Monday, May 13, 2013
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Scottish Independence Quotes
"I hereby declare the union between Scotland and England DISSOLVED" Charles III (aka Charles Edward Stuart/ Bonnie Prince Charlie) in 1745.
— Joe Middleton (@freescotlandnow) May 12, 2013
"I have devoted myself to the cause of the people, it is a good cause, it shall ultimately prevail, it shall finally triumph."- Thomas Muir
— Joe Middleton (@freescotlandnow) April 14, 2013
"We English, who are a marvellous people, are really very generous to Scotland." Baroness Thatcher #indyref #scotland
— Joe Middleton (@freescotlandnow) April 14, 2013
"What are advantages Scotland reaps from so called Union that counterbalance annihilation of her independence and her name?" Robert Burns
— Joe Middleton (@freescotlandnow) March 12, 2013
"it is much easier to corrupt 45 Scots at London, than it is to corrupt 300 at Edinburgh!" Fletcher of Saltoun 1707#scotsnotbrits #indyref
— Joe Middleton (@freescotlandnow) March 8, 2013
@uk_together 2008 When asked about #Scots and #Wales opposing TeamGB Seb Coe said "F*ck 'em" #indyref Mutual Respect? twitter.com/freescotlandno…
— Joe Middleton (@freescotlandnow) March 4, 2013
Tony Blair on devolution "Sovereignty rests with me as an English MP and that's the way it will stay." Scotsman 1997 #scotsnotbrits #indyref
— Joe Middleton (@freescotlandnow) March 7, 2013
"I'm an English nationalist and never you forget it," said Mrs Thatcher to James Naughtie in 1986. #scotsnotbrits #indyref
— Joe Middleton (@freescotlandnow) March 7, 2013
England called the shots..because..union was seen as a way..of amplifying England's power worldwide Jack Straw 2006 news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programme…
— Joe Middleton (@freescotlandnow) March 10, 2013
"I have devoted myself to the cause of the people, it is a good cause, it shall ultimately prevail, it shall finally triumph." Thomas Muir
— Joe Middleton (@freescotlandnow) February 25, 2013
WINSTON CHURCHILL 'of all small nations of this earth perhaps only the ancient Greeks surpass the Scots in their contribution to mankind.'
— Independence Celebs (@Celebs4indy) November 22, 2012
I like this: Pat Kane "I want to live in a progressive country. Where the peopleliving here have ideas way beyond their station." #indyref
— Joe Middleton (@freescotlandnow) February 23, 2013
"It's a racist argument that Scots uniquely cannot run a country when there are smaller nations than ours that do it just fine." Osama Saeed
— Joe Middleton (@freescotlandnow) February 23, 2013
"It is not for glory nor honors nor riches that we are fighting but for freedom for that alone which no honest man gives up" Arbroath 1320
— Joe Middleton (@freescotlandnow) February 23, 2013
"Is it better that we deliver on our agenda inan independent Scotland or continue to fail to deliver in a United Kingdom?" John Duffy FBU
— Joe Middleton (@freescotlandnow) February 23, 2013
Iain (M) Banks: "Scotland could have viable future as independent country. We could become a low-inequality society on Scandinavian model."
— Joe Middleton (@freescotlandnow) February 23, 2013
Ken Loach: "If I had the change to be independent from the Tory-Liberal-New Labour bunch, I'd jump at it." #indyref
— Joe Middleton (@freescotlandnow) February 23, 2013
Posted by
Joe Middleton
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Labels: #indyref, #yes, Breaking Up Britain, English nationalism, Margaret Thatcher, Scot, Scotland, Scots, scots independence, Scottish, Scottish History, Scottish Independence, Scottish Nationalism, Scottish Politics
Steady Tom, the answers are coming!
Good point. Sir Tom is an intelligent man and I am sure he is capable of doing some basic research like the rest of us. Presumably he is trying to clarify matters for the public however he should remember that Westminster are blocking asking some questions of the EU (presumably because they wouldn't like the answers).
Post independence negotiations will ultimately decide all these issues.
