Bob Costello

Sitting here on the last day of my trip and looking out at the harbour in Cannes. Some of the yachts there are unbelievable and an extreme and vulgar expression of wealth. A sure sign that the gap between the haves and have not is not becoming any narrower.

Today was another interesting day in the demise of the UK as we know it, as the realisation that Britain has been dragged  out of the EU on the word of a clown. A totally unprincipled Clown by the way who has now slunk off into the shadows when he has been made to confront the consequences of his lies and deceit.

However , one door closes and another opens and that is just what has happened to Scotland . We now have the opportunity to go for independence once again and this time it will be different as the people will not be so willing to swallow  the lies that were so prevalent in the last campaign and of course in this most recent one on the EU.

I remember during the last independence referendum camping answering the many questions on the EU and telling people that, of course we would gain entry and in fact we were more at risk of leaving the EU by voting no. I also made the case that if we were independent and the rest of the UK left the EU then that would be  perfect storm as we would be inundated with companies willing to base themselves in Scotland to take advantage of tariff free trading with the EU.

Well guess what? That has just happened and I predict that we will have a referendum in the spring or early rely summer of 2017. There is also word of a special case being made for Scotland to ,in effect put us into an interim application position with seamless transition when the rump UK finally leaves the EU.

It could have been easier if we had been prepared by addressing the issues we lost the last referendum on and also had the SNP taken advantage of manifesto opportunities presented on both the general election and the Scottish elections to wrest control of the ability to call and organise a referendum from Westminster. We did not do that but there is still a good case for insisting that Westminster grants the required permission to do this.

So get ready folks we are in a pre-campaign mode and the Yes bus stands ready to slip seamlessly into full campaigning mode as we have never went away and have been carrying on collecting for foodbanks and in doing so highlighting this need occasions by the austerity policies of the Tory government.

we will wecome any one and any organisation to campaign allong side us,left or right ,labour Tory, any pro independence group or individual

Exiting times ahead folks.

We are still on the road to independence

Our journey

I am traveling through Europe at the moment. I have been to France, Spain and Italy, all very nice countrys with their own individual cultures and customs. The people in all of these countries like the people in every other European country are proud of their countries and very patriotic. I have seen far more flags hanging outside the houses than I see every day in Scotland or England for that matter. These people are very proud of the fact that they live in independent countries within the family of the European Union.

There is a constant debate going on in Scotland at the moment by people who just can’t accept the fact that the majority of people who voted in last Week’s referendum wished to continue to be part of that family of nations. They keep making unsubstantiated statements like “I do not want to leave one union ,only to find that I do not have independence within another union” or that “I do not want to be part of the EU because it is undemocratic” or “I do not want to be ruled by unelected commissioners”  All of these statements are nonsense .

Firstly ,every country in the EU is in its own right independent, unless ,like Scotland it is already part on a Union ,the host country of which it is a member. Every single one of these countries can at any time and with the democratic consensus of its people, leave the EU. No one forces them to be a member. The UK has just done that.

Next , the EU has one of the most democratic systems on the planet and its systems exist for the sole benefit of its citizens.

The favourite of the less able to think critics is the commissioner system as everyone seems to think that as unelected officials, they are responsible for making laws. Well nothing could be further from the truth. There are  28 countries in the EU and each one of them through their elected representatives are entitled to choose a commissioner so there is 28 commissioners. The job of a commissioner is to investigate and to suggest/advise on matters of law/ concern and to do this they all have committees. They are each given an area of responsibility for example the European Human rights act. It is their responsibility   to take evidence from all the different countries regarding their particular remit. They all meet once a week and decide on what to take forward to the next stage, and this is the important bit because the next stage is to put this research before the elected members of the European parliament and also to each of the 28 members, independent parliaments. Now if that is not democracy working then I do not know what is.

Now it would appear that a lot of this misinformed criticism comes from the left leaning element of the independence movement and I have to wonder at  the logic behind some of this criticism as it was this attitude and the fact that quite a lot of these people did not vote to remain that could have seen us here in Scotland without the fantastic majority we did actually get ,to  remain and therefore deprive us of the opportunity  we now have to go once again for independence and instead leave us to languish in the clutches of a real undemocratic state , the UK.

One thing these left wing opponents of being (as they erroneously call it) in an undemocratic union might like to reflect on is that no doubt many of them are in trade unions who have the most undemocratic voting  systems of any union on the  planet.

So I will always be an independent Scot I will do what I can to achieve this independence of my country . I will not stoop to the depths of depravity and Xenophobia exhibited by groups like Britain First. I will welcome people to this country as people from all over the World have welcomed Scots who have managed  to make their mark on these countrys.

