Tony Blair, he of the tombstone teeth and the illegal war, appeared on the Sophie Ridge show on Sky News this morning. This is an example of Tony Blair making a rare intervention in politics. Just like he did a few days ago, and a few days prior to that. Tony makes as many rare interventions in politics as Gordon Brown broontervenes for the very first time. The UK needs another rare intervention from Tony Blair about as much as it needs a sex tape featuring Michael Gove.
The don’t mention Baghdad guy wasn’t on the programme to answer questions about why his name appeared in Jeffrey Epstein’s little black book. This topic has joined the Iraq War, the dodgy dossier, and his suspiciously well funded lifestyle on the list of “things you can’t ask Tony about”. Rather he was there to warn us that the coronavirus is going to be around for a very long time. He backed up his claim that the virus is a lasting threat with some blurry photographs showing the virus building a very big missile that could threaten British military bases in Cyprus. In other news, the coronavirus has warned that Tony Blair is going to be around for a very long time. The guy you can’t ask about Iraq was also on the programme to talk about the rise in support for independence in Scotland and – surprise surprise – why he thinks that Scottish independence is a terribly bad idea.
But let no one say that Sky News doesn’t do balance. The programme also featured Labour’s Jonathon Ashworth from the Labour party, who thinks Scottish independence is a terribly bad idea, and Layla Moran from the Lib Dems, who thinks that Scottish independence is a terribly bad idea. So it was a well rounded and balanced discussion of Scottish independence from the Londoncentric media. It featured different people who made different British nationalist points about why they believe that Scottish independence is a terribly bad idea. How more well rounded do you want?
Blair now admits that Scottish independence is a possibility. What he didn’t say was that it’s now a probability, which would have been closer to the truth. One of the reasons that it’s closer to a probability than a possibility is the lack of accountability and the distrust in politics and the political classes which he himself was responsible for creating during his time in office. Anyway, apparently the real problem here is that there’s no real opposition to the SNP in Scotland, that’s what’s been driving the rise in support for independence. So we must have imagined the constant stream of SNPbad stories which the British parties have been feeding to the overwhelmingly anti-independence media then. He admitted that Johnson is not going to be the person who saves the Union – because it takes one to know one. Neither is it Blair or a Labour party in his image.
Meanwhile Ruth Davidson has been opining about the fate of the UK, employing the violent metaphors which she frequently resorts to but which her pals in the Scottish media overlook because it spoils the image of her that they so carefully nuture. According to Ruth, the Conservatives are in their current quandary in Scotland because they’ve been far too nice and reasonable. Yeah, that’s how deluded they’ve got now. The only people in Scotland who believe that support for independence is rising because the Conservatives have bent over backwards to accommodate Scotland’s interests and it’s only encouraging the yes movement are a few swivel eyed frothers on social media. Not coincidentally there’s a considerable overlap between these people and membership of the Conservative party in Scotland.
Ruth believes that the Conservatives should have “stuck the boot in” after the yes campaign lost the referendum in 2014. And that is in fact precisely what some British nationalist fascists did in George Square the day after the vote when they went on a rampage seeking yes supporters to beat up. Although of course we can’t actually say that, because that would tell us something important about the true nature of British nationalism. It was, in the words of the BBC “clashes between yes supporters and no supporters”.
So when David Mundell gleefully told the media that the new tax powers promised for Holyrood as a result of the commitments made by the Better Together campaign for strengthened devolution were “a trap for the SNP”, he was really just being nice. When the British Government cynically and hypocritically promised that the powers of the Scottish Parliament would be entrenched in law and could only be altered with the express consent of Holyrood, only to ensure that the commitment had no force in law and then to embark upon a power grab, they were just being kind. When the Tories ripped Scotland out of the EU against its will and without allowing the Scottish Government any input into the form that Brexit takes, they were just being thoughtful and reasonable.
The essential problem for British nationalism is that it has convinced itself that support for independence is rising because of what the SNP is doing. But it’s not. It’s rising because of what the British state is doing. It’s rising because increasingly Scotland is seeing that it cannot be respected, listened to, and accommodated within the creaking structures of a British state which hankers for Empire and which can only understand the language of the victor and the vanquished. It’s rising because Scotland has looked upon the utter shambles of the British Government’s response to the pandemic and the quiet confidence of the Scottish Government and realises that Scotland is being dragged down by the incompetent ideologues who surround the clown prince in Downing Street. It’s rising because we know that Brexit is going to compound the economic damage that the epidemic has created, and within the UK Scotland is deprived of the means to protect itself adequately.
The Scottish Conservatives or Tory Blair can only hope to sell Scotland a vision of a UK that doesn’t actually exist. Their problem is that we can all see what is really happening. We can all see the true nature of this so-called union. They’re not going to save their preciouss union by attacking the SNP, they can only hope to save it by transforming it into something that really is a union in more than just name. Their problem is that Downing Street and Westminster have not got the slightest intention of giving up their power and are hell bent on using Brexit as an excuse to centralise even more. What’s putting the boot into the so called union is the British nationalism and exceptionalism of the Conservatives. It’s showing Scotland that this is no union at all.
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Wee Ginger Dug 
Absolutely Paul.
Brexit and the Covid19 crisis have forced many Scots to face the fact that the emperor has no clothes.
The idea of the British state and the UK union as being the guarantor of stability and prosperity for Scotland has been severely dented if not completely broken.
This is why the Britnats are in full panic mode.
