Just when you think that the UK has reached peak crazy you discover that the intelligence services were apparently relying on a guy who’d watched too many Nicholas Cage movies when they reported that there was information that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. We can only hope that Scotland gets independence before M15 launches Trident because a Whitehall informant has gone to see Independence Day Resurgence and mistakes it for indyref2.
What we learned from yesterday’s crazy was that Tony Blair and most of his government were largely responsible for the deathly debacle of Iraq, but it’s highly unlikely that any of them are going to face prosecution. They’ll still get to enjoy their peerages and their privilege. We’re living in a country where you will face more onerous consequences for turning up late to an interview at the job centre than you will for taking the country to war when war wasn’t necessary and setting off a chain of events which have led to the deaths of as many as a quarter of a million people and the maiming and displacement of millions more. Doesn’t it make you proud to be British eh? No. Me neither.
Today’s craziness comes in two main parts. Tory crazy, and Labour crazy. The Tories have whittled down their short list of five reactionary authoritarians to just two reactionary authoritarians. Earlier this week they got rid of Liam Fox, who will now have more time to spend with Adam Werrity, and they got rid of Stephen Crabb, who no one had heard of before the vote but who managed to raise his profile to such an extent that now a tiny minority of politics geeks have heard of him. And today the Tories finally got shot of Michael Gove, the bastard offspring of Margaret Thatcher and a goldfish, who has achieved his lifelong dream of never becoming prime minister.
We’re left with two candidates. One of them knows what the country wants because she’s read all your emails and will cheerfully force hundreds of thousands of EU citzens to live in uncertainty because she wants to use them as bargaining counters in EU negotiations. Teresa May is to civil liberties as Vlad the Impaler is to lawn ornaments. Meanwhile Andrea Leadsom is opposed to gay marriage and wants to strip maternity rights from women who work for small businesses, but she’s very big on freedom, as long as by freedom you mean the freedom to rip foxes apart with dogs and the freedom to believe that CV writing is form of creative fiction. The only positive thing you can say about her is that she makes Teresa May seem warm and cuddly. The Tory party has now given the country the choice of acid bath it wants to bathe in, or rather it’s given its members the choice. The rest of us have no say in the matter. We just have to melt with the result.
But they’re both women so that’s terribly forward looking and progressive. We’ll get to revisit the 1980s only with more far reaching surveillance and even worse employment rights, and can look forward to getting handbagged by Thatcher’s mini-me’s as we knuckle down to a UK where our civil rights are chipped away in the name of the security of greater glory to Great Britain. By way of compensation there will, without any shadow of a doubt, be bunting, military parades, and royals in medal bedecked uniforms to distract us from our zero hour contracts and from a pound that’s on a par with monopoly money, so you won’t be going on a foreign holiday any time soon. It will be a sub-Ruritanian horror show with no escape from the rain.
Labour’s crazy shows no sign of ending. At least you could argue that the Tories are power-crazed. Labour’s just crazed, and have as much prospect of attaining a position of responsibility as a 1970s BBC DJ has of being put in charge of a girl guides troop. The plotters have decided to take their plot to get rid of Corbyn off the boil for the time being, mainly because he’s refusing to leave and they’ve belatedly realised that they have no plan B, which appears to be something of a theme for Westminster politicians.
Having come to to realisation that the world is a cruel and pitiless place which has no respect for the ambitions and plans of Labour politicians, the Westminster parliamentary party and its Holyrood equivalent have taken refuge in a fantasy world where they’re still relevant and influential. Kezia Dugdale announced today that her party is the only party that is still committed to keeping Scotland in both the EU and the UK. She’d be as well announcing her commitment to retaining ties with the Roman Empire, because that’s as much a part of ancient history as her commitment to keeping the UK in the EU. The UK is going to leave the EU. No amount of foot stamping and dummy spitting is going to change that political reality.
