Braverman’s brutal Britain

Dear God, what a nasty, miserable, brutal, and cold hearted island we live on under this detestable Conservative regime. If you are a whiny bleating Tory snowflake who still supports this government when evidence of its institutional cruelty is so apparent and abundant you should not just be upset at being called detestable. It’s your lucky day, now you can also get upset about being called a fool and and an enabler as well.

Today there was a truly shameful performance by this week’s Home Secretary in the House of Commons. Suella Braverman did not just, as we had all expected, refuse to take any personal responsibility for the failure of the UK’s asylum system, and waved away her repeated security breaches.

When questioned by Labour Shadow Secretary Yvette Cooper about her repeated security breaches, Braverman accused Labour of playing ‘political parlour games’ in order to prevent her cracking down on the ‘scourge’ of illegal immigration, and claimed she was the victim of a ‘political witch hunt.’ In Braverman’s eyes she is the real victim here, and anyone who has the temerity to point out her wrongdoing and short comings is playing into the hands of criminal gangs of people traffickers. She singularly failed to clear up questions about whether she had ignored legal advice saying migrants could not be detained unlawfully, insisting she did not ignore the advice as multiple sources have claimed, but also admitting that she did not release the unlawfully detained migrants, claiming there was nowhere to send them – that, Suella – would be a you problem, you made it a problem for the unlawfully detained migrants.

That was all bad enough, but Braverman also doubled down on her brazen victim blaming and for good measure threw in some appallingly incendiary language. On the day after a white pensioner threw petrol bombs at a migrant centre in Kent, Braverman chose to refer to the refugee crisis as an ‘invasion’. Let’s be very clear here, if you throw petrol bombs at people because of their race, their religion, or their immigration status, you are a terrorist. You don’t get a free pass because you are a 66 year old white British pensioner from southern England. You are a terrorist, and you have been radicalised by the Daily Mail, the Express, by BBC favourite Nigel Farage, and by right wing Conservative politicians like Suella Braverman. Attacks on refugees don’t come out of nowhere; they are the end result of hate and xenophobia whipped up by politicians and media outlets.

Radio 4 had Nigel Farage on at lunchtime on Monday calling asylum seekers criminals, Natalie Elphicke MP was on BBC yesterday saying much the same thing. Such an inappropriate, reactionary response from politicians and the British media to the petrol bombing of a centre for refugees. Perhaps if the BBC didn’t keep platforming Nigel Farage there might not be such widespread hysteria about refugees and asylum seekers in a country which takes in proportionately far fewer refugees and asylum seekers than many other European countries. What the hell is wrong with the BBC that it thinks that the appropriate person to go to for comment on a terrorist attack on migrants was the man who has spent the past decade and a half normalising the demonisation of immigrants. Naturally Farage used it as an opportunity to tell us that he is the real victim here and he won’t let ‘lefties’ prevent him from ‘speaking out’ – read scaremongering – about immigration.

It’s a damning indictment of the UK and its ruling Conservative party that it has given us a Home Secretary and a media which are openly fanning the flames of bigotry and contributing to a growing climate of hate against people fleeing war and persecution. Yet that same party whines like a baby when its detestable abuse of its power is called detestable.

The performance that we witnessed in the House of Commons on Monday from the Home Secretary was, and this is not a word to be used at all lightly, genuine fascism. Language like that Braverman used, calling migrants “invaders” and referring to migration as a ‘scourge’ whips-up hatred and spreads fear and division. That is precisely the purpose of that kind of speech. It’s not shameful, Braverman has no shame. It’s deliberate fearmongering straight out of the fascist playbook. The Tories are basically reheating National Front and BNP rhetoric and making it their own policy when it comes to immigration.

What is beyond belief and comprehension is that Braverman is using the same vile and incendiary language, the same dehumanising and fear mongering terms to describe immigrants and refugees as were used by Enoch Powell in the 1960s to describe Braverman’s own parents. Powell was disowned by his party for his fascist hate mongering against migrants, Braverman is embraced by the Conservatives and occupies one of the great offices of state. That is how far to the right the Conservatives have pushed the envelope of what is deemed to be ‘mainstream’ political discourse. Fascism doesn’t march up to us wearing jackboots and wielding clubs, it comes up to us in smart suits and sober dresses, telling us that it’s our friend and that it is the voice of ordinary people, people in whose interests it claims to be acting, exactly as Braverman did on Monday.

Braverman went on to describe the immigration system as ‘broken’, without the slightest flicker of recognition that it’s her party which has been in charge for the past twelve years and it’s the Conservatives that broke it.

Braverman is weaponising hate in order to bolster her political position. All she did was to illustrate yet another reason why she’s totally unfit to be Home Secretary, and by refusing to take action again her, Sunak merely tells us all that he is not the leader of his party but rather is a weak and ineffectual hostage of its warring factions.

Sunak knows that if he sacks Braverman, he immediately faces the wrath of the far right European Research Group which was only placated by him offering Braverman one of the top posts in government. So Sunak has to keep her there, despite the mountain of evidence that she is unfit for office. But Braverman’s bravado did nothing to put to rest the questions about her competence and her honesty. She will continue to poison Sunak’s tenuous grasp on power and on the Conservative party, and when she does crash, as she most assuredly will, she will take what is left of Sunak’s reputation with her and will prove once and for all that the Conservatives cannot become a credible party of government by changing their leader again. It’s not May, Johnson, Truss, or Sunak that is the problem, it’s the entire detestable lot of them.