I don't know all the answers but my best guess would be as follows:
On Europe we will most likely be in initially (That's the view of a leading adviser to the German Government) but with the option to leave later if we wanted to. EFTA might be a better long term berth if the EU keeps moving towards further unpopular integration however.
On currency Westminster have admitted they could not stop us using the pound. George threatened Scots over the issue but the SNP have made a strong logical case for keeping it, at least in the initial period post independence.
If our economies diverge significantly post independence (as would appear entirely possible) then Scotland might wish to set up our own central bank.
This is not impossible but it is not necessary unless we find that the current British central bank does in fact attempt to interfere in Scotland's economy (as it is independent at the moment from Westminster that seems highly unlikely however we cannot entirely anticipate the actions of EWNI (or should that just be England because I doubt Wales have an interest in making things difficult for Scotland and the Ulster unionists almost always follow the English tory agenda).
Posted by
Joe Middleton
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9:17 PM
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Labels: #indyref, #yes, Better Together, Breaking Up Britain, Scotland, Scots, scots independence, Scottish Government
Wednesday, May 01, 2013
Don't blame Susan Calman for Scotsman's daft story
I posted this via Twitter:
Re this story on Scotsman:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/susan-calman-death-threats-for-independence-satire-1-2914670
Hi Susan, I have just listened to one of your shows http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.com/convictedep4.mp3 which I quite enjoyed.
Comedians mine their subconscious which is a brave thing to do. Discussing Scotland on TV is a good thing so keep it up.
Remember the British establishment used your blog to attack Scotland/independence today. Why do you think that was?
I suspect it's because you said (after slagging it off a bit) that you were 'proud to be Scottish'
Who benefits if Scotland remains invisible internationally? Not the Scots.
Research more about the enlightenment period. In fact it was a period of horrific political oppression.
I suspect someone has led you up the garden path. Think about it and realise the Scots don't knive our own
------------
And on the Scotsman site itself:
The British establishment have jumped on this story with large jackboots however when you get right down to it Ms Calman has done nothing wrong.
She published a blog arguing that we should not shy away from political humour about Scotland which was fair enough.
She did not say in it she had received death threats though this daft story suggests she did. She said she thought there was some online criticism but she hadn't looked it up to find out.
Having listened to one of her routines (all the way through) at the end she says she is 'proud to be Scottish' which is something her new 'supporters' like Jim Murphy and Brian Wilson would never say.
Comedians are quite brave folk, who mine their subconscious for jokes. I think Susan's routines are a bit Boswellish in bits but that is the nature of the views of many in our society. The Britman has used an innocent blog to attack independence and 'cybernats'.
The comments below try to attack Scotland on a bizarre basis suggesting we are all humourless anti-English bigots who are desperate to take our opponents out of their bed in the middle of the night and shoot them, conjuring up some kind of Stalinist police state as Scotland's future. (I kid you not, read them through!).
This sh*t shows the nasty desperate side of British unionism and has nothing at all to do with Calman's gentle mickey taking of Scotland.
In fact Britain DID pre-arrest people in dawn raids who they thought might protest at Thatcher's funeral.
Scotland needs independence to escape from bigotry, xenophobia and class hatred all of which are rife at Westminster. We (mostly) want a modern social democratic state on the Nordic model.
I'm sure that would suit Susan as well and she might well come to that conclusion if she thinks about who has tried to use her here to make a very ill conceived attack on independence.
Posted by
Joe Middleton
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7:16 PM
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Labels: #indyref, Breaking Up Britain, Scotsman, susan calman
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Why are BBC prioritising non-native Scots audience on independence?
I find it slightly worrying that for a debate about Scottish independence the BBC are first and foremost looking for people who were born outside Scotland. They add a bit about how if you are not from elsewhere in the British isles we would like to hear from you too but it is obvious that the BBC is prioritising people who were born outside Scotland.
They are also asking a series of questions about whether they support Scottish National (sic) and whether they are pro or anti-independence.