European leaders, in the shape of Mariano Rajoy, have made it very plain that Scotland cannot remain in the EU if the UK leaves, but Kezia and her wee band of Unionists were too busy crowing about how Rajoy’s words were a blow for Nicola Sturgeon to notice that he’d actually put the kybosh on the Labour party in Scotland’s wish to retain membership of both unions. And since the UK has already voted to leave the EU, and the UK is governed by a Tory party with two leadership candidates who are vying with one another to implement Brexit, that leaves only two options. Those options are remaining a part of the UK and leaving the EU with May or Leadsom deciding our fates, or becoming independent and remaining a part of the EU, giving ourselves the option of leaving at some time in the future on our own terms if that’s what we decide to do, free from the nightmare risk of a Tory Brexit. There are no other choices available, no matter how much Kezia and her supporters skweam and skweam and skweam until they’re sick.
Scotland can either retreat into Labour’s shades of crazy with Kezia’s fantasy world, or we can take adult decisions based upon the realities before us. We can seize this opportunity to become, at last, an adult country in charge of our own destiny, or we can crawl under the comfort blanket with Kezia and pretend that none of this is really happening. I vote to be a grown up, I vote for Scottish independence.
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Wee Ginger Dug 
And so do I, Paul. Scottish independence is the only option. At last!
Aye, Jan – you’ll vote for it, Paul will vote for it, I’ll vote for it. So will Macart, Jack Collatin and most of those who comment here but we have to make sure that a majority, hopefully a sizeable majority, of voters in Scotland do too. I’m hopeful, but I wouldn’t say confident. However, I couldn’t agree more that it’s the only option: the prospect of remaining in the U.K. with either May or Leadsom at the helm just doesn’t bear thinking about.
In which case Andimac I’ll do you a deal. Seeing as I already support independence for Scotland would you lend your support for independence for the SRSY?
Pleeeeeeese!
See you at the barricades, Dave!
I’m going to miss her. She’s been hanging about the house , oh I don’t know, it seems like decades, almost as long as my battered old Gibson.
‘Come ,ye Masters of War,.
You that build the big guns.’
Ah, them were the days.
Both Far Right Hopefuls will use Europeans working here, settled here, contributing massively to the economy, and civic society, as bargaining chips.
They will ‘allow’ those already here to stay as long as the million or so Brits retired in, or working in, Europe, are allowed to continue to languish in genteel poverty on a reduced pension on the Costas, Dordoigneshire, or Tuscany.
Of course, since the EU will call their bluff:- If there is no freedom of movement post English Exit, then you can have your pensioners and migrant workers back, my Everlovin’, who is Irish, will be deported; or so I keep telling her.
But never mind, I’m sure that I’ll be able to pick up a housekeeper on the cheap, below minimum wage, with no employment rights to bother about, if Leadsom or May have their way.
After all, there are zillions of British folk whom these pesky Furriners have been keeping out of work.
I’ll soon have the pick of the crop, for buttons.
It won’t take me long to coach a wee domestic into ironing a crease in my shirt sleeves all the way up the shoulder to the collar.
And cut the crusts off my toast. And fetch the ‘papers before I awake to a full breakfast.
It’s going to be all right, this Brave New Britain.
I’ll miss her, right enough. I may have to buy an electric blanket, whatever that is.
I might rent out a room to half a dozen returning pensioners as well.
Who says when one door closes, another slams in your face?
Andimac, you are 100%. The only way is Independence.
I wonder if the Edinburgh Counting Houses, Insurers and Money Lenders will persist on voting No as their jobs transfer to Dublin, Frankfurt, and Paris?
Or with Independence, watch Independent Scotland’s Financial Services Industry mushroom into World Player Status, as London empties, and real estate in Auld Reekie is at a premium?
I quoted ‘festina lente’, the other day. We are in no rush, but must apply urgency to the campaign now.
For a start, DWP must issue a statement that all state pensions will be honoured by rUK post Independence, as a right. It would stop darling and Brown lying through their teeth, like last time.
Would we want to be tied to a failing pound? And so on.
Not long now.
[…] Wee Ginger Dug Shades of crazy under the comfort blanket […]
Stick with it, it’s the thought that counts.
How true. So is Nicola Sturgeon our little mouse? Or does that honour belong to all of us?
Interesting times indeed!