Their carefully crafted image has been shattered by BoJo and his Brexiteers’ sheer incompetence and arrogance.
No way back now.
Brilliant as ever..thank you
A sex tape featuring Michael Gove. Is he being anally violated with a ragman’s bugle? That I’d watch.
Not even remotely funny. In fact, of no use whatsoever other than to lower the tone.
The tone was lowered by the authors introduction of Michael Gove/sex tape,which did invite a reply.
That is exactly ten point Alex, surprised Paul has not deleted that comment.
Dubious comment, lay off! We are not that stupid, stop pretending to be on side of pro indy, it’s a classic tactic.
I noticed you appeared from nowhere onto Wings a few months back, now a regular among the malcontents.
Why not stick to Wings with that approach?
The BBC is being ‘urged’ again.
This time it’s the GMB shop steward that Dick Leonard, and the massed ranks of the Freeloaders behind him who are demanding that NS’ Daily Covid Update be stopped because it is clearly party political when the elected leader of the Scottish Government appears daily in front of the cameras, provides vital health messages and updates on the spread of the virus, faces a diurnal dirge from 20 or so of Leonard’s Brit Nat Hack Pack, and brings along medical care and finance spokespersons to inform us, the Scottish Public about the latest developments on all aspects of the crisis.
Labour want USSR/ North Korea /Chinese shut down of news in Scotland.
That Scotland has responded magnificently to the guidance and rules, to such an extent that we are well on the way to controlling the virus should of course be a situation which is encouraging, but not for the Brits, who hate the SNP and Scotland so much, that they would have the Government’s cautious success in suppressing the virus as ‘political’, and EssEnnPee Good news.
If the BBC pull the plug, just watch the backlash.
I rely on the daily Update as my life depends on it.
Leonard is a Commie Marxists. The people have to be led, not served.
Great piece, Paul.
Tom Gordon of the Herald is now the Brit Nat fetch dog.
The Herald must be within days of closing surely?
Ruth coming out of retirement. If so, there truly is a god.
Well, Jack, the Tories did it, so now meee-tooo Leotard and his union bosses have to join in the “ban Nicola” fun. Since obviously the media alt-opposition are doing as badly as the real (ahem) opposition.
What could have been an opportunity to show they were part of the solution to the current crisis (as they readily do down south, for some odd reason) they flunked it. Tried to turn a serious health crisis into just another opportunity to nit-pick and whine about the SG. Tried to turn it into an alt-Holyrood during the summer break. Tried to turn it into a political stunt.
And the more they have strained, the worse it has got for them, and the better it has got for independence. Yet they still can’t see it, and the only response their political (non-)beneficiaries can come up with is not to change tack and actually rise to the occasion – perish the very thought! – but instead to suppress any transparency about it.
Just another example of exactly the kind of self-destructive BritNat (mis-)behaviour Paul so cogently described.
(laugh)
If the damned Brit Union depends on has-beens (or never-were’s) like her, Blair, Federal Broon and Georgeous to survive, all the press support in the world won’t save it. Au contraire. (grin)
Has-been right enough and it seems to suit the MSM to conveniently forget that her 14.9% vote share in 2015 was the worst result ever for the Tories in Scotland. Aggressive wee, dark money grubbing, Brexit U-turning failure. She’ll make a difference .. like LBJ in our favour 😎.
Tell me.
Is Duck Leotard demanding that OUR First Minister, Mark Drakeford, stop *his* Daily Covid Updates to the Welsh people – as these are ‘clearly party political’?
Astute anoraks of Welsh and Scottish politics will know that Drakeford and Dinky Letzburger are *both* Members of the Labour Party,.
Jus’ askin’ – for 8 million friends.
Hi there…I had been getting you wonderful blog in my emails…then they stopped on this date! Are you still doing them? I have given some donations! Xx Betsy
Sorry Betsy. I’m really not sure why that’s happening.
Between boots and bayonets (remember that threat?) the BritNats of the Tory and Labour variety have a lot of pent up anger, which is interesting given that they have had the upper hand for so long. I wonder why that is? Naturally nasty, maybe? Not a good look for ‘proud’ Brits.
Just bad losers?
Please, please NEVER put the words sex tape and Michael Gove in any sort of proximity again. It’s not clever and it’s definitely not nice
It could have been worse, Paul could have said Jacob Rees Mogg and sex tape although Im not entirely sure that JRM knows what sex is!
Well Wendy he’s got 6 children to his wife Helena Anne Beatrix Wentworth Fitzwilliam de Chair (aye ah know!). With 6 kids it looks as though his nanny gave him some advice about where to put his you know what.
Tony Blair and Ruth Davidson are yesterday’s people. It seems as if they are hoping they can rally the opposition to Independence by using has beens as their talking heads. They have no chance of denting the rising support for Independence and the fact that they are even on the same side should be enough to bring over more support for Yes.
Now is the time for the SNP to get tougher, you can see in the daily Covid briefings that Nicola Sturgeon is not holding back when showing her disdain for some journalists and their idiotic questions that have been answered already 100 times.
I’m thinking in particular of Chris Musson of the Sun who asked again about the Nike “cover-up” what a divvy he and is the only one that doesn’t accept the answer he is given in the first place.
Nicola Sturgeon gave him both barrels this time and said something like “I’ll answer again about Nike for the millionth time”. It was good to watch and it looks to me like it is the Independence side who are starting to put the boot in and I’m right behind them in that. Maybe that’s what brought Ruthy doll out of her hidey hole.
