The Empire (Tries To) Strike Back
This week London has tried to dictate to Scotland how and when to hold a referendum on our own future. Not only does the Conservative and Lib Dem coalition have no mandate in Scotland they have no moral authority to tell us what to do anyway.
Especially when there guaranteed referendum not only comes with strings attached (e.g. date, body to run it, and voting age) but they use it (as usual) as a chance to slag us off. The more every one in Scotland hears the same old Unionist arguments about why Scotland can’t be independent it amounts to nothing more than “too wee, too poor and too thick”. This is an insult to everyone in Scottish and just watch as this tactic backfires in to given us nationalists our overall goal of independence. They offer no positive reason why remaining in the UK is good for us, it’s all negative propaganda. The scaremongering will continue until the autumn of 2014 when we will get our say whether to go it alone or stay part of the dying days of a dying Empire.
Now I know there’s a lot of hostility in England to the fact we ‘Jocks’ somehow live in a Utopia where we don’t pay for anything. Firstly Scotland voted for a government that believes in freezing the council tax. That believes in free and open higher education for all. That believes free health care also include no prescription charges etc. If England want these things, there’s nothing to stop them voting for a government that believes in these things also. At the end of the day we are spending what little money we are allowed in a way we see fit, looking after our population and not treating them as a cash cow for the privileged few.
Scotland has the greatest resource any country could ever want in the form of oil. If Scotland was independent we would be one of the richest countries in Europe on oil capital alone, and with a modest population of 5 million people the possibilities are endless. We’re all quick to point and laugh at the “nut job” Arab Sheiks who would sooner waste there vast fortunes on personal sky scrapers and super yachts but is Scotland really that much better? We’ve let the government based in another country walk in and take those profits off us. Aberdeen where the oil industry has been waiting on a city by-pass for decades but one of the first major infrastructure project undertaken with oil profits was London’s M25.
“The Squalid truth is that Britain is, and always has been, a state run by England for the benefit of England. Scottish Labour sided with England rather than Scotland over oil, which was a betrayal by the Scottish quisling Labour party” – Gordon Wilson, 2005.
One of the other arguments to emerge this week is based around Joan McAlpine’s argument that the Unionist parties are “Anti-Scottish”. So after a week of Unionist parties rolling out their old “too wee, too poor, too thick” arguments they seem to be offended at being called “Anti-Scottish”. Well I hate to tell you, running down your fellow countrymen as poverty stricken layabout dunces is Anti-Scottish. Get over your self and start taken account for the lies you’ve been telling the Scottish people for decades.
“The enemies of Scotland are not the English. It is the traitors within the gate. The unionist parties, whist claiming to be Scottish don’t wish for their own country the normal freedoms that every world citizen expects from their country” – Winnie Ewing, 2003.
For Labour, the Conservatives or Lib Dems to accuse Alec Salmond of rigging a result is laughable. We have to first remember that when Labour designed the Scottish parliament, they did it in such a way to always result in a Labour/Lib Dem coalition, it was never even thought any party let alone the SNP could ever have a majority. People in Scotland are not stupid it might have taken a decade but we finally elected a government who is accountable solely to the Scottish electorate and not there party bosses in London.
David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Milliband (or who ever is running the Labour party?) need to keep their patronising and condescending opinions out of Scotland. Why not get back to concentrating on illegal wars still being fought, bankers still getting obscene bonuses at the tax payer’s expense and what will no doubt be a heavy rise in fuel duty before the month is over. We the Scottish people overwhelmingly voted for a government that pledged a referendum on our future in the second half of this parliament, and that’s what we will have. One that is run in Scotland, for Scotland.
Scotland’s ‘Greatest Album’
Here’s some more proof that most folke are idiots. STV’s “Scotland Greatest Album” set out to pick the three best songs from the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and 00’s and compile them into what they say would be Scotland’s greatest album. The 12 nominations for each decade would be chosen by a panel of ‘experts’ and the public would have the final say on the three songs to be selected for the final compilation.
Needless to say Scotland has produced a lot of rank rotten music over the years with most of it being represented here. Whether it’s the stale radio friendly guitar ‘rock’ of the 90’s (Travis and Texas), the smug and pompous art pop of the 80’s (Simple Minds and the Eurthymics) or just the plain naff that even your gran likes (The Proclaimers, Rod Stewart).
