Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Watch Thou For The Mutant!

Well, I was initially stumped as to how I could possibly top the truly bonkers, paranoid hysteria of the "Beware The Liars!" title of Peter A Bell's latest blogpost, which is accompanied by what (if I may say so) is a rather fetching photo of my good self.  Luckily John Wyndham's classic sci-fi novel The Chrysalids popped into my head and saved the day.


(I honestly haven't mocked that poster up, by the way, it's genuine.)

Peter's reply on the UDI point is really rather comical, because having spent several paragraphs angrily insisting that he is viscerally opposed to UDI, he then totally contradicts himself by baldly stating that "there is no route to independence which does not involve breaking the rules devised by the British state" and that "nothing happens unless and until the Scottish Government and Scottish Parliament does something that it does not have the legal power to do" and that Scotland can become independent without the "consent" of the "British elite" and that it can do so by "breaching the terms of the union".  He goes on to helpfully explain that the reason he dubs this proposed extra-legal action "Dissolve The Union" rather than something more negative is because it is an exercise in "framing/reframing", ie. turning a negative concept on its head by reframing it as something positive.

In other words, the reason he is so angry at his plan being characterised as UDI is not because that characterisation isn't factually accurate (it is) but because it ruins the attempt at a cosmetic rebranding exercise, which rather hopelessly depended for its success on absolutely everyone adopting the same euphemistic language (in line with Peter's recent stern instruction to "STFU about UDI!").

I rest my case, m'lud.  I've rarely seen such an impressive example of a man arguing against himself and winning so decisively.

I'll comment briefly on some of Peter's misrepresentations about my own position, and at this point I would just note the irony of him branding me a "liar" on the basis that I wouldn't accept that he is the sole authority on what his words mean.  If he actually followed his own stricture, there's no way he would be continuing to peddle the wild allegation that I have blocked him from posting comments on this blog, in spite of me having told him multiple times that I have not done so, and in spite of me having explained time and again that there is no facility on this blogging platform for blocking individuals.  (His attempted get-out clause on the latter point is a link to an article which he implies shows a method by which individuals can be blocked from commenting on Blogspot, but in fact shows no such thing.)

His stricture also ought to preclude him from claiming that I've stated that "Scotland was extinguished" by the union of 1707, because as he knows I've stated nothing of the sort.  What I did point out is that the pre-1707 Scottish Parliament ceased to exist as a result of the union, and that the present-day Scottish Parliament is not a continuation of it, but is instead a body that derives its limited legal authority from an Act of the UK Parliament.  That is simply a fact.  Peter clearly doesn't like that fact, and I don't like it much either, but facts are important just the same.

Peter also bizarrely claims that I have accused adherents of "Dissolve the Union" of being opposed to a referendum.  I have not done so, and he will search in vain for any suggestion to the contrary.  Indeed, in one sense whether a referendum is held or not is completely irrelevant to the issue of UDI.  Regardless of whether or not a popular mandate is established for an independence declaration, it's still UDI if that declaration is unilateral.  For example, it's widely known that the government of Quebec was contemplating UDI if there had been a Yes vote in the 1995 independence referendum, because they didn't have any confidence that the Canadian government would respect the result.

78 comments:

  1. I appreciate that you are avoiding Peter Bell's namecalling and ad hominem attacks, James. I had followed Peter for a long time because, although I don't always agree with him (I don't always agree with you either, for that matter) he has at times made good points. I suppose in any movement, people are bound to fall out but it is discouraging. I asked Peter if he could not manage to debate you without the personal insults which he did not take well. When his insults escalated, I felt I had to unfollow and mute him on twitter. I did it with a lot of regret.

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    1. I dont think we should fall out i think its a shame when we fall out especially when we call each other names like liar vermin and arse. We are above name calling we are better than that. Name calling is for yoons. If anyone in the indy movement ever calls anyone a name again i will just think that that person is a secret yoon or an english.

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  2. Hope over Fear! We Unionists hope we have nothing to fear if you narrowback nutter Nat sis get complete power.

