Stand, and be Counted

Thanks to our high-level contacts in Bute House, we have received a smuggled copy of Nicola Sturgeon's post-Easter speech:

"This is for everyone who lives in Scotland. And when I say ‘everyone’ l mean everyone. Whether you are old or young (and especially if you are young). Whether you are a voter or not, born in Scotland, or not.

If you live in Scotland, then this is for you. Because we who live here, in this Scotland of many peoples, know that Scotland has been hurt.

It has been hurt by the continued abuses of the Westminster parliament. Abuses, and I use the word advisedly, highlighted by the Brexit process.

I am not going to restate my views - they are well-known - on Scotland and the European Union. I know that the people who live in Scotland have a range of views on that issue, and I hope that an independent Scotland will decide, in its own way and its own time, the relationship that it wants with the EU.


Instead, I want to talk about the awful, chaotic, mismanaged and damaging Brexit process.


The process led, if that is the word, by not one but two political parties utterly riven with internal dissent. The process that completely ignored the views of the governments of Scotland and Wales, and that failed to listen to the many and varied voices of the four nations. The Brexit process that was all about party factions and divisions, and nothing to do with you, your family, your job and your wellbeing.


The Brexit process has shown us, if we did not already know it, that Scotland is ignored at Westminster. Ignored, and abused, our MPs scorned, and our views dismissed. But this is not about hurt national pride. It runs much deeper. Because the Brexit process has shown us that the famously unwritten British constitution is not fit for any modern purpose. It fails to guarantee a voice to the four nations. And, now that we know that the Sewel convention is another broken, empty promise. it fails to guarantee powers for the Scottish parliament, meaning that anything that we, or the Green Party, or the Tories, Liberals or Labour propose in the Scottish Parliament, can be overturned at the whim of whoever happens to be in power in Westminster.


And Brexit has exposed the corruption at the heart of Westminster politics. Corruption in the form of lies, easily said, readily repeated across a complacent media, and painted onto the side of a bus. Many people have lost faith in politics - what little faith we may have had - because we have been so extensively lied to. That is bad news, very bad news, for democracy. It will take years to repair the belief in a political process that can find solutions to our shared problems. Politics has been corrupted, bent to the needs of the Tory party.


Brexit has also shown us the power of small nations in the European Union. Remember that Malta – which is smaller than the isle of Arran – had the power of veto over Theresa May’s Brexit agreement; powers that were never offered to Scotland.


But out of this chaos of Brexit waste, there is a new vision emerging. A vision of a renovated Scotland, a Scotland that can stand up on its own two feet. Stand up and say 'enough' to Westminster. Stand and decide where its destiny lies – in the corruption of Brexit Westminster, or in our own, modern, independent nation, governed by the people who live here.


To allow us all to consider, debate, and then decide Scotland's future, I have written today to the Prime Minister notifying her that we will be requesting a Section 30 order in Westminster, as soon as the new Parliamentary session starts.


I expect that the Government will follow precedent and grant our request.


But in case it does not, the Scottish Government will hold a public consultation in the form of a vote on the issue of Scottish independence. The Scottish Government has a triple mandate to do this, and we shall not shirk our responsibilities.


I said at the start of this announcement that this was for all of us who live in Scotland. We all have our own views on how this nation should be governed, and I would urge everyone - and I pledge to do this myself - to listen to the range of views that will be expressed as we delete our future. 

Let us all take that step together, as we stand up to be counted, for Scotland.”

Clink the Difference

What’s the difference between Catalonia and Scotland?

The weather? Well, yes. The food. Yes, again. The beaches? Hmmm. There are those lovely beaches on Coll…

But the big difference?

The big difference is that Nicola Sturgeon is not in exile in Brussels, and Patrick Harvie is not in the clink with Ross Greer, Robin McAlpine and, say, Lesley Riddoch.

Because that is what is happening to Catalonia. Spain has four people locked up for their opinions: prisoners of conscience, or political prisoners. Two of these people – Oriol Jonqueras and Joaquim Forn – are elected politicians, re-elected in the ballot imposed by Spain on the 21st December. The other two, Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart are the leaders of two charities, yes charities, that promote Catalan culture and democracy. Omnium Cultural, the charity led by Jordi Cuixart, was set up in the 1960s amongst Catalan exiles to preserve and promote their culture in the face of the onslaught and assassinations of the Franco regime.

All four – Jonqueras, Forn, Sànchez and Cuixart – are prisoners on remand. They have been charged, but not tried. They are innocent until and unless proven guilty. The Spanish state has gone back to its origins, and is charging the men with ‘sedition’ and ‘rebellion’, accusations that would have resonated in the 15th century but which nowadays seem antediluvian. In an extraordinary piece of invention, the state has also decided that the men should be charged with creating a violent, ‘tumultuous’ affray. The charges relate to the various pro-indy demonstrations in Barcelona and Catalonia; demonstrations that have attracted a million people each year…and which have resulted in zero arrests, zero charges, and zero police claims (at the time) of violence. Now the Spanish state is trying to portray these peaceful, warm, friendly, demonstrations as ‘violent.’

