Let's start a war: ten years on

Hard to believe that it's ten years since 100 000 took to the streets in Glasgow to protest, outside London Labour's conference, at Tony Blair's plans to invade Iraq with his right-wing Christian buddy, George W Bush. Labour tried at first to thwart plans for the demonstration and, when that failed, made sure that precious Tony was nowhere near events.

I never actually made it. I was part of some 2000 protesters left stranded on Edinburgh Waverley's concourse as trains from the capital to Glasgow mysteriously didn't materialise. Point made anyway, I guess.

Around a million marched in London Labour's spiritual home to voice their opposition to Labour's plans for an illegal war. Millions more marched in other European capitals.

Ten years later and we know all about the lies and propaganda. This time though, the propaganda is being aimed at Scotland's efforts to gain independence. Devolution proved no barrier to Scotland and her armed-forces being involved in another illegal war. More bizarrely, it seems many in the so-called 'Labour movement' and most in the so-called 'Labour Party' still want to wrap themselves in the Union Jack and hanker for Britain to rule the waives and retain her status as a 'major' world power.

Funny how the lines between Labour, Tory, UKIP, Ulster Unionists and the BNP become even more blurred when it comes to Britain's place in the world and more pertinently, her role as apprentice world-polisman - the US calls the shots as always. Previous objections to and principled stances against imperialism, xenophobia and warmongering are conveniently forgotten. The nation comes first, right or wrong - though it's 'wrong' to be 'nationalist' if you favour Scotland taking her place alongside other small nations who harbour little or no imperialist ambitions.

Fighting poverty, either home or abroad, comes somewhere down the list of priorities.

Tony Blair's reputation as a war criminal is one that should follow him, and Labour, wherever they go to seek votes. That goes for Labour in their own right or as a part of the Better Together anti-independence front with right-wing British Nationalists.

It's also ten years since Gay Bar. Enjoy.

Aye right. But who popes up now?

The reaction to the Pope's resignation on 'health grounds' will surely be 'aye right' if you're Scottish and cynical. And let's face it with a history that encompasses almost all shades of religious mania from Catholic witch hunts to Presbyterian extremists to Orange Order violence and latterly Islamic jihad against Glasgow airport - we Scots have a right to be cynical of religion.

I don't usually subscribe to wild conspiracy theories but it seems as if the nature of the Catholic Church is to cover-up secrets while maintaining the right to stick it's nose into the lives of others. Especially the sex lives of others. So, accepting the premise that a Pope resigning due to old-age is bullshit - how many Popes have we witnessed who were obviously plugged in until eventually the wires frayed? - what could be the real reasons for the Pope's premature ejacu divestment of his responsibilities?

• The sheer weight of the global Catholic sex-abuse scandal? There seems to be 'a priest a week' being unmasked as a child abuser. With so many cases brushed under the carpet, why stop now?
• The Magdalene Laundries? Shameful as it was, the collusion between the Irish state and the Catholic Church to enslave and abuse women who they deemed as 'unclean' or 'immoral' was confined to one small part of the global Catholic empire. Not a big enough fish.
• Pope Ratzinger's Nazi past? Old news and while the RCC was guilty of complicity with the Nazi regime many individuals did resist Nazi tyranny. And while Ratzinger joined up he was probably too young to have too much of say so stories of his hand on the trigger as Jews,  Slavs, Gypies or homosexuals were sprayed with gun fire are unlikely to surface.
• Financial? Possibly. Maybe some back-scratching with Silvio Berlusconi?

We may never know. But that doesn't stop us speculating on the next old man to wear the silly hat. Some have speculated that a Third World Pope may be in order. Possibly but who's to say that someone from our very own Gr8 Britane could not step into those holy robes?

Let's go fishing...

Racist and homophobic Leigh Griffiths.

Leigh Griffiths - still in his early 20s so no chance of him being too auld anytime soon despite his haggard appearance. He's certainly right-wing enough with a history of racist and homophobic abuse against members of the public. However, even the RCC has sought to distance itself from its Nazi past in recent decades. Bit of a trouble maker though. Fortunately, if the Pope gig falls through Leigh knows that Hibernian FC - the 'holier than thou' club of Scottish fitba - will always give him a home.

