NO TO STALIN’S SCOTLAND.

This is an article I wrote in advance of the last Holyrood elections. Given that Aberdeen University stopped a meeting by the Alba Party, during the electoral period of the local elections, being able to take place this week it is even more relevant to Scotland today. Have a read and see if you agree?

SCOTLAND IS NOT READY YET

I have heard this so many times over the years. A multitude of reasons why we are not ready to become a normal nation and take control of our own affairs. Ready to create that better and fairer Scotland we all know is possible.

I have never had any problem dismissing and rejecting the spurious reasons made by Unionists about why Scotland cannot be Independent. I can regularly point to other nations, smaller, poorer, with fewer resources as examples who have successfully become independent countries and never looked back but I am afraid, for the first time ever I have come across a real problem. Something, that if not addressed could provide a serious barrier. I explain below my concern.

I fear the Scottish people themselves could be a problem. Many have become so apathetic, so tolerant, so disinterested, of what others do to their country they cannot muster the energy, the effort, the protest to do anything about it. It needs to change…and quickly because if people find it too much trouble to stand up for what is right, what is just, then we could be creating huge problems. We have a corrupt MSM who have no interest in telling us the truth, so people need to devote more time to being vigilant themselves about how power is being used in Scotland,

I know I am in a minority. I do care about democracy. I do care about politics. I pay close attention to those that are in power, how they use that power, how safe our freedoms are in their hands. From the time I spent in Berlin in the early 1980’s and the time I spent in Estonia a decade later, I have always been very aware of how precious freedoms are and the enormous pain and difficulty in reclaiming them if they are lost. Whoever said the price of freedom is eternal vigilance spoke the truth. Freedom can be lost very easily, in small steps, by ignoring or excusing the actions of those in power. 

Let me run this past you and see what you think. I have removed the names and personalities. What would you think if you read about this happening in another country?

A leading political figure is arrested and charged with a number of charges. He protests his innocence. Before any trial the charges are maliciously leaked to a major newspaper in the worst possible light, clearly designed to ruin the targets reputation,

The police are given additional resources from the State and a team of over twenty Police officers are instructed to make contact with over 400 people and conduct 700 interviews encompassing the targets entire life, which fail to find a single additional charge to those already lodged by the friends and supporters of the top political figure and rival in the country. It has been made clear that this is a “special case” and much greater resources and manpower can be devoted to it by the authorities. The most serious “allegation” is sadly a fairly common one but NEVER BEFORE has anything like these resources and effort been engaged in firming up the case against any accused. The point here is the vast resources, much greater than normal, being devoted trying to secure a conviction.

The “allegations” on their own are extremely flimsy, hence the hugely expensive and extensive fishing exercise across the remainder of his life in the hope of finding something, anything, more solid. It doesn’t but nevertheless the State Prosecution Office still decide to proceed with the case. The public release of the charges to a newspaper earlier make that an imperative otherwise they could be looking at a big damages claim. Those responsible for the initial leak to the newspaper knew this, indeed it was almost certainly part of the plan to cut off any possibility of their flimsy allegations being dropped pre trial.

The trial commences amid a barrage of negative publicity led by the State Broadcaster but widely supported by a wide range of publications long opposed to the target’s political agenda and beliefs. Daily news reports lend weight to the fact that his conviction is inevitable. Coverage of what his defence witnesses testify is excluded in these reports so the public are given no information about his defence. Legal action is taken against the one sole reporter who presents the full evidence and he faces jail for telling the truth. He is the only reporter whose reporting matches the jury’s eventual verdict,

In the course of the trial the Judge awards the prosecution witnesses lifetime anonymity, no such measure is sought or awarded to the many defence witnesses who were happy to offer their testimony WITHOUT the need for anonymity afterwards. Significantly the independent jury find the defence evidence much more compelling and credible.

Because of the news reporting it is a complete shock to the public when he is not convicted of a single allegation and all the charges against him are dropped. It was a shock to those who had been following the media reports, it was not however to those who had heard ALL the evidence in court.

