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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Why would you try and fix a broken plate?
If Independence for Scotland is still large in peoples minds, then there is a basis to form a ‘True Independence party,’ including all those goals past and new you mentioned in your resumee above, backed up by good reasoning, and put it to the wider public and ex Indy activists.
Alba has painted itself into the corner of an ice house and the wrangling will not stop, imho. Your profile is positive and people know you spoke up for Independence more than once and around the country and isles.
Tommy Sheridan has also got a fairly good profile, despite the bile thrown at him. I am sure that between you another hundred would follow.
But as mentioned by Pete, the trouble makers will also try and appear helpful. An oath sworn to achieve Independence might be a good start for new active members.
Start anew and let those you trust in Alba know about it. Good luck.
Watching the President of Ireland Michael Higgins – shake hands with both French and Irish rugby players in Ireland today – had me picturing the late great Alex Salmond doing the same at Murrayfield, in an independent Scotland, sadly Salmond is gone – but never forgotten.
And if you’re inclined to favor Russia against Ukraine in the ongoing conflict, you can now finally rejoice. Celebrate!
Thanks to the Don/Elon shared presidency, the little green men have now decided to suppress Ukrainian access to US intelligence (read satellite imagery and Starlink eavesdropping). This kind of intelligence is not artificial at all! And obviously, nobody else can provide the same at short notice. Europe would need 2 years to take over…
The art of the deal. Choke the ones you previously promised to support. Embrace those who were officially your enemies. Why did nobody think of this earlier?
This is nonsense. Politicians hanker for war; they want to be seen as “great leaders”. Goering, in the famous interview with Gustave Gilbert, explained how they manipulate the public. Everyone should read this interview.
Any public, in any country, can be manipulated into supporting war. It works in England, it would work in Scotland – as Goering said, it works everywhere.
A good book on the manipulation of the public is Vance Packard’s ‘ The Hidden Persuaders ‘, 1957.
In the chapter ‘Politics and the Image Builders’ the following line:
” Are Americans in their dislike for politicians looking for a heroic leader of the totalitarian type?”
With the media today people seem cajoled into wanting a quick fix, and the totalitarian type, it seems , is the shoe-in candidate for quick fixes and simple words. Of course the whole show has been updated for the modern, err, more sophisticated voter. We have moved from the politics of illusion to delusion.
Now it seems the chosen leader is the type that demoralises their own nation with the hope that a percentage will opt for anti-depressants or statins.
The book is worth a read, but there are a few typos in it.
To the Goering quote and the Packard recommendation, I’d add Bernays’s book “Propaganda” (which Goering rated highly) and also Le Bon’s book on crowd psychology.
On Goering the person, it’s kinda interesting how today’s regime scribes (“historians” etc.) say he was a drug addict that other Nazi leaders didn’t listen to, when you only have to look at stills and film from the Nuremberg trial to see from the body language that he was obviously the leading figure among the defendants.
Nobody hankers for war more than the British, invariably thousands of miles from their own borders and for transparently dishonest reasons. Their role in all these wars is no more than a useless American sidekick, but it is sold (to themselves) as “punching above our weight”!
Not the British, but the British government. If there was a war, the politicians and their families would be the first to dodge any draft. It’s easy to call for war when your life is not on the line.
Aw man, I wish I could agree. However the identification of most British with their ruling class is extremely strong. I know too many who when it comes to foreign affairs refer to them as “we”! A large majority are always up for any war going and will always persuade themselves it is righteous, no matter what basic common sense should tell them.
Agreed. But that’s all part of the brainwashing every citizen endures from birth to death. The Church, Schools, the MSM, etc. I doubt any state is free from the same.
@Xavi
“(T)he identification of most British with their ruling class is extremely strong. I know too many who when it comes to foreign affairs refer to them as “we”!.”
Compare the prevalence of the we-y disgustingness with its prevalence in other countries though. It’s at about the same level as it is in Scandinavia, Russia, Ireland, and even Germany and France where everyone fiddles their tax. Sometimes “we” is heard in Germany and France in the meaning of what they call “Europe”, meaning the EU, but this doesn’t undermine the observation. It’s still pro ruling class (lack of) consciousness.
It’s terrifyingly and foully high in all these places. It is in Scotland too, although it works a bit differently because Scotland isn’t independent.
Have you found differently?
Somewhere like Romania is a bit better, where many when they went for Covid jabs slipped the nurse or medic a few bob to shoot it in the sink. Many in Britain outside of London wouldn’t have the sense in a month of Sundays. Gotta believe Sir on the telly. Sir loves us all.
