Safer. Are you feeling safer? More secure. Are you feeling more secure? Those were the key promises of the Better Together campaign in 2014. Why risk independence when you can continue to enjoy the safety and security of the UK, they told us. It was their key selling point, the single point that more than any other persuaded the switherers to vote against independence. All that uncertainty. All those unknowns. All that doom, gloom and McArmageddon that opponents of independence forecast, all of it could be avoided by the simple expedient of a no vote, and then Scots could continue as a part of the UK, a part of the EU, and no one would have to worry.
Only now we’re confronted with a greater insecurity than anyone forecast with independence. We are less safe than we have ever been. Not even Alistair Darling warned that independence might mean the reintroduction of rationing, of food shortages and the necessity of police intervention in order to maintain civil order and security and safety at ports and airports. Yet that is precisely where we are now as a result of Theresa May’s calamitous handling of Brexit. A Brexit which, moreover, Scotland voted against by a considerably larger margin than it voted against independence. A Brexit which Scotland has had no role in shaping or determining. A Brexit which is being imposed upon us by the right wing ideologues of the Conservative party.
Faced with the potential of serious disruption to supply chains and the very real possibility of food and medicine shortages, the British government has now appointed a minister for food security. Conservative MP David Rutley was given the brief as a part of the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) earlier this month. His responsibilities will include ameliorating the effects of a no-deal Brexit or a hard Brexit on the supply chain networks, and planning for the all too real possibility of food and medicine shortages. He’s the minister for ration books and for recipe books that make half an egg, one ounce of butter and a packet of wallpaper paste into a hearty meal.
This week, Police Scotland confirmed that they have been making contingency plans to deal with massive queues at ports, and to cope with the potential of civil unrest in the event of food shortages. Chief Constable Iain Livingstone has confirmed that he is seeking assurances from the UK Treasury that it will reimburse the force for the extra costs it will incur as a result of the additional duties it will have to cope with as a result of the Tories’ crazy mad Brexit. Although he didn’t actually say “crazy mad Brexit”.
There are those who voted against independence or voted for Brexit because they harked back to some fantasy glory ideal of a Great Britain that was last seen during WW2, but even they probably weren’t counting on the reintroduction of rationing. The Conservatives have been criticised for their Dad’s Army approach to the Brexit negotiations, but this is shockingly literal, and not in a laughable way. The stupid boys of the Conservative party really are telling us “Don’t panic!” So how’s that WW2 nostalgia working out for those who voted for Brexit?
We’ve gone from punching above our weight and bestriding the world stage as a partner in the most perfect union of nations in the multiverse to assurances that there will be enough food. That’s how far short of reality the delusions of British nationalism have fallen. Do you really need any more confirmation that you were lied to in 2014 by the proponents of the UK? Just how much of a gap do you need between what you were promised and what you were actually delivered before you recognise that the people of this country have a right to vote on the performances of our political masters?
The diehards of British nationalism insist that this is what Scotland voted for. But it isn’t. Scotland did not vote for rationing. Scotland did not vote to be ripped out of Europe. Scotland did not vote for the destruction of our public services by far right xenophobes in the Conservative party. Scotland did not vote to be powerless and marginalised. That is not what we were promised in 2014. Respect the result of the referendum? Sure. Just as soon as those who won that referendum respect the promises and commitments that they made to the people of Scotland in order to win it. The people who need to respect election results are not those who lost those votes, it’s those who won them. And what Scotland has witnessed from Westminster since 2014 has been the opposite of respect. It has been contempt, disdain, and scorn.
So you’ll have had your security and safety as a part of the UK, Scotland. It will depend on how many potatoes you can grow in your back garden, if you are lucky enough to have a back garden. Dig for victory. Dig the political grave of the British state. You can’t feed yourself and your family with WW2 sloganeering about pluckiness and grit.
Keep calm and carry on? Bugger that. I’m Scottish and I was lied to. I have no intention of keeping calm, and I’ll carry on until this country can escape from those mendacious fools whose red white and blue nationalism-that’s-not-nationalist-at-all has brought us all to the brink of ruin and turned us into the laughing stock of Europe. The only reason we’re not the laughing stock of the entire world is because of Donald Trump.