Yours, a member of The Mouse Collective. 😉
The Mouse that Roared 😉
Brilliant, Connor. Thanks for unearthing this.
An excellent wee film!
I’ll stand up on that table with you Paul.
Paul
Many thanks for yaps that I received yesterday.
Glad they arrived safely, and I hope you enjoy them!
Right on the money Paul and OMG the choices for PM. May or Leadsom, the mind boggles. FFS! What part of condemning the Scottish electorate to the worst of Tory governments did Labour miss when they joined themselves at the hip to these monsters during indyref1? Dear God… Teresa May?
As for the current leader BLIS? Ms Dugdale is an irrelevance, though an annoying one. Either she does understand what Sr. Rajoy’s statement implies, in which case she is disingenuous at best or, and this is more likely, she hasn’t a Scooby what’s going on around her.
Right now, its true enough to say we don’t know when the next indyref will be, but there is more than enough evidence now to trigger one at any time of the SGs choosing. Whilst they have to be seen to explore every option short of an indyref to remain in the EU, you could place good money on a green light as soon as Article 50 is triggered. As yet no model to remain part of both unions being feasible or desirable has come to light and in fact, I doubt that one exists.
I will repeat what I’ve said before though, any indyref CANNOT be a rerun of the EU ref. Being taken out of the EU against our democratic choice as a nation is a significant change in circumstance and IS a constitutional and economic crisis. It is also a clear breach of assurance by both HMG and Better Together. One of … well all of them, made during Scotland’s first indyref. The unionists have broken every pledge and fallen short on every assurance they made. THAT is the reason for indyref2 and nothing else. An indyref cannot be about one issue. It has to be about all of the failed pledges and worsening of our lot as part of this political union.
No place to hide for unionist politicians or their media. The cry was…. BUT YOU SAID…!
Absolutely. When people start talking about in or out the EU, or needing to see the results of negotiations and everything being clearly set out , just keep pointing out the lies we we were all told through both referendums. You vote No and you’re just inviting your abusers to have another go at you.
“May or Leadsom, the mind boggles”
Guess which of the two Theresa Villiers, Northern Ireland’s Secretary of State is supporting !
And Scots thought they had problems with their SOS!!!
Thank you Paul. Not sure I would have got through the last few weeks without your words of wisdom. I marched, as millions did, against the Iraq war and left the Labour Party soon after. Since then I have campaigned for Scottish Independence and thought it might be a long time coming. Three weeks after Brexit I know it will come. Don’t ever stop your wonderful posts, we need you!
Your writings are one of the highlights of my day. Thank you WGD for telling it like it is, with humour. I find myself laughing out loud even though the subjects are so bloody serious. Looking forward to your next. xxx (I don’t know how to type a hug so xxs from this 67 year old hetro will have to do!)
As usual, spot on Paul. Thanks once again for being a voice for Scotland!
Excellent writing, as ever, about crazy, tragic, and fascinating times. The time for independence is absolutely now; being under the stiletto jackboot of Evil Dead 1 (May) vs Evil Dead 2 (Leadsom) is not an option. Period.
The empire is dying. But watch out for the maggots.
Have no fear – i would put my money on Nicola’s tartan stilettos taking out whoever’s shoes end up in no 10! 🙂
I would just like to add my thanks Paul for your marvellous posts.
The yoons north of the Tweed have been “gubbed” by the country they cling to – England/UK – which has ko’od itself. Kezia’s skweem UK and EU fir Scotland is now a chimera, nae chance of federalism noo in the Yoo Kay! The “Fresher” in party branch management is out of her depth. She is anti Corbyn, who I gaining in popularity dahn sath, so the party leader of which she is a branch is agin her and with the fractures appearing wider dahn sath and a defiant Corbyn facing down his MP’s, saying we cannot leave Brexit to the Tories, we know where his brexit/ engxit longterm held sentiments are. Kezia is off limits again there.