I was a member of the audience in the televised Usher Hall Debate on independence which if I remember rightly happened around 1992. This was an open debate organised by the Scotsman which was overwhelmingly pro-independence.
If you pick the make up of the audience, pick the questions etc then as with Question Time you can present a debate which is not necessarily the one an audience would like to have.
There are of course plenty of people who are originally from England who identify with Scotland and support independence. Mike Russell has played a leading role in the SNP and those who identify themselves as English have a right to voice their opinions on independence.
Nonetheless I don't think the BBC should be prioritising those who were born outside Scotland unless they are deliberately trying to find people who don't (for whatever reason) identify themselves as Scots.
I have written before that the British state as currently configured does favour English interests over Scotland's. That is true on a population basis (England has 10 times more MP's than Scotland at Westminster and 20 X more than Wales) and also because every aspect of British rule has an English aspect to it. The flag, the Queen's Title, The anthem, the name of Britain (from Britannia), the Bank of England (despite it's name it's supposed to be a British institution but given the statements of the Chancellor George Osbourne he clearly believes England owns the bank and the lone right to print Sterling notes).
Given this situation it makes some sense for JK Rowling and others to say they prefer the status quo. Likewise if you have spent most of your career at Westminster (like Alistair Darling) and identify with London more than Scotland, which I think it is fair to say he does, even though he claims status as a Scot due to his residence here (which I don't dispute but I do dispute that he would ever put the Scottish national interest first).
The question is why is the BBC blatantly prioritising the opinions of people who are not from Scotland originally over the people who were born here? Unless they are trying to find people in Scotland who prioritise the British identity over the Scottish one and therefore are more likely to vote against independence.
If this is the case then the BBC is not acting in the interests of the people who live here and we need to have our own national broadcaster. Broadcasting powers should have came to Scotland in 1999 if Blair had not deliberately scuppered the idea. (The plans from the cross party constitutional convention included broadcasting but he removed it). Now we know why!
I was a member of the audience in the televised Usher Hall Debate on independence which if I remember rightly happened around 1992. This was an open debate organised by the Scotsman which was overwhelmingly pro-independence.
If you pick the make up of the audience, pick the questions etc then as with Question Time you can present a debate which is not necessarily the one an audience would like to have.
There are of course plenty of people who are originally from England who identify with Scotland and support independence. Mike Russell has played a leading role in the SNP and those who identify themselves as English have a right to voice their opinions on independence.
Nonetheless I don't think the BBC should be prioritising those who were born outside Scotland unless they are deliberately trying to find people who don't (for whatever reason) identify themselves as Scots.
I have written before that the British state as currently configured does favour English interests over Scotland's. That is true on a population basis (England has 10 times more MP's than Scotland at Westminster and 20 X more than Wales) and also because every aspect of British rule has an English aspect to it. The flag, the Queen's Title, The anthem, the name of Britain (from Britannia), the Bank of England (despite it's name it's supposed to be a British institution but given the statements of the Chancellor George Osbourne he clearly believes England owns the bank and the lone right to print Sterling notes).
Given this situation it makes some sense for JK Rowling and others to say they prefer the status quo. Likewise if you have spent most of your career at Westminster (like Alistair Darling) and identify with London more than Scotland, which I think it is fair to say he does, even though he claims status as a Scot due to his residence here (which I don't dispute but I do dispute that he would ever put the Scottish national interest first).
The question is why is the BBC blatantly prioritising the opinions of people who are not from Scotland originally over the people who were born here? Unless they are trying to find people in Scotland who prioritise the British identity over the Scottish one and therefore are more likely to vote against independence.
If this is the case then the BBC is not acting in the interests of the people who live here and we need to have our own national broadcaster. Broadcasting powers should have came to Scotland in 1999 if Blair had not deliberately scuppered the idea. (The plans from the cross party constitutional convention included broadcasting but he removed it). Now we know why!
