Glancing at the front page of today’s Sunday National, one might be forgiven for imagining that independence was as high on the SNP Scottish Government’s agenda now as it appeared to be a couple of months ago when the Holyrood election loomed large.
Even by your own high standards this is a sizzling, frizzing & popping piece, P.
It, among other things, really nails the Natiophobia ( excuse the somewhat clumsy neologism ), the jejune, watered-down-to-the-point-of-nothingness pathetic excuse for ACTUAL Muscular Nationalism that must be manifest as a sine-qua-non of regaining our stolen autonomy: rather than the atrophied muscular apologetic, rainbow/white-flag-waving Brit State-subservient wimpery that the current SNP embody
No oppressed nation ever won it's freedom by being nice; to the oppressor niceness=weakness.
This is so obvious it shouldn't need stating: but it does, over n over n over until it saturates the carapace of the Legions of the Deluded, ie those ( the entirety ) in the SNP hierarchy & Party Membership who think ( at least pretend to think ) if they say Cameron, May, Johnson, Sunak, StarmernowBurnham can't deny something they refer to as " the Democratic mandate of Scotland blah, deeblah, mcblah " YES THEY CAN - AND WILL; why wouldn't they, need they * concede * when the SNP itself is thwarting the Democratic mandate of ( a majority of ) the Scottish people as manifested in election after election, which have returned successive Pro-Independence majorities - we can quibble with the Green's degree of commitment to Independence, nonetheless, that party is at least nominally Pro-Independence, ergo should be counted as part of that majority.
The frustrating thing - well, one of the many - is that an actual Celtic Alliance could be a gamechanger; if approached, organised and honed-to-the-sharpest edge correctly. This must entail not being side-tracked by any superfluous considerations, eg of the so-called ' Progressive ' kind, we don't need LGBZZZZZzzzzzz ' inclusion'/prominence. Just bare boned focus on the mutual interest of the three Nations - INDEPENDENCE FROM COLONIAL ENGLISH DOMINANCE
EVERYTHING else is - must be made - secondary to that objective
If the Celtic Alliance can be formed and acted-upon in the way described, it might then be credible to say that, at least, it will be more difficult for the Brit State to deny the majority will of those combined Nations. That would be even more the case if those three Nations instigated campaigns of Civil Disobedience in unison. What would/could England-as-Britain do then, invade all three Nations? Nah, I don't think so.
The key here, as always in such endeavours, is not uniformity of policy/ideology: but unity of purpose. This keeps things simpler and - ideally - more effective
Just when we are in dire need latter day political representatives comprising the best characteristics of the likes of Wallace (brave and bold) and Bruce (smart and ruthless) our contemporary would be freedom fighters have traits resembling those of "Brave" Sir Robin from Monty Python and The Holy Grail.
The Scottish Government, the Welsh Government and the Northern Irish Executive, are the governments for all the people of their countries, not just those who voted for them. That is why for instance I totally condemn Swinney for refusing to co-operate with the Reform UK MSPs. Whatever he thinks of them and their policies, 16.6% voted for them on the list - more than Labour. Those people have a total right to be represented, and be considered in government policy.
By the same token, even though the SNP is (allegedly!!) an Independence party, Scotland is devolved, and the government has a duty to represent those who are happy with devolution - and protect that devolution. And, arguably, put forward a case for more powers. Same goes for Plaid and Sinn Fein.
This is not a weakness, it is a strength, and by setting out their further devolution demands as a united front, Brown, Slater, Roberts and O'Dowd, are not only doing their democratic duty, they are in reality, setting up Burnham to fail even before he becomes PM.
THAT does advance the cause of Independence / reunification.
Aye yer on top form today Peter.....you've set me off...
As soon as I hear the SNP whine 'the uk must deliver '...or 'we are demanding' ..or 'asking' ..or 'begging '( while on bended knee)..I go and get my Lochaber and sharpen it..keeps me sane..sorta.