Let us prey.

Tony Blair - has converted to Catholicism in recent years, perhaps with one eye on attaining the Vatican throne. Like Leigh Griffiths though, his past is a bit problematic - namely being a war criminal. However, the RCC found it within itself to accommodate Adolf Hitler and Franco as buddies in the past so who knows... Pope Antonio of Sedgefield step forward?

Notorious heterosexual Clarkson.

Jeremy Clarkson - a master of making offensive comments like many senior Catholics. His posh-school upbringing may stand him in good stead but his wide variety of victims could be problematic. Sure he's got problems with women's rights and homosexuality but he also has chips on shoulders regarding the disabled, Mexicans, Indians, Scots, Germans and the Welsh which would leave the Vatican with little wiggle-room in their global contest against Islam and Judaism to covert the gullible.

"In a statement released this week, Pope Benedict said that he has forgiven the Beatles for John Lennon's claim that they were bigger than Jesus and for their Rock & Roll excesses – in the clearest sign yet that the Vatican is working from the bottom of the complaint box." –Seth Meyers

The year of the horse - the veggie alternative

Eating meat does not offend me. I don't eat it and never will, knowingly, eat it again. Especially when I see the kind of meat which passes for edible these days.

As someone who found the Scotch pies with broon sauce at fitba games the hardest thing to give up during the transition to a meat-free diet, I can also sympathise with those whose intake of flesh is at the 'junk' end of the market. No venison, oysters or shark steaks for me as a teenager.

Onion rings or horse rings?

The recent, and seemingly ongoing, furore over horse meat in Tesco burgers - and elsewhere - does leave me somewhat smug though. And, not being of the Daily shock Mail mentality, the choice of animal does not really phase me. Killing an animal, foul or fish is just that - whatever the species. They have a right to life or they don't.

Horse chestnuts or horse nuts?

What most in the media seem to have missed though is the nature of the meat rather than the species. If those suppliers of Tescos, Iceland, Aldi, Burger King and McDonalds and willing to cut corners on the genus of the animal they slaughter, I'm willing to bet the body part they supply is of no more consequence. Does anyone think the horse meat in a Tesco burger is really in the same ballpark as the horse-steaks served in a Michelin-starred Paris eatery?

Chick peas or chick shit?

Even if I were to still eat meat, I'd probably boke at the thought of getting my laughing gear around minced and seasoned horse testicle. Each to their own though and if having a deid horse's genitals in your mouth floats your boat...

The reasons then for going vegetarian are still much the same as always, even accounting for the fact that soya is the number-one cash crop of environmental misery in the world and really isn't very good for you anyway...

•  It's compassionate. Unless you live in Greenland or in an Amazonian tribe you could probably live very easily without meat.
• It's green. Leaving aside the reputed 'fart factor' in the greenhouse gas tally, stuffing cattle with tons of vegetable matter to feed a few, instead of thousands, just doesn't make sense.
• It's healthier. Let's face it - how many of you catch/ rear, slaughter and skin your meat. Even if you do you'll have to eat sparingly or get a huge protein overdose with a lump of flesh lying barely digested in your gut.
• It's cheaper. And that leaves more dosh for yon "vegan distilled barley juice".

Some reading...
Food Matters - Not sure of the veracity of all their info, but it's still entertaining and even if half of it is true...
Supersize Me - mind this one? The whole film is on YouPornTube
Fast Food Nation - another, more serious look at the meat industry.
Vegetarian Society - want info?
Is tofu bad...? - discussion on the environmental pros and cons of vegetarianism
The dark side of Soya - article from Ecologist

A Song or Three for St Andrew's Day

In two years, this day could be fkn huge. The mother of all independence days. In the meantime, pour yourself a Laphroaig and sing along.

First up, Frightened Rabbit. The sentiments of this song could only be more Scottish if they were sung with alternating verses in Gàidhlig, Pictish and Brythonnic.