Posted by
Joe Middleton
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9:18 PM
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Labels: #indyref, BBC Bias, Breaking Up Britain, England, Scotland, Scottish Independence
Sunday, April 07, 2013
Britain not Scotland has a fascism problem
These damning allegations are contained in a book called When Hitler Comes which is available from Amazon here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/If-Hitler-Comes-Preparing-Invasion/dp/1843410621
The book also exposes fascist Scots in Scottish society however as the above article notes these were linked within the British Unionists (which was the old name of the Scottish Conservatives) and landed aristocrats.*
Hitler's ultimate agenda was not entirely understood before the war. Though there were obvious indications of his hatred of the Jews the full extent of the Nazi Holocaust was only exposed fully afterwards.
In England in particular there was substantial support for fascism and in fact Oswald Mosely who was a politician who had been a Westminster MP for both Labour and Tory formed his own army of Brownshirts under the label of the British Union of Fascists.
The BUF (flag above) used to martial support in the thousands and held various parades. After the war started their support died away however an English minority attraction to fascism has continued until today with some modern support for Nick Griffin's British National Party who have even managed to gain enough support in England to get MEP's elected to the European Parliament!
The BNP and the non-fascistic but still xenophobic and offensive and anti-Scottish UKIP (UK Independence party) an oxymoron as the UK are already independent have made zero headway in Scotland. In England however UKIP are rising fast and the British Conservatives (who with one MP are also as popular as the plague in Scotland) have taken them so seriously that an in-out referendum on the EU is officially planned in the next few years.
In short then England had a real pre-war problem with home grown outright fascism and has an on ongoing problem with a modern equivalent of the French National Front in the BNP.
Given the above facts the attempts by the Scotland on Sunday today via a book named 'Fascist Scotland' which is illustrated on the web by a picture of Oswald Mosely but had a disgusting mock up of a Saltire shaped into a Nazi flag in the paper (see top of article) to suggest there was real support in pre WW2 Scotland for fascism based on much innuendo and speculation are desperate and rather absurd and I suspect this has been a desperate attempt to bury the bad news of the original damning book and its conclusion that Scotland was seen as expendable by British military planners during World War II.
Clearly the writer desperately wants Scotland and early Scots nationalists to be tarred with the Nazi brush but he admits himself that BUF demos which were organised up here were disrupted and fought against in Scotland just like the English Defence League (which they renamed as Scottish Defence League in Scotland but no-one believes it) demos in Scotland involving a few hundred English skinheads have been in recent times.
The Orange Lodge can muster 10K anti-independence Union Jack waving marchers down the Royal Mile (much of them imported from NI) but no-one could argue that they credibly dominate the political debate in Scotland. In fact their sectarian views are rightly seen as repugnant by the vast majority of Scottish society.
The summation of the article shows the writers intentions and marks a new low even for the Scotsman:
Today, the ruling party of Scotland has nationalism as its creed and is suspiciously coy about its own history. Elsewhere in the nationalist family, the BNP, before it plunged into fratricidal warfare, trounced the Far Left in recent Scottish elections and, in 2010, received a respectable 1,000 votes in Alex Salmond’s stamping ground of Banff and Buchan. To this should be added growing sympathy for the agenda of Ukip. The Scottish electorate now appears more receptive to radical nationalism than Mosley’s blackshirts could ever dream of. With fears of globalisation and mass immigration on the rise, and the political “old gang” unpopular, there might still be living space in Scotland for the “Brown Beast”. In this way, we would be very much in line with our European cousins. Wha’s like us? Quite a few.
The facts are that the SNP are a civic nationalist grouping which warmly welcomes support from all sections and ethnic groupings in Scottish society. Even in it's earliest incarnations it supported self determination and opposed right wing extremism. Read the Flag in the Wind by John MacCormick to read the early (and proud) history of the SNP.
Even early outspoken radical Scots like Wendy Wood (who was often involved in civil disobedience such as moving the border post to it's more accurate position just after the River Tweed) were firmly rooted in legitimate campaigning and democratic politics.
Despite the British State's best efforts the Scottish independence movement has never ever been linked credibly to any political violence of any kind. This is despite the fact that the UK authorities (as exposed by Gaelic doc Diomhair still available on Youtube) attempted to supply young Scots students with fake explosives. MI5 have also regularly spied on Scottish demonstrations and the British Government itself deliberately and persistently lied about the extent of North Sea Oil during the original 1978 devolution referendum.
