Month: November 2015

Here we go again . The government is determined to take this country into yet another idiotic war and this will be the granddaddy of them all. It has all the ingredients of a huge disaster waiting to happen, and mark my words , if the vote on Wednesday in the Westminster parliament is for the bombing within Syria to go ahead then every one of us will henceforth carry the vicarious responsibility for the deaths of innocent civilians.

I was listening to a government Minister on the Andrew Mar show today telling every one that this bombing will be precision bombing and implying that only the bad guys will be killed. Well he was lying through his teeth and he knew it. Bombs are area armaments and a standard bomb destroys everything and everyone within 500 metres as in the photo attached.

ISIS control an area of Syria and Iraq with is larger than great Britain. Their main headquarters seems to be in the Syrian City of Raqqa, a city which has a population of not far short of one million people. ISIS have spread their forces around the City for obvious reasons, therefore it will be virtually impossible to bomb ISIS in Raqqa without killing many thousands of innocent civilians.

So on Wednesday this is what your local MP will be voting ,either for or against. It looks now very much like the SNP will be voting against this motion, after a bit of a waver two weeks ago. Jeremy Corbyn has his work cut out  trying to get his red Tories to vote against it in a free vote and I only hope he had the balls to put a whip on his party to ensure the maximum amount of pressure against the government motion. If he does then we have to hope for a few Tories with the sense to vote against their own party .

If the SNP had acted in the manner they should have, since the referendum and put in motion the means to address the mistakes made in the referendum and also , place a basic requirement of wresting the power to hold a referendum from Westminster in their GE manifesto and then  after taking 56 out of the possible 59 MP’s down to Westminster had the sense to immediately demand that very basic right, then the government would have had to have treaded very carefully with this Bill in case it triggered another referendum. But unfortunately the SNP did not do any of these things so that is not an option.

Bombing is on its own never going to defeat ISIS, that is a fact . All bombing will do is kill a few ISIS members and build up resentment for the many civilian casualties that the bombing will produce and that will produce more terrorists and will make the likelihood of terrorist attacks in this country a very real possibility.

The British government seem to be willing to make us believe that there is an army of about 70,000″ good” rebels who are at present fighting the Syrian government and some of the time some of them are fighting ISIS. Firstly the figure of 70,000 is nonsense and here is the reason I have for saying this . Firstly the “good “rebels ( apart from the Kurdish fighters) are Al Qaida ! remember them ? and guess where ISIS came from ? yes you got it Al Qaida . Now recently an American general who was tasked by his country to train the “good” rebels ( Al Qaida) to fight the government of Syria was questioned by a Senate committee regarding where the half a billion dollars that he had been allocated for this training had gone and how this training and arming of the “good” rebels was going. He had to admit that it was not really going that well and when pressed on the subject he had to admit that after training had been completed ,most of the “good” rebels had simply joined their buddies in ISIS and at present there was only four , yes I will say that again only FOUR on the training program. So in effect the half a billion dollars spent on training had been spent on training ISIS. So as far as the British Governments 70,000 “good “rebels waiting with bated breath to throw them selves at ISIS is concerned , this is fantasy pure and simple.

There are many ,many other factors in this questionable equation such as the multitude of countries who are already bombing in Syria, a government in Turkey, a member of NATO who have just tried to start World War three by shooting down a Russian Jet for having the audacity to bomb ISIS convoys of oil heading for Turkey. There is Israel’s shady hand in this because of their illegal oil wells in the Golan heights  belonging to Syria  and there is Saudi Arabia whose Wahhabi government are supporting ISIS who are also Wahhabi Sunni .

So all in all quite a minefield to be going in to. We must not once again make this mistake and we must learn by history., We have invaded and intervened in  Afghanistan, Iraq , Libya and these countries are now back to the stone age and as a result we have a terrorist problem and an acute refugee problem.

The people of the UK and indeed more especially the people of Scotland must once again say  ” NOT IN MY NAME ” and the government must listen. It is just a pity that we are not in a position to walk away.

Bob

It would appear that Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP /Scottish Government could be about to change their stance on military action in Syria. If this is indeed the case then I feel that  a very bad mistake is about to be made ,as it would be destroying the moral stance taken in the past as regards to illegal military actions undertaken by the various  British governments.

When the term “illegal military action” is used it generally means any action taken in a foreign country without either a UN resolution to support it or an active request from the country in question to assist in combating an insurgency and at the present time there is neither in place.

Lets be quite clear, the events of Friday 13th November in Paris are abhorrent to most fair minded people and given that France is in the position of having to protect its citizens , then there could be a case that they should in some way respond to these attacks.

However in assessing the situation France finds itself in, lets be very honest. If you are going by the general reporting in the western press you could be forgiven for believing that the attacks of Friday 13th were simply an attempt to intimidate the general population of France and therefore an immediate response was warranted, but the fact is that these awful events were actually in themselves an act of retaliation. The reason for these attacks was that France had been engaged in bombing missions in Syria since September. Bombing missions which had no doubt killed many innocent people as well as some ISIS fighters.