 

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56 comments on “Braverman’s brutal Britain

  1. deelsdugs says:

    It sure is.
    Great writing Paul.
    It’s like they think they’re in a nasty bastard soap opera, and who can portray the nastiest streak, rather than real life time.
    That bit about Enoch Powell in the 1960s and her own parents is the bit she really needs to get grips with.

  2. bringiton says:

    It’s the people who vote for England’s Tories that are responsible for allowing creatures like Braverman to be in office.
    Behind that are the people who control the media in Great Britain and create the narrative consumed by Tory voters.
    In an independent Scotland,we must be vigorous in defending our democracy from being hijacked by wealthy people with a narrow right wing political view.
    It was the Sun wot dun it.

    • jfngw says:

      You can only fall for a narrative if their is some gelling of it within your views. It was clear what this Tory party was in 2019 but they won majority in England. I never really believe ‘the people never knew what was going on’ storylines’, they did but either ignored or supported it. So it wasn’t the Sun what did it in my view, it was the people.

      If the economy wasn’t in such a mess then the Tories would win the next election, the immigration story would cut little ice with people in the vote.

      Don’t expect much difference from Labour, they have the same view on immigration, they just want to do the same thing but with a kinder face.

      No difference in Scotland with peoples views on independence, it would obviously be in Scotland’s interest to run its own affairs but many comfortable people, ignore the extreme BritNats, are quite happy with the current state of affairs and don’t want their lifestyle possibly changed.

  3. Rebecca Hislop says:

    Terrific blog Paul. The UK if far down the road to fascism. No lessons learnt from history at all. Frightening. It’s imperative that Scotland becomes independent.

  4. Please do not use the term, “snowflake” as an insult. I, personally have taken on the word as descriptive of myself each time it is used abusively by right wing sources.

    • Welsh_Siôn says:

      For you, Liam Ferguson (and others):

      25. (of 56.)

      The sun and the snowflake

      “Ha!” said the sun one day. “How weak and insignificant you are, little snowflake! Why, I could melt you with one wink of my eye!”

      “Perhaps”, replied the little snowflake. But you’ll find it much harder to get rid of us when thousands and thousands of us cover the land.”

      The sun set, an angry red colour.
      _____________

      Parables for the New Politics
      2012-2022

  5. Margaret Lear says:

    Brilliant, to the point, passionate writing. Braverman’s rhetoric is hard to credit and poisonous.

  6. Capella says:

    You sum up the dire situation perfectly. The British government has caused much of the conflict and deprivation around the world which results in thousands of people seeking asylum in the UK – perhaps deluded by the empty rhetoric the UK government uses to describe their home situation. Let’s not forget Donald Trump’s “shithole ” countries created by Britain and America in our perpetual hunt for oil and gas.

    The HoC keep statistics on migration and asylum seekers – which shows that most flee war zones or countries crippled by sanctions, which is economic war. In its reporting, the BBC carefully omits statistics which would give context to the actual numbers of immigrants and refugees. In this way, the media are complicit in the fanning of xenophobic rage which has led to the bombing of a refugee centre.

  7. Having spent some time in England with my relatives earlier this year, only one of them actually English, the rest a mix of Scottish, Irish, and Nothern Irish. I can assure you that they have been thoroughly brainwashed by a combination of the M.S.M, and extreme politicians. All professional people, mainstream education, who now watch channels such as G.B News, and agree with their views. If that small sample is what is replicated throughout England, then there really is no hope, and we simply have to try to become independent as soon as possible.

  8. Dr Jim says:

    We live at the whim of an English government voted for by the population of England who have been slowly fed the fascist and racist language of the front pages of the Daily Mail then legitimized by the Times and the BBC for not calling it what it is

    The media in general have abrogated their responsibility of moderation and are no longer the guardians of the people, they are complicit in a project to redesign society in the way the English government is shaping it

    None of this is about *the country* and the way in which it looks at the world, this is about winning elections by divisiveness, the Donald Trump way, the dictator way
    Take a look at how America does it, adverts for Republicans all display guns and the right to shoot people, because the people you want to shoot are bad and definitely not on the patriotic side of the USA so it’s fine
    Adverts for Democrats feature the rights of women being removed by the Republicans so you must hate their way of life and make sure you never vote them in

    The absence of actual economic policy is stark, even though they talk about it constantly it’s a tool to blame the other side for being unable to make *the country* great again like it used to be before the others controlled it
    Fear works, othering works, and if you can get the media involved you get the right demographic involved, the older more fearful of their livelihoods group who’ll impress that upon their children, then you’ll have whole generations of hatred voting for you without presenting any plan or policy because you’ve successfully engineered the split country of one side or the other with nothing in between

    Democracy? no need for it, we got hate and that’s a winner

    Young people don’t like this, they see it and they’re not buying it thank God

  9. Ian Campbell says:

    It certainly is the “whole detestable lot of them”, we hear every word you say !!