I am a proud Scot and a proud European

been

Ok so with things ever so slightly up in the air and the perpetrators of the debacle posted missing . One wonders what the thinking was behind the move to exit from the EU. Perhaps we will never know because under that scruffy mop of hair that hangs precariously onto Boris karlofs head it would appear that Dr Frenkenstine forgot to insert a brain,He simply  unleashed his monster that is the leaderless rudderless United Kingdom today and it looks like the British people will have to accept the consequences of this totally reckless action.

Now I remember during the independence referendum when great stock was put into the fallacy of “no plan B “ well it looks like the Brexit comedians didn’t even have a plan A. Honestly , you just couldn’t make it up.

Now had we been prepared, had we addressed the shortfalls in our referendum campaign. Such as Pensions , the monetary system, etc. and just as important had we used the two elections. The general election and the Scottish elections to put in place a mandate to wrest control of the ability to decide when and in what manner we held another referendum , then we would have probably been in a better position now to go for it , but unfortunately we did not prepare for all eventualities and another referendum is somewhere in the future, mind you I would not say two years as is being suggested in some circles and regardless of what negotiation are entered into, regarding a possible continuation of Scottish membership of the EU, there must be an immediate move towards a resumption of the campaign for independence.

This time we have an advantage , because we know all of the questions so all we have to do is put the answers to them and in the main I suggest that Business for Scotland lead this with fact sheets.  Sheets carefully laid out with the question , the answer, and  the source of the research  that allowed the conclusion. That is how methodical and forensic we have to be.

I suggest that every one in the meanwhile go to the Business for Scotland web site and down load the excellent account by Gordon McIntire Kemp, of the miss truths and failed promises we were subjected to during the campaign. Yes there is no such thing as a free lunch , that is your homework and the reward is independence.

The SNP have a duty to coordinate this exercise much in the same vein as the Yes initiative during the referendum campaign.

Now the most important part . We have just been through an in out referendum for the EU and although the majority who voted in Scotland, voted to stay in , there was a good many voted to come out and there was a lot  of split loyalty, therefore any future referendum must contain a promise from all parties  that the first independent Scottish Government will , as one of their, first duties hold a referendum on either entry to the EU or in the case that we have managed to retain our membership a vote on whether to remain or withdraw . That way we will keep the maximum amount of yes votes intact. Now this is a must, no prevarication either way.

Ok that is my views on the immediate way forward and for all the Dundee Yes Bus team and any others, we will be having a meeting within the next couple of Week’s , so get your thinking caps on , this time ,the SNP must, work closely with the grass roots groups and business for Scotland for together we are unbeatable.

Dundee was the yes City , this time Scotland will be the yes country.

So in the words of Robert Burns “come saddle your horses and call out your Men, unhook the West Port and let us gang free , for its up we the bonnets of bonnie Dundee”

Our road

Well here we are, another referendum under our belt and probably beginning to realise that politicians lie. This referendum was fronted on the stay side by David Cameron, the same guy who fronted the no side in the independence referendum we had in Scotland during 2014. He lied in this one as he lied in the last one.Then we had Boris Johnston who led the leave side . A man who took lying to a new level of dizzying heights. A clown who could be the next prime minister of the bruised and battered united kingdom.

The result as far as Scotland is concerned, could not have been better. Well, let me qualify that statement. It could have been better if more of the left leaning potential Yes voters had bothered to do some research and discovered that the EU is in fact a good deal more democratic than the UK and took just a minute to think of what they were in effect actually voting for and that is a fascist Xenophobic government led by a clown.

So here we are with an opportunity to go for independence once more and once again the SNP the beneficiaries of an event, out with their control but one that as with the last referendum will propel them to greater heights in the popularity stakes. Let’s hope that this time they do something with their rejuvenated popularity instead of the state of near paralysis they have been in since the referendum.

However, I would caution against an immediate resumption of a full blown campaign as there are many things to consider. One of them would be to investigate the possibility of Scotland actually remaining in the EU and the reason I say this is that there is as far as I know, no procedure for removing the EU citizenship except in the case where a whole country is removed. However, I would imagine that is because all of that countries inhabitants presumably gives their permission through the democratic procedure and I wonder what the case would be if a country(Scotland) with its own devolved government which was part of the member host, union of countries collectively invoked the Human Rights Act on behalf of its citizens and insisted through the result of the referendum that the citizens of Scotland should remain citizens of the EU.

