There are two drivers behind my support for Scottish Independence.
The first and most obvious is to see our ancient land restored to the place it held so long in the community of free and self-governing nations, and end the colonial exploitation of our people and resources.
The second is to destroy that Imperialist rogue state, the United Kingdom. With the UK actively participating in the Gaza genocide through supply of arms, intelligence, military assistance and diplomatic cover, that need has become ever more acute.
Were that not bad enough, the London government is now overtly militarist and looking to provoke conflict with Russia which could lead to nuclear holocaust. There is something in the UK nationalist soul which has an addiction to war, and Keir Starmer stands in the long line of British politicians who look to increase their dire domestic popularity ratings by killing people abroad.
It is a matter of deep sadness to me that the formerly radical and pro-Independence Scottish National Party has become a classic example of a local colonial puppet elite serving the interests of the colonisers and anxious to adopt conspicuous markers of loyalty, in order to continue to benefit personally from their position in the London-ruled political Establishment.
We therefore have the Scottish National Party seeking to outdo the UK Labour Party in its militarism and commitment to needless conflict with Russia, absolutely against the interests of Scotland.
Is this what you voted for, SNP voters? pic.twitter.com/NwlgkEftcm
— Wings Over Scotland (@WingsScotland) March 5, 2025
The SNP is massively infiltrated by the UK and US security services, including at senior levels. Plus many of its leaders are easily captured by the wealth and circumstance coming from their position within the UK state.
The SNP was finished as a force for Independence when Sturgeon accepted that Scotland could only exercise its right of self-determination with the permission of London.
If you consider it coldly and logically, it cannot be a right of self-determination if it requires the permission of somebody else to exercise it.
So for me the SNP is trash, useless, a vehicle for self-enrichment of some of the most repulsive parasites of the political class.
As the SNP had succeeded in becoming the automatic recipient of the votes of the large majority of those Scots who want Independence, that is a real conundrum for progress. It is particularly galling that, now we finally have achieved a consistent and growing majority in favour of Independence, politics remains dominated by the SNP, who have no intention whatsoever of doing anything about it.
Which is where Alba comes in, the new pro-Independence movement founded by former SNP leader and Scottish First Minister, the late Alex Salmond.
I am a member of Alba, the fundamentalist Independence party which is also anti-NATO, anti-neoliberal, anti-monarchy and anti-EU membership.
I might perhaps clarify that I am now very firmly anti-EU, given its extraordinary anti-Palestinian and anti-Russian positions and its plans for massive military expansion. The EU has morphed into something very sinister indeed.
Alba is a very small political party. In Council elections it consistently pulls in low single-figure percentages, as it did in the few seats it contested in the last Westminster election.
Alba’s significance lay in that it was founded by Alex Salmond, former First Minister of Scotland and former Leader of the SNP, and the man who almost brought about Scottish Independence in the 2014 referendum.
After Alex resigned the leadership following that referendum, his successor and protege, Nicola Sturgeon, immediately set about destroying Salmond’s reputation while moving the focus of the SNP decisively away from Independence and into identity politics.
A conspiracy orchestrated by Sturgeon, through her Chief of Staff Liz Lloyd, brought in a number of Sturgeon’s close allies and confidantes to make sexual assault allegations against Salmond – of all of which he was acquitted, following a trial before a majority female jury.
Salmond was into the third year of building up his new Alba Party from scratch when he recently died suddenly, aged 69.
Despite losing Alex, there should be a real political opportunity for Alba. A radical Scottish Independence Party with the positions listed above, accords with the views of a very substantial proportion of the Scottish electorate.
Alba’s problem is that, ironically due to the pioneering achievements of Alex Salmond, voting SNP has become a reflex expression of Scottish national identity, and many voters have simply not noticed the party’s absorption into the British state narrative.
Now, for a small and new party, Alba has also faced a quite extraordinary amount of internal conflict, which may also have been in part stirred up by covert influences.
It is worth here stating that it is plain that Scottish Independence is the biggest practical threat to the UK state. Naturally the UK’s disproportionately large and well-funded security services are targeted on it. They would not be doing their job otherwise.
Let me introduce this subject anecdotally. Towards the end of 2023 I was standing for election to Alba’s national executive. The election was postponed in circumstances which were obscure. Then it was re-run.
I was in Geneva and about to enter a meeting at the UN, when Alex phoned me and told me I had been elected to the National Executive, but he wished me to stand down and not accept the seat, as there was somebody else he needed on the exec.
This obviously was unwelcome, principally because it felt like a betrayal of those who had been kind enough to nominate me and to vote for me. Who stands for election and wins, then does not take it up? It seems very irresponsible, and would justifiably damage my reputation.
But the truth is, I felt enormous personal loyalty towards Alex and a trust that, whatever he was up to, it was a strategy with the long term goal of Scottish Independence in mind. So I agreed and declined to take up my seat.
I subsequently discovered there was a large amount of controversy surrounding the results of that election, with people claiming cheating, and I believe I am correct in saying that the results were never published, with some threadbare excuse about publishing the results of an online election being a breach of the Data Protection Act.
A number of founder members of the party, people I had pounded the streets alongside in the 2014 referendum, were resigning. I phoned Alex to express concern and say the results should be published.
He told me that some people were unhappy that many new members had been signed up and voted in the election, but this was within the constitution. A faction had been out-organised, and that was their own fault.
Alex had made plain to me that his request that I stand down was confidential, and I maintained that confidence while he lived. I view that confidence as a personal commitment from which I am now released. But things continued to be very strange in the Alba Party.
The excellent Denise Findlay, who had been a major part of Alba’s organisation and drive, was forced into resignation. I learnt just in the last few days, after I told my own story on Twitter/X, that Denise had gone through precisely the same experience.
More recently, James Kelly, the valuable Scot Goes Pop blogger, was expelled from the party, apparently for criticising it. Then extraordinarily, the General Secretary, Chris McEleny, attempted to expel the Acting Leader Kenny MacAskill from the party, but ended up himself demoted.