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    1. Cordelia's hammered again already...

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    2. "Narrowback", eh? I suppose you mean we anti-dependence folk are the soft children of Irish immigrants. Just off the top of my head, like John F. Kennedy. Or Harrison Ford. Tom Keneally. Closer to home we have, oh, Sean Connery and James McAvoy for starters.

      More fool you if you despise them too, Cordelia.

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    3. Cordelia's an equal opportunities misanthrope. It hates everyone.

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    4. ejfj, actually old boy I qualify for the Paddy Passport from both sides of the family. My two grandas were Paddies and I had an English and Scottish granny. Why would I want a Paddy Passport it would be a waste of money just sitting in a drawer.

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    5. So. Cordelia experiences massive self-loathing, then.

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    6. We guessed that a few weeks ago. When Cordelia's in full bucket mode her self-hatred comes screaming through. That's why she drinks. Poor woman

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    7. The cringe is strong in Cordelia.

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    8. Plenty of gammon from the racist shill.

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  3. My understanding is that the 1707 Scottish parliament has never been dissolved by its own act or an act of the UK parliament. I thought it went into recess (it was a different word used,but legally the same thing). This is why in 1997 it was legally reconvened, and not created. Am I wrong about this?

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    1. No, it wasn't "legally reconvened". As the oldest MSP, Winnie Ewing had the automatic right to chair the first meeting of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, so the floor was hers and she was able to say what she wanted, and she famously said: "The Scottish Parliament, adjourned on the 25th day of March in the year 1707, is hereby reconvened." But that was a symbolic claim only. It had no basis in law.

      The pre-union parliament was adjourned after its final sitting in March 1707, but ceased to exist when the Act of Union took effect a few weeks later.

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    2. What are you talking about it is our parliament we got it back again why do you say its not? The scottish parliament is equal to the english parliament we have the same rights why do you say its not are you english? Cause if you are english then you dont have a say in this. Don't get me wrong I respect englisch people but you do not have a say in scottish politics.

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    3. Sorry James, the "anonymous" above isn't the same "anonymous" that asked the original question. (that was me).

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  4. I generally prefer Peter's -er- combative attitude to the sweetness-and-light brigade in the SNP, but sadly he too often crosses the line dividing robust debate from simple rudeness. Blocked him some time ago.

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  5. On the question of lawful / unlawful (not so much legal / illegal) actions by the Scottish Government in pursuance of independence, we should always take into our calculations that we have an opponent who fights dirty, is incapable of doing anything in good faith, and is quite happy to renege on international treaties (viz. the Good Friday Agreement).

    Westminster governments have for centuries reinforced England's / the UK's reputation abroad as la perfide Albion - and it was exactly that reputation (founded in bitter historical experience) which caused de Gaulle to veto England's joining the Common Market for so long.

    Westminster regimes' cavalier attitude to law and lawfulness is very difficult to combat by appealing to the UK / English courts: the other party is most likely to simply ignore such legalities, or sneakily change the law retroactively to allow them to commit whatever abuse has taken their fancy. After all, Westminster regimes have got away with doing precisely that to Scotland for over 300 years now.

    It is difficult also to combat overweening UK governments and parliaments domestically because legal frameworks of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland are so non-constitutional, outmoded, illogical, and even self-contradictory, as the UK never experienced the kind of revolutions that toppled the various ancien régimes in Europe. Or rather, they were all nipped in the bud.

    That said, we do have legal justifications for taking actions that could, would or might be considered unlawful by ultramontane-style Westminster regimes which consider themselves the highest authority in the land (i.e., Greater England), in which all sovereignty resides.

    Westminster regimes are, theoretically and actually, legally bound by the international treaties the UK has signed, such as, for example, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities - and we all know how faithfully it has abided by that one. Nevertheless, it remains true, generally speaking, that the international treaties and conventions in force to which the UK is signatory create rights and duties not just on governments but on all citizens.

