Salmond Has Raised The Banner!

Well done that man.

Salmond reveals independence referendum plans

This is what we've all been waiting for. Well, most of us. The Scottish National Party should essentially be about one thing - independence. Here in Spain people in Madrid think that Scotland will be the same as the Catalans - threatening independence to get more money. The Canadians, after their Quebec plebiscite, the same. Rubbish. I never met any Scottish nationalist who didn't believe in independence.

Tactically, this is exactly correct. Maybe the majority opposition to the minority government will block the referendum. With Britain about to lose its AAA status, with public and private debt in Britain now 449% of GDP and more and more economists talking about a Sterling crash, Scots must know there is a dinghy called Dignity.

The SNP must now fight for independence. They must talk about 'Bankrupt Britain'. The British economy is going South and the option of independence must be firmly on the agenda when that happens. The pressure for a democratic choice over our nation's history will come from the people who want jobs, economic justice and a future for their kids. They've had enough of corporate politics and wars and need a real country with empowered citizens and a written constitution.

Over the years the SNP has talked about a distinctive Scottish culture, institutions and history. We know that and our artists, historians and writers are shining. All pivotal for our long term survival as an ancient civilisation. However, as a political priority these virtues don't seem urgent to people. To reach independence there has to be an immediate need. We've allowed independence and the referendum to achieve it to be characterised as 'naval gazing' while real issues like jobs need our national attention, we are told. When the electorate do not see the link between the economy and independence there will never be an urgent case for the referedum.

So, escaping from 'Bankrupt Britain' is now a top priority. Salmond has grabbed the agenda and the timing is perfect. Scots must stop thinking about Tory v Labour and start thinking about 'bankrupt Britain' versus independence.

After the election, the austerity measures will come, unemployment will continue to rise in alignment with government borrowing i.e. fast. There is not going to be a recovery. The problem that you're not allowed to hear about is debt. Britain's debt is so big and it has to borrow more and more each month. So much so that paying it back is going to be impossible and Britain will default. Their solution to too much debt has been to borrow more. It's absurd but it's been the economic theology now for decades. As the reality sinks in that borrowing more can't solve too much debt there will be a rush to put up interest rates. Britain will not be in the G20 never mind the G7 by then. Greece is only the start..

The SNP must prepare the Scottish electorate. A shift in mindset is now possible. The United Basket-casedom is passing into history. Our people need leadership and straight-talking not corporate politics with its smokescreens of petty tabloid politics. There is too much poverty in our nation, many of our people are reduced to a wretched state constituting the worst living standards in Western Europe. This shames us all. It is time to stop being corporate slaves, held down by envying our neighbours, material distractions, wars on fake premises and East Enders etc. It is time for us to think like a nation, the poor are our people, the old are our old, our immigrants are our immigrants, our economy is our economy, our country is our country. We have to think about our relationship to the rest of the world directly and not by proxy.

We will be bombarded with propaganda. Of that there is no doubt. We will be lied to, we will be fed smoke and mirrors baloney by the self-interested who have no desire for honest debate. They will try to reduce the debate to tabloid rubbish in the hope of keeping us down with self-loathing.

All nationalists must now gang thegither and talk about the big issues of democracy and self-determination. There is a war on for the mind of all Scots. Do not underestimate how our demons will be used against us. Instilling confidence is the priority. The confidence to overcome the lies which have been peddled over generations. We are not a defeated people. We are not too wee and incapable. We have to engage minds now with passion, for Scotland will not rise on a half-hearted prospectus. The people must believe we are serious. Do not blush when talking about independence - that is the slave mentality. Do not feel the need to dress independence up in small talk and petty politics - you will lose the confidence of the people.

In 1707, we were sold. The Parcel o' Rogues cashed in on our sovereignty. The people did not want Union and have never voted for it. We were wronged by a self-interested elite.

A self-interested elite is now all that stands between us and our right to our historic independence. We simply can't let the moment pass. We need the collective determination of the olympian to win. This generation is the second independence generation. The first fought politically and on the battle field. Our battle field is the hearts and minds of Scots and our weapons must be honesty, integrity, guile and determination.

The giants of our history are always with us giving us strength. Generations have kept the torch burning in darker times so that this moment would come one day long after they were gone. A moment of destiny is coming and we must take a leap of faith in ourselves, each and every one of us, in every corner of Scotland and in every race, colour and creed of ancient Alba. We have kept our country alive in our minds and now we have to connect again with the world. We WILL see it in our life time!

Alex Salmond has raised the banner, it is time to stand and be counted.

Financial/Electoral/Military Crisis and Gordon's Destiny

Green Shoots? What are you smoking?

















