The referendum result is the loss of a chance to dispute the hegemony of the neo-con corporate elite in the international world. My heart is still bursting with pride that 45% of Scots – a people devoid of political autonomy for three hundred years – had the nerve, intellect and will to see through the avalanche of propaganda from the entire mainstream media, political establishment, banking sector and corporate world. I met numerous voters who had received letters from their employers – including Diageo, BP, RNS and many others – telling them to vote No or their job was in danger. I met the old lady in Dundee who was told by the Labour Party that independent Scotland would flood the country with immigrants, and a Romanian building worker in Edinburgh who had been told by the Labour Party that Independent Scotland would deport all East Europeans.
Yesterday the Daily Telegraph, Daily Express and Daily Mirror in Scotland all had precisely the same full page photo on their front cover – not a startling news snap, but an arty concoction of male silhouettes and union and Scottish flags. The Mirror had photoshopped it to remove the blue from the union jack, but it was the same distinctive photo. There could be no more stark example of the fake diversity of the mainstream media.
Just as the Conservative, Labour and Lib Dem parties have been startlingly shown up as precisely the same creatures of corporate masters offering no policy differences whatsoever, merely a false tribalism. As they partied together at Better Together last night – the only party in the whole of Scotland, at which everybody present lives very, very well at taxpayers’ expense – it was impossible to tell which brand of Tory was which.
Keeping the popular momentum going, keeping all those wonderful people I met and spoke to engaged in trying to engineer a different society, is going to be a hard struggle. But we always knew that. The goal of independence must remain as a powerful unifying factor.
Through media onslaught people were convinced that a No vote was a vote for Devo Max. Actually after a fortnight of pontificating it will fall off the news agenda of the mainstream. Nothing significant will happen. The Westminster view is that we can have any powers we want at our glorified council in Scotland as long as we still don’t get the revenue from oil or whisky – and still provide cannon fodder for neo-con wars abroad, house Trident and are subject to draconian Westminster imposed attacks on civil liberties.
Anyway the dress rehearsal is over. At the next referendum – which is only five years away, after the UK has voted to leave the EU – we will not be putting forward Salmond’s Independence Lite, (I am not criticising, he carried it superhumanly far). We will be proposing a fully independent Scottish Republic, out of NATO, with its own currency, sweeping land reform to give Scotland’s land back to its people, nationalisation of railways and public utilities, a genuine minimum wage you can live on, a humane benefits system and strict regulation and controls on banks and bankers.
I am eating an excellent lunch and looking forward to it.
Ben. 12 20am
Kind words and great primordial sounds. Thanks.
Do you think Dad knows we meet here? Would he approve?
The old fool has got it into his head that I’m someone else….again!.
I know Republicofscotland is pretty cool and shares many of my visceral feelings (as well as being generally brilliant and good-looking), but, is he/she really eclectic and nuanced? And would he/she be able to hum along to fossil-sounds like these? I think not!
I’ll have to confront Dad about these wild accusations next time he’s lucid.
And I bet Republicofbloodyscotland hasn’t mastered italics like I have!
Glad to hear it, John.
I see the media are still failing to report events faithfully… you’ve only got to see some of the pictures on twitter to see that this evening’s events was a lot more than “handbags”. It looks like the “Yes” voters refused to be provoked by the Nazi saluters. One particularly moving short piece of video of a girl hanging on to her Scottish flag and getting dragged off with it.
Another issue is that the Cameron promise was for 24 hours after the vote… and no word from his party. “There many be trouble ahead…”
Hi Sophia, welcome to the aftermath bloodbath.
Your 1st link
Restart Democracy Foundation believes computer voting is inevitable, therefore we should be developing incorruptible technology to deal it.
They’re probably right about the first bit, and it will solve a lot of election problems if they’re successful with the second bit. …..However ….. right now, computer voting is a blank cheque for the spooks – ‘please enter the party of your choice and hit [return]’ – with no secure system in the foreseeable future.
Your 2nd link
I (just about) understand the supposed impossibility of tampering with the blockchain …… However, I’ve expressed my suspicions about bitcoin before. …..bitcoin has very murky origins,and when the Bank of England gives it credibility by describing cryptocurrencies as a rival to traditional money, I extract my gold fillings and bury them in the garden.