I don’t think pretending none of this happened is a sensible option, which is why I told my own story. It remains the case that I trust both Alex’s good faith and that he had a vision for taking the party forward, on which he was working.
But I think it is fair to say that if the brilliant Salmond had an Achilles heel, it was in his judgment of people closest to him. He did not see Sturgeon coming, and indeed refused to accept her part in the plot against him until long after the evidence was undeniable.
In Alba likewise I believe some of the trouble was the extraordinarily possessive attitude towards the party of some of those with whom Alex surrounded himself. This interacted very badly with some activists who wished to see the party move forward with less deference to the leader, or even a different leader (a view I disagreed with, but to which they were perfectly entitled).
Unfortunately some of those espousing that viewpoint undermined themselves by indulging in some unpleasant character assassination and gossip mongering (not towards Alex, but his circle).
The result was a toxic mess. A small party attempting to gain a foothold cannot afford to execute many of its own best soldiers, and neither is incipient insurrection a practical working environment.
Alba will elect a new leadership shortly. I shall be supporting Kenny MacAskill and Neale Hanvey for Leader and Depute, but that implies no disrespect to anybody else.
My plea to the new leadership and the membership is to adopt an amnesty and bring everyone back in to the party. We need eventually to unite the Independence movement. How can we do that, if we cannot unite ourselves?
The party has a rule which bans from rejoining those who went public on their resignation or expulsion, and my attempts to persuade the party “establishment” we need to accept people back, has been met with turgid reference to that rule.
This is just an excuse for maintaining feud. I have also spoken to other factions who, by and large, remain embittered and alienated.
So I plead, with all, that it is time to bury the hatchet, forgive and forget, and work united towards the 2026 Scottish parliament elections.
I am happy to see that Tommy Sheridan, a giant of the Scottish left whose career was interrupted by standard sex allegations (cf. Julian Assange, Scott Ritter, Alex Salmond etc.) orchestrated by the security services and Murdoch press, is standing for the Alba executive. This is the kind of unity we need.
Scotland has the d’Hondt party list system where each voter has two votes, one for a candidate for the constituency list and one a party for the regional list, whereby an element of proportionality is introduced to the benefit of parties who failed to win constituencies despite substantive support.
It is a horrible system because it gives the party machines, rather than the electorate, the power to rank candidates (as opposed to the much more democratic Single Transferable Vote).
The position of Alba appears to be to stand as a “list only” party – to support the SNP in constituencies and ask SNP voters to support Alba on the list.
I am opposed to this approach and believe Alba should fight constituencies and the list. I do not accept the SNP is in any significant sense a pro-Independence party now. It is just a branch of the neoliberal uniparty, and a very dangerous one designed to hoover up Scottish nationalist votes.
We have a duty to oppose any party that supports British imperialist foreign policy, as the SNP does.
We also have a duty to offer the voters the chance to vote for actual Scottish self-determination and reject a London veto.
The only point in joining and supporting such a small party as Alba is to attempt to represent unrepresented positions and to affect fundamental change. That is what Alba must do. I look forward to the journey.
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Mr. Murray, I sincerely wish you good luck.
Even though currently, even in Scotland probably, most people seem to have other priorities than Scottish independence. But then obviously, such an issue needs many decades to come to a positive outcome, and so better keep fighting.
The streets of Edinburgh may not be under constant clone surveillance as those of Beirut, but even so please beware of other potential threats…
Sounds like a lot of toxic behaviour going on. Which is actually very typical of small parties, as any Trotskyite or Fascist could tell you. During my five years in the Labour Party I was struck by how different in personality the average party activist was to the average person. Certain traits enable certain people to tolerate and even enjoy activities which most folk would find tedious and irritating, such as being a treasurer or membership secretary for instance. Infiltrating a party for the benefit of some other party, or the government, would also be great fun for a certain type of person.
You should certainly assume that your party has been infiltrated from an early stage, but you can easily detect such persons by their actions, which will tend towards divisiveness, squandering of resources, and involving members in activities for which they could be vilified and/or prosecuted. However not everyone who behaves in this manner is an infiltrator. Some people just enjoy conflict for its own sake, because they feel bored or even non-existent without constant excitement. The story of the frog and the scorpion is always relevant.
Alex Salmond sounds a lot like Jeremy Corbyn in his “poor judgement of people closest to him.” Every leader needs wise counsellors who can supply qualities lacking in the leader rather than competing to show the same qualities as he or she has.
“A rule which bans from rejoining those who went public on their resignation or expulsion” sounds insane, expecting mindlessly unquestioning obedience to the leadership, and eternal shame on anyone who thinks for themselves. It implies an assumption that the “correct” policies of the party can never change, therefore any dissenter is forever outcast. But in reality there is no life without change. The mentality behind this rule is not a recipe for competent government.
The SNP get worse with every passing year. Angus Robertson embracing Israel at the height of the Gaza genocide last summer. Stewart McDonald like a mad dog towards Russia, as bad as anyone south of the border. Back when Nicola was gushing about John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Kissinger etc, I thought this is the nadir. Turned out it was only the beginning. How much longer will folk play along with this brazen UK establishment psyop?
How corrupt! For god’s sake man, you were elected and you should have told Salmon “NO”. It’s because of these sided politics Scotland in a very bad place today.
It didn’t take a genius to realize when Sturgeon ruined Salmon’s career, he was the person who was ruining the Alba chances of progress in Scottish politics. The Alba party is dead and buried; it’s never going to go anywhere, and I’m surprised that you didn’t tell Salmond he needed to stand down, because he was the noose around Alba’s neck preventing them from winning anything.
If I was going to put my backing towards any party, it’s ISP. Shut Alba down and let’s all focus on supporting ISP. For Scotland and Scottish politics the passing of Salmond isn’t sad news; its probably for the best. His EGO, and the referendum being rigged under the stupid franchise Salmond set up so he could have a photo-op with Cameron; for god’s sake, it’s Scotland that’s lost.
Alba has a chance if these elections are fair, and seen to be fair.
I have been asking questions about the buying of votes, which was claimed by James Kelly on his blog. He hasn’t answered my questions about this. This needs clearing up and the voting system has to be fair, and be seen to be fair, otherwise there will never be any meaningful reset.
