Today is the day

Today is the day.

I felt entirely embarrassed at the cringeworthy childish sinister jingoism of the loathsome slimy onanist Farage and the Frankenstein doppelgänger version of the great actress Margaret Rutherford, Ann Widdecombe (who seems to think it’s the 1950’s) fluttering their wee union flags, whilst slavering and sneering at the members of the European Parliament.

Then I felt quite sad at the closing addresses of some of the key EU parliamentary leaders, lamenting the impending loss of a member like a wake, and the symbolism of the sight of the parliament chamber rising to its feet to respectfully sing ‘Auld Lang Syne’ amidst a few tears to honour and say goodbye to what is entirely a disunited Kingdom.

Now? Now I just feel angry. Why should another country take my country away from an outward looking international partnership of nations, a partnership beneficial to my country in so many ways, against the undisputed majority of my countryfolk’s wishes?

Today is the day. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. Over to you. It is time.

Gie’s peace

If it’s no’ the increasingly irrelevant son of the manse former Prime Minister and Chancellor breaking loose from the strait-jacket to try and charm the voting flock once more, for the umpteenth first time, on some sort of fictional, completely unworkable and unwanted (neither in Scotland, nor England) federalism, it’s the bold trickster, Tricky Dicky Leonard, the embattled branch steward of Labour’s northern outpost, now trying tae take us down the road to a Home Rule Nirvana.

Home rule? My goodness, talk about scraping the bottom of the barrel. Do you think they know we’ve got them beat?

Still reeling after his party’s annihilation north of the border in the General Election, at least this lightbulb moment outburst from Sore Dick tells us exactly how he see’s Scotland, ‘ Home rule’ being defined by more than one online dictionary as “the government of a colony, dependent country, or region by its own citizens”.

That clears that up nicely. Now Ricardo, get yerself out of the way. Your party in Scotland is as current as the New Seekers and as relevant as George Galloway’s hat.

Come back to us when you’ve the courage to recognise that politics must cater to the people’s aspirations, beliefs and values, not the other way round.

There is a place for a ‘real’ Labour movement once our country returns to its rightful independent state. The problem is that those within the current Labour set up, who may stand to lose out once old Union is gone, refuse to acknowledge that, yet.

Meanwhile our democratically elected representatives, the people we sent to London, who represent us, are booed at by a baying mob every time they stand to make a point in parliament, mocked incessantly by an increasingly arrogant posh man boy British Premier, or are subjected to a mass walk out during important debates on issues impacting Scotland.

Our government, who have worked hard to accommodate, ameliorate, mitigate, soften and temper the drastic impacts that Brexit will bring over the next few years, are ignored. Most recently a detailed workable plan to issue a Scottish based working visa for EU citizens coming in to help fill the employment gaps left by an ageing population, a gap which if not addressed will have significant negative impacts on the Scottish economy, dismissed by those in London out of hand without even reading the document first. Arrogance comes before a fall.

Roll on today’s historic vote in Holyrood, and on the day Scotland is dragged out of Europe against its will, Friday’s significant words from the First Minister. We are ready.

#Independence is normal. Being governed by another country is not.

Ode to a symbol of Scotland’s past

With Burns Night only a few days away, a wee homage tae the latest incarnation of the British government in Scotland, current Viceroy of Joy, Alister (Union) Jack.

Wee, fly, unctuous flunky.
O, why dae yer words sound sae clunkie?
Thou’s surely nae belief in yer ain prattle,
fur it’s Joahnsin’s chaff from yer gub doth rattle.
Viceroy, Meenister or symbolic high-heid min,
since devolution, surely Scotland disnae need yin.
 
Wan meenit we’ve a mandate, in 2021, if oor fowk jist mark it so,
Then, oops, naw, that was wrang, haud oan till I ask the Bojo.
Yer opeenions turn topsy turvey, the sweat beading yer broo,
what I meant tae say Gordon, was Referendum? Naw, never, no’ the noo.
They Sunday politics shows are rare, for hot air they’re a turn,
but Alister’s enunciations turn breakfast square sausage intae hertburn.
 
Accordin tae you, whilst bobbing up and doon on the foosty front benches,
Yer countryfowk voted by majority to Leave, stuck in past glory trenches.
Fair flummoxed that hud us, where ye gaither yer facts wan can only imagine,
In oor book, 62% votin’ tae stay in the EU proves yer arithmetic teacher was a bad yin.
Yon wee ermine-chaser afore ye, soor-faced, surly, wae an expression like a troot,
was a frustration, and much to be disappointed in, but at least he could coont!. 
 