Your 3rd link
Ahhhh, lovely …… thanks for the treat, I love the smoky quiver in her voice.
Node. 1 28am
Thanks for the links. What a feast! I’ll need time to digest it all.
Just one observation re Bank of England assessment. “Digital currencies also differ from the other technologies discussed so far in this box because they can be created out of nothing. In contrast, local currencies come into circulation only when exchanged for pounds sterling”…which are created out of …? Isn’t it debt?
My gut tells me “nothing” has to be better than debt, but I’m open to being educated.
…
Glad you liked Rokia Traore.
“The transparent polling box is the way forward,”
John.
Don’t mean to insult but saying that shows you don’t know enough about it. Unless your trying to create a totally conformist totalitarian society.
Transparency is for government, not individuals. Unless individuals want to expose there own identity.
Your idea is WAY more scary than any fraud that may take place. Study some Glenn Greenwald perhaps, or some history.
Sheesh, that lecture left me in a sweat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9baC7B60ZU
Meanwhile, here are some different perspectives from the folks who clearly voted for self-determination… http://translate.yandex.net/tr-url/ru-en.ru/voicesevas.ru/news/yugo-vostok
Extra bonus. The quality of the translations will cause Dad and all the other grammar-pedants to choke on their cornflakes!
This One is For Mark…Golding…I hope he understands..I’m sure he does..Does He Like Fish..I have never met the bloke..not so far as I know…
I tried that with worms and maggots when I was fishing..they looked horrible but I just wanted some fresh fish for my Tea…
The Fish Really Liked The Taste..Until They Realised They Had My Hook In Their Mouth…and Rgere Was No Way I was Going To Throw Them Back…
My Family – All Of Us ATE THEM…the fish that was we didn’t eat the worms and the maggots..us lancashire folk eat at them..at windermere..actually…lancashire really
Its in The Lake District – You Know The English Lake District…
I Reckon It is The Most Beautiful Place in The World
Our Kids Not Only Grew Up There..Well possibly made there too..You Know Husband and Wide…making love…and really,really trying to make you…
Yes We Did…And Look at Yourselves Now…(they don’t even realise yet…they are so innocent…but they will (angels too))
They are Children and so are We
We are trying very hard to learn what exactly is going on..and trying to analyse all the information ..and thinking…oh dear what can we do..you are right Tony…these people really are incredibly evil…have you any suggestions?
Tony
This one is even worse…
My lad has just thrown up in The Downstairs Toilet…
I didn’t go out tonight…So he escorted Mum and his Girlfriend…
Maybe it was The Live Music..They Do The Heaviest Bass after Lemmy and Motorhead I have ever experienced
probably nothing to do with alcohol at all..he probably has a tummy problem..maybe my wife should carry a warning sign…the bands are really good…put your carrots in your ears and don’t drink any aspartame (its even worse than smoking..you know diet everything..its got rat poison in it..well it gives rats cancer..what is it doing to you?)
When I found out and read all the research..I went through the entire kitchen and house…anything that said DIET on its label..I poured down the sink..maybe nearly a gallon…I refuse to buy anyone a diet coke in the pub – even if she is really fit..
Tony
I’m not so sure of ‘strict control of Banks’; a ‘Bradbury Pound’ Government-printed and minted currency, free from Private Bank printed, interest-bearing currency would be the way to go. I don’t believe the US, Israel & Co. would provide ‘armed insurgency’ or open warfare against Scotland, like they did when Iraq & Libya got out of dollar-oriented Central Banking scams, and decided to sell their oil in bundled currencies (Iraq) and Gold Dinars (Libya).
Notice how the US & Co. fragment and ‘Balkanise’ unfriendly nations, but abhor secessionist movements in ‘Friendly’ regimes.
Divide & Rule, ‘olde Chinese ploverb.
Lastly, I would be extremely surprised if skulduggery was not in evidence in the ballot procedure; this issue was far too important to the PTB for them to leave anything to chance. Remember, George W. Bush stole both elections, and the MSM stayed schtum.
Brave..Big Fucking Brave Retards….
https://vine.co/v/OWPzrhni0Aj
Whenever David Cameron speaks I listen out for Zionist agenda inserts. He has no electoral mandate for his party to govern and he has no personal conviction except the Zionist cause.