There must be no favours to certain people.
Alba leadership is an agglomeration of career politicians. You were fucked before you started.
Mr. Murray went to prison because of Mr. Salmond’s case.
Did Mr Salmond say anything publicly to support Mr Murray? What was his position, his help?
But they were Great Frinds
Salmond’s heart was in the right place- he’s sorely missed – one mistake I think he made though, was giving everyone a constitutional vote in 2014 – with Scots actually voting for indy in 2014 – the incomer vote swung it for no.
The same thing happened in Wales with Brexit in mind – the Welsh didn’t vote to leave the EU – anyway there’s also the good ISP party – we can vote for them as well.
I have checked the assertion by Prof Danny Dorling that the native Welsh voted Remain in 2016. It is entirely possible.
As for the claim by Prof Ailsa Henderson that the majority of autochthonous Scots voted for Scottish independence in 2014, that is an arithmetic impossibility (based on her own figures).
That said, with polling at roughly 50/50, it is all but an arithmetical certainty that the majority of Scots born voters favour independence.
I agree with both points Vivian.
Ailsa Henderson’s Scottish Referendum Study published in 2015 states that Scottish born had a YES/NO split of 52.7%/47.3%. Within this men were 53.2%/46.8% and women 43.4%/56.6%, respectively, YES/NO. Assuming that men were 48.5% and women 51.5% of the sample (as per the population in the 2011 Census) this implies that (53.2% x 48.5% =) 25.8% men and (43.3% x 51.5% =) 22.35% of the total sample were YES. That is (25.8% + 22.4 =) 48.2% were YES.
That does not stack up with stating that 52.1% of Scottish born were YES and suggests that either the sample was not reflective of the population or incorrect characteristic weightings were used in the sample design.
More recently polling conducted by Norstat – formerly Panelbase – indicates that there is presently a majority in favour of YES among Scottish born. On average the last 5 surveys published show a YES/NO split of 52.4% / 47.6% for this cohort.
I know very little about Scottish politics but I would be very wary of Kenny MacAskill, given that he promotes the official verdict that Libya carried out the Lockerbie bombing.
He spent long enough as Scottish Justice minister to know that the evidence of Libyan guilt does not stand up to scrutiny. Still, in his 2016 book on the bombing, he wrote a deeply flawed account of how he believes the it was planned and executed.
Last year he doubled down on this version of events. Even worse, a couple of months ago he appeared to express support the trial of Libyan Abu Agila Masud in the USA:
“I have always believed he is the bomber. (…) he has been taken by the United States, Libya handed him over. He has returned and will face trial in America, I believe he will be convicted, and he is the bomber.”
What MacAskill didn’t say is that the case against Masud is based largely on a confession that he later withdrew and also that there was no legal basis for Masud’s detention and transfer to the USA. So it could be said that MacAskill is complicit in supporting the torture, abduction and illegal detention of Masud.
By doing this, he is joining many senior figures in the Scottish legal and justice system in their campaign to support the American show trial and to encourage it to find Masud (and Libya) guilty of the Lockerbie bombing. Kenny MacAskill is showing to the powers that be that he is a safe pair of hands.
Links are moved here to try to get the previous post past the spam filter:
https://www.megrahiyouaremyjury.net/?p=1145#2
https://web.archive.org/web/20241221134826/https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/lockerbie-scottish-holyrood-ian-murray-bbc-radio-b1201345.html
https://www.holyrood.com/inside-politics/view,kenny-macaskill-taking-the-radical-road
https://www.copfs.gov.uk/about-copfs/news/statement-from-the-lord-advocate-marking-35-years-since-the-lockerbie-bombing/
https://www.copfs.gov.uk/about-copfs/news/fuselage-of-lockerbie-plane-transferred-to-us-as-evidence-for-trial/
Thanks, Brendan. I regard it as highly probable, approaching certainty, that the Lockerbie bomb was placed by an as yet unknown bomber at Heathrow Airport, and not in Malta or Frankfurt. Neither of the defendants charged in the Netherlands was anywhere near Heathrow at the time. Was Abu Agila Masud at Heathrow?
Coldish: Was Abu Agila Masud at Heathrow?
Masud was in Malta at the time, along with Megrahi who was convicted of the bombing. That’s supposed to be part of the evidence against both of them, but there appears to be no way that the Libyans or anyone else could have loaded a bomb in an unaccompanied suitcase in Malta airport. Luggage security was very tight in Malta following a previous bombing, and after the Lockerbie incident Air Malta won a libel case in Britain against Granada TV for suggesting the bomb was loaded in Malta airport.
It was probably the CIA.
The CIA has earned the nickname in the USA of the Cocaine Import Agency.
Onboard the plane was Major Charles McKee who headed a group of DIA personnel. The DIA is the Pentagon’s own intelligence agency.
There is some evidence that he clashed with the CIA because of his strongly anti-drugs stance and that the plane was blown up to silence him.
Wikispooks has this on the subject:
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Charles_Dennis_McKee
On board that Pan Am flight were members of the CIA, the DIA (military intelligence) and the DEA (drug enforcement agency) as well as a drug smuggler who was an informant working for the USA. I believe the most likely cause of the crash was the accidental detonation of a bomb that was being transported by the Americans. They could have used the same procedures for loading the bomb onto the flight as were routinely used for loading packages of drugs.
Whoever was responsible, there’s no reason to believe it was the Libyans. The theory that Iran and the Palestinian PFLP-GC were behind does not convince me either.
Thank you, Craig. I was thinking of leaving, but maybe not. Decent food for thought.
Clearly, Alba is just as toxic as all the other parties. I’d go further and opine that politics itself is irredeemably broken: when creatures like Trump and Starmer, Macron and Merz are “running” things, there’s no hope of any change for the better, unless you love war and death and ethnic cleansing and you want your hard-earned tax money spent on arms and armies.
After long thought, I’ve concluded that sortition is the only answer. What happens after that is anybody’s guess but it can’t possibly be worse than what prevails as of now.