Meanwhile ‘our Nicola Sturgeon’ is in exile in Brussels. ‘Our Nicola’ is Carles Puigdemont, chosen as President of the Generalitat (the Catalan Parliament) after the September 2015 elections, and selected again as the leader of the biggest pro-indy party at the December 2017 election. He and four other elected members of the Generalitat fled the country in early November to escape imprisonment by Spain.

Spain’s militarised Civil Guard have now decided to extend the assault, by charging more than 30 more people with crimes against the state. These new charges – amongst which the militarised police have included charges of ‘violence’ – could see many more elected politicians locked up.

Spain has used a paragraph in its Constitution – para 155 – to take control of the Catalan government and civil service. Just like in Scotland, Catalans thought that they lived in an ‘autonomous’ region, with its own parliament, its own rules and its own civil service. But as Scotland discovered during the court case over Brexit and the Sewel Convention, ‘autonomy’ is an empty word. You can have your autonomy, but only with our say so.

Imagine that Westminster had decided to lock up, or drive into exile, our elected politicians. Imagine that Westminster had taken over the Scottish parliament, closed websites, used armed riot-police to break up queues of people voting in Scottish elections, had trumped-up charges against civil leaders, politicians, police officers. Imagine the affront to democracy that would represent.

And then work out just how stupid this policy would be. Stupid (from Westminster’s point of view) because it would drive many more people into the arms of the SNP. Many more people would vote for independence, exactly as happened in the 21st December 2017 elections in Catalunya, where 106,013 more people voted for pro-indy parties than in 2015. We’d have ‘martyrs’ to the cause in jail or in exile. We’d have cases heading for the European courts and the international justice system, and campaigns at the UN. We’d be the Palestine of northern Europe.

That’s the clink of a difference. Scotland is not Catalonia; Nicola is free to speak her mind from her Holyrood office. But as you hear her speak, think about Carles Puigdemont, Oriol Junqueras, Jordi Cuixart, Joaquim Forn, Clara Ponsatí, Antoni Comín, Meritxell Borràs and Meritxell Serret, who are either exiled or jailed for speaking out.

Triple Lock: Westminster

Calais, Corbyn and cocaine: Westminster is caught in a triple lock.

Calais

In Calais  there are between 1,000-5,000 refugees waiting for a chance to cross the Channel while living in conditions that would have looked good in the Dark Ages. This is a humanitarian question linked to the humanitarian question faced on both sides of the Mediterranean where refugees from Syria and the Daesh wars are getting to anarchic Libya and then risking their lives to reach Italy. 

Calais is just 20 miles from England. It is not some far away place with a difficult to pronounce name. It would be easy, terribly easy, for Westminster to help out. Basic humanitarian aid would suffice - latrines, clean water, blankets, simple housing. Irrespective of whether or not you think it is "right" that more than a thousand men, women and children are camping out in Calais, you could help, Osbameron. But you don't.

Why not? Because you are locked into a debate about migration with the right wing of your party and with UKIP, scared stiff that if you are seen to help the Calais migrants the voters in those precious marginals will slip across the border to UKIP.

Corbyn

The debate over - shock, horror - Jeremy Corbyn's anti-austerity manifesto is the key to the second of Westminster's triple locks. Westminster is locked into the belief that the only treatment for the economy - for any economy, Greek, German or English - is austerity. Cut and cut and cut until the State is bled of all its powers of intervention and the free market can have its head. Don't consider who suffers - it is always the poor - but focus on the numbers, the magical £12 billion that Osbameron believe to be our overspend. Do not, above all, do what Mr Corbyn suggests and tax the rich because then they will all jump ship, possibly moving to a shack in Calais to evade an increase in income tax.

Why are the mainstream parties in Westminster locked into austerity? It is hard to explain, but it is beginning to feel like a 594-person mass hysteria (yes, that's 650 MPs less our lovely #SNP56).

Cocaine

The Summer Silly Season story of stories is called Sewel. A Lord of the Realm caught snorting cocaine...whilst hanging around naked with prostitutes. You could not make it up. But along with the knighting of Lord Better Together it has shone a useful light on Westminster's third lock - the House of Lords. 


The House of Lords is an anachronism, a spit in the face of democracy. It is ridiculous verging on weird that the future of the people of Scotland should be decided by a bunch of charlatans in ermine selected for their safe, on-side views by Blairaq and Osbameron.

But the Commons and the Lords are padlocked locked together in Westminster. And not just for the sexy bondage sensation it seems to give them. The Lords hold the key to the safe, ensuring that whatever we commoners decide can be nudged and tweaked and adjusted so that it fits with the capital needs of the great British empire.


Westminster is truly trapped in its triple lock. People in England, just like people in Scotland, Wales and Ireland suffer as a result.

 
Time for an independent Scotland to release the people of Britain from the gargantuan padlock that is Westminster.