The UK is a state of delusion. It’s a state of self-deception. It’s a state of confusion, a state of disgrace. Brexit was always a fantasy. The idea that the UK punches above its weight was always a fantasy. The notion of Scotland as a partner in a Union was always a fantasy. The reason we’re in this mess now is because the British state still hasn’t come to terms with the reality of itself as a medium sized European country which must form partnerships in order to survive and thrive. The fantastists of British nationalism still dream of standing alone on the White Cliffs of Dover and shouting defiance at the world, and then they can go home to their potato peel pie and their drawn on nylons.
They can go by themselves, Scotland won’t be joining them. Scotland will be rejoining the real world. And until we do so, we’re not keeping calm. We’re angry. We’re carrying on until we escape.
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Wee Ginger Dug 
so in a slightly less directly pro-indy context,
I think that the Conservative (and their not really even that any more, they are neo-liberal multinational media shims) idealogues are aiming to create a counter weight to the eu and other growing global factions that argue that peace and comfort are *not* counter productive, and that given modern technology, pure competition is no longer a plausible model for the global economy.
they Are trying to build relationships, but on the dark side of the fence where nuclear weapons are need to defend oil fields, and where oppressing the proletariat (precariat) is the only way good can conceive of staving off the tumult of original sin.
This speaks to the echo chamber. We must use the fire in these good words to sharpen our desire to convince the switherers. For that we must be calm, find them and start by listening and asking them what they want.
I am amazed when listening to a few, that their answers still include UK as integral to the answer, when a clear alternative stares them in the face, if they could see it. When I gently say “there is a way out of this mess, particularly for us in Scotland” I am greeted with a blank stare of incomprehension. No penny drops.
so, for me, there seems to be some core issue around the economy of Scotland being “sufficiently stable” or something. that’s for the thinkers.
for the feelers there is whatever popular culture links they rely on as part of the foundation of their social space.
are there other categories of things missing (probably 🙂 )
Is PoliceScotland really going to use its manpower against starving Scots? Are they really going to do the Tory’s bidding against the people they should protect?
They should be saying to the Scottish Government,’ we will support you in whatever action you take to secure the future of the people of Scotland’.
If that’s the case they can fuck off traitors that they are no way is the 80s repeating itself again as my generation had to bear the consequences of that bastard thacther tory government not again.
Robert – stop calling people traitors. It doesn’t help. It just means that opponents of independence can paint themselves as victims. If you do it again I’m going to add the word traitor to the list of words that cause a comment to be automatically banned.
I understand Robert’s anger but, you are quite right to use your sanction, as the direction of his anger must be directed productively for our cause
This is getting beyond ridiculous now with those lot they are practically all but confessing Scotland should just shut up and do what England wants and like it hell no that’s out right tyranny
Thanks Paul for your stalwart contribution over all these years. God knows how you do it.
For me the operative word you used here is delusional. Except that all the Tories scullduggery has been done from start to finish with the intention to deceive. They are guilty.
[…] Wee Ginger Dug Not keeping calm and carrying on Safer. Are you feeling safer? More secure. Are you feeling more secure? Those were the […]
An eloquent and cogent statement of intent that can be summarised in just four words: Nemo Me Impune Lacessit.
Well said.
Nope. Today I mainly don’t feel like following a British Nationalist state and its advocates into social, economic and political carnage.
And also no, I don’t feel particularly calm about their self serving omnishambles either.
Agree with all that apart from Lord Darling bit. Here is the man himself talking to Labour conference in 1979 about the dangers of devolution – civil unrest, raping and fighting over last can of soup.
helps if you include the link!
…..just as credible as ….’if you vote No – you will have everything devolved to Scotland except Defence and Foreign Affairs,’
No doubt Gordon will be giving us an Intervention shortly to explain just how well that has been working since Sep 2014 and his personal take on the now, it seems, cast adrift by Labour,,,,, ‘Claim of Right’ .
Its getting to be that you just can’t trust some political Parties … the chasm that is between what they Vow / Promise and what they deliver.
