There are those amongst the British nationalist apologists in Scotland who accuse independence supporters of romanticism, of dealing in distortions of fact, but it’s a fact that there is no proponent of Scottish independence who would ever come out with something as ludicrously batshit as an article which was published this week in a site which is a new digital magazine for right wing British nationalism in Scotland, “Think Scotland”. Because what Scotland is really short on are outlets for British nationalist Conservatives.
The batshit crazy article in question would be a piece by a certain Jonathan Stanley, who describes himself as a free market libertarian, and who retweets Katie Hopkins. Jonathan calls on the Republic of Ireland to, ahem, come home to Britain. This is a call which Jonathan makes on the very day that an Irish opinion poll showed that support for EU membership in the Republic has risen to 92%. And all this magical thinking, dear readers, is on a site which aspires to be the intellectual home of Scottish Unionism. This may be the intellectualism of Scottish Unionism, but Unionist populism is demonstrated by Orange parades and Nazi saluting fascists, so we’re dealing with a pretty low bar here.
You might not always agree with the pieces published in pro-independence multi-author sites like Bella Caledonia or Common Space. But none of them would ever consider publishing something as gob smackingly crazy and deluded as Jonathan’s proposal for the Republic of Ireland to surrender its sovereignty in return for the right to send MPs to Westminster, just in order to make post-Brexit Britain’s life a bit easier. It’s not often that I read something which is purportedly serious which makes me guffaw out loud. Thanks for the laugh if nothing else Jonathan.
It’s Britain’s Brexiteer mania which has created the problem with the Irish border, but in Jonathan’s world it’s Ireland which needs to change to accommodate the problems that the UK has caused.
Someone who fancies himself as a serious thinker is seriously proposing that the Irish Republic should give up its independence in return for 50 MPs in Westminster who can be sidelined, ignored, and marginalised just like Scotland’s. Then it can participate in all the great trade deals that Liam Fox is going to negotiate for us. Whoop. And indeed, de doo.
There hasn’t been a less attractive offer since the Roman general Lucius Gellius Publicola generously told Spartacus that if he gave up all this liberty carry on and went back to being a slave he’d be guaranteed at least one bowl of gruel a day and only the occasional light flogging. Admittedly there’s a certain type of public schoolboy in the Conservative party who is rather drawn to the idea of the occasional light flogging, but you can’t really impute personal kinks to an entire country. Although that would be a reasonable explanation for the otherwise inexplicable popularity of Jacob Rees Mogg amongst certain sections of the British public.
The existence of the Irish Republic puts a lie to the myth that there is something essentially British shared by the peoples of this archipelago which unites us all and justifies the existence of a single parliament in Westminster ruling over us all. The links between Scotland and England are long and deep, this is true. But so are the links between Scotland and Ireland. Labour preaches that working people in Leith have more in common with working people in Liverpool. But the problem is that whatever it is that is shared between Leith and Liverpool is also shared with Limerick.
British nationalists in Scotland have always had a bit of a problem with Ireland. Historically that manifested itself in the form of naked and rampant sectarianism, in the denial of jobs and housing to Scots of Irish Catholic descent. These days, at least on the respectable wing of staunch opposition to Scottish independence, the problem that British nationalists in Scotland have with Ireland manifests itself in the form of harrumphy blog articles denying that Ireland should really exist at all. So for example there was the recent effort from the reliably amusing Effie Deans who argued that everything good about Ireland comes from Britain, except possibly hurling and Tayto crisps. She was prepared to concede that the Táin Bó Cúailnge is authentically Irish, but it’s not a good thing because apparently Iron Age epic poetry doesn’t reflect modern democratic values. Well who knew?
Ireland threatens to derail the Brexit process, and because Ireland can count on the support of the rest of the EU it has inverted the traditional power dynamic of Britain telling Ireland what to do, and Ireland putting up with it on the pain of colonialisation and famine. Now it’s Ireland dictating terms to the UK. That’s a bitter pill to swallow for British nationalism, all the more so because Brexit was predicated on the mistaken belief that it would allow the UK to take back control. The Union fleg wavers were told they’re going to take back control, only then they end up being told what to do by Dublin. As generations of Irish and Scottish mothers have said, Hell slap it into them.
However for British nationalists in Scotland, the real issue with the Irish border isn’t just that it threatens to derail Brexit. It’s that the Irish border issue threatens to destroy one of the key arguments against Scottish independence, the oft-repeated claim that we heard in 2014 that Scottish independence would result in barbed wire and control posts being imposed all the way along the border from Gretna to Berwick. After all, the UK cannot credibly threaten an independent Scotland that’s a member of the customs union, the single market, and the common travel area with an Iron Curtain style border after it has committed to ensuring that there’s no perceptible border between the UK and another state that’s a member of the customs union, the single market, and the common travel area.