There are going to be changes to how the UK is governed, eh?
Who is this shop dummy to put a baby dummy in Scotland MPs’ mouths?
The presence of 0.8 million postal votes out of a possible 4.3 million in a referendum which did not involve Scots who live outside Scotland, is remarkable.
That doesn’t mean that anyone can prove the ‘secret’ services who do things ‘in secret’ have committed vote fraud. There are lots of people who know things who cannot speak without losing their job, or even their life. Such is the reality of the UK fascist state.
It matters not who votes. It matters who counts the votes. – Josef Stalin.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-09-19/was-scottish-vote-rigging-caught-
Something sure is rotten, we wuz robbed.
Weekend Edition September 19-21, 2014
Why the Fight for Independence Isn’t Over
Project Fear and the Scottish Vote
by TARIQ ALI
Unionists of every stripe from the Orange Lodges to Tories and Labourist all sorts will be delighted with Scottish results. The United Kingdom has been saved. They won by 400,000 votes. Not a great triumph but a victory nonetheless and a defeat for the independence movement.
I’ll wait for the detailed breakdown of age, gender, class before commenting on these aspects, but the story isn’t over. Their victory was made possible by Project Fear that required a media campaign of ferocious intensity that even Goebbels might have admired. It was reminiscent of the recent offensives in South America, but there our side won despite 99 percent media opposition. Here, too, the media was backed by a violent corporate campaign–with bankers in the lead— and all the mainstream parties. Despite this the independence vote was almost 45 percent and Glasgow and Dundee had majorities for independence.
How short memories are in these times was demonstrated by the elevation of Gordon Brown as the saviour of the Union. He performed well, shedding crocodile tears for the NHS that he and Blair had already begun to privatise and weaken by dubious private finance initiatives. New Labour’s Health Secretary Alan Milburn now works for private medicine, for a company that he helped as a government minister!
What will happen now? Cameron will use the victory to portray himself as the man who saved the union and with some justification. Project Fear was launched in Downing Street, after all with Nick Clegg and Ed Moribund pressed into service as page boys. Simultaneously Cameron will push through (with the devo max measures) a bill disallowing Scottish MPs from voting on English questions. This will keep the Tories united, UKIP happy and Labour shafted. No more Scottish cannon fodder for Westminster votes on the budget!
In Scotland itself there will be a lot of soul-searching within the Scottish Nationalist Party. How could they lose in some of their strongholds? Did they work hard enough? Should Alex Salmond go and be replaced by Nicola Sturgeon? And who knows what else….
On the left the spirited and non-sectarian Radical Independence Campaign fought well. It would be important to preserve and enhance this current in Scottish politics to argue the case for a very different Scotland and this means keeping the movement together.
Radical Scotland will not disappear and the model here should not be any reversion to the tried and tested failures of the socialist left but something more like Podemos in Spain. There will be sadness and demoralisation and this is perfectly understandable, but it won’t last too long. British politics is getting worse not better.
Fear leads to passivity and even though in this case the Unionists managed to get the fearful out to vote, they might never be able to do that again. Hope leads to activity and that is what the independence campaign represented. We will win the next time.
Tariq Ali is the author of The Obama Syndrome (Verso).
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/09/19/project-fear-and-the-scottish-vote/
Even in Sedgefield. Aangirfan 2005.
‘The PressEsc exit poll of voters gave 56% of the vote to Reg Keys
Tony Blair got 22% of the vote.
“But there are growing fears that the official results in Sedgefield may not reflect the people’s wishes following the vote-rigging scandal that broke out in the constituency.”
A police investigation into more than 600 complaints of postal vote fraud was dropped on order from the “top”, one Durham Constabulary whistleblower alleged.’
http://aangirfan.blogspot.co.uk/2005/05/exit-poll-blair-lost-his-seat-at.html
Also 2005
http://aangirfan.blogspot.co.uk/2005/05/possible-uk-vote-fraud-some-figures.html
From reports on BBC Radio Scotland this morning, it would seem that Gordon Brown has been appointed as our Governor General.
