I was not at yesterday’s march and rally in Edinburgh. I am not physically able to do that kind of thing any more. But I wouldn’t have attended even if I had been fit to do so. It was my dodgy knees and hips that put me off. What deterred me was the thought of marching alongside the same people I marched with twelve years ago, listening to the same senseless chants as we made our way to listen to the same voices giving the same speeches and revelling in the automatic enthusiasm of the crowd whose buttons they now press with practised ease.
Yesterday was pretty much a 'march of the payroll' or what Fanon termed 'the legal tendency' in the movement, many still with 'a rudimentary understanding' of what independence really means - decolonization and liberation; and as you say Peter, those not yet enlightened by your 'The New Thinking' developed by intellectuals in the movement since the heady days of 2014.
Interesting that there were not that many marchers, a couple of thoosand at maist. The SNP are hardly setting the heather alight, despite polling. A far lengthier route to Calton Hill than our last march there in 2012 or 2013, with marchers sent way off the beaten track down towards Abbeyhill, out of sight of maist fowk.
One highlight was to see the Liberation Scotland banner set richt above Swinney's bald heid, caught in 'The National's' fotie at the foot of the 'Royal Mile'.
Greatest contrast was between the two keynote speakers. Brian Cox on Calton Hill, who telt Scots to: "Make this country FFS free!" Whilst Swinney as usual blamed our oppressor: "We are saying to the international community (that) Scotland is ready for independence...but the UK stops our voice being heard on the international stage."
Another lie there, for we have yet to see his 'Scottish Government' even attempt to approach the United Nations whilst Liberation Scotland has done this extensively already in the past year with representations in Geneva and New York!
If #ScottishUDI "is now dead" what would you suggest in its place? How would it work? That is, how would it facilitate the exercise of Scotland's right of self-determination leading to the return of Scotland's full self government and restoration of Scotland's independent status?
Couldn't agree more with sentiments well expressed Peter...tragically.
I looked for stuff on the news about the walk ( I was in bed sneezing my brains oot but wouldn't have gone anyway..wasted too many years at similar)..but found the foreign english media didn't think it worthwhile to report it..why?
Well it's just the dumb jocks doing the usual..much ado about zilch..they sing their wee songs..yell they 'think' it's time ( think?)...while a handful of undercover cops watch just in case the Scots should actually engage their brains..take up their Lochabers and do some real damage ( preferably to unionist foreign english or quislings squatting in OUR land.)... and basically destroy anything agin' our freedom.There's only one thing agin' oor freedom..our cowardice.
The FREE Irish..didn't signal they were going to blow up Mountbatten..they just blew the b*st*rd tae bits....now that caught the foreign english excrement's attention...none o yer wee ditties ..or marching doon the road ..kilts swinging... pipes birlin'... carrying yer wee flag..nah..jist ....BOOM!
I have given up any semblance of freedom before I hop into my wooden box..until you really mean it by causing mayhem .. squashing the intruders violently.. expelling them from OUR land... in bits if need be ( à la mountbatten)....making occupation painful ....taking back OUR country by force...you've no chance jimmy.
And you all know it.
I looked at pics o' the grand deceiver at the walk ..arms akimbo ..face lit up with mystical fervour...grinning as tho he had just turned water into wine..aye right ...more like whisky into pish.
If you are held a prisoner you have to FIGHT viciously and uncompromisingly to regain your freedom..dancin' doon the road in yer kilt while telling everybody that you mean business won't cut it...it only entertains the foreign english occupiers...
The uncompromising Irish genetics I inherited tell me that this is a' sh*t...and you all know it..
The progress of the march was slow and the ludicrously long delay in getting the majority of the marchers up onto the hill is an administrative oversight that really needs to be addressed by the organisers if they are ever to use this stupid dogleg route again.
Why the Actual FUCK did youse not adjust, fix or remove the artificially imposed bottleneck created just before the entrance to the access road to Calton Hill or at least not recognise that it was creating a massive unnecessary delay for people and delegate some of the substantial marshalling volunteer turnout to expedite flow at with this particular highly visible issue?
Did the organisers imaging that once THEY had arrived at the head of the procession that they should just give up helping out the masses that followed on behind?
Have youse never done this sort of thing before?
As a member of the crowd up the hill the situation was also pretty poor.
There was a biting cold wind on Calton Hill and many people were driven off the exposed site by that.
The sound from the PA system was both absorbed by the crowd and whipped away by the wind. Not good enough.
