Month: July 2020

The excerpt at the foot of this piece is from a Facebook memory of the day 6 years ago we put Scotland’s dragon for independence on the road and indeed the day the Yes Bus team came into being.

We fought hard and we fought well, on the streets of Dundee and district. Mainly in our City Square. We debated all comers and converted many to the cause of independence.
We saw off the opposition in the form of labour’s big red bus and Jim Murphy on his crusade to strike fear into the hearts of our pensioners.

When I look back, I realise we did it all without any assistance from the SNP, in fact, they actually expected us to pay for elements of campaigning merchandise which the Yes Movement stored in the hub in St Andrews Street.
Merchandise, bought off funds raised through the Yes Scotland movement an organisation set up by the SNP as a way of giving the independence movement a separate identity from the SNP.

The only time we saw any politicians was when the cameras were there to photograph and film the Yes Bus team as we campaigned constantly in the city Square and other areas of Dundee.
When the cameras left then so did the politicians. Our only consolation was that we gave Dundee the highest percentage of yes votes in the country.

Ever since the referendum in 2014, the SNP have all but abandoned the cause of independence, with hardly a mention of the word through many of the elections which have taken place since then.
In fact, it was said to me by a prominent Dundee politician that when Stuart Hosie learned that we were arranging an independence rally to be held in the city Square the week before the 2015 General Election he said, and I quote “we can’t have saltires and yes posters being waved around the city square the week before the General Election.”
Yes, that was a direct quote from an SNP member of parliament.

There was the occasion during the referendum campaign that I could see that there was confusion regarding various proposed policies for a future Scottish Government such as pensions, and in particular, monetary union.
At the time, Wings Over Scotland had published a fantastic book called “the Wee Blue Book” which gave very clear answers to all of these questions.
I had the idea that we should get a copy to every household in Dundee.
I spoke to a fellow campaigner, John Gibson, who immediately agreed to share the cost of the project.
I then approached the SNP at their office in Glamis Road as they had the means to distribute these books.
I explained the projects and the reasoning behind it, which was that being on the streets of Dundee most days with the Yes Bus team I had picked up on a need for clarity on certain important issues, the Wee Blue Book was a godsend in clarity and we were prepared to finance the project at no cost to the SNP.
I will never forget that day.
There was a good selection of SNP politicians there, and they listened to what I had to say.
It then took them about two minutes to reject the idea on the grounds that it was their opinion that it would not work.

So, where are we now on the road to independence, well exactly nowhere and many of these politicians that were making these dubious decisions during the campaign are still wielding power.
Therin lies the possible reason we are in a dead-end with a leadership that is caught like a rabbit in the headlights of a car.

Unless there is a complete change of tact in the lead up to the elections next May, with all independence parties going on a manifesto of simply independence, and thereafter, and on a majority, declaring independence, then I fear the British state will begin taking even more powers from Scotland making a future independence campaign virtually impossible.

The implications for what might follow on from that are too awful to contemplate.

6 years ago I posted this on Facebook as we prepaired to roll out one of our projects to forward the cause of independence.

27 July 2014

Scotland’s Dragon for Independence

We have the Dragon ready to roll and we are intending meeting tomorrow Tuesday 29 July at Tesco Car park on the Kingsway aboard the Dragon.
We are making this vehicle available to any grassroots Yes organisations for Campaigning for a Yes vote on 18 September.
Also we are to campaign ourselves ,so we want any organisations who wish to make use of the bus to turn up at this meeting and we will get them scheduled in for use of the Bus . there is absolutely no cost implications to any of these organisations.
It would also be great to see any interested volunteers to man the bus and carry out leafleting duties. We only have 7 weeks to go so lets see a good effort by all.

Saturday 25 July 2020

China and Russia.
SNP and independence.
Corona Virus.