£300 a day, for doing nothing at HOL’s, that’s all people need to know about this disgusting trougher.
Indeed Paul, the situation becomes more terrufying as each day passes.
The Tory and Labour troughers are not panicking, they are laughing at the people of the UK, and will be laughing all the way to the bank after Brexit. the guy who has been given the job of UKOK minister for food ‘security’, is he not ex Asda and Pepsi co ceo or director or something? Sure brings comfort to know that the food that might be available via rationing will be cheap and nasty, but very expensive. Great.
Seriously though, perhaps the Scottish government could start looking at taking land that would be good for growing but not being used, to give to communities to start growing vegetables and fruit.
I suppose that would be like allotments, but more like the community plots as there are now, around Edinburgh. As an allotment holder, probably like many, you see a patch of ground, no matter how small, and think, that could be great for growing some nice lettuce, chard, spinach and tatties etc.
You can grow many veg in big grow bags, herbs an dlettuce on windowsills. We shouldn’t have to think like this, but people might need to start. get those seeds bought now, people with shared drying greens, get plotting. I discovered why an old couple who had kept our drying green like a flower garden for decades, didn’t really want other people ( especially if you are renting) using it in a big way, if at all, because, hidden between the bushes all around, they were growing lots and lots of fruit! Thy are gone now, so I get to pick the apples, gooseberries, plums, blackcurrants and blackberries, when no one else bothers with it all.
Apples are falling off trees right now, sometimes people put them out in boxes saying ‘take some’ because there are so many. My family who had been down in SE Eng recently said the apples were strewn in the streets, old, well off in heir big houses folk, unable to pick them and everyone else had an apple tree so no neighbours to give them to, crazy. In E.Lothian we saw a huge number of apples fallen onto streets and roads. What a waste. E.Lothian seems awash with vegs growing in huge fields, can you buy any of it in shops here, maybe a few sprouts if you are lucky.
The rich, and those with gardens and gardeners will be fine, though there are ones who have concreted over theirs for their big massive cars. We can bet it will be the poor, those in more rural areas where you have one small chain shop, will be worst hit.
It’s scary as hell, and scarily so many people do not know or want to know, what is going to hit them on April 1st 2019 and a few weeks after.
It’s a fact, farming on a small scale produces more food, requires far fewer chemicals to ward off disease,etc, than these massive mega farms that will take the place of small farms after Brexit.
Why are the people of England not out on the streets? They should be demanding the Tory party are ousted, demanding that Corbyn grows a pair and gets down to the nitty gritty of really opposing their terrifying Brexit, but no, he wants Brexit.
Scotland has a get out card, people know it, and it’s why the Britnats are terrified. T.May telling Nicola Sturgeon to get on with what’s ‘important’ or whatever really is taking the biscuit. It’ll be more than biscuits she will take though when the chips are down ( sorry I couldn’t help it).
Scotland must escape, but with many people moving up from England, who haven’t a scoobie about how Scotland functions and mitigates against the terrible Tory/Labour parties’ cuts they left behind, and some of them have plenty money, somehow need to be reached, not sure how, with 100% media against the SNP, but there are ways I am sure…
Sorry long comment and any typos.
With the best will in the world, even people with gardens aren’t going to be able to grow much starting In October. Nothing much is going to start till next May/June, by which time Brexit may be in full swing. Too late.
Yup. Winter is fast approaching…only the grass is still growing…am a one-woman-band with a pile o dugs, I have green space to grow, most definitely short of a bob or three, have no gardener, am inundated with fast growing, invasive plant species which the bees love but am told it must be destroyed as the bees are not pollinating native plant species, which, by the way, are being killed off at a massive rate with the toxic chemicals sprayed liberally on the mass producing rich farmer’s crop fields surrounding me, with subsequent run-off leeching into the river and decimating the salmon spawning. Still have a few pigs which could be earmarked – they don’t really turn the invasive species over – but that costs to get them to the slaughterhouse, then the killing payment, then the transport to the butcher and further payment for the butchery skills. I prefer their company though. Then there are all the pheasants that seek refuge in my fields from the rich men’s ‘sport’, maybe I could bag a few, along with the rabbits and pigeons that I have fought with gathering the windfall apples to feed to the pigs, and could harvest the walnuts whipped off the trees by the demonic winds of last week. Still, the fallen ash tree which nearly killed two of my dogs will eventually make for logs, and the damsons, destined for gin, refused to be windblown until after the harvest moon frost…at least I shall have some form of heating…
Apologies in advance for those who have already read it – please feel free to ignore what follows. But … I do hope there are still new readers out there – and, if, they wish to make use of this story in ‘real life’, you’re more than welcome to do so, only giving me a little nod in the process. Thanks.
