This blog is severely hampered by flu. I hate flu. In a globe-trotting life I have had a number of illnesses that became life threatening – peritonitis, typhoid, cholera, cerebral malaria, pulmonary embolism, pulmonary hypertension (thankfully misdiagnosed) severe arrhythmia. I was once declared dead and awoken by a cockroach eating my nostril as I lay naked on a corpse trolley in Kaduna. I refuse to die because of the thought of the people – Jack Straw, Islam Karimov, Alisher Usmanov, Tony Blair, John Reid etc – whose day I know would be momentarily brightened by news of my demise. But for sustained misery and feeling really, really awful and uncomfortable, a week with the flu, while not nearly as dangerous, is pretty well as unpleasant, at least to me.
As I lie in a sweaty bed, my thought are perhaps unsurprisingly not happy and light. I am paying keen attention to all the proposals for how to move forward the Independence movement after that check, and am struck by all the calls to reach out to No voters and bring them in.
I have no idea how to reach out to No voters because I find the majority of them stupid beyond my understanding. This is not because they desired an end result different to that I desired. That is a perfectly legitimate choice. It is because, by voting No, they are going to get an end result which is not what they wanted at all, and that was very obvious. Asking me to reach out to these unbelievably thick people is like asking me to go for a drive with someone who, against my advice, drove the wrong way down a motorway, causing a lot of people to get hurt as a result.
Through their No vote they are going to get five more years of Tory rule – which most of them absolutely did not want. And it is going to be Tory rule that lurches further and further to the right. It seems no proposition was too right wing to be applauded to the rafters by the Tory Conference.
Tax cuts for the rich. Benefit cuts for the poor. Openly declared government in the interests of multinational corporations. Censorship of the internet and severe restrictions on freedom of speech. The government intercepting all communications. Even more detention without trial. Permanent war in the Middle East. Leaving the European Convention on Human Rights and in consequence the Council of Europe – the first country to leave the body set up in 1946 to prevent the rise again in Europe of just the sort of proto-fascist measures the Tories wish to impose. To be followed by leaving the European Union.
All of these are direct consequences for Scotland of the No vote. This is much more profound than the entirely predictable and immediate dishonouring of the pledges on Devo-Max by Cameron, Clegg, Miliband and Brown. Brown’s call for a petition to request him to work for what he assured the electorate was already “a done deal” is beyond contempt. It should do for his reputation what the tuition fee betrayal did for Nick Clegg.
Frankly I have no interest in any devolution measures that do not give Scotland control of its oil and whisky revenues, and those are not on offer. But there were people who voted No – 23% of No voters them according to Ashcroft – because they wanted the promised pretend “powers”. Well, you are not going to get those either.
Mostly, of course, those stupid No voters acted under the crass assumption, against all modern precedent, that the opposition could win a general election from a position of just 2 per cent ahead, eight months out. And the even more incredible belief that the Labour Party was still in some significant way different from the Conservative Party.
The consequences of what is coming will fall disproportionately on the poor, with even greater escalation of the UK’s astonishing wealth gap. There will be still more damage to the social fabric that Scots hold dear.
Now there are hard-hearted right wingers in Scotland, in the Tory Party and the leadership of the Labour Party, who wanted everything that is coming in terms of neo-con policy prescription. Those No voters who are wealthy and successful and want to get ahead further on the backs of the poor, made the correct intellectual choice to achieve their ends. They are deeply unpleasant sociopaths, but they are not stupid.
But those No voters who voted No because they believed a fair and caring society was achievable within the present structures of the UK, are so stupid I am astonished that their cerebral cortex can transmit a signal that sparks respiration. They are probably not capable of ever noticing their error.
I am not going to reach out to you, No voter. You are either evil, or quite extraordinarily thick. You will forever be a long way beneath my notice. This will be the last thought I ever give you. To quote a great line from Casablanca:
Peter Lorre: You despise me, don’t you Rick?
Humphrey Bogart: If I gave you any thought, I probably would.
Ed L
“The fact is people voted No because they don’t want to live in some wanky socialist utopia ran by people like Murray”
You do notice the fundamental contradiction in that statement don’t you? Most actual socialist and democratic movements are about not being “ran” by anyone but themselves.