  10. Not-My-Real-Name says:

    The BBC Panorama programme broadcast an exposé of an individual in the UK , who like Alex Jones in America, promotes fake news that various reported terrorist attacks in the UK were staged, thus fake, with the victims of these atrocities being actors.

    The individual in question holds seminars, writes books and has an online presence (thus generates money for himself) to promote his conspiracy theories which the BBC programme showed had resulted in some of the victims of the Manchester bombing incident being targeted by his followers, and indeed he himself , went to where they, the victims, lived and worked , to see if they actually had the injuries he said they claimed they had as a result of the terrorist attack…..and because of him spreading his mad conspiracy theory on this it resulted in victims of this tragedy , who survived it, receiving vile abuse on social media.

    Now this was a GOOD BBC programme….as it exposed how certain individuals who promoted these conspiracy theories were dangerous in that they radicalised others who were susceptible to being influenced by the worse kind of people which then incited rage and anger AGAINST the WRONG people…….yet this seems to be allowed to continue with no retribution from the authorities on these individuals who instigate this…..or indeed no action via the government itself (UK one)…..

    This may seem an off topic point by me on this thread….but it is NOT.

    Because the same BBC has given and still does give a platform to one Nigel Farage. He has guested on BBC QT in the past thus was seemingly normalised in being given an invitation and platform that ALLOWED him to promote his skewed opinion as somehow a credible opinion on the EU and yesterday was once again given a platform by the BBC on radio to once again target and demonise migrants…..

    Farage as in he , who WORKS for ANOTHER NEWS channel, where he and THEY promote hate, conspiracy theories and demonise specific people thus radicalising viewers to incite rage , and I feel , are themselves culpable for much of the hate that generates incidents such as the recent terrible fire bombing reported on the Migrant centre in England, which we now hear is NOT to be classified as a Terrorist attack. …though the current Home secretary must in her hate speech also take a lot of the BLAME for this also…..and indeed certain gutter press too….a combined Hate Fest Brexit UK style…..

    The same Nigel Farage who once was a guest on a programme of the mad American conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who has now rightly , been put in his place via a lawsuit generated via the parents of children who died in a shooting tragedy in a American school that he, Jones, had stated on his programme did not happen…….however in the court he DID concede that it, the shooting of these children in that tragedy, was TRUE and had happened….funny how when their back is up against the wall they back DOWN when it will impact THEM financially via a court system….after them spending so so much time, with such false conviction, previously denying it on their hate channel.

    In the UK we have a supposed regulator of the media called Ofcom who ALLOWS some NEW NEWS TV channels to broadcast climate deniers, Covid deniers, anti vax conspiracy theorists, the demonisation of migrants who are actually refugees, hate against a specific member of the Royal family i.e. Meghan Markle and the platforming of those who are identified as right wing individuals and indeed also what should be a conflict of interest some Tory MP’s having programmes on this news channel with their party being the THE UK government….plus the BBC QT gives a platform to some of this channels presenters and guests (and also another new alternate channel whose presenters also guest on BBC QT too i.e. Julie Hartley Brewer) on a supposed mainstream political debate show in order for THEM to spout MORE of their uninformed , biased , hateful and extreme positions on a supposed mainstream political debate programme……

    I am all for mainstream channels and indeed newspapers too calling out extremists and conspiracy theorists however if they themselves CONTINUE to give a platform to some of these SAME individuals then that itself is hypocritical and thus ALLOWS this destructive force to survive and thrive….and also gives them an assumed credibility in platforming them as guests on a mainstream programme, national newspaper and other media outlets too………..

    The mainstream media and it’s absolute dereliction of duty in calling out so much of what we NOW see being promoted as part of the supposed normal debate via conspiracy theorists and extremists…..must also itself be held to account for what has now resulted in the emboldened right wing having a prominent voice via NEWS channels and newspapers that promote their message to the gullible and also those viewers/ listeners/readers cut from the same cloth…..

    The BBC in Scotland is , it thinks, more subtle….but when you and what you believe in…. is what THEY always appear to target via a majority of times …..then you identify their supposed ‘subtle’ messaging is nowt but blatant propaganda to uphold what they ultimately wish to maintain…as in sustaining the status quo via the UK surviving……hence we have a Pro UK message being given MORE prominence while OUR message via those we elect is constantly undermined , challenged and suppressed…..personally I see no distinction with what THEY try to do and the more extreme news channels also try to do….both are damaging and both are propaganda promoting different conspiracy theories to diminish and target specific people and political parties and their beliefs while promoting and platforming the ones THEY support and wish to ensure survive via the OVER promotion of their people, political parties and their beliefs…………

    Need to know how we have the mess we have had in the past and also that we have NOW via all Tory governments ?

    Need to know how we NOW have a Home Secretary like Braverman ?

    Need to know how we , the YES side, did not win in 2014 ?

    THEN………..

    Look no further than the media……

  11. davetewart says:

    You are right on this.
    Was stunned at the sky interview on the sewage being discharged into a bay in Devon.
    The interviewer was making excuses for the water company by saying ‘Where else was the run off to go as the system is only used when there is high rainfall’.
    The surfer interviewee pointed out that there hadn’t been heavy rainfall and pointed out the increased incidents of illness. The high profits of the water company.
    All ignored really.