British mainstream parties like Labour and the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats are also nationalists but of the British type. It could be credibly argued that British nationalism which constantly harks back to the glory days of the British Empire and seems to embody a distrust of foreigners and immigration is of a much more negative nature than the 'national freedom' type nationalism of the SNP which has much more in common with those countries who eventually escaped the imperial yoke.
To insult the SNP and the wider Yes campaign in such a desperate and sickening fashion shows the desperation of the No lobby which has came up with zero positive arguments for union. A fact effectively illustrated in this video which was temporarily banned from youtube for daring to use embarassing pseudo-patriotic footage of Better Together's own activists.
* Incidentally the former English King (Edward VIII) was in fact known to be a Nazi Supporter who had meetings with Hitler and who would almost certainly have been installed as a puppet ruler of Britain if Germany had succeeded in their invasion plans.
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Labels: bnp, Breaking Up Britain, Britain, Edward VIII, England, fascism, nazis, Nick Griffin, Oswald Mosely, right wing, Scotland, UKIP
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Peter Tatchell reveals Scots independence support
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Joe Middleton
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Labels: break up of Britain, Breaking Up Britain, England, Peter Tatchell, Scotland, scots independence
Saturday, March 09, 2013
Useful Scottish Independence Quotes - Please pass on!
"I have devoted myself to the cause of the people, it is a good cause, it shall ultimately prevail, it shall finally triumph."- Thomas Muir
— Joe Middleton (@freescotlandnow) April 14, 2013
"We English, who are a marvellous people, are really very generous to Scotland." Baroness Thatcher #indyref #scotland
— Joe Middleton (@freescotlandnow) April 14, 2013
"What are advantages Scotland reaps from so called Union that counterbalance annihilation of her independence and her name?" Robert Burns
— Joe Middleton (@freescotlandnow) March 12, 2013
"it is much easier to corrupt 45 Scots at London, than it is to corrupt 300 at Edinburgh!" Fletcher of Saltoun 1707#scotsnotbrits #indyref
— Joe Middleton (@freescotlandnow) March 8, 2013
@uk_together 2008 When asked about #Scots and #Wales opposing TeamGB Seb Coe said "F*ck 'em" #indyref Mutual Respect? twitter.com/freescotlandno…
— Joe Middleton (@freescotlandnow) March 4, 2013
Tony Blair on devolution "Sovereignty rests with me as an English MP and that's the way it will stay." Scotsman 1997 #scotsnotbrits #indyref
— Joe Middleton (@freescotlandnow) March 7, 2013
"I'm an English nationalist and never you forget it," said Mrs Thatcher to James Naughtie in 1986. #scotsnotbrits #indyref
— Joe Middleton (@freescotlandnow) March 7, 2013
England called the shots..because..union was seen as a way..of amplifying England's power worldwide Jack Straw 2006 news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programme…
— Joe Middleton (@freescotlandnow) March 10, 2013
"I have devoted myself to the cause of the people, it is a good cause, it shall ultimately prevail, it shall finally triumph." Thomas Muir
— Joe Middleton (@freescotlandnow) February 25, 2013
WINSTON CHURCHILL 'of all small nations of this earth perhaps only the ancient Greeks surpass the Scots in their contribution to mankind.'
— Independence Celebs (@Celebs4indy) November 22, 2012
I like this: Pat Kane "I want to live in a progressive country. Where the peopleliving here have ideas way beyond their station." #indyref
— Joe Middleton (@freescotlandnow) February 23, 2013
"It's a racist argument that Scots uniquely cannot run a country when there are smaller nations than ours that do it just fine." Osama Saeed
— Joe Middleton (@freescotlandnow) February 23, 2013
"It is not for glory nor honors nor riches that we are fighting but for freedom for that alone which no honest man gives up" Arbroath 1320
— Joe Middleton (@freescotlandnow) February 23, 2013
"Is it better that we deliver on our agenda inan independent Scotland or continue to fail to deliver in a United Kingdom?" John Duffy FBU
— Joe Middleton (@freescotlandnow) February 23, 2013
Iain (M) Banks: "Scotland could have viable future as independent country. We could become a low-inequality society on Scandinavian model."
