Strategy and the Sociopaths
“Scottish independence is not a romantic notion. It is a necessary social, cultural, economic and political reality.” George Gunn on the State We’re In.
The two significant events of late 2022 which defined Scotland’s on-going dilemma were the Supreme Court ruling of 23rd November and John Swinney’s Budget of 15th December. In the former Scotland was put back in her box and in the latter we were all reminded of the financial realities of the devolution settlement. Either way we are stuck in a process that does not allow for alteration, challenge or secession. If the current strategy is to play the legal and political game then we have to recognise that the rules are rigged. We have to accept that it isn’t working. We have to change the strategy.
One thing which was glaringly obvious in the whole Supreme Court dog-dance was that the Scottish people were completely ignored. The Supreme Court used the English definition of sovereignty by which the people are subjects of the Crown and have no say, directly, in the workings of “the Crown in Parliament”. The Scottish Parliament was set up and meant to be a progression away from this feudalism. In Scotland it is the people who are sovereign and the parliament and its government are answerable directly to the people. The creation of the Scottish Parliament was the direct result of the votes of the Scottish people through a referendum. Its powers were admittedly defined and limited by Westminster but the idea, which the Supreme Court ruling implies, that the Scottish Parliament was a creation of the Westminster Parliament is wrong. The authority of Holyrood comes from the Scottish people not from London. That a false definition of our sovereignty can be imposed upon us has to be challenged.
Whatever his critics may say – and after the December budget they said a lot – John Swinney still pledges Scotland to the most progressive tax regime in the UK. Scotland does not have borrowing powers and after inflation, mainly as a result of Westminster’s actions or inaction, has taken a £1.7 billion budget cut in real terms. On one hand Westminster has a currency issuing facility through the Bank of England but on the other they have trashed the economy. The UK sits at the bottom of any performance league table of European economies you care to look at. The vile social and cultural policies of the Tories pursue is a cruel parallel to this. John Swinney, for all his shortcomings, managed to help low income families and individuals who pay less tax than their equivalents in England and he also froze business rates. This is hardly the revolution we need or desire but it is progressive taxation and many essential services are still free. South of the border you will pay £9.25 per item in prescription charges, £9,250 per term in tuition fees and for many other things we now take for granted in Scotland such as free bus travel for the elderly and under 22’s, child payment of £25.00 a week and free personal care for all who need it no matter their age. This is not to say that Scotland is perfect but the above is a mere indication of what has been achieved and what more could be achieved if we were a free, sovereign, independent nation with our own currency and our own central bank and with the political will to bring it all into being..
It is unfashionable on the left of the independence movement to say that in most people’s eyes most of the Scottish ministers are seen as decent, sincere and well meaning. It would not be uncontroversial to say that they stand head and shoulders above the ever changing arrangement of grade c-listed non-entities we daily see at the dispatch box in Westminster. The idea that Scotland will get any concession from this most right wing of Tory governments is fanciful. Nor will we get any leverage from the party of Sir Keir Rodney Starmer KCB KC. In order to win votes from the Tories he has dragged the Labour Party so far to the right as to render it unrecognisable. The Tories in their turn are terrified of losing out to the Farage factor and so it is we have one reactionary and racist policy after the other, and generally, across all the media, it goes unquestioned and unchallenged.
Why? Well, as Leo Tolstoy set out in his ‘Writings On Civil Disobedience and Non-Violence,’ (New Society, 1987, p.109)
“All these people do what they are doing unconsciously, because they must, all their life being founded upon deceit, and because they know not how to do anything else… Moreover, being all linked together, they approve and justify one another’s acts – emperors and kings those of the soldiers, functionaries, and clergymen; and soldiers, functionaries and clergymen the acts of emperors and kings, while the populace, and especially the town populace, seeing nothing comprehensible in what is done by all these men, unwittingly ascribe to them a special, almost a supernatural, significance.”