The power and strength of Ireland in negotiations with the UK also demonstrates the power and influence that an independent Scotland could wield. It’s hard to tell Scotland that we’ll be powerless and ineffectual when the almighty British government is being told what to do by Dublin.
That’s what’s really exercising British nationalists in Scotland about Ireland these days. Ireland shows up the weakness of the British state, the strength that comes from independence, and destroys some of Better Together’s favourite arguments. And British nationalists have no answer, no come back, other than fanciful articles wishing for the impossible. There is more chance of Murdo Fraser coming out as an independence supporting Celtic fan who votes socialist than there is of the Irish Republic deciding to return to British rule.
And pretty soon, Ireland will be joined in its independence by Scotland.
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Excellent. Some kind of karma is happening and the Britnats must be livid, serves them right. Arrogant, scheming toads.
Britnat sense of self importance knows no bounds. Looks like they might get their comeuppance yet though. What goes round comes round, as they say.
I love the sound of one hand clapping in the mists of the BritNat kailyard. The sheer karma of it all. Yummy.
Typo alert. For “free market libertarian”, read “flea market libertarian”.
LMAO!
I read the article in question The last paragraph:- “The republic alone would have something like 50 seats in Westminster, equal to all other MPs. No Commission. No Qualified Majority Voting. No imposition of directives it cannot influence.”
Aye right. That’s Scotlands’ experience in a nutshell. Sure thing mate.
Comments on that site are invisible. I wonder why?
ireland sent 105 MPs to Westminster throughout the 19thC and still fought for, and gained, independence in the early 20thC.
Now Stanley is offering 50 seats – for the series ” all the better to screw you, my dear”
I too am enjoying the situation where Ireland with the backing of the EU appears to have the whip-hand over the UK at last 🙂
But … you have to admit that seen from a certain POV, seeing the Republic of Ireland as a sort of wilful prodigal son, to be invited to come back home to momma Engerland, does have a certain logic, screwy logic perhaps, but not quite 110% off-the-wall 😉
Remember the RoI is part of a Common Travel Area with the UK. We are told we are citizens of Europe, but it never rang true for me, and I suspect many others, for while a Frenchman can travel unchecked from Brittany to the depths of Middle-Europe and beyond, I can’t even cross the Channel without having to “show my papers”. How the Free Irish cope with this humiliation I scarcely comprehend.
We must assume that they simply grin and bear it in the interests of pragmatism, but if so, a BritNat would argue, why can’t they accept the same arrangement for goods and services as for people? They mostly speak English after all, have been part of ‘our’ cultural sphere (read ‘colonial reich’) for generations, so maybe now is the time for them to put away their adolescent aspirations of independence, give up their scruffy bed-sit and move back in with Mom & Dad? Paternalistic? You bet — LOL!
I read the article but took it as a piss-taking spoof given the 92% support for EU in Ireland.
Wow!
The division of Ireland does not make sense. The UK is composed of 3 countries and a province. That’s right. Northern Ireland is not a country. It’s not even a nation. It’s part of the nation of Ireland, which was invaded a few hundred years ago; the invading empire transplanted some of its nationals in the country in order to subdue it; the transplant never took; when the nation asserted its rightful autonomy the transplant became a parasite, sapping the strength of the nation with violence in order to keep it attached to the empire. To restore peace, the empire detached the area of the nation where the parasite was attached from the country of which it was part.
The Protestants who live in Northern Ireland say that they are not Irish, but that they are British. The British, however, are not a nation. They are 3 nations and a parasite in another nation. The problem is about how to accommodate the parasite so that it does not resort to the violence it would create were the nation to be returned to its natural country, the Republic of Ireland. Arlene Forster recently said that Northern Ireland will always be British. That seems unlikely. The Britisher birth rate has fallen, and the birthrate of the Irish nationals is such that in time they will have enough of a majority to vote to unite with the country of which they are naturally a part. It’s time for the Britishers to wake up, and make peace with their reality.
The ideal solution would be for the Britishers to move to the countries from which their ancestors were transplanted, but that’s not going to happen. So what is the solution?