Yes, Gordon Brown has just about everyone smoking green shoots. Well, he must:























I still haven't recovered from the last recovery. Christmas sales, right? Wrong. It was all down to the printing and distribution of new money. Yes, he diluted your wealth to pretend that the economy was improving. Look at his picture, he doesn't even exhale. You ain't gonnie win on the economy Gordy. Try a little war in Argentina, it worked for your buddy when she was deeply unpopular and she ruled over us for an eternity thereafter. She did have oil though. Oh my, so does the Falkland Islands. Mmmm.

Problem is them green shoots are from a poor batch. The high isn't so smooth.

Take for example this headline from The Evening Standard:

UK's finances 'ghastly' as tax falls and spending rises

Januaries. Every one of them is a bumper one for the government. That Slade jingle gets consumers' juices going and we part with shed loads of cash to keep our consumerist brats quiet. Last year January saw the government pay back GBP 5.27 billion to creditors. This January he borrowed another GBP 4.34 billion. Yes, it's a 'since records began' statistic. How does it compare to forecasts? Well, 'analysts' had predicted a repayment of GBP 2.8 billion so a mere GBP 7.14 billion out.

And just at the time when Mervin the Megician told us he's not going to print any more GBP (Gordon Brown Pounds).

Remember he saved the world with 'stimulus' and 'bail-outs' (= print outs)? You see his fix for an economy gridlocked with debt was to increase the debt. No more fixes please Gordon, we've smoked too much already.

It's simple Gordon. When you give away cheap money you create a distorted economy. Then it has to correct itself meaning people with jobs in the 'stimulated' false economy have to move to the productive real economy. That hasn't happened because you pumped more money into the 'stimulated' economy. When you stop pumping it's going to evaporate. To make things worse Gordon you took money from the real economy to support the fake one and so some of the real economy has evaporated too - never to come back. Well done.

So, income tax and corporation tax have driven over the cliff Gordon. That's why you needed to borrow more money this January.

Do you really think the electorate will solve the Gordon Brown problem by demanding more Gordon Brown? No, that doesn't make sense and neither did your 'bail-outs' and 'quantative easing'.

You just printed Gordon. That was your economic stategy. I mean even some African tin-pot dictator like Mugabe can do that, no?

Yes Gordy, it's a big mess and can only go further South. So, what are you going to do to get re-elected? I think a little crisis would help, don't you? Arresting some Muslims in trumped up terror charges isn't going to cut it. Yep, I think an international crisis is required.

Iran? No, too dangerous. Argentina Gordon. Britain's dignity is at stake and the tabloids will be right behind you. You'll be the best PM since Maggie. Can't you feel the hand of history on your shoulder? You were destined for great things Gordon, don't let the idiot electorate let you down.

Jim Murphy and Race Propaganda

race-gate goes on

I was pondering, as I often do, whether I've taken things too far. Is it possible that my last blog is OTT? Could it be that there is a conspiracy to undermine the SNP leadership? Are our political opponents (whose idiot legions terrorise the English by claiming we Nats stoke up Anglophobia) actually indulging in trying to associate the SNP in a disgraceful way with Muslim immigrants?

Why was the story about Sturgeon and Abdul Rauf given such prominance by newspaper editors who knew full well that the story merited a mention but is not the national scandal they tried to portray it as? Is there a co-ordinated campaign to demonise Salmond and co as terrorist sympathisers?

Is the race card being played? Who is soft on fraudulant immigrants? Who is soft on terrorists? Who was against the war?

Not New Labour apparently. The Herald and others frothed at the gob, jumped up and down and idiodically reported calls for resignations. There was an obvious smear campaign going on. Conducted from where?

The Ministry of Truth aka The Scotland Office. Couple of phone calls from Murphy followed by sit down strategy meeting. On the agenda? Winning the election. How? Branding the SNP subtly as terrorist sympathisers and Labour as tough on immigrants. Job done, see you same time next week boys. Don't get this wrong or I'll call the owners of the paper. Now we know what Murphy's job actually is.

Yes, no sooner had The Herald shocked us all by the SNP throwing their lot in with fraudsters, and Muslim ones at that, than The Herald published a lovely article about how Murphy is going to be tough on immigrants. Just what the Daily Record readership needed to hear after losing their jobs. The economy is to do with brown not Brown you understand:

Murphy: Immigrants must accept core British values














So, they've given up the Asian vote in Govan then? Nicola Sturgeon MSP for Govan and Scotland's biggest Asian population gets to keep them but Labour gets the white vote. Did this show up in Murphy's focus groups well? In Govan especially eh? But all across their impoverished core constituency too. Nice smile eh? Just the man to stop the Pakies from stealing the rest of our jobs.

There was also a story to go with the subtext:

..reflects the need for new immigrants to accept core British values - to obey the law, speak English and pay taxes.

