Beginnings and Endings

A little while ago in a post on this blog, I recalled the words of the late, great Margaret Ewing that she knew when “Scotland would win Independence when the people started to march for it”.

The recent march in Galashiels however suggests to me that we may well now know when the forces of Unionism also know when Scotland will win Independence; when they resort to unthinking violence. Whoever the numpty or numpties were who decided that spreading screws and nails across the road on the route of the YES bikers has demonstrated that they are rapidly running out of arguments and we are about to enter not Churchill’s end of the beginning but the beginning of the endgame in the fight to make Scotland a normal independent country.

The fact that this horrendous incident also went virtually unremarked in the mainstream media shows the level of control exerted across Scotland’s newsrooms by their London masters. Only The National gave it the level of coverage and condemnation so richly deserved. It highlighted yet again why we need to follow the simple mantra with our only friendly daily newspaper; buy it, read it, pass it on.

Just recall the level of hysteria when Jim Murphy was hit by an egg! Oh, aye, throwing an egg by one indy supporter is not exactly constructive but was it really worse than throwing milk shakes which the media treated as a joke? Yet a deliberate action which could have resulted in serious injury or even a fatality goes almost unremarked! Sic a parcel o’ rogues in our newsrooms! The silence of the editorial lambs is deafening just as it was when another unionist idiot once tried to force Alex Salmond’s official car off the road.

On a different tack, I was lucky enough to attend a public meeting held by Ian Blackford in Dingwall last week. Ian was, as you would expect, excellent. Fresh from the stooshie he caused by labelling Boris Johnson as a racist he was in fine form.

But what struck me most was the questions and comments from the floor.

Several times people were more than happy to begin their remarks with a thank you for the work on individual cases, none more so than Gregg Brain who made a moving contribution highlighting the fight to allow him and his family to stay in Scotland when the UK Government retrospectively changed the rules!

One speaker however gave me something new to think about. He highlighted that although he had recently moved with his family from the South of England to live in the highlands, he still worked in the City of London. One heck of a commute.

But he had come home in part because of the quality of education available here for his family, a far cry from the slavering hysteria from wee ruthie and silly rennie. But it was his comments about how the firms, especially the small ones in the City were looking at Scotland as the place to relocate to if the insanity of Brexit ever actually happens which struck me. He told us how although the major financial players were buying office space in Frankfurt etc in preparation, the smaller companies were casting eyes north of the border where the relocation would be much easier. No language problems, similar education systems and ease of travel were among the reasons.

These are firms who are looking to make serious investments in building infrastructure and industry. Something we will need after Independence because of the major shortfall in investment caused by austerity and deliberate UK Government policies in power and money grabs.

It’s easy to think of the City as a place which holds nothing positive for the Nationalist movement but we just might be very seriously wrong in that. Just as minds are being changed in Scotland daily towards Independence, it seems that others are looking at the leadership and stability provided by the Scottish Government and starting to plan how to help us and themselves.

Times, as they say, are a changing!