Gloves off in final push for Scottish independence
The rhetoric is devolving.
We’ve covered the recent push for Scottish independence here, here, and here. With the referendum vote coming up Thursday, the ‘No’ votes have abandoned polite dissuasion in favor of a more direct approach. The ‘Yes’ camp has also become a little less shy.
First, John Oliver. If you’re not familiar with the former Daily Show personality, know that he’s a bit colorful. He did a fantastic job of hilariously summing up the relatively complicated independence situation in a segment on his HBO show (slightly NSFW):
Queen Elizabeth II had been mum on the issue until this weekend when she strongly encouraged the Scots to, “think very carefully” about the upcoming vote. It’s also worth noting that the Queen’s favorite place to holiday is Balmoral Castle, a large royal estate in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. In the event of a vote for independence, the Queen would remain the symbolic head of state.
The political party pushing for independence is the Scottish National Party (SNP). They’re a leftist group full of progressive ideas for an independent Scotland that include the eradication of poverty and free higher education. The SNP is lead by Alex Salmond, the First Minister of Scotland.
P.J. O’Rourke has a scathing piece on the matter over at The Daily Beast:
Scotland’s economy will be the requisite Third World shambles. Scotland’s two dominant political parties are the leftist Scottish National Party and the leftist Scottish Labor Party. These can be counted on to vie in out-lefting each other. Cuba-with-chilblains, here we come!
The Brits won’t let the Scots keep the pound. The EU needs another Greece or Portugal dragging down the euro like the EU needs another bureaucrat in Brussels. Scotland will be reduced to using the 16th century pund scots, value soon equaling the Zimbabwe dollar—to the delight of bean-counters employing journalists who have expense accounts.
Scotland already has the essential Third World drug oligarchy -— Chivas Regal, Cutty Sark, Vat 69, Grant’s, Ballantine’s, Teacher’s, J&B, Black and White, Haig and Haig, Laphroaig, Dalwhinnie, Glenmorangie, Glenfiddich, The Glenlivet, The Balvenie, The Dalmore, The Macallan.
Then of course there’s renowned fashion designer, Vivienne Westwood, who hates England (even though she’s English) and wants an independent Scotland. Why? Because capitalism is awful. “‘I like Scotland because somehow I think they are better than we are. They are more democratic,” she told the Daily Mail. She also thinks, “the way of the world is quality not quantity.” If you figure out what that means, please let me know.
We can’t possibly have an honest conversation about Scottish independence without consulting The Simpsons’ own Groundskeeper Willie:
For the Brits concerned about losing their northern neighbor, never fear, you have the next Royal Baby in your back pocket:
And who doesn’t love the royal baby?
Follow Kemberlee Kaye on Twitter
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Funny video, which he at the end makes a pitch for staying together.
Scotties, do as Wm Wallace would do.
If I were English, I would push for England to leave the United Kingdom.
“The political party pushing for independence is the Scottish National Party (SNP). They’re a leftist group full of progressive ideas for an independent Scotland that include the eradication of poverty…”
Ahhh….that old prog drone favorite, the eradication of poverty. I wonder if the Scots measure “poverty” like we do here, as a percentage of median income. Sit back and think on that one a bit.
I see what you did there. 😉
Great, another “great experiment”. I wonder if it will turn out like the last one.
Historically, Scots have had to scratch out a living in a cold, hard land.
That made them inventive, tough-minded, industrious, and pushed them to have skills that the world would pay well to have. Scots masons built some of the very best of American architecture in the last two centuries, for instance.
Adam Smith was a Scot, as were Watt, Bell and many others in the pantheon of innovation and modern technology.
But now the Scots are just another mob of indolent, sad people, the leavings of a Collectivist era.
Maybe this move toward independence will hasten the collapse of that, and start the time when Scots are proud and personally independent again.
That’s what I’m hoping.
I wouldn’t say I’m counting on it.
The Scots better think twice about this independence thing. It can start out well, but give it a couple of hundred years, and watch it go up in flames.
My father was born in Scotland. I have family there.
Ordinarily I’d be all in for Scottish independence. To this day, my family insists I be handcuffed and tied to a chair before they’ll let me watch Braveheart, lest I destroy something or somebody. However, O’Rourke is correct. Of the two political parties that currently control Scotland one is far, far left – and the other is even further left.
Scotland has the largest oil reserves in Europe, large deposits of coal, a robust steel industry, and ship building yards. All of which would come immediately under regulatory attack by any new government staffed by either political party.
Scotland has maintained its own legal and justice system and its churches remain independent of those elsewhere in the UK. Imagine what far, far lefties will do with that.
They’ll run out of ‘other people’s money’ real quick, and there’ll be no UK or EU bailouts.
All in all, a great idea at the precise wrong moment in history.
I hiked through a section of North Carolina (North of Hot Springs) that still spoke an Elizabethan English . The locals tell me GWBUSH wanted to sell off its forests so that Oregon could have the money for its schools . They blockaded all entry points &threatened shooting trespassers ( TheFeds) . Pretty soon the proposal was rescinded .
Other parts of North Carolina were equally bolshie in defending their turf. Yet your family would deny the Scots the opportunity to strike out from Britain? Did they join the Redcoats also?
Mel Gibson would not be impressed .
The Appalachian’s are full of people of Scotch (and Welsh and Irish) heritage who are by their nature distrustful of government, and who will not hesitate to use deadly force to protect their own.