My view is that this is the ideal time to start projecting strength as we are in a stronger position. Our political leaders must take no shit from any of the government mouthpieces and just lay it out straight, exactly as it is. We have nothing to fear, but they do and you can smell it.
I reckon Buffalo Gal in particular has started to believe her own (Tory media) propaganda. Back in 2017 as a “fresh(ish) face” with a (fake) public persona of forthrightness and bonhomie, she achieved some traction with a public which was election-weary after a series of constitutional referendums (AV, IR, EU), and which mostly just wanted some peace to get on with their lives.
Now, with a cliff-over Brexit looming out of the mists of a personally-endangering Covid crisis, more and more people are coming to realise that self-preservation has become a non-negotiable issue.
What classically follows Hubris is, of course, Nemesis. Bring it on, Ruth!
You mean Baroness Davidson of Uturness, grizebard?
That’s how they’ll crow bar her back in to ‘politics’.
You heard it firstion Duggerstown.
What’s Dugdale up to these days? Still thinking? Still tanking. The brown envelopes come in many guises.
Well, you know what they say about Nemesis – the higher you climb, the harder you fall.
So Dugs made just a teensy wee dent that no-one has yet noticed.
Try to pin a grand decoration on the re-inflated Big Balloon, and…
…phwaaarp…!
I suspect that Ruth ‘the package’ is going to be re-launched – given the number of times she is still being mentioned on London radio. Last Thursday, day of Boris the Bold’s visit, several presenters were asking callers if they thought that Ruth Davidson could save the union.
I recall after the last election, when it was hailed what a brilliant job ‘Ruth the package’ had done, how the media were full of it, even to the point of Andrew Marr introducing her on his show as ‘the next First Minister of Scotland’. And her pal Andrew Neil continually waxed lyrical about her.
I see they have been advertising for more directors for the UK Gov in Scotland shiny premises at Queen Elizabeth House. I wonder if she will be piloted in there to expand the ‘flog off Scotland the brand but stamped with ‘Britain Great’ all over their shiny posters initiative. The irony that in Scotland the Tories declare us an SNP created wasteland – education bad, health, bad, tourism getting bad, Queensferry Crossing really bad. But all of their posters for the last few years on their presentation stands for foreign and UK investors and buyers in their marble columned office for Scotland in London – festooned with posters with – photos of Scottish pupils and universities, photos of Queensferry Crossing, photos of NHS workers, photos of Scottish tourist spots, photos of Scottish food and drink products – all stamped over with ‘Britain Great’.
Scottish Government not allowed to sell Scotland to the big money interested parties – oh no. Scotland being sold big time as ‘Britain Great’ so that the London Administration are perceived as the brokers and spokespersons for Scotland. I heard a radio programme by accident which was a presenter attending a Scotch Whisky Association big PR event at their premises in London. The presenter was talking to the foreign invitees. One chap from Japan said he would very much like to invest and the presenter and Scotch Whisky bod both chipped in ‘Oh no, I wouldn’t contemplate that, much better to buy a rare bottle as a valuable keepsake’. Then again, our problem with whisky is the lack of Scottish indigenous ownership and the usual problem for Scotland that our prime products get bought up – the buyers don’t bank in Scotland and the shareholders are worldwide – so not enough benefit to Scotland in real terms.
Tony Blair (some have mentioned) has been under the microscope with Peter Mandelson and Jack Straw due to their being scrutinised as honorary fellows of the 48 Group which, according to Private Eye, the 48 Group ‘is accused in a forthcoming book of ‘grooming Britain’s elites’ to advance Beijing’s interest. Philip Hammond is now senior adviser to ‘challenger’ bank OakNorth ‘which has bit ambitions to use it’s high-tech lending systems in China. And the Lib Dem contenders for party leadership, Ed Davey and Layla Moran are spatting over Ed Davey’s big donations from private healthcare companies.
Hypcrites all – but the bulk of the public still assume that the London Administration are serving them in sincerity and don’t realise yet that the ‘Oh look there’s a Spitfire’ ‘remember the Blitz spirit’ ‘oh look a royal wedding’ professional decoys are flung out there to distract them from the London Administration’s historic and current extra curricular activities – which certainly are not on the behalf of the ‘ordinary’ citizenry.
I wait to see what form the Ruth Davidson rising like a Phoenix to save the union will take. Or perhaps she will operate under the radar. She seems to spend all her time at FMQs texting.
It’s all so predictable – we need a media platform with articulate savvy personalities to flood the public in Scotland with some realities and to have serious and consistent instant rebuttle out there for every unionist pitch, as we know they are going to ‘blitz’ Scotland between now and Holyrood 2021. We should have a sweep to guess what day the Trump intervention will be played.
And just to add Alex that Nicola Sturgeon now has the ideal opportunity, thanks to the self-defeating journalists … ha ha … to point out what’s reserved to Westminster. Their questions often backfire on them and I’m absolutely loving it. Every time that she (Jeanne Freeman or Fiona Hyslop etc) come out with some facts and figures I imagine non-political anorak type of people sitting at home saying, ”Is that right enough? Westminster has control of that which means that they could be putting my (mother, wife, wean’s) life at risk.”
These CV19 briefings are proving to be a (as well as health, life and death) political and constitutional education for some people, as are Janey Godley’s videos. If you watch them she repeats Nicola Sturgeon’s latest advice (great) plus highlights what an erse LBJ and the MSM are.
