!!!SCOTLAND IS AWAKENING!!! after a long snooze of just over 300 years.
May we apologise for the absurdity, ignorance and rudeness of the
Wastemonster parliament (Westminster Parliament which includes the unelected House of Lords) and the media in some places hiding facts. We are not
nationalists or separatists as being stated in the "No News". WE are
a people of all walks of life and all nationalities wishing for proper
democracy, not the farce that is being peddled. As you can see, the hard work
put in by the YES group researching, analysing, discussing and communicating
whilst creating the biggest grassroots campaign that Scotland has ever seen, trying to inspire and motivate against manipulation, fraud, corruption,
greed, ego,vanity and lack of innovation from the plagiarists with no idea of
their own weakness has become a reality, so much so "Bitter Together"
(also known as Better Together/ No Thanks/ and the Empire from Star Wars) are now beginning to panic over their own lack of team building abilities
within balance and compromise. Please forgive them they will learn.
A YES vote on 18th September with results being released early on 19th September 2014, is just the beginning, though we're not there yet. There is more work to
do convincing people that looking after their own home is practical and logical
whilst looking after and working with our neighbours. Otherwise it's just
laziness. The fear element can be put down to the aforementioned above.
(F.E.A.R. = False Evidence Appearing Real.)
Normal practice will be resumed on 19th September 2014.
Many thanks for the growing moral support from everyone. Respect and kindest
of regards.
This originally started as a list of 10, but I couldn't get it down to that number. Plus I have cheated twice as two entries are actually series of videos but very worthwhile nonetheless.
There are some longer videos or series which I think are just as worthwhile, but for this list I have tried to keep the videos (except for one) to shorter ones which are easy to watch in a short period of time.
The order the videos appear does not indicate preference on my part and all are valid.
1. 'Yes means...' from the official Yes Scotland campaign. Uplifting, positive and extremely persuasive.
2. 'Scotland has a choice of two futures' from the official Yes Scotland campaign.
3. 'My Generation' on the YouTube account 'Scott Teechur'. An excellent video perhaps somewhat handicapped by some people's tendency to switch off during the first part.
4. 'Independence and the Economy' from Business For Scotland. Clear, succinct and extremely comprehensive for its length.
5. 'Duggy Dug' - the series. A series of animated shorts from Newsnet Scotland voiced by the acclaimied Holywood actor Brian Cox. I have selected the video titled 'The No Nightmare' to show here but there are others accessible by using the links below.
6. The Stephen Paton series. This is a weekly summary of #indyref news from Stephen Paton which began on 02.06.2014 and more recently Miriam Brett with her mid-week review. I have selected his first show although several of his later ones are even better than this.
7. Lady Alba - Bad Romance. Definitely one of those videos you couldn't miss, and trying I hope to be ironic! Not for the faint hearted and mind the sweary word. Vocals and lyrics by Zara Gladman. If you canny cope with it all the way through then the lyrics appear below the video. She has several other songs in a similar vein.
Original track by Lady Gaga - no copyright infringement intended! Subtitles available, click the captions option on the player.
I want your weapons, I want student fees, I want a country run by Tory MPs, I'm voting No I want a country that squanders its oil, I want its leader to be rich as the royals, I'm voting No.
Chorus: I want your love even if it's wrong, I like being told what I should do, Why bother trying to make your own decisions, When Westminster can do it for you?
It would be mental to try something new, Let's sit around and wait for things to improve, I'm voting No Who gies a fuck about the West Lothian question?, Yeah it's unfair but baby I like the tension, I'm voting No.
Chorus
Just say No, baby; Self-determination's crazy; Just say No, baby; Self-determination's crazy
I'm voting no; Cos I like Status Quo; I'm voting no; I don't wanna be friends
Je vais voter non; Parce que j'aime Status Quo; Je vais voter non; I don't wanna be friends
Chorus
8. 'Reasons to vote Yes to Scottish Independence' by Celtic FC Fan Footage on Youtube.
9. YES Scotland - Iron Sky with music by Paulo Nutini. Now blocked on YouTube by BBC Worldwide on copyright grounds (or political grounds more like!) as the BBC is being so unbiased in the indyref debate (Yeh!). I have re-uploaded it here, in the hope it will be seen and understood prior to the 18th September. Pity about the spelling mistake but otherwise great.
10. Scottish Independence - Lets Vote Yes. From the 'voteindependence' channel on YouTube.
11. Top 10 Unionist Myths Debunked. From the 'John Webb' channel on YouTube.
12. The Truth About Scottish Independence - The McCrone Report Scandal. From the VoteYes2014 channel on YouTube. Barring the odd spelling mistake an excellent video that sets out clearly why and to what extent Scotland has been conned over North Sea Oil and its revenues for the last 30 odd years.
13. 'Would you vote for Scotland to join the Union?' - Blair Jenkins the head of the Yes Scotland campaign states this to the SNP conference a few years ago. Well would you? So why vote to stay in it? From the 'Dances with Haggis' YouTube channel.