In the Referendum Scotland voted Remain by 62%. Not sure how well an anti-Eu policy is going to be received.
Good point, but a widely overlooked issue is that, despite the SNP tying independence directly to EU membership in the run-up to – and directly after – the 2016 referendum, the 60-40 split was, give or take a few %, much the same for Unionists and Nationalists. As a result, we now have 4 factions in Scottish politics;
1. No/Leave – British Nationalists, who tend to vote Tory and/or UKIP. A minority, but significant in number nonetheless
2. Yes/Remain – Civic Nationalists, who have been keen to enact Indyref2 based on the “material change in circumstances” of 2016.
3. No/Remain – Generally liberal, soft Unionists (Lib Dem voters, for instance) who are either considering their position on independence, or have already switched (for instance, Ewan McGregor, Billy Connolly, the rock band Texas)
4. Yes/Leave – Arguably the most key to the debate, as they are a broad church of hard left (Tommy Sheridan) to centre-left (Jim Sillars) and right-leaning Nationalists who have deserted the SNP (one of the new Scottish branch leaders of Reform UK, for instance). A broad church, like the pre-2015 SNP, but who have all been ignored
Partners in Crime: EU Complicity in Israel’s Genocide in Gaza
https://www.tni.org/en/publication/partners-in-crime-EU-complicity-Israel-genocide-Gaza
Things change, I voted remain but now just like Craig I want nothing to do with the EU. I’m sure there’s thousands like us. The franchise thing is a difficult topic but needs addressing. I think independence is now a tall order due to the rapidly changing demographic, it won’t be long before Edinburgh is basically an English city, nothing wrong with English folk and a few will vote indy, but the vast majority will not and who can blame them, the window of opportunity is fast closing.
“It won’t be long before Edinburgh is basically an English city, nothing wrong with English folk.”
Well don’t complain then.
Try this. “It won’t be long before London is basically a non-white city, nothing wrong with non-white folk”.
Does that sound pleasant?
It is unpleasant, and unfortunately the reality in many English cities.
I thought I was being completely non racist and nice as ninepence!
Or is it now unacceptable to even mention nationalities even in a nice and polite way?
If so what the hell is the point of all this?!
Suits me, the best thing to affect Hull since the Cod Wars was the dispersion of refugees from London, they’ve done a lot to raise the moral tone of the city. I doubt that they have been properly rewarded for it.
I agree that the EU is being ridiculous and not covering itself in glory. But any entity that we as individuals become part of is going to decide things that we disagree with and, if anything, the UK under Starmer is being even more ridiculous. We choose to be part of a larger entity because on balance it’s to our advantage. In the world as it is now, a country like the UK can’t prosper on its own as we can see after Brexit. An independent Scotland would be in an even weaker position on its own. The best anyone can do is to push for a structure where they have a decent chance of getting what they want, then argue for it in that structure. The obvious structure is an independent Scotland arguing within a globally significant EU. And for us where I am, an independent Wales inside the EU. Both much the same in size and clout as Ireland, which doesn’t do too badly out of it.
it is a long way past being ridiculous to want a war with Russia and to support genocide. that being the case, why would anybody want a globally significant EU?
I voted in the EU independence referendum because it was that rare thing, a democratic vote. Pity that local and national elections are so bent that you can’t trust them to sit on a toilet the right way round, abstaining is the only democratic choice.
Nice obituary for Alba !
Based on this report I wouldn’t go near it, it sounds a right mess. Maybe one day but not today …
A couple of posters have mentioned the ISP, which I have to confess I’ve not heard of before, so I just went on their website to have a quick gander and, not seeing anything pertaining to Gaza (and the genocide), I did a search re gaza, and zero results came up. And I got the impression from one bit of news I read on there that they don’t seem to be very keen on 20mph limits (in Glasgow, in this particular case).
And I’ve been meaning to mention for months (but keep forgetting) that I have no doubt whatsoever that psychopaths are responsible for a good percentage of road fatalities world-wide (on top of the deaths the psychopathic elites are responsible for in numerous wars and conflicts around the world), which is currently about 1.15m a year. It’s impossible to know what the percentage actually is of course, but one thing I DO know is that they don’t give a fuck, and do whatever the hell they want to do.
A couple of stats come to mind, one being that between 1% and 4% of people are psychopaths according to experts, and around one in four psychopaths are female, and another being that male drivers are some eight times more likely than female drivers to kill or seriously injure someone.
PS I just came across an article in which it says that ‘Three-quarters (77%) of drivers in Scotland think that England and Wales should follow its example of lowering the drink-drive limit.’ Good on ya (but what are the other 23% on ffs!).
‘psychopath’ is literally a synonym for mentally ill, it’s just stereotyping. From a German usage for those who weren’t overtly psychotic. A militaristic American psychiatrist Cleckley was more concerned about feckless citizens on the eve of WW2. Later his made up checklist was given a more criminal twist by Canadian psychologist Hare, who was out of his depth in prison placements.
I’ve only read about half of it (got things to do), but this article on Medium looks pretty good, entitled ‘Why the World is Run by Psychopaths and What We Should Do About It To Save The Future’, posted on October 23, 2023:
In his book, Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us, Dr. Brian Klaas a Professor of Political Science at the University College of London argues that there are four reasons that psychopaths end up in power and abuse it. The first is that they are drawn to power, and thus seek positions that wield it. Second, once they get power, they are usually the ones who are the most easily corrupted by it. The third is that the public puts the wrong people into power because we are drawn to strong male leaders because of evolutionary biology. While the appearance of physical strength might have served us on the plains of Africa when it was important to ward off a competing tribe or a pride of lions, our modern society often requires a good leader to have empathy, compassion, and political finesse [yes, but the problem is that it’s a jungle out there].
The fourth reason is that the economic system we have created for ourselves rewards people who behave psychopathically. In business characteristics like ruthlessness, lying, manipulating, and cheating are often rewarded with promotions, increased market share, and financial success….
https://medium.com/predict/why-the-world-is-run-by-psychopaths-and-what-we-should-do-about-it-to-save-the-future-6e69dc493f78
That’s an article by an international politics guy, citing same. But they’re using an (outdated pseudo) medical term. Even trying to claim it can be identified in toddlers. There is of course neurodiversity, but it’s more complex and context-dependent.