Oh her one on johnson was funny as hell
Driver:get out boris
Lbj:i dont want to they dont like me here where are we anyway
Driver: it ok its just us boris
Lbj: but theres a woman there who looks angry and i dont think she likes me are you sure we are isolated enough i can see people in the distance and i dont think they like me either.
Then we all know what happened on day 2 of his tour he ran back to England with his tail between his legs the coward.
“…a British state which hankers for Empire and which can only understand the language of the victor and the vanquished.”
That’s the real root of the problem of the ‘Union’. London rule doesn’t understand respect, consensus, tolerance, sharing or democracy in any form – it only knows a master-and-slave relationship with others and which they think of as ’empire’.
Even the structures of politics show this. There cannot be more than two political parties contending for power, at present Conservatives and Labour, who represent the victors and the vanquished in the showbiz of the Westminster parliament. Anyone else such as the SNP are simply a periferal annoyance which must be marginalised to eliminate interference in the pusuit of absolute power. It is a shameful mindset which is more appropriate to the time of Charlemgne than to the 21st century.
It will not be fixed from within and it is clear that we, in Scotland can only achieve a state of modern social normality by withdrawing completely from this evil construct they call a ‘Union’.
Its the irony that in the end its going to be the British that ends the union. In truth they only avoided the end of it in 2014 with the vow. Had it not been for Browns panicked “1st” intervention they would most likely have lost. It was the vow that swayed folk to give the union one last chance. And what did they do with it? Broke the vow day one. Voted to have brexit the next day. Scared the English shitless thinking the SNP would secretly control Miliband. “The Thames will foam with the blood of the slaughtered English” said one foaming mouthed yoon. The Scots should not have a vote screamed the next. They should all be forced to swear undying Loyalty to Englan…cough cough…I mean Britain, wailed another. They even took us to court to get a ruling to say it was ok to ignore anything the Scots said.
The union is a nothing more than a trap for Scotland. Powerless, we are expected to sit back and watch the fucking tories smash the place up and steal our money from us. Some English pundits who understand the issues, still say we shouldn’t go just because the tories have pissed us off. I am sorry. But frankly Scotland can no longer afford to be a hostage to fortune and be at the mercy of the English electorate.
As for the Lib Dems and Labour. I do not want spineless cowards to speak for me.
Reblogged this on Ramblings of a 50+ Female.
The attacks on Russia are just diversions from the slush money heading into Tory coffers for not playing games of tennis with the oligarchs. Putin doesn’t like the EU. So I am sure the bbc will support Scotland joining the EU.
That’s a keeper. 🙂 Also. I cannot unsee the last line of that first paragraph.
It won’t come as much of a surprise to Messrs Blair and Ashworth and Ms Moran that a goodly number of folk (myself among them) tend to disagree with their opinion on Scotland.
Personally, I’d say that the past six years have shown the epic folly of continuing with political union. Of course that won’t prevent either Westminster’s political class or the meeja from waxing lyrical on the subject. It’s what they do after all. Y’know, talk a load of wossiname on a subject and then pile insult upon the injury they helped create in the first place. Keeps them busy…. I suppose.
Just so we’re clear though. Insulting populations after you’ve helped dropped them in a mincer probably isn’t the wisest of moves. Still. If they’re determined to put their ignorance, lack of empathy and some might say a rank dishonesty on display, then who are we to prevent … etc.
Oh, and before they start conflating a social union with a political one? We don’t need a politician’s permission to retain a social union. I suspect folk might be on to that particular wheeze by this point.
It’s nice of Labour to propose that the covid updates should stop. It would be even nicer if they could ramp up the message, amplify it so that everyone knows what they want. The Scottish public will really like them for that. Scottish people don’t care about their health or safeguarding their shielding neighbours.
Who would have thought Labour would be so uncaring? Me.
Had the Yes vote managed to fluke an accidental win in 2014 the UK government would have been forced to deny Scotland the win by way of *all referendums are advisory* thereby putting their own planned Brexit referendum (which Nicola Sturgeon warned of) in jeopardy, how could they legitimately allow their own referendum to pass if they had denied Scotlands, now the UK gov is in a more difficult position as any future referendum in Scotland can’t be denied by that method and must be passed
So how does the UK achieve denying Scotland a referendum on its future now after its own pre-planned Brexit referendum
Well they can say No, but how many times can they say No is the problem, without the most slow to rise easiest going voter on the planet shouting Hoi! this is dictatorship not partnership, and that’s their problem, every time they stick their big jackboots on and start telling Scotland that democracy is only for England and the English the line between fake blurry democracy and big fat lie comes starkly into focus
The UK government has been saying No ever more frequently and the British media, although they think they’re helping the English government each time they solicit their desired No response from Johnson or Gove or any of them, are actually assisting Scotland because we keep hearing and seeing them do it even though since 2016 Nicola Sturgeon has hardly mentioned it, and since the Corona outbreak she has actively avoided politics altogether to concentrate on saving lives which in itself is silent politics because she’s a politician who wants Independence thus reinforcing the idea just by standing there
The miserablists in Scotland who demand the FM do any number of demonstrative actions also don’t seem to get the idea that everybody on the planet who follows politics knows perfectly well that the SNP and Nicola Sturgeon stand for Independence for Scotland and as long as she’s standing there visibly doing exactly what she’s doing the numbers are increasing for that
Boris Johnson is a clown and the more he appears on TV the more of a clown he appears, and the more he stamps his clown foot the more of a Bastirt clown he appears
Nicola Sturgeon is not about to blow it by announcing dramatic gesture political decisions while her numbers keep rising, she’s not about to invade England or storm Buckinham Palace at the whim of squealy internetters some of whom would dearly love her to lose no matter how much they protest they want Independence and they want it now
Nicola Sturgeon has the job, she’s the FM and no one is challenging her position on that, so that tells you the party she leads is right behind her, and until she decides it’s the right moment then that’s what’ll happen and it’s up to us the ground troops to stand behind her ready to do what she asks of us, she’s demonstrated her skill competence and patience over this Corona pandemic and the people of our country like what they see and are coming over to the proposition of Independence in their droves, that’s winning the smart way and the democratic way, *tell us the plan* the squealers say, well I wouldn’t tell anyone my recipe for jam if I thought they would make it as tasty as mine so why should the FM lay out her recipe for Independence, it’s not a Telly reality cooking show she’s running
We can shout all we want because we’re the people, that’s what we’re supposed to do but folk shouldn’t confuse her calm professionalism with inaction, Nicola Sturgeon is taking action every day or we wouldn’t be shouting at all would we, and the more we shout the more England hears us, and that’s where they’re having the difficulty, they can silence a politician but they can’t shut a Nation up
Good post as usual and very persuasive but when the ‘Nation’ starts banging at the door of Bute House is she going to be in to answer the door?