    Bet the interviewer would be happy for the water company to deliver said outfall to her property for storage whilst it decayed.

    The visual media are just supporters of the false news that they’re fed.

    Witness the video output of the battery factory at Blyth, the cleared site was changed to a computer generated vision of what the factory would look like when completed.
    The company seem to be looking for the support cash promised by one j. cleverly, ex business secretary. Maybe that’s not happening as sunak tries to reduce the black hole, only £100million.

    • Not-My-Real-Name says:

      Indeed Dave, Mark Spencer a Tory MP and also the Minister for Food was shown by BBC Breakfast, footage of sewage pouring into the sea, at Trevaunance Cove, Cornwall …..he, Spencer, then proceeded to lay much blame , in a ridiculous way, on the public and their actions via their home drainage systems….the reality is that the culpability lay with the Water companies……..and indeed the UK government’s FAILURE to control or properly regulate Water companies via the privatisation of water in England which they, Tories, implemented….and of course Brexit has now ALLOWED the Tories to TRY and ditch certain EU regulations connected to pollution within the the EU Water Framework Directive via the post Brexit new Tory Environment bill.

      Clause 79 of this new Brexit Environment bill “would allow the UK Government to do away with EU-derived water quality targets, or change the way they are measured” and “This leaves clause 79 looking like a power grab for ministers to ditch inconvenient environmental protections”…these quotes are from the Chief executive of the Wildlife and Countryside Link….whose view is that this is a Brexit power grab tucked into the CORE of the environment bill….that allows the Tory UK government a way to implement a ” post-Brexit power to weaken environmental safeguards that has been tucked into the Environment Bill”.

      Their fake country Britain had the reputation in the 1980s of being the “dirty man of Europe” because of pollution of the bathing waters , rivers and the poor-quality drinking water when it , as a fake country , was governed by Pro UK political parties…..now England, via a Tory Brexit government, seems to want to reclaim THAT crown…..via privatised water companies and a new post Brexit Tory environment bill…….and Brexiteer voters and indeed much of the Tory client journalists seem to be in a combined wilful denial as to WHO is actually RESPONSIBLE and indeed also THE POICY that has ALLOWED this to all HAPPEN…..as in BREXIT Tory style.

      However much of the English media were , when Corbyn was Labour leader, trying to distract the public in denouncing his, according to them, doomsday renationalisation ideas which they translated as damaging socialist ideology that would take THEIR country back to the 1970’s…..which ironically is where we all, via the Tories, may once again be revisiting with possible intermittent power cuts, numerous industrial action via workers strikes all because of a failing Tory Brexit ideology where a media have and indeed some still do support, promote and endorse the very Tory Brexit …Pro UK one that is.

  12. Hamish100 says:

    Do you think braverman is just trying to stop her doppelgänger from entering England?
    It was hallowe’en last night.

  13. Imagine the outcry if the Scottish Government proposed a hard southern border to prevent the ‘uncontrolled invasion of migrants that occurs as part of the UK union’. Our biggest migrant population is of course from England. Is that therefore not who is ‘putting pressure on Scotland’s NHS, Schools, housing’ according to Farage types?

    The UK press would go bananas if the Scottish government said anything remotely like this. They’d be ‘vile, right-wing fascist xenophobic racists’, and aye, that would be such chat. Yet when England’s government actually puts hard border policies in place to stop e.g. my elderly mother in law coming to live near us freely while putting desperate refugees from war torn countries in squalid concentration camps ahead of mass deportation, it’s all fine and dandy.

    One of the creepiest things about English / British nationalism for me is that somehow I as a Scot should feel some ‘blood and soil children of the union’ bond with English people which makes me more ‘like them’ than my own wife and extended family (including Irish, French with a recent US addition). That a border separating me from my French family is fine, but not one separating me from my completely non-existent English relations. That ‘we are all brits’ like Putin sees Ukrainians as ethnic Russians ultimately. Sends shivers down my spine.

    We need to get out, now, for the march of the right continues apace in the failing empire state.

    • Dr Jim says:

      It’s the famous old England saying though that “everywhere an Englishman sets his foot is forever England”

      A self entitled license to own

      Remember when Wales locked down and denied travel from England, the news showed one particular man arrogantly arguing with the Welsh police that he was English and could go wherever he wanted

      It’s their own fault though, that government can’t keep insisting that their population is better than every other country without it rubbing off on actual people and ending up as arrogance, that does annoy folk for sure

      • Capella says:

        I think that line is from a very sad poem by Rupert Brooke about a soldier dying in a ditch in WWI – which far too many did. Patriotic more than imperialist I think. Brooke died in 2015 aged 27 while on his way to Gallipoli,

        The Soldier

        BY RUPERT BROOKE

        If I should die, think only this of me:
        That there’s some corner of a foreign field
        That is for ever England. There shall be
        In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
        A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
        Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam;
        A body of England’s, breathing English air,
        Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

        And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
        A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
        Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
        Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
        And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
        In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

        • Dr Jim says:

