A Platinum Prince Pay-Off
Let’s be very clear, the British state is experiencing an overwhelming crisis, the likes of which it’s not seen in many decades. The complete collapse of the credibility of the family of the head of state combines with the catastrophic effects of Brexit, the current social crisis and a constitutional breakdown of the Union threatening from Scotland and Ireland.
The response is to shut people up. Whether that’s the effective gagging order of the Queen’s pay-off to Virginia Giuffre or the suppression of democracy as argue by Stephen Daisley this week, it’s the same thing.
This is effective up to a point but it doesn’t stop the decay and it doesn’t stop public consciousness and building anger.
The professional scribes are in over-drive. Here, State Sycophant Nicolas Witchell suggests on the PBS that ‘the way back’ for Prince Andrew might be as a campaigner against sex trafficking.
The BBC’s Royal Correspondent suggests the route back for Prince Andrew is to become a campaigner against sex traffickingpic.twitter.com/rIuGCIkHMs
— Owen Jones 🌹 (@OwenJones84) February 15, 2022
Joining the throng was BBC Scotland, here asking plaintively: “Is there any way back for Prince Andrew?’
I mean, read the room Gary.
Is there any way back for Prince Andrew?#bbcgms 0635https://t.co/gpdnl5YIS3
— Gary Robertson (@BBCGaryR) February 16, 2022
The professional gate-keepers, editors and senior columnists have been in overdrive these past few weeks as the collapse and breakdown accelerates. You can watch it in real time.
In an incredible intervention Kenny Farquharson in The Times he asked: “Will the fight for independence turn violent?”. TL:DR/won’t venture beyond a paywall? The answer is a ‘yes, possibly’.
Acting out some maverick Edgelord fantasy Farquharson writes: “In the millions of words written annually about the Scottish constitutional question the possibility of violence is never mentioned in public. It is completely beyond the pale. Everybody understands this.”
Farquharson cites a letter bomb from the SNLA from 1993 before summarising:
“Can we acknowledge that a profoundly divided Scotland, rife with daily accusations of treachery and betrayal, may not be immune to populist anger taking a physical form? Both Scottish nationalism and Scottish unionism have within them the seeds of fury.”
This is the continuity of a line developed by Jack McConnell last week, which attempted to join the attacks on Keir Starmer with the terrible toxicity of the Cyber Nats/2014 etc etc.
Both McConnell and Farquharson’s crude propaganda overlooks the simple undisputed facts that political terrorism and violence has sprung from the far-right, from British nationalists and from loyalist mobs.
This was true of the man who murdered Jo Cox, Clarke Rothwell, the cafe owner who witnessed the brutal killing of the MP told how her assailant had shouted ‘Britain first’ as he shot and repeatedly stabbed the mother-of-two: “The words I heard him say were Britain First”, Mr Rothwell told BBC Newsnight.
The mob surrounding Keir Starmer and the mob that swarmed around Westminster for the last few years aren’t Scottish nationalists, they are British and English nationalists and (often) far-right libertarian anti-vaxxers. They are not the product of toxic Scotland they are the outcome of a disgraceful Anglo-British political culture.
In 2019, in the aftermath of the ‘Leave Means Leave’ rally in Whitehall, Tommy Robinson, Nigel Farage, Claire Fox and Toby Young gathered on Newsnight, to discuss how it was all going. At the time I wrote:
“The arrival of the Livingston True Blues Flute Band in Whitehall with their Confederate flag brings the two referenda of 2014 and 2016 neatly together. The same people who rioted in Glasgow the day after the referendum result in 2014 were present in Whitehall at the Leave Means Leave rally.
While the media wrung its hands about an egg thrown at Jim Murphy, Better Together supporters organised a full-on riot. As the outpouring of white nationalism, anti-semitism, Islamophobia and racism mingled in a spew of hate in London yesterday, the ascendancy of the far-right into the mainstream is complete.