If anyone doubt the FMs veracity in matters independence for Scotland after 35 years in a political party she needn’t have been a part of if she didn’t care about Independence I can do no more to convince them, otherwise than perhaps to say the entire opposition to Independence in the British Isles does not doubt her, the EU does not doubt her, and no legitimate commentator on politics anywhere doubts her
Nicola Sturgeon’s credentials on Independence are known worldwide, I would suggest the folks who suggest the opposite have their credentials characters and statements examined when they attempt to persuade the public differently
Agree absolutely. What we need to have prepared is a solid dynamic new economic prospectus for an independent Scotland as far as it can go – and it would be of great value if SNP, Yes smart folk, CommonWeal, smart new 21st century economist types – would all really get together and hammer this out – in time to present before Holyrood 2021 or immediately after. We know that is what the overriding brick wall was for thousands of potential Not to maybe Yes voters in 2014 and we really need to get this one down. I agree with was it ‘Hassan’s article this week on that score. We need serious prep. We need SNP having a huge win for Holyrood 2021 and we need to get on the economics for independence. I don’t think we’ll ever have a better chance – if we get these things sown up.
If “The Nation” were fit to “bang at her door”, as you put it, we would be independent already.
So how many converts did you make today…?
Spot on.
That was in reply to Dr Jim.
”At the whim of squealy internetters some of whom would dearly love her to lose no matter how much they protest they want Independence and they want it now.”
Is anyone else noticing how some of the blogs on independence are becoming even more frenetically anti-SNP now and as time goes on, the closer we get to independence, they’ll become, imo, absolutely demonical. Wake up folks and smell the coffee or rather the divisive Unionist stench.
The Scot gov should put the boot in to the annual GERS farce and boot it in to the history books.
ScotGov? Labour, Libdems and Tories? On the other-hand maybe the farce will be exposed Cubby when the SNP’s, not ScotGov, independence prospectus goes out to every household in Scotland.
Look forward to that but it still needs permanently binned now.
Blair destroyed the world economy. Iraq $3Trns. The banking crash. Murdoch his henchman. They left millions dead and people in poverty. Warmongers. They should be in jail. Breaking every Law in the book. The McCrone Report. Taking £Billions out of Scotland to pay for Westminster criminality.
Iraq, Lockerbie and Dunblane kept secret for 100 years. Under the Official Secrets Act. Blair. They have no shame.
Boris Johnson says Nicola Sturgeon’s Indyref is about trashing the *British* brand of products but conveniently omits that it was David Cameron who trashed the Scottish brand by rebranding it British, a fact we can all see in supermarkets with products labled and badged with the political Union flag
If it is wrapped in a jack, put it back, Dr Jim.
I can’t see the difference between plastering the butcher’s apron all over our foodstuffs than the same blanket brainwashing by previous totalitarian regimes…the ‘swastikisation’ of a conquered land, if you like.
It is deliberate of course.
It is remarkable that suppliers are willing to see a significant portion of their produce rotting on shelves, to support the Brit Hierarchy’s push to keep Scotland as England’s last colony.
Check out the fruit and veg, the bread, and other perishables marked down, or left unsold, wrapped in the butcher’s apron.
There is a fortune to be made by some entrepreneur launching a chain of Saltire Superstores. 54% customer base would be a good start.
Someone should stick the boot into ruth davidson but oh wait that be promoting violence yet no ones bring that up at the Scotland hating coo or the fact shes a two faced hypocrite disrespecting Scotland and the fact she was ignored in indyref1 when she was 100% against the vow thats a start of things never to bring up about ruth the Scotland hating davidson.
