maybe Tomorrow?’ Anything but the here and now, anything but the present.

Yesterday, definitely. Tomorrow: maybe (you never know your luck). Today? Sorry, no can do.

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  1. Excellent Mike. I will be plagerising your wonderful use of words.

  2. macart763 says:

    Deference and respect are earned and really trying the old fear tactic amongst an electorate whose favourite response to any strategy of intimidation or condescension is ‘ah kent yir mither’ always smacked of moronic desperation.

    Big business, big media and big government all being seen to be arm in arm, front and centre turning the screws on the public. If ever any mix was guaranteed to royally piss off the Scottish electorate and provoke a response then those three institutions banding together would be it. Their arrogance was such they never saw it coming till far too late.

    I agree Mike, whatever the result on Thursday, they have lost. So let’s finish the job in style and vote YES without fear. We can do this.

    1. Clootie says:

      “…Deference and respect are earned”

      exactly!

  3. rowantree633 says:

    Reblogged this on A Yes Voter in Nairn.

  4. MBC says:

    I’m just worried about the 1.4 million registered voters without internet access. We urgently need to get WBBs out to elderly relatives and streets where older residents are concentrated.

    My aunt (73) phoned me the other day to say she was an undecided. In her heart she wanted to vote Yes. But she was put off by the barage of negativity in the press – her only access to information. I sent her a WBB. She had never heard of it. I tried to persuade her and I think she probably will vote Yes, but she was being put off by her partner (82) who has relatives in Newcastle and who felt some kind of familial obligation to vote No for their sakes. We discussed how this was ridiculous, as we both have relatives in Canada but they’re still our relations even if they are in another country. I suspect her partner feels British rather than Scottish (fair enough) and that this is just his way of justifying how he feels.

    I’m minded to see if I can’t get some WBBs to her street as there are a lot of older voters there.

    If you have an elderly relative you should phone them up to see if they are undecided who can’t access the web.

  5. Abulhaq says:

    The sheer scale of unionist venom spat in our direction makes “reconciliation” very difficult even were the noes to be victorious. DevoMax is a tall tale told by rheumy eyed old men. The genius of freedom is amongst us. Miserable and cowardly wretches alone would spurn her.

    1. Idaho Shmoe says:

      Well said….these bullies from BIG business scare the elderly witless…but I have faith Scotland’s youth will stand tall and win the day and a better future for all.

  6. MBC says:

    On the other hand, I think the tactic of reporting that No is ahead in the polls could backfire. If people like my aunt hear this then they will go into that booth thinking, ‘I might as well please myself and vote Yes as they are saying No is going to win anyway, so no danger’.

  7. So very true. Very good article, thanks.

  8. JimW says:

    The big problem with “The Jobby in the Box” is that regardless of what the Westminster political leaders believe, in the event of a No vote Parliament won’t buy it, and the English electorate sure as hell won’t buy it.

  9. writesofway says:

    Maybe the last 5 days of the UK, but hopefully not of Britain. Honestly, the No crowd are worse at getting this wrong, but the referendum is about Scotland seceding from the UK (or not) – Britain is a geographical place not a union of kingdoms.

  10. schwitters says:

    When Independence comes the priority will be to reorganise quickly to avoid the scourge of Murdoch and the right dominating the new Scotland. The BBC, bad as they are, are patsies compared with News International.

  11. Kid Spotlight says:

    Devo-max, and other weasel words through history. #1 The Peasant’s Revolt, June 15th 1381:

    During negotiations following the peasant’s march upon London, Wat Tyler, the leader of the revolt, was stabbed, dragged to the ground and publicly decapitated, his head being placed atop a pole and carried through the city to be displayed on London Bridge. Richard II revoked all the promises and retributions he had previously promised Tyler. This effectively ended the Revolt.

    DON”T BLINK, DON”T WAVER IN RESOLVE, DON”T BE TAKEN IN BY FALSE WESTMINSTER PROMISES (especially when delivered by a fellow Scotsman).

    VOTE YES.

    1. Idaho Shmoe says:

      Absolutely brilliant…..weasel words have kept them in business this long.

  12. Bobby says:

    This s the karma that Britain is experiencing for hundres of years of causing war on the European Continent by playing their balance of power politics game that has been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of millions. We haven’t even mentioned the sins of the Brutish Empire yet..

  13. Bill Jones says:

    The single biggest reason to vote yes is that you will no longer be complicit in the the perpetual wars of Westminster

  14. Ally says:

    I have never bought horsemeat from B&Q.

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