— Joe Middleton (@freescotlandnow) February 23, 2013
Ken Loach: "If I had the change to be independent from the Tory-Liberal-New Labour bunch, I'd jump at it." #indyref
— Joe Middleton (@freescotlandnow) February 23, 2013
Posted by
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Labels: #indyref, #yes, Alba, break up of Britain, Breaking Up Britain, Scotland, Scots, scots independence
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Independence gives us chance to choose our destiny and right a historic wrong
Independence gives us the opportunity to choose our political destiny.
The British Union forces us to accept another country's choice as ours.
That current choice (the Conservatives) has a backward hatred of the poor in
society that it is simply not acceptable to our countrymen. Also the fact is
that we got 20 years of direct rule from London after a vote in favour of
home rule in 1978 and that had followed an estimated 2M support for
devolution in the 1950's!
If you look much further back into history there is significant evidence of
political oppression, paid spies and deportations to the colonies of
advocates of human rights. Prior to that armed revolt and the effectively
ethnic cleansing of the Gaelic population and Roman Catholics all because
they preferred the true heirs to the throne rather than a set of English
owned puppets.
There was even large attempts to remove the name of Scotland altogether and
rename us as North Britain and Ireland as West Britain. England didn't need
to be renamed as South Britain because they already understood that it was
the same thing. Britain = Britannia ie the early name for England and Wales
(the seperate country which they have controlled for so long that they treat
it legally as a part of theirs).
The union has been a grotesque and massive fraud which has hidden the
constant exploitation and sacking of our small country by a much larger one.
It needs to end and this generation has a chance to end it.
Posted by
Joe Middleton
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11:40 PM
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Labels: #indyref, #yes, Alba, break up of Britain, Breaking Up Britain, britain uk, british, Scot, Scotland, Scots, Scottish Culture, Scottish History, Scottish Independence
Thursday, February 14, 2013
The true origins of Britain and Britishness
This relates to a discussion with someone on Twitter who declared that Britain as a geographical entity existed long before Scotland.
The modern state of Britain was deliberately named after the ancient Roman colony of Britannia (ie the Roman name for England) and this state which was created in 1707 has no actual connection with the ancient Britons (who were in fact Celtic Gaels who eventually ended up pushed into the ancient countries of Cornwall and Wales) and is in fact an attempt to impose a false identity on modern Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
Even in Roman times Scotland (Caledonia) and Ireland (Hibernia) were recognised as seperate geographical entities from England and the islands were occupied by our ancestors for a long time before the Romans tried to conquer and take notice of us. So why should we be currently dominated by their terms for what they would have considered barbarian tribes?
Britannia is in fact their slave name for an area they conquered.
Britain and the 'British Isles' is described in these terms today because of the historical dominance of the Union over the last 300 years and the name was chosen deliberately to hark back to the terminology used by the Romans.
My debator believes that it is a geographical term with no political significance whatsoever, however I say that if Scotland and England's fortunes were reversed then we would now be sitting in a Scots dominated state called Greater Caledonia and only the most gullible Englishman would think that this state was representative of England or the English!
This may seem a small point but I think it cuts to the quick of British propaganda and the constant talk of ancient and stone age Britain is a slight of hand which defies the truth, that Britishness is and was a false identity imposed upon the true identities of the Scots and Welsh and Irish and it has only actually genuinely existed (in historic terms) in a comparitively recent period.
Here are some facts:
With the Roman conquest of England the Latin term Britannia was used for the island of Great Britain, and later Roman occupied Britain south of Caledonia.
In this post-Roman period, as the Anglo-Saxons advanced, territory controlled by the Britons became confined to what would later be Wales, Cornwall and North West England.