Here’s my picks………
70’s
The Average White Band - Pick Up the Pieces
The Skids – The Saints are Coming
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band – Gamblin’ Bar Room Blues
80’s
The Vaselines – Son of a Gun
Jesus and Mary Chain – Head On
The Pastels – Nothing to Be Done
90’s
Edwyn Collins – Girl Like You
The Delgados – Pull the Wires From the Wall
Belle and Sebastian – Lazy Line Painter Jane
00’s
Sons and Daughters – Johnny Cash
Franz Ferdinand – This Fire
Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell – Rambling Man
P.S.
I have restated the temptation to include Talking Heads even though dubious Scottish connections didn’t seem to bother the panel of ‘experts’.
Job Done! Part 2
Scotland is buzzing from what can only be described as a historic, “emphatic” and sensational SNP victory in the Scottish Parliament election. They are now the first ever party to win a majority in the 12 years of the parliaments existence, managing to beat the system that Labour but in place to ensure they would never be a Nationalist government in place. When I went to bed late on Thursday night the SNP were quietly confident of coming back as a minority government, but all was changed when I woke in the morning.
It was a complete landslide, they only word to describe it is phenomenal. One by one the old Labour heartlands of Lanarkshire, Ayrshire, Fife and GLASGOW all fell by the wayside. The old joke was you didn’t count the ballad papers in these seats, you weighed them was such the strength of the Labour vote. Labour are now on their knees, a party who are so out of touch they ran their campaign like they were still fighting Thatcher 25 years ago. Society has moved, attitudes have moved and Scotland has moved on. The one thing that can be certain is Labour hasn’t! All they have is fear mongering and the dyeing embers of Scotland’s once mighty industrial heartlands. As the events of the past 48 hours have shown they are so out of touch they’ve lost many of their key figures and could be years before they can get back on track.
Now it doesn’t help that New (London) Labour are at fault for so many of the problems we face today. The SNP made it at the last elections not only because Labour looked tired and incapable but also as a protest on Tony Blair and his illegal wars in the Middle East. Since then the same party has brought the economy to its knees and it says it all that they would seek to blame other for their own faults. But even then the Labour party in Scotland were complacent enough to think people will always vote for them, they thought the people of Scotland were stupid.
Alec Salmond was clearly the most competent candidate and no matter what Unionists tell you his party have used the Scottish Parliament to better Scotland and not just suppress it. They’re more left leaning than Labour, their more aspirational than the Conservatives. And they now that they have final broken through nearly 80 years after they were formed, their dream and many others dream might become reality. Whether you want independence or not the people of Scotland will get to decide their own fate and that of the United Kingdom in a referendum within the next 5 years.
American installing their first ever black president was rightfully heralded as a not only a massive surprise but showing democracy at its best. In the context of Scotland and the United Kingdom yesterdays result has changed the politics of these islands forever, it shows people aren’t stupid and they can think for themselves. Barrack Obama becoming America’s first black president was groundbreaking; Scotland voting for its first ever Nationalist government can only be described as a magnitude 10 earthquake.
Job Done!
After last weeks title deciding Fife Derby it was only a matter of time before we were confirmed as First Division Champions. After last weeks 11,500 sellout crowd watched the Pars beat Raith Rovers 2-1 we only needed a win yesterday to confirm us as champions. So it was we went west to the other side of the country to Greenock where we could be confirmed as Champions.
After last weeks massive crowd it wasn’t any surprise that we took over 3000 fans to Cappielow to stand on the terracing. After goals from Stephen McDougal and Davie Graham we were eventual 2-0 winners over Morton and the official First Division Champions. Great scenes soon followed as we broke through the police barricade and invaded the pitch in celebration.
I will never forget the end of this season and nearly all the credit to our change in fortune has to go to one man, Big Mad Mental Martin Hardie. Signed in January on a free, a guy who’s hardly played in 18 months because of injury has went from injured warhorse to the King of East End Park. We were failing big time the second half of the season and his 8 goals in 9 matches has steamrolled us to the title. He took Rovers apart last week, he secured a last minute win against Ross County and lest not forget the hatrick he scored against Stirling Albion. This guy isnt just Dunfermline’s player of the season he should be Scotland’s!
The trophy will be presented next week at East End Park in front of our bitterest rivals Falkirk in what again will likely be a sellout. After four long and hard years, we’re finally back to the big time. Come On Ye Pars!