If I was nationalist i’d say Craig is fighting for the most fundamental precepts that have made this country a noteworthy place.
@ Ed L:
The fact is people voted No because they don’t want to live in some wanky socialist utopia ran by people like Murray.
That’s about all there was to it. A choice between the socialism on offer from the Nats in Edinburgh and the socialism on offer from New Labour in Westminster.
45% still managed to vote for freedom for their country in spite of the massive English political and media interference in the election. Looking at it from London it seemed to be an English election, with never a single voice daring to stick up for Scotland and day after day of ever worse scare stories and worthless last minute promises. The pressure was overwhelming and there were certainly enough scared people who voted No to have made all the difference.
Milliband already has the problem but attacks on him will be getting much worse as the election gets close. Fear seems to win elections these days and it it seems difficult to counter quickly.
@CM:
I absolutely believe in democracy – people have the right to be governed as they wish to be governed, certainly not as I or anyone else would like them to be governed. … [but] To believe they are equipped to make informed and wise choices is maudlin nonsense.
And you hate and despise them for their lousy choices!
To me, your premises provide good reason to not “absolutely believe in democracy.” Certainly not the fake article on offer in the UK, the US or Canada where the money power buys the elected politicians and the money-power-controlled mediabrain wash the masses into voting for the money power clowns and freaks such as Scameron and Bliar.
Britain breaking away from the Council of Europe would be a real step forward. The remainder of Europe would no longer need to appease the most slavish US satellite on official impunity, rights derogation, and commercial predation. If Britain left Europe to crawl further up America’s ass, it would change the balance of forces for and against social/economic repression on the continent. Hard cheese for the Scottish, I know, but the fissiparous effect of British state degeneracy will eventually release them.
I think the point is lost on “Ed L” is that we merely wanted something unremarkable, something like normality: to live in a country run by the people we actually choose to run it, doing the things we want them to do and not doing things we find abhorrent.
Democracy first, socialist utopias or some other vision can come later. The issue was not how the country was to be run, but of who would actually run it, the who we preferred being ourselves, through people we elect, representing the interests of the people of Scotland, and not some Bullingdon Club brats, or other glib-tongued slick con-men acting for the bankers who enrich themselves and a tiny elite by preying on us and human beings the world over in our name. Stupid doesn’t even begin to describe the people who given the opportunity to end this sorry state of affairs, were too frightened to step outside their cells, or even to rattle the bars of their cage.
We are many, the Ed L’s are few and shitting themselves with fright, we will prevail.
@ Ray:
45% still managed to vote for freedom for their country in spite of the massive English political and media interference in the election.
What about the massive political and media interference on behalf of the terrorists separatists?
The Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist), for example, or the
Prison Officers Association (Scotland Division), The Sunday Herald, plus all those musicians, academics and notable people including Craig Murray. They were not, obviously, interferring. Just putting the best interests of the Scottish people before their own interest, no doubt.
@Tony M:
we merely wanted something unremarkable, something like normality: to live in a country run by the people we actually choose to run it, doing the things we want them to do and not doing things we find abhorrent.
Sounds great. But an independent Scotland would in fact have been a trivial component of the EU superstate doing as it was told by the unelected leadership, and providing boots on the ground wherever and whenever dictated by NATO.
Oh, you thought you’d be independent of the EU and Nato. Well I seriously doubt it. Money buys influence in Edinburgh as in Westminster, and false flags and bullshit newspapers sway the masses in Scotland as in England (see Craig’s remarks above, which I quoted).
“Canspeccy”: I don’t usually engage with racial supremacists, or those jumping with glee on the latest media demonisation of the enemy of the day which chimes with their dark inhuman prejudices. NATO is defunct, gone rogue, I never favoured membership, rather its destruction and high-heid yins and member state governments tried as war criminals. I dislike the EU intensely, but recognised our trade with the continent is important, too important to be mediated by some quasi-super-state like the EU, effectively a protectionist construct and a partner of NATO in subduing and controlling Europe, by the US. The EU itself is a stinking abyss; perhaps EFTA membership, closer to the original common market idea we were sold, would have been and might be an acceptable compromise. Without independence we’re tied to these institutions through the occupying power England. Though these institutions are doomed. You are incredibly naive if you think Scotland’s relationship with these institutions on Independence Day + 1, would be inviolate thereafter, instead such matters would be a matter for further referenda, we tried a gradualist approach, without sudden change, with future decisions made with the informed assent, the will Scotland’s people behind future changes. It might seem the door has been slammed shut in our faces, thanks to an army of quislings in the occupied media and the three thirds of the unionist Party we must neutralize. I have little respect for Winston Churchill, but one of his quips: “You can always take one with you”, is apt, but I hope we can easily obtain a ratio better than 1:1. Smashing the composite “British” state is easy enough piece by piece, we did offer an alternative less disruptive way, it was thrown back with a sneer and a demonstration of arrogant power to keep us in our place. This is only the end of the beginning, the union is de facto if not yet fully de jure, over and out.