          Isn’t that both sad and lovely, but of course a *patriotic* poet could’ve written it and signed it off with American heaven Russian heaven German heaven North Korean heaven or any other regime wrapping itself in patriotism

          For folk who believe in that sort of thing I would’ve thought heaven is an all encompassing heaven for everybody regardless of earthly concerns or notions of better individual heavens for special people

          The comfort to be had of faith in an almighty is undeniable for many, it’s the political use of a cocktail of religion and patriotism mixed in with it I find distasteful

      • Dr Jim, it recalls an article in The Mail, I think, in the noughties, before the 2008 Crash, or Covid, or Brexit, of the English..let’s call it ‘invasion’, of France.
        They were flooding out of England in search of a better life too.
        It centred on the SW of France, just below Bordeaux, in the Dordogne region.
        Apparently, the English ‘professional classes’ were selling up and using their vast equity to buy houses, villas, and swimming pools in France.
        Such was the scale of the invasion, one village had 10,000 new english incomers, that the village had established an english grocer, stocking HP sauce, John Smith bitter, Angel delight, and doubtless good English cheese.
        Newcomers were even standing for the local council.
        The area was dubbed ‘Dordogneshire’.
        Of course the indigenous population were priced out of buying houses in their own backyard, and were treated to the phenomenon of the English abroad spilling out of bars legless, for example.
        Remember the ruddy faced Brit silver surfers in exile on the Costa declaring that they would be voting Leave in the Brexit referendum?
        Madness and arrogance of the Brit Abroad.
        They were intent on voting to leave the EU but still live within the EU?
        They are paying for it now.
        The Englishman Abroad….
        The thing is, most of these poor souls invading England, are sultry skinned, except the 10,000 Albanians, who are organised crime gangs.
        1.3 EU citizens left England in 2019 as Brexit bit.
        Plenty of work for 40,000 or so displaced souls, surely?
        By ‘Brit’, I mean English, of course.
        THe English Government is a far right fascist regime now.
        We are well out of it.

        • I think the south of Spain could say something about English ‘invasions’ too (albeit they don’t seem to mind as it’s has its economic benefits for the economy). But then they’re not ‘migrants’, but, erm ‘ex-pats’ right?

          Same for the 10% of English born who have migrated to Scotland. My wife moved here from another country and she’s a ‘migrant’, but if someone from England – just as much another country as France – moves here, they’re not for some reason. How does that work? Both are equally ‘foreign’ by the dictionary definition, have migrated from one country to another, and likewise need to be accommodated for equally by the Scottish government in terms of planning re housing, schools, roads, the NHS etc. Yet the British press tells us stuff like ‘Scotland doesn’t have the same level of immigration as England’ when our immigrant population is measurably greater (2011 census).

          It comes back to blood and soil ethnic nationalism, where British can’t be migrants, but anyone else is. Mrs SS is even now half Scottish with respect to the most recent census (we’ve ground her down over 2 decades and she’s given in); the beauty of civil nationalism based on self-id. Given she’s now officially a legal citizen too, she’s more Scottish than many born here or in the rUK (who chose not to id as that).

          The primary difference across the border is our government does not seek out minorities to scapegoat as the cause of the country’s problems. That’s where the difference is coming from. Racism / bigotry/ homophobia etc is learned. It’s not natural to people. If the government pushes such attitudes, so it will mislead people into having prejudices. And jeez the current crop in Westminster are really going to town on migrants, Scots, Welsh…

  14. Shudderingly accurate and absolutely terrifying, Paul. I can only thank all gods that my husband and I escaped to Canada when we did. Now more than ever, Scotland’s only hope is Independence

  15. davetewart says:

    Sunak: the oligarch’s prime minister.

    This is an eye opener, the man who is going to tell us that we have to accept a 2% rise in income during a 10% inflation has been off shoring £20m a year in tax avoided

  16. UK Government ‘undermining law’ by ignoring SNP independence mandate

    • Weird, sometimes my post just posts itself when I’m trying to copy and paste something. Hey-ho:

      https://web.archive.org/web/20221101162354/https://www.thenational.scot/news/23092927.uk-government-undermining-law-ignoring-snp-independence-mandate/

      UK Government ‘undermining law’ by ignoring SNP independence mandate

      THE UK Government is undermining democracy and the law by its “unreasonable and immoral” ignoring of the SNP’s mandate for an independence referendum, according to a law professor.

      Sionaidh Douglas-Scott, anniversary chair in law at Queen Mary University London, said the UK Government has acknowledged over many years that the Union is voluntary and that Scotland has a right to self-determination, which allows for “independence in principle”.

      Writing in a blog post for Edinburgh University’s Centre for Constitutional Change, she said as this can only be lawfully achieved through negotiations with the UK Government, it “therefore follows that such negotiation should not be unreasonably withheld”.

      She said the UK Government has undermined democracy and the “rule of law” by ignoring the SNP’s Holyrood election success in 2021 and the “mandate of a lawful government”.

      And while the SNP have stressed they want to hold a legal referendum, she argued it also is important that the “UK Government’s conduct be exposed as not merely unreasonable and immoral, but also as contravening some key legal principles”.