Still the State were not finished, in a subsequent inquiry that was examining an earlier court defeat for the Government against this same individual and which cost the taxpayer in excess of £1 million pounds, the Government and Crown Office worked in tandem to deny the target the opportunity to present his full evidence, blocked access to witnesses, withheld a multitude of documents and used extensive redaction on those documents that were released. Free and open scrutiny of Government this was not.

Probably the greatest outrage however was the actions of those responsible for the failed allegations themselves. They used a Government funded agency to send out repeated press releases continuing to smear the man who had been found to be the innocent target of their claims. The State Broadcaster also devoted an hour long programme, after the trial, that continued to smear the target and omit entirely the defence evidence that demolished the prosecution evidence completely and clearly evidenced, in at least one case, that it was “impossible” to have happened. This charge was by far the most serious of all the allegations in the first place, and it was proven as a lie! They did this of course hiding behind the anonymity the judge had granted. It was already being clearly misused by these arrogant rogues. Because rogues they were, in the main, from the start. Those lies and actions may still be responsible for the regulations involving anonymity being reviewed and restricted in the future,

Government representatives and Party members are directed to support everything to the fullest, to attack, threaten, intimidate any who question the Government and Party actions. Any attempt to question the “Leader” makes the questioner guilty of betrayal and opens him or her to disciplinary measures.

I think most people would take a dim view of that happening in any other country. I think they would call it a disgrace and very, very wrong. How wrong then that there are many in the SNP in Scotland who believe the actions were in some way justified. That he must be guilty even though the evidence and jury decisions proves he was not?

THESE THINGS SHOULD NOT HAPPEN IN A COUNTRY THAT WAS BEING RUN IN AN HONEST MANNER. THESE THINGS AND WORSE DID HAPPEN IN STALIN’S RUSSIA. Does this all sound democratic and fair to you, in a “free” society?

Surely not in Democratic Scotland ? If that happened here it would surely be a one off, a mistake. It would surely be impossible to show a trend of this type of thing. A closing down of freedom and free speech, the rise of a dictatorial form of Government and politics.? We could rely on our media to face down any Government that tried that. Couldn’t we? Our people could never be fooled by that type of manipulation?

I have to say my report card for Scotland in recent times does not suggest any room for complacency, it would be far from certain we would not be fooled. Have our views manipulated by a powerful Government and a corrupt, compliant media? We can still just about claim we are still a democracy, we are going to the polls in the next couple of weeks after all, but the way this election is being conducted, in particular the media blackout of the Alba Party, is not what you would expect in a modern Democratic country.

The SNP in particular has behaved disgracefully from the First Minister down. When did it become acceptable for a First Minister to openly imply a jury of her own folk had got a verdict wrong? Even if she really did believe that, rather than just being angry because her friends plot failed, did she think it enhances her office to continually smear the person found innocent of all of the spurious allegations that her friends and supporters had concocted? This has been, and is, a total abuse of her position.That the person, the target of all these smears is also the same person that leads the Alba Party, found innocent of all her friends allegations, only serves to display the total political abuse of that position.

My concern however goes much further. In a democracy every citizen has a right to expect the head of their Government to speak out against bias in the media, to protect, at all costs, the right of freedom of speech across the land. Never is this more important than during an electoral contest yet our First Minister has been prepared to go along with a media blackout of one of the contestants in this election. One that includes many thousands of members that are her fellow citizens, has representation at Westminster and in many Council Chambers throughout Scotland. Worse she has been much more than prepared to go along with it, she has positively encouraged it.That is a betrayal of democracy in a free country. The BBC or STV should have no rights to dictate who can stand, or not stand in our elections. It is a failure of our First Minister not to make that principle abundantly clear to them. The other Party Leaders are also equally guilty. It may also serve their own political interests but it denies them the description of democrat in the future. Their cards are marked.