Next up is the (haggard) face of new Gaelic music. Except, it's an auld song in English. The topic though is one that is still sadly current. As long as we still have native Scots living in damp caravans in Lochaber or Skye while the rich of many nations own acres of land, we won't be free as a nation. Independence is our chance to solve this injustice.



Lastly, we have a Sasannach and ex-Labour supporter reminding the current Scottish Labour leader that pensioners, the sick, disabled, unemployed and students don't wan't "something for nothing". Especially while London's governments, both Tory and Labour, plough £billions into war.



Slàinte mhath. Air adhart do Alba shaor aig a bheil ceartas na crìdhe.

Bollocks to the Stones - the alternatives...

Tired of the meeja coverage of Mick Jagger shaking his wrinkles with his fellow lovers of under-age lovers? As someone who was old enough to know what it was all about at the time, I still wonder why Bill Wyman didn't get the Gary Glitter treatment after he managed to get a lumber with Mandy Smith at the tender age of 14.

Hesian, London 2012

Never mind, I just wish I'd be able to have been present at the Basque Solidarity Sound System gig in Brixton last weekend. Raising money for and awareness of the blight of Basque prisoners in Spain, London and Edinburgh was the aim of the event. I can only hope that the likes of Hesian, Itziarren Semeak and Siroka make it up Scotland sometime soon.

Union Jack? Thall is Cac.

In the meantime, the once legendary - in some circles anyway - Antisect take the stage at Edinburgh Bannermans this Saturday. These noisy and political anarcho-punks from way back apparently influenced the likes of Neurosis and Godflesh. Expect some unremitting heavy music and harsh harsh vocals that will make Tom Waits sound like Jagger. Support comes from Dùn Eideann's premier purveyor's of Gaelic punk-rock, Oi Polloi.

On the downside, we hear that Liet International has convened a mysterious 'committee' that has 'chosen' a predictably dismal and not so 'ùr-nosach' piece of music to represent Alba in the minority language version of Eurovision. In the past, the great unwashed got the chance to vote for the likes of Welsh ska-indie music or Gaelic indie music to compete with Basque language rock music or Latvian death metal. This time, the plebes didn't get a vote and Gaelic Scotland is taking one step forward and two back in terms of 'new' music. Hey-ho, let's not go...

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.

Alternatives to independence?

Apart from the crazy notion of standing on your own two feet and doing things in your own way there are many reasons to vote 'NO!' to Scotland running her own affairs. Especially if you're a sad auld 30-something virgin male who still lives with his maw and has yet to fly the coop to establish your own... er independence in the world.

I say this because there are those who claim we're better off staying together as a 'family' of nations. Now this may be a strange concept to such street-wise guys like Ed Miliband or Alastair Darling but I left home decades ago and yet still manage to maintain cordial relations with my family - the auld dear, brothers, aunts, cousins etc. It's just that I don't want to share a house with them.

Please... stay at home.

Now that's out of the way. Suppose you do vote 'NO!' What next? Scotland continues to run almost all things by herself but leaves the rest - including the financing of it all - to the likes of...

Ed Miliband??! The same Ed Miliband that those durty Tories have outed as a conservative?! 

Er... no, no and no.

Aye, him. Not very inspiring, is it? No wonder he was roundly booed by the large TUC anti-cuts demo in London.

How about ye olde Black Dwarf then... Alastair Darling who's doing a swimmingly good job of keeping the anti-indies of Labour, LibDem, Tory and... Orange Order, BNP et al... together in the good ship Bitter Together. In his previous life as chancellor of the exchequer he presided over the collapse of many of Golden Britain's banks.

Oh, wait a minute... that Alastair Darling. The infamous 'worse than Thatcher' one mentioned here:

 Alistair Darling admitted tonight that Labour's planned cuts in public spending will be "deeper and tougher" than Margaret Thatcher's in the 1980s, as the country's leading experts on tax and spending warned that Britain faces "two parliaments of pain" to repair the black hole in the state's finances.

This really is shit. The 'socialist' alternative promising 'pain' worse than the Mother of a Thousand Dead. What else can London offer then?

Whatever floats your boat...