    If international conventions and treaties did not create such rights and duties, there would be no point in signing up to them unless, in bad faith, as PR exercises. The UK is supposed to be a State where the rule of law prevails (no laughing at the back there!), or, as the French have it, un Etat de droit.

    As we cannot really fight on a home turf in which the opposing team will not only quite happily move the goalposts but rip up the pitch, then we have to appeal to a higher law - and call in international referees.

    Scottish independence is not even so much a legal question as a political one. When law is abused in order to suppress and oppress, we have every right to fight it. We may be obliged to do things our law-abiding selves would rather not. However - if we don't, we could be faced with the imposition of martial law, the suspension or abrogation of Holyrood, and the prospect of David Mundell as Governor-General charged with imposing the will of the Westminster regime on Scotland by whatever means necessary. We never voted for that, and in Scotland, the people are sovereign - not Westminster.

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    1. The UK Government will not renege on the Belfast Agreement under any circumstances unless threatened militarily by the ROI.
      Britain's grievous offence in De Gaulle's eyes is that she has helped France. He wanted the British to stand and die in France and had a warped sense of nationalism. He continued with colonialism when the British were winding down. ejfj, methinks you are a history denier.

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    2. Rolls Royce engines becoming German.

      https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-rolls/rolls-gets-german-passport-for-jet-engine-designs-ahead-of-brexit-idUKKCN1PO22O

      Rolls gets German passport for jet engine designs ahead of Brexit

      PARIS (Reuters) - Britain’s Rolls-Royce has effectively moved the home for its best-known jet engine designs to Germany to avoid regulatory delays or sales disruption after Britain’s European Union exit...

      ...“Rolls-Royce has become in terms of conception a German organisation, so belonging to the EU,” a European official said.
      “By doing this their products continue to be European. If they had not done so, they would have been British products and in the case of a hard Brexit it would be much harder for such a product to accepted by third countries than a European one.”

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    3. Just to clarify, GWC, de Gaulle was an obnoxious git in many ways, but even obnoxious gits can be right occasionally.

      As for the Good Friday / Belfast Agreement, the Westminster regime would be perfectly happy to tear it up - surely that much is obvious from its behaviour over the "backstop"?

      I don't deny history, in fact I study it. European history in particular was part of my university degree. This means that I am very aware of how little I know, and how much none of us is ever likely to know for sure.

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    4. Cordelia does have a bizarre ultra-right-wing take on European history.

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    5. ejfj. There was no justification for de Gaulle to block the UK from the CM. You have a Uni degree so that makes you an expert!

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    6. I am just a housewife who makes the T for my man coming home I do not know about politics and such things.

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    7. You told me you were an adviser to a certain politician who whose last name doesn't rhyme with Bundle. Just pour yourself another pint of vodka.

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    8. Griselda, I am a normal Scottish wife and bend over the sink when my husband skier insists. He just Gushes over me.

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    9. This is the point where Cordelia wandered around its flat laughing along with the furniture, screamed abuse at the cat, then crawled into its favourite cupboard. It then sobbed itself to sleep out of unrequited love for whichever snarling gammon it saw on the news.

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    10. That's the picture I have of poor Cordelia. Fully blitzed, bumping into furniture that seems to have got in her way, failing to find things like the kitchen which somebody must have moved, laughing hysterically then sobbing uncontrollably, effing and blinding, trying to ring up phone-in radio shows and cracking her head on the toilet. Then it all starts again next morning. Welcome to Cordelia's world.

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    11. Cordelia's impotent rage and borderline incoherence are gifts that never stop giving.

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  6. "prospect of David Mundell as Governor-General charged with imposing the will of the Westminster regime on Scotland by whatever means necessary."
    I can't wait!!

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    1. I doubt that being a Scottish dictator would serve David Mundell very long at all. There are discussions about Scottish Independence and there are discussions about democratic government. Clearly Mundell has lost already on point one, losing on point two, would see a catastrophic fall in the Tory vote throughout Scotland.

      For who would be associated with an utter idiot?