My Brexit parable.
59. (of 60.)
Four men in a nightclub
George, Dai, Jock and Mick/Mike were work colleagues at Yookay Ltd. and shared the same building. George and Dai tended to work close together (despite Dai not really enjoying such a set up), whilst Jock and Mick/Mike had a little more autonomy within their own offices. George tended to think of himself as being the most important member of their group – the Team Leader or the David Brent, if you like. Consequently, and in the nature of office politics at Yookay Ltd., he tried to control the work practices of Dai, Jock and Mick/Mike; a habit the other three had long grown tired of. Well, although I say the other three had long grown tired of George’s domineering persona, they had not however, as yet, taken the final step of breaking up their partnership with him.
George then considered himself the leader of their section and tended to exert his influence even outside the offices of Yookay Ltd.
Dai was of the type not to upset the apple cart and tended to keep moody silences; keeping his head down and getting on with his projects.
Jock however was rather more vocal and would often raise his voice against George’s “unwarranted meddling.”
Mick/Mike’s was a more special case. You see, he suffered from Dissociative Identity Disorder. On some days, the Mick personality was dominant and, after having had a bitter row with George, he would seek reassurances from his half-brother, Paddy; an ex-employee of Yookay Ltd., but who was now working successfully for himself. At other times, the Mike personality would pledge undying loyalty to George and the set up at Yookay Ltd., and not a cross word would be exchanged between him and his colleague. In such a way, the colleagues of Yookay Ltd. rubbed along, and the company itself limped on from financial quarter to financial quarter.
Now, one evening, the four colleagues had gone to the Europa nightclub together. What George had seen in going there in the first place was rather a mystery. You will have already have gathered that George was not very much a team player or a social animal. His attitude at the nightclub confirmed all this. The music was too loud. Or it was not to his taste. The lights were too bright. The guests were performing ‘obscene’ movements as they gyrated on the dance floor. The drinks from the bar were some imported, fancy stuff – not like the warm beer he preferred in the Farage Arms pub back home. And the cost of entry! Goodness gracious! It was so exorbitant – and that for facilities he didn’t like one bit: he was minded to ask for a personal rebate.
It was then that George announced, “We’re going home.”
Now, it’s one thing to say that you don’t like a party and that you’re leaving. But, don’t you think it was a bit presumptuous of George to actually say “we” and including Dai, Jock and Mick/Mike in the equation and without making sure with them first? That wasn’t George’s way though. At work, as we have seen, he was known for throwing his weight about and getting his own way. In a similar fashion, he thought he could bully his colleagues into his ways of thinking outside Yookay Ltd.’s offices, too.
“We’re going home?” Jock retorted scornfully, emphasising the “we.” “And who do you think you are telling us that “we” are the ones going home from this great nightclub?”
“I saw you flirting with that dark-haired girl over there in the corner,” said George. “Positively unseemly. Not the conduct we’d expect from an employee of Yookay Ltd.”
“You mean Frances,” Jock replied. He grinned. “Frances was an ex of mine and we lost touch when I started working for Yookay Ltd. We were very close. We even had a strong alliance. I was getting re-acquainted.”
The grin disappeared and was replaced by a grimace.
“Until your ham-fisted approach broke up our relationship,” Jock added bitterly.
“Why you ungrateful little creep! I’ve given you more than enough support at Yookay Ltd.! What more could you ask for?” George was shouting.