Steelewires,
You need to be a wee bit careful about your generalisations. You view of NI Protestants is straight out of the 1980s and not helpful to today’s debate. There are thousands of the younger generation in NI who consider themselves both Protestant and Irish and who are disillusioned by the tribal politics of their wee country (because whether we like it or not, that is precisely what the vast majority of people in NI consider their entity to be). There are even more of us Ulster Protestants who are card-carrying Irishmen and women, quite literally. Many of us carry Irish rather than British passports, much brought on by Brexit, but deeply rooted in the fact we hold a different view of politics and nationality to our parents.
Ironically, I am one of the thousands of Ulster-Scots who have ‘moved back to the country my ancestors left’, and due to where I live in this Disunited Kingdom, my vote is cast in Scotland, but I do not cast a unionist vote. If I were back in NI, I would struggle to find a credible political party to vote for, but whoever I’d vote for, it wouldn’t be the Decapitate Ulster Party. Maybe that’s why so many of us, Protestant and Catholic, have been doing what you thought was unthinkable since the mid-1980s.
One day I may go back home to Ulster, and I rather hope it will be to a 9-County Ulster. Maybe if I go back, I’ll settle in the 3-County, probably in Donegal, because that’s were my ancestors were set down after being driven off their land in Sutherland.
You see, its a rather complicated business not served particularly well by harping back to the 1980s (no pun intended). But rest assured, the vast majority of Ulster-Scots Protestants in Scotland would rather live in an Independent Scotland than in an isolationist neo-colonial Disunited Kingdom.
I too hope to see a united Ireland in my lifetime.
I grew up in the eastern borders of Scotland totally oblivious to the daftness that religion has done to so many people, be you protestant or catholic, or anything else. Isn’t it idiotic that grown people cannot rationalise fact from bigotry and just live together. Glad to hear many from Ulster are doing just that.
Lets keep our fingers crossed for Scotland being free and Ireland being whole once again.
Well said, Slabber. Young people in Norn Irn want nothing to do with DUP and Sinn Fein.
They are intelligent outward looking Europeans in the main. The established religions have lost their stranglehold on 21st Century citizens .
Ireland will be reunited at the ballot box eventually. Brexit may precipitate this inevitable outcome.
Scotland will be independent, at the ballot box, again, because of Brexit sooner rather than later.
That’s a surprising statement given a recent report showing that it is the younger rather than older voters who are more likely to support the DUP and Sinn Féin, as opposed to older voters who are more likely to back the UUP and SDLP.
Very well said!
Like you I do not consider the six counties known as Northern Ireland to be a country or a nation. Not yet anyway. It is an invaded part of a country. Ireland and Cuba share that fate in common. Cuba has Guantanamo Bay and Ireland has ‘Guantanamo Neagh’. As to a solution (ideal or otherwise). Unfortunately, it’s easier to produce puns than lasting peace and justice.
That… was worth the read.
Oh Jings! 😀 ROFLMAO
That’s a beauty Paul. Must admit to never having heard of this chap Jonathan Stanley, but that is Britnat delusion of biblical proportions. He deems himself a thinker? Clearly not a very deep one.
The British Nationalists have been on an epic journey of societal and political self harm for quite some time. Self harm egged on by self interests of the very worst kind in both the political and corporate world.
Regardless, popular (and I use that word advisedly) British Nationalist unionism is clearly marked, not by inclusion, understanding or care, but by hatred, fear, abuse and intimidation. Anyone who has spent five minutes listening to them expound on who they regard as inferior, unworthy or untrustworthy would be left in no doubt as to their nature. There is NOTHING friendly or welcoming about the Britnat unionist. There is no safety or warmth to be had in their company and certainly not in the state system they support.
One look at the economic, political and societal direction of the UK today is all it takes. A state marred by corruption, criminal scandal, self interested exceptionalism and massive economic ineptitude. Huge wealth disparity, demographic intolerance and democratic deficit of eyewatering proportions. As for their media? Don’t get me started.
So, yeah. Quite the enticing package.
Personally? I’m looking forward to Scotland’s peoples, our population, being in the same fortunate position as the folk in Eire.
Tick tock.
Macart. Took the words out of my mouth. Spot on
“… popular (and I use that word advisedly) British Nationalist unionism is clearly marked, not by inclusion, understanding or care, but by hatred, fear, abuse and intimidation.” This is so clearly the case, that it can’t be gainsaid.
These values are so clearly contra Christian values that, as a Protestant Christian (I don’t like the negative name “Protestant”, I prefer to call my self “Reformational”) I find myself distressed and angry that they are so widely held in Ireland and the Glasgow and Lanarkshire areas of Scotland by Protestants. I’m not sure about Northern Ireland, but most Brit-Nat, Unionist, sectarian protestants in Scotland are not in fact practising Protestant Christians They are merely anti-Catholics. I once, as a joke, asked a teenager in Motherwell if his religion was Rangers or Celtic. He quite seriously responded, “Rangers”.
