Wednesday, July 20, 2022

Scottish Sovereignty Research Group conference in Dunfermline, 29th-31st July

So first of all, an apology to the Scottish Sovereignty Research Group - we had discussed the possibility of me running a guest post about their forthcoming conference in Dunfermline, but when they sent me their proposed post, it went to my spam folder and I was totally oblivious to it until last night.  The post I was sent has since appeared on Iain Lawson's blog, so you can read it HERE.

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The decision to more or less abolish the Scotland rugby sevens team and instead only allow Scottish players to compete for Great Britain at the World Sevens Series is a real moment of truth for sport in this country.  It gives the lie to the notion that Scottish and British representation in sport can happily co-exist, and that one will never encroach upon the other.  The reality is that independence is needed not just to gain representation for Scotland in events like the Olympics for the first time, but also to safeguard existing Scottish representation in other events.  It's certainly the only way we'll get our rugby sevens team back now.  It's a rather bitter irony that rugby sevens is a sport (or 'sub-sport') that was actually invented in Scotland, and Scotland's two back-to-back victories at the London Sevens event a few years ago were among this country's finest achievements in team sports events.  We'll no longer even have a chance to replicate those triumphs - until we secure our place as an independent country.  

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We've already seen since Nicola Sturgeon's announcement that the overwhelmingly unionist mainstream media are attempting a 'shock and awe' campaign to try to kill off independence - and the misuse of polling is playing a key part in that.  If you'd like to balance things out with polling commissioned by a pro-independence outlet and which asks the questions we want to see asked, one way of doing that would be to help Scot Goes Pop's fundraising drive - see details below.

Direct payments via Paypal - my Paypal email address is:   jkellysta@yahoo.co.uk

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9 comments:

  1. From the reaction on social media, the scrapping of the Scottish and Welsh 7s teams has gone down like a lead balloon. Pointless penny pinching by the SRU. Deplorable.

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  2. WRU getting pelters on Twitter for this.

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  3. Follow the money, if Scotland has something England wants they take it and rename it British because that's more palatable than English, it's what Britishness was invented for

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  4. tbh I kinda wish FIFA would enforce it too. Imagine how many more YES supporters would be if FIFA forced us to have a GB team. Unless they actually did well, in which case maybe people would like it. Potentially a gamble.

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  5. James, do you think that they will attempt to have a “Team GB” for Euro 28 if we have not escaped the union by that time? The combined UK and Ireland bid is almost certain to get the nod from UEFA and they have said that there will be only two host nation places reserved. I would not be surprised if the UK government was trying to get UEFA to say that there had to be a combined UK team for this event. I can just hear “Well it’s only for this competition, you can have your own teams back afterwards, honest…”
    The rest of the world, of course, would continue to refer to the team as “England”

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  6. I blame Sturgeon, she says the BBC are a valid institution.

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  7. The history of sport is the history of the 'Union' in microcosm. It is clear, from the facts, that Scotland invented modern world football. Yet, every general history book has England inventing the Game. It is vital for Unionism that the danger of Scotland (and Wales) asserting themselves through their sporting genius is crushed and smothered. The 7s is a case in point.

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  8. Surprised that the SRU went for it? Do you know the back story with the SRU agreeing to this?

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