Jo Cox - that's where it ends

Today's murder of a pro-Euro and pro-immigration Labour MP has been brewing for years.

In the 70s, the loony National Front campaigned chiefly against black immigration. For different reasons that and a fear of general immigration subsided a bit and became the preserve of posh bigots and council-estate fuhrers. For a while.

Then it was 'illegal immigrants' though 'genuine' asylum seekers were welcomed. Now, hard-working Polish plumbers are scorned and no asylum seeker is genuine.

Now, it's mainstream and everyone from Syrian refugees to 'migrants' from other EU nations to Gaelic-speaking Australian children are objects of derision. Immigration must be 'controlled' says an England/ Britain that has long since surrendered her industries, working classes and much of her culture to multi-national big business and the banking classes.

'We want our culture back' scream toffs and neds alike as they guzzle Belgian beer, curries, nachos, pizzas, kebabs, drive German cars, use Japanese technology, watch American films, wear Bangladeshi-made clothes, write barely literate Tweets using a Roman alphabet and Arabic numerals.

For wealthy bigots like Nigel Farage and his self-appointed bodyguards in Britain First, publicity has been easy to find. Add to this the tabloid front pages - what started as a drip-fed poison has become a daily scream of fearmongering hate.

The BBC must shoulder a lot of the blame for Farage's disproportionate appearances on Question Time. The press have built him and his party up while stoking 'legitimate' fears about immigration. Britain First and other morons like the EDL - whipped up into a fury by Farage and the media - have taken their hate onto the streets in a mirror image of NF ugliness from the 70s.

Britain First and their terrorist chic.

This has culminated in the sorry spectacle that is the #Brexit referendum. Immigration has always been the main beef for most Brexit enthusiasts though unfettered access to wealth through exploitation has had its attractions too. The Leave campaign's leaflets are evidence of this - little or nothing about what Britain would do with 'complete' control - but lots on immigration. The threat of Turkey joining - and the implication that millions of their dark-skinned Muslims will come here. More insidious was the highlighting of Iraq and Syria as if they could conceivably join too at a future date.

No. The EU has its faults but fuck Brexit. We will become a fascist-lite fantasy isle as envisaged by Farage if we exit. There will be no socialist resurgence. For Scotland, we may have a second indyref  as a way-out from the madness but for England...?

Fear of foreigners shows no sign of abating.

Labour too have infamously joined in the melee with 'control immigration' mugs and even Milliband's talk of 'border guards' on the Scottish/ English border should us Scots vote for self-determination.

To their credit, some in Labour such as the late Jo Cox and leader Corbyn have stuck by their internationalist and anti-racist principles. I only wish there were more of their calibre in Labour, north or south of the border.

I'm of the view that immigration has never been an issue. People come, people go. They always have and they always will. It's nature.

Sure, some will always fear and hate the new or the unknown. There should be no excuse for that in 2016. We don't believe priests and witchdoctors anymore.

If these people, racists and fascists, cannot be educated or persuaded to keep any poisonous thoughts to themselves then they must be opposed.

The lessons of history from Spain '36 to WWII to Islamist fascists such as Daesh must be learned.

Fascism doesn't start with concentration camps - that's where it ends. No pasaran.

Labour/ Ukip coalition on the cards?

Many have looked on with a morbid fascination as Labour in recent years has moved further and further to the right. It's been truly horrible though the reality of what's happened has been evident enough. It's as if Jackie Baillie rolled up to your house just to squat on your lawn and lay a huge steaming log. You'd look on, intoxicated by the novelty of the scene but horrified by the spectacle and consequences.

And, what are the consequences of Labour's latest attack on Johnny Foreigner? I hate to think.

Or to put it another way, Labour are unashamedly going for the racist/ Ukip/ Bnp/ EDL/ Britain First vote at a time when the Daily Mail's bogeyman du jour, Alex Salmond, is talking up the benefits of immigration.