That those anti-Christian values are the unsaid, operating, British Values held by the British government and its Ministers gives the lie to the claim that Great Britain is a Christian country.
Steelwires,
Mundell and Co are not ‘Christian’. They are the anti Christ.
Their policies are designed to deliberately enslave tens of millions of UK citizens through state controlled rob the poor, reward the rich policies.
Davidson believes that if you’ve got money and sign up to an Establishment Hierarchy, where, royalty, Nobility, Old Money, and the ‘Professions’ rule, no matter how the Hoi Polloi vote, then you buy an Education to perpetuate the pyramid, you get the best of health care because you can pay for it, you hire private Police Forces to guard your wealth, and the rest can rely on charity, and second hand winter coats.
In Thatcher’s Bible,The Sermon on the Mount is delivered by Ruth Davidson starddling a bullock.
‘Blessed are the greedy and well off’. They shall force the rest of God’s flock into submission and slavery.’
They firmly believe in dog eat dog; they have no problem with consigning millions to poverty, and early deaths.
They have no problem with victimising the elderly, the infirm, the disabled, while spending billions in bombing foreign lands, at the same time bleating that they UK can’t afford a publicly owned , financed and administered health service.
We are about to be forcibly turned into the biggest nuclear weapons facility in Western Europe by the English Fourth Reich.
Nobody asked our permission. We have been invaded by England.
This is not hyperbole.
Ian Clark at 12.55 pm quips:-
“Unfortunately, it’s easier to produce puns than lasting peace and justice.”
The Heady days of English Imperialism and ‘taking back control’.
Life in the Faslane, Ian.
“Life in the Faslane”.
Christ, I almost choked on my porridge there, Jack.
Tears of laughter, and a wee bit later, tears of sorrow and frustration and maybe rage.
Faslane to be expanded into the biggest nuclears weapons facility in Western Europe…
The Firth of Clyde; a handy, wee, out of the way, weapons storage for the British Empire.
Jesus Effing Christ… Will our children, and their children, and the unborn generations ever forgive us if we, collectively, don’t stand against this madness?
The world has enough problems without perpetuating this arms race nonsense.
What is Scotland to the ruling classes in London?
(A source of resources, revenue, some grouse moors, and a convenient place to park nuclear weapons),
Wake up, Scotland, for goodness sake…
(I know, i know; preaching to the choir here…).
The plan, (the big picture), must be to fully engage the youth. They want, and need, a better future. They are in favour of this. We all must be in favour of this.
A peaceful, cooperative, visionary, future, or a “hostile environment” ?,
Anyway, keep up the good work, and see youse down the road in a wee while.
(Canadian work this summer, but, I’ll be back.)
Well said, Asty. Couldn’t agree more.
I have no problem judging beliefs, legislation, policies, and practises. I have greater difficulty judging people. I certainly think that the beliefs, policies and practises of Mundell & co are Antichrist, and I am pressed to avoid calling those people the Antichrist, I’m too aware of my own faults call them names.
Steelwires, it goes beyond their choice of ‘beliefs, legislation, policies, and practices’.
They use the law as shield to mask their deliberate venal actions against fellow human beings.
Adolf Eichmann was ‘only obeying orders’.
I had a quick look at the article and as Paul says it is a masterpiece of self-delusion. The writer seems to base the argument on the idea that Ireland left the UK illegally and is entirely responsible for all of the Troubles but all would be forgiven if they’d just rejoin. Added to this they’d get a ‘better’ democratic deal with 50 MP’s in the UK parliament than they currently do in the EU, because the EU is undemocratic. End Of.
That’s like the wonderful democratic advantages that Scotland currently enjoys. Gosh, why don’t these grubby plebs get it?
Another gem was the assertion that the republic of Ireland had “No violence due to foreigners in their cities”. Well, not since they kicked them out in 1921 anyway. There’s been plenty in Northern Ireland though…
Another corker Paul, your articles are really on fire at the moment.The sheer arrogance of the British establishment mindset is breathtaking, hilarious and enraging all at once.
The other problem that Scottish unionism has is that they are now in government and associated with Irish unionism.
Now one and the same.
Bigots together.
[…] via Scottish Unionism’s new Irish problem — Wee Ginger Dug […]
Jonathan Stanley. Deluded pr**k.