May 2011 Scottish Parliment Elections
Ok so the Scottish Parliament election is less than a month away and for me there is only one party to vote for, the SNP. When Barrack Obama was elected president, it rightfully was one of the most important events in the history of politics. While not quite on the same level, Scotland electing its first ever Nationalist government four years ago will go down as one of the most important events in its recent history.
Unlike all the other undemocratic UK based parties (who have consistently denied the people of Scotland a referendum on independence) the SNP looks solely after Scotland’s interest. They have no interest in fighting illegal wars, building multi-billion pound submarines we don’t need and letting bankers do what they bloody well please.
Personally, I have benefited from the past government. I got a university degree for free due to the SNP scrapping the graduate endowment and refusing to enforce student tuition fees like they do in England. They abolished the tolls on the Forth Road Bridge, which I have to drive over every day to go to work. They froze the council tax for the past three years and want to keep it that way. They kept open hospitals that Labour wanted to close. Prescription charges have been abolished.
Four years ago we made history by voting our first Nationalist government. Labour’s 50 year strangle hold on Scotland was broken for the better. For a party who like to bill themselves as the “people’s party” and had it all there own way for so long, their record is abysmal. Scotland has some of the worst childhood poverty, violent crime, health and teenage pregnancy rates in the developed world and Labour did nothing. This time around Labour has gone with the hapless Iain Gray as their candidate to govern Scotland. This guy can’t even string a valid sentence together let alone run a government. The other day a Labour campaign trail descended into farce when it was high-jacked by anti cut protesters. They hounded him around the streets before having to take cover in a branch of Subways for fuck sakes. The Benny Hill style video below is very funny.
The Conservatives have never been popular in Scotland (Thatcher’s legacy will never be forgotten in this part of the world) and it will be even less so this time around as their Westminster government rolls out severe cost cutting measures throughout the whole of the UK.
On the smaller parties, there only two worthy mentions. The once popular Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) slit their own throats by stabbing former leader Tommy Sheridan in the back. These disloyal antics and lies will keep them out of mainstream politics for a very long time. Popular Independent MSP (former SNP member and mother-in-law to the Proclaimers) Margo MacDonald has always championed the people and I fully expect West Lothian to again elect her as a list candidate. As well as supporting an independent Scotland, McDonald has taking a leading role in giving terminally ill people in Scotland the right to end their own life (assisted suicide), made all the more prominent by the fact Margo herself suffers from Parkinson’s disease.
The war in Iraq and expenses scandal over the past ten years have made us seriously think about where we want to be as a country. We can either put up with the same shit we’ve had for the past 300 years or we can again become a proper country responsible for our own affairs. The atrocities committed around the world and at home in the name of Britain didn’t just happen a long time ago in colonial times. The constant war mongering and meddling by the UK government still goes on to this day. Recent events in Libya in particular shows they have no intent of listening to public opinion who have had enough of military intervention. Unionist use the argument of Ireland and Iceland as a reason why Scotland could never be independent, what they fail to mention every time is the country closest to Scotland in both economic circumstances, population and even geography has thrived over the past four years. Norway like Scotland has access to North Sea oil, the greatest resource a country would ever want. Have we used 35 years of this resource to better our selves as a country? Have we fuck.
Norway has used oil revenues to achieve some of the best education, health and poverty rates in the world and to safe guard the financial security and future of the country. We’ve done none of that, we’re stuck in a 1970’s rut purely because Unionist parties have used the revenues to fight illegal wars, bail out banks and bring the Olympics to London.
I’m not an SNP member, I don’t hold politicians of any creed in any regard what so ever. But for me, there is only one choice, and it’s a vote for Scotland.
Biffy Clyro Make the 5th Round Draw
Tedious FM rockers Biffy Clyro made the draw for the Scottish Cup 5th round today. As far as I can tell Biffy picked the home teams and Clyro picked the away ones. I’m unsure whether to love them or hate them for this draw. On one hand they gave my team a tricky away tie, on the other they delighted fans of all “diddy” clubs by drawing a Rangers/Celtic tie early in the tournament. I find it hilarious that this attempted publicity stunt has backfired (sponsors want an Old Firm final in definitely).
An easy passage to final up for grabs and will undoubtedly prove an extra incentive for every other team left in the competition. Personally I think the spot will go to Hearts, but could this finally be the year Scottish Cup jokes Aberdeen and Hibs, finally get their day out at Hampden?