On the Tory side of things, we have the Billy Bunter of the brothels himself, George Osborne. Privileged, clueless and in absolutely no position to lecture others on the need to suffer public service cuts. Here he is with prostitute Natalie Rowe sitting at a table on which there are apparently lines of coke.

...but mind this when the talk turns to morality and family values.

Do you get the feeling that there are those who wish to preserve the Union only as a means of keeping their snouts in the trough? Surely not!

London-based politics is knee deep in shit. Every few months seems to see a new sorry episode. Free rein given to greedy and corrupt bankers. Cameron's friends in the Murdoch media empire illegally eavesdropping on almost everyone - hey, they got a murdered schoolgirl's phone but not Savile's! Cops are paid by said corrupt journos. Cops kill innocent bystanders at demonstration. MPs expenses fraud on a mammoth scale - and they're still at it. The Hillsborough cover-up which includes top cops and yon auld witch Thatcher.

It's a revolving door of corruption and sleaze. Blair copied Thatcher. Guess who Cameron copied...?

So, if you aint gonna vote 'Yes' because as some claim, 'there are no really independent nations anymore', then will voting 'No' save us from this lot?...

Next... Halloween Horrors for 2012.

Rutting season

The Scottish word for October is Dàmhair and describes the time of year when the stags would descend from the mountains and rut in the glens and straths. The political stags in the strath of London are also busy rutting at the moment and their descent has been a moral one.

The bewildering pronouncements of Ed Miliband's chosen envoy to Nof Bwitain, Johanna Lamont have been covered in gory detail in many different forums. Seems though as if her sudden swing from apparent-lefite to full-blooded Thatcherite was but a warm-up act for Miliband himself at Labour's annual lecture for the automatons.

Miliband rubbed salt into the wounds by not only demanding cuts - not to the war budget mind - but by imploring all us Bwits to submit ourselves to the One Nation.

Milibland's right-wing froth was the cue for Cameron's compassionate millionaires to again lay the blame for society's ills at the doors of the poor. The message was, once again, if you are poor then you are to blame and all you need to do is work harder. There was no carrot and Cameron presented the poor with the age-old stick of benefits' cuts. As far back as I can remember, London governments have been shaving £millions of the benefits budget. Thatcher and Major were enthusiastic slashers and the trend continued under Blair and Brown's Nu Labour chimera.

And the end result of three decades of cutting benefits?

Who knows? But there's still loads of dough left for new fleets of aircraft carriers and Trident missiles.

Labour is bad for your health.

Which brings me back to Scotchland and the bloated irrelevance that is Jackie Baillie - Labour's representative in the Scottish Parish Council for the porridge wogs of Dumbarton and also, bizarrely, their health spokesperson. Her defence of the nuclear WMDs at nearby Faslane was every bit as conservative and blinkered as Micheal Forsyth's doomed defence of the Poll Tax in Scotland. Poor Jackie when challenged by Brian Taylor on his 'Big' Debate as to whether there could be any moral alternative to using WMDs to provide jobs was unable to offer anything positive and simply stated, 'well that's the way it is'.

This kind of response to the progressive idea of removing weapons of mass destruction from Scotland is typical of the tired and complacent Labour Party in Scotland. It was simply beyond the ken and wit of Jackie Baillie to imagine that the many hundreds of £millions we spend on Trident could be spent on something more constructive and peaceful. Trams for our cities? Equipment for our hospitals? Wind and wave turbines?

Lastly is the bizarre pronouncement that London will, in 2014, spend £50million on commemorating the start (!) of the First World War. In the absence of a royal wedding, jubliee or Team GB, London obviously needs another excuse to foist the Union flag and London's version of patriotic history upon us.

If my history serves me correctly though, twice as many Scots died in their role of cannonfodder in a what was basically a war between Europe's moribund imperialist elites. Something that is certainly worth remembering in the year of the referendum.

As for the LibDems... their unpopularity has finally been eclipsed by Jimmy Saville.