[…] via Scottish Unionism’s new Irish problem — Wee Ginger Dug […]
Jonathan Stanley deems himself a thinker? Oh sorry I thought he said ‘drinker.
[…] https://weegingerdug.wordpress.com/2018/05/11/scottish-unionisms-new-irish-problem/ […]
Here’s the deal then.
When we opt for Self Determination, I suggest that we offer to every man jack/woman jackie Brit Nat Unionists who see England as their Mother Country,who consider the village green cricket, pitch/warm summer beer,slap of leather on willow, to be their spiritual home, £100,000 eaCH to ‘resettle’ South of the Border.
I’d offer the same deal to Arlene and the God botherers in the North of Ireland.
If they love England so much, and insist on the farcical status of being ‘British’, a citizen of the mythical country of ‘Britland’, then good luck to them.
David Mundell is Scottish. Ian Paisley Junior is Irish.
Celtic and Rangers are not ‘religions’.
My BBC licence fee funds QT.
Week by week, the audience is getting whiter and more right wing Brexit.
The democratic wishes of my country Scotland are ignored, and the 62% Remain warrant nary a mention, and none of our 59 MPs are invited on to the panel.
It is clear from the audiences in St Albans, Kettering, Kensington and Cambridge, that Britain means England. Scotland is irrelevant. We are a militarily conquered colony of the Brit Empire.
I therefore invite Brit Nats to fuck off out of Scotland, and join the Morris Dancing Exceptionalists in the South in the 51st US State.
We get more news about Trump and the US than events north of Watford.
I note that BBC Scotland did a wee Brit Nat Navy PR piece on the expansion of the nuclear base at Faslane. It is soon to become the biggest naval base in the UK.
We have been invaded and Pacific Key Brit Nat Scots celebrate.
There are literally thousand of English Navy and Marine forces camped in the heart of Scotland.
There is a mounting anger and frustration.
Mundell gets Goebbels House Airtime assuring pensioners that his Fourth Reich Government is not making a ‘power grab on Crofters’ Rights.
We must leave Britland before March 2019.
After that England will ride roughshod over the remnants of Scots law and sovereignty.
So, any takers?
£100 k to ‘go home’?
Hey Jack hold on a bit there, that’s at least 3 nurses wages for a year there, And looks like a way to generous offer there ,
I tend to favour the Piss off approach accompanied with a one way ticket to who gives a f/k Land .
Imagine the ‘savings’ to the Scottish NHS we’ll achieve if the Three Roly Poly Loyalists who harangued the AUOB March at the week end took up my generous offer and moved South.
They are pathological timebombs.
By the time they’re 40 they’ll be an expensive drain on our Health service.
Cheap at the price.
Kenzie, always know what your enemy is up to. BBC Pacific Quay headlined with Corbyn in Govan lying to BAE shipbuilders.
He will fight to have UK ships built in the UK; that would be Barrow, Liverpool, and Portsmouth.
I noted the wee hall was filled with MSM and shop stewards. I’d venture that the workers weren’t even advised that Red Jez had travelled north for half an hour.
We also hade Toodle Oo The Noo fronting a piece on the ‘Power Grab’ and David Lidelton or whatever his name is getting a wee filmed quote in, assuring us all that it wasn’t a power grab.
Goebbels Towers need watching.
Point taken Jack, but I would respectfully suggest that you will learn the square root of heehaw from an organisation that deliberately lies as a matter of course.
I’m surprised at you of all people Jack, paying the BBC tax. 🙂
I have a solution that makes more sense than Jonathan Stanley’s. My solution is simpler in that it would end the UK’s creation of Irish partition and therefore the need for borders in Ireland.
Instead of Ireland ceding her sovereignty in return for complete control of Westminster, why doesn’t UK surrender her sovereignty for control from Dublin?
Hell yes. Jimbo! What a neat way of avoiding Brexit 🙂
We should really big up the idea of Ireland not wanting to come under Westminster rule again. It highlights the sheer undemocratic ways of Westminsters rule over the nations of the UK compared to the EU.
I wonder if this Jonathan Stanley bloke is the same Jonathan Stanley who stood for UKIP in the Gilmerton local authority by-election back in 2013?
I know it’s bad form to comment on your own post but thought this might be of interest:
https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/3852/former-senior-ukip-scotland-member-accuses-party-stoking-anti-catholic-bigotry
Some serious mental gymnastics going on in the Casa dei Stanley
We should all thank Paul for highlighting again how much and how totally off the wall Unionists are becoming , it’s starting to look like they have really lost the plot.