Steve Earle’s “Copperhead Road” tells the story quite nicely: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvaEJzoaYZk
I went to a fiddle festival in Southern Virginia . I made the mistake of turning up on the morning of the event & not the night before . Everybody was out cold after a good brew of sweet green Apple mix.
Further south west in Kentucky & Tennessee the Copperhead Roads are meth factories . 🙁 & dangerous.
Yes, I suppose you are right. The moonshiners of days past are the meth-heads today. Nasty business.
There’s no reason for Scotland and Nothern Ireland to be part of England. It serves no purpose, not even common defense at this point. They would all do immensely better seperate. London is just a crazy imperial magnet.
The Act of Union combined the two kingdoms in 1707. Stripped of extranea, the Act was basically a dodge to prevent any possibility of a Scottish monarch becoming also the monarch of England. Although Union was a clumsy way to do it, the basic idea was not a bad one, considering that not too long previously, when Scots kings had held the English throne, there had been fireworks a-plenty, including civil war and a dictatorship (arguably, neither of those the fault of the Scots, but that didn’t seem to make things any better).
An added benefit for England of subsuming Scottish foreign policy was the elimination of any possibility of foreign powers – in that era, the sixteenth through the early nineteenth centuries, the constant menaces were of course Spain or France – finding friendly landing places for invading armies. Much like William the Bastard establishing a successful beachead at Pevensey six centuries earlier, a Duke of Parma, or a Marshall Soult or Murat, at large anywhere on the island could cause no end of trouble. England never managed to obtain that sort of control over Ireland (except for the tip end which it populated with Scots), and the danger of foreign bases there persisted as late as World War II. But trouble on another island wouldn’t be such a dire menace as an army rampaging around the homestead. In other words, for defense, control of the Scottish coast was more important to England than control of anything in Ireland.
But that’s all ancient history. There seems little danger of either catastrophic dynastic squabbles or invading armies at the moment, so the original reasons for Union are not too important. Similarly, Scotland’s contributions to Britain’s imperial expansion, and to the success of the Industrial Revolution in England, are also history, and nothing to do with current affairs. The big question for England and Scotland now is which way is the money going. If Scotland is on balance a welfare state financed by England, then dis-Union would be an economic disaster for Scotland, but not necessarily a bad thing for England. But since the English seem more set against a split than the Scots, I suspect that they at least believe that the net flow of money is the other way.
Dame Westwood looks older each time I look at her. Her big break in life came when her friend Malcolm McLaren figured how to capitalize on the style of New York City kids. She also did some pirate fashion.
Somebody tell Wstwood that Lenin allegedly said that quantity becomes quality.
As ‘a dedicated follower of fashion”. I applaud Vivienne’s very historical seamanship in the cut of cloth she utilises. She seeks out patterns & of real eras & just mixes them up . Her men’s pants were actually worn in various ages .
She uses a lot of Scots designs & there are a lot of similarities in the milling & weave indusrtry of North Carolina . Also the absolute poverty & child labour right up to recent times. Very Glaswegian .if they were not in the Appalachians they would be in the Scottish slums . Appalachia is also targeted as welfare black holes & White Trash .
I always got the impression NY was more Irish.i have not seen a great deal of Irish inVivienne’s designs.
As a child my dream was to do Highland dancing even though I have no Scots at all. My daughter did Irish dancing & that was a load of fun before Riverdance spoilt it . From simple embroidered country velvet dresses the girls look like Jonbennet now .
At least the Scots have not entered tacky . They also have not terrorised England ( not that the English give them any points for that .
What happened with Westwood, is that her buddy Malcolm Maclaren went to New York to research the music scene there. When he came back, he had Vivienne do a version of the clothes American musicians wore. He toughs his band how to behave, how to play, etc, and that’s how Sex Pistols came about. Anarchy.
As for Westwood, good for her, she knew how to market her skill. Only some people feel that she ripped off poor musicians.
So long as the Scots can continue to provide single malt, I guess it doesn’t matter whether socialism brings down all or just part of the British Isles in the near future. Sadly, the United Kingdom will no longer be united.
“It’s an ill wind that blaws naebody any gude.”
but will they continue to provide single malt? You know the old Soviet joke q: How will you know they built socialism in a desert? A: there will be shortage of sand.
As an Israeli, I’m for a four-state (or, preferably, five or six) solution for the UK. I’m also for Corsican independence and the like. If those involved are bloodthirsty, murderous terrorists, so much the better. And if they try to defend themselves, I’m willing to participate in a worldwide campaign to scream about lack of “proportionality”.
On the other hand, the First Minister of Scotland said some insane things about Israel:
http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/scottish-separatist-leader-compares-israel-isis
I have noticed that when the Brits go Left, they go way Left.
A whole lot of active separatist movements going on:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Active_separatist_movements_in_the_European_Union.png
The break up of the United Kingdom would be something to lament as secession is a reactionary idea. An independent Scotland would be a left-wing nation which would drive all the enterprising Scots to emigrate to England, Canada, America, Australia and New Zealand.
They might like the Texas Hill Country, if they can adjust to the heat.
Canada America Aust & NZ all gained independence . If it was good for them why not Scotland?
And who said we want fleeing Scots? Make your own bed & lie in it or go to England.
I think we should nudge California, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois into seeking independence.
“Peoples Democray” – why not a “Peoples Republic”?
“Quality not quantity” is code for extermination camps, so where is Pol Pot when they need him? In a “secure underground facility.”
Y’all should see my 6’5″ ass in a kilt. I am HOT.