14. Scottish Oil, Westminster Rule - A Case for Independence. From the 'RigInterGrater' channel on YouTube. The video that explains the reasons behind my wanting an independent Scotland.
For whatever reason this video will not link through from Blogger to YouTube in the normal way.
15. Scotland. From 2011 on the One Scot channel on YouTube. Again this video will not link through Blogger to YouTube in the normal way. I have therefore uploaded it again with the link to it on YouTube appearing below.
I do not hold copyright permission for any of these (particularly the one barred on YouTube by BBC Worldwide on political or copyright grounds (whatever is your preference). If anyone wishes their videos to be removed from this list then please ask and I shall do so as quickly as I possibly can and the one containing material from BBC Worldwide will be removed on 19th September 2014 if I remember to do it and we are still staying in the UK (less likely if Scotland is not).
1. Jim Sillars: If we have a YES vote we are powerful. If we have a NO vote we are powerless.
2. Scotland has determined the outcome of a UK GE twice in 100 years. Good luck for 2015 if we vote NO.
3. The UK & Norway discovered oil in the 1970s. Norway has a colossal nest egg. The UK has a colossal debt.
4. If you're happy with falling living standards, stagnant wages and sky high corporate and shareholder profits then vote NO to Scottish independence.
5. Do you want the 50 million British voters to decide what happens to the 5.3 million people in Scotland, or do you want the 4 million Scottish voters to decide?
6. Analysis by the Financial Times puts an independent Scotland richer than the rest of the UK.
7. A vote for Scottish independence is a fundamental appeal to fairness.
8. Jim Sillars: Our greatest handicap is the myth of our own inadequacy.
9. Of course there are negatives to independence.
10. 6000 square miles of Scottish North Sea secretly claimed by Westminster in 1999.
11. There are 1425 members at Westminster. Scotland can elect 59. A fair and equitable union for whom?
12. Voting NO is like deciding to give 91% of the control of your car to someone else. Good luck with that, and don't depend on the airbag working.
13. If you are happy to let the UK squander your country's wealth (again), and leave its people poor (again) then vote NO to Scottish independence.
14. By all means vote no, but only because you want Scotland to be run by Westminster and the rest of the UK, and not by Scotland.
A great video (and series of videos), well presented, with
excellent content research and sound reasoning. For more in this series see Stephen Paton on Youtube.
At 3:27 in this particular video, it is stated that Scotland
voted NO to devolution in 1979. This is a small point but this is not correct.
In Scotland a majority actually voted YES, but, because of the terms of the Act
passed by Westminster no devolution was given. These terms that 40% of the
total population had to vote YES. This meant that dead people actually counted
as NO votes; those that could not be bothered to vote counted as NO votes;
those people who felt that it didn't concern them who also had a vote but did
not use it also counted as NO votes. For any other referendum or election these
terms are completely ridiculous and outrageous but for Scotland it was okay
according to Westminster, the Labour Party and the Conservatives. The fact that
we went into the Common Market on a simple majority which was a far bigger
constitutional change for the UK as whole didn't matter.
The results of the Referendum in 1979
Scotland in 1979 by any reasonable democratic measure therefore did vote YES in
1979! Never let it be said that they didn't. Westminster wouldn't know the
meaning of the word democracy unless of course people vote in a way that suits
them (but if you are Scotland then that doesn't matter much given that we have
only affected the outcome of a General Election twice in 100 years. Good luck
for 2015 if we vote NO?). How can this be the great EQUAL union of nations that
the UK is according to Better Together when you are dominated by England 59 to
533 (which incidentally works out as 9% representation).
I want Scotland to be normal and be able to make its own decisions without
being dictated to by Westminster in which Scotland has such a small stake.
I want Scotland to be free of nuclear weapons, which are currently situated
here because they are too dangerous to be situated in the Thames just beside
the Houses of Parliament in London.
The simple way to rid Scotland of nuclear weapons of mass destruction.
I want to get rid of the absurd notion that being run by a Parliament we did
elect in Edinburgh with no real power and one which we most definitely did not
vote for in Westminster is actually 'the best of both worlds'.
Scotland deserves better than this. Best of both worlds? Best for whom?
I want to live in a country that actually utilises its resources wisely rather
than completely squandering them like the UK has done with the oil from
Scotland's waters in the North Sea. This is completely unlike one of Scotland's
nearest neighbours Norway (who with a similar population, similar oil reserves
but a less diverse economy, has invested their proceeds wisely, and the money
from those oil revenues will benefit the Norwegian people forever). Scotland is
also unlike almost ANY OTHER OIL producing country in the World (except Iran) in
that it has not invested the oil proceeds for the future. This was another
decision again taken by Westminster on the Scots behalf as they knew best! Scotland
has very little to show for discovering oil and indeed it can credibly be
argued that Scotland has suffered because of it. To quote Margo MacDonald 'The economic management of Scotland's
resources by London has been awful, surely we couldn't do it worse ourselves?'
A quote from the late Margo MacDonald, a greatly respected politician in Scotland and who is much missed.