I do believe the evolutionary context is crucial. But however far back you go, hominids were navigating social ingroups, as far as I know. Alliances (close kin or just reciprocal) could always outdo one’s physical strength socially (in sexual selection context too).
Quite agree, it harks back to the ‘menace to society’ moral panic that has done so much harm to so many harmless people. The ‘menace to society’ myth harks back to the fantasy of the succubus and incubus. Best to ignore these American pseudo-scientific frauds.
You’re mistaken if you think speed and alcohol limits are anything to do with protecting the public. It’s about the arbitrary exercise of powers by egotistical and usually religious fanatics. When have more laws and more restrictions ever created a better and safer society. Maybe you also think more CCTV and facial recognition will also lead us to some sort of nirvana ?
You are spouting rubbish SB
Are you saying they should be putting forward a position on an invasion of a self-governing territory in the middle east, why exactly? Because it’s been the worst mass murdering?
The Palestine Authority doesn’t even seem to be in this list
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secession
(For some reason that article only covers Iranian Kurdish movement tho, despite https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurdish_nationalism )
Because they are a British political party and Britain is a key actor in a genocide that is horrifying the world.
Wiki is not to be trusted on anything that adverts to American Caesar’s interests. It’s a good example of Chomsky and Mearsheimer’s five filters.
Small side note regarding (anti-)NATO and (anti-)EU — since January of 2023, the EU and NATO have a strategic partnership. I have seen this barely mentioned by any of the more well-known alt-media pundits, but there you have it.
See the “Joint Declaration on EU-NATO Cooperation” at natohq official_texts_210549.
“1 The NATO-EU strategic partnership is founded on our shared values, our determination to tackle common challenges and our unequivocal commitment to promote and safeguard peace, freedom and prosperity in the Euro-Atlantic area. (…)
(…)
(…)
Signed at Brussels on 10 January 2023 in triplicate.
Charles Michel President of the European Council
Ursula von der Leyen President of the European Commission
Jens Stoltenberg Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization”
The infighting in Alba makes me think that the UK secret services may have infiltrated Alba and successfully used divide-and-conquer tactics to subvert it. Maybe Alba needs a vetting service of its own, that can discern true from false professions of belief in its principles – a difficult thing, I imagine, if at all possible. I’m not in favour of the subversion I referred to, because, although I’m not a supporter of Scottish independence, nor do I live in Scotland, if a moral majority of Scots (e.g. 55% or more) really wanted out of the UK, I wouldn’t be for stopping them. The fact is, however that opposite happened in an actual referendum over a decade ago.
Talk about oxymorons !
Alba is a word that in Latin means the epitome of purity !
But since there’s apparently more than a full year to go before elections in Scotland, there’s possibly still time to make things look better for the constituency.
I wonder whether the late ‘Alex’ would have enjoyed the current situation. Better watch him a few years ago interview for his show the gracious host of this blog. You can instantly tell how close the 2 of them were.
https://youtu.be/6khYblu38WA?si=VKc_jFFRHoDkl4dZ
The Scottish Gaelic word “alba” is curiously related to the Latin word “albus” meaning “white”.
I reckon this young lad knew something:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDuHXTG3uyY
Why curiously? It seems rather natural…
Singular, plural, it necessarily takes all kinds…
Thanks for joining!
The Scottish electoral system is only partially D’hondt. It’s actually a copy of the pre 2013 German system without subsequent changes to equalise seat distribution. The D’hondt calculation system does allow party lists containing names which voters can reorder (the Netherlands does this).
Incidentally STV in Ireland was introduced by the UK under the 1914 Government of Ireland Act.
Craig, regarding your comments early in this piece about the British and European Parliaments being war mongerers in their stance towards Ukraine, I have to disagree with your analysis. With the USA departing the conflict I believe it’s essential for Europe to display a strong and united front in order to gain some bargaining power with Putin in order to achieve a just settlement. While I completely agree with your analyses in earlier articles that Putin is not interested in repossessing the European satellite States that were part of the former Soviet Union and also that provocation by the West (through Nato etc.) has stoked the current debacle, never the less I believe it’s essential to gain a ‘just’ peace that can then be built on in the future. If Putin is seen to win the current conflict it will simply cause NATO and European countries to double down on their resistance to any activity that might be of mutual benefit to Russia and Europe.
That latter point is important I believe because Russia in the future has the potential to play an enormous part in world economics due not least to climate change. As the planet warms, more parts of Russia will become habitable and agriculturally viable. With its immense size and relatively small population, Russia could accommodate millions of economic migrants fleeing both climate change and wars. For these reasons alone I think we need to establish good relations with Russia based on mutual respect and rolling over to Putin’s current aggression is not a great start. Above all we need European organisations to feel confident that investment in Russia is a viable objective and the best way to achieve that is via a mutually respectful relationship.
What is ‘just’ ?
IMO Russia is the victim, so a just settlement would see Russia receiving huge compensation payments from the aggressors/criminals the EU, UK, five eyes and the USA.
So, the reality is that there will be no just settlement, just a fudged compromise.
‘Huge compensation payments’? What for? How many Russian civilians have died? How many Russian cities laid waste? Children kidnapped and women raped?
They will certainly receive “huge compensation payments”, whether deserved or not, since the Orange Führer (“art of the deal”) is ready to give up half of the minerals in Ukraine to Vlad, so he can boast “I said peace, and peace there is”.
In this case, rather piecemeal !!!
Except that “Vlad” knows and, presumably Trump knows that Zelensky has already promised the minerals to Starmer.
In any case, this is all pretty hypothetical. The minerals are just sitting there on the surface, waiting for someone to come and pick them up. Accessing them is going to require a very large sum of money indeed, which is why they are still there and haven’t been exploited already. The whole thing is a bit like those emails you get from the relatives of a deceased Nigerian prince, who just want a little of your money to unlock a vast fortune sitting in a bank somewhere.
for everybody killed by the warmongering US and its subservient European bootlickers in support of neonazis in Ukraine. for sanctions and theft of property.
