BANK ACCOUNT BRAVEHEARTS

A guest post from Pete Young who runs Scotnews on Twitter.

Bank-account Bravehearts

For the SNP, fighting for self-determination, since 2015 at least, has consisted of standing up in Westminster complaining about the Scottish predicament.

Westminster SNP MPs are now part of a political reality show. Their main tasks are handwringing and soundbites. For that, they earn £82k per annum plus expenses. The sole challenge facing them is re-election.

These fake fighters are handed their vulgar salaries by surviving from election to election through carefully timed mentions of ‘independence’ or ‘indyref’. Since they’ve no serious intention of pursuing our historic cause they might as well go back to Labour and every five years promise to abolish the House of Lords.

Holyrood is hardly any better. Since the ascent of the Murrells to absolute power, an SNP MSP now has the status of a nodding dog.

SNP MSPs appear, one and all, to have embraced the doctrine of Sturgeonist Infallibility.

A prime example is denial of biological reality. This is embraced willingly, after all, obeying Bute House is rule number one if you are to climb the greasy pole of careerism. If Bute House decreed the Sun revolved around the Earth they’re are probably a few MSPs (and party apparatchiks) who would embrace that, too. Career, career, career.

Another tenent of faith for those who believe in Sturgeonist Infallibilty is the belief that ‘Nicola’ alone can decide on the time and method for bringing the Union to an end. The current Bute House dogma stipulates that only Westminster’s permission, via a Section 30, is legal and acceptable, with the standard addendum that ‘now is not the time’. Everything else is dismissed – by ‘she who must be obeyed’ – as a wildcat wheeze. This is despite the fact most of the world’s independent nations got there via other democratic routes than a referendum. And they certainly didn’t need permission from anyone, least of all a colonial neighbour

Whether a Westminster wastrel or Holyrood hoaxer, the fight to restore our nation’s independence has gone out of them. On the SNP benches are probably maximum 5 MPs worth voting for. The rest are anonymous components of the British state. And they love it. Paid a wage far beyond their wildest dreams and competences, they’ve settled in.

The writing was on the wall years ago, we just didn’t see it. This was Tommy Sheppard speaking in the House of Commons on 28 May 2015:

“I urge Members not to mistake our intentions…. We do, of course, want self-government for Scotland. There is no secret about that. But we had a referendum last year, and we know the result of that referendum. We lost it. We accept that we lost the referendum. We may not agree with it, but we did. We did not in this election seek a mandate for independence, and we did not get one. We have not come to this Chamber to argue the case for independence…

“We come here not to disrupt but to be constructive. We come here to be good parliamentarians…

“Mr Speaker, you gave us a gentle rebuke yesterday for the applause that we gave in this Chamber, and we take that with good grace. We know of course that it is not traditional practice in the Chamber, but we did not know just how unacceptable it might be found. We will try to refrain from doing it again. It will take us time to learn the processes at work here; it will take us time to get our feet under the table.”

In summary, yes sir, yes sir, three bags full sir.

The judgement of history will not be kind on those SNP MPs elected in 2015, 2017 and 2019.

Tommy Sheppard may have thought that 56 SNP MPs were not a mandate for independence, but they did have a mandate to make sure promises of ‘home rule near to federalism’, ‘super devomax’, and ‘vast new powers’ were kept. And yet the 56 of 2015, a near unanimous majority of Scotland’s ancient parliament sitting at Westminster, meekly accepted every #BetterTogether promise being broken – or so watered down so as to be more or less useless.

The 56 should have walked out then. Instead they remained glued to their seats – mocked and sneered at by Scotland’s three remaining Unionist MPs.

Bravehearts with bank accounts, indeed.

Of course, SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson was never going to do a thing to rock the British boat. He was, and is, the epitome of the ‘British establishment’. The former BBC employee is as convincing as a pantomime dame in nationalist drag.

Even the doomed Irish Parliamentary Party summoned up the civil courage to withdraw representation from Westminster in April 1918. Their discovery of a backbone, however, came too late to save them. Strong rhetoric about the most ‘brutal acts of tyranny and oppression that any Government can be guilty of’ could not redeem the traditional Irish party of home rule. By December 1918 they were gone. Rejected by Irish voters, they experienced a near extinction event.

There is a growing unease in the #Yes movement. But many of the activist level bank-account bravehearts who’ve created a nice income out of the indy movement are loathe to criticise the SNP. Instead they attack those in the movement who’ve grown weary of giving this SNP leadership mandates it’ll never use.

The loudest voices in the #WheeshtForIndy movement have most to lose, financially. The promise of indy ‘just over the next hill’ suits their cosy lifestyle of paid comment columns and crowdfunders.

The emergence of new independence parties has given new hope to many in the Yes movement. The doctrine of Sturgeonist Infallibility, however, demands that they be dismissed as evil heretics. Whether Colette Walker at #ISP or Alex Salmond at Alba, these ‘dissident factions’ are seen as subversive, in much the same way opposition parties were seen as a threat in one-party states of the old East Bloc.

Anyone supporting the new parties of indy urgency is, more often than not, blocked on social media, especially by SNP MPs and MSPs. Worse still, if you are one of the handful of SNP people openly sympathetic to the new parties, or their members, you may suffer the most horrific abuse. You will also remain ignored by heid yins like Blackford and Sturgeon. Presumably, this is meant to be a lesson to all heretics.

On 14 November 1844, John Steill wrote a letter to the ‘Editor of the Glasgow Examiner’. The eight-page letter was produced in pamphlet form. Its title was:

 “Scottish Independence

Letter on the necessity of dissolving the Union between England and Scotland, and on restoring Scotland to her ancient supremacy as an entire and distinct nation.“

He concluded with these lines – and they are as true now as they were then:

“…were our unpolished, but brave, honest, and shrewd Scottish ancestors to rise from their graves, and to behold in us, their descendents, the wreck and prostration of that glorious principle of nationality which burned so intensely in their bosoms, and for which they so often enthusiastically fought and died, they would utterly disown and despise us.

My Comments

They had it right in 1844. They had it right in 1945. There was fire and determination in their ranks. In 2021 the Independence fight has been suspended for the last six years. It is a huge disappointment. It must not be allowed to continue. As Westminster is mired in corruption and easy entry into the House of Lords is assured to those with a big cheque book it is a tragedy that the current crop of SNP MP’s and MSP’s also only seem motivated by their continuing salaries and expenses. Where are the SNP bravehearts who dont need paid to drive Independence forward? Who are motivated by our cause? Show me you exist!

I am, as always

Yours for Scotland

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