As has been proved by the Scottish Parliament YES WE CAN make better decisions
ourselves if we have control over our own affairs. We have decided to
prioritise our spending (as that is all we in actuality have any real control
over at present) in different ways i.e. abolishing tolls on Scottish bridges,
making prescriptions free so you are not taxed for being ill, making
student fees free so again the person wishing to improve themselves is not
taxed more than once for the audacity of actually wanting to improve their own,
their family’s, and their descendants lives, and ultimately improving their
country's and the World’s future. We have prioritized infrastructure spending
to boost our wide ranging and diverse economy both now and in the future.
Before this wouldn’t have happened – As Boris Johnston says ‘My argument to the Chancellor and the Treasury is that a £
spent in Croydon is of far more value to the country (UK?) in strict
utilitarian calculus than a £ spent in Strathclyde. Indeed…’.
We have tried with limited resources to mitigate the effects
of policies that are an anathema to Scotland like the welfare cuts but in our
current position we can do only so much. Why does it make economic and social
sense to have a few so very rich, when the poorest and most vulnerable must
rely for food-banks for their very survival whilst living in freezing homes
because they can’t afford to heat them, if indeed they have a home at all? (Why
is it you need to be sent to prison in the UK to be assured of having a roof
over your head, and enough food to eat? Why is it you can have a full time job,
due to the low UK minimum wage, but still not earn enough to have enough money
to actually live on without additional assistance? Indeed in such a rich
country (referring on this occasion to the UK as whole) are these things and
many other similar examples not obscene?)
Indeed why should we have to try to reverse the effects of a
decision that we in general strongly object to (by spending part of a finite
amount of money, so graciously given back to us by Westminster, thus damaging
some other person as a result), when we and our own Parliament could have made a
better decisions for the people of Scotland in the first place?
It has been said many times that a decent society should
make decent provision for the poorest and most vulnerable, and this is a mark
of true civilization. Where does this fit in to the current UK philosophy,
particularly since all the London based UK parties generally agree on the
current fiscal package and the current political trajectory. Scotland seems to
have developed, over a long period, a different political and social philosophy
summed up by the saying ‘We’re all Jock Tamson’s bairns’. It seems finally to
be realising this no longer applies if it decides to stay in the UK.
Iain Duncan Smith, UK Government Minister, Department of Work and Pensions, heckled by Willie Black [27MAR2013]
The choice between YES and NO is almost nothing to do with
Bannockburn, tartan, bagpipes, haggis (and dare I say it Tunnocks Tea Cakes, or
Barrs Irn Bru and the like after the Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014 opening
ceremony last week) and Scotland’s romantic past as portrayed by Sir Walter
Scott and continuously perpetuated by perplexed media persons of all nations who
seem unable to understand.
It is nothing to do with traditional anti external forces of
nationalism which the UKIP is espousing which is striking a chord mainly in voters
who feel disenfranchised in England, and much more radically the National
Socialists did in Germany prior to the Second World War. It is not about ethnicity,
nationality, sex, or sexuality either, as is illustrated by the diversity and
inclusivity of the YES campaign (see English Scots for YES, Africans for YES,
Cabbies for Yes, Academics for YES, YES LGBT, NHS for YES, etc.). Who would
have thought that we would have Labour activists campaigning for the same goal
as the SNP, the Scottish Greens, the Scottish Socialists, and even right wingers
too?
It is not about putting up borders where none existed as they
do all ready in Scotland’s every-day life. Indeed it is about removing some
barriers and lowering some borders to people from around the World, including
the 800000 people who reside in the remaining UK who currently have no jobs
here to match their talents and aspirations. It is about ending the almost
obligatory requirement for Scots to go to other parts of the World, and the UK,
in particular London, to fulfill their cherished ambitions. Why can these ambitions
not be equally achieved currently in Scotland? Does this not mean the current
set up doesn’t work well? To me it is obvious things are not fine the way they
are, and that little seems likely to change in the foreseeable future if we stay in
the UK.
A YES vote will show that Scotland has finally shown it needs
to join the world on its own terms, free from the often toxic filter of
Westminster which still seems to hark back to British power, imperialism and Empire.
A YES vote is about normalism, self determination, internationalism, the future,
and the settled belief that we have a very good chance of being able to do things
better (as we certainly have all the resources to do so – as the YES and the NO
campaigns agree, or at least say they do).
We would have an equal place in the World
as a nation, just like any other. I have heard the arguments that Scotland’s
voice at the UN, in Europe and in other international bodies would be much
diminished if we are an actual member state and for some reason, I just don’t
know why, I just don’t believe it.
Scotland’s Future is in Scotland’s hands on the 18th
September 2014. For the first time all the residents of Scotland will hold
their own country’s sovereignty in their own hands in a single moment. Whose
hands will that sovereignty will be in the day after?I know whose hands I want it to be in. I don’t
want to be as reckless as the UK has been, with Scotland’s resources and people,
up until now. It is far better to have more control in an uncertain World. I am risk averse so I am voting YES.