Don't you see Jim? Fraud is a core British value thanks to your party. Gordon's bail-outs Jim? Gordon and Mervin's 'quantative Easing' Jim? Cash for questions? Cash for access? Lobbygate? Use of the Scotland Office for party political propaganda and appealing to racial prejudices at that Jim?

Obey the Law Jim? Like Labour MP Jim Devine? Tony Blair and his illegal war, Jim? Wendy Alexander? I could go for a very long time Jim.

Speaking English Jim? What about our immigrants in Iraq? Do they speak Arabic in Labour's illegal war that has killed over a million Iraqis, Jim?

No sooner had the SNP leadership been pilloried for 'supporting' Asian fraudsters than Murphy was oozing round radio stations with carefully worded messages about being 'firm but fair' with immigrants.

This is creepy stuff. I see what you're doing Jim. I have you and your corrupt, warmongering party in my nostrils Murphy.

Do Something Scotland

Le Carre said it through Barley Scott Blair in The Russia House:

..you have to think like a hero just to behave like a merely decent human being

The lurid attacks on the SNP leadership of late have been frightening in their intensity. Clearly, The Herald and others are going to conduct their campaigns right up to the election. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't mind political bias but The Herald has now stooped far to low and has crossed the line with their coverage of the so-called scandal relating to Nicola Sturgeon's compassionate letter to a judge asking for leniency for a constituent who has admitted to benefit fraud and has repented and made a comittment to repay the stolen money.

Anyone familiar with my blog will know that I have severely criticised the government and bankers for transferring British citizens' wealth to the merchant bankers. This policy of bail-outs and quantative easing is pure and simple fraud. Fraud which is impoverishing people the length and breadth of Britain.

There has been a conspiracy of silence on the matter. The banker who stole Iceland's money is now living in London under the protection of Gordon Brown. He is not being asked to pay back a penny. Might set a messy precendent you understand and we don't want the population calling for justice..

The hypocrisy of the media and politicians in this matter is monumental. Why in the face of the biggest plunder of people's money in history under New Labour is The Herald and The Scotsman running a story about a constituency letter to a judge as the top story?

In wondering about all this it dawned on me what was happening. The picture of the Abdul Rauf was published despite the fact that he has a family. It's race. He fits a profile. We've had it rammed down our throats since the despicable 'war on terror' was dreamed up. These people are a threat to us apparently. These lazy Asians are over here stealing our benefits and jobs and spend the rest of their time being trained as terrorists. That's the New Labour subtext.

Salmond and the SNP, you see, were against the war. They are in league with the terrorists is the logic. Afghanistan and Iraq are making banks and arms manufacturers very wealthy indeed. These people have now hijacked New Labour. No sooner was Blair out of Downing Street than he had a GBP 2.5 million a year job with JP Morgan - the company who won the contract to run the Trading Bank of Iraq. Who made a mint from Brown's PFI schemes? Who fills Labour coffers to get Brown elected?

Did you ever wonder why the bail-outs and 'quantative easing' became a theology? More was needed and sooner screamed the headlines. What about let the incompetent, greedy bath turds fail? Ah, you see, they have far too much influence over the media and anyway the kickbacks are nice but don't expect The Herald to investigate them.

Apart from being against the war Salmond's other crime was to court the Muslim community. Increasingly under the warmongering New Labour machine Muslims felt protected by Salmond's reaching out to their communities and seeing through the 'war on terror'. We should stick by Salmond for these reasons. He would not allow our Muslim population to become the 'enemy within' as New Labour would have them portrayed. How many false terrorism arrests and raids have there been? Who sanctioned them? All to keep our perpetual wars going. All to steal oil and resources. And where does the money go?

That's the real fraud - US/Ukanian empire. It is known within the financial community that when Lehman collapsed the only liquidity in the financial system was coming from sales of heroine harvested in Afghanistan. We continue to send young men and women to die to fatten the Swiss bank accounts of those who have direct and instant access to Gordon Brown and President Obama.

Don't tell me about fraud? The fraudsters are in power. Their defrauding the population every time the tell you that they act in your interest whilst they peddle propaganda which would shame some 20th Century dictatorships.

There's no debate any longer about stopping our involvement in these wars. Iraq was an illegal war to start with and the people didn't want it. Who cares what the people think? The bosses of number 10 are the bankers and the arm's manufacturers. They're the new bosses and the rest of us will just do what we're told.

To keep the pantomime going they need to terrorise us and distract us. And this story about Nicola Sturgeon's letter is exactly that. Our attention must be constantly engaged with sensational garbage. And when the people get restless throw them some Muslims - the enemy within, those who we need to protect you from. The trillions of pounds in profit from said wars are simply a bi-product. Nothing to do with the motivations, you understand. And when the nasty Nats don't follow the script they get it in the neck.

