WE MUST FIGHT FOR TRUTH, HONOUR AND JUSTICE!

Speech by Iain Lawson to the Salvo Launch.

Firstly my thanks for the invitation to speak at this important event which has the potential to help deliver Scotland’s Independence to more effect than any other announcement in the last seven days. ( Pause) I thought that would get your attention.

Well I have good reason for suggesting that because for the bulk of the last thirty years I have been often living and working in a small independent North European country. Indeed for some fifteen years until I retired I was their senior accredited diplomat here in Scotland. That country is of course Estonia, a country that has proved what Independence can deliver for a small nation with the talent, the courage, the determination to use that Independence to build prosperity for all its citizens. It now stands thirty years later as the most digitally advanced economy and nation in Europe, perhaps the World. Yet when I first visited in 1993 the average wage was the equivalent of 40 US DOLLARS A MONTH!

But it is not that tremendous success I want to talk about today. I want to discuss one key element that proved the catalyst in that struggle to become Independent. Because it bears an uncanny resemblance to what groups like SSRG and Salvo are  seeking to achieve here in Scotland.

Like Scotland there were various parties, one larger than the rest all with different views on how to take Independence forward. The dominant party seemed lukewarm to new ideas and there were fears the whole drive could stall. Two events then took place, one is well known as the Singing Revolution and the other the remarkable Baltic chain of people, estimated at two million  where the three Baltic nations came together creating an unbroken chain holding hands demanding Independence over the six hundred kilometers between Tallinn in Estonia, through Latvia finishing in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius. Less is known about what I am going to tell you now but which was a key element in the success of both these tremendous events.

Suddenly towards the end of the 1980’s a new organisation came to the fore, an organisation formed by the grassroots. To outward appearance it was a historical and cultural Group and it was largely that until Glasnost reached Estonia. Encouraged by this new freedom they turned their attention to a historical document, not a Claim of Right, but a formal agreement signed by Molotov the Soviet Foreign Minister and Von Ribbentrop his opposite number in the Nazi German Government, which was signed a month before the commencement of the Second World War. A Non Aggression Pact

Their studies revealed secret protocols that annexed the three Independent nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania plus a slice of Poland to the Soviet Union, while the rest of Poland was to belong to Germany. Within a month the war commenced and Germany and the Soviet Union divided up the spoils under the agreement.

The significance of discovering these secret protocols was to be hugely important in the battle to win Independence. The Soviets had always argued their takeover of the Baltic countries was to protect them from external aggression. Now Estonians could prove it was nothing of the kind, it was a dirty and illegal deal with the Nazis. The key political point of this was if the Soviet occupation was illegal then legal Estonian citizenship must still exist going back to the first period of Estonian Independence following WW1, before the illegal Soviet occupation took place.

The Heritage Group set up branches all over Estonia, I think in excess of 1100 from memory and started signing up Estonians as Estonian, rather than Soviet citizens. People only got a paper coupon and communists, trying to scare people from signing up, called them “tickets to Siberia”. They could have been, certainly for the first few thousand, but the people had courage and eight months later they were able to declare more than fifty per cent of the Estonian population had signed up to be citizens of the new Independent Estonia.

This success emboldened and United the politicians, a referendum followed in March 1991 which returned 78% Yes vote and as the tanks rolled on Tallinn’s streets during the attempted August Gorbachov coup they voted for Independence in a Parliamentary vote. This was recognised by the international community all round the World. Other countries did the same and the rest is history.

It is significant that many members of the Heritage Group were later elected to the first Independent Estonian Parliament, including the Prime Minister, former schoolteacher Mart Laar. So look out Sara you might have a new job shortly.

I tell you about all this because as sure as night follows day the professional politicians will seek to downplay and poo poo all you do. They fear you because you are opening up new territory, areas they don’t control. Worse, from their point of view you are successfully building support to raise your issues and ideas further up the Independence Agenda. That scares them, look at the criticism the FM attracted because she did not make more of the Claim of Right argument as part of her announcement last week. That could not have happened a year or so ago. It is your success in educating Scotland that was the reason for that. Of course there is much more to do, of course there is, a lot more, but you have made a startlingly good start. You are building momentum and I pledge my full support, and most, if not all the bloggers, to help spreading your message far and wide.

Independence will be won by the people of Scotland, not the devious political class who seek to control everything and manipulate it for their own or their Party’s benefit. That will not stand, it must not stand because it is a route to failure. It is already happening. I am appalled that the First Minister is unable to say that votes cast for all pro Indy parties will count not just SNP ones. It makes it look to me that she is demanding a monopoly on Independence. If she is then she is working for others because that will not deliver Independence for Scotland. Put plainly…she has no right to do this. We do not vote for Nicola Sturgeon. We vote for Independence and freedom for Scotland, she betrays our whole country if she tries to corral this for herself and her Party.

Why is it important? Because Independence and Justice is needed, we need an open and honest system with a constitution that protects our citizens and closes off the opportunity of any Government or court system to collude in the way we have witnessed in Scotland in recent years.

The false allegations and plot against Alex Salmond disgraced both our Government and our Justice System, the same accusers being involved in the case of Craig Murray which resulted in him being jailed for an offence that even the judge could not explain to the public. She said that was OK because it was clear in her mind. The same judge that wants to end jury trials for sex offence cases. That is not Justice my friends, far from it.

The police force that spent huge amounts conducting over 700 face to face interviews with 400 people trying to find anything, anything at all, to strengthen the incredibly flimsy allegations against the former First Minister. How can that be anything other than corrupt when they were handed an open ended budget by the Crown Office to do so?

Or the dawn raid on Mark Hirst, months of worry and agitation, his accusers again from the same bunch of anonymous women, protected by the ruling from the aforementioned judge, only for the sheriff to rule “No case to answer” He still faced huge bills for his defence while his accusers, some of the same people who accused Alex Salmond, were not out a penny, the taxpayer, again, having to cough up.

Another ludicrous case coming up in early August where more ridiculous charges, based on frivolous allegations from two senior SNP Members, including an MSP will confirm these disgraceful tactics of political bullying are still ongoing and that taxpayers funds are being wrongly used and huge amounts, millions spent, following a political agenda rather than proper justice.

England boasts of its great unwritten constitution. No constitution should ever be unwritten. It hands unbridled power to the establishment of the day. That can be hugely dangerous if they lack honesty and worth. We have discovered that problem here in Scotland. We need an open and honest written constitution that gives every citizen basic rights and protections.I have much greater faith that it will be delivered by Salvo and SSRG than a Scottish Government of whatever political colour.

We must fight for truth, honour and justice. Independence can win us that.

For our nation’s Common Weal. I Thank You for all you are doing.

BEAT THE CENSORS

Sadly some websites that claim to be pro Indy have turned out to be only Pro SNP sites and have sought to ban any websites that dare to question SNP Policy or tactics. They seek to avoid the public being aware that alternatives to waiting for Westminster to “grant” Scotland a Section 30 to hold a referendum exist. Issues like the flawed franchise, the Claim of Right route, the work of the SSRG and Salvo fill them with dread. As this blog promotes all routes, including alternatives I am banned from these sites and am therefore very grateful to my readers, who knowing about these efforts to ban and suppress go out of their way to subscribe and to share my articles far and wide. It is a good thing that attempts to restrict free speech and censor are defeated in this way. This launch is very important today. Please, in especial, share this article today. My thanks.

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