We\nare verily indeed the victim of the old Chinese Curse \u201cMay you live in\ninteresting times\u201d, as the political situation gets more and more complicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However\nat the end of the day, Scotland can feed itself, has vast amounts of fresh\nwater, a scarce commodity in today\u2019s world, ample producers of alcohol, and\nenough energy to not only power Scotland but to sell energy to England. We also\nhave a bright and gifted population and a good National Health Service. What we\ndo need is more of that population, and we face a shortage of young people; our\nmoves in that endeavour are frustrated by a right wing Tory Government who have\nblundered into a state of isolation developed by Brexit. The vast bulk are\nbeginning to grasp that but seem powerless to sort it out. It reminds one of\nthose who died and finished up in the nether regions, and cried out \u201cLord, Lord\nwe didna ken!\u201d, and the Lord looked down in his infinite goodness and mercy and\nsaid \u201cWeel, ye ken noo!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just\na whimsical thought, but we have a solution \u2013 Independence, which the Better\nTogether lot strongly resist. The more they keep saying \u201cNo\u201d, the more\ndetermined we must be as what passes for\ndemocracy is flouted by the view from the South, who claim Scotland as a valued\nsinecure; in actual fact the English want to keep Scotland in thrall because of\ntheir sense of importance. The UK has a seat at the UN Security Council, which\nmay have been logical at one time; the only reason they retain it is because of\nTrident, and this is why they are desperate to hold on to us. Elderly Scots, my\ngeneration, the National Service generation, have a false sense of our place in\nthe United Kingdom. Auld Fearties, who confuse the Queen with the English\nParliament; we are not republicans \u2013 as yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whatever\nchosen \u201cfacts\u201d they throw at us, we have the assets, all we need is the power\nto take control. We are suffering from the kind of neglect which sparked off\nthe Easter Rising in Ireland in 1916. The UK would not listen to them; they\nwere finally forced to talking, but only let them have partial independence,\nkeeping Ulster in UK hands. God help us, we have no desire for conflict but\nneither had Ireland. After the Rising when the rebels were led away they were\npelted with rotten fruit by Irish women, who might well have had their men in\nthe British Army fighting in France, so no approval there. Things only changed\nwhen Great Britain decided to shoot the rebels; of particular interest to Scots\nis that one of us, James Connolly, an Edinburgh man, was too badly wounded to\nstand so had to be tied to a chair and then shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nBrexit solution to the Irish Question is now looking really fragile as England\nis determined to exit the European Union, but a backstop is causing intractable\nproblems \u2013 back stop? We really mean the buck stop!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\nwas intrigued by Ewen Cameron\u2019s piece on the late Billy Wolfe in the July SI;\nthe collection of leaflets in Billy\u2019s possession is of interest. Many may have\nforgotten, or never knew that when Margo\nMacDonald won Govan there was also a by election in Edinburgh North on the same\nday and Billy Wolfe was our candidate. I took part in that one; there was a\ngroup of us from Edinburgh West CA, who turned up a lot. They were Chris\nGrahame (father of Christine Grahame MSP), Alastair Kidd, a Merchant Navy\nSkipper, Norman Irons (subsequently Lord Provost of Edinburgh), Dick Platt, who\nbecame PPC for Leith, myself and another Edinburgh West member, George\nFinlayson. When we arrived at the SNP rooms, Marie Stewart, widow of Dougie\nStewart, used to say \u201cHere comes the first team!\u201d Alastair Kidd, Norman Irons\nand myself are the only ones still alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These\nelections were in November 1973, and before we knew where we were there was a\nGeneral Election in February 1974!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\nwas on the Candidates List and I was selected for Edinburgh North \u2013I got\nPolling Day off work. In Govan, there was chat going about : \u201cIs Harry Selby\nhis real name?\u201d, to which the response was \u201cIs who\u2019s real name?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harry\nSelby won the seat back for Labour in February 1974; I think he might have been\na local barber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\npoint I got from Ewen Cameron\u2019s article is that in February 1974 Margo\u2019s\nleaflet did not mention the SNP at all, which might also explain why at the\nOctober 1974 Election there were only 6 activists in Govan. Ewen did not make\nany comment as to why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In\nthe SNP, and general politics nowadays, there is no folk memory of how the\nParty rose and fell; the catalyst was the creation of the Scottish Parliament ,\nand I believed that we should take hold of it and run it to independence. The\ndogged fight by the Unionists to ignore Scotland and their opposition to the\nSNP shows that is happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\nwould seem that Johnston Press is still in trouble and deciding to sell off\nsome titles. I cannot remember where I read that; there had been a version of\nmanagement buy out which impacted on their pension fund, not