      This is all just part of the UK moving to right-wing fascist state, a path it has been on for a good while now. Elections being overturned… international law being broken…minorities repressed / having the right to vote withdrawn from them…incarceration of people fleeing wars in concentration camps…

      We really, really need to get out. And doing so would be the best thing for England as it would end the last remnants of Empire, allowing England to join the world again as a modern European democracy. Britain needs to be brought to and end for the sake of all its 4 nations.

      • Indeed, s_s.
        Scottish Self Determination is a sort of ‘tough love’ which we are offering our English neighbours; we are chucking infant England in at the deep end; they shall very quickly learn to stop thrashing about in a panic, settle down, float, then start to swim, all by themselves, without Scotland’s strong arm holding their rigid body above water any more.
        It’s our oil, gas, wind, wave, hydro, fish, beef, whisky,forestry…
        Aye, and there’s the rub.
        Their Golden Goose colony has kept their heads above water long enough.
        From now on in, I call a spade a shovel; ‘England’, and ‘English’, not ‘Britain’, and British’.
        I am Scottish, not British.
        WM is England’s Parliament. Dross, Murray, Carmichael and the rest, are English MPs.
        English born Scots migrated here for a better life. There’s plenty of room. All welcome.

      • grizebard says:

        I think what Sionaidh is doing is in effect riffing on the SNP’s case to the SC, that if the Dicey anglo-narcissistic claim of Westminister absolutism ever did apply post-Union (a problematic notion that London has always carefully avoided being brought to the test until now), it certainly can’t obtain in these modern times with widely-accepted higher forms of law concerning matters such as fundamental human rights. Not least that tricky little notion known as “the right to self-determination”.

        It’s a universal right. It doesn’t just apply exclusively in a colonial end-game context, but everywhere. (The clue’s in the title.) It also, for example, applies to entire countries who are already well-established members of the UN yet having to defend their sovereignty and even their existence. And also to us here in Scotland (a potential future member, if “we the people” so will it).

  17. jfngw says:

    The Tories, what is and is not acceptable:

    Going on I’m a celebrity.. – removal from party

    Criminal record, doing lucrative lecture tour and going on holiday whilst parliament sitting – allowed to either be PM or run for PM, one of the criminal record guys is the PM.

  18. James Mills says:

    Statements NOT spoken by Cruella Braverman :

    ” Compassion is the basis of morality .”

    ”Love and compassion are necessities , not luxuries .Without them humanity cannot survive .”

    ”No act of kindness , no matter how small , is ever wasted .”

    ”There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up .”

    ” When I give food to the poor they call me a saint . When I ask why the poor have no food they call me a communist .”

    ”It is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners ”.

    • grizebard says:

      Yes, exactly. (Though Jacob Rees-Twat did for a while deem her boss a “socialist”.)

      Should we then feel slightly more or less troubled that she is also very evidently incapable? Does a reference cabbage perhaps await somewhere?

  19. Not-My-Real-Name says:

    We now see ALL of those, as in Tory politicians, media and individuals who….not THAT long ago….were (falsely) highlighting how the Scottish government were under pressure to copy the Truss/Kwarteng WRONG decision on lowering taxes for those in higher bands, where SOME individuals even tweeting they seriously (but not really)were considering moving to England because of it …..NOW they are all finding themselves in the ridiculous position, of their OWN making, in looking foolish , selfish and a tad STUPID as NOW…

    Based on the news that the Sunak/Hunt Tory UK government are now saying it seems inevitable that tax increases for ALL, together with public spending cuts, are on the cards…..will THAT be presented as THEM, the Tories, NOW being under pressure ?……as if…..NOT in Scotland for sure via propaganda a La British Nationalists politicians, BritNat media and some unscrupulous BritNat individuals……

    Perhaps in Scotland those Tory politicians, BBC and pro UK media and Pro UK individuals may now see that their ‘jumping the G*n’ JUST to have yet another #SNPBAD moment to gain some weak advantage for their (non) Union over independence and too the respective political parties who support each position…..will NOW see that ‘Hell slap it to them’ (the Pro UK side) in them all collectively believing (or pretending to) ANYTHING a Tory tells them when recent history has witnessed the recent Tory UK Governments basing all they say and do on LIES….where Tory broken manifesto pledges are not worth the paper they were written on OR the time it took the Tories to MAKE THEM UP…..to include leadership campaign promises GONE BAD when attempting to implement them a La Truss ( and Johnson too via Brexit ) …..

    A 50 billion shortfall they say……….yet not one Pro UK politician, pro UK media outlet or pro UK individual(s) is asking WHY BREXIT, as in THE ONE presented to the public aka the sunlit uplands ONE, is NOT offsetting anything financially for THEIR UK at this time ?????

    Ironically many of those voters who voted for it and STILL are BELIEVERS will be THE ones who will now suffer BECAUSE of it……..I would laugh BUT I too and many others who did NOT vote for it will have to suffer also……so no laughing but a Hell of a lot of rage…..and that rage drives me to be even MORE angry when I hear Pro UK Politicians, Pro UK media and Pro UK individuals ALL berate the Scottish government and us having any potential opportunity in getting independence for Scotland…….all their criticism they direct at us and OUR elected government just so that they can ATTEMPT to try and DEFLECT attention away from what is so TRANSPARENT and CLEARLY REFLECTED back at them when they LOOK into the broken mirror that they hold up when they SEE their UK and the absolute MESS it is in………..via a Pro UK political party .