I worry about her democratic credentials. She has all but extinguished any semblance of democracy in her own political party, cancelling conferences, sidelining the policy development committee, pushing through divisive policy without any party approval to do so, vindictively sacking folk who attract publicity for their competence, overturning decisions by Conference to replace people on the NEC through reinstalling them by affiliate appointment. Tolerating her husband refusing members of the Audit Committee access to the Party accounts. Being unwilling, or unable to explain the whereabouts of around £600,000 of “ring fenced” funds for Indyref2. These are moves Stalin would have been happy to support. Scotland is in danger, we are on a very slippery slope indeed.

A problem that is causing a lot of this is that Scotland, unlike the vast majority of countries that have a Government that is elected by PR, still clings to the one all powerful Independence Party. It is a silly mistake given the electoral system and it is perfectly possible that it might well result in the loss of a pro Indy majority in Scotland’s Parliament due to the SNP’s selfishness in being unwilling to consider anything other than Both Votes SNP, even when they KNOW the vast majority of those list votes will be useless, binned. Worse by doing so they knowingly help elect UNIONISTS to Holyrood.

The fact is the electoral system is designed to STOP any one Party winning a majority. That is what happened in EVERY election to the Scottish Parliament since it was created, other than by ONE extreme fluke chance, in 2011 a single Party, the SNP won a ONE seat majority. Experts agree it was a fluke and the chances of it ever happening again, other than through winning virtually every constituency seat, are vanishingly minimal. That is why Alba makes such sense, unlike SNP list votes that are divided and devalued before being counted by the number of constituency victories in each region every Alba vote retains its full value. In many cases an Alba vote will hold TEN TIMES the value of a SNP LIST VOTE. Nicola knows all this but for her TOTAL single control is much more important, even if it is a huge risk to the entire Independence Movement making more more possible the loss of an overall pro Indy majority.

I mentioned Germany earlier it had stable Government for many years through coalition Government as had most of the Governments in Europe including my favourite Estonia. Europe and freedom benefits through having power held between parties. Only in the UK do you have a political system that hands absolute power to one Party, the current holder being led by Boris Johnston that has already abused that power and had to be reigned in by the Courts. That is currently illegally breaching the agreed terms with the EU over the Irish border.

I merely ask why is the Yes side risking all on sticking with a mathematical gamble that at best is unlikely, if not impossible? Do they really trust the Greens to act as a safety net? Those same Greens who slinked off on the OBFA to join up with James Kelly or were so easily bought off by a bauble to side with the Unionists on Glasgow District Council? Who can be bought off again and again with a wee bag of sweeties? Is Independence for Scotland to be built on such shaky foundations?

I want a Government built on principle, one that safeguards, not endangers our freedoms. That is committed to Independence and has it at the forefront of all it does.

I am amazed that with everyone talking about the need to rebuild after COVID and Brexit we are not making much more of the fact that only with the powers of full Independence can any recovery plan be operating on Scotland’s, not Westminster’s priorities, and the powers to make that recovery happen will be in Scotland’s, rather than Boris’s Tory hands in London.  That is a winning message!

The other thing for me to remember is that the ordinary folk are currently lacking the sort of quality leadership they deserve. Maybe we might yet take a step in the right direction come May 6th. Whatever we do, as a people we must be vigilant we must defend our freedoms at all times and never allow the STATE to misuse its powers unchallenged. So waking up to recent actions and what really happened is very important. I will never ever let it go unchallenged. If that makes me a hate figure with a militant element wing of the SNP SO BE IT! . I believe in Freedom for my country, freedom of speech, a just and fair country where power is used for everyone’s benefit not the few. We must be very different to Westminster.

If people want to criticise this article point to any of the content that is untrue, that did not happen as described. If you cannot do that then I suspect it is you, rather than me, that needs to reconsider your attitudes about what has been happening in Scotland.

I am, as always

Yours for Scotland

BEAT THE CENSORS

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