“What more could I ask for?” Jock repeated. “Why, you could let me make up my own decisions on projects at work. You could stop looking down on me and telling me what to do all the time. And you’re not telling me that just because this Europa nightclub is not doing the things you want, that we have to leave.” Jock’s resentments over the years were boiling over. “In fact, George, I’ve had enough of you and your bullying over the years – I’m leaving you and Yookay Ltd!” he shouted.
“He’s right, you know,” mumbled Dai. But people rarely listened to him on account of his soft voice and his lack of self-confidence. It would have taken much more of an effort on his part to sound off in the same way as Jock had done.
“Shut it!” George roared at Dai, in typical Eastenders fashion. “You told me before you wanted to leave. You’re in this with me! You know your future lies under my stewardship at Yookay Ltd. Think how stupid Jock would be throwing in his lot with this bunch of strangers, and an ex he hasn’t spoken to in years. He wouldn’t last a year with any of them – and away from us at Yookay Ltd.”
Dai said nothing and looked down at his shoes.
“You’re wrong, George,” Mick said softly. “My half-brother, Paddy has been coming to this Europa nightclub now for years. And he’s enjoyed the internationalism of it immensely. No more ructions with you at Yookay Ltd. He’s now free to do his own thing and make his own friends. He has a place in the world – he knows it and his friends know it. He’s a happy man. And I want to join him in that happiness.”
“Another traitor!” George bawled. “Such ingratitude! To be honest with you, when you were in your Mike phases, I tended to over-indulge you. And this is how you repay me! Well, good riddance! I can do without the lot of you! I’m going home – and to hell with this poxy nightclub. I never wanted to come here in the first place. Come on, Dai!”
“See you,” chorused Jock and Mick, grinning at George.
“We should have left you and Yookay Ltd. long ago. We’re going to stay and enjoy the party atmosphere here at the Europa,” Jock added defiantly. “Too bad you can’t stay!”
George stormed out, muttering threats against Jock and Mick under his breath
Dai stood on the threshold, a confused look on his face. He was less sure of where his destiny lay.
_____
Parables for the New Politics
2012-2018
Very Good
Iv asked this a few times and gotten no coherent reply; given all the brexit madness on which we in the sane rest of Europe look with mingled horror and laughter, why have Scottish independence polls not decisively moved?
1. Some very anti-EU/soft yessers will have switched to no.
2. Some soft no/strongly EU have still not switched to yes because they still think Brexit won’t happen.
3. Some strong left/soft nos who would prefer a socialist UK to indy but had become yessers to at least further their aims in an iScotland have been lured back to no by the false prospectus offered by Corbyn.
4. A dwindling number of soft nos still think Brexit will be neutral or beneficial to the economy.
5. Anti SNP/indy tactics by the media and other government agencies has been wound up to 11.
However, despite all that, it is shifting and will shift further as Brexit inevitability and reality dawns.
According to polls already literally decisively since it has crossed the 50% mark.
Corbyn will be destroyed by the media and government agencies the instant he is of no further use to them. i.e. after indyref2.
I suspect if I give you my take on the stagnant polls, your riposte will be a ‘Yes, but’, Brian.
I attended an engagement party in my local watering hole last night, I was Matt Munro crooning ‘Portrait of my Love’ BTW, I owned it, and you couldn’t get a more balanced cross section of Scottish society than that, if you could have been ersed taking a snap poll.
The second boot has not clattered to the floor above.
London will go first. There will be mass protest marches and the potential for Poll Tax/Brixton levels of civil disobedience Down There, probably in late November when the Hostile Environment of the Windrush debacle spreads throughout all HMG Departments.
When Car Plants announce thousands of redundancies, when the £ reaches parity with the Euro, when the EU worker Drain finally hits essential services like the NHS, Hotels, Schools, and the Starbucks in Euston Street Station, the Centime will drop.
The UK public has been bombarded with Elections and plebiscites, and politicians and the Elite Oligarchy have spread Fear and Panic throughout these islands ever since the run on Northern Rock in 2008.
The panic was and still is deliberate.
Not one banker went to jail. The Banks and the Counting Houses were too big to jail.
It is a fact that the Rees Mogg’s of this world want out of the EU before the start of the next financial year because the EU are about to introduce strict laws regarding offshore accounts and tax avoidance/evasion.