You could not sit around where it might otherwise have been convenient to and watch the proceedings from that sheltered raised section to the south east of the stage because some idiot was running a generator there so that although the position should have been ideal, it was impossible to make out what was being said on the stage because of the constant drone of the Generator.
This was far and away the worst organised large scale march and gathering event that I have ever been on. And oh, boy I have seen a few.
I don't blame the volunteer marshals. Well done to them all and a big thankyou.
Wrong route. Wrong time of year. Poor site planning. Poor oversight.
All of that could have been endured without much complaint if rewarded with an rabble rousing rhetoric exhorting us all to seize the route ahead to independence.
Alas there was little inspiration to be found.
And as for the speech from the 'leader'.
He literally stood there and refused to take responsibility for leading the cause or the movement forward.
If you listened to what he said you would have come away understanding that the SNP and Greens want to be re-elected and if you were waiting for the bit about how Swinney was going to lead us forward to Independence, well you might have died of hypothermia.
There is no need for a convention on how to progress or independence. There are only two ways
1. The current so-called legal way of Swinney
2. The so-called illegal way of the Scottish Parliament on a majority of MSPs declaring the Treaty of Union revoked. And use the consequent reaction by The establishment of Westminster against them.
Haud Fortit... Dont give up... But if you are exhausted... And you have every right to be.... Ease off on the throttle.
Neither of those is a way to make progress. Much of my weariness comes from repeatedly explaining why these things are not ways to make progress. To date, #ScottishUDI remains the only process which actually connects our present situation to a proper constitutional referendum and thence independence in a series of steps that are perfectly feasible even if not entirely easy.
Baz and I went yesterday. We sang the M4I-UDI, Stick Yer Section 30 and We're No Asking Anymore, songs.
Got a guid pic with the New Scotland Party Banner, outside the Patlamemt. Didn't go up Calton hill, to hear Swinney and his chums talking pish.
Was it worth it? Handed out some Project Arbroath booklets, talked about M4I and UDI to some intersted folk. Had a guid laugh, as always wi Baz but beer in Edinburgh is pricey. Pity you weren't there Peter, but we're Keeping The Dream Alive.
Yesterday was pretty much a 'march of the payroll' or what Fanon termed 'the legal tendency' in the movement, many still with 'a rudimentary understanding' of what independence really means - decolonization and liberation; and as you say Peter, those not yet enlightened by your 'The New Thinking' developed by intellectuals in the movement since the heady days of 2014.
Interesting that there were not that many marchers, a couple of thoosand at maist. The SNP are hardly setting the heather alight, despite polling. A far lengthier route to Calton Hill than our last march there in 2012 or 2013, with marchers sent way off the beaten track down towards Abbeyhill, out of sight of maist fowk.
One highlight was to see the Liberation Scotland banner set richt above Swinney's bald heid, caught in 'The National's' fotie at the foot of the 'Royal Mile'.
Greatest contrast was between the two keynote speakers. Brian Cox on Calton Hill, who telt Scots to: "Make this country FFS free!" Whilst Swinney as usual blamed our oppressor: "We are saying to the international community (that) Scotland is ready for independence...but the UK stops our voice being heard on the international stage."
Another lie there, for we have yet to see his 'Scottish Government' even attempt to approach the United Nations whilst Liberation Scotland has done this extensively already in the past year with representations in Geneva and New York!
https://www.jpti.ch/post/scotland-s-right-to-self-determination-under-international-law
You need to acknowledge that your plan for Scottish UDI or whatever is now dead. I supported you. I know it's over and something new is needed.
I don't blame you for your feelings.
I'm encouraging you to try something new.
If #ScottishUDI "is now dead" what would you suggest in its place? How would it work? That is, how would it facilitate the exercise of Scotland's right of self-determination leading to the return of Scotland's full self government and restoration of Scotland's independent status?
Couldn't agree more with sentiments well expressed Peter...tragically.
I looked for stuff on the news about the walk ( I was in bed sneezing my brains oot but wouldn't have gone anyway..wasted too many years at similar)..but found the foreign english media didn't think it worthwhile to report it..why?
Well it's just the dumb jocks doing the usual..much ado about zilch..they sing their wee songs..yell they 'think' it's time ( think?)...while a handful of undercover cops watch just in case the Scots should actually engage their brains..take up their Lochabers and do some real damage ( preferably to unionist foreign english or quislings squatting in OUR land.)... and basically destroy anything agin' our freedom.There's only one thing agin' oor freedom..our cowardice.
The FREE Irish..didn't signal they were going to blow up Mountbatten..they just blew the b*st*rd tae bits....now that caught the foreign english excrement's attention...none o yer wee ditties ..or marching doon the road ..kilts swinging... pipes birlin'... carrying yer wee flag..nah..jist ....BOOM!