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    2. David Mundell. The Mouse That Roared. As impressive as a gossiping Mrs Mopp in a dreary little town.

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  7. He's a loon - just laugh at him taking himself so seriously - his dream is to be an SNP MP but he still isn't - answers itself. Oh, btw - he thinks he's a secret guru or something but hasn't furthered the cause of independence by ore than a superfluous fraction

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  8. I'm sure countries will be lining up to have the UK negotiate complex trade deals with them, taking up huge amounts of time and money, only to then go back home and vote against their own deal.

    The backstop was Britain's idea FFS.

    The fact that the UK is trying to welch on it now means it must absolutely happen as Britain just simply isn't trustworthy.

    This is the level of imbicilic foreign policy you get as part of the UK.

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    1. Are you a trade deal expert skier? People have been trading since before Ghengis McCann. The EU dictatorship are not just about trade but absolute conformity and obeying orders. Resist and they fuck you.

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    2. You don't have to be an expert on trade to understand what totally untrustworthy looks like.

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    3. The British do trade deals however joining a political elite to do so was unprecedented in history. There are no doubt other EU subservients who would wish to leave but are no doubt concerned about their people and that is where the EU have a grip on them.

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    4. Delighted to see that Cordelia's grasp of European history is as tenuous as its grasp of imperial history.
      This'll be fun.

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    5. Come on down, Cordelia! Game for a laugh!

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  9. Glad to see that the EU fascists are digging in. Makes a no deal even nearer. Mrs May the remainer is in severe difficulty. She should have known that the EU Nazis would not give ground. Merkel refused to comment and sent her deputy. Mrs May needs to get some bottle and step up leave preparations.

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    1. Has anyone noticed that the worst of these gammons spend so much time fetishising a war they never experienced, except in old films and back issues of Battle?
      Those who had to take up arms to defeat the Nazi scourge would be sickened.

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    2. Has anyone seen the bizarre advert on TV for some RAF fund? It starts with military music then Winston Churchill droning on about something, then a cartoon of Spitfire planes, ending up with Our British Lads in modern planes en route to bombing a children's hospital or something. I've only seen it once so maybe it's been pulled. It's a weird mixture of hilarious spoof and scary newsreel. All it needs is Alvar Liddell in a dinner jacket announcing war.

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    3. Illustrates my point beautifully.

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  10. An epic Yes to independence draws closer.

    What was the latest poll for 'no deal'? Och aye, 59% Yes for that, 53% Yes for May's deal. Panelbase too, who are the least Yes friendly.

    If 52% is 'overwhelming...the biggest margin in history etc', then 59% would be an utterly epic landslide of gargantuan 'people have spoken' proportions. Would shake the very ground.

    Will May refuse a Section 30 though, ending democracy, and turning Britain intae the fascist ‘EngSSR’? ‘You can check out of the free democratic EU any time you like, but you can never leave the EngSSR’? ‘All hail May, leader of the Greater English Nazi Unionist Party!’

    No Seciton 30 and unionists would literally be the 'Britnat-sis'.

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    1. skier, a hard border in NI and Scotland, is that your aim?

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    2. Why on earth would I care about a hard border at Gretna? Last time I crossed it was in 2008, and even then I had my passport with me for the ferry. The number of Scots who cross the border on any regular basis is <1% of the population.

      Scots are totally fine with a hard border as a result:

      https://wingsoverscotland.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/borderpoll.jpg

      And anyway, the UK is going to have a really good trade deal with all it's neighbours according to you and your brexit friends. And if that doesn't work, we can just trade under WTO; something you see as being fine.

      I have no issues with a hard border down the Irish sea (which what's going to happen); why would I?

      So I fail to see your point.

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    3. As usual, Cordelia doesn't have a point.

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    4. I do not have brexit friends. My Mrs voted remain. I have never said we would get a good deal. We should leave and apply WTO rules. However if a deal is done that is satisfactory to our elected Mps then fine by me. A am happy with a mutual beneficial trade deal with any country. However it will be the unelected EU who will do the scuppering as they are fascist control freaks who you incidentally want to run Scotland.