Punching above what weight? All it means is they feel unworthy of their permanent seat on the UN Security Council given that they destroyed their “home” territory’s productive base and haven’t bothered investing in it for 50 years except to build tall skyscrapers for money laundering headquarters in London’s “international financial district” – and despite only being allowed nukes and even some of their “own” warplanes on permission from the “septics” across the ocean who keep the keys to them. (You can see why the poshies love Singapore – they’re f***ing jealous.)
That’s why they walk with such straight backs. Over-compensation for low self esteem. Another factor is that their parents couldn’t stand the sight of them and therefore sent them to boarding schools where they took pride in not having emotions or caring about women. Deep down they know they’re a sh*t stain on the toilet of humanity.
I detest those b*stards more than any Scottish separatist ever will! Try and catch me up if you can, Scottish separatists 🙂
“Special relationship” is a hilarious term. It means “we roll over for the USA even more than France does”. Imagine being proud of something like that.
The ‘special relationship’ is of the epstein variety,
Yes, it is not the first time our host has generalised and denigrated everyone in the UK and alluded to the Scots being exceptual. Unfortunately, the SNP and the rest just demonstrate that the Scots are just like the rest of us, no better, no worse. The problem is our governments, they are all the same, but we need to remember the people are not the government. A nationalistic viewpoint is never going to deliver unity.
It’s demonstrably true. The Falklands War turned round Thatcher’s popularity. Starmer’s sabre rattling has boosted his popularity.
I find the constant idealisation of the working classes amusing. They have been sunject to a lifetime of propaganda conditioning and deprived of education that would enable them to see through it. They are not sitting round reading Proudhon.
As I remember it, the Tories (Officials) were recovering in the polls before the war.
Evening Craig, I think you put that rather well.
Apparently, the choices in Canada to replace Trudeau are between Chrystia Freeland and Mark Carney. Unbelievable. A nazi bitch and a banking shyster – Oh Canada !
Canadian PM-designate Carney won the four-horse race to be the Canuck Liberal Party’s leader with nearly 87% of the vote, Stevie, despite not even being an MP! Shades of last year’s UKIP leadership election there, in which newbie Lois Perry* beat Kipper stalwart Bill Etheridge with a similar percentage of the vote – though at least in the case of the Libs, the percentage tallies for each candidate added up to 100.
* She went on to resign a short while later in the midst of the party’s actual General Election campaign. UKIP’s current acting leader, Nick Tenconi, has now been in place longer than 6 out of 8 of their most recent non-acting leaders.
No interest in UKIP, though must say Lois Perry is very tasty. Eye candy for the Faragistas …
However, let’s not forget the role Carney played in the economic gutting of the UK whilst he was in charge of the Bank of England. The man is a WEF/EU grifter and provides a good case for banning any ‘foreigner’ from running UK institutions. IMO
Thanks for your reply Stevie. I’d say she looks like a poor man’s Cate Blanchett. She’s also had quite a bit of work done. We used to refer to Carney as ‘Mark Carnage’ back in the day – which wasn’t really that long ago, even if for me it seems like another lifetime. Let’s just say we weren’t big fans of the BoE’s zero interest rates policy, and even less of QE* which, among much else, is the main reason a 1st class stamp will soon cost £1.70.
* I remember we once got a taxi back from a night out in the Boro with our mate Ash, and were drunkenly arguing in the back seat about macroeconomics (as you do). The following day we found out from Ash that the taxi driver had told him he hadn’t a clue what we were arguing about, but we seemed to be on the same side. It was never gonna last, was it.
USAwatch:
“As President Trump seeks to purge the federal government of “woke” initiatives, agencies have flagged hundreds of words to limit or avoid, according to a compilation of government documents.”
You can see the NYT list of these words here:
https://archive.is/BPkF9
They include, among many others:
accessible
bias
disability
discrimination
diverse
equality
equal opportunity
ethnicity
female
Gulf of Mexico
identity
immigrants
inequality
injustice
mental health
minority
oppression
political
pollution
prejudice
privilege
prostitute
race
racism
segregation
sex
sexuality
status
stereotype
transsexual
trauma
underprivileged
underrepresented
victim
women
Newspeak Dictionary (US English) now available from Amazon and all good booksellers.
Not just available; compulsory.
a leaked New York Times memo tells journalists not to use the words “genocide”, “ethnic cleansing” or “occupied territory”.
https://theintercept.com/2024/04/15/nyt-israel-gaza-genocide-palestine-coverage/
simultaneously the New York Times published a completely fabricated expose on “systematic rape” by Hamas.
Doublethink and Newspeak – are all the fashion.
https://off-guardian.org/2025/03/10/the-deep-states-war-on-truth-waged-with-doublespeak-delusion-and-propaganda/
there is no lie too outrageous to just throw out there.