As for Tankie, well no surprises there. Yoo Kay all the way! Just like the old communists in former Eastern Europe who proclaimed allegiance to the USSR and abandoned all critical thinking and attachment to the needs of their respective countries and enforced austerity, except for themselves. Then they were dumped by the USSR when it changed and they were left out to dry! The same fate awaits the yoons. With one MP each at Westminster, they are truly twigs now, not even branches. (Only EBC Scotland has not realised this yet).
Still, there ate other sectors in Scotland still hankering after the UK. The fishermen, sold out by Heath, see the UK government as their saviour. Misguided. If they would put their faith in Edinburgh, get out of the UK and remain in the EU meantime, then we can make our own decisions. The enfant terrible is the HoC , not the EU in the first instance. The aftermath of the Smith commission shows no real effective new powers will come from Westminster. Three Scot-yoons there cannot influence their respective parties. Corbyn, and the LibDem leader whose name everyone forgets and the Tories are not supportive of more devolved powers.
So Scots, the UK is ko’ed. The financial turmoil is gathering apace, the broad shoulders are sinking and there is nothing much going to be in the pool to “pool and share”, as Gordon, now silent and invisible, has proclaimed .
Indyref2 is our only roadmap to a better Scotland.
I cannot help but feel that our friends down south are verging on the tipping point of taking to the streets in mass protest should they not get their democratic decision upheld.
It’ll start small with the ultra right wing zoomers but I can foresee it gathering pace like the London riots of a couple of years ago whilst they all descend upon WM.
The Police will step in and sort out the ring leaders OR WILL THEY???
This is my point here, May has done some real damage to the forces across England so can they really be relied upon to keep the peace?
Time will tell and I can sit comfortably from far away watching it across social media as the EBC will undoubtedly give it the ‘nothing to see here’ treatment as they do with every other protest that takes place in the Capital.
Time to get the popcorn supplies in…….
re the London riots: Examples of Victorian age sentences that were handed out as “deterrents” afterwards :
“an 18-year-old was imprisoned for one day for stealing two Burberry t-shirts while in another court, a 23-year-old man was sentenced to six months in prison for stealing £3.50 worth of water”
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-14553330
Remember: Westminster is terrified of the London Mob
Aye, but those ‘judgements’ depended on skin shade.
The day after the EU ref I tweeted that it would all start with an upsurge in marches/rallies by far-right extremists (EDL, Britain First etc,) especially in areas with a large number of Brexiters/ethnic minorities, which will undoubtably lead to violence.
I’m old enough to have been involved with the Anti-Nazi League, and we know how violent things got at counter marches when the NF came to town.
Will we see the same thing happen again? I hope not, but I’m afraid we very well might.
YES!!!!!!
From down here in England it’s feeling uncomfortable which ever way you look. As you rightly compare the two Tory candidates to a choice of acid baths, there’s little more to be added. If one were able, as a kind of latter-day Dr Frankenstein, to have welded together the dismembered body parts of all the various original candidates – or at least their favourable attributes rather than their flesh – it would still have been a struggle to assemble a monster with very much going for it at all. None were – speaking as a non-Tory Remain voter – remotely appealing as the next leader of the country, and the remaining two remain fully on trend as totally unlikeable for a mixture of reasons.
The UK seems doomed to live – like some offshore European ‘Flying Dutchman’ spectre – in the ‘interesting times’ that result from a half-written (there are a few statutes) constitution, a rubbish voting system that is only suited to a two-party ‘cricket-match’ system. The electorate don’t want the proportional voting system that’s vital for a multi-party (…and really both Labour and the Tories ought to be two separate parties, making four to start with…) society, believed the dark predictions of a ‘Leave’ vote as mere scaremongering, and are trying to drag the various parts of the UK down with a dysfunctional England that can’t get over its loss of Empire and general decline. Even the dispatch of more troops to Eastern Europe today is a variation of the old ‘Look out over there’ point-and-distract technique used by desperate politicians to use a quick foreign policy gesture to draw attention away from the fact that the economy – and most else besides – is now down around their ankles. I despair, I really do….. Is there room for one more in Scotland?, at least you guys are in with a good chance to save yourselves….