Tolstoy was writing about Czarist Russia in the 19th century but we can recognise the workings of the contemporary club that is British power in what he notes. The recent death and funeral of Queen Elizabeth was the most blatant low point. To recognise and honour a long life we do not as a society have to abandon our civil rights. Except that is exactly what the Tories desire us to do. If they are re-elected, and thankfully that looks unlikely (but you never know – remember 1992!), we will have no rights, only obligations. The main obligation being that we are to be uncomplainingly fleeced of every penny and expected to work longer for less. It is no coincidence that every sector of public life is striking at the same time and for the same thing and it is not just money, although cash is an easy convertor of need. No-one can argue against nurses being paid more. Of course it’s not just nurses. It is everyone. Two years ago, for example, workers in the production side of North Sea oil were given a take it or leave it deal of a 20% cut in their basic salaries. The oil, companies claimed they were being paid too much. The price of a barrel of oil at the time was $41.96 a barrel. Now it is $91.42. More than double. The oil companies now have more cash than they know what to do with. But they what they will not do is invest it in their workers. Currently UNISON and RMT are striking for a mere 5% increase, which in reality is a 15% cut, not taking into account inflation at 11%. What does the Westminster government do about all of this? Absolutely nothing.
A more comprehensive clamjamphrie of sociopathic sluans, slounks, gapasses, gomerels, goups, gypes, amadain, moniments, moochs, nouts, niaffs, trosks, feels, bubblies, bletherskites and yakkan sots posing as politicians it would be hard to find. Add to that ignorance, arrogance, bullying, misogyny, entitlement, privilege, greed, indifference, sloth, racism, cruelty, lies and good old corruption and you have, more or less, both the vile nature and the reprehensible legacy of this Tory regime. This is the “administration” which is preventing the Scottish people, through their elected parliamentarians and government, from taking up their claim of right to independence which would be recognised and supported internationally. An essentially feudal power structure in London is suppressing a modern democracy from being born in Edinburgh.
You could argue that there is more the current Scottish government could be doing. In John Swinney’s budget where was the progressive taxes on land, property and inheritance, the fundaments of feudalism and areas, if properly assessed, could provide the Scottish exchequer with millions annually? They were nowhere. The lack of traction by the Scottish government on these reservoirs of unearned wealth, which sits at the heart of the rentier racket which is landownership, is both perplexing and frustrating. In this area it literally pays to be bold.
On the other side of this dilemma is the suspicion that if the Scottish government were overly successful in applying taxation as a form of justice on landownership and a healthy revenue stream flowed in then the Tories would gladly abandon the current Barnet Formulae, which is the mechanism used by the Treasury in the UK, according to their own website,
“to automatically adjust the amounts of public expenditure allocated to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to reflect changes in spending levels allocated to public services in England, England and Wales, as appropriate.”
It also keeps Scotland in her place. To scrap the Barnet Formulae would, in the present circumstances, expose the Scottish exchequer to even greater risk. To do so before independence is achieved would be irresponsible. This highlights one glaring thing: that devolution, as it was designed, is horrible – it encourages mediocrity and punishes ambition.
Scotland was captured on May 1st 1707 and contained on 12th May 1999. It could be argued that 2022 has shown us, if not the limits of that capture and containment, then at least its perimeters. Also, with the chaos that passed for government in Westminster in 2022 many more Scots are looking south and thinking, “Is this the broad shoulders of the Union? Is this responsible governance?” Increasingly the answer is “No” and every poll published since the Supreme Court ruling has reflected this in an increase in support of independence. What “Yes” means is that Scotland can and must do better than this. All the indications are that 2023 will be a similarly chaotic and grim year for the UK.
The reality is that Scotland is potentially a rich country which is actually getting poorer every day. Increasingly it becomes clear, as the political niceties fall away like petals from a flower, that England only wants Scotland for her resources and nothing else. We realise now, better late than never, that everything else, every story up to now, has been a lie. What it means is what the British state has always understood: that Scotland is a colony.
Such a statement may raise the gentle hackles of the liberals amongst us but even a cursory look at a comparative reality can clarify. According to the painstaking calculations of Cambridge University economic historian, Angus Maddison (1926 – 2010) India was the world’s largest economy for the majority of the 1,700 years before the entrenchment of the British East India Company.