Ok so this is me just sat down again to give my views on what is happening in the world after some time away.
To be honest, I have been disillusioned even more than normal with politics over this last few months and just did not have the motivation to write. However, things seem to be changing hopefully for the best, so I thought I would have a wee go at trying to fathom out the logic behind some of the machinations of our so called leaders once again.

Russia and China
Let me start with the two countries that seem to be the brunt of ire emanating from mainly the UK and the US.
Once again they are the devil incarnate, with their meddling in the affairs of both the UK and the US.

The UK have decided to dispense with the services of Huawei, the Chinese telecoms giant on the grounds that Donald Trump told them to, and the reason he did that is that he is on a crusade to vilify any thing Chinese in order to stop them from becoming the number one economy on the planet.

He wont succeed in that himself, because he will be thrown out of the Whitehouse in November at the upcoming presidential elections. That is if there is anyone left in the US after this virus has spread with the incompetent aid of Trump. His management of the Pandemic has been disastrously and incompetently plain for all to see. Hence the need to divert people’s attention from this.

What Trump really needs is a new war, and he is diligently working on that as well by causing problems in the South China Sea in connection with Chinese territorial claims.
” Just what are these bloody Chinese up to in the aptly named, err, South China Sea?” If the US start any thing in that part of the world, they will receive a very severe bloody nose, but mind you, there is word that Trump’s poodle Johnson, is to send one of our new aircraft carriers to the area, which is great news for Trump.
It would be even better news if the UK could afford airplanes for the carrier.

The thing Trump and Johnson have in common is that they are making an utter mess of governing their countries and Johnson, by way of taking people’s eyes off the ball has decided to vilify Russia.
In this he has enlisted the willing idiots in the BBC who are once again telling people that the RAF are turning back Russian planes who are trying to breach UK defenses. The only problem there, is that this has been the standard procedure for over 40 years and is a weekly occurrence. Russia are simply testing the response time of aircraft from Lossiemouth, in the North of Scotland.
The RAF carry out the very same maneuvers in connection to Russian aircraft response times
I am sure the UK would do a lot more if they could afford the fuel!

Big investigation this week into Russian interference in UK affairs and in particular into how it affected the Independence Referendum in 2014.
The only thing absent from this was evidence, in fact the only item of substance was a report which came out in Russia shortly “after” the referendum, which highlighted the inadequacies in how the referendum voting had been carried out to the detriment of the Scottish people and that came directly from the international observers who were present during the campaign, a fact missed out was that David Cameron actually asked Vladimir Putin to intervene on behalf of the British state, which he did, in a comment that “countries were stronger together”. Something the UK might have paid attention to in the years following the referendum in connection with the EU.
Rather ironic don’t you think?

Yes there certainly has been Russian influence in UK affairs but it has been through deliberate manipulation of the immigration system by the Tory party and indeed the British government, by way of the points system regarding the granting of visas to Russian citizens.

There is a system of acceptance for visas based on how much money an individual is prepared to either bring in to the country, or “invest” within the UK. Quite a lot of this “incoming” money seems to find its way into the coffers of the Tory Party by way of substantial donations.
That is bad enough, but one of the main reasons for this influx of money into the country is the need for it to be laundered and the UK is one of the largest money laundromats on the planet.
By definition therfore, so is the bank account of the Tory party, and I will explain the process.
These visa applications do not go through normal channels and there are different procedures depending on the amounts the individuals wish to bring into the country.
These “special” applications are authorised directly from the Home Office.
In other words Priti Patel is responsible for these applications being authorised.
You will remember that Priti Patel was sacked from Theresa May’s government after it was discovered that she was involved in secret meetings with Israeli government officials in a scheme to divert foreign aid UK funds to the Israeli Army. She was later reintroduced into government by her friend Boris Johnson.
When money comes into the country or into a new bank account, the banks are responsible for carrying out certain procedures to ascertain that this money was derived from legal sources. In other words it is not being placed into the system to wash it clean. However in the case of these “special” visas authorised directly by the Home office, the checking on the probity of these transactions was, whether deliberately or by the usual incompetence, confused, as the Banks “assumed” that the Home Office had carried out due diligence on these sums and the Home Office “assumed” that the banks would carry out the necessary checks.
This meant that huge amounts of dirty money found its way into the system and indeed, into the Tory Party’s bank account.
This was the reason for the reticence on behalf of Johnson to allow an investigation into Russian “influence”.

