I wrote this blog below on the 3rd July 2015 and I defy anyone to say it was wrong .
I re-post this because it came up on my memories on Facebook and it has relevance to what is happening at the moment.
Belatedly the SNP seem to have come to the conclusion that all is not well in the struggle for independence and there does seem to be moves afoot to address the situation, in as much as Nicola Sturgeon seems to be offering cooperation with the wider independence movement as a way to consolidating ideas and initiatives.
Any thing which gets us away from the stagnation that has marked the SNP’s strategy for independence since the referendum ,is to be welcomed and I and others await further confirmation of good intent regarding this.
However, there are things that also have to be considered in connection with a resumption of the road to independence which came up against a no entry sign immediately after the independence referendum. The main consideration is who has been advising Nicola Sturgeon and the first entity that comes to mind is the fiscal commission who have been bumbling about with various currency questions for an inordinate amount of time now, which means that they either do not now what they are doing or there are other interests at play. They should be sacked immediately because they have done no good whatsoever. Nicola appointed “advisers and members of both the standing council of Europe and the fiscal commission who were incredibly, pro Union. Now that is the equivalent of a General who has just lost a battle asking the opposing General if he could help him out with a strategy to defeat him. That is simply stupid , there is no other word I can think of to describe that strategy.
So combined with an engagement with the wider independence movement there must be a clear out of these so called advisers or all this new found spirit of conciliation will mean nothing more than the paper it is printed on, if indeed it is printed at all.
The SNP must also stop bowing to media and unionist pressure to stop speaking about independence and instead make independence the main thrust of any future strategy, Their reluctance to keep independence to the fore is the very reason for their decline in popularity and they are in complete denial of this very obvious fact. There has also just commenced a media campaign to wrongly try to portray dissatisfaction within the business community of the discussion on independence related matters.
Their present position was always entirely predictable and that is the reason I re post the blog I did on the 3rd July 2015 , 9 months after the referendum. I suggested calling the campaign the “I told you so ” campaign and that suggestion is even more relevant today with brexit to add to the other disasters which predictably have befallen us like the Smith commission .
As I say , it is good and very welcome that the SNP have finally decided to listen to other voices. Putting the suggestions into practice might be another matter.
UNION! WHAT UNION
Yes what Union? Oh how the Westminster English MP’s must be kicking themselves . Why on earth did they even consider giving Scotland a devolved parliament. What was the point , both they and the Scottish people were kidding themselves , weren’t they ? There was no real Union in 1707 , it was simply a take over given a silly name of a Union , a Union between equals? Well we know just how equal it was now don’t we. It was never equal and in its present form ,never will be
This week proved that with all 56 Scottish members of Westminster voting for solely scottish issues and being massively voted down and laughed at by the Westminster establishment.
Within the next few weeks we will see the introduction of new English Votes For English laws EVEL for short and evil in content. Now when I say introduction I mean just that because this is not to be debated in parliament but merely put through on a standing order basis , which means that it will not even go through proper parliamentary procedure.
So this means that although Scotland Subsidises England, our democratically elected representatives will not even have the opportunity to scrutinise how this Scottish money is to be spent. This is nothing short of disgraceful.
This of course was a situation which should have been foreseen , actually it was,but unfortunately the only people who did not see it coming was our politicians . It only needs a simple grasp of arithmetic and a knowledge of the Tory party and the Labour Party to have foreseen this happening . Wait and see they kept saying , wait for the vow to be implemented , wait for them to keep their word , wait for the outcome of the Smith commission
After September 19 th I wanted to continue the campaign to highlight the broken promises as they happened . Yes by all means I said explore every avenue but keep the campaign going , keep it fresh in people’s minds as the Vow , the promises and the Smith commission unravel before their eyes. Change the Yes campaign to the ” I Told You So” campaign. Because we did actually tell them so every day on the streets of Dundee with the Yes Bus Dragon for independence team ,we told them they were being lied to about pensions ,about monetary union about the balance of payments situation, about entry to Europe and many other things.
When I posted my concerns immediately after the 19th I was vilified by several so called activists , activists who were at that point in time about to go to sleep and become in- activists . I was accused of splitting the support for the SNP and was called a few creative names To these people I would say simply ” I told you so” and by the way how do you feel now.
Now it is the politicians that I am saying to ” I told you so ” and we have lost 8 months of useful time getting to where many of us knew we were heading all the time and that is the one way street we found ourselves in this week. Many people hold on to the hope that the politicians have something up their sleeves . Well we thought that during the campaign and discovered that the only things they had up their sleeves were their arms.
So what now ? I feel that very shortly the democratic deficit will show the real black hole in UK politics and it is very important that our people down there realise this.
At that point we must bring them back home and call a Scottish parliamentary election with a mandate for independence. If there is a majority for independence parties then it must be either negotiated or taken I cannot see any other way.
In the mean time we must start to inform the people who were terrorised by Jim Murphy and his likes , by Osbourne , Balls , Alexander and their likes that all this was just an illusion , just like the vow . We must take the initiative it is a true saying that if you want peace then prepare for war ( and I do not mean that literally) .
the time of ” wait and see” is over and we must now grasp the Thistle
We are on the road to independence
This is our journey.
Bob
Bob Costello 