Wee Ginger Dug « Biting the hand of Project Fear.
Economy. Opinions. Project Fear. The Vote. Reference - Wings Over Scotland. Yes campaign faced the might of – The Abbotsford Team ( actively backed by the entire UK political system, the civil service, media barons, commercial and financial institutions, The City of London, Heads of State and senior politicians of countries world. The, “Yes” campaign faced the might of – The Abbotsford Team ( actively backed by the entire UK political system, the civil service, media barons, commercial and financial institutions, The City of London, Heads of State and senior politicians of countries world wide and just about anyone or anything that David Cameron and Sir Jeremy Heywood could muster in their mission to deny Scotland it’s rightful place in the world as an independent country.)
“The gathering.” At the beginning of 2012, (at his house in Edinburgh) former Labour Chancellor Alistair Darling, David McLetchie, late Scottish Conservative Leader, David Cameron’s, Director of Political Strategy, Andrew Cooper, Shadow Foreign Secretary, Douglas Alexander, Shadow Defence Secretary, Jim Murphy and special adviser to the Scottish Secretary, Euan Roddin. met in secret with the purpose of, “preparing a battle plan” which when enacted would, “kill off, once and for all time”, Alex Salmond and the Scottish National Party. Alan Bissett " what the future will look like if the result is NO " Scottish independence is fast becoming the only option.
Those among my friends who have lost their religious faith have described it as a desolate process.
Rather than experiencing a rush of euphoria at liberation from a restrictive credo, they speak of their sadness as, one by one, the illuminations on their once cherished pillars are extinguished. It may be approaching apostasy to equate separation from the divine with the dawning of scepticism about the union of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Yet when it becomes increasingly more difficult to find good reasons why Scotland should remain in the union you begin to wonder if your crisis of faith is curable or terminal. The champions of the union these days have curiously little to say that is positive about their cherished political nirvana beyond the Queen, some shared former glories and a nebulous "stability". When their anti-nationalist invective outweighs their pro-union adulation, you realise that they are not convinced either. We won't be lacking friends, either. Embassy cables reveal 34 nations pressured by UK to oppose Scottish independence.
Christian Wright says: “No one who would pressure 34 foreign powers to defame us and demean us should ever be in a position to rule over us.”
Update: Obama’s anodyne “endorsement” of the British Union on June 6 was scripted according to the Financial Times Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent “Those remarks from Obama on Scotland were not spontaneous. Came after an informal request from No 10.” A TRUE INDEPENDENT SCOTLAND. It would appear that our good neighbours in England have caught the YES bug after First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s excellent performance in the TV Debates.
Greens keen on Yes vote 'chaos' - Scotland / News / The Evening Telegraph. The "constitutional chaos" that would flow across the border from an independent Scotland would be warmly welcomed by the Green Party, leader Natalie Bennett said.
England and Wales is ripe for some "creative chaos" with the departure of Scotland expected to lead to a new written constitution for the remainder of the UK, she said ahead of a public meeting in Edinburgh. "I'm not here to tell people how to vote," she told the Press Association. "I am here to tell the people of Scotland how much excitement there is south of the border about a Yes vote, what could be done, what could be built here, and also the potentially positive ramifications for the rest of the UK. "There are a lot of people in England and Wales feeling the need for real change, and at the moment it feels like we're banging our heads against a brick wall. "If Scotland is independent, Scotland has never been neo-liberal, Scotland has never voted for the Tories and has made sure it doesn't have any Tories at all. Scottish independence: Better Together needs to ditch the bullied-kid act and discover some principles.
Has there ever been a less convincing plea of victimhood than that currently being made by the defenders of the Union against Scottish nationalism?
Listening to the self-pitying complaints of the Better Together campaign and its media backers, you could be forgiven for thinking that Alex Salmond and Co are the political equivalent of the Beano bad boy Bully Beef and that the Unionist side is poor, hapless Chips, forever being biffed and boshed by its bigger, uglier nemesis. The Union defenders wail about being subjected to “bully boy tactics” and claim their opponents are “bullying mobs”. Westminster has no answer to the Alex Salmond effect - UK Politics - UK - The Independent.
IoS poll: download full graphic (50k) With Labour, Tories and Liberal Democrats increasingly panicked by the seemingly inevitable march towards separation, the Scottish National Party will this week unveil plans to augment an "independence generation" in time for a referendum on a split, expected within three years.