For the Middle-England audience, Labour have been falling over themselves to distance the party from the SNP. Yet up here, Murphy is trying to airbrush his many past misdemeanours by embracing any 'Clause 4' ideology from free tuition to free prescriptions.

Labour too should be confronting the Little Englanders head-on instead of stoking their fears. Whether they come from Germany or Nigeria, whether to pick our veg or perform brain surgery - immigration is good. Culturally too, the benefits are evident all around us. The fact there are some dinosaurs in every group of people - be they immigrants or 'natives' - who are scared of 'the other' makes it all the more important to stand up to the bullshit of the anti-immigration rhetoric. Labour have form on this though. From local-campaign leaflets to Gordon Brown lifting NF slogans from the 1970s - British Jobs for British Workers.

Why does this need to spelled out in the year 2015?

And the consequences? The political spectrum of the 'paedo-parliament' in Westminster is pulled further to the right. Roll on the next indy-ref.

No taxi for Nigel

Sometimes, living in Edinburgh, you kind of get used to living in the glow of history. Famous residents from Hume to Donnchadh Bàn. Superb architecture. A history of multiculturalism stretching back 2000 years and more - of Picts, Britons, Gaels, Angles, French, Italians, Flemish, Poles and many more.

And then... one of the most odious  - 'charismatic' to the right-wing English press - figures to have slithered into the garden of English politics for many a long year, dares to come north.

A new pride is born, as this total cnt and charlatan, is sent packing by an angry crowd.

Farage was first forced out of the Canon's Gait pub on the Royal Mile after the landlord took fright as the demonstrators disrupted his casual press conference with shouts of "racist", "scum" and "homophobe". Out on the street, as the fingers pointed and taunts escalated, he was rejected by one taxi and turfed out of a second.

Then, finally, the harassed and ill-prepared handful of officers were forced to push him back into the Canon's Gait, slamming its front doors shut, as the demonstrators chanted: "Nigel, you're a bawbag, Nigel you're a bawbag, na, na, na, hey!" with gusto.

"Grrrr, I'm a pirate Nigel"

He's a millionaire businessmen, no doubt with financial interests across the globe. But he's anti-immigration.

Immigrants shouldn't 'take' our jobs but neither should they have benefits.

He's pro-strip-club but anti-gay. Hell, even the Tories for the most part have got over their anti-gay chip on their shoulder.

He wants 'independence' for the UK/England but thinks that Scotland's rather tame devolved parliament should be disbanded.

He's the dahling boy of the Daily Mail, who they hope will reach places that Mosely didn't.

And like so many before him, he's man with the posh accent who pulls the strings that make the bootboys dance. Worse, he pulls the heartstrings of misty-eyed Little Englanders who hanker for a past that never was.

Send him home to think again.

UKIP councillors reaching for their phones.

Homegrown Horrors for Halloween

On Oidhche Shamhna - the night before Samhain - the door between 'our' world and the world of the dead was reputed to open, allowing for all manner of supernatural beings to pass into the realm of the living. As per usual, it is an apt time to run an eye over the make-believe horrors that those in power, or those in the tabloids, deem to be a threat to our way of life.

Foreigners are usually a good bet. Especially those we see as immigrants - not 'ex-pats' like the English abroad - and asylum seekers. Last year though, saw 'the enemy within' take the limelight.

This year, its a bit of both.

Taking our jobs, having our babies, not going home.

Foreigners. There's nothing quite like a bit of bother from others to get the Great British knickers in a twist. This year, its the shocking news that 25% of all Brit babies are born to at least one foreign parent. Not mentioned is that these figures include parents from the likes of Ireland, the US, Canada - and other 'nice and white new world nations' - France, Spain and the rest of Europe. Let's face it, almost all of us must know one Scot who has a partner from one of these nations. Are we concerned?

The implication obviously is though that these foreign parents are more than likely bleck. Or maybe Asian. Or.... SLAVIC!!! And sure enough, read further into this Metro report and we see 'Eastern European' immigration getting the neep-lantern treatment. Not only that but the shadowy 'Migrationwatch' gleefully dispute the official figures and are adamant that NONE of these Slavs intend to return home after a year or two here doing the kind of work that some Bwits are too lazy or incompetent to do anymore.