What happens when people start believing all this propaganda? Today in The Herald (see pic below) we have a report that extreme right-wing organisations can no longer control their followers. Next week you'll see the Scottish Defence League taking to the streets of Edinburgh. In the Alice-In-Wonderland world of the New Labour project The Herald can't see (or worse does see but think it's worth it) the correlation between their story about Abdul Rauf and the growth of fascism among the working classes.

The SNP are not buying into the bankers' empire and so the attack dogs are set on them. Expect more in the run up to the election.

There will be no peace while Britain survives. Britain is the patner of the corporate fascists who now roam the world bringing down democracies, threatening countries with war to capture energy markets and robbing the citizens of the 'homeland' of their capital. The SNP threatens to spoil the party.

Orwell was not far off. We even have the language Hope = desperation, change = worse than before, recovery = more theft of the citizenry. Add this to the lurid rubbish that masquerades as news, the perpetual wars, a population transfixed by soap operas, celebrity and terrorism and watched by CCTV more even than in communist China. If it looks like fascism, smells like fascism and acts like fascism - it's Britain today.

People, we simply can't keep sleep-walking deeper into tyrrany. We have to organise. Take your money out of big banks and put it into local banks and credit unions - starve the beast. Complain and demonstrate, join peace organisations. Do something!

Scotand's Press Bordering On Fascism

It is becoming clearer that Scotland's press is no longer democratic. Das Herald Sturmer and Das Schottishman are both conducting campaigns against SNP politicians based on smear and frothing hyperbole.

Clearly there is an election coming up and the political and corporate interests which control both newspapers and others now believe that they are free to conduct political vendettas.

While the European Union is facing meltdown Scotland's newspapers print leader headlines like:

Alex Salmond defends under-fire Sturgeon on court letter

and

SNP backs Nicola Sturgeon's help for fraud convict

Nicola Sturgeon's crime was writing to a judge asking for leniency for a constituent who has committed benefit fraud. In the letter (see below) Nicola explains that the man has shown remorse and intends to pay the money back. She then asks the judge to keep that in mind when considering his sentence.

As you can see the letter is balanced, accurate and humane. And yet, for whatever reason Scotland's anti-democratic press has decided to use this to try and bring down the Depute First Minister of the Scottish Parliament.





















Does this letter merit the hysterical baying for blood that the press headlines have engendered? It is apparent that in the run up to the election the press are going to use any trivial nonsense that they can twist into a 'story' and in a co-ordinated fashion have political attack dogs lined up to heighten the importance of the story from humane to grevious act of misconduct for a Minister of the Government.

A democratic media would laugh this nonsense out of the public court. Indeed, a democratic press would be following up real stories like the charges of fraud of Labour MPs. It would be splashing stories on the possible collapse of the Euro or the possibility of Britain defaulting its national debt.

Clearly journalists and editors have been heavily politicised and are being directed by their corporate/political masters to serve up trivia as shock politics.

We are moving into a dangerous period in our history. With electoral registers going missing in by-elections, with economic statistics no long dependable, with citizens being openly robbed by government to feed insolvent and corrupted bankers, with wars which are casual and no longer make headline news, with balloons spying on the population and so on. Privacy laws in Britain are used to protect corruption in Downing Street, former Prime Ministers accused all over the wold of war crimes are given consultancies with merchant banks (who profit from said wars) of GBP 2.5 million a year..

And Scotland newspapers scream and howl over a constituency letter? It is clear that Scots are not to be allowed an open and honest debate about our constitutional future. Clearly, our national newspapers have been hijacked for political and corporate ends and have no semblance of balance.

Two generation ago Scots saw off Nazis and Fascists and many died doing so. Now the propaganda used by these types of tyrannical regimes is being used on us. The time has come for journalists to make a stand for Scottish democracy and refuse to write this type of odious and dangerous political propaganda.

Citizens must boycott these newspapers and encourage friends to do likewise. If our political institutions can not protect us then we must protect our democracy ourselves. Scotland's newspapers are not informing us but lying to us. They and those who continue to write for them can no longer assume the public's confidence.

Are Scottish political journalists so afraid of losing their jobs that they'll write anything?

Down the ages Scots have died to pass on freedoms. I am ashamed of you!

Scotland and Trivia

So, why is political debate in Britain so trivial?

The Official Secret's Act has prevented the press from investigating corruption in Government and the Civil Service. Blair would have been destroyed by his corrupt practices had it not been for the lack of a free press in Britain. The press accept it. Journos might even go to the lawyers of the D-Notice committee and ask if what they want to publish is ok. They may well be told that if their news isn't new then it probably will not result in action against the publication. Mmm, yesterday's news might be ok but we can't promise anything. Papers have to break laws to break stories. European Law didn't help much either allowing for 'national security' concerns, decided by the government, to limit press freedom. The situation is that there may not be action but the threat keeps journos in their place. As reknowned investigative journalist, Greg Palast said:

How fitting that in the land of George Orwell, the law bars the Government's controlling the press - unless the Government decides to do so.