The Historia Brittonum claimed legendary origins as a prestigious genealogy for Brittonic kings, followed by the Historia Regum Britanniae which popularised this pseudo-history to support the claims of the Kings of England.
During the Middle Ages, and particularly in the Tudor period, the term British was applied to the Welsh people.
King James VI and I advocated full political union between England and Scotland and on 20 October 1604 proclaimed his assumption of the style "King of Great Britain" though this title was rejected by both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland and so had no basis in either English law or Scots law.
Despite opposition from much of the Scottish and English populations a Treaty of Union was agreed in 1706 that was then ratified by each parliament passing Acts of Union 1707. With effect from 1 May 1707, this created a new sovereign state called Great Britain.
After 1707, a British national identity began to develop though initially resisted—particularly by the English —the peoples of Great Britain had by the 1750s begun to assume a "layered identity", to think of themselves as simultaneously British and also Scottish, English, or Welsh.
Particularly in the 19th century, "North Britain" or "N.B." was widely used for postal addresses in Scotland, a fact which annoyed Robert Louis Stevenson:
"Don’t put N.B. on your paper; put Scotland and be done with it. Alas, that I should be stabbed in the house of my friends! The name of my native land is not North Britain, whatever may be the name of yours."
from a letter written by Robert Louis Stevenson in April 1888
Britishness became "superimposed on much older identities", of English, Scots and Welsh cultures, whose distinctiveness still resist notions of a homogenised British identity.
- Colley, Linda (1992), Britons: Forging the Nation, 1701–1837, Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0-300-05737-9
So what does it matter if the state we live in is effectively called Greater England? It matters because politically that is precisely what it is. A false state which amplifies English power internationally at the expense of the individual identities of Scotland and Wales. This fact has already been admitted by Jack Straw:
“historically England called the shots to achieve a union because the union was seen as a way, among other things, of amplifying England’s power worldwide.
A broken-up United Kingdom would not be in the interest of Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, but especially not England. Our [England’s] voting power in the European Union would diminish. We’d slip down the world’s GDP tables. Our case for staying in the G8 would diminish and there could easily be an assault on our permanent seat in the UN.”
Scotland is not British and Britishness has never represented our interests. It is a false identity which has been imposed by politicians who want to ignore us so yes names matter and we should not be afraid to shout the fact that we are not 'British' and never have been.
In actual fact the reverse of the simplistic British view of history are true and in fact England was once part of a larger Celtic Alba according to Dr Alex Woolf (who lectures in medieval history at St Andrews:
"When the Romans occupied the island they gave the name Britannia to their province, with its fluctuating boundaries, and it is probably their failure to gain any lasting foothold in Ireland that gradually led to that island becoming ‘less British’ than this one.
The two islands had their own names, Iwerijo for Ireland, and Albijo for the larger island. These names survive as Eire and Alba, the Gaelic names for Ireland and Scotland respectively."
Posted by
Joe Middleton
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12:32 AM
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Labels: Breaking Up Britain, Brit, Britain, britain uk, british, Scotland, Scots, Scottish, Scottish Independence
Thursday, September 20, 2012
POLITICAL RALLIES NEED TO INCLUDE EVERYONE
As someone who has been involved in helping organise such events in the past (through Independence First) I very much hope that this new rally on Saturday organised by http://www.independenceforscotland.com/ is a success and leads to victory in the referendum in 2014.
Obviously the website is very professional and the organisers have made good use of social networking to publicise and advertise the rally. They have also apparently attracted wide support from across the political spectrum with some very famous faces lined up to speak at the rally including the First Minister himself.
Nonetheless banning the Scottish Republican Socialist Movement (SRSM) from events (based on the opinions of someone like Jim Murphy) is entirely counter productive.
The story is here: http://www.scotsman.com/scotland-on-sunday/scottish-independence-snp-under-fire-over-extremists-at-rally-1-2529585 and was also reported in the Glasgow Herald.
As a current member of the SNP and a former member of the SRSM I obviously have an interest in these developments.