Emmanuel Macron:- ”Fabulous intervention by Emmanuel Macron when asked about Scottish independence. “I think Scotland will have the heart to follow its own voice & its European tendencies. Long live a European Scotland” Vive la Vieille Alliance – here’s tae the Auld Alliance. Merci M. le Président. https://mobile.twitter.com/billykayscot/status/1287052858341326848
……………………………………………
Dr Charles Tannoch, Former Tory MEP 1999-2019:- “An independent Scotland would have a veto on all EU trade agreements which it does not have as part of UK. It would have a veto on the EU budget which it does not have at UK level. It would have a veto on EU taxation policy, etc.” https://mobile.twitter.com/Zarkwan/status/1286984995102482433
I bought a steak pie from one well known supermaket a couple of years ago which had a Saltire on the box so I presumed I thought quite naturally it was from a Scottish producer until I removed it from its box to cook it and decided to see who the producer was so read the small print on the underside of the box and it read
Scottish *recipe* steak pie produced in Bradford using best *British* beef for Morrisons supermarkets
I also saw cheaper Irish *recipe* sausages next to the actual Irish Sausages which are more expensive because they’re better, this is not competition this is snidey fraudulent practice
I determined to find out more and on investigation discovered that particular supermarket had a policy of not purchasing from Scottish producers, I questioned the fish counter assistant as to why they sold Norwegian Salmon and Yorkshire Brook Trout when Scotland produces the most fish and their Supermarket is in Scotland, he replied all the fish comes from Grimsby on a van so not even the white fish comes from a Scottish producer, but they do sell Scottish products in aisle three under Scottish products which consists of a section around two feet wide displaying, you guessed it, Tunnocks products and some assorted Shortbread with the odd Orkney Oatcake
I really don’t have anything against other countries produce but if I want to support my own country’s farmers and producers by buying locally sourced and not subsidise the country who is trying to downgrade my own country’s ability to produce food, I can’t in that particular supermarket, so I don’t shop there
Buy British means subsidise England
The campaign to destroy the highly successful Saltire branding had both political and mass marketing motives. London resented the strong performance of the Saltire brand and the big supermarkets could not mask where their products were coming from.
The supermarkets will soon be squealing for change if folks boycott their products because of a union flag, it is up to shoppers to force it.
Personally I’d still rather keep the local butcher and greengrocer in business, proliferation of the big supermarkets on the outskirts reduced costs a bit, but put thousands out of business and sterilised high streets…
Good post Dr Jim. If Gove has his way we will all be getting a permanent union flag stamp on our forehead as we enter a supermarket.
Forwarded on to some friends who shop in Morrisons. Never go near Morrisons personally.
Excellent synopsis, your final paragraph the clincher, the London power cartel cannot change.
Excellent comment Bob Lamont. Money is tight for me but I make a point to buy Scottish where feasible. No union jacks allowed in the house.
If it’s wrapped in the jack, put it back.
It is clear that there has been Better Together collaboration by the Brit and German supermarkets to brand their product with the butcher’s apron, no doubt under instruction from London, and rewarded by a ‘Treasury’ in the form of Free Workfare labour and reduced Corporation Tax, and a ‘light touch’ on offshore tax accounts.
In turn, Johnson’s farcical Obesity Attack will be buried before it even gets goin’.
If it’s wrapped in a jack, put it back.
After all England has a ‘fantastic, world beating’ deal to supply Australia with penguin biscuits and Marmite, according to Johnson, The Fat Owl of the Remove.
Of course, from January 2021 there will be lots of products wrapped in the Stars and Stripes too.
And the US Navy will be back in the Holy Loch.
I believe the Holy Loch base was required because of the range of the first class of ballistic missile submarines, so I don’t think the taxi drivers of Dunoon should get too excited!
As far as Obesity is concerned that problem will be solved by Christmas by which time we’ll all be eating grass.
Oh, JG, now that Olde England is the 51st State, the Yanks will be back. The serpentine queue of taxis will return to Kirn pier, ready to ferry the Dwaynes and Homers of the US Navy to the ‘cocktail bars’ on Dunoon’s Miracle Mile..
England, the Costa Rica of Europe.
‘Oh to be in Amereecaa, everything’s free in Amereecaa !’
…Johnson, The Fat Owl of the Remove”
Not seen that in print since around 1964.
A keeper, par excellence, Jack.
Och, John, we, of a certain age, were fed all this middle class English Boys Own stuff in the ’50’s, so it is embedded in our brainwashed LT memory.
Billy Bunter is described, courtesy of Google, thus:-
‘ As well as his gluttony, he is also obtuse, lazy, racist, nosy, deceitful, slothful, self-important and conceited.’
For the fictional Greyfriars School insert Eton,
Johnson is Bunter.
Boys and Girls of a certain age were fed this Imperial Brit jingo home counties tosh in almost all our childhood literature.
Blyton’s ‘Famous Five’, and ‘Secret Seven’, Richmal Crompton’s ‘Just William’ series, the heroes of the DC Thomson comics like the Wizard Hotspur Adventure. in which Alf Tupper was living on fish and chips, sleeping on a mattress, foiling bank robberies and beating the ‘toffs’ from the Harrier Club to the finish line, James Bigglesworth, ‘Biggles’, creation of WE Johns, with his teenage sidekick ‘Ginger’ (whit?), or Dick Barton Special Agent, whose catch phrase Shop Steward Leonard may want to adopt as he contemplates abandoning SS Scottish Labour; ‘And with one bound, Dick was free’.
We were filled with Imperial nonsense, tales of derring do, foiling foreign spies, killing the Bosch, and saving Great Britain and the King/Queen from the foreign hordes.