According to a ComRes survey for The Independent on Sunday, 39 per cent of people across Britain now say Scotland should be an independent country, up from 33 per cent just five months ago. The rise in support for a split among those polled in Scotland is even more striking, up 11 points from 38 per cent to 49 per cent. Voters in every region of the UK now back Scottish independence. The Last 5 Days of Britain. By Mike Small Farage has been to Edinburgh preaching his Golf Club xenophobia.The Orange Order have been here on a charm offensive, pointing to the future.
Jim and Douglas have been ‘pooling and sharing’ and Gorgeous George has been here selflessly promoting his London Mayoral candidacy. Cameron has been stretching his sinews in private. Trusted Nick Clegg has been making solemn promises and Gordon Brown has been explaining his Big Secret Plan (Codename: The Jobby in a Box). Actually that last bit’s not true. They are a formidable team. 'The Yes campaign helped me live longer' A TERMINALLY ill Scot given a year to live by doctors has described how getting involved in the Yes campaign prolonged her life.
Lindsay Jarrett, 44, was told she was unlikely to be around for any longer than 12 months when she was diagnosed in 2008 as being at an advanced and incurable stage of a genetic disease which had left her liver and lungs irreparably damaged.But the mother-of-five, from Kinlochleven, stopped medical treatment and found a new will to live by joining the battle for Scottish independence. During last year’s campaign the former police inspector used her skills and expertise as an experienced climber to put up pro-independence signs across the country.Her most audacious feat was to scale more than 100 feet up the cliffs of Edinburgh Castle to fasten a huge Yes banner to the rocks for everyone in the capital to see. Her lungs were so poor at the time that she had to carry a tank of oxygen to breathe. “What I am fighting for is what I leave behind for my children. Looking through a distorted window: English reflections on a Scottish referendum. Seeing the Scottish referendum from outside Scotland, it was too easy to entirely misunderstand it.
Image: Maxim Edwards Reading coverage and opinion from England on the Scottish independence referendum has been a strange experience. It has been like looking at someone you know and love through a distorted window: the image is contorted to the extent that you can barely recognise the person you’re looking at anymore. There is a sense in which people who have never lived in Scotland or been involved in the political debate in Scotland just don’t get it. This is what has become so abundantly clear reading and talking to people in England about the referendum.
English observers have received most of their information through sources that are based in England and on the whole are against independence (only one newspaper the Sunday Herald backed independence, no UK newspaper did so). On a wave of independence: Scotland's surfers break away from Team GB. The team are to take part in the sport's world championships for Scotland after breaking away from Team GB. They will represent the nation at the International Surf Association World Surfing Games in Peru this weekend. It is the first time in almost 20 years a standalone Scots team has competed at international level. The wave riders from Fraserburgh, Thurso, Elgin, Edinburgh and St Andrews were selected at the Scottish National Surfing Championships in Thurso in March. Stewart Hosie calls for Yes Alliance. Exclusively to Bella Stewart Hosie calls for a Yes Alliance to contest the 2015 General Election. Hosie MP, candidate for the SNP Depute Leadership said today: “I am certain that the best way to make sure Westminster delivers real maximum devolution to Scotland will be to return the largest ever number of Independence supporting MPs to Westminster.
I’m equally certain that many of the wonderful, talented people who emerged through the Independence campaign will contest the next election. While the SNP will be the engine of the campaign and with over 80,000 members it will be a turbo charged one, the wider Independence movement can provide further fuel and momentum to that campaign. In practice that means looking at ways of working beyond party interests to maximise the participation of those who campaigned and voted for a better Scotland by offering them an opportunity to campaign and vote again for change at next year’s General Election. Like this: Like Loading... Professor Curtice, saviour of Scotland. There’s a rather curious piece in today’s Sunday Times by the UK’s only known living psephologist, the estimable Prof. John Curtice of Strathclyde University. In it he rather blows his cover of impartiality by framing his comments as an anti-SNP warning, but nevertheless raises an interesting point, while adding to the enormous pressure on the unfortunate Smith Commission.