Nicola Sturgeon and Independence

Right, now to the thorny subject of Independence and indeed to Nicola Sturgeon who, as the leader of the SNP and indeed the First Minister of the Scottish government, a government, in effect elected on the basis of the will of the Scottish people being, that it would progress to Independence, is, through at least SIX mandates instructed to attain Independence ASAP.

Before I go any further, and to save anyone requiring medical treatment because of increased blood pressure, and if there is anyone reading this who are part of the mindless hoard of groveling sycophants who object to anything negative being said about their “glorious leader” I suggest you stop reading this blog now, because I make it very plain that because of the way Sturgeon has led the Independence movement up a dead end street, I have absolutely zero respect or confidence in her “leadership”.

Nicola Sturgeon was crowned Queen of the SNP, and by definition, the Independence movement in 2014, shortly after Alex Salmond resigned in consequence of the result of the Independence referendum.

Since then, she and the SNP have been the beneficiaries of circumstance with regard to popularity.
Which, in turn favourably increased their membership. They have increased their representation in Westminster and held on to the place of the largest party in Holyrood, with some reverses along the way….. all because of the actions of both the Tory party, and to an extent the Labour party in Scotland.
It is fair to say, they are where they are, not because of their actions but despite their inaction.
Again, I reiterate that they are the “beneficiaries of circumstance” & not the authors of their own success.

I cannot think of a single thing Nicola Sturgeon has done to push forward the cause of Independence.
Some would say that because the SNP have governed well there has been an element of conversion of no voters.
To that theory I would say … nonsense.
I will explain my thoughts on why.

The people we have to convince are the people who voted no in the last referendum. These people, in the main, voted no because they honestly believed that they would be better off being governed “under” the Union.
How on earth are these voters to be persuaded to change their minds by showing them that Scotland can actually be governed better than it has been in the past, but still under the Union. No, the SNP are really in the process of settling in as the colonial Vichy government.

If proof be necessary, one only has to look at the record of the SNP and indeed the opinion polls over the last six years, come September.
In the early days after 2014 it is probably reasonable to say that the SNP did govern Scotland well, mainly because of the systems and policies that were put in place by Alex Salmond , such as free prescriptions, the small business rates relief, free university education and projects like the new Forth Road Bridge, the dueling of the A9 and the Aberdeen by-pass.

However during that time the opinion polls remained stagnant, and the SNP’s ability to govern the country became rather controversial through showing a tendency to be authoritarian with laws such as the attempted introduction of the “Named Person” legislation being introduced.
Latterly there has been controversy surrounding the attempts to introduce the “Gender Reform Act.”
A reform which seemed to deny the biological make up of human beings and introduce self ID of “perceived” gender changing, meaning that biological men could legally gain access to women’s only private areas such as showers and public toilets, by simply saying that they had changed their impression of what their gender was. Thereby defying the laws of nature.
There is also now the “Hate crime bill” which again gives the impression that the Scottish government is hell bent on introducing ever more Orwellian restrictions on the general population.

Now with huge dissatisfaction on how the Scottish government is legislating to restrict freedoms, opinion polls are heading upwards in favour of Scottish Independence.
My point is that there is no direct relation between the Scottish government’s perception of governing well and no voters turning to Independence.
Nicola Sturgeon’s record in advancing the cause of Independence has been abysmal, with a collection of mandates gathering dust in a cupboard somewhere.
If I were to put all the evidence together on a basis of a for or against Independence, I would have to come to the conclusion that Nicola Sturgeon is anti-independence and by definition a supporter of the British state.