That's how the British system protects its elite. And what do we get instead of a real press? Obsession with trivia.

In Scotland we know that Neu Leibour's corruption is regularlarly concealed from public view. Such is the cosy relationship that exists between Downing Street and complaint and timid newspaper editors. The establishment won't protect the SNP though. As such we have the farcical situation whereby criminal proceeding being brought against Labour MP's is downplayed by the likes of Das Herald Sturmer whilst trivial nonsense about Alex Salmond's fund-raising lunch is splashed over the front pages and referred to by Labour 'spokesmen' as a "cash for access scandal"

The SNP can offer up plenty of information about the real 'Cash for Access' scandal. What about PowerGen, Brown and Geoffrey Robinson? Where Margaret Beckett got moved aside so that PowerGen could go on the aquisition trail? How much were Neu Leiber's coffers filled with for that neat little trick? Or what about how Blair and Mandy got Tesco a 'waiver' from paying their 'car-park tax' saving them GBP 20 million per annum? After that fix GBP 11 million was gifted to the Millenium Dome by PowerGen. All done through 'lobbying' firms - New Labour's conduit to the corporate world that Blair and Brown now are beholden to. Where any of these properly investigated by Britain's press? No, the papers all printed how it was simply about loud-mouth lobbyists exagerrating thier influence.

And so many of our citizens turn to the internet for 'real news'. Blogs promised to throw open the democratic debate. However the oppressive and stale reek of what passes as political debate has infected blogs too. Petty party political commentary is often passed off as real political debate.

Scotland needs to think big and consider her place in the world. A virulent strain of aggressive global capitalism threatens the economic stability of the West and beyond. As a nation we must consider our options. Alas, such debate is eschewed in favour of such giant democratic issues such as telling the poor what they should and shouldn't be drinking cheaply..

And the consquence of the dumming down of politics? CCTV cameras, balloons in the sky watching the population, the offer of tazer-guns to the police, why? The establishment is genuinely afraid that people are waking up to the fact that their country has been stolen by Blair's and Brown's corporate sponsors.

However, in Scotland we have the great campaigning nationalist party. It is now engulfed in a unionist choreographed 'scandal'.

It does have to be said that that lunchgate was naive. However, the real reason this has happened is because the party has become fascinated by the corridors of power. Salmond and Co just love showing off that they're in power. So? They fundraise by auctioning lunch with the First Minister in parliament. We just can't get over ourselves.

That's what happens when you stop being a campaigning vehicle for independence; You get caught up in the trap of vanity politics and trivia.

At a time when Gordon Brown has single-handedly destroyed the British economy the SNP, awash with financial experts are on the ropes in an election. And why? They have allowed the agenda set by the corporate elite to define their horizons. Well, I'm sorry but just because the SNP are in power doesn't mean Scotland is, yet.

Britain is bankrupt yet the SNP allow themselves to face attacks based on the basis of not doing enough about the recession. The idea from the leadership is that going on the attack makes you look like an opposition rather than a party of governance. The SNP was never supposed to be about finding a place in the British establishment - it is a campaigning movement. We should not be indulging in the dumbing down of our people.

Stuff reality tv, soap operas and celebrity obsession. Scots are waiting for a real debate to take place about the future of their country. The small details of the chattering of Scotland's excuse for a political class must be sidelined to make room for the great democratic debates which need attention now.

We have to move on as a people, think freely and boldly and for ourselves!

Confessions of an Economic Hitman

How does the Western Empire work? This is the game Blair and Brown have been playing and in full knowledge and properly defines the New Labour epoch! It's all here. Thanks to Bob for this.



Part 2 here

Cash For Editorials

You gotta love the brass neck of Das Herald Sturmer. In it's attempt to distract attention from its corrupt master The Labour Party, it tries to throw slime on everyone else.

In today's editorial you find this headline:

Auctioned lunches are against the rules

This is a reference to Alex Salmond having lunch in the Scottish Parliament with the organisation Asians for Independence. The lunch was indeed auctioned as a way of raising cash for the SNP group to campaign in the forthcoming elections. However the auction didn't take place in the Parliament and Salmond paid for the lunch himself. Das Herald Sturmer argues that the SNP seem hypocritical because they complained about Wendy Alexander whose behaviour was argued to be illegal, the cash for peerages row which was industrial scale sleeze and the 'cash for access' row.