India had accounted for as much as 33% of global GDP – more than three times that of the whole of Western Europe combined – with even a GDP per capita often exceeding that of Britain. During the eras of loot, war and colonisation that preceded the British Raj, the ‘Indian way’ remained largely intact and as a result, India was still the second largest economy in the world, briefly overtaken by her giant sister civilisation, China, which was also subsequently brought to her knees by Imperial Britain.
One of Mahatma Gandhi’s principle grievances against the British was not merely that of Britain’s presence in India – he even accepted allegiance to the Crown. Instead, it was how Britain had systematically dismantled painstakingly nurtured Indian systems of administration, food and water management, industry, grassroots economic prosperity, education and social cohesion. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it, especially if you live in the Highlands and Islands?
According to the American historian William Durant (The Story of Civilization, 1935-1975),
“When the British came, there was, throughout India, a system of communal schools managed by village communities. The agents of the East India Company destroyed these village communities. Instead of encouraging education, the Government encouraged drink.” (The Case For India, Simon & Schuster, 1931)
Starving children in Africa, malnourished villagers in India, despotism in the Middle East and the corruption, gender crimes, illiteracy, social decay and destitution that afflicts more than half of humanity are the real and overwhelming legacies of British colonial rule. Scotland is the last exploitable “Imperial” asset of this “Empire” and why do we think that we will be treated any differently? So it is that whenever the Scots shout for freedom the bile on the Tory bank benches, where the blood red claret of Britannia flows freely in the river Styx of nostalgia and the semi-detached fascism of these witless tyrants rides at anchor, rises and we are insulted and disparaged in equal measure. They hate us because they need us and they will destroy us before they let us go. No amount of progressive taxation will alter that. Nobody in the Scottish government can admit this, of course. They would be accused of being paranoid fantasists with a giant grievance. Surely not?
Scottish independence is not a romantic notion. It is a necessary social, cultural, economic and political reality. After all, the subject of the object is life. Every people in every country in the world understands that. Some may call it human nature but more importantly, and this may come as a relief to many, human nature is the last thing we need to worry about. Rather let us attend to the circumstances that condition it. Let us do that, in Scotland at least, in 2023. Let us make that our strategy. Then we might have our country closer.
©George Gunn 2022
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George I believe every word you have written to be Absolutely True, just Let us do it PLEASE in 2023
This is a fine piece by George Gunn. He covers a lot of ground here.
Excellent piece of writing ..but you missed out three letters.
UDI.
Discussing anything with the English government is a waste if time. We are a separate country with a different culture..( anybody notice that?) so what’s the problem?…walk away..quit wasting our time on chinless wonders from Eton or inbred aristocrats who are supposed to be Scottish but are educated in England…
Now listen to me…UDI..now listen to me..UDI…..now listen to me..UDI…
For Scotland!
Yes UDI, if necessary, AFTER we have been given the backing of the Scottish people in a democratic event such as a referendum …. “de facto” or not.
Great article George.
I disagree with the notion that the Scottish government is the creation of its people. The device that has been created is and always will be the creation of the Westminster government. If the people of Scotland wish to express their sovereignty they must do it by other means, then transfer their authority on to the Scottish parliament. This can only be done by means of a convention comprising a majority of the Scottish people. This can be done using the people’s assembly. Don’t imagine that we can rely on Holyrood “taking” powers. It won’t happen.
Correct Mr. Younger. Also, we should remember that Sturgeon is NOT the leader of the YES movement.
Yes yes and yes again…the arrogance of Westminster ..perhaps that will be its downfall.Something must change..the threads that bind are worn mighty thin i expect an implosion..a black hole into which they tumble never to be seen again
And then there will be light.
