THANK the lord for Janey Godley, and the Lords for Ruth Davidson, and The National for George Kerevan. Along with Ruth Wishart, all three have provided us with reasons to get off our bahookies and come to a realisation that the Westminster Tories are back in town.
Janey has not minced her words telling us the real thoughts of our First Minister, Ruth the mooth is gonnae speak up for the UK in her new factory of faceless frauds, Ruth Wishart has reminded us of the English government’s new branch office in our capital city (of all places) and its sole purpose of a secondary UK Government from within, and George tells why we don’t really need a Second 30 to gain independence (Tory c*ck-ups could force Boris to back indyref2 ... but we have to be wary, August 17).
READ MORE: Tory c*ck-ups could force Boris to back indyref2 but we have to be wary
By all accounts, Scotland is allowing Johnson to succeed, inasmuch as the home for the new commander in chief of Scotland and his staff of several thousand is now ready for occupation, not quite next door to our own parliament.
Running almost parallel to this is, through our First Minister’s popularity and the resulting increasing number of support for independence, is the risk of a “non-binary, multi-option referendum” as spelt out by George Kerevan. All this to avoid a rebellious – so to speak – referendum rather than a legal “Section 30 allowed” referendum.
READ MORE: The Yes movement ignores at its peril the signals Tories are sending out
It seems to me that time is of the essence here. How much time does Scotland have after this year’s Auld Lang Syne? Has our government put in place the basis for a Scottish constitution? Is it ready to tell the population the real benefits of being an independent country? Are all the necessary institutions in place ready fae the aff as soon as we have given Nicola the answer she has been waiting for?
So many questions that are being asked and explained to us by the experts, but with no real answers from where it counts. Scotland is waiting, like the Jacobite army waited for the bonny Prince to fire the starting gun as his army were being cut to pieces as cannon fodder.
Alan Magnus-Bennett
Fife
BORIS Johnson’s plan to flood a post-Brexit Scotland with Union flags is not only disingenuous but risible (Union Jackery blitz is ‘crass and desperate’, August 15). By its very nature a nation’s flag ought to be representative of a country’s values and beliefs. In the case of the Union flag it is should historically symbolise inclusion and equality but as we all know, any interpretation of this would be a monumental deceit.
The Union flag does not even offer a Welsh emblem or image, as Wales was regarded as a tack-on to England by 1800. Indeed the very concept of pseudo-national equality depicted in the Union flag is overtly misleading and fallacious. England as the dominant home nation has always regarded the flag as its own but it has increasingly come to represent a xenophobic, bitter, aggressive and intolerant English nationalism.
READ MORE: Boris Johnson's Union Jackery blitz branded ‘crass’ and ‘desperate’
As a Brexit-fuelled England lurched to the political right wing, those previously in the mainstream of the Conservative party followed suit and began to court support from movements previously regarded as the bombastic and extreme lunatic fringe, led by racist rabble-rousers like Farage and Robinson. To these groups the Union flag is the embodiment of an ethnocentric, white nationalist culture which rejects multiculturalism and tolerance. In short, it has been hijacked by right-wing extremist thugs who preach parochialism and bigotry, and it should be viewed with abhorrence and repugnance.
To wrap oneself around the Union flag in 2020 is to proclaim from the rooftops that you support a populist and narrow-minded creed. It is to display to all that you are contemptuous of equal rights for all people and nationalities. It is to advertise your blind obeisance to Westminster’s increasingly undemocratic rule under an indolent and uncaring Prime Minister.
READ MORE: Ruth Wishart: Boris Johnson's disasterplan to save the Union is a gift for the Yes movement
As they say in Northern Ireland, “flegs speak louder than words”. An onslaught of Union flags will not only be counter productive but disastrous for an emotionally dead and retrograde Tory government that has increasingly alienated the Scottish people.
Owen Kelly
Stirling
TO all intents and purposes, isn’t it clear that the UK concept is floundering?
The National reports the Tories’ proposed UK “single market” as being the biggest power grab by Westminster since Brexit (MSPs issue new warning over UK power grab, August 15). In the same edition we’re reminded of the bombardment of “Union Jackery”; a subliminal attempt to persuade us that the UK Union is somehow great and how much we rely on it and need it.
Meanwhile The Spectator betrays the classic fear response of an occupying power losing credibility to advocate a new Act of Union drafted to emasculate the Scottish Parliament and protect Westminster’s control of a territory which it claims depends on UK largesse in order to exist as an economic entity.
All this while the Scottish Tory branch leader, Douglas Ross, hypocritically informs us that Pakistan’s achieving independence from Westminster was good, but Scottish independence is bad.
I remember the lies of the Better Together campaign’s vow. The period since then has done nothing to persuade me that Westminster will ever take we Scots seriously.
Thankfully, this floundering UK union, delivering the least credible PM of all time, is also delivering realisation that there is no real and credible alternative to allowing England to follow it’s own foolish course; one which we Scots have no interest in.
Won’t the coming Scottish elections be an opportunity for Scots to be “on our way from misery to happiness today?”
Jim Taylor
Edinburgh
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