Ashgrove and Independence a political analogy !

All Scottish Unionists would have the Scots believe that continued membership in the United Kingdom is the "Nirvana" we ought to aspire to and that it is the only way to prosper ! 

This though shows that the only way to prosper in the UK is to be "in with the In-Crowd"  !  

To try and show what a glib and frankly shameless liar that is the Prime Minister at this time, when Editor of the Spectator Magazine; had this printed in a 2004 edition; Hardly the work of a fan of Scotland! 

I ask my English friends; How would you feel with Johnson subscribing to this piece of prose for the English as opposed to the Scots ??

The Scotch – what a verminous race!

Canny, pushy, chippy, they’re all over the place, 

Battening off us with false bonhomie, 

Polluting our stock, undermining our economy.

Down with sandy hair and knobbly knees!

Suppress the tartan dwarves and the Wee Frees!

Ban the kilt, the skean-dhu and the sporran

As provocatively, offensively foreign!

It’s time Hadrian’s Wall was refortified

To pen them in a ghetto on the other side.

I would go further. The nation

Deserves not merely isolation

But comprehensive extermination.

We must not flinch from a solution.

I await legal prosecution.

My own comparison preference would be to compare Bunty and I having bought the house of our dreams (Ashgrove) and now we work at the fine tuning of the dream house in terms of decoration, furniture, flooring and the garden. 

In other words our own "Nirvana" is a work in progress but that with judicious financial planning and careful use of our resources we will have the real free house of our dreams! 

Likewise Independence !  It is not going to materialise overnight and there may well be adjustments and financial outlay that we have to make in order to have the country of our dreams, but living in a form of rented accommodation where the landlord is an overbearing, lying, misogynistic, narcissistic, immoral cheat is not where I want to live in the winter of my life!

So it is with Scotland as a "Home" for the population (irrespective of where they originate from), it won't happen overnight, but it will be a place that ultimately those who live in it will be considerably happier than they are at present (even if it does cost a bit more in terms of tax!)

A final thought to any "Unionist" reading this;

If Scotland is such a financial drain on the UK Treasury as is alleged by Unionists and Westminster, why are they so desperate to keep Scotland in the Union and never say "Right off you go Scotland" rather they are constantly carping about the benefits of the now defunct Union !  Could it be anything to do with;

Then there's the question of Nuclear Submarines (Trident) and the redundant ones being held at Rosyth!

Furthermore; The UK government secretly planned to dump the radioactive hulks of 22 nuclear submarines in the sea off north west Scotland, documents released by the National Archives reveal.

A survey for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in 1989 identified six sites for “seabed storage” of defunct naval submarines near the islands of Skye, Mull and Barra for up to 60 years – and probably longer.

Detailed and highly confidential MoD studies concluded the plan was “feasible” and would “obviate the international problems which we would face were we to dispose of these vessels in international waters.”

Well Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson that will be over my dead body !

Rage does come anywhere near describing what I feel about the present United (?) Kingdom status !

 Here I am in the middle of a Pandemic with my own self inflicted disease (COPD) and I take that on the chin, because I brought it about myself with almost half a century of thinking I was "Jack the Lad" with cigarettes !

The rage is not from the Pandemic itself, but the ramifications of it, Covid-19 on our society and our puerile response to it as a society! 

Now at this point I need to make clear that I have some very good and close friends for whom total absolution is essential (to the rant I'm about to embark on) Richard Osler, Roger Strike and Allan Pook are three of the most  genuine guys you could wish to meet, ergo guys;

"Et ego te absolvo a peccatis tui "

Now you can carry on being Tories while I wallow in the warm water of separatism and the break up of the allegedly United (?) Kingdom.

The anger/rage is about the inequality of life in 21st century Britain and the fact that there are children for whom poverty is a way of life and whether it is the fault of individual parents or not is irrelevant! 

 These are fucking children for the love of God and to have obscenely wealthy companies decide to apparently profiteer from their plight is sending my blood pressure through the roof. This Government would have done the square root of naff all had it not been for a young footballer who has what they have not; a conscience !  