Well, George. You have certainly laid out the current situation with its history. Scotland took over 300 years to vote for independence with Alex Salmond at the helm in a 2014 referendum. Losing very narrowly 55 to 45 was still a fantastic result considering being brainwashed since 1707 and the lies/promises of the three English leaders who rushed up here. The YES winning around 75-80% can be obtained easily by informing all Scots of the true wealth of Scotland you describe as potential. However, it is only potential for Scotland’s benefit as our wealth is being drained daily by England for their benefit. Around 50% +- have no idea of just how wealthy Scotland is and believe the Westminster lie that Scotland is a very poor country and runs a deficit of 25 billion pounds every year. Comparisons to the wealthiest countries in the world prove that Scotland is one of the wealthiest perhaps even the wealthiest. The reason is our tremendous amount of resources. e.g. Norway is the 2nd wealthiest nation and Erie (Southern Ireland) is the 4th. Neither of those 2 countries has anywhere near Scotland’s resources. Population wise they are about the same around 5.6 million people. With reference to the Supreme Court ruling, It should read English Supreme Court. That Court doesn’t apply to Scotland as we are a sovereign nation. Swinney’s Budget is based on the British aristocrat’s Barnett Formula and is tailored by the pathetic and pitiful amount Which the English chancellor of the exchequer grants us. Your last paragraph states ‘ Let us attend to the circumstances which condition it. At least in Scotland in 2023’. The circumstances are that we have an S.N.P. S.G. which in fact is just another unionist party. That is not to say that every S.N.P. supporter is a unionist but the leader Sturgeon certainly is and the majority of S.N.P.s at Westminster are as well. In almost 9 years Sturgeon has done nothing for the independent cause. In fact the exact opposite. All she does is bleat away about how Tory policies at Westminster are damaging Britain. Then goes on a begging mission to Westminster for permission to hold a referendum. When has Sturgeon or any of her MPs in Holyrood or Westminster ever stated to the Scottish people that we are Sovereign and what that means, challenged the GERS deficit lies, demanded that her MPs at Westminster stand up for our independence, support Alba when their only 2 MPs stand up for our independence, told Scotland’s population just how wealthy a country we are? Answer ZERO. These are just a few truths of many many more. The bottom line is that in order to attend to the circumstances that condition it. The strategy should be to advise all of the population of our wealth from our overabundance of resources. To do that we must understand that neither the British Sturgeon and her Holyrood/Westminster MPs nor any English-owned 95% news media up here (including the National) will participate. Basically, that leaves the BELLA CALEDONIA, bloggers, Alba, ISP, groups and people like me. Please note that it takes a minimum of 8 times exposure to get people to remember and understand the message, perhaps even more than 8 x in this case as we’ve been conditioned to fail since 1707. We should also realize that a vote for Sturgeon is a vote for unionists as all it does is keep her in power in Scotland so that her kick-the-can strategy will continue. Westminster and Sturgeon are terrified of Alex Salmond as they know Alex will bring independence. The National which claims to be Scotland’s only independent media is just another unionist tool. It is majority owned by the same people who own the Glasgow Herald, namely the English aristocrats. There is a small American ownership as well. Try reading the posters comments such as ‘ I won’t vote for Alex Salmond because of his court case’ This from an S.N.P. Sturgeon worshipper. But are they ( posters) Scottish or English-paid fake Scots following the Sturgeon method of character assassination? Alba with the ISP are the only ones wanting and capable of delivering independence.
So Dave you claim that “Sturgeon has done nothing in almost 9 years for the Independence cause” Are you saying then that taking Yes from being 10% behind NO in 2014 to 5.7% ahead now (the average of the last 7 Polls) which is a swing of 15.7% towards an almost certain Yes over the last nearly 9 years is nothing??? REALLY?? I’ll tell you what it is Dave it is the difference between Scotland becoming a country that is independent from Westminster rule and one that is not.
I wish you were right Christopher. However 1/2% a year is an absolute disgrace. The reason the yes vote for independence has gone up recently is because of Alex Salmond and Alba MPs –2 only– standing up for Scotland at Westminster while Sturgeon’s MPs are there just in awe of the English MPs who ridicule and laugh at them while they sit humbly wi’ heads doon. The Scottish people have noticed the lack of backing, indeed the reverse from Sturgeon’s S.N.P.s when 2 Alba M.P.s stood up for Scotland and were thrown out of the English Parliament. Not one S.N.P. WALKED OUT IN SUPPORT but the English MPs just laughed at the so-called S.N.P.s who incidentally were voted in to stand up for our independence.