Quite a lot in Donbas, courtesy of the US-Ukronazi einsatzgruppen of the Azov battalion, Aidar etc.
war mongerers in their stance towards Ukraine, I have to disagree with your analysis.
Joking Right
Philip Maughan
Capitalist ( note that word carefully ) Russia ( not Communist then) – ( note that phrase carefully too) applied to join the EU and NATO way before ‘ the West (through Nato etc.) has (had – my edit) stoked the current debacle ‘
and were firmly rejected on both counts.
Trump sees an in with Russia to attempt to break Russia away from China and the BRICS.
If the US can cool things down by doing that then ( and only then ) will they consider attacking China.
The real threat to American economic power.
He’s not just a pretty face you know.
Trump is finding out how much things are worth and how much money he can get from upturning them.
These include items that haven’t been thought of in that way so directly before. Things like
* the borders with Canada and Mexico
* US NATO membership
* the operation of law firms in ways he doesn’t like
* the existence of the Department of Education
* federal government jobs
Soon they may include
* US UN membership
* not sanctioning or jailing Supreme Court judges
* not telling state administrations they can f*** off
* not openly killing people in the USA for disrespecting him
* keeping embassies in certain countries and keeping diplomatic relations open with them
* keeping military forces in certain countries (e.g. Germany)
There is no way this is going to last four years.
This is the executive order he made against the law firm Perkins Coie:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/addressing-risks-from-perkins-coie-llp/
( ^ If there’s anything funny about that document, it’s that Trump or whoever wrote it for him clearly doesn’t know the meaning of the word “egregious”. They say “This egregious activity is part of a pattern.” Ha!! If something’s egregious, that means it’s NOT part of a pattern.)
We can infer from this that although Biden gave pardons to several people whom Trump might have indicted (whether in civil or military courts), they didn’t shield everyone who was open to such attack.
I won’t be surprised if he tries to jail
* Hillary Clinton
* George Soros
* Barack Obama (who has mocked him in public and even suggested that Trump has a tiny willy)
* cultural figures who’ve dissed him, e.g. on Saturday Night Live
An example from today:
* Trump has pulled $400m from Columbia University in NYC because there have been anti-genocidal protests there. (The press release or monkey statement says they
dared to disrespect genocidalist“failed to protect” Jews.)https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/doj-hhs-ed-and-gsa-announce-initial-cancelation-grants-and-contracts-columbia-university
There will be more.
What there should be is a general strike. Hopefully the idea of having one will build among opponents of the government. Why wait to be sacked?
I used to hold Alex Salmond in extremely high regard, he was by far the best political leader Scotland has had in contemporary times. However, in the last year or so I found out something about Alex that knocked him right of the pedestal I had placed him on. It concerns these two linked events:
During an Alba Party conference Sara Salyers made the following plea to the Party to include in policy a commitment to Direct Democracy for a newly independent Scotland: Sara Salyers Speech at Alba Conference The speech and policy proposal were well received by rank-and-file members. But Alex was vehemently opposed to it, as were other high heid yins in the party. By a series of manoeuvres Alex and the high heid yins arranged for the policy proposal to be crushed and buried. What this demonstrated for me is that at heart Alex and the high heid yins in Alba, were and are no democrats, Alex’s so-perceived affinity for the common man and women was a mask for his at heart autocratic core.
In response Sara Salyers resigned her membership of Alba as can be read here: Going Public And Why Sara Salyers Resigns From Alba
When I found all this out I was a member of Alba but resigned my membership over the Direct Democracy issue and to my mind corrupt manoeuvrings on the issue by the high heid yins.
Nowadays, I find myself questioning if I will vote Alba — if I did so under current circumstances it would be grudged — or, by preference, should I, if I have the option, vote Independence for Scotland Party (ISP) which does support Direct Democracy and are broadly of a (traditional-style left-leaning) Socialist tenor. This is the pass that I am at now.
Light on the horizon is the possibility of Tommy Sheridan gaining a position of influence in Alba, I think that would be a positive step forward.
For the current manoeuvrings on leadership of Alba I do not have a good feeling. It all, for me, hinges on if the leadership will embrace Direct Democracy for an independent Scotland: or is to be more of the same autocratic rule of Parliamentary Sovereignty to be pushed on the peoples of Scotland, with all the lies, subterfuges and ego-mania that such a system entails.
If we are going to have independence it needs to be an independence worth having that involves all the peoples of Scotland having real political clout on what the politicians are doing or are failing to do. We need to get the politicians on a very firm leash for the future: they are either servants of the people or they are out.
Peter,
I am afraid that I cannot agree with you, and I was actually there. I support the work of Salvo and Liberation and indeed am now actively involved.
But there was nothing untoward about the debate you mention. Essentially the motion offered gave a false dichotomy between pursuing the Salvo style constitutional arguments and continuing as a traditional political party. The debate was perfectly fair. It is true the leadership spoke against, but the debate was not rigged and nor was the vote.
Can you summarise in 1-2 sentences what “a commitment to Direct Democracy for a newly independent Scotland” means.
“Light on the horizon is the possibility of Tommy Sheridan gaining a position of influence in Alba, I think that would be a positive step forward.”
Go the whole hog and make that grass’s pal Paul Ferris head of security for all the iScottish government’s most important buildings.
PS Do you always speak in such clichés? (Light on the horizon, positive step forward, position of influence, direct democracy.) I’d call the Ferris proposal well equitable, going forward, especially in light of climate change, artificial intelligence, safeguarding, and the need to combat modern slavery for today’s consumer, going forward, and also given climate change, compliance requirements, the need for vigilance, and social media, and soon the ancient nation will rise in glory and splendour as dawn comes at last.
You are ignoring that the ISP also exists and has done for a good 18 months at least before Alba arrived, late, for the 2021 election.