Dinnae you fash yersel aboot whit’s comin very soon,
cos accordin’ tae you we’ll only get our say again wance folk live on the moon.
Oor plans they are forming, oor goal it is noble and clear.
Get yerself oot the road, tell your master this time we’ll no’ countenance fear.
The return of self-government is undoubtedly Scotland’s just and rightful destination.
Don’t you or your parcel of sponsors ever doubt it, we will have the return of our nation.

#Independence is normal. Being governed by another country is not.

“Regions and Nations”

Ocht c’mon. Naw, jist naw, please naw, naw! Will somebody please lose that manse padded cellar door key once and for all? He’s on the loose again.

Like the Halloween movie franchise’s Michael Myers, but with less convincing empathetic facial movements, Gordy Broon has returned to tell us all what is needed to make our lives much much better, together.

He’s returned from returning from his return at least the last fifteen times, returning on every occasion for the very first time, because he is very sensitive and conscious that his time has passed, and he doesn’t want to come across like he’s interfering in the debate over the constitutional question going on between his country of birth and his country of choice. No, no, he doesn’t want any of the spotlight at all.

He’s federalised himself into a Bob the Goldfish frenzy, wheeling out the brand spankingly new, never ever ever heard of before northern powerhouse, people’s civic assemblies, mair decentralised power fur Scunthorpe, Rhyl and Achiltibuie than a large equid can turn into fertiliser for the roses, “We’ve mair in common with Lisa Nandy than the local laird who runs a wind farm” sermon that we hear every single time he returns.

The only plausible reason for this is that he must’ve so traumatised himself in 2014, trying hard to sell us the Vow, and scaring parents of gravely ill Scottish children who might’ve needed treatment and care at Great Ormond Street Hospital, that his short term memory is shot to pieces, resulting in him thinking that he keeps coming up with the same fresh new Federalismic good idea every few months. It’s the only answer.

Butt oot Gordon. We’ve heard it, over and over and over again. You have no relevance. Scotland will not return to the cosy unionist two party expenses lunch near-indistinguishably different Labour Tory party past. That time is over. Gone.

#Independence is normal, being governed by another country is not.

Oh, you think so?

Let’s clear something up.

A few years ago, during the run up to a referendum in Scotland, two prominent Scottish politicians, whilst advocating strongly for an independent Scotland, made reference publicly to the opportunity of having a referendum on the subject of independence perhaps only being available to the people of Scotland ‘once in a lifetime’ or ‘once in a generation’.

Clearly, to anyone who was paying attention at the time, or since, the use of these phrases by these individuals, at that time, was solely to encourage voters to come out and vote on such a significant issue, an emphasis of the importance and the rarity of the available opportunity to do so under the current constitutional arrangement, tied into a constitutional straitjacket where Scotland is in effect subsumed by it’s neighbour, and legally has to ask its permission to have a referendum, an acknowledgement that whilst Scotland is party to that arrangement the British state might never give such permission again.

Boris Johnson, his gang of right wing posh yobs, his enablers in other unionist parties, the media, and all of the swivel-eyed committed Britnats on both sides of the Tweed, and Norn Irn, all know, they all know, behind their smirks, that to twist these words around, suggesting that the then First Minister of Scotland, and the current First Minister of Scotland, in making these comments, were in fact making some sort of solemn vow (I’ve heard that word before somewhere, can’t remember where) that from 2014 onwards a government of Scotland, when fully mandated democratically by Scotland’s people to do so, would never again look to re-examine its constitutional future, is farcical, a lie, a complete fabrication, yet they maintain that it is true.

Alister (Union) Jack, our latest Viceroy of Joy, London’s man in Scotland, an individual so out of his depth that pretty soon someone will need to throw him a rubber ring, looked so nervous and far from his comfort zone whilst having a nice chat (it couldn’t be described as an interview) with Gordon Brewer the other day that I thought at one stage he was going to start greetin.

Clearly, following his disastrous early efforts at public speaking in his new role in the House of Commons, Jack has been subjected to a few media one-to-one workshops by Tory HQ boffins to try and iron out the incompetence and awkwardness. News just in, it’s not working.