Questions for you or any other S.N.P.er. Why does Sturgeon refuse to inform the Scottish population that we are sovereign and what that means to each one of us? Why does Sturgeon blackout the fact that Scotland is one of the wealthiest countries in the world? Why, when in 2021, she received her huge vote from the Scottish people for independence did she go begging to Westminster for permission for a referendum? Why do you accept being ruled by English law? Scotland has it’s own laws. I know that you don’t want to read this but all we ( Scottish Gov’t) have to do is declare independence. All Sturgeon does is rule Scotland by English law hence her begging the English Supreme Court for a legal opinion on whether we can be independent. The E.S.C. do not have the authority any more than France or Italy. Sturgeon has even told you that she is British and that Scotland will always be a part of Britain. Britain is not a country. As a Scot, if you are, you have the right to continue to support the unionist Sturgeon. You also have the right to try to ask her questions and keep an open mind. As an ex-S.N.P.er I can tell you that under Sturgeon you will never have independence. The heat is on her now, put there the minute Alex Salmond accepted the leadership of Alba. What is read in the Scottish 95% owned English media which includes the National Media is all tailored to Sturgeon’s ‘keep Scotland a colony of England’. Her excuses of delay, delay, delay, are being exposed principle by Alba. I predict that she will resign. Alex Salmond will deliver
independence. Make no mistake Alba is gaining strength daily because they are a true independent-minded party whose only objective is independence. Meanwhile every year trillions of Scottish pounds are collected by England and Sturgeon does and says nothing. We owe a big debt to BELLA CALEDONIA as they allow posts from all political points of view whereas the National, Glasgow Herald, Daily Record, Scotsman and all the others only allow Sturgeon S.N.P. posters to have a ‘free’ say but edit out the critical facts from Alba, ISP, and any other true Independent group.
“We have to changed the strategy” -: You got that right.
You are spot on with that assessment and as you say we now know the truth of our situation since the SC ruling. Its as plain as the noses on our faces. No strategy using the british legal system will work. The SNP have been taking us up a creek and have dropped the paddle. A new strategy is required and yesterday.
What can the poor afford but the rich cannot? Honesty. This is the sort of thing that makes anarchists distinguish between wealth (in the old sense of well-being) and riches (the cold companions of the tomb).
If Scotland is to win Independence through a striking and well-founded opposition to the feudal-theocratic-imperialist-ecocidal British Empire, it has to acknowledge its complicity in those crimes, adopt a comprehensive policy of accountability and ideally propose some forms of restitution. This will contrast with the laggardly and perverse response of British imperialists who are effectively swimming against the tide.
I note that Caithness comes out very badly in Roger Lovegrove’s book Silent Fields, and not all of the persecution of wildlife was done by rich landowners. We cannot be both a wealthy and a nature-depleted country, in my view.
How much longer is it acceptable to be humiliated and impoverished by folk who ‘work’ in Westminster ….it is most unlikely that the SNP will declare UDI …we ain’t going into a Catalonia situation with Nicola in the jail.
I think it is the peoples options that will prevail …so let’s discuss those with urgency and deliberation.
Hullo, Alice. ‘It is most unlikely that the S.N.P. will declare UDI’. The fact is that Sturgeon’s S.N.P. will never declare UDI. That is the hard truth which almost all of her supporters refuse to accept. 9 years of doing nothing for independence with an admission by Sturgeon that she ” is British and Scotland will always be a part of Britain” proves it.
Breaking news in today’s National: Headline: Huge Decisions for Scotland as We Move into 2023 towards Independence. by Michael Russell.