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    5. It's full free movement that matters most to me; far more than trade.

      It's why the NI border concerns me so much. I want to see it and the belfast walls torn down like the Berlin walls were. The partitioning of countries is a truly terrible thing. N. Ireland will never see true peace until Ireland is whole again.

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    6. Cordelia claims to have a Mrs who voted remain. She never told us before that she was a lesbian. I'm surprised to hear such weird views from a member of the LGBT community.

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    7. Cordelia claims a lot of things. Best to avoid engaging with its confusion.

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  11. Another 'brexit bonus' I presume.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47055188

    Brexit: Car investment halves as industry hits 'red alert'

    Investment in the UK car sector almost halved last year and output tumbled as Brexit fears put firms on "red alert", the industry's trade body said.

    Inward investment fell 46.5% to £588.6m last year from £1.1bn in 2017, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) says.

    Production fell 9.1% to 1.52m vehicles, with output for the UK and for export falling 16.3% and 7.3% respectively.

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    1. And then there's Gibralter. Spain hasn't forgotten..

      https://archive.fo/PCPEC

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    2. Spain is a basket case that allows mass unemployment on its people who head for the UK and other destinations for work. The Spanish ruling class rake in the benefits moreso no opposition to them. This is why the freedom of movement is wanted by them. The rich keep their power and families intact and the mob move on.

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    3. There is net emigration of Spainish workers from the UK. They are leaving en masse, as are EU workers as a whole. The exit gates are crammed with them trying to get out. Hundreds of thousands have left already.

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    4. Historically, countries which restrict the free movement of their citizens - as Britain is doing with brexit - are not very nice.

      The super rich elite Mogg / Dyson brexiters want the proles trapped in the UK, unable to go and work elsewhere. That way they can keep lowering salaries but the proles can't do anything about it as they can't go and get a job in another country with better pay.

      Of course if you are wealthy it's easy to e.g. escape. You earn enough to buy your way out. Same if you are well educated. Aye, the end of free movement is really the end of freedom for the poorest. They become trapped and down go the salaries as they can't walk away to better prospects elsewhere.


      Restricting people's freedom, which is what ending free movement does, has never been something good, and it's always the poor who it affects the most.

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    5. Oh god are the torys planning on tying people up or putting them in a box or something like that. Oh god im a clostrophobic i couldnt handle it. These torys are really evil we need to get away from them. That they might stop people from actually moving around is the most wicked and evil thimg i have ever heard. O god. We need to get out. I demand scotland does a PPI right now!

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    6. The UK is removing the automatic right for people to live, love and work in 31 neighbouring countries. It is massively reducing their freedom (of movement).

      My wife has to apply English racists in the country next door for permission to stay in her own home of 20 years. She has to do this simply because she's not blood and soil british. She's applying to people who's never even f'n been to Scotland, never mind live here. Yet they hate furriners so much, they're doing this to the country next door.

      If my wife's family want to move here, they may be refused. My mother in law is getting old and may soon need care. She will not be allowed to freely come here to live so we can look after her. My daughter's cousins will not be allow to freely come here to e.g. have a summer job alongside my daughter (this would never reach the 30k threshold). We have to apply to racists in England to see for permission for my family to come to Scotland and they can't wait to tick 'refused' so they can get the numbers of unwanted furriners down.

      If I want to try and escape this, I can't very easily as my freedom of movement is being massively restricted. Before I could just up sticks and move to somewhere in Europe completely freely. Now the racist UK has taken that right away.

      Brexit is harming my job prospects. I work in an internaitonal industry yet England is forcing me to need visas to work in 31 countries now. The UK is taking that right from me; they made a point of sticking it as the number one on their shitty stinking deal. 'We will strip Scottish Skier and all the other sweaty socks + their families and friends of the right to free movement'. That's the first f'n line of the exit agreement.

      Thank god for my Irish gran.

      Britian has rejected my wife, my daughter, my friends, my family. I've never felt so far from British in my identity.