    Aye who are the ones WRONG again ?….or rather who THEY the British Nationalists try to OVER promote as wrong……it’s as clear as Day WHO has mucked everything up…who is WRONG in supporting them and ultimately that means WE no longer NEED to LISTEN to them……unless we TOO want to go down with them ……NO THANKS.

    If you are NOT angry about it ALL then you ain’t listening to, watching or reading the REAL , as in TRUE position , that exists and reflects where we ACTUALLY are in their UK via honest, reliable sources…alternatively it could also be said, if you ain’t angry, that perhaps it is BECAUSE SOME are listening to, watching and reading ALL of the WRONG sources in their UKnotOK……and then VOTING FOR the WRONG Political Parties…….hence we are now all where we are…..rubber ducked…….if we stay IN the UK…..but a way out of it if we vote for independence……a fighting chance against NO chance…Hmm…hard one that……….NOT.

    • Not-My-Real-Name says:

      * “that exists and reflects where we ACTUALLY are in their UK via honest, reliable sources”

      Reads badly…like most things I write on here LOL…obviously I meant that we are only aware it “exists and reflects where we ACTUALLY are in their UK via the output we rely on and receive via some more honest and reliable sources of news and information such as this Blog , occasionally The National newspaper, other online blogs and various other sources of online information…..who report all that is REALLY going on….unlike gutter media and press outlets who promote what best suits them to report on behalf of those who own them and who they, as owners , donate to and support politically……….

      Sorry …….I truly am an idiot LOL…and also one who writes some pretty bad grammar and ranting nonsense at times……but hey at least I am honest enough and BIG enough to admit it…..I know MY limits…LOL

      Have a nice evening everyone

      🙂

  20. iusedtobeenglish says:

    Well it seems that one tory at least agrees with you, Paul. (I’m assuming Priti Patel’s allies wouldn’t say this without her approval).
    Anyhoo, according to a Telegraph headline (wouldn’t sully my eyes with reading the whole thing) Suella Braverman has brought the Home Office into disrepute.

  21. You wonder what inspired this guy. Talk of ‘invasions’ maybe?

    https://archive.ph/Hkz5T

    Dover petrol bomb suspect Andrew Leak ‘posted anti-Muslim rants on Facebook’

    THE suspect in the firebombing attack at an immigration processing centre in Kent appears to have posted anti-Muslim rants on Facebook.

    Kent Police have named him as Andrew Leak, 66, from High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire.

    Leak is thought to have thrown two or three incendiary devices at the Western Jet Foil site at about 11.20am on Sunday before killing himself in his car in the car park of a nearby garage.

    He was described by east Kent MP Sir Roger Gale on Monday as having “severe mental health difficulties”.

    Non-English/British bomber (inc Irish) = terrorist. White English/British terrorist = ‘person with severe mental health difficulties’ or ‘loyalist’ etc.

    • Incidentally, if this guy had been from Scotland, his nationality would have featured very promptly in English/British paper headlines even if he wasn’t Scottish, but self-id’d as British.

  22. Dr Jim says:

    What’s happening in Dundee:??

    Police Scotland say attacks with fireworks used as explosives by a black clad mask wearing gang in Dundee on vehicles infrastructure police and a RC Academy school had a strong element of organisation to it
    The media say locals are reluctant to appear on camera, but those who did would say very little about it except for one woman who told us this group had rampaged through the town only days before, funny? we never saw this on the news where we are?

    Alright I’m a conspiracy theorist but *this was not a boating accident* nor was it high jinx naughty boys setting a banger off

    If there’s anybody from Dundee reading this let us know what’s going on that the media might not be reporting

    • davetewart says:

      Few weeks ago an unexploded bomb from WW2 found in the Barrhead area, took them 3 days to report it for a couple of hours.

      The news where you are, Aye Right.

      They ust copy and paste whatever they get sent or find on the web, didn’t take advantageof the SNPBad opportunity, that NS should have got it found years ago.

      Will we get the more aircraft than pilots for the F35 aircraft, not the fullstory, they have 2 versions of the aircraft in service, muddies the water on 2 aircraft carriers sans aircraft.

      No news of the aircraft carrier that needs a tug to move it back to Rosyth.

    • The fact it’s on the news shows how very rare such a minor disturbance is in Scotland.

    • Alex Clark says:

      I grew up and went to school in Kirkton where it happened and from what I’ve been told it was serious and worrying for a lot of people who live there as it took place for around 3 hours from teatime onwards and involved a large number of youths in more than one location.

      Nobody though can tell me what it was all about.

  23. Bruce MacDougall says:

    The Tories have become so Fascist that it needs to recognised by political cartoonists. May I suggest a little toothbrush moustache on every Tory depicted.

  24. Marybel Tracey says:

    I love your quotes James Mills. If only we all read and lived by them. The words uplift and prompt us to do better ….be better people…..I wish it were so.