Sub Header: The YES movement must work together to find a plan of action we can all coalesce behind. So another kick-the-can proposal from Sturgeon’s S.N.P. to pretend to her supporters that she is standing up for Scotland. What a joke. Sturgeon is the one who refuses to even acknowledge that Alba and ISP exist. Also, this statement by Mr. Russell proves AGAIN that Sturgeon has no plan and never has had for independence. Consider his words: To find a new plan. So what was the old plan? Running Scotland under English law? Never ever stating that Scotland is a sovereign country that can declare independence? Begging England for permission to have a referendum? etc. etc. and etc.
The Sturgeon S.N.P. supporters will use Mr. Russell’s word’s to attack the true Independence supporters in defense of their British F.M. leader by posting insults as always.
Dave – sorry to burst your balloon but if you look at Holyrood election results and opinion polls it is the electorate of Scotland that do not think Alba or ISP exist.
To keep calling Nicola Sturgeon a Unionist looks frankly ridiculous to the 95% of people not in Alba bubble. I appreciate she may appear overly cautious to you and other Alba supporters but attacking het and SNP in such terms looks petty and vindictive to most people and makes sure Alba will remain electorally impotent.
Alex Salmond did a great deal for independence movement when he realigned it to left of centre thus winning over many former Labour supporters and came closer to winning in 2014 than many (including Cameron) ever thought possible. Reality is however , like it or not, he is now a toxic character to many ( younger and female) voters and is yesterday’s man.
The gold standard option to independence remains a referendum. I remain firmly convinced that once polls show consistent support of 60% in favour Westminster opposition will evaporate. If it doesn’t there are other options that become viable that frankly would be counterproductive to independence cause if undertaken with country split 50:50.
All supporters of independence should be focussing on helping raise support to a higher level by working together, informing soft No’s of benefits and realistically addressing concerns while continuing to point out deficiencies of Westminster rand UK establishment rule as Mike has so clearly done in this article.
You may not like this comment Dave but this is reality of situation as we go into 2023.
Hullo JP58 again. I just read in the National Sturgeon’s Hogmanay speech contained absolutely NOTHING about our independence. There are some vows and promises.
One thing I missed asking you about is your statement ” the gold standard to independence remains an option to referendum” Can you please advise what gold standard you are referring to? Also “how is it an option to referendum?”
Thanks.
Well, JP58 You are talking about the vote to keep Sturgeon in power at Holyrood. Last year she was voted in to get INDEPENDENCE for Scotland.
She did nothing but beg Westminster for permission to hold a referendum. After failing several times she went to the English Supreme Court for an opinion on whether her Referendum was legal. Do you know that Scotland is a sovereign country? Our laws are different from England’s so as we are a sovereign country English law does not apply up here. I was an S.N.P. member from the days of Billy Wolfe and stood outside Glasgow Uni with about 20 lassies in 2014 promoting our independence. Then on two Edinburgh and the borders. I am a staunch Independista. After Alex Salmond resigned ( I told him it was a wrong move) I continued on with Sturgeon being appointed as leader. It took a few years to come to the conclusion that Sturgeon had no intention of Scotland ever becoming independent. It was not an easy decision to leave the S.N.P. so I did not belong to any party and certainly not the 3 English-led branch parties at Holyrood. When Alex Salmond was asked to lead Alba I
joined Alba immediately. Now you can quote Sturgeon and the English 95% owned media up here that Salmond is toxic and yes he is toxic to Sturgeon and the English unionists because they all know that Alba will deliver independence. You say that once 60% in favour that Westminster’s opposition will crumble. It is not going to happen. It has been up to 60% and Sturgeon refused to do anything saying ‘this is not the time’. You must know how many times she stalled over the last 9 years. But now she has her de-facto conference coming up in 2023 except it is how to approach it. Do you really think her de facto will be accepted by Westminster? If you read my post above to George, I have spelled out what has to be done for independence. The strategy is to ‘educate’ the soft NOs and undecided. Then declare Independence.