ISP is much more of a women’s rights party than Alba is. We are also not keen on NATO and in favour of joining EFTA to regain membership of the Single Market & Customs Union. This can also be done quickly and easily and the other EFTA members want iScotland to join.
http://www.isp.scot
I agree the ISP are much more my preferred choice and if I have the option I would be voting for them. I recently took out membership of ISP and am very happy with that decision. Going for membership of EFTA I very much think best thing that Scotland could do — a far superior option to membership of the EU which now has Evil Empire and anti-democrat ambitions.
If I don’t have the option of voting ISP then I would consider any advisory stance promoted by the ISP on who to vote for in my constituency and list vote. Hopefully I won’t need that and an ISP vote will be possible for both.
I have nothing against ISP and wish them well. It has not however demonstrated any potential to win votes that I have seen.
It’s demonstrated a similar potential to win votes as Alba, Boss. Case in point: At the last General Election, the ISP’s leader, Colette Walker – who is a disability campaigner and political activist, but who has never been so much as a local councillor – came last with 296 votes (0.6%) in East Renfrewshire*. Compare this with the acting leader of Alba, Kenny MacAskill – who was an MSP for 16 years, seven of them as a minster in the Scottish Government, and a Westminster MP for five years, representing Alba for more than three of them – getting just 638 votes (1.5%) in Alloa & Grangemouth, and who would have come last had it not been for Galloway’s Workers Party (who you may have some familiarity with). Alba’s Neale Hanvey did a bit better in Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath, the seat he won for the SNP five years prior, but still came second-to-last with 1132 votes (2.8%). Remember, this was all at a time when the late Alex Salmond, the nearest that the Independence movement has ever come to having a talisman, was at Alba’s helm.
* She was just pipped by the candidate from the continuity Liberal Party, whose previous contribution to Scottish politics involved their candidate in the last Scottish Parliament elections and his entourage being removed from the Glasgow count for wearing arm-bands with Stars of David on them and making Nazi salutes at Humza Yousaf.
Just one more thing: Unlike Mssrs Hanvey & MacAskill, Ms Walker’s surname will have placed her at the bottom of the ballot paper (9th out of 9). It’s been shown that in two-horse race UK local election wards, the order a candidate appears on the ballot accounts on average for 0.6% of their vote, in favour of candidate at the top. This effect is even greater in elections with several candidates. A good example of this is the 2021 Chessington South local by-election where – taking advantage of a change in electoral law meaning that, rather than the previous ten, only two subscribers per candidate were required – no fewer than 13 Official Monster Raving Loony Party candidates stood. As you can see, along with nearly half of them managing to beat the socialist, the Loony candidates with (made-up) surnames starting with B or C did far better than those with ones starting with R or S*:
https://www.andrewteale.me.uk/leap/ward/478/#2021-05-06
* Despite having a surname beginning with A, Baron von Achenbach didn’t do as well as all but one of the Loonies with surnames starting with B or C. That’s because people don’t generally favour foreign sounding names. For more info, see Chapter 28 of ‘Sex, Lies and the Ballot Box’, edited by Philip Cowley & Robert Ford.
Since both Palestine and Russia have been mentioned in this thread, I asked ChatGPT which countries are both pro-Palestine and pro-Ukraine, judging from votes in the UN. The answer was:
Australia: In December 2024, Australia voted in favor of a UN resolution calling for an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories, aligning with 156 other countries, including the UK and Canada.
More recently, Australia supported a UN resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, diverging from the stance of the United States under President Donald Trump.
European Union (EU) Countries: EU member states have generally supported Ukraine in UN votes. For instance, in October 2022, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution ES-11/4, which declared Russia’s annexation of Ukrainian territories invalid. This resolution passed with 143 votes in favor, including those from EU countries.
Additionally, EU leaders have met to discuss and support Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russian aggression.
Canada: Canada has historically supported both Palestinian rights and Ukraine’s sovereignty. In December 2024, Canada joined other nations in voting for the UN resolution demanding an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.
Similarly, Canada has consistently backed Ukraine in UN votes concerning territorial integrity and sovereignty.
United Kingdom (UK): The UK has shown support for both causes. In December 2024, the UK voted in favor of the UN resolution calling for an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.
The UK has also supported Ukraine in UN votes addressing the Russian invasion and annexation attempts.
I note with satisfaction that His Majesty’s Dominions, including those beyond the seas, support the Right causes, a tribute to their Commonwealth values 😊
More than once I have listed for you personally the many ways in which the UK Government is aiding the mass murder of a defenceless population in Gaza.
That’s aside from all the times you’ve seen Craig list them over the past 16 months, including at the beginning of the article you posted this under.
So what are you doing? How can anybody in receipt of that knowledge respond by saluting these people? Bought-off sociopaths lending your country’s weight to the most depraved and degenerate acts imaginable? What do you think you are ever going to get back from them in return?
Answering your four questions in turn:
(a) I would say that I am promoting idealism, specifically related to the UK.
(b), (c) UK politicians are not a static community. Because of their relationship to Commonwealth values (varying with individuals), it is always possible that they can be persuaded to turn against injustice. I don’t say it will always be quick or easy.
(d) Most likely nothing
I don’t get it I’m afraid.
War news:
the Polish government has promised to introduce compulsory military training for every adult male – presumably under a certain age.
Meanwhile, Slawomir Mentzen, leader of the New Hope party that has a crown as its symbol, is doing increasingly well in the polls for the May 2025 presidential election – or at least, he has been since Trump retook office on 20 Jan:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_2025_Polish_presidential_election#/media/File:First_Round_Polish_2025_Presidential_Polling.svg
Oh and…Mentzen is anti-Banderist!
He promises to ban abortion, reduce immigration, and cut state spending, and he is on record as proposing to “register gays”.
If no candidate gains 50%, there will be a second round, as in France. The way the momentum is going, Mentzen could easily be in it.
Brian Red
According to your link, Mentzen is at 16%.
Tragic that Poland, like the USA, has a minority who support deranged neofascists.
@JK – But look at the momentum. The two leaders have fallen from 40% and 27% to 33% and 23%, while Mentzen has risen from 11% to 18%, with a fast rise since Trump took office. He’s the only one rising. The others are all falling.