Marcus Rashford is a beacon of light in an extremely dark tunnel of capitalism and my admiration for him and his family grows daily ! Pressure from him and those members of society who do understand conscience, brought to attention of a cabinet of multi-millionaires, the plight of the many thousands of children who are falling out of the net of school meals during the Pandemic and eventually the cabinet decide to give them "food parcels" (not vouchers since that would eliminate a stratum of donors to the Tories from their ability to profit from misery).

Still it was supposed to mean that the children would be fed during the national lockdown so it was a step in the right direction !

Wrong ! 

What Chartwell perceive to be a balanced diet and nutritionally fair for a growing child is;

As an aside this, this morally defunct company (Compass) were found in 2013 to have "inadvertently" supplied horse meat to schools in Ireland and Northern Ireland and in 2006 were fined £40 Million for a bribery allegation in terms of a UN contract for peace-keepers in Liberia ! With this background in commercial catering they are just the sort of company that this Government would associate in terms of contract award !

Dearest Bunty has just been through to try and calm me down to a mere apoplectic rage!  

It's not working though as I truly want vent my anger physically on the people who are running this (dis) United Kingdom !

Children starving, suicides increasing, debt pushing people into extreme poverty, companies collapsing with attendant unemployment but the bastards in Westminster give themselves another £10,000 for having to work from home?  

Mea culpa Bunty, there is nothing I wouldn't give for you except the desire to truly batter every one of these complete arses into oblivion !

Is this possibly the return of political sense ?

The apparent resurgence of political populism in the Western World with Trump, Johnson and Orban seems to have hit the buffers with the events in Washington's Capitol Hill in the last couple of days!

 

At this moment in time only the Arch Buffoon the US President, Donald J Trump seems to have come off worse, but the others who so readily spent the last 4 years kissing his ass and in the case of our own Prime Clown Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson actually going so far as to suggest that Trump should be awarded the Nobel Prize, will be wondering if it can happen to Trump what chance have they got?

On the global scale you also have other populist leaders in Bolsonaro, Modi and Duterte all of whom purport to be leading their people to their version of the promised land !

If Trump can be canned on the basis of the rambling politics he espoused, then these numpties must surely be having a second thought on their chosen path?

Populism or Liberalism? The former is not actually popularity despite the sound of it!

 In the 21st century, the earth is in danger of almost melting with global warming and at the same time separating into two forms of political dogma which are frankly the last thing it needs, since those two forms are diametrically opposite and frankly irreconcilable !

The term "Populist" is not a representation of popularity, despite sounding similar! Populism is on the rise - especially among Europe's right, and in the US, where it helped crown the archetypal populist in Donald Trump. The word is misrepresented especially in Western society, where it is construed as a form of representation of the people !

But there's a difference between being popular and being populist. 

There are populist sentiments on both sides of the political spectrum and if we look at Venezuela there was Chavez, while in Spain there was Podemos both of which are left wing!

Hugo Chavez President of Venezuela

who inspired;

Pablo Iglesias Turrion leader of Spain's "Podemos" Party

In Europe, the term right-wing populism is used to describe groups, politicians and political parties that are generally known for their opposition to immigration, especially from the Islamic World and for Euroscepticism !

Ring any bells in the UK??

Nigel - Britain's epitome of a "populist" politician!

The only plus is that this clown will never get a hold of the reins of power ! 

Oh wait a minute! There is one other clown whose hands are on the reins !

Do you wonder why I'm an avid supporter of "Liberalism?

Scotland is such a drain on the UK purse ! The NHS is safe in Tory hands and not up for grabs by investors with offshore accounts`

 I genuinely think that Westminster is the cradle of kindness and that we, the Scottish people should be eternally grateful for England's largesse towards us !  

I mean what have Scotland got that could possibly make our English partner in this marriage, want to keep us in this wedded bliss (?) that is the 1707 Act of Union?

Meanwhile Westminster grant themselves 10% pay-rises annually but do clap for the NHS in gratitude for the sterling work that they and the rest of the "key" workers fighting the pandemic carry out on behalf of the country.

That says it all really !  Independence is coming and is unstoppable!