Sturgeon has had 9 years to do that and she has done nothing. In your last paragraph you, yourself point out a very similar strategy except you pass over that Sturgeon’s black-out policy has kept the NOs and undecided ignorant of that ‘education’. Why? Its not a matter of me liking your comment JP58, but I have asked for examples of Sturgeon’s effort over 9 years to deliver our independence and have never received one reply, because there aren’t any. No S.N.P.er will even explain Sturgeon’s ” I am British, Scotland will always be a part of Britain” statements made this year. Let’s not forget that Sturgeon never said “I support independence” It was always “The Scottish People will decide”. If you look at the facts (that’s what I point out, not my opinion) you will realize that Sturgeon is a unionist. A vote for Sturgeon is a vote for the unionists.
Have you ever tried contacting Sturgeon? Why don’t you try? BTW Alba did very well in recent elections no winners but their votes were given to the opposition parties (English led) I wonder why. Alba are doing very well of just over a year and that is a fact. All of us fighting for our independence should check out their message on their web page instead of believing the lies of the Scottish (95% owned English media)
A guid New Year to you JP58.
A guid New Year to you also Dave.
We both ultimately want the same thing.
I in no way doubt your dedication or desire for independence but the world has moved on and the language and logic you display will not attract more support for independence but only alienate all but true believers like yourself.
To attract the soft No’s we need to listen and persuade these people not hector and rant at them.
As regards NS she is despised and hated by MSM and unionists you deride and you need to ask yourself why.
I would humbly suggest that these same people see her as biggest threat to the union because she is still most popular politician in Scotland and they hate that.
Referendum is gold standard as it has already been used and recognised internationally and gives every member of electorate in Scotland an individual say In decision. This will be accepted both by electorate in Scotland and abroad and the bigger the majority the easier the transition to independence will be.
I would be grateful if you could enlighten me what other method would meet these criteria of mass involvement of electorate (85% turnout in 2014) and clear mass support of citizens of Scotland?
Another year JP58. Independence is both our goals as you say. I have a suggestion for all Scots: never use the word ‘humble’. We have nothing to be humble about. From primary school on we were taught to be humble. Up until devolution from 1707, our educational system was run from London England by English aristocrats. Our whole educational system was designed to turn Scots into an inferior race to the English. It worked.
Our history and culture were changed and replaced by English history. Of course, our languages of Scots and Gaelic ( English spelling) were and still are ridiculed. The objective was accomplished as we became an English colony. The first notable discovery by Scots who refused to accept inferiority was the lie of the English Lord Nelson defeating Napoleon’s French navy. The genius who defeated Napoleon was Admiral Thomas Cochrane a SCOTSMAN from Lothian near Edinburgh. It is well worth looking up. His true history will astound you. Personally, I am a proud Scot and I have educated many people, not only in Scotland but in other countries as well. Whether we like it or not Scotland is known as part of England due to the continued melding of Scotland into Britain which is the interchangeable name for England. The British aristocrats used their English-controlled media to plant the idea that Britain is a country which it is not. We Scots have given the world TV, the telephone, refrigerator systems, and a ton more inventions, and I mean a ton, which benefit everyone on the planet. We are only 5.6 million in population.
You JP58 are sovereign as Scotland is a Sovereign country. Therefore you have the same right as any Scot to state your opinion. That is Scottish law. In England, their law is the opposite with humility, bowing and scraping to the English German Royal Family and the aristocrats by the English population at large is the law.
NOW to answer your last question: The method to obtain clear mass support of Scottish citizens.
Answer: Direct to all Scots a continual barrage of the true facts of Scotland’s wealth, genius, history since 1707 and culture. We have had over 300 years of the exact opposite. The method for delivery is for every Scottish Association, Group. political Party and Blogger to send out by whatever means possible to their contacts. Individuals to send this information by email, text, what’s up and, etc. The obvious answer should have been for Sturgeon’s S.G. to do that starting in 2014 but she refused to do it. ( I sent her all the information over 3 years ago.) None of the English-owned Scottish media will do it either. I was suspended sine die by the Scotsman, Glasgow Herald and the National for posting the true state of Scotland’s massive wealth. Sturgeon refused to talk to me through her snippy assistant twice so I sent the graphs of Scotland’s wealth and the resources, which give that wealth, to S.N.P. H.Q. where it was hidden, never to be mentioned, effectively buried. Just a continuation of the Sturgeon Blackout. Every month that goes by billions of Scottish pounds are collected by England never to return. Scotland is poorer now than in 2014. My posts are for the people of Scotland. I make no money from the time I spend doing research and only post facts. I know that most Scots are struggling to get the food they need to keep healthy and heat to survive winter. They should never have to choose between one or the other. The S.G. F.M. Sturgeon and her CEO Murrell (unelected) don’t have to worry. Sturgeon receives thousand of pounds yearly in compensation and thousands more in tax-free allowances from the English Gov’t. as do all her S.N.P.s both here in Holyrood and Westminster.