I am a Nationalist and a Patriot..what's the difference?...A Patriot would kill any occupying foreign nation immediately..no discussion.... get oot oor land pronto...or else.. then go after the quislings....go after the foreign english in high positions...(english Chief of Police Scotland.)..leaders of Scottish army units who are foreign english..go after businesses.... masquerading as Scottish......Abnbs/cottages.....sabotage their illegal nuclear dump at Faslane...destroy any secret building work where electricity is being quietly sent to foreign england... ...lots more comes to mind and I can just hear the Scots saying..'oh ye canny dae that.' ( the colonised mind)..well jimmy our survival depends on it so we will have to..or perish as a nation.
I heard 'Scottish nationalism 'being described as akin to TERRORISM..last year by a foreign english politician. It bothers me nought how the foreign english see me..as long as they are shaking in their shoes..
Swiney is a quisling..a traitor...a liar....and the gang at his back are pathetic forelock pullers.
We have a real problem..the foreign english media poison the Scottish mind with lies and twisted tales ..eg ...england supports Scotland...we don't contribute to the economy..gers....ad infinitum...no word about our brilliant exports...salmon..whisky.....and of course don't mention the oil that Thatcher sold off to the highest bidder with profits going directly to the Westminster coffers..What a pathetic wee nation we are. The foreign english government must have thought they had won the lotttery..they had.. and they squandered it..on foreign england..We allowed the hostile parasitic nation next door to grab our treasure....time to take back what is legally and morally OURS. You wouldn't allow anyone to walk into your home and remove the most valuable items in it....would you? Of course not..you would STOP THEM.
That so called Scottish government have to go....merely an extension of westminster...traitors embedded in our country..
I heard the weather report yesterday...'heatwave in east of england ..some mist in west of england '....pause.'.oh and everywhere else a bit duller.'..everywhere else...that's US....
The snp departed from nationalism around the mid 80s. I recall the vitriol generated by our own members against Douglas Henderson who was then VC publicity. And produced a couple of nationalist leaflets, one of a crowd of siluated rebels shaking fists in anger. Another depicted Thatcher with bleeding incisors as a vampire sucking the blood from Scotland. Poor Douglas rip a real nationalist pillaried by the so-called nationalist party of the snp. At that point we became the devolution party. Of course our membership then was based on middle class academic membership and to a lesser extent the heart left, and the split between siol. Nan gael the real nationalists... Under 79 group the faux socialist of universal brotherhood..
I am certain that Swinney Brown et al would race to publicly condemn even the slightest nose bleed suffered in our Cause of indeoendence.
An interesting essay. I’d probably frame it slightly differently: Scotland doesn’t just need confidence, it needs capacity. Strong institutions create national confidence just as much as national confidence creates strong institutions.
I agree that institutional preparation matters. The bigger question is how you build credible state capacity before it’s needed. That’s less about personalities and more about designing the institutions, legislation and administrative capability that any future government would require
Agreed... So what happened to the founding of a Central Bank under currency? It didn't have to be bricks and mortar and funded just the perception and paperwork done in dusted. What about nationalising the energy production of our country question mark again we do we can't do it but we can't prepare to do it to make it Seem.a viable proposition. The bones of a Bill as a green or white paper could be produced now but swinney.is too scared of the Scottish civil service.. to command them work on the dreams so they. Look credible... Alex made the CS generate the White Paper. Scotlsnds Future. This terrified Tory Holyrood leaders so much they demanded. No Scottish CS should work on Independence. That terrified John Swinney even more and he hastily conceded... Of course conceding and not confronting is John swinneys favourite strategy.
Only decolonization followed by self-recovery of a peoples culture/language can rid the colonized of the confidence-eroding "schizoid element of the national psyche" and the "false persona" (Purves) that results from colonial oppression.
As Peter alludes, this requires "a complete break with colonialism" (Memmi), not a compromise such as the SNP has opted for. Ending colonialism "is the most urgent matter"; hence 'muscular nationalism' is needed to address ongoing colonial force/racism, and where the native "only becomes a nationalist to free his people" (Fanon).
Until liberation a colonized people inevitably remain subject to colonial institutions (and hence institutional discrimination) in which "only the values of the colonizer are sovereign" (Memmi):
Even by your own high standards this is a sizzling, frizzing & popping piece, P.