As the state shudders in the harsh light of self-inflicted national humiliation and constitutional crisis, British fascism needs the tunes of the Loyalist bands to dance to. Even the Daily Record reports: “Brexit nightmare may yet get darker as far right seeks to reap dividend from broken politics”.
It’s worth remembering who they are, what forces they represent and why a confederate flag is mingling with the red white and blue of the Union Jack.”
Kenny Farquharson knows all of this, as do his colleagues.
They also know that to speak of the prospect of violence but to ignore the loyalist mob that attacked George Square in 2014 isn’t disingenuous, it’s putting out disinformation:
Why mention the role of the Scottish commentariat?
It serves the same purpose and defends the same system.
If we didn’t have these apologists sewn into the fabric of daily propaganda both the royal family and the Union would be under far more pressure.
BBC royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell just assessed Prince Andrew’s settlement ‘a huge relief to the royal family in a very special jubilee year.’
Yes, that’s the take.
— Simon Binns (@simonbinns) February 15, 2022
As we witness the use of our money, our public funds to bail out Prince Andrew and shut up Virginia Giuffre it’s worth noting that no senior British politician will speak out. The Queen and the Monarchy will survive just as Boris Johnson has survived. These people and these institutions are surrounded by sycophancy and a system of patronage that will always defend them. There is no scale or quality of scandal that can unseat them.
The British state is irredeemable.
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That’s quite a conclusion Mike that “There is no scale or quality of scandal that can unseat them”, that people in the UK will not panic but carry on. But you know we do panic. Very small, almost immaterial observation. Was listening to one of the many Ukraine reports that folk in Kyiv are not emptying supermarket shelves there despite everything, unlike we Brits who emptied the supermarkets of toilet roll when a shortage was rumoured, or more generally in the early stages of the pandemic.
I cannot say I know – no one can – when the worm will turn, but I think we need to distinguish incremental change (small moves away) from quantum change when everything changes. It could be argued that something like the latter happened to the Labour Party in 2011 and then again in 2015. It wasn’t a decline in their vote, but more a highly significant, almost seismic change – being as positive as possible, they now have about half the vote they had 15 years ago. The days of just admiring the height of the Labour vote have gone, probably for good – it’s just that no one told the corpse.
Craig Murray has written a few times about the collapse of the UK state – that independence wont be achieved by referendum but because the UK’s dysfunctionality just becomes too great and it collapses. I can understand your pessimism but folk will only put up with things for so long, and the UK has painted itself into quite a corner. The celebrations for Lizzie being on the throne all my life will no doubt distract us for a bit, and there might even be things to enjoy, but afterwards we will look back on a nice party and realise things have not changed – that Boris is still there (or some slightly less buffoon like clone has replaced him), that we are still out of the EU, that as the pandemic diminishes fewer disasters can be put at its door and have to be explained by Brexit, but at the same time the pandemic has opened up the sores of inequality to a degree that has been unimaginable – it has always been there, but will not be paraded for us. And that the folk at the top dont care!
Well, indeed. What struck me, as I watched The Rise of the Nazis: Dictators at War, Episode 1, on the BBC:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p09jgldz/rise-of-the-nazis-dictators-at-war-episode-1?seriesId=p09jgl9v
was how absurdly the programme tripped around their strong assertion that dictators Hitler and Stalin were bent on ‘world domination’, while never quite explaining how it came to be that this would necessarily involve the carving up of the (world-dominating) British Empire. Would the ranks of these experts, each specialising in the mindset of one historical actor, accommodate one for Edward the Traitor King? Will we be treated to an insight into the malevolent mind of Queen Victoria as she presides over the carve-up of Africa? Into her close relative King Leopold II of ‘plucky little Belgium’ whose atrocities in the Congo place this royal at the top of the all-time league table? Also apparently British courts let Leopold off for alleged sex crimes with minors in the UK. Why is it, when it comes to crimes of Empire, these apparently secular dictators (well, Hitler had a messianic faith and Stalin trained as a priest) are depicted as monsters beyond the pale, yet royals (even Emperor Hirohito of Japan to some extent) get much kinder treatments? Well, at least Horrible Histories lands some hefty punches, but they have not caught up with Liz2 yet.