Now lets also be clear that these bombing missions were illegal under international law, as they had neither the consent of the government of Syria or the backing of a UN mandate .

Now if Britain goes along the same rout taken by France then we will be in that exact position and in the case of the Scottish Government backing David Cameron in this without either a UN mandate or the permission of the Syrian Government then they will be participating in an illegal act, leaving the whole of the UK including Scotland liable to retaliatory attacks similar or worse than what happened in Paris last weekend.

Now not only that but we the Scottish people will be vicariously responsible for the killing of innocent people, because be under no illusion bombing towns kills probably more civilians than it does active fighters. Bombs are area weapons . They kill within a radius upwards of 500 metres , they destroy homes, schools, hospitals and they cause people to become refugees . Have a look at the image of bombing and shelling in Syria and tell me just what part of this discriminates between fighters and civilians

So I say to the Scottish Government, think long and hard before signing up to David Cameron’s march to war , because ,if you do then there are vary many ordinary Scots who, like me , will be saying “not in my name”

Bob

I wrote this back in November 2014. I was concerned then that not enough was being done to keep the independence movement live. I commented on the likely outcome of the Smith Commission and the lack of commitment from the SNP as to a cohesive campaign to address the mistakes made in the referendum.

I was concerned then but after the fiasco of the Scotland Bill I am really worried. We have been through the Smith Commission which promised a few derisory powers and now the Westminster Government have delivered even fewer.

My concern is that the SNP were active in signing off the Smith Commission recommendations without apparently even discussing ( never mind agreeing) the financial implications of these additional responsibilities and responsibilities are exactly what they are, because what we are to be awarded is tax collecting responsibilities without any benefit accruing. The only thing we will get is the blame for the taxes.

We  have been truly set up and hung out like a bunch of kippers.

There is at present a feeling abroad that not much is happening in the fight for independence, So I thought I would put my thoughts to paper. The referendum went against us almost two months ago . The reasons were numerous , from the lying and mistruths of the politicians who were ranged against us , mainly from the disreputable Scottish Labour who were fronting the no campaign on behalf of the Tory government in power at Westminster, to suspicions that the voting was perhaps not carried out properly. I honestly feel though that the biggest fault lies with ourselves . Now when I say ourselves I mean the political and party set up we had in Scotland , pre referendum. We had an SNP government and a reasonably strong SNP membership and that was the main source of the campaign thrust. The mistake I feel we made was to allow this campaign to progress without pre negotiation. We should have pre negotiated the positions on Pensions, On a monetary system, on whether we would gain access to the EU , on a share of assets , on a timetable for removing trident, on passports and sharing of consular facilities, etc ,etc, etc. Now some of you say that the British government would not have done this and to this I say , nonsense . We as citizens of the UK had a right to this and if refused could have been pursued through either the EU court of human rights or simply by international law and as a precedent for this we only need to look back to 1707 when the union was formed , because that is exactly what was done then.
This I feel was our biggest mistake, can you imagine how easy it would have been if we did not have to go into the very technical explanations of how monetary union was the best option for both countries, of how pensioners did not have to be worried about pensions that were the responsibility of the UK government, about when trident would be removed and how large a rental Scotland would receive in the mean time for housing the facilities until removal. I could go on and on , Quite simply we allowed the Westminster cabal to treat us like a foreign country that it was about to go to war against.
OK so where are we now , well there is the Smith Commission that we have all submitted our wish lists to and the SNP are of the opinion that we should give this a chance first to see if the Vows are to be kept. therein lies the first mistake of the next independence campaign, giving the opposition a breathing space as any one who actually believes that we will get devo max is seriously deluded. By all means give it a chance but in the mean time the maxim of ” to assure peace, prepare for war ” comes to mind and that is what we should be doing . We should be carrying on a two pronged initiative with the ultimatum of an other referendum the penalty for all the lying that went on during the campaign and the justification for that lying which will be the remit of the Smith commission. We cannot afford to be too nice this time .
As for the Yes bus Scotland’s Dragon for independence, our position is this, We continue to campaign in a manner which will bring to the attention of people who perhaps voted no , the injustices and dishonesty of the no campaign and in this we have been asking for ongoing campaign materials such as posters and leaflets on a common theme which can be used by other like minded campaigns across the country.
We will be supporting any candidate for the Dundee west constituency who seeks to replace Jim Mc Govern.
We will support Stewart Hosie for deputy leader of the SNP.
We will support any candidate for local elections who seeks to either retain an SNP seat or displace an existing labour councillor.
We will be continuing our food bank collections and cultural interaction in cooperation with Taught By Muhammed food bank and St Salvador’s food bank .
So what do we want in return for this ? as for the food banks ?,nothing.
As for the SNP ? a sympathetic ear, campaigning materials and a strategy moving forward.
We are very fortunate in Dundee and district in as much as we have in the SNP a wealth of talent, whether it be in the local councillors or our representation at Westminster, but they must listen to the people as they are becoming restless for action.
I attach a photo taken yesterday of a relative of a Dinosaur taken on a Caribbean island  and another photo of an actual Dinosaur taken in Dundee City Square a couple of months ago, ( the one on the left).
We are still on the road to independence .
This is our journey