Unless the son of a maharajah sent to ‘England’ to get a boarding school education, foreigners were spies, or onion sellers or shady n’er do wells..
War comics, adventures in Sussex in warm summer days, lashings of lemonade, and William, just being William.
We had Oor Wullie and Black Bob as role models otherwise.
Bart Simpson eat your heart out.
🤣
Speaking of ‘putting the boot in’, and because it’s chucking it down this morning, I tuned in to GMS BBC Radio Gary this morning through the wonder of i-Player.
Review of the ‘Papers? Nicola Sturgeon is ‘slammed’ in the Scotsman, , holiday makers are ‘outraged’ at Scottish Government U Turn in the Record, Willie Rennie is to be interviewed at half six in the morning, probably suitably outraged at the Scottish Government too, and they are previewing an interview with a ‘poor woman’ who booked a last minute holiday to Majorca on, wait for it, Saturday morning, only to hear on Saturday afternoon that the holiday was cancelled.
Poor woman, indeed.
I was able to scroll through most of the morning Get Nicola Sturgeon, the lock down’s not working in Scotland! pap.
Gary Robertson was in two restaurants at the week end…lucky man. Oneestablishment was partially following the Covid rules, another not at all. He declined to say whether or not he sat down and ate in the plague ridden restaurant.
Tales of woe from airports, supermarkets and service station toilets.
‘A nurse’ reported arriving at a Scottish airport..no checks, no staff, no face masks…
An Asda store where 1/3 were not wearing face masks, and the security guards not confronting the plague carriers, and a queue for the loo at a service station where rude folk were brushing bad temperedly past each other.
Nicola Sturgeon’s Lockdown is not working!!!!
Laura Maxwell revealed that she is off camping to Cumbria next week because the Covid rate there has dipped.
Oh no it hasn’t, Ms Maxwell.
She has the whole of this beautiful country Scotland to pick from, but she’s doing a John Gummer feeding his child a burger during the Mad Cow crisis, and venturing over the border into plague ridden England…
FYI, Ms Maxwell, it is reported that 8 of the 10 worst hit spikes in England this week are in the North of England. Think on that when you share your campsite with campers from Blackpool, Salford and Bolton, 3 of the worst hit areas in England, 30 or 40 miles to the South of your holiday haven.
God, what a pile of evil Brit Nattery from Gary and Laura.
Scotland is beating this crisis, yet this pair of puppets front a show like this.
I missed Rennie’s ‘interview’.
The only work he has had to do this week. His £1200 wages, our money, well spent this week?
Not.
.
Not hard to believe Jack.
Wee report from sky old news site.
Woman complaining about the lack of warning, will have to isolate and she can’t work from home.
What was her point, She’s already in financial straights due to the virus, BUTT is currently on Holiday in Spain.
I wish I had her financial problems, I’ve just sat it out.
The wee clip of the other dom on sky old news was his sweaty head on being questioned on the sudden removal of Spain from their approved list.
Another woman was saying that the uk government should have lockdown areas in foreign parts so that she could travel . Last week oor Nicola was getting pelters for suggesting that the border at Gretna COULD be policed to stop the transmission into a relatively controlled area.
Check the figures for mainland Spain against today’s for France, are they next on the disapproval list?
Do we really feel the uk government has our best interests in mind? Not with this lot of lightweight yes boss people.
We are more than capable of running our own country, we have plenty of talent.
Interesting that the Covid cultists have started calling it the “plague”.
There are none more dangerous than the Righteous.
Eating grass by Christmas folks….
Mr G, I am re-reading James Baldwin’s ‘The Fire Next Time’ at the moment. (the Penguin edition which I bought for 2/6d ( 12 1/2 pence) in 1966, when I was 18/19.
The title is from the line ‘God gave Noah the rainbow sign, no more water, the fire next time.’
We have had fire, flood, and now pestilence, and reports of swarms of locusts and flying ants…The ‘rainbow sign’ is being displayed in windows all over the UK at the moment, in praise of our NHS and Carers.
It is not unsurprising that some see Covid 19 as the ‘plague’.
If it starts to rain frogs, and boils start to appear on the flesh of cattle, I’m heading for a cave in the Old Kilpatrick hills with a crate of rice pudding and a James Thurber anthology.
Cheer yourself up, Mr G. Read Camus ‘ ‘La Peste’.
Well, if we are eating grass by Christmas it will be because our abundance in food has been purloined by those south of Scotland’s frontier. Scotland grows enough wheat to feed itself 5 times to name but one of our many blessings. Scotland isn’t poor, just impoverished. Apologies to WGD for blatant plagiarism.
Give it a rest with your conspiracy nonsense please.
Paul I genuinely hope that I am talking nonsense, believe me or not. The prospects are horrific otherwise.
I have no wish to annoy you so I’ll sign off now and although I have my doubts (to say the least), I really hope you are right and Independence is just round the corner.
The number of people who would have to be involved for there to really be a conspiracy to deceive us into believing there’s a virus that’s killing people when there isn’t runs into the 100s of thousands. It is vanishingly implausible that that number of people are going to keep their mouths shut and not blab.
The excess deaths from the end of March through to June cannot be explained away by any Covid conspiracy theory. They are quite simply the evidence that Covid-19 is responsible for more than 65,000 deaths in the UK. A figure that would be many times higher if there had never been a lockdown.
The irony is that those screaming loudest for a “return to normal” are risking a larger second wave that will damage the economy even more than it has been damaged already.