OUr Scottish Dead Tree Scrolls and broadcast media are in the pay of US Billionaires and London Press Barons.
They write any old pee the like, and basically cock two fingers at the buying public.
The Dugdale nonsense, and the born again Maid of Orleans Mum2 B Davidson are cases in point.
There is no point to either of these women, yet they flood the airwaves and column inches, while there is a very reall chance that we will all be queuing at food banks come April 2019.
If Professor ‘Sir’ John Curtice conducted a poll (65% of his company’s funding comes from the Blue Tory Government) it would certainly indicate No Change.
Our bellies aren’t rumbling yet.
It is as crude as that.
We are beyond looking to trends in polls.
We are about to experience dystopia.
It is going to get very dark Over Here, soon.
Look to Newry and Letterkenny, Brian.
The lights, quite literally are about to go out all over the Six Counties.
Thank the Chief for Cash for Ash.
All those wealthy Plantation Farmers will be fuelling the North soon.
If in my Guinness fugg I had shouted in some one’s ear above the merriment in the rubadubdub in the pub last night what they thought about Brexit or Barnier I’d have been greeted with a blank stare.
That’s how successful the Powers That Be have been in hiding the inevitable awful truth from the general public for two years.
But Ruth’s got a book out, and she self harmed when she was a teenager.
Stop th fucking Press, we want to get off.
Rant over.
Machine gun nests in Sligo?
Stagnant public polls… not a surprise.
Public polls are to shape rather than measure opinion. The results will not change much but the questions to achieve their desired results are becoming more and more contorted. This is a pattern we will continue to see (except perhaps a last minute Yes surge to scare the British Nationalists out to the polls and make soft Yes complacent enough to not bother to go if it’s raining).
I am, however, convinced that the private polling is much less comfortable for the British Nationalists. How do I know? Just listen to how shrill and panicked they are. Something is really scaring them.
The people that run the UK (and I don’t mean May) have the population, particularly the English population well under control.
To paraphrase Baron Darling of Inversnoogle “there will be no rioting, there will be no raping”.
Frankly they’re more likely to riot over X Factor than Brexit!
People are allowed to care more about the X-Factor than brexit. The problem is that the people that actually *do* care about the economy and global systems analysis cannot do a fig about it. And that swings back round to the media. I mean, *science* is being opppressed – I mean.. really – science is supposed to drive capitalism, but we are in a post-capitalist managed world
Brilliant. And I agree.
The media mechanism is … so effective, I can hold it with naught but respect.
I am working to go around it, because through, or against is impossible. I have created a whole new set of formal language tools which are so advanced as to be FTL, and I have convinced a bunch of blockchainers that however many people actively support indy in Scotland, it is a big enough pool to properly test all these new tools.
The middle men want their power back – and there are enough of us in the not-99% to be able to just take the economy back.
Gonna be swell
Brian, This is England;
“A mum has been left fuming after her 11-year-old daughter was forced to sit through lessons in blood-soaked clothing – because her teacher refused to let her go to the toilet when she got her first period.
The distraught girl, who was experiencing her first menstrual bleed, went home with bloody knickers, tights and shorts following the incident.
Her furious mum has slammed Hastings Academy and said staff told the Year 7 pupil she would need a ‘toilet pass’ to allow her out of lessons but she could only obtain it with a doctor’s certificate costing £15.”
This is Ruth Davidson’s answer to reforming Education in Scotland.
This is England:
The boss of Toyota in Derby has announced that his factory will grind to a halt in April 2019 because any delay in the supply of Just In Time parts from a nexus of manufacturers in Europe would shut down production.
This is England:
Catch if you can Robert Peston’s interview with Boris Johnson.
Alarmingly this Eton Oxbridge educated privileged fool demonstrates that he has not even learned the basics when it comes to the UK operating within the EU over the past 43 years.
There will be unrest, and violence, Brian.
No pollsters needed.
Britnatsies?
Rather than calling certain people ‘Unionist’;
Remembering the Union was bought and sold,
No such Union ever really and truly did exist:
Regaining Scotland’s independence is foretold!
© Ewen A. Morrison