I wrote this back in November 2014. I was concerned then that not enough was being done to keep the independence movement live. I commented on the likely outcome of the Smith Commission and the lack of commitment from the SNP as to a cohesive campaign to address the mistakes made in the referendum.

I was concerned then, but after the fiasco of the Scotland Bill I am now really worried. We have been through the Smith Commission which promised a few derisory powers and now the Westminster Government have delivered even fewer.

My concern is that the SNP were active in signing off the Smith Commission recommendations without apparently even discussing ( never mind agreeing) the financial implications of these additional responsibilities and responsibilities are exactly what they are, because what we are to be awarded is tax collecting responsibilities without any benefit accruing. The only thing we will get is the blame for the taxes.

We  have been truly set up and hung out like a bunch of kippers.

12 November 2014 at 15:29 · New York, NY, United States

There is at present a feeling abroad that not much is happening in the fight for independence, So I thought I would put my thoughts to paper. The referendum went against us almost two months ago . The reasons were numerous , from the lying and mis-truths of the politicians who were ranged against us , mainly from the disreputable Scottish Labour who were fronting the no campaign on behalf of the Tory government in power at Westminster, to suspicions that the voting was perhaps not carried out properly. I honestly feel though that the biggest fault lies with ourselves . Now when I say ourselves I mean the political and party set up we had in Scotland , pre referendum. We had an SNP government and a reasonably strong SNP membership and that was the main source of the campaign thrust. The mistake I feel we made was to allow this campaign to progress without pre negotiation. We should have pre negotiated the positions on Pensions, On a monetary system, on whether we would gain access to the EU , on a share of assets , on a timetable for removing trident, on passports and sharing of consular facilities, etc ,etc, etc. Now some of you say that the British government would not have done this and to this I say , nonsense . We as citizens of the UK had a right to this and if refused could have been pursued through either the EU court of human rights or simply by international law and as a precedent for this we only need to look back to 1707 when the union was formed , because that is exactly what was done then.
This I feel was our biggest mistake, can you imagine how easy it would have been if we did not have to go into the very technical explanations of how monatory union was the best option for both countries, of how pensioners did not have to be worried about pensions that were the responsibility of the UK government, about when trident would be removed and how large a rental Scotland would receive in the mean time for housing the facilities until removal. I could go on and on , Quite simply we allowed the Westminster cabal to treat us like a foreign country that it was about to go to war against.
OK so where are we now , well there is the Smith Commission that we have all submitted our wish lists to and the SNP are of the opinion that we should give this a chance first to see if the Vows are to be kept. therein lies the first mistake of the next independence campaign, giving the opposition a breathing space as any one who actually believes that we will get devo max is seriously deluded. By all means give it a chance but in the mean time the maxim of ” to assure peace, prepare for war ” comes to mind and that is what we should be doing . We should be carrying on a two pronged initiative with the ultimatum of an other referendum the penalty for all the lying that went on during the campaign and the justification for that lying which will be the remit of the Smith commission. We cannot afford to be too nice this time .
As for the Yes bus Scotland’s Dragon for independence, our position is this, We continue to campaign in a manner which will bring to the attention of people who perhaps voted no , the injustices and dishonesty of the no campaign and in this we have been asking for ongoing campaign materials such as posters and leaflets on a common theme which can be used by other like minded campaigns across the country.
We will be supporting any candidate for the Dundee west constituency who seeks to replace Jim Mc Govern.
We will support Stewart Hosie for deputy leader of the SNP.
We will support any candidate for local elections who seeks to either retain an SNP seat or displace an existing labour councillor.
We will be continuing our food bank collections and cultural interaction in cooperation with Taught By Muhammed food bank and St Salvador’s food bank .
So what do we want in return for this ? as for the food banks ?,nothing.
As for the SNP ? a sympathetic ear, campaigning materials and a strategy moving forward.
We are very fortunate in Dundee and district in as much as we have in the SNP a wealth of talent, whether it be in the local councillors or our representation at Westminster, but they must listen to the people as they are becoming restless for action.
I attach a photo taken yesterday of a relative of a Dinosaur taken on a Caribbean island  and another photo of an actual Dinosaur (Jim Murphy) taken in Dundee City Square a couple of months ago, ( the one on the left).
We are still on the road to independence .
This is our journey