I have not written a World this week from Mennies for some time, as to be honest I have been heartily sickened by politics in general. However I decided to get a few things down on paper to vent my frustrations at how the world looks from a disillusioned political observer and campaigner for Scottish independence’s point if view.
So, here we are again at the end of another week and some week it has been on the tail end of last week in which the World teetered on the edge of World war three , brought to you by your old friend and incompetent President, Donald Trump, who decided he would murder top Iranian General Quasem Soleimani.
Now make no mistake about it , this was Murder , pure and simple, pre- meditated murder. Ok there are arguments that he was involved in assisting groups who were opposing US incursions into other peoples countries , like Syria for instance. No doubt similar groups that the US assist and finance like ISIS , All-Qaida, All-Nustra etc. Strange thing is that ISIS were over the Moon at this assassination because this particular General was very successful in eliminating many thousands of the adherents to that obnoxious sect. One of the victim of that attack was the driver of the car who, presumably was simply doing hos job and did not go home to his wife and kids that night. Strange World we live in.
Following on from this attack was the downing of the Ukrainian airliner in what has now been admitted by the Iranian Government as a horrible mistake, no doubt made by an anti aircraft battery manned be soldiers expecting a US attack. No doubt this will be investigated including whether there was any interference with their target marking and identification systems. There is however one inescapable conclusion and that is that without the attack on Quasem Soleimani, this airliner would not have been shot down. Therefore Trump will have the deaths of more than just the occupants of the car on his conscience but also the 173 unfortunate passengers in the airliner. This of course assumes he does have a conscience.
We have witnessed the devastating bush fires in Australia and our thoughts go out to the causalities and people who have lost homes in this tragedy. There has also been millions of animals killed in this sad episode in Australian history. A consequence of global warming? Who knows, but a horrible tragedy never the less.
Ok, so now to my favorite ( or perhaps not so favorite at the moment) subject and that is the ongoing fight for Scottish independence. I have leveled so much criticism lately ( and a lot not so lately) at the manner the SNP and in particular, Nicola Sturgeon have progressed along the road to independence and because of my criticisms over the last ( almost) 5 years, I have regularly came in for condemnation and abuse on a grand scale. The thing is that in the main the abuse has not been generated because of what, I have been saying, but mainly because of the fact that I was saying it. In other words the general consensus of the less able to think was that regardless of how bad a job the SNP were doing, it was felt that I did not have the right to criticize them. This was very clear in a recent blog I did and posted it on, among other sites the Republic of Dundee Facebook page. It laid out the muddle the SNP have got themselves into. Now on this site alone it generated 450 comments and answers some were supportive and some were definitely not supportive backed up by some pretty foul language . The thing about all these comments was that not a single one actually criticized anything I said and all were about my right so say them. Eventually the owner of the site took the posting down, bowing to the mob.
Anyway, the fight goes on, and not very efficiently by the present incumbent of the position of leader on the SNP whose main line of attack is that Boris Johnston is duty bound to grant a section 30. Well this week he has told her for the third time in parliament that he will do no such thing. Surprise ,surprise! So plan B, err, what is it? I wonder just how the faithful feel now after all the time they have said to me that “Nicola has a clever plan” as one thing is sure, and that is that if by some miracle she does have a clever plan it will be the only one she has formulated in the last 5 years.
So moving on and thinking ahead to when the next area of action will be, and that no doubt will be the Scottish elections in May 2021 because I am sure we will arrive at that point without any referendum having taken place and we will be back once again to Nicola ( if indeed she is still at the helm which I very much doubt) standing in George Square at a hastily arranged Rally once again and getting the (By that time) rather jaded faithful all fired up again with half promises of another referendum.
Well, that cannot happen and if we get to that point in time without a referendum having taken place then there must be another party there to, at the very least fight the list seats in the election to allow a large pro-independence majority to guide the SNP to a proper road map to independence.
Now this leads me to a very recent development and that is the formation of a group who have just launched the “Digital Covenant”. This is an ongoing digital referendum with one question and only one answer, YES, It is run through the blockchain system so is incorruptible. You can only vote YES, therefore all non votes are taken as NO. This means that we will have to get more than 50% of the voting public to vote yes, some 2.3 million votes but the result will be absolute. It just went live today and there will be teething problems so give it a chance and I will be writing more about this in the days to come. you can get to the site at digitalcovenant.scot . More on this later
So to a pint in my favorite hostelry to celebrate the Weekend. I wish my friends the World over a pleasant Saturday evening and I raise my glass to you.
Slainte
Bob Costello 