Today (Monday 24th February) the cabinets of not one but two governments are meeting in the vicinity of Aberdeen.
The Westminster (UK) Government Cabinet meets in a "secret location" which everyone knows is really the BP headquarters in Dyce, a suburb of Aberdeen. Immediately after their deliberations they are jetting back south.
The Scottish Government Cabinet meets in Portlethen, a dormitory town for Aberdeen just across the municipal boundary in Aberdeenshire. Immediately after their deliberations, they are having a Q&A session which is open to any member of the public.
To what do we owe this embarrassment of riches? The last time the UK Cabinet met outside of London was 90 years ago. They met in Inverness in 1922 and the major talking point on their agenda was independence for Ireland. I'll return to the significance of this point later.
The major talking point on the UK Cabinet's meeting today is of course independence for Scotland. They pretend it is all about showing the oil and gas industry how much they care. Or rather how much they care about their Corporation Tax. The agenda of course is that they want more wealthy people to persuade us proles to vote NO.
A younger me would have leapt at the chance to demonstrate against them and "shame" them on their visit. The older me thinks "why would I bother"? It's not as if these creatures have any shame is it?
Almost every one of them has interests in private healthcare companies and are busy lining their pockets while privatising the NHS in England & Wales. It seems likely that appeals to morality or shame would be lost on them
Scotland has been spared the worst of the NHS privatisation agenda, but what should we think about today's visit by Cameron and co. before they scuttle back to Westminster?
With hindsight we know that Westminster's manipulation of the Irish liberation struggle in the 1920's led to the Irish Civil War. If you're not familiar with that period of history you should read more.
Let's keep sight of the people who we will be dealing with in the event of a YES vote in September. What evidence of good faith in negotiation can we find in the Westminster Government?
Well lets face it, the Lib Dem half of the government only got into government by repudiating every electoral promise they made. The other half are every bit as bad.
Remember what history taught us about the last time a country voted to leave the "UK". In the election of 1919 nearly 80% of Irish people voted for Republican candidates. Westminster chose to negotiate with tanks and paramilitary murder gangs.
I'm not suggesting that will happen in September of this year. Westminster simply doesn't have enough soldiers or tanks to suppress us. What we can expect though is bad faith and obstruction in the negotiations.
After a brilliant military and political campaign by Irish Republicans in 1920 and 1921, Westminster was brought to the table. When Michael Collins and his colleagues negotiated and signed the Treaty with Westminster in 1921, they had been bullied into submission and forced to accept an "Irish Free State" rather than the Republic they were sworn to uphold.
Collins wrote at the time that they fully expected to be arrested by Republican authorities on their return to Ireland.
They were out-negotiated and exceeded their mandate. The signing of the Treaty staved off Westminster's threat of "Immediate and terrible war". What it did was to make the Irish Civil War inevitable. It institutionalised the partition of Ireland and fulfilled James Connolly's prophecy of "a carnival of reaction North and South".
Lessons? I am more and more confident of a resounding YES vote in September. That doesn't bring independence itself. It simply marks the start of negotiations. David Cameron signed the "Edinburgh Agreement" guaranteeing to respect the outcome of September's vote. I don't believe a word that comes out of his mouth. And why should the rest of us?
Westminster will try to manipulate the negotiators, with threats, inducements, blackmail and all sorts of flannel. We need to ensure that our negotiators play hard ball. If we don't, Whitehall mandarins will simply drag out the process and keep watering down our gains.
We will have voted for independence. That's far too important to allow negotiators to make deals and water down the ways and means by which we can make a genuine change in this country. We need to make the negotiators on our side accountable to the people.
So, just for starters, here's a list of bottom-line issues for potential Scottish negotiators.
No partition here. No negotiating "Treaty Ports" for Trident. No dowp-licking of the Banks.
Nothing less than full sovereignty to the people of Scotland. That's what we will have voted for.
That's what we need to make a change in this country.
The Westminster (UK) Government Cabinet meets in a "secret location" which everyone knows is really the BP headquarters in Dyce, a suburb of Aberdeen. Immediately after their deliberations they are jetting back south.
The Scottish Government Cabinet meets in Portlethen, a dormitory town for Aberdeen just across the municipal boundary in Aberdeenshire. Immediately after their deliberations, they are having a Q&A session which is open to any member of the public.
To what do we owe this embarrassment of riches? The last time the UK Cabinet met outside of London was 90 years ago. They met in Inverness in 1922 and the major talking point on their agenda was independence for Ireland. I'll return to the significance of this point later.
The major talking point on the UK Cabinet's meeting today is of course independence for Scotland. They pretend it is all about showing the oil and gas industry how much they care. Or rather how much they care about their Corporation Tax. The agenda of course is that they want more wealthy people to persuade us proles to vote NO.
A younger me would have leapt at the chance to demonstrate against them and "shame" them on their visit. The older me thinks "why would I bother"? It's not as if these creatures have any shame is it?
Almost every one of them has interests in private healthcare companies and are busy lining their pockets while privatising the NHS in England & Wales. It seems likely that appeals to morality or shame would be lost on them
Scotland has been spared the worst of the NHS privatisation agenda, but what should we think about today's visit by Cameron and co. before they scuttle back to Westminster?
With hindsight we know that Westminster's manipulation of the Irish liberation struggle in the 1920's led to the Irish Civil War. If you're not familiar with that period of history you should read more.
Let's keep sight of the people who we will be dealing with in the event of a YES vote in September. What evidence of good faith in negotiation can we find in the Westminster Government?
Well lets face it, the Lib Dem half of the government only got into government by repudiating every electoral promise they made. The other half are every bit as bad.
Remember what history taught us about the last time a country voted to leave the "UK". In the election of 1919 nearly 80% of Irish people voted for Republican candidates. Westminster chose to negotiate with tanks and paramilitary murder gangs.
I'm not suggesting that will happen in September of this year. Westminster simply doesn't have enough soldiers or tanks to suppress us. What we can expect though is bad faith and obstruction in the negotiations.
After a brilliant military and political campaign by Irish Republicans in 1920 and 1921, Westminster was brought to the table. When Michael Collins and his colleagues negotiated and signed the Treaty with Westminster in 1921, they had been bullied into submission and forced to accept an "Irish Free State" rather than the Republic they were sworn to uphold.
Collins wrote at the time that they fully expected to be arrested by Republican authorities on their return to Ireland.
They were out-negotiated and exceeded their mandate. The signing of the Treaty staved off Westminster's threat of "Immediate and terrible war". What it did was to make the Irish Civil War inevitable. It institutionalised the partition of Ireland and fulfilled James Connolly's prophecy of "a carnival of reaction North and South".
Lessons? I am more and more confident of a resounding YES vote in September. That doesn't bring independence itself. It simply marks the start of negotiations. David Cameron signed the "Edinburgh Agreement" guaranteeing to respect the outcome of September's vote. I don't believe a word that comes out of his mouth. And why should the rest of us?
Westminster will try to manipulate the negotiators, with threats, inducements, blackmail and all sorts of flannel. We need to ensure that our negotiators play hard ball. If we don't, Whitehall mandarins will simply drag out the process and keep watering down our gains.
We will have voted for independence. That's far too important to allow negotiators to make deals and water down the ways and means by which we can make a genuine change in this country. We need to make the negotiators on our side accountable to the people.
So, just for starters, here's a list of bottom-line issues for potential Scottish negotiators.
No partition here. No negotiating "Treaty Ports" for Trident. No dowp-licking of the Banks.
Nothing less than full sovereignty to the people of Scotland. That's what we will have voted for.
That's what we need to make a change in this country.
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