to the benefit of\nemployees. I used to always read the Scotsman, every day and followed the\nstories avidly; during the 1974 General Elections I could go in the back door\nand hand over a letter for publication although the paper was closed, I knew\nthe deadline. There was not an anti SNP bias but tacit approval. Over the years\nas the newspaper changed hands, things became different; the paper was\npurchased by the Barclay brothers, millionaires who were domiciled in Sark,\ncoincidentally a Tax Haven. They installed Andrew Neil as Managing Editor, and\nthe paper changed; it had been a supporter of a Scottish Parliament but became\na fierce critic of the principle, and of the SNP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This\nwould have been just after I retired, and I read both the Herald and the\nScotsman every day; having two newspapers pushed through the letterbox each day\ncaused problems, meaning one would get damaged, (When I was working I would get\nthe Scotsman delivered and pick up the Herald on my way to work.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After\nan exasperating few months of torn papers I cancelled the Scotsman. When the\nJohnston Press bought it over I anticipated a change of style as it had been\nfailing, but it continued to attack the Scottish Parliament and the SNP\nalthough Andrew Neil departed for more lucrative work in London. It was my\nfeeling that it would change as Scotland had changed and become more SNP\nfriendly, but apparently it has not; friends of mine only buy it to check who\nhas died, but the Scotsman died as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\nhave not heard anyone say a good word about the paper for a long time \u2013 it may\nhave changed- but I get the Herald and the National each day so no room for\nanother paper even on an experimental basis; this would cause marital strife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Normally\nthe only programmes I watch are the news ones; to this extent I am becoming\nmuch more aware of the shortcomings, every weekday \u2013 nothing happens in Scotland\nat the weekend, I watch the lunchtime news and the evening news; lunch time is\nset from 1.30 \u2013 1.45 \u2013 15 minutes of all the news in Scotland. Every day the\npreceding programme, BBC News is from 1.00 to 1.30. The important News always\nfinishes with weather reports from all of the UK, and this can run over by as\nmuch as 5 minutes. The same also happens in the evening, supposedly 6.30 to\n7.00.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Invariably\nthe UK News runs on before we get to the bit that says \u201cWhere you are\u201d; it\nseems we have to know whatever the weather is in the Scilly Isles, or Norwich\nor \u201cWhere they are\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This\nhas been going on for as long as I remember; I felt aggrieved that I could not\nwithhold my Licence Fee, as being an octogenarian I didn\u2019t pay it anyway.\nHowever if I am still alive when this happens I could withhold payment; how\ncould be the Tories be so stupid as to mistreat pensioners?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\nhave probably commented on this before, but now that Winnie Ewing has become 90\nit is worth repeating. Last year Professor James Mitchell produced a book\n\u201cHamilton 1967\u201d; all by elections have made some changes, but the effect of\nHamilton in 1967 was earth shattering \u2013 or Britain shattering. To my mind it\nwas the most significant by election ever in the UK. It had all sort of effects\n, on me when sometime in the early Seventies Winnie collared me at a National\nCouncil meeting: \u201cJim Lynch, why is your name not on the Candidates List?\u201d\nBeing a bit of a smart Alex I said \u201cWinnie, many things I would do for Scotland\nbut I wouldn\u2019t want to go and live in London\u201d. \u201cI had to do it. What makes you\nso good?\u201d I was caught. However that was only me. Winnie\u2019s victory changed\nScotland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nUK was never the same again, and independence is now on the horizon, just\nvisible; that was Winnie\u2019s effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A\nlot of huffing and puffing going on as the prospect of a Plan B for a\nreferendum will not be discussed at this year\u2019s Annual Conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\nam not in the picture fully but I cannot see us having a divisive debate about\na Plan B before Plan A in effect is even tried. I do believe that the SNP\nshould have one, but not that we should shout it from the rooftops.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We are verily indeed the victim of the old Chinese Curse \u201cMay you live in interesting times\u201d, as the political situation gets more and more complicated. However at the end of the day, Scotland can feed itself, has vast amounts of fresh water, a scarce commodity in today\u2019s world, ample producers of alcohol, and enough energy to not only power Scotland but to sell energy to England. We also have a bright and gifted population and a good National Health Service. What we do need is more of that population, and we face a shortage of young people; our moves in that endeavour are frustratedRead More →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2552"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2552"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2553,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2552\/revisions\/2553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}