Now all this would presumably take time but there is absolutely no reason why in parallel with this investigation there should not be a campaign to gain support for independence and this time it really must be a joint up effort between the SNP , the grass roots organisations and Business For Scotland and dare I say quite possibly a renewed Scottish Labour party together with , yes a Scottish Tory party. The Tory party in Scotland were on the opposite side of the faction who came out on top in the referendum. This scenario might just be going too far but it is worth a thought and I am sure it has at least been discussed in Scottish Tory circles and in deed Labour too.

The one thing that must be done is to start to address the failings of the last independence referendum as this is something that should have been started on immediately after the referendum but to date has been a failing of the SNP. A good start would be to print literature and posters of the list of deceptions we were subjected to during the last campaign produced by Gordon McIntire Kemp of Business For Scotland and we can start getting this out on the streets. Please go to the web site of business for Scotland where you will be able to see this list of deceptions and please also note that Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp also suggests that a road map be laid out. Now I wonder where we have heard that before?

Now is not the time for all the individuality dual groups to go off on their own tangents. Now is the time for proper leadership and a proper road map. The SNP are best placed to deliver this and all eyes will be on them. The people of Scotland expect no less.

One more thing, the people who voted no in the independence referendum and the people who voted to leave in the EU referendum are in the main decent folk who for reasons of their own decided to vote differently from you. Respect their right to do so and please stop this awful tirade of infantile name calling. Instead, do your homework and have the answers for them and put them in a respectful manner. We have to build bridges not walls.

The Yes Bus, Scotland’s Dragon for independence will be on the streets of Dundee again (actually we have never been away and have been collecting for food banks since the referendum) and this time we are going to win.

We are still on that road to independence.

This is our journey

Well in a couple of days’ time we will go to the polls to cast our vote in what is probably the worst referendum in living memory .It will long be remembered for the lies, bigotry xenophobia displayed on both sides but mainly from the leave side. It has thrown up distasteful people like Boris Johnston and Nigel Farage in circus of deceit.
It has brought out the worst in society in the form of the organisation Britain First through the horrible terrorist act on Joe Cox by one of their members.

It is difficult to say how it will go on Thursday but as I have been saying for a while now I have a feeling we will stay in by a narrow margins and there will be a larger majority in Scotland for remaining in the EU.

This brings me to the independence question. I do not think (regardless of whether we are in or out) there will be a large enough majority in Scotland to warrant another independence referendum and in any case it would be too difficult to know just what the proportion of stay voters were also independence supporters , so I feel as I have felt for a long time that this was always a bit of an SNP red hearing. However, regardless of how slim the chance is of this, in, out vote of leading to some form of push for another go at independence it is certainly a good reason to vote to stay. Because if nothing else this referendum campaign has brought out the low life that would seek to govern us from under their stones.

Because of my support for the remain camp I have been accused in recent postings of being a Unionist. This mainly from people who cannot understand the difference between the union as in the UK and the European Union.
Scotland is in the UK Union not through the choice but through the greed and desperation of the nobility who held power in 1707 and the ordinary Scottish people had no hand in the formation of that union. The European Union on the other hand was entered voluntary, through the democratically elected government of the day under Ted Heath who negotiated entry on our behalf, then two years later under Harold Wilson there was a referendum in which the people voted by something like 68% to stay in. So there is a World of difference between the two unions as far as Scotland is concerned.

So as far as I am concerned there is only one vote on Thursday and that is a vote to stay in the EU. It isn’t perfect by far but without it Scotland would not have had the referendum on devolution in 1997. We would not have the Human Rights act and without it we will see a rapid deterioration of basic working rights under an extreme right wing government led by a xenophobic Circus Clown and bourgeoning of hate sponsored neo Nazi groups like British first. I sincerely hope the SNP will keep to their word of addressing the independence question once again after their period of muddle and we will before long have no need of this UK Union but until such time, I prefer the calming hand of the EU to be in the background.

I wrote this high above the Atlantic Ocean on the way back from another country that at present is also at risk of being governed by a xenophobic racist. Tonight before posting this, I watched the big debate. A couple of weeks ago I gave my concerns that it was unwise for Nicola Sturgeon to have went down to London to involve herself in a debate, sharing a platform with the Tories and Labour who themselves shared many platforms together to thwart our attempts to gain independence.
Tonight my concerns were realised as Ruth Davidson was by far the most effective combatant on the stage and way out shone Nicola who basically called Boris Johnston a few names.
With the shambles of the way the SNP fought the Scottish election allowing the Tories to double their seats (and I am in no way a fan of the Tories and cannot ever see the situation under which I would vote for them ) and being a realist i can foresee the SNP’s lack of attention to what is after all their function in life, independence, coming back to bite them.
They had better get their fingers out and get on with it.

In the mean time I will be voting for common sense I will be voting to remain in the European Union.