He’s obviously had his lugs open when they mentioned that he needs tae get the words ‘separatist’ and ‘divisive’ in to his responses every time somebody thrusts a camera in front of him, but when it comes to looking sincere, looking like you actually believe the words coming out of your mouth, he’s not quite mastered the Johnson acolyte smirk.

Whilst being subjected to the verbal equivalent of being tickled with a particularly floppy feather by Brewer, the less-than-erudite future Lord Grouseshoot of Salmonriver’s body language was all over the place as he tried painfully to convince us that his view on what constitutes a mandate is the exact opposite of what it was a few weeks ago, eyes panning from side to side, bottom lip curling, glaiking like a Monday Club regular at tea-time intae the side view camera, whilst he explained that the next time the London government will allow the people of Scotland permission to have a referendum to consider their own future will be five minutes after hell freezes over, or the House of Lords gets dissolved, whichever comes first.

Not so much ‘neverendum’, a word the Tory wags like to bandy around the Commons bars, this is more nevereverendum.

Of course the organ grinder, indeed (he is most definitely one of those), then deems to respond to the First Minister’s letter of December, correspondence seeking confirmation that the Prime Minister of the current UK ensures that the democratic wishes of the people of Scotland are respected.

His response, a lazy dismissal, littered with the same fallacious and distorted rewriting of 2014 history as the spurious utterances of his cabal of cigar and brandy reeking sycophants. Democracy only exists when it suits the agenda of the British state. Shameful.

It begs the question why bother having General Elections at all of the resulting outcomes are completely ignored? Britain is many things, but it most certainly is not a democracy.

In the 700th anniversary year of the declaration of the sovereign right of Scotland’s people, in the Declaration of Arbroath, Boris Johnson’s gross disrespect of a nation’s democratic rights will be his precious union’s downfall.

Conflating the power to hold a referendum to allow Scotland’s people the rightful ability to choose their future path with a prospective vote for independence into one sweeping dismissal is an own goal of Champions League standard.

The last thing you ever tell Scottish people, whether they voted Yes in 2014 or No, is you can’t have something, and you can’t have it just because I say so. Not a great move.

Nothing stays the same for ever. In 2020 the unhealthy dysfunctional union Scotland is chained within is crumbling. Westminster’s stranglehold is loosening. Democracy will out, their tea is oot!

#Independence is normal, being governed by another country is not.

Never mind the weather. It’s time

It is January in Scotland, so there’ll be absolutely no surprises for anyone that in Glesca the day it’s gonnae be wet, and it’s gonnae be windy.

However the noise of that gusting wind will be drowned out by the sound of tens of thousands of marching feet echoing along the route from Kelvingrove Park to Glasgow Green, a juggernaut of humanity. An assembly of Scots of all ages, Scot’s born and those who honour our country by choosing to live there, all determined to do all that they possibly can to bring about what, almost anywhere else in the world, is normal, their nation governed by the people who live and work there.

Independence is now not just a burning desire for around half the population of Scotland, a cause which is gathering increasing numbers to its clarion call as every day passes, it is an imperative.

Those who govern Scotland from another country are in the throes of setting up a framework of power which will allow them, their patrons, and their cronies, to personally stuff their pockets with the wealth generated from your work, our resources and our assets, on a scale which will exceed even the wild excesses of Thatcher.

Our very democracy, our parliament, is in serious danger of being undermined, it’s devolved powers subject to being overridden on whatever whim meanders its way through what passes for Boris Johnson’s brain.

It’s already started. Our government has been hamstrung and cannot even at this stage formulate a budget, which has enormous implications for public services in Scotland, a process which is normally well under way at this time of the year, allowing Scottish councils to set their budgets for services by early March.

This is because Johnson’s government in London refuse to prepare their own budget, (which then informs the process on how much of Scotland’s own money they will give us back to spend for this year, under the Barnett Formula) until March. They call it a ‘grant’, that is a joke, a grant of our own financial revenue, revenue generated by us and our resources.

If you can get there, if you are even half thinking about, if you open the curtains this morning and think it’s too wild outside, please please please resist the urge to remain indoors. Get yerself happed up in the waterproofs, get the comfy walking shoes on and get that saltire out of the cupboard. Encourage others to come with you. It’s time to really show the world that we mean business, that we will be an independent nation, that we are a sovereign people and we will decide our future, not anyone else.