Whenever an election is looming she starts playing the Independence card and that last Westminster election really took the cake, when she hurriedly arranged to appear at a rally in George square for the first time in her five and a half years in power.
She blatantly gave a totally false impression that this election was to be all about Independence.

It then transpired that it was really all about Brexit, something she knew she couldn’t change.

In all of the election literature, there was not a single mention of Independence, a totally dishonest and shameful exercise in political manipulation and every single SNP candidate willingly participated in this disgraceful episode in Scottish political history.
Basically a barefaced charade.

Recently, Nicola Sturgeon’s rating have climbed considerably but this is against a very low bar, as her counterpart in London is no more than a bumbling, partially coherent scarecrow.
Her presentations at the daily Corona Virus briefing have been in the main clear and appeared as statistically accurate. This does not however absolve her from the awful mess at the start of the epidemic in Scotland where confusion reigned.
Our elderly, sick, and frail, were unceremoniously removed and dumped into care homes without being tested, causing countless unnecessary deaths and huge pressure on care home managements dealing with the resulting outbreaks.
The Scottish government initially acquiesced with the UK government in regard to a policy of herd immunity.
A totally insane and soulless policy.
Of course the root of the problem was that both governments had ignored the recommendations of exercise Cygnus in 2016 which identified a serious lack of preparedness for any future disease outbreak.
Nicola Sturgeon’s legacy will be that she led a government which was responsible for thousands of unnecessary deaths.

It should be noted that Nicola’s hastily arranged rally in George Square was the only Independence rally that she has appeared at since she became leader of the independence movement.
She has however, willingly appeared at gay marches in her capacity as the First Minister of Scotland, a blatant example of her putting what I am led to believe is her personal sexual orientation forward to promote a cause nearer her heart over what is supposed to be her main function as leader of the SNP and First Minister with a mandate to attain Independence.
This to me is plainly unacceptable.

I could go on for days listing the failures of Nicola Sturgeon, but I have already went on too long with this and I haven’t even touched the Alex Salmond fit up, so I will conclude, by mentioning the SNP attitude to parties standing in the next Scottish elections in the regional list section.
In the last Scottish elections in 2016, the SNP made an utter mess of it by instructing their membership to vote SNP in both the Constituency and Regional options. This was a disaster as it led to almost a million SNP votes being wasted and allowed many unionist candidates to be elected.
They do not learn as they are at it again. They are once more about to make exactly the same mistake.
Or is it a mistake?
If you believe that Nicola Sturgeon is genuinely trying to achieve Independence for Scotland, you might think it is a mistake. I do not think that, in fact I believe that under Nicola Sturgeon the SNP are more interested in retaining power than achieving Independence, and therfore they are not fit for the purpose for which they were originally formed which is the independence of the Scottish Nation.

Nicola Sturgeon is hell bent on pursuing this section 30 goal, calling it “the gold standard,” absolute nonsense.
She point blank refused to envisage any other method, quite simply because she knows that the section 30 route is the one which will never succeed.
The most sensible way forward is to make the next election an election on a simple mandate for Independence, simple as that, and if there is a majority then open negotiations with the UK government to separate, while at the same time looking for countries to recognise Scotland’s rightful place once more as an Independent nation.

I feel this is our last chance to achieve independence through the ballot box. I fear this right wing government will shortly proceed to strip powers from Scotland.
In fact, this has already begun through the repatriation of powers from the EU which should have went to Scotland being powers that were not retained under the devolution settlement.

If we do not act in a positive manner at the upcoming Scottish elections in 2021′ the only alternative left open to gain Scottish Independence is to fight for our freedom, an Irish situation in the making, compliments of Nicola Sturgeon etal. The implications of which are too horrendous to contemplate.

All the very best to my friends in different parts of the planet. I hope you are coping with this awful curse we have upon us at the moment.
We will get through this, although the “normal” then, will never be what it was before.

Stay safe

Slainte