      And it is this that is doing the most damage to the UK, causing people to flood out of the UK, 'unwanted' foreign businesses/workers to leave en masse, N. Ireland to seek to keep an open border and Scotland to depart.

      Trade is much futher down my list. I'd be fine enough with Scotland outside the EU as long as it was EEA+free movement like e.g. Norway.

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    7. Thats all good and well but will i still be able to move like if i want to scratch myself or fool around down there will i still be able to do it or are the tories going to tie me up?

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    8. Poor Cordelia, sharing entirely too much about its inner fantasy life again.

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  12. The Blue Tories laughing at the so called Green Socialist pretenders and the Yellow Nat si Tory alliance in Holyrood. The austerity budget passes and the Scottish rich will sleep well in their beds. Sister Rosanna the Scottish Vatican representative faws oot of her seat.

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    1. Cordelia likes it hard at the border. She isn't known as Cordelia Comfort for nothing.

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  13. Aye young James, always be carefull what you write especially the truth! because it is recorded for posterity.

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    1. Hasn't stopped Cordelia from screaming homophobic and racist bile, though...

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    2. Which is bizarre given her announcement above that she's married to another woman.

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    3. Many things about Cordelia are as bizarre as they are confused.

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  14. I don't know about you but I'm getting fed up of waiting for indyref2 we should of called it years ago but if nicola doesnt call it could we all get together maybe somewhere like freedom square and have a vote and call our own indyref2? I dont think we should be waiting on the torys to give permission we are a proud nation we can organise indyref ourselves it wont be difficult. Or maybe it might be a bit difficult but COME ON people we can do this! We are Scotland we can do anything. We just have to believe in freedom and fight for it as wallace did. Whos with me? Cause you are either with me or against me if your against me then you can shove your union we will prevail!

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    1. What does "should of" mean?

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    2. Your understanding of the dialects of these Isles seems poor. It means 'should have', or rather the contraction 'Should've'.

      It's not an uncommon colloquialism.

      And remember, Scottish people generally speak excellent English. As do the Welsh and the Irish. This is almost completely unreciprocated; English people speaking little to no Scots, Welsh or Gaelic (Irish or Scots), even when visiting these countries.

      Which is pretty rude really. Doesn't take much to learn even just a few common words. My French wife uses a number of Scots words for example, which is just adorable.

      Anyway, that's the way to a voter's heart; slag off the way they speak!

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    3. There are of course personal exceptions, but, working in a multinational environment, it's something very apparent. Non-brits in Scotland do commonly start to learn and use the Scots words they hear spoken. As a rule of thumb, English people do not do the same to any signficant extent. Which makes you ask why? If you go to France, you try a little French. So why not a little Scots or Gaelic in Scotland?

      Some do of course and it's very nice; in such instances, Scots feel as any other person in another country would when they hear a visitor attempt the local language; i.e. pleased. It's a very simple sign of respect.

      In a union of equals, all 'native' languages should carry mutual respect, even if speaker numbers vary.

      This is the case in the EU for example.

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    4. Don't pick on my spelling i hate it when people pick on my spelling and grammer its not my fault i went to school under the tories and was poorly educated i had to educate myself from films and tv shows like braveheart and outlander and so on they really have given me the knowledge of scotland that the tories held back from me the red tories and the blue tories that is. I cant wait for the day when we have indy and then we can send all the tories and rangers and hearts fans away to england that will be super fantastic. I think we should have a party in freedom square when we become independent and abba should be there. That would be great.

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  15. I've started running to regulate my mood. 30 minutes a day high-intensity and all my stress and aggression is gone. Also I swear by essential oils.

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    1. That'll be right...

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    2. I am a dyke and had tongue for lunch and it will be scampi fries for dinner.

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    3. More homophobic ravings from poor confused Cordelia.

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    4. Men are pretty useless at tongue they have to come up for breath.

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    5. Poor Cordelia, sharing entirely too much about its inner fantasy life yet again.

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