This is an excerpt from my Facebook page going back to the 4th June 2014. You will remember that this was the year Scotland had the opportunity to break away from the united Kingdom and pursue our own destiny. All we had to do was walk into a polling booth and place an x in a box. It was as simple as that . We did not grasp the opportunity of a lifetime which was presented to us on the 18th September 2014. The reasons are many ,from being lied to and manipulated by the establishment media to our pensioners being persuaded that their pensions were at risk in an independent Scotland , to widespread confusion over monitory union with the rest of the UK after independence.
It was not the fault of the people who voted no ,it was the collective fault of the yes campaign led mainly by the SNP based around the Scottish government white paper.
The fantastic grass roots organisations that sprang up as the campaign got under way were invaluable to taking the polls from 27% ( which they were at the start of the campaign) to the 45% at the actual referendum.
Unfortunately ,as soon as the referendum was over the Yes campaign was disbanded by the SNP and as a result most of the various grass roots organisations fell into disuse.
As a result of this abandonment of a movement for freedom non of the issues that played a heavy part in the defeat have been addressed and as a result, even if an advantages situation for another referendum was to present itself , we could not take it as we are not in any way prepared for another referendum.
There is a possibility that the SNP will now in some way attempt to address the issued that lost us the referendum in the coming Months but as I have been saying in previous blogs , I have the feeling that ,that promise was made up on the back of a fag packet when they realised that they had made a major tactical error in not including a mechanism ( a road map ) to progress to a possible future referendum in the manifesto for the Scottish parliamentary elections.
It will be interesting to see what they come up with but I for one am not holding my breath waiting for anything too exciting to be announced , and if anyone is expecting another referendum on the back of this forthcoming EU in/out referendum I would advise that they should also refrain from holding their breath.
So have a look at the piece below and wonder at the lost opportunity we had in 2014 and compare it to what other people are willing to do in the pursuit of freedom.
Can the SNP get us back on to the road to independence or have we lost the opportunity created by the impetus of the last referendum and the surge in popularity of pro independence parties which ,it would appear ,going by the results accorded to the SNP in the Scottish elections has past its high point.
Is it , as Tom Paxton would say ” a lesson to late for the learning”
Twenty five years ago today students and Beijing residents were attacked by the Chinese army in the streets surrounding Ti An Amen Square in Beijing . They were demonstrating for increased democracy. Many of them were students and government employees of the university . On that faithfully day they rode to war with the Chinese army on their bicycles armed only with posters some of which they had made with the sheets off their beds. None of them reached the Square as the Chi…nese army opened fire on them ,killing many hundreds of innocent young people. China has changed since then, it is the second largest economy in the World and shortly will be the largest. There is not a full democracy yet in China But there is a lot more freedom .These students might have lost the battle that day but I feel they won the war. A very dear friend of mine was there that day and I have heard her account. It is not a pretty story.
On September 18 we have a choice , we can decide to continue to be governed by our larger neighbour or we can take our destiny in our own hands. We don’t have to fight an army , all we have to do is walk into a polling booth and gain our freedom with the stroke of a pen, this will be the first time in the long history of Scotland that the people of Scotland will have been able to choose our future in a democratic manner.
Please do not waste this opportunity . Vote yes.
Think about it !!
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Author: bobsblog.scot
I have been in business for well over half a century but I learn something new every day. My politics are the middle of the road. I believe that the far-right and far-left are equally harmful.
Jim Murphy ( at that time, leader of the Scottish Labour party) asked me if I called myself a socialist. I said, "no Jim, I am not a socialist, I am a capitalist, but a capitalist with a social conscience.
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Bob Costello 
A lot depends on what you believe is possible Bob. Wattie Ayelander has a post putting forward the planting of fruit trees in our communities throughout Scotland. We do not need to be technically Independent to encourage independent thinking and thereby encourage the determination to be an Independent nation.
The Yes movement outside of the SNP may count it’s blessings once it gets going again that it is in no way bound by the shackles of SNP party politics or machinations.
A lot of things are happening Jeremy Corbyn is partly a result of the YES movement the little people in the Labour.
party want their party back. The Greens won 6 seats in the Scottish parliament without any help from the SNP.
Things are quite promising really.
Strangely enough John that was one of the orojects we thought of some time ago. Going arround Scotland on the yes bus planting a tree for every grass roots area organisation. However I had to pullout because of the age of the vehicle.
I am not saying there is no hope and I am refering to the SNP when i ask if the lesson is indeed too late in the learning. There is other initiatives under way and it will be interesting to see if the SNP are receptive to working with them