Last nights Question time panel included a representative of the Taxpayers alliance who straight faced said The Donald should be given , not nominated for,but given the Noble Peace Prize after a short silence while the baffled audience absorbed what she said, The Laughter started at least some people still get it ,
We have people in this country that are so removed from reality it’s scary, how they are allowed out without adult supervision is beyond me .
Thanks Paul an absolute gem..had me raging and also howling with laughter. The comments as always a real bonus…made ma day! As an add on One of the first political books I read was one about the potato famine in Ireland and I was so consumed with rage at the inhumanity of the Ruling Establishment….it set me on the road to discovery about the British State and the need to break it up!
I quite agree. A force for bad, to almost coin a phrase.
The top export destinations of Ireland are the United States ($33.4B), the United Kingdom ($16.5B), Belgium ($16.2B), Germany ($8.67B) and Switzerland ($6.99B). The top import origins are the United Kingdom ($22.9B), the United States ($9.6B), Germany ($6.53B), the Netherlands ($3.7B) and France ($3.18B).
Source : https://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/irl/
These are 2016 figures. Means that UK has one of its rare trade surpluses with Ireland of $6.4B.
So any reduction in trade would most adversely affect UK. Ireland could source its imports elsewhere and redirect some of its exports.
My Everlovin’ is a Tayto Cheese and Onion addict: on occasion I slurp the Guinness.
We never think of ourselves….
Oh dear, what utter self delusion from this eejit. Really where do they get them from. Mind you, it’s a scary thought that these clowns are for real, God help us all.
I await next week with a bit of trepidation to see what happens when our parliament refuse to pass the withdrawal bill. Westminster just spoiling for a fight ain’t they.
Look forward to seeing you and the dug tomorrow night at Castle Douglas.
Apologies in advance for slightly straying off the subject.
I watched both of Fluffys appearances before different committees at Holyrood , I was struck by how amateurish some of our MSPs actually were in their approach to questioning a hostile government representative,
They had Fluffy sitting right in front of them knowing full well what is planned after the expected rejection of consent bill due to be voted on this Tuesday.
They somehow managed to let him off the hook by allowing him to settle into his usual waffle speak instead of getting him flustered and making him make a mistake,
He doesn’t like being interrupted or pressed he gets excited, did they go for the throat nope ,
The fact was obvious that on both occasions he was accompanied by a English government minister there to stop him being overwhelmed by badgering questions , well they wasted their time ,he wasn’t in the least bothered or made to feel uncomfortable , a poor show and a missed opportunity . In my Opinion .
Aye, we need some sharp bolshy ones. Where are all the Mhairi Blacks?
And – apparently – his wee legs go like the clappers when he is asked any difficult questions eg challenged on anything.
i fisked it, so you didn’t have to 🙂
Its terribly amusing.
A lovely deconstruction (with a link to the original daft piece) 🙂
Thanks. I have a LOT of brexit and Ireland related fisking and general deconstruction on the blog.
Brian Lucey is an interesting academic and commentator.
Are the British Nationalists totally mental? – Discuss…
The ones over 80 seem to think they’re re-living A Town Like Alice or Colditz.
The ones under 80 need help no longer available in England since their NHS has been largely privatised. – WARNING – Don’t catch cancer on a Virgin Train!! (Or a cold)
I wanna move to England, learn Morris Dancing, spit on Asian women (because I am HARD) and complain about Spicks not understanding Her Majesty’s English in Alicante.
“I wanna move to England, learn Morris Dancing …”
Really? Pull the other leg — it’s got bells on 😉
Your v kind sir. I have a PhD from Stirling so some connect to you lot.
Jacko the Bird says:
“Your website should be prosecuted for treason or treachery or traitorness. Or worse! You MOCK the history of our island Nation yet you know NOTHING about it. Nothing AT all. Learn facts, Jocko!
In 1066 QUEEN Victoria and Prince Andrew got married but that’s okay even if he wasn’t born YET because we are special. Then Queen Andrew got imprisoned BY Juluis Ceasar and THE French but he escaped to British Colombia BECAUSE the Gerries were bombing Good Queen Bess. Bluff King Hall farted ON Napolean so Hitler ran away. A bunch of darkies gave us SOME dymonds so we killed them.
That is WHY we are special.”
God bless ye, Ma’am. You’re Czech is IN the post!
I can’t think of anything sensible to say in response to this wonderful piece which entirely squashes the idiotic Jonathan Stanley and his Alice In Wonderland article. My mind is still far too busy boggling!
When reading a piece by someone like Stanley I always seem to end up with a picture of a person juggling with soot.
I imagine someone like Jakey Rees-Mogg trying to lure Kim Kardashian into bed.
