Well that’s me back from the USA with a ring on my finger. And thanks to Theresa May and her hostile policy for immigration, I’m married with all of the consequences that brings for better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, but without actually being able to wake up next to my spouse in the same bed. Or indeed the same continent. Next year we hope to start on the onerous and stressful process of applying for a visa for him to come and live here in Scotland. He works in IT, so if anyone has a job opening for a computer whizz kid – don’t hesitate to let me know.
First off, I’d like to send a huge thank you to Sam for looking after the blog in my absence. He’s done a fantastic job. I’d tell him to start a blog of his own but then I’d have no one to keep you all entertained in my absence, but I’m sure you’ll agree that he’s a great writer. And of course I’d like to thank everyone who sent me and my new husband Peter messages of congratulations and best wishes. We got married on October 26 and then my new in-laws came to Scotland for a week, so we’ve been doing the tour guide thing. Sadly my husband and his family have now returned to the USA and I’m left here without my new spouse. But my loss is your gain, and it’s back to regular blogging again.
So what did I miss? I was kind of hoping that there would be an independence referendum while I was away and then I could come home to an independent Scotland, but no. It’s still the same auld Brexit crap. And still the same auld crap with a Scottish media and British nationalists who refuse to acknowledge the impending disaster that’s about to be inflicted on this country by that British establishment which they assured us that we were better together with. All the terrible things that they warned us were going to happen with independence, being out of the EU, job losses, economic disruption, isolation from the rest of the world, all that is happening because Scotland is a part of the UK.
When I left to go and partake in a real union of my own with my partner Peter, as opposed to the pretendy union that Scotland is currently stuck in, there had just been a massive demonstration of support for independence in the shape of the Edinburgh march and rally which attracted tens of thousands onto the streets of the Scottish capital. We cannot allow that momentum to dissipate. We have to keep up the pressure. We have to keep demonstrating that there is a demand for a Scottish People’s Vote, that the people of this country have a right to decide the future of Scotland irrespective of what happens in the rest of the UK.
What was clear from viewing the Scottish news from the distant perspective of the other side of the Atlantic is that the media in this country doesn’t want to recognise that pressure and that demand. They’d far rather distract us with a series of SNPbad stories, stories about the fitba, stories about cute kittens and murrdurrs. Stories about my local MP whose accent was impenetrable to some random Tory in the Commons, when in fact it wasn’t David Linden’s accent that was the problem. It was Conservative ears. That’s surely a metaphor for Scotland within the UK. We get all sorts of stories, stories about anything other than the reality of the powerlessness of a Scotland within the UK to have any say at all in shaping its own destiny. We are told we are parochial by people who refuse to look beyond their own garden fence. We are told we are small by people who can’t rise to the occasion. We’re going to have to do this ourselves.
With the honourable exception of the few valued pro-indy outlets that we have, the media in this country is not going to support and nourish the right of the people of Scotland to have a say in choosing our own path. The fine words of the Claim of Right, that the people of Scotland have a sovereign right to choose the form of government best suited to their needs, need to be more than a meaningless incantation to serve the short term interests of those British nationalist politicians who signed up to them. Sovereignty doesn’t rest in words, it rests in deeds. So we, all of us, need to act. We need to keep up the pressure. We need to maintain the visibility. We need to shout out our refusal to be silenced and sidelined, because that’s the only way to ensure that the rest of the people in this country, those who are not already active and committed supporters of a Scotland that chooses its own path, will hear the message. The British nationalist media in Scotland is sure as hell not going to do it for us. We need to do it ourselves.
Brexit is looming. Just this week EU officials have said that there’s a 50/50 chance of striking a deal on the Irish border. A 50/50 chance, a coin toss, of the UK falling out of the EU without any deal at all. And if there is a deal it’s likely to be some fudge that kicks the issue down the road for a few months more while the swivel eyed xenophobes in the Tory party conspire to destroy all the employment and human rights that membership of Europe has brought us in order to transform the UK into a low wage right wing dystopia where the rich can clean up while the rest of us languish in the filth. And all this, let us not forget, on the basis of a referendum which is mired in illegality.
Brexit is due to take place at 11pm on Friday 29 March next year. That is when the UK will officially leave the EU. We need to ensure that the following day, Saturday 30 March, Scotland witnesses the biggest, the loudest, the most energetic and enthusiastic demonstration of support for Scotland’s right to choose its own destiny that this country has ever seen. It’s a day when there are going to be a lot of upset people, people who have been betrayed by a British establishment that has let Scotland down. It’s a day when no one will be able to pretend that Brexit isn’t happening. That’s the day when we have the potential to mount an event which could potentially dwarf even the massive march in Edinburgh in October, an event which can’t be ignored.
I’ve been privately sounding out a few people within the indy movement, and there seems to be support for the idea. It’s early days yet, but we have several months to make this happen. Let’s get working. If no one is going to save you, you have to save yourself, and if anyone has the skills, the talents, and the resources to do so it’s the people of this remarkable country. Let’s get loud. 2019 is going to be the year that the Scottish lion roars.
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