Yes Eyemouth - It really feels like we are in unchartered... Out in the open. This is astonishing. From tonight’s BBC 6 O’Clock News: Nick Robinson claims Alex Salmond “didn’t answer” his question at a press conference earlier today. That is a brazen and quite spectacular lie. Looking through a distorted window: English reflections on a Scottish referendum. Beware of a Movement which Smiles. The greatest weapon in the independence arsenal lies within ourselves. When Scotland voted No to independence on 18 September 2014, one would have expected a party atmosphere, cheering, laughing, singing and dancing in the streets.
A time of celebration would have been the expected reaction to the result. That indeed is what has happened. Christopher Silver: It’s Time To Transform Scotland. Joan McAlpine: Establishment cannot wish away size of Yes vote.. or expectations of those that voted No - Joan McAlpine. Rob on Twitter: "this picture fills me with pride in our Glasgow #Glasgow #the45 #YesAlliance #indyref Scotland... George Kerevan: UK economy is a ticking time bomb. Statement from First Minister Alex Salmond. Sunday Herald editor Richard Walker on why the paper became the only UK title to back Scottish independence. Scottish Referendum: Manchester should get same independence deal as Scotland Cameron advisor demands. Phillip Blond - the man behind the Prime Minister’s Big Society policy - says the northern city should gain control over all of its £22.5bn-a-year public spending by 2020.
Scotland – The Possible Turning Point. Something Fishy in the Scottish Polls – Emerald News Network. Big guns of UK state fire in to back a Yes vote. Custom byline text: And then my heart went boom. A Yes vote will protect Scotland’s NHS from privatisation – Sir Harry Burns. BBC Ex Business Editor Slams State Broadcaster’s Anti-Scottish Independence ‘Propaganda’ Welcome to Forbes. Zara Kitson: 8 People I’m Voting Yes For – Because The Personal Is The Political. Day of celebration to follow Yes, says Salmond. BBC reporter caught red-handed manipulating video in Scottish indy campaign.
Wayne Madsen - London’s Devious Plans for Scotland’s Independence Referendum - Strategic Culture Foundation - on-line journal > London’s Devious Plans for Scotland’s Independence Referendum > m.strategic-culture.org - Strategic Culture Foundation. It’s not just Scotland where politics as usual is finished. Envious of Scots, British regions demand more autonomy. Can the Greens Seize the Opportunity of Yes? A yes vote in Scotland would unleash the most dangerous thing of all - hope. Revealed: the Foreign Office Devo unit's drive to kill off independence. It is not that Scotland might become a new state but that it might become a new kind of state. Beyond gallus warriors and heroic defeats. Let’s just win this time. Shock new poll says Scots set to vote yes to independence. Scottish nationalism isn't about how bad Westminster is; it's about how good Holyrood is.
Scottish independence: North Sea 'fracking' proposal made. Salmond 'politician of the year' - Scotland / News / The Evening Telegraph. Scottish Independence can actually happen. The surprise winners from the referendum? Scotland. Politics. Big ideas are back at last. Reasons for farmers to vote for independence. Scotland's Decision. Something incredible is happening in Scotland. And if the result is a yes vote the shock to the UK will be extreme. Yes Scotland Have Delivered A Smackdown Over Scottish Referendum No Campaign's Business Backers. Scotland Decides- But Decides What? Raising the Bar of Debate The Wee Blue Book. The Ties That Bind « Scotland: a World Leader Again? « Farming4Yes. Ntrolling our future: Scottish fishing and the need for independence. You don't need to be a yes voter to secure social justice ... but it helps.
Scotland Debate: The Facts Behind The Arguments. 8 Claims From The Scottish Independence Debate, Fact-Checked. Scottish independence: A brief history of Alex Salmond. What kind of Scotland do we want to live in? Summer_leaflet_v3.pdf. Ernment sets out five green gains of independence. Would Scottish independence be good for radical politics? Andrew Wilson: Don’t fear the referendum vote. The Yes Campaign speaks in the House of Commons. Why English people sometimes upset Scots and where this comes from. Dear Eddie Izzard and friends, Please don’t go (on). Please listen to why it’s OK for us English to let Scotland go. 7 lessons from the Isle of Eigg for an independent Scotland : Business for Scotland.
Radical Independence Dumfries & Galloway. A Choice of Paths « Scottish referendum: magnitude of the question galvanises debate. The visceral hatred of Westminister politics. The CBI has killed the BBC stone dead. Scottish independence:STV quits CBI over No stance. Why the Debate on Scottish Independence Might Be More Interesting Than You Think? « The Speech They Tried to Shout Down.