Afternoon music
On this day a year ago
Scottish National Party
As blogged previously, I do not necessarily oppose “Independence” for Scotland, but it seems that many Scots are adamantly opposed, and that either there is no majority for it or only a very small majority.
I suspect that many Scots think “what Independence?” when Scotland would probably still be in NATO (i.e. under de facto American/NWO control), still in the EU (i.e.under EU control), still subject to the diktats of international finance-capitalism, and overall almost certainly poorer per capita.
Still, if a significant majority of the Scots were to clamour for “Independence”, I would say “so go…“, but it really would have to be 60% at a bare minimum; in reality, to make it work, 75% or more.
The SNP had almost no MPs until 2015 [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_National_Party#House_of_Commons] and has not repeated that 2015 high despite now being fairly well entrenched as ruling party. 48 out of 59 Westminster MPs, but only 64 out of 129 in the Scottish Parliament, which latter represents a vote-share below 50%, and probably represents also a truer reflection of the party’s popularity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_National_Party#Scottish_Parliament_2.
The SNP is even less secure in terms of local councils: 453 out of 1,226 council seats in the latest elections (2022), though that is its best performance ever, and does put the SNP in first place: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_National_Party#Local_councils.
Speaking personally, for me the SNP is fake “nationalism”, having little to do with race and culture.
I do not think that the SNP will fall back to where it was before 2015. It has an electoral niche, which is a kind of social-democracy in policy terms, but underpinned by the faux-“nationalism” which sets it apart, superficially, from the other System parties “up there” (I am on the southern coast of England). The SNP of course is a System party. You only have to look at the lip-service it pays to the Jewish lobby/Israel lobby.
The SNP has also been even more repressive in terms of free speech than the Westminster regimes of recent years; Police Scotland has embraced its Poundland Stasi role with unseemly alacrity.
I imagine that many Scots, perhaps a majority, will prefer to stick with the UK rather than become poorer outside it. Whisky, tourism, and financial services cannot provide income enough to support an “independent” Scottish state, and North Sea oil/gas, even if partly under control of Edinburgh, is (arguably) a declining or depreciating asset, especially if supposedly “green” policies are pursued.
In terms of Westminster governments, though, the 59 Scottish seats are important. Without them, the UK Labour Party will find it difficult to form a government (even with SNP support), unless the presently-forecast huge landslide actually happens; such a landslide may happen this year or next but, if so, will not be repeated.
Tweets seen
The trigger for the resignation may have been the SNP’s crazed promotion of the trans nonsense, but Sturgeon was “too big for her boots” in other ways as well, pretending that she was (sort-of) a world statesman and leader of a (sort-of) state.
Nicola Sturgeon has often been compared (approvingly or not) to the New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who resigned not long ago. A lazy comparison though, arguably; after all, New Zealand is over 103,000 square miles in area, has over 5,000,000 people, and is a recognized state.
Scotland, though also having over 5,000,000 people, is only 30,000 square miles in area and, though a distinct country historically and to some extent culturally, is not a state, and has not been since 1707.
There is, though, no reason why Scotland cannot be a state again, so long as its people are willing to pay the price in various ways. It is clear, surely, that about half are not.
More tweets
The most egregious lie of “Jack Monroe” must be that, when Grenfell Tower was still burning, she went there (why? 60 miles from Southend where she lives), was “waved through the police cordon” (how? why?), and pretty much took charge (why? She did at one time, long before, have a job at the Essex fire brigade, but only answering the telephone). She also claims to have had the building plans of Grenfell Tower (how? why?).
Incidentally, while (as of today) 502 utter mugs are still each sending “Jack Monroe” between £3.50 and £44 each month via Patreon, her recent book has bombed. According to Amazon, it is selling about 268 copies per month at present, and secondhand hardback copies are up for sale for as little as £7, only a month after publication.
From the newspapers
“An Israeli firm sought to influence more than 30 elections around the world for clients by hacking, sabotage and spreading disinformation, according to an undercover media investigation published Wednesday.
Following the latest revelations, Israel might also face increased pressure to rein in its cutting-edge cyberware and technology sector which was spotlighted in another media investigation led by Forbidden Stories in 2021.
It highlighted how the powerful Israeli-made Pegasus spyware had been sold by the cyber intelligence company NSO Group Technologies to governments and used against at least 50,000 people around the world.“
[Daily Mail].
In the old (1960s?) slogan, “Hitler was right“…
More music
More tweets
Might be interesting, but I shall wait and buy a used copy later, hopefully for £5-£10 (needs must…the Amazon price for a new copy is £25).
Incidentally, this semi-dramatized documentary about M.R. James, narrated by the late Bill Wallis in 1995, is well worth seeing:
I am just now watching another, and more recent, documentary about M.R. James:
Late tweets
Late music
Ian Robert Millard 