It, among other things, really nails the Natiophobia ( excuse the somewhat clumsy neologism ), the jejune, watered-down-to-the-point-of-nothingness pathetic excuse for ACTUAL Muscular Nationalism that must be manifest as a sine-qua-non of regaining our stolen autonomy: rather than the atrophied muscular apologetic, rainbow/white-flag-waving Brit State-subservient wimpery that the current SNP embody
No oppressed nation ever won it's freedom by being nice; to the oppressor niceness=weakness.
This is so obvious it shouldn't need stating: but it does, over n over n over until it saturates the carapace of the Legions of the Deluded, ie those ( the entirety ) in the SNP hierarchy & Party Membership who think ( at least pretend to think ) if they say Cameron, May, Johnson, Sunak, StarmernowBurnham can't deny something they refer to as " the Democratic mandate of Scotland blah, deeblah, mcblah " YES THEY CAN - AND WILL; why wouldn't they, need they * concede * when the SNP itself is thwarting the Democratic mandate of ( a majority of ) the Scottish people as manifested in election after election, which have returned successive Pro-Independence majorities - we can quibble with the Green's degree of commitment to Independence, nonetheless, that party is at least nominally Pro-Independence, ergo should be counted as part of that majority.
The frustrating thing - well, one of the many - is that an actual Celtic Alliance could be a gamechanger; if approached, organised and honed-to-the-sharpest edge correctly. This must entail not being side-tracked by any superfluous considerations, eg of the so-called ' Progressive ' kind, we don't need LGBZZZZZzzzzzz ' inclusion'/prominence. Just bare boned focus on the mutual interest of the three Nations - INDEPENDENCE FROM COLONIAL ENGLISH DOMINANCE
EVERYTHING else is - must be made - secondary to that objective
If the Celtic Alliance can be formed and acted-upon in the way described, it might then be credible to say that, at least, it will be more difficult for the Brit State to deny the majority will of those combined Nations. That would be even more the case if those three Nations instigated campaigns of Civil Disobedience in unison. What would/could England-as-Britain do then, invade all three Nations? Nah, I don't think so.
The key here, as always in such endeavours, is not uniformity of policy/ideology: but unity of purpose. This keeps things simpler and - ideally - more effective
Just when we are in dire need latter day political representatives comprising the best characteristics of the likes of Wallace (brave and bold) and Bruce (smart and ruthless) our contemporary would be freedom fighters have traits resembling those of "Brave" Sir Robin from Monty Python and The Holy Grail.
The Scottish Government, the Welsh Government and the Northern Irish Executive, are the governments for all the people of their countries, not just those who voted for them. That is why for instance I totally condemn Swinney for refusing to co-operate with the Reform UK MSPs. Whatever he thinks of them and their policies, 16.6% voted for them on the list - more than Labour. Those people have a total right to be represented, and be considered in government policy.
By the same token, even though the SNP is (allegedly!!) an Independence party, Scotland is devolved, and the government has a duty to represent those who are happy with devolution - and protect that devolution. And, arguably, put forward a case for more powers. Same goes for Plaid and Sinn Fein.
This is not a weakness, it is a strength, and by setting out their further devolution demands as a united front, Brown, Slater, Roberts and O'Dowd, are not only doing their democratic duty, they are in reality, setting up Burnham to fail even before he becomes PM.
THAT does advance the cause of Independence / reunification.
I read the article and comments, and this by you is a most excellent slogan:
"Muscular Unionism calls for muscular nationalism"
so that's all I'll say in this comment :-)
Aye yer on top form today Peter.....you've set me off...
As soon as I hear the SNP whine 'the uk must deliver '...or 'we are demanding' ..or 'asking' ..or 'begging '( while on bended knee)..I go and get my Lochaber and sharpen it..keeps me sane..sorta.
I am a Nationalist and a Patriot..what's the difference?...A Patriot would kill any occupying foreign nation immediately..no discussion.... get oot oor land pronto...or else.. then go after the quislings....go after the foreign english in high positions...(english Chief of Police Scotland.)..leaders of Scottish army units who are foreign english..go after businesses.... masquerading as Scottish......Abnbs/cottages.....sabotage their illegal nuclear dump at Faslane...destroy any secret building work where electricity is being quietly sent to foreign england... ...lots more comes to mind and I can just hear the Scots saying..'oh ye canny dae that.' ( the colonised mind)..well jimmy our survival depends on it so we will have to..or perish as a nation.