  25. I could look it up, but, on this dreich Wednesday morning, I can’t be bothered.
    Some American wag quipped:-
    ‘Politics is showbusiness for the ugly’.

    And they don’t come much uglier than Matt Hancock.

    He joins Dugdale, Ball, Baroness Rape Clause, and quite a few chancers on the I’m Celebrity Get Me In There circus…not for money of course..Hancock wants to get down there and get dirty mingling with the plebs to promote dyslexia…Aye, right.
    Get on the telly, rack up loads of appearance money, get your own radio show…And feck the mugs who voted for you.

    We were treated to the sad spectacle of Dross meeting Rish! Rich in Downing Street for half an hour first thing on Monday morning, to discuss tactics on Scotland’s continuing colonisation.

    Presumably it was one of those cleaners who was ordered to wipe the vomit off the wall following one of Boris’ ‘business events’, or a security guard who was laughed at when he tried to break up on of the bevvy sessions, who took the snap of wee Dross huddled around a coffee table with Sunak, in bucket seats , in a wee side office, with not even a butcher’s apron draped behind them.

    Not for Dross a photo op in the Cabinet Room smiling across the conference table smiling at the Leader.
    Oh, no, Douglas Moray got the ‘visiting constituent’ treatment, quick handshake, snap for the album, a selfie, then despatched back to the Frozen North.

    Alister Jack, who is so invisible that he gets to keep the Grand Panjandrum of the North Job, no matter who is in Downing Street, was nowhere to be seen.

    When the SFA finally realise that Dross is still on the payroll, but is no longer ‘active’, and stop his wages for Job 4, perhaps Dross will get offered a nice little earner from the Reality TV Circuit.
    Thing is, if he were dumped into a glass cage full of spiders, it would be the spiders who would be climbing the walls to make a quick exit.

    They frolic while Rome burns.

  26. Capella says:

    UK government is “unreasonable and immoral”. Shock!

    UK Government ‘undermining law’ by ignoring SNP independence mandate

    In the blog titled Scottish Independence And The UK Government’s Unreasonable Refusal To Negotiate, she sets out five legal arguments for holding a referendum which she says should be “asserted as clearly and loudly as possible”.

    This includes that Scotland’s consent to the Union is ongoing and can be withdrawn, that Scotland has a right to self-determination in international law, and that the principle of democracy means the mandates of elected governments should be “taken seriously and not overridden”.

    Another ground is there are many areas of law which allow a change of circumstance – as in the case of Brexit – to override previous consent given and there is also a requirement for the UK Government to act in “good faith”.

    https://archive.ph/z9u8o

    • Yet every TV pundit declares that the English parliament will simply refuse permission for another Referendum on Self Determination.
      BBC Scotland’s Band of Brothers close down any discussion by declaring that England won’t allow it?
      We are taking our country back.
      That’s normal.
      When Scots Born Brits declare that a foreign government requires to give Scotland ‘permission’ to undertake anything, they are collabortating with that foreign power to hold their country subjugated, enslaved, held by force, by another nation, in this case, England.
      The toothpaste is out of the tube.
      There is no going back.

      Thanks for the link, Capella.
      Your dogged research is indispensable.

    • yesindyref2 says:

      More and more people are realising that the Tories have no respect or liking for the Rule of Law, and Labour are just trotting after them the same way.

      Which means Democracy is under attack, and the Guardians of Democracy are starting to fight back.

      The Rule of Law will set us free, and Unionists know it.

  27. Not-My-Real-Name says:

    “Thing is, if he were dumped into a glass cage full of spiders, it would be the spiders who would be climbing the walls to make a quick exit”

    LOL…………Jack you brighten up my day with your wonderful comments….

    Have a fabby day

    🙂

    • Have I Got Brown Envelopes For You is always a nice little earner for the Politicians..as is The Arched Eyebrow Antique Roadshow Question Time.

      They have reduced democracy and elections to Talent Show phone in voting level.
      Boris made them laugh.
      They’re not laughing now.
      Have a good’un, NMRN

      • Not-My-Real-Name says:

        “Boris made them laugh.
        They’re not laughing now”.

        Indeed Jack….but actually inside they were CRYING…..

        What we see now from them, as always really, is false BRAVADO…..I mean they can hardly promote the many achievements/successes of their party as a UK government or indeed their branch office lead (badly) by a lightweight ‘YES YES to HQ’ man…….hence why the BRITISH Broadcasting Corporation in Scotland is in full #SNPBAD mode….a rinse and repeat exercise they, the BBC, deploy to try and MITIGATE the impact for BritNat political parties and their fake (non) Union .

  28. Dr Jim says:

    The UK case for denying Scotlands democracy now rests solely on England being a basket case in dire straits with infrastructure failure, services failure, failure to communicate, Brexit ideology, a fascist Tory government, a Labour party hiding from its members and itself, denial of responsibility and the downright refusal to admit they’ve done anything wrong
    But if Scotland removed ourselves from this it’d be worse

    That’s it, that’s Englands case for denying democracy to Scotland

    Labours Keir Starmer says it’d be better if “English voters elect Labour as the government” of the UK

    Are we seeing the problem with that statement yet Scotland? Wales? Northern Ireland?

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