EXTRACTED FROM GOLEM XIV WEBSITE;
To recover Democracy, you have to take public control of the vote counting process:
Josef Stalin.’ IT MATTERS NOT HOW THEY VOTE, WE CONTROL THE COUNTING.’
I see now that in Scotland, paper ballots are being hand counted….but, unfortunately only after having been MOVED TO A CENTRAL LOCATION to be counted. That is the problem: the ballots should have been counted in Precinct on election night and posted in Precinct all under public observation. The Scots have been subjected to another, different man-in-the-middle attack not via electronic hacking, but none the less, a man-in-the-middle attack via human opportunity for intervention during transport to or once at the central location…
SAME THING.
Call Lynn Landes
CONTACT: [email protected] / 215-629-3553
MISSION:
Our mission is to return to voters direct access to a paper ballot and effective public oversight of the voting process.
We support paper ballots and hand counts at the polls on election day.
http://www.counttheballots.org/
CANDIDATES!! DON’T CONCEDE UNTIL YOU’VE AUDITED YOUR ELECTION RESULTS.
Audits are in order, even if you think you lost in a landslide. Clint Curtis found in his audit results a 12-24% difference from the ‘official’ results. So, flood your city council and election board meetings, and demand paper ballots and hand counts!
FOLKS! DON’T GIVE UP!
Whether you are a candidate or a voter, whether you won or lost, we all must keep fighting for our right to vote on a paper ballot and to have those ballots counted properly. Audit the Vote, sue in court, demonstrate in the streets, organize your community, just do something!
We will never really know who won this or any other election until we COUNT THE BALLOTS! Voting is the linchpin of democracy. And democracy demands transparency, not
“As a Yes voter myself, having come through all the hideous propaganda war waged on us by the British state for two years unrelenting and resisted it, it is hard not to feel betrayed by the No voters. What the hell were they thinking?”
@ Kathy,
As a working class Englishman living in London, I can’t begin to tell you how disappointed I was at the outcome. I think what the result illustrated is that when push comes to shove the majority of people most of the time have deeply entrenched conservative values and are consequently frightened of change. Personally, I was lulled into believing the views of the people of Glasgow represented the views of the people of Scotland as a whole. However, what this result showed is that the voting habits of the people of Glasgow were no more representative of the views of the rest of Scotland than the voting habits of the people of, say, Liverpool are representative of the voting habits of the people of the south of England. Perhaps Salmond should have encouraged elderly Scots to have upped sticks to England.
Hi Craig,
New to your site, so rest assured I’ll be coming up with really stupid points and encouraging debate on topics that were relevant 3 years ago, but bear with me. I’ll get the hang of it. Just want to say, the first time I heard of you was when I saw that Youtube clip of you discussing independence (English for Yes debate I think). As I watched it, I thought “This guy speaks for me.”
So now you have a new follower! I enjoyed this post you wrote, and very sorry to hear that you died some time ago in Kaduna. Having said that, I guess we’d all be happy for a cockroach to wake us up from death. Anyway, apart from sharing your view of the world (and No voters, even if they’re not from this world), I also have (very) bad physical health. I’ll try not to get into it too much, unless it’s to ask if laser surgery (for haemorroid eradication) really would be painful (I don’t know if you know that, of course, but you’re going to be my online GP from now on).