On a slightly different note, one has to wonder why the English-based Migrationwatch who seem to take umbrage at the migration of Slavs, Blecks and Asians are credible sources for the media whearas the likes of Settler Watch, Scottish Watch and Sìol nan Gaidheal who highlighted mostly white and well-off English migration to Scotland were slated as 'racists'?

Lastly though, its the horrors at home that we really have to worry about. And everyone from David Cameron to Ed Miliband to Johann Lamont has been warning about them.

It's those of us who want 'something for nothing'. No, not the MPs and their expenses. No, not the bankers. No, not the Royal Family. No, not the arms dealers. No, not those in House of Lords.

There are many but old people seem to be especially scary this year. Labour have suggested that they should pay for their travel, care and prescriptions. The Tories suggest that they should work for their pensions. What the fck these old folk have been doing all their lives, I don't know. But somehow, the entire population of pensioners has reached a ripe auld age without working nor paying taxes! Incredible! Are they all Barclays or Starbucks shareholders?

Get on yer bike, coffin dodger.

Joining the elderly on the Jimmy Savile roll of dishonour are the unemployed who not only need their benefits cut but should not be allowed a chance to gain an apprenticeship according to Labour. Students too think that education should be a right and not a privilege for the likes of David Cameron, Nick Clegg, George Osborne, Tony Blair or Alastair 'Black Dwarf' Darling who were all lucky enough to go to very posh schools indeed.

There are indeed two worlds and the spectres, hobgoblins and bloodsuckers of Tory and Labour take full advantage of that open door to keep their Westminster gravy-train on the go, to stockpile their weapons of mass-destruction and to keep that gap between rich and poor from narrowing.

A new bogeyman for Halloween - multiculturalism

The ancient festival of Halloween - Oidhche Shamhna -  is another relic of our Gaelic past. Literally, it is 'the night before Samhain' and 'An t-Samhain' in modern Gaelic simply means November. It was thought that on the night between the death of summer and onset of winter that the door between our world and the netherworld opened. This allowed spirits to pass between both worlds. In Scotland, young men would impersonate the dead by blackening their faces or by wearing masks, sometimes made of animal hide, and carry a 'samhnag' or neep lantern.

Many folk enjoy a good laugh on Oidhche Shamhna but most of us have long since relinquished belief in ghosts, witches and goblins. Some though have conjured up new fears. It's not just the Daily Mail with their daily checklist of bugbears from home-grown dole scroungers to foreign asylum seekers. It's not just Lady Harriet Harman and her 'ginger rodent' abuse of a Scottish politician (imagine if she'd referred to a black politician in a similar vein?).

A few years ago, Gaelic journalist John Morrison laughed at the 'British' suspicion of multiculturalism on a Gaelic TV political debate. To paraphrase him, 'The British drive German cars, drink Belgian beer and French wine, watch American telly on Japanese technology, eat Italian, Indian and Chinese cuisine, holiday in Spain or Turkey etc... yet are suspicious of foreigners.'

Sadly, some bloggers who really should know better have gone all Daily Mail. Not cool.

From smalltown Ayrshire, comes Dark Lochnagar - a former Scots nationalist who now bemoans the lack of awareness of  'British culture' amongst our youth, hates socialism (I guess the latest stats on Norway's "Social Capital" must be sorry reading for him), feels threatened by gays and transsexuals (!) and rants about jobs going to immigrants. The only thing that differentiates this blog from the Daily Mail is the use of 'colourful' language. SubRosa is another such blog. Here ex-DDR opportunist turned Thatcherite German chancellor Angela Merkel and her recent scaremongering regarding the 'failure' of multiculturalism is praised.