Well well it appears that our friends have supported despots and illiberal regimes throughout the world have all of a sudden developed a concern that he Scottish referendum was “rigged”. They of course have no interest in democracy whatsoever and are just playing their old old game of allowing the end to justify the means – if they oppose something they will use anything whatsoever to justify their position, rather than admit that their position was not sufficiently strong to convince people and may need some refinement/modification so as to achieve popular assent.
Craig does at least attempt such a refinement by arguing that a different stance should be taken at the next referendum – which at least has the virtue of being an honest declaration of what would be in store for the electorate should they vote yes, I just have my doubts that a majority of the electorate would ever want to see such a package. There was probably a good reason why Salmond and Sturgeon kept such proposals under wraps, and I suspect that it was this uncertainty/unrevealed manifesto about what would happen after a yes vote that the electorate understood all too clearly and hence voted no.
What I also notice is the stunning contempt of many here for the people who voted Yes from Craig and the usual rabble – they have been called indecent, accused of being Nazis, sheep, manipulated by the mass media and therefore incapable of thinking for themselves etc. etc. Talk about seeking to re-elect the people. I am afraid such contempt and disrespect for the views of ordinary people really just belies any residual claims that some of them may think that they have to being socialists.
Trust the people they are usually right!
Mary
Do you really like these Holocaust denying/anti semitic websites don’t you? We now have links to aangirfan to follw those to northerntruthseeker.
PS what names do you post on at these sites?
Some of you may remember me commenting at the time of the Crimean “referendum” as to how the figures clearly rigged as the reported turnout and proportion voting yes would point to an unfeasibly high proportion of ethnic Ukrainians and Tartars voting for Union with Russia – well I was right as subsequently confirmed by the Kremlin’s own human rights council
http://www.president-sovet.ru/structure/gruppa_po_migratsionnoy_politike/materialy/problemy_zhiteley_kryma.php
http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulroderickgregory/2014/05/05/putins-human-rights-council-accidentally-posts-real-crimean-election-results-only-15-voted-for-annexation/
Strangely enough none of those complaining about the Scottish referendum had any complaints about the Crimean one – I suspect their problem is that the Scottish one wasn’t conducted under the eyes of armed little green men and the any manipulation of the results wasn’t large enough for their liking.
@Mary: I remember watching to 2005 Sedgefield by-election quite closely. I couldn’t understand how so many people could still vote for the warmonger.
If I remember rightly Reg. Keys got just enough votes to save his deposit. What became of the vote rigging accusations?
Regarding the election in Crimea… you can be sure that if the sort of thing we’ve seen in the videos had happened in Crimea they would be on the BBC/Sky/CNN rolling news…
“my own view is that all of us should, like Craig and myself, use their own names, not be ashamed of our views, or how we vote, and respect other people’s points of view, ”
So what name were you using fro your posts before you retired in late 2011 – or was it only then that you became interested in politics/discovered the internet.
I also note that despite all your straight talking that you haven’t answered this straight question.
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2014/09/wisdom-from-poland/#comment-480313
Surely a student of the role of the Soviet Union in world affairs would have had a view on the matter?
The Scottish referendum shows us that Scotland will be an independent country in 20 years.
Peacewisher
There was a reason why foreign news services were not allowed into Crimea – if only because the KGB thugs to beat them up were still thin on the ground.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-29249642
Of course there are rather a lot of videos of how elections are rigged in Russia thanks to the good work of Mr Navalny and his friends.
http://observers.france24.com/content/20111206-ru
ssia-election-fraud-caught-video-ballot-stuffing-erasable-ink-putin-protestsstuffing-erasable-ink-putin-protests
Last link again
http://observers.france24.com/content/20111206-russia-election-fraud-caught-video-ballot-stuffing-erasable-ink-putin-protests
None of us are robots, RD. We have our own individual, and possibly sometimes apparently contradictory views of the world…
I believe in democracy, but it troubles me that the ptb go to such lengths to undermine it.
@ Craig “At the next referendum .. we will be proposing a fully independent Scottish Republic”
The problem is that the people in Scotland would likely not be democratically interested in being independent of the UK, as a recent poll covering the whole country showed pretty decisively. 🙂
Craig. I thunk you should ban some of the worst trolls now. I hate having to read them by mistake. Thank you.