Scottish republicanism is a legitimate political position to take which is supported by somewhere around 50% of the Scottish people. The British Queen has as much interest in Scotland as the Spanish King has to Catalonia and he made it clear where his loyalties lie this week. At the height of the devolution debate in the 70's 'our' Queen similarly distanced herself from Scotland and I'm sure would do the same again. Given the contemptuous title of England's Queen Elizabeth II it has always been clear where her personal loyalty has lay.
The British flag is a symbol of imperialism, racism and divide 'n' rule politics. Showing contempt for that flag by burning it is a legitimate political response and more honest than smiling wanly while it is thrust down our throats during sporting events where Scotland is excluded from participating as ourselves.
Brittania was the Roman name for England and Wales, not Scotland. Great Britain was always a device for expanding English power (a fact which was admitted by Jack Straw MP) at the expense of Scotland and Wales and it remains precisely that today.
All groups who support independence should have been made welcome at the rally. Past organisations (like IF) which organised events were deliberately set up on an entirely non-political basis so they could be made bullet-proof from divide 'n' rule style stirring by the British unionists and their allies in the press.
Radical elements are all part of what makes independence movements tick. The SNP is a broad church but it won't enthuse everyone by promoting a pro-European and pro-monarchist position or by watering down it's opposition to nuclear weapons. That radicalism needs to come from groups outside the SNP and the SRSM have always been 100% committed to Scottish independence and a republic in the tradition of John MacLean. He wasn't popular with the establishment either but his name lives on while most of his Brit loving supposed 'international socialist' contemporaries are deservedly gathering dust.
In his early years Salmond was a republican and part of the '79 group. Without the fire in his belly of those early experiences it is unlikely he could have risen to the position he holds today. The SNP should realise that it does not speak for everybody and welcome support from outside its ranks. Any group organising a rally needs to do the same thing otherwise it will ultimately be dictated to by a unionist lobby which ultimately includes low lifes like the BNP and the Orange Lodge (guess who organised the only jubilee street party in Glasgow!). Given the company they keep and the war mongering actions of the state they represent British unionists have no right to criticise any element of Scotland's independence movement.
If we want to gain the mass support recently demonstrated by activists in Catalonia then we need to widen our ranks to include every supporter of independence from the right to the left of political thought in Scotland. If we don't do that then we are very unlikely to win independence in 2014.
Posted by
Joe Middleton
at
11:15 PM
1 comments
Labels: Alex Salmond, Breaking Up Britain, Scotland, Scottish Independence, Unionism, unionists
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Breaking Up Britain: Four Nations after a Union
Breaking Up Britain: Four Nations after a Union
New book by Kevin Williamson and others.
Information from website:
'This brilliant book helps us understand what Scots, Welsh, Irish and English neighbours, freed from an unhappy Union, might look like.'
Billy Bragg
May 2009 will be the tenth anniversary of the first elections to the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly. This was the beginning of a decade of change - which now includes the restoration of powers to Stormont - that is showing every sign of being an irreversible process.
Breaking Up Britain is a unique collection of English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish contributors, featuring key political activists from the nationalist parties, commentators and campaigners, academics and journalists. Each writer explores the change that the break-up demands in their own nation, but also discusses its impact upon the whole.
This dialogue of differences is essential reading for anyone interested in the shape of politics and culture after a Union.
Contributors:
Gerry Adams, Arthur Aughey, Gregor Gall, John Harris, Michael Kenny, Peadar Kirby, Guy Lodge, Inez McCormack, John Osmond, Mike Parker, Lesley Riddoch, Richard Thomson, Vron Ware, Charlotte Williams, Kevin Williamson, Leanne Wood and Salma Yaqoob.
You can read Kev Williamson's chapter here and Mark Perryman's here and there is an online discussion of the book here. A couple of other chapters are available from the website as well.
It looks very interesting and relevant and from the sample chapters provided it is obviously a work of real quality. I will do a proper review once I get a hold of a copy.
Posted by
Joe Middleton
at
1:24 PM
0
comments
Labels: Breaking Up Britain, English, four nations after a union, Independence, Scots, Welsh