“Ukraine has been seeking peace since the very first second of the war, and we have always said that the only reason it continues is Russia.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський
@ZelenskyyUa
10:57 AM – Mar 10, 2025
https://x.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1899052038832484575
Zoot
Yes, Ukraine’s reluctance to ‘make peace’ reminds me of Churchill’s pointless unwillingness to engage with National Socialist Germany’s generous offers to make peace with England.
Happily Churchill was overthrown by patriotic Englishmen and hanged for treason after a fair trial.
The new Sir Oswald Mosley led government joined Germany in the necessary and victorious war against Bolshevism – albeit as a junior partner in the expanded Axis. /sarc
“Newspeak Dictionary (US English) now available from Amazon and all good booksellers.”
That wouldn’t be so bad if it gave approved alternatives to the deprecated words. Otherwise we are just having to make up our own euphemisms. Cockney rhyming slang would be a good starting point.
Just up:
Joe Lauria reporting:
FBI Due to Release List of Seth Rich Files Monday
https://consortiumnews.com/2025/03/09/fbi-due-to-release-list-of-seth-rich-files-monday/
Now I doubt there will be huge revelations but since this topic has been discussed here repeatedly I guess it is of interest.
oh and I forgot:
Georgescu excluded from Romania elections
so all kinds of cool stuff going on
besides Germany and the EU navigating us right into the financial abyss and no opposition.at.all.
“Financial abyss”… 21 March is 2025 Q1’s triple witching day on the derivatives markets.
Brace!
Until I read your comment, I had always thought Germany was part of the EU. My bad.
Otherwise, about Romania, not to worry. Georgescu is a favorite of Elon & Donald. They certainly have the means to turn tables around before election day. They’re really good at that…
With Putin backing him as well he can’t lose!
A company involved in that disgusting Trump Musk Gaza video is getting some good advertising out of it a few days later:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/mar/06/trump-gaza-ai-video-intended-as-political-satire-says-creator
I don’t believe for a single moment that this was a couple of guys with designer stubble doing it for fun or to “start a debate”. This type of followup advertising has occurred before, after Israelis have got in the news for something or other. Three days later you see front-page articles advertising a product or service in relation to whatever the story was. I’m not saying this was the reason for the video. It’s just a cash-in from it on top of the original payment or “community kudos gain”.
A video like that takes a lot of resources and is way out of the league of a couple of startup turds putting in their own money only.
“So for me the SNP is trash, useless, a vehicle for self-enrichment of some of the most repulsive parasites of the political class.”
And thus sadly is where all nationalist movements end up however grand their oratory
The nation state has outlived its usefulness. Not a single problem the world faces can be solved within the confines of nation states. Nationalism divides people, to the benefit of the super-rich oligarchs
Time to move on Craig
You forgot to tell him what you have moved on to. Probably worth mentioning if you want him to follow.
Given the above, how should a Scotland transitioning to Independence deal with:
1) the lifelong duty of some its citizens under UK Official Secrets (who have been civil servants or signed the Act)
2) foreign, corporate or other assets or officers whose role or activity becomes treasonous (petty, not capital)
?
Mark Hirst, talking with Alex Salmond.
“I have never claimed to be “smarter than Alex Salmond” (or indeed dumber) but I did directly ask him, in 2018, why he did not see Nicola’s flaws long before she took over in 2014.
Candid as ever, Alex responded by saying, “I didn’t realise she was a f**king pathological liar then, did I?”…
It’s a fair point. “
Canada is clearly a textbook example of why the protracted efforts by Craig Murray and a handful of idealists to advocate for an independent Scotland are destined to fail in the foreseeable future.
Today is absolutely the time of a renewal of Empires. China, Russia, America. So Canada is essentially in a position towards the United States comparable to that of Ukraine towards Russia. Too close for independence.
Besides escalating the trade war through skyrocketing tariffs, the Donald has made clear he wants to annex Canada:
“The artificial line of separation drawn many years ago will finally disappear, and we will have the safest and most beautiful Nation anywhere in the World – And your brilliant anthem, “O Canada,” will continue to play, but now representing a GREAT and POWERFUL STATE within the greatest Nation that the World has ever seen!”
Greenland and Panama are just appetizers. The American Empire will continue to grow to Elon’s satisfaction, and Vladimir won’t object if he gets the same liberty for Eastern Europe…
I really hope that Tommy Sheridan stands for the Scottish Parliament in this consituency which is held by Humza Yousaf. Mr Yousaf has not been evident in the constituency in recent years because he is now centred in the east of Scotland for ‘family reasons’ and I believe he does not intend to stand for re-election.
Tommy Sheridan is well known and respected in the area. He lives in the constituency. His history as an activist speaks for itself, as does the State sponsored attack on him. I think he would do very well if he were to stand as a candidate in 2026.