Please read the attachment below by Kevin Mc Kenna. He expresses exactly what I have been saying for a long time . Some of it since just after the referendum.

If anyone has a spare half hour on their hands and does not have a propensity to fall asleep when reading boring diatribes, then if you look at the blogs I have been writing and possibly my timeline on Facebook you will find that Kevin could have taken his piece direct form these pages and you will find there, all the warnings, that to me were apparent and indeed ,to my mind manifested themselves in the results of the recent Scottish elections.

I have, ad nauseam been warning against following blindly an SNP policy of basically doing nothing to further the cause of independence., Yes they have been pretty efficient in running the Scottish government , but that is after all exactly what we pay them a lot of money for, and along the way they have strayed off the road to independence, which is their reison d’ etat. This is why they exist, it says so quite clearly in their constitution.

There is no doubt, that there has been a wasted 20 Months in educating, persuading and talking to the people who ,for their own reasons voted no. They voted no for a multitude of reason but mainly ,I would suggest because they simply did not feel secure with the arguments we were putting forward for an independent Scotland.

Ok we are now speaking about a new “initiative ” coming up in the Summer . Now a lot has been made of this “initiative” and many ardent supporters of independence have taken this to be a new campaign for independence. Well if you look at what the SNP have said about it ( which is not much) you will find that there is nothing about a new campaign. So I would caution against building up false hopes.

As I have been saying, and this is the point that Kevin is also putting over in his article, I do not honestly believe that even the SNP have much of an idea of what is to be contained in this “new Summer initiative”. I believe ,in fact that this policy was made up on the back of a fag packet when the SNP saw the disquiet engendered by their, once again, omission of any road map to independence in the manifesto for the Scottish elections . They got away with it once during the Westminster elections but this time the people were not to be fobbed of by the proposal that “we will win  over more no voters if we can show that the SNP are good at government” .

Now the Stewart Hosie conundrum. As Kevin points out in his article , Stewart has never really been seen as the sharpest tool in the box ,in some quarters, although I must admit that he does cone over well in interviews and as finance spokesman he seems to do a decent job. However he is seen by some to display an attitude bordering on arrogance at times .

I remember an incident during a rally  in Dundee City Square the week end after the Westminster general election. Now there is a long story behind this rally which I will not bore you with ( at this point) but to make a long story short , we had been intending having this rally the week before but were persuaded to change it to after the  General election for the reason that ,in the words of a Dundee politician ” we cant have saltires and Yes posters being displayed in the city Square the week before the general election”. Now the Dundee politician who said this to me was not Stewart Hosie, but I have reason to believe that it came from him. Now as the results of that election showed , this was totally the wrong attitude to take. So a complete misreading of the situation could be the only interpretation of this flawed policy.

We of course always had a major problem getting SNP politicians to appear at any of our rallies and in deed at the yes bus presence we had constantly in the City Square during the referendum campaign, but we thought that as we had cooperated with the SNP and reluctantly moved the rally  to the weekend after the general election then this might have been reflected in a willingness to put forward at least one speaker at our event. Well we were sadly ,once again disappointed because no one turned up .

On the day, however Stewart Hosie happened to be passing and he was prevailed upon to say a few words to the large amount of people who had came from around the country to attend the independence rally. The people were delighted when Stewart took the stage to say a few words. So what do you think he did , ? do you think he made out as though he was supposed to be there in the first place and was there representing the SNP ,of which there was a very large proportion of the people there members ? No , he told every one that he shouldn’t actually be there and just happened to be passing on his way to buy a “pair of trousers” and he had been prevailed upon to say a few words. So that gives you an idea of the strategic abilities of the man who was chosen to be  the figure head in the “Summer initiative” .

Now lets look at Nicolas abilities as far as forming forward thinking strategy. OK so if I am correct , there was an element of panic when the SNP realised that people were not happy that the manifesto excluded  of any form of a road map to independence, and it was that concern that precipitated this on the back of a fag packet policy of tossing the people a carrot in the form of an unspecified initiative surrounding the independence issue in the Summer ( after the election). This was when Stewart was wheeled out to lead whatever Nicola had in mind . Now there are a couple of reasons that this was an unwise move , one of which I have alluded to earlier and the other is this.

The split between Stewart Hosie and his Wife  Shona was on the cards for some time before the election and this fact  was  widely known in political circles both in Holyrood and Westminster. If Nicola did not know this then she was probably the only one in the hierarchy of the SNP who didn’t. I personally was aware of this some six weeks before the election and I am of the belief that it was suppressed until after the election, for obvious reasons. So to make Stewart a figure head in a summer ( all be it unspecified)  initiative to forward the cause of independence , was to say the very least totally and utterly unwise .