Cash for access was an industry. People like Derek Draper offered clients the ability to change government policy in return for fees. He was part of the 'inner circle' which included all of Downing street whereby commercial interests could not only get access to Tony and Gordon but could get to know about government announcements in advance. This advance knowledge could make companies hundreds of millions in The City. Power stations were handed over to those who paid for access to the inner-circle and environmental issues were stamped on when a client's need arose. Blair took us to war for special interests after all and got his 2.5 million quid a year consultancy with JP Morgan in return for it.

And here we have Das Herald Sturmer comparing Salmond to that geo-political, war-mongering maniac? For having lunch to raise money for political campaigning?

In drawing these comparisons it is obvious that those self-same corporate interests who have influence over Labour government policy also get their pound of flesh in Labour's favourite Scottish propaganda rag!

Cash for editorials?

Beware Scottish Corporate Greed!

Das Schottishman just loves to wheel out its favourite nat-bashing 'business leader' in chief Iain MacMillan, chairman of CBI Scotland. As we know Iain had to be disciplined by many of his own members for his frothing and co-ordinated anti-SNP attacks.

He's regularly wheeled out to talk about GARL and his criticism of the SNP's policy of cancelling that project has sinpired him into a creative mode calling GARL 'GDP Enhansing':

A far bolder approach was required to making savings and to protect, rather than cut, important GDP-enhancing investments in infrastructure. The decision not to reinstate the key Garl transport project, and all the economic and environmental benefits that would bring, is particularly disappointing and short-sighted.

Iain is simply a lobbyist for some multi-national companies operating in Scotland.

He doesn't tell you what has to be cut to pay for GARL. He really wouldn't give a hoot if school dinners get withdrawn or presciption charges dropped just as long as the state pours more cash into the pockets of his buddies.

As Britain enters depression there are less business trips taking place and less car journeys. Consequently there is no urgency for GARL. It does not prevent bottle-necks because there is less demand on the roads because of the state of the British economy and every airline will tell you that there are less and less businessmen flying..

If GARL had been paid for: schools, hospitals and lots of basic services would have to be decimated. I guess that means his pals in the banking sector could offer to buy up public sector infrastructure at bargain basement prices. Hey presto and our democracy is owned by some corporate plutocracy also known as fascism.

The views of Iain MacMillan threaten Scotland and Scotland's democracy. Das Schottishman and their owners who are part of said corporate elite have the same money grabbing agenda. They are not for improving the business culture, they are for fattening their mate's wallets. Meanwhile the average Scottish child gets a little hungrier or a little less healthy.

Does Iain understand how much school dinners saves Scotland? Poor undernurished children cost the NHS a packet and later often cost the prison service a packet too. Of course Iain is all for privatising prisons..

Scotland should beware going down the US style corporate road to hell! Remember that you are citizens of a nation and not simply cheap labour in an economy that serves only a feudal and greedy elite!

Weapons of Mass Distraction

Das Herald Sturmer's at it again with this headline:

For sale: lunch at Holyrood with First Minister - £9,000

No rules are being broken and all parties indulge but this doesn't stop Das Herald Sturmer from trying to smear the SNP. Ad Das Herald Sturmer is a loyal Labour propaganda broadsheet we might expect them to throw as much muck around. I mean their party is so utterly corrupt that they need to try and make the electorate think that every other party is the same. Sad tactics but that's Labour and that's Das Herald Sturmer for ya.

I wonder what the headline be if Das Herald Sturmer covered politics as a democratic newspaper holding political parties and governments to account? Suggestions are welcome. My own idea is:

For sale: Army for Stealing Oil Rich Countries and Genocide - Prime Minister approval £2.5 million p/a Consultancy

What a world we live in when petty attacks on the First Minister for legitimate fund-raising is prioritised over the rightful pillorying of a Prime Minister whose lies led to the slaughter of millions.

Amazing how the media is all about dumbing down real politics, no?

Scottish Por-Nationalism

Por-nationalism

The unionist opposition have got a lot of tea-and-buscuit nationalists keeping shtum about independence of late. So much so that Labour can gloat that the SNP have accepted their agenda and independence is characterised as Alex Salmond's 'dirty little secret'.

We haven't to frighten the children when we are still busy telling them what they have to eat and drink to stop them from costing us money on the NHS you understand.. However you can't keep the children from thinking about real politics for themselves nomatter how hard one tries:




















Picture courtesy of Subrosa

Labour's War: Soldier Speaks Out

Tony Blair's Labour Party took the UK into war in Iraq. Tony wanted to play with the big boys according to then cabinet minister Claire Short. Let's not forget that JP Morgan won the contract to adminster the Trading Bank of Iraq and let's not forget that 3 days after leaving office Blair won a 2.5 million a year consultancy with said JP Morgan. And let's not forget that the blood of over 1 million Iraqis are on the hands of Blair's right-hand man - Gordon Brown.

