Well here we are on the cusp of a General Election which will take place on the 12 December. An election that on the 24th October Ian Blackford ( the leader of the SNP in Westminster ) described as “holding an election in December, as ” sheer madness.” However, by Saturday 26 October, two days later, Nicola Sturgeon ( leader of the SNP) together with Joe Swinson ( leader of the Libdems) had clubbed together to put forward an intention to place a bill before Parliament to have a general election on the 9 th December.
Incredibly , Boris Johnson had opened the door to both parties to form a deal to allow the December 12 date to proceed. Now just three weeks before this debacle I had suggested that the SNP do a deal with Johnston to allow his negotiated settlement on the EU withdrawal bill or a December General Election to proceed on the basis that he would agree to a section 30 as long as it could be put into law immediately.
I had quite a reaction to this on both Facebook and Twitter. The Twitter response was hugely positive. The Facebook response , although in the main positive by the amount of people for and against, was met with the usual mind numbingly stupid reactions from a group of well versed Nicola personality cult, abusers, in a stream of invective and outpouring of expletives , common among the less able to think , who incredibly still think Nicola has a clever plan. A plan I remind you changed from ” General election in December sheer madness” on Thursday ,to “General election in December without a deal to gain a section 30, a great idea” within two days.
because Nicola Sturgeon and Jo Swinson had conspired to allow a December election, this bounced Jeremy Corbyn into also agreeing to a December election. Now let me be plain, and let no one be under any misapprehension. Nicola Sturgeon facilitated an election at which according to all polling will allow the most right wing government in British history into office and she did this WITHOUT ATTEMPTING TO GET A DEAL ON A SECTION 30 ORDER, (in fact the leader of this party has twice stated very clearly in parliament that there will be no agreement on a section 30) an act of either deliberate obfuscation as regards an independence referendum or blatant stupidity and believe it or not there are still people who think she has a clever plan.
I do not think I have ever saw such a debacle as I witnessed in the House of Commons as a result of the change of minds of the SNP, Lib-dems and Labour, all vying for their own place in history mixed in with self interest, in particular the SNP, where snouts in troughs replaced the main propose of their existence which is supposed to be delivering independence to Scotland.
So then we had the unedifying spectacle of the hastily arranged rally in George Square Glasgow , An event deliberately designed to divert attention from the fiasco in parliament and make people believe that it was all part of the clever plan of a referendum sometime in 2020 .
Nicola sturgeon gave a rousing speech which was immediately pounced upon as a speech announcing the next independence referendum., Only problem was it did no such thing, and Nicola as usual was very careful with her play on words. Nowhere in her speech did she confirm that there WILL be a referendum in 2020 . The only utterance that came anywhere near that was that she said “I look forward to leading you in PREPERATION for a referendum next year”, something she should have been doing during the last five years. During the speech she made at the party conference a few Weeks ago she again was very careful in her play on words when she was confident that there SHOULD be a referendum in 2020, not WILL be, you will notice. There is absolutely no justification for believing that either speech was not yet another occasion where she has marched the faithful up to the top of the hill and down again as she has so many times in the past.
The fact is, that she has one opportunity left to redeem herself and that is in the formation of the party manifesto for this election. She must make it plain that this election is to ascertain the will of the people as to the strength of opinion on whether the majority of the people of Scotland wish to be independent as required in the UN charter of self determination, just like the 66 countries who have gained their independence from the British Empire since 1945. It should be noted that not a single one of these countries had even heard of the section 30 derogation that Nicola sturgeon erroneously calls ” the Gold standard”
She wont do it, of that I am sure, and then she will be guilty of squandering the most opportune set of circumstances ever likely to present themselves in the history of politics, and let me make another prediction. There will not be an independence referendum before the Scottish elections in 2021 as long as Nicola sturgeon and Peter Murrel ( her husband) are at the top of the SNP.
I have been disillusioned and extremely disappointed at the way the independence cause has been handled by the Sturgeon, Murrel pair since shortly after Nicola was made leader and I do not think it is any coincidence that shortly after she took over, Alex Salmond was sidelined and then basically put out of the game by allegations brought about by a change in the procedure for making complaints brought about by Nicola Sturgeon. I have put my thoughts on this down in previous blogs and I am convinced that the most recent reticence in progressing a referendum campaign has a very close connection to this and believe that revelations which will surely surface during Salmond’s trial might at long last explain this illogical restraint. It is surely no coincidence that Salmond is probably the only SNP politician capable of taking the independence fight forward and he has been muted.
On another matter, because of my frustrations surrounding the constant delays and willful obstructions to the cause of independence I had decided to stand against the incumbent member of Parliament for Dundee West. On a simple manifesto of “independence now”. I had prepared a campaign and had a first class and willing team together and I was indeed looking forward to the fight. Unfortunately because of close family and personal matters I have decided not to stand, I firmly believe that a new party or at the very least a new leadership of the SNP are now required to take the fight forward. I am totally sickened by their insipid performance to date and as this General Election campaign will have, in effect nothing to do with independence ( as witnessed by the candidates literature to date which omits any mention of a referendum) I will not be campaigning, however when eventually we do get into an independence contest I can assure you that the Yes bus will be back on the streets of Dundee and in our city Square.
Bob Costello 
It’s Boris JOHNSON , not Johnston. Failure to know this very basic point kinda negates your veracity
Do you actually think so , shame dyslexia can be such a turn off. Mind you I all that was said , only one spelling mistake, not too bad
Just the one?
How about starting a sentence with a lower case letter?
Oh dear the grammar Taliban , do you realise just how silly you are?
For the past 5 years people have been saying , “Now is the time for a referendum!”. But “NOW” is better than any time in the last 5 years so for 5 years people have been wrong. You’re saying that a request for a Section 30 order should already have been made, but at no time in the last 5 years have I seen that the possibility of the permission for a Section 30 would have been given. Not only would it not have been given, it would not have been given during a time when there was no back-up plan, and the media would have turned the refusal into a media storm humiliation and made the quest for future requests even more remote than before. The headlines for a second request would have been along the lines, “We said NO and we meant it.” Currently we are waiting on a general election, the results of which will undoubtedly be a massive increase in the number of SNP MPs at Westminster. Meanwhile the Scottish government is putting through a Referendum bill which will tie Scots Law into the series of events which will follow a Section 30 refusal. The SNP had no leverage over any party in putting it forward as a condition for a referendum. It certainly wasn’t agreed with the LibDems, and it couldn’t have been made with the Labour party who were too busy contemplating their navels. But the pressure from a temporary coalition between SNP and LibDems of only a few days was enough to sway Labour party into action. Everything is moving forward positively with the exception of a few discenters like yourself who despite having been a positive influence on the side of Scottish independence in the past, have decided to throw their toys out the pram and declare “A’m no playing!” Get over yourself. As Alex Salmond will tell you, Independence is bigger than one man. The battle is nearly won and you can either be one of the team who helped win it, or the one who got off the bus at the wrong stop.
The actions of Westminster to the Scots for the last 300 years is the reason they want Independence.