You’d think that with the recent history of that family, they’d be wearing seatbelts.
We the people of the UK. Should ask for two new .£3 minted coins one to be donated to Prince Andrews fighting fund. and Maybe another to be donated for people that are looking. For a under. Age fighting fund here in the UK, better we donate £6 just now before it forced. On us all at a later date
Thanks for this. Some cracking analysis on the failed unionism and far right brexiters of the English state. Likewise with WGD blog elsewhere.
They unionists, labour , tories , Lib Dem’s have lost their way but need to cling onto Scotland and Wales. How lucky Ireland is to be among friends in the EU.
The labour of Starmer offers us Brexit with labour as a way forward for Scotland. Really?
Tories corruption form top to bottom with links to the Met police, big business pro brexiters who live abroad avoiding taxes. This is the now and our future?
Independence is the rational way out of this corrupt union.
Still I’m sure there is a guy from Fife , ex PM I believe, ex FM like Lord McConnell who will shout devo plus+ , the vow (repeat) as the road to heaven. The unionists view of the future and Independence supporters are poles apart. They have had their day and failed.
Amongst the unchallenged sycophancy, one I heard went along these lines: “The important point is that he has not admitted guilt. He has, however, recognised that Ms Giuffre has been the victim of abuse and for that he reason he has made a substantial donation to the charity she has set up.” This was followed by the Witchell line that a way back into public life might be to campaign against abuse.
Nicola!..get that referendum ready ..NOW! and we need a rider added….no Monarchy.
First class assessment Mr Small…. but awfy depressing.
Nicola could be worried that, if she makes the abolition of the monarchy part of the definition of ‘independence’, she might lose crucial votes for the cause of independence itself (which is the consideration that currently dominates government decision-making in Scottish politics). The Scottish electorate is split 50/50 on whether the Scottish government should retain the form of a constitutional monarchy if and when it becomes independent of the UK government, with between a fifth and a quarter remaining undecided.
While I agree that the British State is irredeemable (I realised this in March 2014), there’s no evidence to support your assertion that public money is paying for the hush money. The Queen is privately wealthy enough to pay it dorect drop her own assets and it was reported recently that DoY had sold his Swiss skiing chalet and settled a debt on it.
I expect that he’s partly paid for it and that his Mum topped up from her own wealth.
The SNP should of course ask questions on this very topic, but will they? I doubt it.
All I was told as a child:—
The Wondrous Demi-Godlike majesty of the Monarchy. (A private thousand year old reich).
The incorruptible civil-service (if Boris doesn’t sack you).
Fair play—(a Prime Ministers baton in every Eton lunch box).
A judiciary the envy of the world—-hahaha!
A settled, contented people. Yup, that’ll be right.
Britain, a shining democratic beacon among the nations.
All this pish now circling round the drain.
Boris, like Nero, “fiddling” while Rome burns, as he ushers in our New Scotland.
Correct me if I’m wrong but does this mean that he’s guilty but will get away with it because he’s the Queen’s son and is wealthy?
No, it means that he remains innocent (not having been proved guilty) and that he has avoided being sued for damages by paying the plaintiff to drop her complaint against him. It happens all the time in civil actions.
The matter around which there needs to be much more transparency is where the ransom money is coming from and whether there’s any public money involved.
Talking of nazis I see Mr Slime ,J R Mogg is calling Brexit a success and has been very good for business”whose , I would like to know” all the problems we are encountering have been down to Covid and we are doing rather well, he says which goes to show they are ALL a bunch of two faced LIARS and really couldn’t give a monkeys F** K about the rest of us ,their “trough is full” ,who in their right mind would want to stay tethered to that,
You have to offer something in its place like more money for NHS in Scotland if you give up. On royalty of all types
What lies beneath the facade of the monarchy..connections and threads..control and illusion …collusion….. I see nothing that really benefits the idea of an equal fair society
Centuries of manipulation must come to a terrible climax soon..out of chaos might emerge sanity of ordinary people