The Independent, Thursday 30th March 2017:
‘Nicola Sturgeon has written to Theresa May formally to formally request a second Scottish independence referendum.
This week, MSPs voted 69 to 59 in favour of seeking permission for an independence referendum to take place between autumn 2018 and spring 2019.
Ms Sturgeon said her mandate for another vote is now “beyond question,” and warned it would be “democratically indefensible and utterly unsustainable” to attempt to stand in the way.’
Now there are of course a number of scenarios here:-
Westminster can choose to ignore this letter – which, to date, has pretty much been the case – and very rude it is to ignore a letter, especially when it carries the democratic mandate of a Nation.
or Westminster can consent to this request
or Westminster can choose to not consent to this request
What Westminster is perhaps unaware of, was that written in onion juice, in very small writing on this letter was Clause which said that if you consent to this request, we will we will happily accept your Consent, as is, and act on it,
in the event of you choosing to ignore this letter, we shall also take it as your Consent,
and if you do not provide your Consent, we shall of course take this as your Consent – only fair.
Now on Tuesday this coming week when the Scottish Parliament sits to discuss this perfidious Amendment / Clause 11 asking Scotland to accept these weasel words – perhaps a few questions should be asked as to exactly who came up with this amendment?
@ Aye, I remember that garbage in the Independent. If my memory serves me correctly, Nicola was seeking permission from the Scottish Parliament to agree terms for a Section 30 order, not asking permission from Westminster. Personally, I think Nicola should publish our terms, which should be onerous to Westminster and include the clause 11 consent nonsense.
I know, I know, Scotland has a proper government, unlike the drunken, venal and corrupt rabble that passes for government and parliament at Westminster, but enough is enough.
Who knows what fantasies inhabit the mindset of this post Brexit Empire 2 group of lunatics.
Maybe they see Faslane as the staging post for a reinvasion of Eire?
I have been giving some thought to the idea of Ireland giving up it’s independence and becoming a part of the UK in order to solve the Brexit border problem. I think that it is a wonderful idea but stops rather short of the perfect solution. Why don’t we ask all other member countries of the EU to also give up on being sovereign and independent countries and along with Ireland ,join the UK . It makes sense ,no borders. no tariffs, no foreigners. The United Kingdom of Europe job done.
What brilliant original out-of-the-box thinking — LMAO!
Before they put you back in your box, GT, what should we call this new last-for-1000-years union, I wonder?
Europa
And the clock struck thirteen….
Jack, I never thought that I would ever dissagree with you but your earlier post I mean 100K, they might go for 20K.
Granted, there is wriggle room, wm.
Some would go for twenty fags and a bottle of Merrydown cider.
Steady Sir , with this sort of talk one could spill ones brandy, people in Scotland don’t know their place thats the real problem.
The Irish are the same damn ungrateful types.
Rule Britannia, anyway what is this site doing for the royal wedding?
What royal wedding?
Harrruph madam
D’Ye mean Jimmy Hewitt’s wee boy?
Oh, THAT one? I’ll be washing my hair that day.
When we got married we called the ceremony a Royal Wedding too because neither of us were royal either.
o/t – If anyone is still deluded enough to believe Nick Robinson is or can ever be a impartial commentator on anything that involves this Tory government they maybe want to reassess their position,
This morning Robinson interviewed The Irish deputy PM & Labours Keir Stammer firstly his hectoring attitude with the Irish deputy PM more or less saying it was all the Irish governments fault that the talks had hit a brick wall and despite their comments to the contrary they were the problem , Oh f/k as usual this Tory government and their bag carriers have the nerve to blame everyone else for problems they themselves have created.
Then quite rightly he tried to get some sense about Labours view on how they would proceed with the EU talks, again his personal attitude and approach poisoned the interview and led to a confrontational atmosphere, How anyone can say this person is fit to conduct any kind of investigative interview is beyond me .
Watched the programme. Totally agree with your comments. Robinson makes Marr seem good at his job. Robinson should have been forcibly retired some time ago – odious little creep.
Eddie Mair has been the best one I have seen so far standing in for Marr, However; telling BoJo that he was a nasty piece of work did not seem to advance his career prospects and has only had one more gig since.
I must have missed that …. WTG, Eddie!
‘Hell slap it into them’. My fav WGD quote.
Does that Stanley fellow actually exist? If so, his arrogance is beyond belief. Incredible. I suspect though, the Irish people, if they bother to read his tripe, will hoot with laughter.
Great post, Paul.
Great piece of writing.