Scotland will become independent by declaration as all other colonies have done. Barbados being the latest and now Jamaica is next. But we have a de facto begging strategy for 2024 as 2023 will have another Sturgeon convention to discuss ??? Alba with the help of ISP is the
Independence leader. Sturgeon never was.
On a different tack, there could have been no New World Order without the all but total ownership and control of the MSM, and there in is the main obstacle to independence. If Scotland had actually had its OWN domestic Scottish real news platform it would have been independent a long time ago. The SNP has to fill the airways with the independence message and its benefits.
I suggest they establish a Scotland Calling site in Ireland as I doubt they could get a licence in Scotland and I am sure the obstructions and costs associated with attempting to use any of the BBC outlets would prove to be a fools errand.
I worked in a managerial role for 25 years for a man who decided the elections of government’s around the world through the power of the press, his name Rupert Murdoch.
Hullo, James. So you worked for Rupert. So you know the score. You mention Ireland but that would mean Eire or Southern Ireland which incidentally is the 4th wealthiest country in the world with less than half Scotland’s resources. The German-English royal family is one of the biggest, perhaps the biggest, landowners in N.I. As you know 95% of the news media here is owned by English aristocrats so they will do everything in their power to stop the 50% No/Undecided voters in Scotland from knowing how they have been lied to since 1707 about how wealthy Scotland really is. We need a blitz over all of 2023. I was a marketing/sales exec for giant international company so I know the philosophy of brainwashing that Mr. Murdoch uses. At the Uni we were taught that we had to walk the walk not just talk the talk to be successful. Sturgeon’s S.N.P.ers are so obviously unionists ( talk the talk) but that’s it. Although I have to give Sturgeon credit for convincing 50% of Scots to keep her as F.M. on the pretext that she will beg her way to independence with her kick-the-can stall programme. Alba is doing exceptionally well and gaining more and more support in spite of the lies from the English media to the contrary. Alex Salmond delivered a referendum in 3 years while Sturgeon zero in 9 year +- with another de facto begging plan which she hasn’t even worked out. Of course, Alex Salmond’s S.N.P. was an Independence party while Sturgeon’s is not. The Ireland idea has merit. Sturgeon’s Blackout programme in conjunction with the English media has to be countered by the true facts of our wealth, history and culture. Although it is not about him Alex Salmond will deliver independence as he is a true independent-minded Scot and is already getting the message of Scotland’s huge wealth out.
All the Best for 2023.
I note that Sturgeon and her S.N.P. M.P.s are again concerned over the English House of Lords corruption involving Michelle Mone and her husband. Instead of manning (or womaning) the bilge pumps trying to keep the sinking English ship ‘Britain’ afloat, she should be launching the lifeboat ‘ INDEPENDENCE’. However we don’t have to worry. Admiral Salmond and crew are in that process now. It won’t take 9 years.
A fine piece of writing – and every word the truth.
An inspiration in these dark times.
George, you’ll be getting banned from Bella with all this conspiracy theorizing and criticism of our great leader.
No, he won’t. For guidance on Comments policy look here: https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/our-comments-policy/
Michael was just joking. He knows that Scotland doesn’t have a ‘great leader’ at present. We have to put up with the British lacky Sturgeon. However, the good news is that soon we’ll have the Alba and ISP running the country. The latest poll shows that Alba will reach 20 seats and is gaining daily. Sturgeon will soon resign for family reasons or some other lame excuse. Independence is on the way.
Dave, c’mon man