I heard 'Scottish nationalism 'being described as akin to TERRORISM..last year by a foreign english politician. It bothers me nought how the foreign english see me..as long as they are shaking in their shoes..
Swiney is a quisling..a traitor...a liar....and the gang at his back are pathetic forelock pullers.
We have a real problem..the foreign english media poison the Scottish mind with lies and twisted tales ..eg ...england supports Scotland...we don't contribute to the economy..gers....ad infinitum...no word about our brilliant exports...salmon..whisky.....and of course don't mention the oil that Thatcher sold off to the highest bidder with profits going directly to the Westminster coffers..What a pathetic wee nation we are. The foreign english government must have thought they had won the lotttery..they had.. and they squandered it..on foreign england..We allowed the hostile parasitic nation next door to grab our treasure....time to take back what is legally and morally OURS. You wouldn't allow anyone to walk into your home and remove the most valuable items in it....would you? Of course not..you would STOP THEM.
That so called Scottish government have to go....merely an extension of westminster...traitors embedded in our country..
I heard the weather report yesterday...'heatwave in east of england ..some mist in west of england '....pause.'.oh and everywhere else a bit duller.'..everywhere else...that's US....
For OUR Scotland and her deprived weans...
FOLIC ACID in flour is happening rite NOW. Think of what has flour in it and it is now contaminated with Folic acid
Swinney should have stopped this--did he? Mmmm
I htae this shithole and the shitholes running it.
Fcuking physer make this shit and it is in flour--what could go wrong? Mmmm
If you are susceptible it WILL KILL YOU.
The snp departed from nationalism around the mid 80s. I recall the vitriol generated by our own members against Douglas Henderson who was then VC publicity. And produced a couple of nationalist leaflets, one of a crowd of siluated rebels shaking fists in anger. Another depicted Thatcher with bleeding incisors as a vampire sucking the blood from Scotland. Poor Douglas rip a real nationalist pillaried by the so-called nationalist party of the snp. At that point we became the devolution party. Of course our membership then was based on middle class academic membership and to a lesser extent the heart left, and the split between siol. Nan gael the real nationalists... Under 79 group the faux socialist of universal brotherhood..
I am certain that Swinney Brown et al would race to publicly condemn even the slightest nose bleed suffered in our Cause of indeoendence.
I remember the Thatcher poster very well.
An interesting essay. I’d probably frame it slightly differently: Scotland doesn’t just need confidence, it needs capacity. Strong institutions create national confidence just as much as national confidence creates strong institutions.
I agree that institutional preparation matters. The bigger question is how you build credible state capacity before it’s needed. That’s less about personalities and more about designing the institutions, legislation and administrative capability that any future government would require
Agreed... So what happened to the founding of a Central Bank under currency? It didn't have to be bricks and mortar and funded just the perception and paperwork done in dusted. What about nationalising the energy production of our country question mark again we do we can't do it but we can't prepare to do it to make it Seem.a viable proposition. The bones of a Bill as a green or white paper could be produced now but swinney.is too scared of the Scottish civil service.. to command them work on the dreams so they. Look credible... Alex made the CS generate the White Paper. Scotlsnds Future. This terrified Tory Holyrood leaders so much they demanded. No Scottish CS should work on Independence. That terrified John Swinney even more and he hastily conceded... Of course conceding and not confronting is John swinneys favourite strategy.
Only decolonization followed by self-recovery of a peoples culture/language can rid the colonized of the confidence-eroding "schizoid element of the national psyche" and the "false persona" (Purves) that results from colonial oppression.
As Peter alludes, this requires "a complete break with colonialism" (Memmi), not a compromise such as the SNP has opted for. Ending colonialism "is the most urgent matter"; hence 'muscular nationalism' is needed to address ongoing colonial force/racism, and where the native "only becomes a nationalist to free his people" (Fanon).
Until liberation a colonized people inevitably remain subject to colonial institutions (and hence institutional discrimination) in which "only the values of the colonizer are sovereign" (Memmi):
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2021/08/01/the-determinants-of-independence-institutions/