Time to go ! The UK marriage is over and it was too one-sided anyway.

 Marriage is a "union" between two willing and equal partners in which they commit to each other for "better or worse, richer or poorer in sickness and health".  

However, in the 21st century the divorce rate and break up of marriages has rocketed to circa 100,000 per annum in England and Wales alone. This due in many cases, to infidelity on one or indeed both partners. Equally the case of a domineering partner to the marriage has contributed to a large percentage of those divorces!

The Scottish Parliament

The English Parliament

This marriage between England and Scotland was "arranged" with the "Act of Union" between the two Kingdoms on the 1st May 1707. Divorce then would be as rare as hens teeth.

For clarity it should be noted that the Scots signatories to the Act were "bribed"

The role played by bribery has long been debated; £20,000 was distributed by the Earl of Glasgow, of which 60% went to James Douglas the second Duke of Queensberry. Another negotiator, Argyll was given an English peerage. 

Robert Burns is commonly quoted in support of the argument of this corruption; 

"We're bought and sold for English Gold, Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation." 

Professor Sir Tom Devine a very highly respect historian, agrees that promises of 'favours, sinecures, pensions, offices and straightforward cash bribes became indispensable to secure government majorities'. 

As for representation going forwards from the Act, Scotland was, in the new united parliament only to get 45 MPs, one more than Cornwall, and only 16 (unelected) peers places in the House of Lords. 

This last statistic speaks volumes for the attitude of The English Parliament in Westminster to their marriage partner. Scotland as a country, had only one M.P. more than the remotest county in England.

For 300+ years this marriage of unequal's, has bumbled along and in truth, has shared many highs and lows! 

That was until the smaller (in population terms) partner decided that in the 21st century she'd had enough of the domination and very often, bullying from her dominating marriage partner. In a form of tokenism towards self governance Scotland was given it's own parliament Holyrood in 2004 by Tony Blair, with a modicum of devolved powers. Powers that this clown of a P.M. Boris Johnson wants to remove!

Enough of this history malarkey though, in present day terms, both parties to the marriage have gone their separate ways with diverging politics and the truth is that Scotland was always left leaning and a bit socialist, whereas the numerically larger party to the marriage, England had at its heart, Toryism!

 

A woman that was actually despised and I don't use that term flippantly.  Her crushing the traditional industries in Scotland has left a nation burning with frankly hatred of her and her ilk !

Just when the Scots thought the Tory party couldn't get more despicable, up comes the least effective leader in the history of democracy. He is the very epitome of narcissism, self absorption, he's morally defunct and an inveterate liar, cheat and a charlatan so Boris charges over the brow of the hill ! 

Taking us out of the E.U. against the democratic vote of the Scottish electorate. 

His antagonism towards the Scottish race is unsurpassed even by Thatcher.

All of this, allied to our having had 17 consecutive polls showing the growth of Scottish Nationalism gathering momentum even in traditional Unionist broadsheets, with sweeping support for the removal of Trident at Faslane and the redundant nuclear submarines at anchor here in Rosyth as opposed to the Thames.

The UK government secretly planned to dump the radioactive hulks of 22 nuclear submarines in the sea off north west Scotland, documents released by the National Archives reveal.

A survey for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in 1989 identified six sites for “seabed storage” of defunct naval submarines near the islands of Skye, Mull and Barra for up to 60 years – and probably longer.

Ergo, not only is the UK Government using Scotland as a nuclear car park for submarines, but they also had plans to dump the 22 identified above !

Well we have news for the UK's £shop Trump; a.k.a. Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, not anymore Bojo !  
Take them and stick them where the sun never shines matey!  

We've never had a Tory Government in Scotland since 1955 and there is more chance of me being made Pope Tamas the first than there is of our having another !

SAOR ALBA

Brexit - Lies, Damned lies and Boris' statistics !!

 Finally the mask of the Brexiteers has been rent asunder and shown to be a fig leaf towards xenophobia and tax avoidance !  

I make no bones about having "Socialist" leanings politically and indeed always have had!  Even while serving in the RAF I was touting early membership to the AUEW for tradesmen who would want to get a job at Heathrow.  