So there we have it and I am glad someone like Kevin Mc Kenna is now saying the things that many of us have been saying for some time. As far as I am concerned I have been trying to encourage the SNP to continue ,on a lesser level , the campaign using the grass roots groups, to educate and inform on the issues we lost the referendum on, since two days after the referendum. This is now what needs to be addressed . I wouldn’t agree with Kevin that it is a 5 year project  but at the very least we must be pressurising the British government to relinquish control of the right for Scotland to decide on when and how we have another referendum and this single issue will go down in history as the worst omission of any political party in an election manifesto, and they have failed in this simple requirement twice.

Ok ,so what should happen from where we are now and again Kevin has touched on this ?

Well there must be a task force set up to include ,not only politicians but people from the various grass roots campaigns and more especially people from the business community . This should include Gordon McIntire Kemp the chairman of Business For Scotland . It cant be left solely to the SNP because up to now ,to be perfectly honest , they have not really made a good job of it.

We do now desperately need a road map to independence , a property thought out one which has the input of the wider spectrum of the independence movement.

The SNP need to reign in the mindless hate mongers who immediately pounce on any one who attempts to put forward constructive criticism and also verbally abuse people who ,for their own reasons voted no. This should be what the Summer” initiative” is all about. A road map we can all use to guide us to our ultimate goal.

As far as someone to lead this Summer foray into the mind of the no voters I suggest a good candidate for this position would be Chris Law. I know Chris, he conducted one of the more unusual campaigns of the referendum in the spirit of independence , a 50 year old army fire engine which we renovated in our workshops. He traveled all over Scotland getting out the independence argument. I remember after we finished the renovation on his vehicle and we were sitting in my office discussing his upcoming venture. He asked me what I honestly thought . My words were ” I think you are f*****g crazy”. He did it and that is the attitude we now need if we are to get anywhere.

We need to cast our fears to the wind and just go for it. for we are still on the road to independence. This is our road .

http://www.thenational.scot/comment/kevin-mckenna-hosie-loss-leaves-sturgeon-stronger-but-what-about-indy-drive.17958

I attach a link to a recent blog by Gerry Hassan. Please read this. This is what I and many others have been saying, during and  since the recent election.

Gerry puts this in far better and more eloquent  a manner than I could ever hope to.

Since the election the SNP have tried to spin the results in a manner that is unbecoming of a mature political party, instead of facing up to the reality that was the Scottish elections. Elections that like the Westminster General election will be remembered for the lost opportunity’s  that the  vacuous manifestos made plain. The Scottish people swallowed it in the Westminster election but they were not to be mislead in the Scottish election.  The absence in the manifestos of any attempt at a road map to independence by way of an intention to wrest control of the ability to hold and organise a referendum at a time of our choosing from Westminster was ,in my mind one of the main reasons for the fall in popularity of the party. That combined with a growing disillusionment and a rather unwise and disrespectful appearance on the front of the Sun , a mere two days after the Hillsborough verdict by Nicola Sturgeon was more than  lot of people could stomach.

Yes I suppose it could be said ( as is being said by many of the less able to think  ) that the SNP numbers were up in simple terms but when you take the fact that in the last Scottish elections there was a 12.45% increase in vote but in this one there was a pitiful 1.1% increase and that on the back of the referendum , an almost 100.000 increase in SNP membership and a 56 out of 59 majority in the Westminster elections. This election  resulted in the loss of a majority, and 6 seats, it also resulted in the Tories more than doubling their seats, in part due to the silly vote twice for the SNP policy This was a classic Pyrrhic victory and the SNP are the poorer for it today

Yes as Gerry Hasan says, and I and others have said many, many  times, We have not even had an official  post mortem on the mistakes of the referendum and after nineteen months it is well overdue. Otherwise how can we begin to convince the people who voted no that perhaps they were wrong. He is  also correct in respect of the tight control that the SNP exercise over their members and employees and their acquiescence in the verbal abuse given out by their supporters to any one who dares question any of the SNP actions ,or inactions as the case may be , which also expresses itself in the derogatory terms given freely to people who ,for their own reasons voted no in the referendum.

So please read the attachment of Gerry Hasan’s Blog. It might not go down to well and it might be difficult for some people to swallow, but he is right and only when we can be our own honest critics can we learn from our mistakes , roll our sleeves up and get on with the job in hand  will we ever get back on that road to independence.

As Bob Dylan said way back in the Sixties ” and how many years can a people exist before their allowed to go free? the answer my friend is blown in the wind , the answer is blown in the wind.

http://www.gerryhassan.com/blog/an-open-letter-to-the-snp/