If you can’t get to Glasgow please, if you have them, display your support for the marchers and the rightful return of self-government for Scotland by placing a saltire or a Yes sticker in your window today, or if you are going shopping, or anywhere public, wear any indy badges, or wristbands you may have. It’s important that our not-yet-convinced friends, neighbours, colleagues and loved ones see how determined we really are.

#Independence is normal, being governed by another country is not.

The majority of Scots voted to leave the EU. Eh?

The post-Christmas parliamentary session at Westminster has crept in with a definite feeling of ‘we’ve been here before’.

Once more the boorish ermine cape and honorary corporate board membership chasers, employed to do their very best to continue to allow the British state to cling on to some of the last pieces of what’s left of their horrid former empire (the countries Greater England is geographically connected to, or which sit close by) bleat, moan, emit spittle and guffaw, often all at the same time, in order to disrupt democracy and the civic rights of the people of Scotland to have their views respected.

It’s all getting to be just a wee bit old hat this stuff, The constantly repeated British government responses (when questioned by Scotland’s elected members as to why 43% of votes allows Boris Johnson a mandate to carry out the economic suicidal act of Brexit, whilst 45% of votes and over 80% of the electoral seats in Scotland seems to not allow the SNP to seek an independence referendum on their electorates behalf) responses like ‘the Scottish people voted 5 years ago on this and voted No’ or ‘sovereignty is a reserved matter, so there’ or the completely false and inaccurate ‘ the majority of the people of Scotland voted to leave the EU’ by the entirely out of his depth new Viceroy to Edinburgh, Alister ‘Union’ Jack, will surely cause many of our brow-beaten, much conned friends, neighbours and colleagues not-yet-persuaded towards the confidence of self-government, (I saw recently someone referring to them as propaganda victims) to at last see through the red, white and blue fog.

Our elected members from Scotland once again are being ignored, abused, belittled and marginalised. By association and the democratic process, so are their constituents.

It is only a pity that the proxy voting system set up last year in the Commons to allow members to choose a colleague to vote on their behalf in a commendably progressive scheme ( you don’t hear that said much about Westminster) to accommodate major life issues for members, like giving birth or adopting a child, hasn’t been extended a bit further.

If it had Scotland’s majority representatives could have really taken SNP commons leader Ian Blackford at his word the other day when he suggested that his colleagues should spend less time in the Commons chamber,and more time in their constituencies campaigning for the coming referendum.

With the Tories having a secure majority, and the additional bolster of having little helpers across the floor, like the only Labourite in the village, the sleekit careerist Ian Murray, it would have been great to see the SNP drawing up a Westminster session roster, leaving one of their number in London, swapping on a weekly basis, to vote for them all, whilst the rest of them publicly walked out, perhaps whistling Ode to Joy again, and got stuck into representing their constituents from their constituencies ,whilst also campaigning for independence. After all, why stay somewhere you are not wanted?

Shame that. In the absence of being able to do something as effective I think they should continue, as they have started this session, to ask the very same questions on the scandalous democratic deficit which exists between Scotland and those from another country which governs Scotland, on every single opportunity they get, repetitively, consistently, unanimously, tirelessly and endlessly. Scunner the feckers.

Also within the parliamentary day to day processes it is clearly now time, as happens to Ian Blackford, for the whole SNP contingent, plus 1, (hopefully he’ll be back in the fold soon) to noisily get to their feet, shuffle out of the benches, chatting away to each other, perhaps having the odd pick and flick at a nose, or emitting a fart or two into the atmosphere of the chamber, as they wander past the Tory benches, dropping to tie a shoe lace or two even, and meander, slowly, out of chamber en masse, every time Johnson (When he shows up) Rees-Mogg, Gove, not very Priti when it comes to her heart and soul Patel, or Union Jack gets to their feet to say something.

I’ve been reading a fair bit about revolutionary Scottish socialist John Maclean recently. The word ‘agitate’ seems to crop up a lot in the text I’ve been reading. I think it’s time our elected democratic representatives, on our behalf, started to think creatively about how they can become the biggest thorns in the sides of the foreign government which currently rules our country.

They’ve nothing to lose, and absolutely everything to gain. Independence is normal. Being governed by another country is not.

Brian Cox, a Scotsman, won an award

So, here we are again eh, we’ve aw seen this before, Groundhog Year. Old School imperialism is flexing its muscles once more.