That looks like Musk money.
Trump won a majority of the national vote in USA.
Coming as a little surprise, the Orange führer just gently threatened Russia with new sanctions and tariffffs, if Vlad doesn’t bend over like Ze has now agreed to do.
Nice gesture, even though we all know where his heart is…
In other news, Don said nothing about Scotland, but let’s keep our fingers crossed. He could hopefully decide to turn the Country (capital C) into the largest golf course south of Mars. And when he makes that choice, no need for a referendum. Even King Charlie will find it appropriate, for the sake of the environment…
Or he could bribe and threaten his way to taking over Greenland, then do the same for the Faroe Islands, make them the 51st and 52nd states, and then, whaddayaknow, there’s a territorial dispute between the USA and Britain over Rockall.
Of course if Scotland is independent by then, it would be a territorial dispute between the USA and Scotland, given that Rockall is as any fule kno part of Harris.
Mhairi Black, voice of radical Scottish youth, was on the BBC last night calling for massive British and European arms expenditure. This is what’s getting fed to Scots youth in the 21st century as ‘socialism’ and progressive nationalism: beggaring the poor in order to prolong death and human misery in distant lands.
I’m afraid Wang Yi is basically right. If every nation goes “my country first”, we’re back to the law of the jungle. And if so, Scotland will never be a republic, Palestinians never have a homeland again, and Ukraine be torn apart forever.
Activism is GOOD. And it must be to the benefit of the whole planet, not just to please some nostalgic bigots.
Thanks for sharing this Craig. I was one of those founding members who quit because of the shenanigans. I’ve been a lifelong admirer and follower of Alex, from age of 10 when I first helped deliver SNP literature despite Ardler and most of Dundee being Red Tory.
The infighting and subsequent purge really put me off and was enough to get me to cancel my membership and I know I’m not the only one. Denise and others were doing a great job, then suddenly they were out. It was as bad as the SNP.
There needs to be some form of truth and reconciliation. I’m still not convinced that voting for Alba will achieve any change, even with the upmost respect for Kenny and Tasmina. Alex was
one of a kind we’ll not see the likes of again. We need an absolute monster, someone huge to replace him and I just don’t see anyone right now that can fill his shoes without any taint or bias that turns people away from the message or cause. We need some gigantic, uniting figure who can speak to all ages but especially the young folks who have no interest in the traditional party structures of branches, national executive etc. To me, stop following the red and blue Tory structures and follow how other nations did it to achieve independence is the way.
“It is a horrible system because it gives the party machines, rather than the electorate, the power to rank candidates”
I assume you are referring to the ordering of candidates within the party list. The cure for this is the system used in the Australian Capital Territory, where the ordering of candidates is different on different ballot papers.
look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robson_Rotation
The problem with most list systems is that votes are cast for one or another list of candidates. Depending on how the votes are cast, some number (possibly zero) of candidates are elected off each list but the voters have no say in which candidates from each list, only how many. It’s the parties that choose the candidates and their order of being elected. Because the lists inevitably cover multiple constituencies, it’s the central party machines that make those decisions, not individual constituency parties or associations. If you’re a candidate for a major party and you’re at the top of the list, you’re almost certain to be elected whether the party does well or badly. If you’re at the bottom of the list, you have no chance no matter how good a candidate you are or how hard and well you campaign. So the incentive is to back-stairs crawl to the party leadership and the membership and voters be damned. We used to have an excellent and popular MEP but when they went to a list system, he was too left-wing for the leadership so to the bottom of the list and out of the European Parliament he went.
It is as futile to hope for a change in the personality of a party as it is for a change in the personalities of those who lead it.
Couldn’t agree more. When Alba was being established, I pushed for Alex to apologise for his role in promoting Sturgeon. It would have been a wise strategic move, but members of the new party online reacted with the toxicity which they had become accustomed to and Kirk Torrance kicked me off the new Facebook page. What a mess. Under Alex, a small clique was empowered to tighten party discipline. This led to a culture of anti-intellectualism and acolytes – who were prone to woke politics thrived making them vulnerable to UK establishment infiltration. This clique adopted poor policies which lost the referendum despite almost being carried over the line by the YES movement which the party arrogantly blamed for their defeat. A plurality of independence parties will create healthy competition and hoover up 1st and and votes for independence. Something I argued for a long time ago, but PRO-SNP fanatics attacked. Their brand SNP fanatacism was encouraged by online bloggers who encouraged a culture of victimhood which has set the cause of independence back a generation. When independence parties are first and second in Scotland, we’ll have the right dynamic to take us across the finish line. We will have to.build our own media as places like The National were obviously part of the attempt to undermine independence which is why so many controlled opposition figures are invited to write for them…
Or in short they’re a bunch of one-dimensional politician c***s, dickheads and super bores whom know self-respecting person would want to breathe the same air as, and whose most interesting stories are as boring as f*** except to show that some people never learn, which I already knew.
If you wanted to attack Sturgeon, how about publicising the fact that she’s lied about her sexuality for decades and her marriage is completely fake. Play dirty. She does. The roaring of the ancient nation requires such ruthless toughness from its loyal sons. Lol.
But then, revenge or not, you could only be addressing extreme perverts if you tried to interest them in the sex life of Ms. Sturgeon.
Should you even use AI, and produce a deep fake showing her doing a 69 with Mrs. Starmer, née Alexander, you would probably still get less views on YouTube than Craig, with his million viewers for free speech crusades.
Madison
Two things ‘sell ‘ in the UK and the US.
Patriotism and salacity.
Patriotism sells itself – it’s easy.
Create an enemy and you will duly receive an enemy of an enemy.
Salacity though peaks interest more easily.
If a story on the news was just about violence then the audience will nod sagely – sighing – ‘ It was ever thus. ‘
If you put a hint of sex in the mix then that will get more of hearing than anything, maybe even more than the threat of an imminent Nuclear War.
A Puritanical streak still exists in these two countries.
Comes under the MSM terms of ‘ The Public’s Right To Know ‘
In the Public Interest.
That’s usually called nosiness.