STUC report on cancelling Trident

MyDavidCameron posters

Not in our name - report on campaign in The Independent

Johann Lamont - a woman of many faeces

In the past, the Iron Lady of Scottish politics has perhaps been unfairly treated. Say, portrayed as a sad auld jakie whose days of youth, vigour and radical action are long gone. However, now she has now wholeheartedly adopted the policies, excuses and even the language of the Tories. The taxpaying public are scolded for expecting 'something for nothing' and that we should apply 'common sense' to public finances. Lamont is going from a sad auld figure to a new Thatcher.

Much has been said in recent days of Scottish Labour's sudden and sickening lurch to the right - even mainstream journos on the BBC has expressed their shock and dismay - so there will be few words here. Even Angus Macleod of the Times - and no Jimmy Reid is he - questioned that if the elderly, the sick and students were to be means-tested for their benefits and entitlements then what next? The NHS?

I can point you to the erstwhile Jimmy Reid Foundation - poor Jimmy would be livid at the current position of Scottish Labour and Bella Caledonia for some good reading on this topic.

Suffice to say at a time when the UK government is pursuing projects that started under Labour or are still supported by Labour - including Johann Lamont - paying the PFI rents on schools and hospitals, such building aircraft carriers, renewing Trident, maintaining a fleet of nuclear submarines, maintaining the huge subsidies on nuclear power and continued involvement in foreign escapades such as Libya and Afghanistan, it won't wash to say 'we can't afford these public services.'

As always, it's a matter of priorities. We could choose to protect and enhance the lives of Scottish people through better public services - that we all pay for already - or go down the auld road of arming ourselves to the teeth in the spirit of Rule Britannia.

This also comes after Labour has joined with the Tories in Stirling Council and delivered...a council-tax cut! I'm not really sure how that will protect services in Stirling. For example, how will Stirling Council reduce class sizes with a reduced income?

Labour... are kaputt.

Numbers

No, not the book of the Old Testament much favoured by many latter-day cherry picking Christians, but the number of people who took to the streets to march for Scotland's independence.

As someone who was present on the march with another family enjoying the chance to support the 'Yes' cause in the Edinburgh sunshine, I feel more than qualified to pour cold water on the bitter reports of the occasion in 'our' press. The Scotsman has long been at odds with Scottish society - it earned the nickname of 'Daily Liar' by Highlanders in the late 1800s due the papers support for the landlords in the Highland Clearances. Even an exhibition by Edvard 'The Scream' Munch in 1932 Edinburgh was disapproved of.  These days its not uncommon for the Scotsman to reprint 'news' from the Daily Mail - this article appeared in the Mail on Sunday last week before making it into a gleeful Scotsman the following day.

Sadly, the Herald also joined in snide-fest.

The march itself was a superb occasion. Regarding the numbers, I'd estimate at least 9000. Bella Caledonia deals with issue in more depth.

I did note the predictable comments of Scottish Labour which also bizarrely mentioned that the indy march was but a dwarf in comparison to the 80000 who demonstrated against the Iraq War. That would be the demonstration against.... er, Labour who took us into that illegal war.

On the other hand, it was by far the biggest demonstration in favour of Scottish independence ever. Who would bet against the next one being bigger still?

Numbers are only part of the story though. Myself and other marchers, including some from the continent, were pleasantly surprised by the overwhelming positive attitude on display. Despite people of all ages, of various nationalities and from different political backgrounds turning out, there was a convincing atmosphere of standing together for a common cause. Almost a smug satisfaction that you and your neighbour were participating in a historic act for the common good.

Some Unionists adopt an Islamist approach.

Which we were, to be frank.

This attitude needs to be maintained. The Unionists have nothing to offer but negativity and scaremongering. Their cause is bankrupt. I've yet to here one serious argument for retaining the Union. Have heard various vague mutterings about 'a family of nations' but as everyone knows, any young person flies the coop as soon as they can. I love my auld dear. She's still family. But from my late teens, I've very much enjoyed relating to her as an independent adult.

While its obvious that not all Unionists may share all their views, the only ugly faces to show up on the day came from a small group of BNP or EDL 'football boys' who hung Union Jacks on a tree. Once again the Union Jack represents insularity, ignorance and hate. Just keep taking the rope boys.