Anxious to take away the focus,and dilute the sting, from any domestic issues which might be coming up in the near future (like his impeachment trial) the biggest wean on the planet has thrown his rattle oot the pram again (tied tae a drone loaded with things that go bang)and has, with malice aforethought, parted an Iranian military leader the general public has never heard of, from his capacity to breathe, permanently, whilst on a visit to Iraq.

In doing so the giant blimp-like wean has succeeded in further cementing the relationship between Iran and Iraq,who up until fairly recently spent years knocking lumps out of each other, now united in a common cause against the west, very possibly one of most poorly judged strategic moves ever made by a leader of one of the superpowers, which will once again cost many innocents their lives, and cause untold misery for hundreds of thousands of others.

His pet Shih Tzu, hair akimbo, after his Crimbo hols, has managed to regain the power in his rear legs, and is back upright, his girlfriend having prised her laptop out of his hands again. The gin bottle is safely hidden away, and the island of Mustique is just a blurred memory (it took four aides and a crowbar to get him out of his red palm tree designer beach shorts).

Caught unawares by his imperial master’s impulsive actions the blonde buffoon is a bit confused as to whether he should currently still be advocating the mass chucking of tins of Murican chlorinated chicken out of the backs of lorries at ordinary working people going about their daily business in the UK, or be proselytising to those same people that we should be firing tins of Murican chlorinated chicken out of Howitzer heavy artillery cannons at ordinary working people going about their daily business in the Middle East. I’m sure he’ll work it out soon. What a shambles. It won’t be good.

Meanwhile it has become clear how Scotland’s rightful return to self-determination can be achieved with very little fuss or disruption.

As we know, the First Minister of Scotland has recently published a document asserting the democratic case for the people of Scotland to have the right to make their own choice about their future governance, without interference from Westminster.

In tandem with this she has formally written to the Prime Minister of Britain(see England) as is considered customary, seeking, under section 30 of the Scotland Act, to transfer powers currently held in London to allow a referendum on self-government to take place.

Clearly the position taken by the previous occupant of 10 Downing Street, who didn’t even have the good grace to acknowledge a previous such request during her premiership, is unsustainable in the face of the current overwhelmingly blatant democratic deficiency which exists in the political relationship between Scotland and England.

At some point soon, in the middle of random half quotations in Latin. and general guffawing, England’s Prime Minister is going to have to say “Nec, nostro salus cara sit unio Anglia!”(which roughly translates as feck off Scotland, you are not having a referendum, we need your dough, your resources, your assets, your exports and your strategic position as a buffer to any risky atomic leaks or potshots at our leased American war toys).

When he does this there’s a very simple response available. Get Golden Globe award winning Dundonian actor, and advocate for Scottish self-government, Brian Cox, to make an announcement at a tv and film awards ceremony.

Brian can publicly announce that we’ve played nice, we’ve complied with every rule, written and unwritten, we’ve acted in accordance with the constitution of the UK, even though there isn’t one, we’ve been polite to a fault, we’ve been patient beyond any reasonable judgement of patience, but now, all bets are off.

He can say that as of midnight that particular day Scotland will consider itself to once more be an independent, outward looking, internationalist country, which will be seeking to retain or achieve swift membership of the EU.

In his fine Dundee accent he can add that Westminster’s treasury is getting nothing out of Scotland, hee haw, the middle of a doughnut, tax revenue, Scottish exports from English ports, nothing, until negotiations are completed on an amicable split of the union’s assets and resources.

Yes, we should do that. We can guarantee then that none of it will be reported. We’ll be completely ignored, blanked, like the bold Brian, yesterday, by the state broadcaster and co, the Hootsmon, the Herald and the English semi-fascist media.

When it eventually does hit them that something is awry, and someone in Downing Street complains that we never told them, we just have to say that we sent them notification in the post, just like they did when they triggered Article 50 of the Treaty of the European Union, to start the mad Brexit divorce saga off. But like their notification to us, it must have got lost. Fairs fair after all.

In all seriousness we need to get moving folks. There is no viable alternative (if there is I’d like to hear it) to us convincing more of our friends, family and colleagues of the benefits of independence and the urgency of the need to achieve it, to create a majority, an overwhelming juggernaut of the combined will of the people of Scotland to take decisions into their own hands.

Independence is normal, being governed by another country is not.