Of course there’s room for you! Nicola says you’re welcome, and so say we all! 🙂 Come and be part of the best wee country in the world – and bring your indyref2 yes vote with you!
It was only about 660 groups! Not even a wee expeditionary force. Tarantaraism again!!
It makes one cry with despair; what if some nutter cannot read a map and the Cyrillic alphabet and strays into Russia.
Ironic, 100 hundred years ago Russia was our ally!!
Still, I suppose Fallon has to get his periodic Fallon’s Features slot in.
Oops, wee typo in the above. It was 660 troops, not groups!
I am not sure how well reported the recent opening of the Scottish Parliament was in England.. even in Scotland only selected highlights of speeches (and poignant songs) were shown… part of the following speech would certainly be worthy of inclusion in any pre-amble to an emergent written Constitution:-
The First Minister continued: “So allow me to reflect on who we are in Scotland today…..
….We are more than five million men and women, adults, young people and children, each with our own life story and family history, and our own hopes and dreams.
We are the grandchildren and the great grandchildren of the thousands who came from Ireland to work in our shipyards and in our factories. We are the 80,000 Polish people, the 8,000 Lithuanians, the 7,000 each from France, Spain, Germany, Italy and Latvia. We are among the many from countries beyond our shores that we are so privileged to have living here amongst us.
We are the more than half a million people born in England, Wales and Northern Ireland who have chosen to live here in Scotland. We are the thousands of European students studying at our universities and our colleges. We are the doctors and nurses from all across our continent and beyond who care for us daily in our National Health Service.”…
So, this is clearly a welcoming declaration to all / the world and of where Scotland sees itself in the current hurly-burly…..
Be warned however, it’s not all rosy….. there are midgies!
Feel for you Dodgy.
Don’t know if you’ve kept up on our own constitutional rammy with HMG, but hopefully you’re well aware of the difference now in the arguments. For most of us in the independence movement its always been about the system of politics and ‘inclusion’. Its about joining in and opening up to the world. We don’t and never have thought of ourselves as ‘better than’ anyone and thanks to Brexit you should be well clued up on what a real separatist/isolationist movement looks like. All we ever wanted was a system of government that is based on merit, duty of care and is transparent. One that takes care of its electorate regardless of station or point of origin. One that is as free from elitism, rampant patronage, unelected superior chambers and (for the most part) corporately compromised as it is possible to get in this day and age.
And we’re getting there, though its been a helluva struggle to say the least. We’ve got a competent team in place and a standout FM. Other smaller, more socially progressive parties are steadily gaining traction and size in Scotland and the old establishment parties are thankfully losing out across the board. Basically they’re savaging each other over their own dwindling support.
So yeah, if you want the type of government I’m speaking about, then get your bum up here and lend a hand. Like minds are always welcome. 🙂
Dodgy, mate, sometimes the last effective vote one has is made with one’s feet.
As I have said elsewhere, the spouse and I have already learned that his company is leaving the UK — they weighed the possibilities a year ago and had plans in place — and the next largest office with a primarily English-speaking staff is in Edinburgh. We have unexpectedly come into a bit of cash, and are using it to clear the financial decks and put a “get the hell out of Dodge” fund in place: I’ve only been in this flat a month, but as soon as it’s known where we’re going we will cheerfully break the lease, eat the penalties and (hopefully) be on the road north as soon as the pans are packed. Most of my friends are academics/in STEM fields; they are looking at what they are about to lose and heading for the doors as well, and thus far all but one of them are going to Scotland.
And as Macart said below:
That is what I want from a government; I believe it is the baseline everyone should expect from their government. It sounds as if you are of a similar opinion.
“English by birth; Scottish by choice.” Doesn’t sound half bad, does it? If it is at all possible for you to make that happen, do! You don’t have to go down with that ship! It won’t be perfect, but there’s a better chance of compassionate and decent than if you stay. Go up and help to make that happen.
My previous comment does not seem to have posted, so more succinctly:
Dodgy, vote with your feet and head north! Most of my friends are academics or in STEM fields, and every one of them is making plans to leave England, particularly the ones who speak with an obvious non-British accent or can’t pass as White.