Cheers,
Stuart
Daniel. just wanted to let you know when I say “through the occupying power England.” I mean this as a figurative construct, a synecdoche, not England literally, something like “the South” would again be too imprecise to define the forces we are up against and will destroy; like Eisenhower’s “military-industrial complex” (though in earlier drafts of this speech he had intended to say “military-industrial-congressional complex” which isn’t quite so snappy), it is hard to get an adequate handle for these slippery sorts. By England I did of course mean, the City, Westminster, the Bullingdon Club, the Oxbridge mafia and the inbred residues of the ruling classes in hock to and in fear of the bankers holding their innately worthless tokens presently, but who never have and never should cease to live in fear of their hosts, the masses, the people of these islands, some of whom have foolishly laid down that awesome irresistible power of their’s by right for the pursuit of worthless trinkets and baubles, in sickly imitation and worship of their self-appointed self-aggrandising masters.
That other England (hello Wales and Ireland, I mean you too)the real England and not the parasite bleeding and feeding on England, that has laid the mass of its people low, knew Scotland’s fight was their’s too. Hand in hand together sooner, rather than later, we’ll each win our countries, our destinies and our future, our pride, back from those who’ve stolen these good and irreplaceable things away from us in the night.
Get well soon Craig…that’s some doing.. with help from cockroach Lol..
Just had a wee bit of the cold meself..but better today
Good post
i read it with agreement with most of it.. and heartfelt sadness at all the truths in there… i have been saying.. They DON’T know what they have done…Perplexed i have said silly crap ( in searching ) to valued friends in a highland village on the Loch – re the western isles…
i spent the 19th Sept with my best friend Ed…HE VOTED no for fear of paying bills being hard enough ect…we went into a pub in Gourock for a bite…Waiter asked if we were coming to the Big indyref party tonight ( Sept 19th ) there will be a piper free first drink…starting at 7;30/8pm.. we walked past the joint at 10 pm..it was empty…
As Clark has Pointed in another thread.. The No voters had little to Shout about…But Knowing the Arrogant Bastards who run Inverclyde council..i have little doubt it was rigged here… it only took 80 votes.
i spent my Sunday ( yesterday 5th October ) … pushing and climbing around the tropical Forest of Benmore Gardens ( By Dunnon ) With a youngish nurse of mid 35 years..over dinner it dawned on me she was a silent NO Voter…AGAIN Hinting For personal stuff…nursing pension fears…
i have always Known it was gonna be a war against the MSM…and it sure was…i very much understand Craig’s anger over this… those on the Ground like Craig was and myself…and People like Vronsky’s efforts…
it comes to light that isles of Barra, and Vatersay were of 76% yes.. i cant understand how the rest of the Western Islse could offset this so completely.. Even the best eatery in Castlebay has a Big yes sign on the door.
i Wonder though –
POLICE have been called in to investigate allegations Better Together agents breached election law by viewing postal votes to discover how well the No campaign was doing in the weeks before the referendum poll closed.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/scottish-politics/elections-watchdog-calls-in-police-over-no-camp-postal-vote-claims.25423662
Tony M,
I know exactly what you mean. Great post and I agree with the sentiments expressed entirely. To say that I was gutted at the result is an understatement.
@ Tony M
“Canspeccy”: I don’t usually engage with racial supremacists,
LOL
The usual response of the loser liberal: lying hate speech. But I should know better, I suppose, than to post anything on a blog which engages in open hate speech against Scots who opt for maintenance of the Union.
Canspeccy
“Lying hate speech”
It takes one to know one.
Think about it: where does all your own lying hate speech originates from?
We have an oxbridge alliance of the biggest liars and manipulators known to man, accusing their biggers and betters around the world of crimes, while they themselves use every devious means to pursue their disgusting outdated imperialism.
Scottish voters apparently voted for them. They are the same as them.
It looks like the LibDem branch of the Tory Party are bankrupt, and not just morally.
http://scottishstatesman.com/lib-dems-rack-up-800k-police-scotland-debt/
Fifteen percent of last years £800,000 policing costs for their conference: £120,000.
Add in the same share of this years costs, with heightened security, say another £150,000.
With about 4,000 members across the UK, no amount of jumble sales or coffee mornings is going to bring in anything close to the £300,000 they must owe, unless they can find an ‘angel’. I would guess the Home Office too might possibly owe Police Scotland something close to £1.5 million, plus interest accumulating all the while.
What is this government, of which the LibDems are members, playing at?
Scottish voters apparently voted for them. They are the same as them.