The dilemma in the RAF was always that, the members of that service were about 95% Tory for various reasons, but primarily because the Tories in the 60's were more likely to maintain bases in the sort of exotic countries that frankly the UK with its dying "Empire" could not afford ! 

The reality is that Denis Healey was, as Labour Secretary of State for Defence, the man who introduced the Forces best wage structure in 1970. However, the lure of overseas postings appealed to the vast majority of servicemen with attendant allowances. Ergo a predilection for voting for the party who appears to put the jam on the sandwich.

This digression from the Brexit topic is merely to highlight the left of centre leanings of your truly.

Back to Brexit then; The big red bus and the shameless lie on the side!

The Prime Minister’s actions since taking office, have already resulted in his brother Jo Johnson, a former Conservative minister resigning from the party as he no longer trusted Boris Johnson was acting in the “national interest.”

Now the PM’s sister, Rachel Johnson, has spoken out, warning she believes the PM’s bizarrely aggressive behaviour may be due to pressure from “people who have invested billions in shorting the pound or shorting the country in the expectation of a no-deal Brexit.”

This week it has been revealed in the By-line Times that the Cabinet Office has been asked to investigate if Boris Johnson has breached the ministerial code by not declaring hedge fund donors, some of whom also funded the Leave campaign that Boris Johnson jumped onto in 2016. 

Hedge funds and financiers who have poured millions into Tory coffers stand to make a mint by speculating on the economic pitfalls of a no-deal Brexit.

(It may be a picture of NY above, but the principle is the same if not more so in London !)

So what is "Brexit" really about? 

The simplistic answer is that the English nation need Brexit to assume the mantle of superiority to "Johnny Foreigner" and the EU represents a sign that no nation is superior to its neighbours. This attitude is still held in England despite the fact that the "Empire" that Britain did have in past centuries, has long since gone. The E.U. is a collective group to trade with neighbours within its group and to make it relatively easy to do so!

In the face of global trade and giants in those terms such as China, the USA, Russia and India it makes sense to be in some form of collective arrangements with like-minded partners.

The E.U. does have faults of that there is no doubt, but the sensible approach would have been to work with partners in Europe to rectify those, not to spit out the "Dummy" and throw the toys out of the pram.

Boris' election to P.M. was on the back of his leading the charge for Brexit, despite the fact that he was a remainer not too many months ago!  He is, if nothing else, an opportunist and seeing Theresa May struggling with this dilemma, he pounced with help from less savoury political allies such as Farage, Redwood and Duncan-Smith!

What of the man himself?  His antipathy towards Scotland is well known and has never been hidden such as the speech in which he likened us to drunken yobs who were lucky to have England to bail us out. The rise and rise again of the S.N.P.  and attendant demand for "Independence" is unstoppable and with the best will in the world an ineffectual Eton toff at the helm of GB is more of an oar to the voyage to Independence than an anchor.

Brexit might well be the "English" version of Independence and fair play to them, they are as entitled to it as we are from them.

Boris Johnson has told friends his minister’s salary of £150,000 a year is not enough to live on, according to reports.

The Prime Minister has apparently told friends his annual earnings were insufficient because of his “extensive family responsibilities”, according to a report in a Sunday Broadsheet. (The Tory PM has four children with his second wife, Marina Wheeler. He also fathered a daughter during an affair with arts consultant Helen MacIntyre, failing to get an injunction to prevent the reporting of her existence.)

Sadly he can't even afford a "Nanny" for his recent familial addition Wilfred, with Carrie Symonds! 

Perhaps archetypal Etonian toff and outright Tory snob, Jacob Rees-Mogg could lend him his as she's probably still nurse-maiding him.

The metamorphous transformation by Boris from a remainer to the banner carrying "Brexiteer" might well be attributed in part to his financial straights if it comes to pass, that his fund manager cohorts are seen to be grossly profiting from the damage done to the population of the UK as it exists at this moment. Personally I'm more inclined to the comments of his sister Rachel earlier vis the hedge fund speculators. 

Allied to Covid we have a perfect storm economically and politically so thank God we have Nicola at our rudder !