Take a look at this from The View this afternoon. It features Jacob Rees-Mogg on the Irish Border question and for the first time that I can remember old Jacob’s views are taken apart by Prof Deirdrie Heenan. It starts at 26 minutes in.
It is quite typical of the English exceptionalism as expressed by an ex-Etonian, but in reality it is a Trumpian riff without any fact and only assertion as its base. Deirdrie has him and Boris Johnson to a tee.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0b0w77w/the-view-10052018
Acutely aware that I am walking on egg shells here,Paul, but..
I’ve never been a joiner.
In my youth I shunned the Cubs, the Scouts, the Boys’ Brigade, Jean Trumbley’s North Kilbowie Beatles’ Fan Club, and in adulthood, I have gently but firmly turned down several subtle and not so subtle invites to join the Craft, the Knights, the Rotary Club, the Lions, and twice politely turned down invites to be a contestant in the early days of Come Dine With Me.
I still don’t know who nominated me for the Cooking Show, but it was all meant in mischievous good natured fun.
I am known for it; I’m not a joiner.
Therefore it is with some bemusement that I read that ‘the SNP’ should be rebuking me for being a rude cybernat.
With petulant lip, the scribes on our Dead Tree Scrolls bleat all over their columns about how nasty I am, and that somehow Nicola Sturgeon should be ticking me off for being a very naughty boy. I am not the Messiah.
I am not a member of the SNP, or any other political party.
I never have been a political animal.
I am not a joiner.
Ergo, the venom which spews from my quill is of my own making.
I shall not name names but, to quote a former head of RFC, ‘you know who you are’.
It seems that our Fourth Estate considers that only they are worthy of spreading the word, that they alone hold some special place in society to tell us what to think, because they work for newspapers or TV stations and they went to Uni ‘n ‘at.
Some would argue that they are quaint throwbacks, like gas lamplighters in the age of electricity.
As I write, I have access to literally billions of pieces of information; I can write/ publish/ print any piece with the alacrity of any ‘professional’ news outlet backed by billions of their owners Yankee dollars.
WEe know the score about the Irish Border question. We know that the question of EU nationals working here, and the 1.3 million ‘Exc pats’ living or retired in Europe has not been resolved. yet the hacks tell us that this was all done and dusted in January and May got her way.
We know that the Brit Nats haven’t a clue about how to resolve the Eurmageddon that is Brexit.
And we don’t mind discussing it and condemning the Brit Nats over the ether.
And that’s what gets to the Ancien Regime.
There is nothing to stop me. I am not going away.
I coined the phrase, ‘dead tree scrolls’ deliberately.
Hard copy news media are old technology; like the Dead Sea Scrolls, printed on fragile papyrus, tomorrow’s cat ltter, he constant drip drip of SNP BAD bull crumbles to dust when exposed to the harsh light of day.
Our journalism is completely controlled by Oligarchs, and the comparison with Goebbels’ propaganda machine, Russia, China, and North Korea are undeniable.
Nobody under 35 buys a newspaper now.
The UK is past its sell by date.
I await ‘Nicola Sturgeon’, whom every hack and hackess blames for all this SNP Bad nonsense, battering down my door and giving me a right good piece of her mind.
Until then, I will clack away, upsetting whomever chooses to take offence at my meanderings.
Do not ask for whom the bell tolls, guys….
WTG, Jack! Clack on and ‘offend’ away … and do let us know if our First Minister calls to give you a good ticking off. I won’t hold my breath! 😉
Wendy, you may note my ‘if the cap fits’ approach.
I home in on no wordsmith in particular.
This time, and this time only.
But when the Indyref 2 starting gun is fired, there will be no hiding place for the Lords and Ladies Haw Haw of Merrie Britland.
I may even edit out my ypographical terrors and correct my syntax and grammar.
I’m whipping up a pot of Scotch broth today.
This would be a good time for NS to call; well tomorrow, because second day soup is always better.
Paul and Sam are on fire at the moment.
Perhaps John Swinney should have a word.
Jack, the more you delight us, more you worry the friends of Westminster. Wonderful!
Good on you Jack Collatin. They do not like to hear the truth. Please keep telling them the truth.
Christine Glurt is innocent!
Free Christine Glurt!
Kaye Adams . . . . . Baby Boxes.
An expert to be on after 11am to express his concerns . . . She’s looking for callers (and texters) . .
Oh Please dont encourage her she might think she’s popular or something , I wonder how many delusional fools really listen to this junk peddled by the BBC in Scotland , not many probably .
Tokio Kaye strikes again ,another dose of unionist bilge .