What this failure is, we are not told. Playground stories along the lines of 'I heard about a gang of Muslims roaming the streets...' are regaled. Who knows? Maybe there is a kernel of truth in this. Though, the only gangs of aggressive violent and religiously inspired knuckledraggers I've met in Kilmarnock have been Orangemen and Rangers' fans. Perhaps this is a 'failure' of multiculturalism? After all, the Orange bigots commemorate Irish political battles and worship a Dutch tyrant who defended a Semite faith - his homosexuality shouldn't be an issue though the Orange Order doesn't usually come across as gay-friendly.

To John Morrison's paraphrased quote above, one could add... a German language and royal family, a set of laws and parliament rooted in ancient Jewish folklore and popular music which it seems is itself a melange of black African-American and Gaelic Presbyterian cultures. The Gaels too, for all their indigenous status in Alba, are not of 'one culture'. Did the Gaelic-speaking forest dwellers of Perthshire or Badenoch have the same 'culture' as the guga-fishers of Port Nis in Lewis? A shared language perhaps, but I'd argue that the everyday 'culture' was different. The modern Hebridean Gaels too share blood from different corners of the earth and the evidence of different cultures assimilating successfully is patently obvious - from language to art to tools to  religion to architecture and this doesn't take into account the Asian travelling salesmen of the 1930's (who learned Gaelic) or the recent English, Asian or Germanic settlers who have made a home in the Western Isles in the past decade or two. The Gaels have 'Celtic blood' that is mixed with that of the pre Indo-European Picts, the Norse, the Romans and Spanish. Hey, aren't the Spanish themselves of mixed Basque, Roman and Arabic 'blood'? I guess all this can get quite confusing for bigots who decry immigration and the mixing of cultures. I refer to 'blood' here but in scientific terms, as mentioned in my previous post, the biological term for all these people is Homo sapiens.

Are there problems though? Maybe its the Scots themselves. After all, we were the immigrants and asylum seekers for much of the past few hundred years. Maybe its the backward Brits abroad who refuse to speak Spanish on the costas? There can be problems but they are often religious in nature and with religion, anything can be justified. The main barriers to some people integrating are the Orange Order leaders, the Catholic priests, Wee-Free ministers, Baptist pastors, the Muslim imans and Jewish rabbis. Intolerant, self-important and conservative bigots on all sides do hinder progress. I object to any Muslim faith-school be set up in Scotland but equally I object to Catholic schools and the interference of the Kirk in state 'non-denominational' schools.

But what about nature? Take one look at a group of young kids playing together and its obvious that skin colour, hair colour and eye colour are irrelevant. Even linguistic differences will eventually be ironed out. Importance is only attached to these features by adults and their artificial constructs.

Nature decrees that there will be conflict between people though this is as likely to be within a family or between warring clans from neighbouring glens as it is between people of different 'cultures'. If we can't find a foreigner to fight with we  then home in on single parents, Gaelic speakers, gays or lesbians, cannabis users, people on social security benefits, someone in a different church, a follower of another fitba team, folk with red hair, the disabled, travellers, hippies or maybe 'indecent' popular culture, be it youngsters in hoodies or Marilyn Manson.

However, human civilisation has learned to defend itself from much of nature's uglier attributes and intolerance of immigrants and racism should go the same way as infant mortality, TB or being devoured by wild animals.

Our lives have always been multicultural and are even more so in today's small world. To the likes of SubRosa, Dark Lochnagar, the BNP, English Defence League and Daily Mail... get over it. Live with it. Enjoy that pizza. Have some nachos. Nibble at haggis pakora. Listen to some Salsa Celtica. Chill out. Or, see a doctor and get that tight sphincter of yours loosened a little.

Footnote - for a good laugh, see The Croft's account of an English BNP activist and  'white settler' who became an immigrant on the Isle of Lewis. His search for racial purity fell on stony Celtic ground. Scroll down to the comments to the bit where the Gaelic speaking islanders - white Scots who preserve an ancient indigenous way of life suddenly become 'inbred' when they object to this bigot in their midst.

http://thecroft.wordpress.com/2008/11/19/the-only-bigot-in-the-village/

Finally, another link - Native American Celts