Grow the Fuck up
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-29502329
THIS IS FALSE
Dear Craig and Tony,
You’re right. I’ll try to do better. Ta.
I am not going to reach out to you, No voter. You are either evil, or quite extraordinarily thick. You will forever be a long way beneath my notice. This will be the last thought I ever give you.
I think this astonishingly crass, and the only explanation I can think of is that your bout of flu has – as is usual- made you lose the will to live. Next year – get the flu jab, eh?
I was much cheered to see that neither the Labour nor the Conservative conferences, on their differently bizarre planets, had anything resembling an economic plan: the very failing on which were both happy to assault the Yes campaign. That particular debate is still nil-all. But I can’t blame No for deciding that the devil they knew was better than the great unknown – and that those with enough cerebral activity to spark respiration were reluctant to undertake a huge upheaval, probably involving short-term pain, for a long-term gain. This is an instant-gratification society now, and perhaps that’s the underlying problem.
You can’t realistically claim that the Noes were any thicker than the Yes vote: intellect has nothing to do with it. The same spread from subfunctional to superintellectual exists in both groups. Though it would be interesting to compare the proportions of arts and science graduates on the bright side of both camps. We could then determine whether the vote was swung by logical or emotional concerns…couldn’t we? [insert smiley of choice here]
The best course of action for Yes voters is IMO to shrug off the disappointment, wipe out Scottish Labour at the next election – Miliband’s making that easy enough – and block what it can of whoever’s daft legislation which follows, while pressing loudly and conspicuously for the full implementation of the insincere promises and bribes offered to the Noes*. Oh, and a credible alternative fiscal plan would be a good idea. Just in case the opportunity can be created again.
*I’m sure Murdoch would be glad to help.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-29502329…..
This is LIES…And so starts the war..in scotland
As the LibDems hadn’t paid the policing costs of last years party jamboree, why was the conference allowed to go ahead in Glasgow again this year? Why did they come back to run up another whopping great bill, then make out like bandits back down south, did they think that as they almost got away with it once, they could try the same sting operation again? This coalition are out and out dishonest crooks, they are and have been pursuing a policy of economic strangulation of Scotland, this scam is just one of many. The question is that with government in London we did not elect and repeatedly have rejected, which is outright hostile and wilfully, maliciously acting in ways damaging to Scotland, at which point will the UK electorate face the consequences of this rogue minority government founded on unprecendented secret deals, which is behaving so irresponsibly and dangerously. Time to call time on the Cameron and Clegg confidence tricksters as confidence is the last thing they inspire. The have taken leave of their senses.
Yes, the voters are too thick or evil. We should just put them in special camps, shouldn’t we, Craig? Jesus….
Brian a summary or short extract of the article would be nice generally for many people avoiding the enemy propaganda outlets, and for me specifically as all *bbc.co.uk sites are blocked at my immediately upstream dns server, and will be until the rocks melt. What’s it all about?
until the rocks melt.
Tony..its Utter Crap.. I’m not going in to if’ No’s ..Cunts hav stared their war..
“I was much cheered to see that neither the Labour nor the Conservative conferences, on their differently bizarre planets, had anything resembling an economic plan”
You see, Unionists, that is the realityn of your show, nothing very much at all. lets look at this Union in poodle shape sloping behind Obama Moose arse, who in turn is hanging on republican strings, what a union eh canspeccy, something to be proud of, no doubt.
This unions’ colonial past is nothing to be cheerished, not one bit of it and to think that you rather prefer to listen to the hobnail boots leading you by the nose through brown shite, then through your own is not clever at all.
Thanks for the many positive comments. Brian, I hope that nurse did not have a black belt in Juij juitsu and did what nurses do best,i.e. care for you after that wee hill walk….;)
Sorry Tonny..i had assumed we had watched the same alex vid….Apolz. –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO91DUMNIxU
“The people are absolutely entitled to the government they want.”
There isn’t a collective mind. There’s no such thing as “the people” who “want” – because everyone isn’t all of that one mind.
People equate majority decision making with democracy. You can’t have a society based on majority decision making with everything open to be decided by that. Society has to be based on principles like human rights which have precedence over any vote and can’t be voted out. “The people”/majority/baying mob are absolutely not entitled to any government they want.