The people are starting to wake up to the fact that these wars are purely and simply about making the rich richer. The banking elite and their friends in the lucrative weapons' manufacturing game should start to watch their back. When the people find you out, you're finished. You'll be hunted down and left to rot in jail. Below is a moving speech by an Iraqi vet. Watch the reaction to the speech and ask yourselves how many millions more are reaching the same conlusions:

Can Pay Won't Pay!

“People’s emotional attachment to their property is melting into the air.”

So says Sam Khater, a senior economist at the US research firm First American CoreLogic in today's New York Times. By June 2010 there'll be 5.1 million homes where the house is valued at less than 75% of the outstanding mortgage. According to Khater that's the critical point where people give up:

We’re now at the point of maximum vulnerability

What this is spawning is what many have been warning for years would happen - deliberate default by people who no longer want to live under what is called 'house arrest'. How common is this as a stategy?:

..estimate was that about 17 percent of owners defaulting in 2008, or 588,000 people, chose that option as a strategic calculation.

And that is having weeded out those who had trouble with paying other bills..

In Spain where non-payment of mortgages now reaches 5% we can only but wonder if that percentage would increase if house prices were properly being marked to market. We may soon find out.

None of this is considering how people will behave when interest rates finally go up to contract the money supply after all that printing and borrowing that has been going on. If they are considering non-payment now how much will say a 5% increase in interest rates influence their decision making?

The two principle categories of people who are walking away from their 'underwater' mortgages are those who bought just before the crash and those who refinanced their houses as the market spiked..

Naturally the bankers would like to have people stick to their agreements rather than modify the loan according to circumstances. House prices are a risk right? Well, so is selling fraudulant mortgages and derivatives but the banks got bailed-out. So, why should bank customers feel moral obligation to banks who after all caused house prices to spike because of relaxed credit standards and speculation?

Unlike banks, people are reasonable and many don't want to leave their homes. However, as banks refuse to take some responsibility for these underwater mortgages people will feel that they have tried to be reasonable and so have no loyalty to banks who have done lied and stolen from the taxpayer.

As the scale of non-payers increases so banks will lose income. The utterly stupid policy of bailing out the banks instead of mortgage holders will then come into sight. Obama, Brown, Zapatero and many more will begin to see the total stupidity of not letting the failed banks fall. As we know, the banks are still nowhere near solvent despite future generations of taxpayers money being poured into them. As debts are heaped on the taxpayer so the taxpayer will paying their mortgages. The banks are corrupted and now their customers feel no loyalty - there is a widescale collapse in values in society from top to bottom.

This process along with non payment of credit cards is becoming a major issue for the 'recovery'. Consider that and the fact that the next wave of property price collapse is just starting and you begin to understand why 'recovery' is beginning to change its definition depending on how many green-shoots the user has smoked.

With unemployment climbing, tax-take falling, debt at historic levels, local government going bankrupt, currencies losing value, geo-political tensions rising and so on and so on it really is time to wonder just how much of a toll all these economic problems are going to take on political systems and law and order.

The West is collapsing. People should not trust governments or bankers to tell the truth and prepare to protect themselves, communities and countries (Scotland for example) for a very uncertain future.

In sunny Madrid, the store security guards are now chasing shop-lifters around constantly and the police remain in or near the stores. When people need to eat and feed their kids, they'll do what they have to. For those who still have some wealth it would be wise to consider a strategy for a different economy or you may well have to beg, borrow or steal one day yourself!

Insolvent States of America

To pay unemployment money to people out of a job, the individual states have a Trust Fund. The majority of them are now insolvent (see below). Those states are relying on borrowing from the Federal Government to help those out of work. The outlay for unemployment insurance indicates what many already know, that unemployment is far higher than official figures suggest.

















So, exactly how much have they had to borrow from a Federal Government whose own tax take has nosedived (corporate tax down 56% and income tax down 22%)? Below is a chart showing different states. Red is borrowing from Federal Government and Blue is funds still left in Trust.















Unemployment is still growing and there is no 'recovery' despite the propaganda getting pumped out in the corporate media. So, the blue in the chart is going to get smaller and the red bigger. Each state will have to cut more and more services to try and pay unemployment.

No doubt each state will be forced to sell state property to banksters like JP Morgan for quick money fixes. Slowly and surely the banks will take over each state. As the US economy continues to sink because of bail-outs and 'stimulus' will rich states begin to wonder whether or not the Union and subsidising poor states is such a good idea? Keep in mind that 2.5 million were thrown out of their houses in the US last year and the second wave of the housing crisis is just starting..

Many Scots seem to think that throwing our oil money at the British economy is a good idea despite Britain now having combined public and private debt of 449% which is around the same predicament that Iceland finds itself in.