I have given up any semblance of freedom before I hop into my wooden box..until you really mean it by causing mayhem .. squashing the intruders violently.. expelling them from OUR land... in bits if need be ( à la mountbatten)....making occupation painful ....taking back OUR country by force...you've no chance jimmy.
And you all know it.
I looked at pics o' the grand deceiver at the walk ..arms akimbo ..face lit up with mystical fervour...grinning as tho he had just turned water into wine..aye right ...more like whisky into pish.
If you are held a prisoner you have to FIGHT viciously and uncompromisingly to regain your freedom..dancin' doon the road in yer kilt while telling everybody that you mean business won't cut it...it only entertains the foreign english occupiers...
The uncompromising Irish genetics I inherited tell me that this is a' sh*t...and you all know it..
For OUR Scotland and her poor betrayed weans.
There was an Independence Live livestream of the event.
First speaker, Lesley Riddoch begins around 1:56:37.
https://www.youtube.com/live/Retp7BKZwTY?t=6997s
A grumpy reviewers honest impression follows.
The progress of the march was slow and the ludicrously long delay in getting the majority of the marchers up onto the hill is an administrative oversight that really needs to be addressed by the organisers if they are ever to use this stupid dogleg route again.
Why the Actual FUCK did youse not adjust, fix or remove the artificially imposed bottleneck created just before the entrance to the access road to Calton Hill or at least not recognise that it was creating a massive unnecessary delay for people and delegate some of the substantial marshalling volunteer turnout to expedite flow at with this particular highly visible issue?
Did the organisers imaging that once THEY had arrived at the head of the procession that they should just give up helping out the masses that followed on behind?
Have youse never done this sort of thing before?
As a member of the crowd up the hill the situation was also pretty poor.
There was a biting cold wind on Calton Hill and many people were driven off the exposed site by that.
The sound from the PA system was both absorbed by the crowd and whipped away by the wind. Not good enough.
You could not sit around where it might otherwise have been convenient to and watch the proceedings from that sheltered raised section to the south east of the stage because some idiot was running a generator there so that although the position should have been ideal, it was impossible to make out what was being said on the stage because of the constant drone of the Generator.
This was far and away the worst organised large scale march and gathering event that I have ever been on. And oh, boy I have seen a few.
I don't blame the volunteer marshals. Well done to them all and a big thankyou.
Wrong route. Wrong time of year. Poor site planning. Poor oversight.
All of that could have been endured without much complaint if rewarded with an rabble rousing rhetoric exhorting us all to seize the route ahead to independence.
Alas there was little inspiration to be found.
And as for the speech from the 'leader'.
He literally stood there and refused to take responsibility for leading the cause or the movement forward.
If you listened to what he said you would have come away understanding that the SNP and Greens want to be re-elected and if you were waiting for the bit about how Swinney was going to lead us forward to Independence, well you might have died of hypothermia.
Do Better.
There is no need for a convention on how to progress or independence. There are only two ways
1. The current so-called legal way of Swinney
2. The so-called illegal way of the Scottish Parliament on a majority of MSPs declaring the Treaty of Union revoked. And use the consequent reaction by The establishment of Westminster against them.
Haud Fortit... Dont give up... But if you are exhausted... And you have every right to be.... Ease off on the throttle.
Neither of those is a way to make progress. Much of my weariness comes from repeatedly explaining why these things are not ways to make progress. To date, #ScottishUDI remains the only process which actually connects our present situation to a proper constitutional referendum and thence independence in a series of steps that are perfectly feasible even if not entirely easy.
How do you do a UDI?
What institution would you use?
You cannot use Holyrood,Swinney is a British citizen?
The AOU was given royal assent by the Scottish Crown.
Can a British citizen overrule Scottish citizens in the Scottish Parliament 1707 who passed the Treaty of Union?
If so,why haven't the SNP just done it by now.
Forget the British,this is about the AOU under the Scottish Crown.
Baz and I went yesterday. We sang the M4I-UDI, Stick Yer Section 30 and We're No Asking Anymore, songs.
Got a guid pic with the New Scotland Party Banner, outside the Patlamemt. Didn't go up Calton hill, to hear Swinney and his chums talking pish.
Was it worth it? Handed out some Project Arbroath booklets, talked about M4I and UDI to some intersted folk. Had a guid laugh, as always wi Baz but beer in Edinburgh is pricey. Pity you weren't there Peter, but we're Keeping The Dream Alive.