There’s also a formula which shows that the more people who are involved in a conspiracy, the quicker that conspiracy will unravel.
https://phys.org/news/2016-01-equation-large-scale-conspiracies-quickly-reveal.html
For coronavirus to be a conspiracy, millions of people would have to be involved. If it was a conspiracy, it would have unravelled extremely quickly.
Very interesting, I liked the quote near the end.
“This will of course not convince everyone; there’s ample evidence that belief in conspiracy is often ideological rather than rational, and that conspiracy theories thrive in an echo chamber.”
I can believe that 🙂
I think we all know just how nasty the British state is and we’ve always known this won’t be a walk in the park
https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2020/07/27/nothing-has-ever-suggested-a-nation-can-be-successfully-oppressed-against-its-will-when-that-will-has-become-apparent-scotland-will-not-break-that-rule/
I remember a Labour MP at the time whose name was also Davidson when he wrote that all that was left to do was to bayonet the wounded
It’s a strange but common occurrence with British Nationalists that they look for the slightest of protests against their behaviour to label others violent yet it’s they themselves who constantly use violent metaphors to describe what their preferences are and the desperate need to write them down for others to see
Probably everyone in Scotland had a Mum who threatened to kill us quite regularly for misdemeanors, but they didn’t literally mean it, I’m also quite sure none of our Mums felt an uncontrollable urge to contact a newspaper to write their threats down so the population of the country would know that really *they meant it*
The British Nationalists display a great fondness for the verbal and written threat which says a huge amount about the characters of the people British Nationalism attracts, a section of society unable to control their natural tendencies when they can’t exercise control
Mum, Gran, Grandad, but my brother mostly. We fought most days and I lost most days. Until I was 15, I won and I never had to win again.
However angry and shouty they get we only have to win this once.
The reality is that the Union was only a cover story for a takeover. To quote the speaker of the English Parliament post the 1707 vote, ( if you can call what happened a vote), “We have catched her and will hold her tight”.
It was intended to be assimilation by stealth. The gradual erosion of our history, identity and languages.
They are angry because it SHOULD have worked. They controlled every organisation and media outlet. They rewarded the greedy for backing the State. The British State was the Empire.
The very fact that it did not work should be something to be proud of in Scotland. The history of those many, many challenges to London Rule were wiped from history.
It was never a Union. Unless “Rough Wooin” is classed as meeting that description.
They are angry because after more than 300 years we have still not accepted our role as footstool.
On the signing of the Treaty, Scotland, as a country, had no debt, but had to take on 25% of England’s debt at the time. We have been in debt ever since.
Not a single hair on the head of a single child can be harmed by us in the pursuit of our independence.
We know that the British are partial to violence. It was central to the exercise in criminality that was the British empire and it was central to their attempts to hold into it. In the face of it we must call it out and express our disdain of it but we must not get drawn into it.
Fortunately it is not only right that we choose non violence, it is also the successful way forward. The Scots are a community of highly educated, civilised people. We will win by exposing and out smarting the British at the time that they are at their weakest – the dying days of their empire. They are soon to be friendless. They have behaved deceitfully towards every other country in the world and the mileage they had for supposedly “standing alone” at a moment in time has been exhausted. There will be no fantastic trade deals, there will be no more punching above their weight on the world stage, there will be mega unemployment, a return to violence on England’s streets, increasing realisation that the structures of British “civilisation” are crumbling wherever you look, etc. etc.
Like all other empires there is an end point when everyone has to face the reality that it is over. Who imagined the peaceful downfall of the Russian/Soviet empire in our lifetime?
This is the background against which we have to negotiate our exit from this unholy union. But we can only do it peacefully with the support of a substantial majority of Scotland’s population. That majority is coming together.
100% agree
Eloquently put and agreed, the majority is here and building…
Tax all the bad food that makes us fat says Boris Johnson in an attempt to divert our attention from the fact he’s doing a trade deal with America a country even fatter than the entire UK with some of the worst food standards in the western world, give me some of that American cheese that contains no cheese on my hormone injected chlorinated chicken burger, nom nom
Boris cares about obesity, Aye so he does
Says the fat person himself.
Dr Jim, you may recall, but probably not, that Neil Findlay was appointed as the Scottish Red Tories’ Obesity Czar a few years ago….
Some of his rotund colleagues obviously didn’t get the memo.
It’s the usual hoary old virtue signalling from fat men.
Check out Johnson’s Jack’s Barclay’s and Carlaw’s generous girths snapped during the two day Charm Offensive to Safe Brit Havens in Scotland last week.
Johnson does what Big Money tells him to.
Selling sow belly to tens of millions of proles for vast profits will never stop in the Free Trade Free Market madness of the New World Order.
Anyone who has visited the US and witnessed the fat feeding creatures waddling around constantly eating sh1t, can expect the same in England from January 2021. It will be like tripping a switch.
England will be overrun with US crap, and WM actually believes that they can flood Scotland with this gunge under the auspices of the UK Single Market wheeze.
We have five months to declare…
There is no way we can just sit back and let it happen.
Sky news declares once again that Scotland must indeed be a separate Independent country as they read out the days Corona virus figures for the UK which are figures for England only, they really have a lot of difficulty saying the word England, except when it comes to football and cricket
Also we have the folk who were furiously outraged by the no smoke without fire tactics being employed against former FM Alex Salmond now delighted to employ those same tactics against the current FM Nicola Sturgeon