The more desperate the population becomes the more desperate political solutions will be.

And they told you bail-outs and stimulus were necessary to save the economy. How much more propaganda are you willing to swallow?

Haiti Kidnapping

When is humanitarian relief not humanitarian relief? When it's a backdoor invasion by Nobel Peace Prize winning President Hopey McChange Obama.

Securing UN 'formal approval' the Yanks landed thousands of marines. No need to ask the Haitians you understand, so they didn't.

What kind of man would you consider best equipped to lead the 'relief effort'? Why an ex-president who had President Chavez kidnapped, who started illegal wars resulting in millions of deaths and who used the World Bank, IMF and WTO to force poor countries to sell off state assets very cheaply to global corporations all run by his mates. So, Obama appointed Bush to relieve; relieve the country of its freedom, oil and land.

As pointed out by John Pilger in his article for The New Statesman entitled:

The kidnapping of Haiti

..Not for tourists is the US building its fifth biggest embassy in Port-au-Prince. Oil was found in Haiti’s waters decades ago and the US has kept it in reserve until the Middle East begins to run dry. More urgently, an occupied Haiti has a strategic importance in Washington’s “rollback” plans for Latin America. The goal is the overthrow of the popular democracies in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, control of Venezuela’s abundant oil reserves and sabotage of the growing regional cooperation that has given millions their first taste of an economic and social justice long denied by US-sponsored regimes.

And another corporate-controlled ex-President gets to make an appearance to. Yeh, Clinton got in on the trough action via the UN reports Pilger:

Bill Clinton is another comedian, having got himself appointed the UN’s man in Haiti. Once fawned upon by the BBC as “Mr. Nice Guy... bringing democracy back to a sad and troubled land”, Clinton is Haiti’s most notorious privateer, demanding de-regulation of the economy for the benefit of the sweatshop barons. Lately, he has been promoting a $55m deal to turn the north of Haiti into an American-annexed “tourist playground”.

Those who see the world through the lense of the corporate media will no doubt call me a cynical lefty. Obamanoids will scream that it's all about aid. Aye, them drinking the Kool-Aid.

Perhaps a scour of the immediate response to the crisis as it emerged would throw up some evidence of malintent. Some observations by world famous investigative reporter Greg Palast:

- Bless the President for having rescue teams in the air almost immediately. That was President Olafur Grimsson of Iceland. On Wednesday, the AP reported that the President of the United States promised, "The initial contingent of 2,000 Marines could be deployed to the quake-ravaged country within the next few days." "In a few days," Mr. Obama?



















- China deployed rescuers with sniffer dogs within 48 hours. China, Mr. President. China: 8,000 miles distant. Miami: 700 miles close. US bases in Puerto Rico: right there.

- Send in the Marines. That's America's response. That's what we're good at. The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson finally showed up after three days. With what? It was dramatically deployed — without any emergency relief supplies. It has sidewinder missiles and 19 helicopters.

- But don't worry, the International Search and Rescue Team, fully equipped and self-sufficient for up to seven days in the field, deployed immediately with ten metric tons of tools and equipment, three tons of water, tents, advanced communication equipment and water purifying capability. They're from Iceland.

- Gates wouldn't send in food and water because, he said, there was no "structure ... to provide security." For Gates, appointed by Bush and allowed to hang around by Obama, it's security first. That was his lesson from Hurricane Katrina. Blackwater before drinking water.

The first thing we were told was that there was no rule of law and looting was widespread. Hence the narrative justifying army, special ops etc. As pointed out by Pilger the initial reports played a huge rule in terms of couching the history of events:

Power rules in an American naval blockade and the arrival of 13,000 marines, special forces, spooks and mercenaries, none with humanitarian relief training.

The airport in the capital, Port-au-Prince, is now an American military base and relief flights have been re-routed to the Dominican Republic. All flights stopped for three hours for the arrival of Hillary Clinton. Critically injured Haitians waited unaided as 800 American residents in Haiti were fed, watered and evacuated. Six days passed before the US Air Force dropped bottled water to people suffering thirst and dehydration.

The first TV reports played a critical role, giving the impression of widespread criminal mayhem. Matt Frei, the BBC reporter dispatched from Washington, seemed on the point of hyperventilation as he brayed about the “violence” and need for “security”. In spite of the demonstrable dignity of the earthquake victims, and evidence of citizens’ groups toiling unaided to rescue people, and even an American general’s assessment that the violence in Haiti was considerably less than before the earthquake, Frei claimed that “looting is the only industry” and “the dignity of Haiti’s past is long forgotten.”

So, it begings to look like the next war may well be Venezuela. It's all about terrorists you understand. Terrorists with oil, you understand.