Rangers Fans For Independence 40 mins · Edited · A SENSE OF NATIONHOOD As long as I can remember I have longed for the nation I call home to have its full sovereignty and powers reinstated and for the people I call fellow citizens to have their confidence and their dignity restored. I want this, not because of some romantic notion of an ancient time and an ancient people but because it is the normal aspiration of any nation and any people. I want to see the people of Scotland once again the architects of our own society and the driving force behind our own future direction. The reason I want this is not because of some delusional or disturbing sense of nationalism but because of a social awareness that things are not as they should be and not as the people of Scotland want them to be. The political institutions of our closest neighbours have, for some considerable time, embarked on a journey that the vast majority of citizens in my country do not wish to travel. They have embraced a set of values and objectives that are in stark contrast to those embraced by the majority of Scots. It has been obvious to many in my own country that the government that sits in another has long since lost the consent of the people of Scotland to govern in Scotland. It is not only the case that we are travelling in different directions but that we are clearly travelling in totally opposite directions. When Margaret Thatcher came to power she transformed the political landscape from the deepest south to the furthest north but she did not unite at the same time. Towns and villages the length and breadth of these Islands were ripped apart and once thriving communities were devastated in her wake. I can remember the heartbreak of the seventies and eighties as entire industries were destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people were thrown on the scrap heap without a care. I watched as decent hard working individuals such as shipbuilders and steelworkers looked on helplessly as their lives were turned upside down and the heart was ruthlessly ripped out of them. I helped in the Soup Kitchens during the Miners’ Strike and I stood alongside them on the picket lines as they faced up to convoys of coal laden lorries charging at them whilst fending off the baton charges of the police. Grown men who had worked all their days up to their necks in dirt had been savaged by the brutality of Thatcherism and then demonised by the British Media for daring to stand up to Thatcher and her hired thugs. Tears rolled down my face and my heart ached for those proud and defiant men and their equally proud and defiant families as they were eventually broken into submission after many months of being starved and humiliated and pitted against each other by those in power. They knew it was not bonuses or pay rises they were fighting for but their very livelihood and their industry. They also knew as they walked through the gates back to work that for many of them it would be for the last time. Even after several decades those friends and families set against each other and their communities that were devastated by division and depravation still bare the scars. That is not the society I wanted nor was it the society that the vast majority of people in the four nations that make up the United Kingdom wanted. However, it is the society that has emerged because the system is designed to favour the few at the expense of the many. That is not ill informed Marxism or Communism or even Socialism but the reality of a political system that allows a privileged minority to govern the majority through ‘Minority Government’. When we consider that no Westminster Government has come to power with more than 32% of the entire electorate vote then we realise that even Margaret Thatcher at her peak could only muster around a third of all those entitled to vote. This means that the other 68% or more than two thirds of the entire voting population either voted against her or did not bother to vote. The Labour Party once the champion of the working class bares more resemblance to a slightly watered down Conservative Party than the Labour Movement created in Scotland by the Founding Fathers such as Keir Hardie. Even the staunchest Socialist has known for many years that the Party of the Workers and the Poor is now the Party of the Middle Classes and those potentially disaffected Conservative voters. So where does that leave the working class and the poor who still represent the vast majority of the ‘British’ population and where does it leave the people of Scotland? The political system that elects Westminster Governments is designed in such a way that it allows a privileged minority of the population to dominate and rule the majority without the majority consent. That same system and that same Westminster Parliament harbours politicians and a politics that is far removed from the politics in Scotland. Uniting in solidarity with the working classes of the other three nations that populate these islands is no longer enough and will not see the change we want here in Scotland nor anywhere else for that matter. The Powers that be are pitted against us in their entirety and pose a formidable foe that will try to set families and communities against each other in order to sabotage the campaign for Scottish independence. They did it with the miners and they will do it with the Scots because they have tried to frighten, intimidate and bully us without success and the only thing they have left is division. When we see Campaigners attacking each other verbally and physically then we know that more sinister forces are at work just as they were during the Miners’ Strike. If we were not aware of the treachery and deceit of others who act against us then I would be worried. We do know what they are up to and that is half the battle. Doing something about it is the other half of the battle and the best thing we can do is affect the change we desire ourselves by voting ‘Yes’. By doing so we can lead by example and illustrate to the vast majority of citizens in the other three nations which make up the United Kingdom that they no longer have to settle for a system imposed on them by a minority. In truth it is not the ‘Virus of Nationalism’ that flows through our veins but a longing for that which is taken for granted by so many others and in essence ‘a sense of Nationhood’. Chic Macgregor A SENSE OF NATIONHOOD As long as I can remember I have longed for the nation I call home to have its full sovereignty and powers reinstated and for the people I call fellow citizens to have their confidence and their dignity restored. I want this, not because of some romantic notion of an ancient time and an ancient people but because it is the normal aspiration of any nation and any people. I want to see the people of Scotland once again the architects of our own society and the driving force behind our own future direction. The reason I want this is not because of some delusional or disturbing sense of nationalism but because of a social awareness that things are not as they should be and not as the people of Scotland want them to be. The political institutions of our closest neighbours have, for some considerable time, embarked on a journey that the vast majority of citizens in my country do not wish to travel. They have embraced a set of values and objectives that are in stark contrast to those embraced by the majority of Scots. It has been obvious to many in my own country that the government that sits in another has long since lost the consent of the people of Scotland to govern in Scotland. It is not only the case that we are travelling in different directions but that we are clearly travelling in totally opposite directions. When Margaret Thatcher came to power she transformed the political landscape from the deepest south to the furthest north but she did not unite at the same time. Towns and villages the length and breadth of these Islands were ripped apart and once thriving communities were devastated in her wake. I can remember the heartbreak of the seventies and eighties as entire industries were destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people were thrown on the scrap heap without a care. I watched as decent hard working individuals such as shipbuilders and steelworkers looked on helplessly as their lives were turned upside down and the heart was ruthlessly ripped out of them. I helped in the Soup Kitchens during the Miners’ Strike and I stood alongside them on the picket lines as they faced up to convoys of coal laden lorries charging at them whilst fending off the baton charges of the police. Grown men who had worked all their days up to their necks in dirt had been savaged by the brutality of Thatcherism and then demonised by the British Media for daring to stand up to Thatcher and her hired thugs. Tears rolled down my face and my heart ached for those proud and defiant men and their equally proud and defiant families as they were eventually broken into submission after many months of being starved and humiliated and pitted against each other by those in power. They knew it was not bonuses or pay rises they were fighting for but their very livelihood and their industry. They also knew as they walked through the gates back to work that for many of them it would be for the last time. Even after several decades those friends and families set against each other and their communities that were devastated by division and depravation still bare the scars. That is not the society I wanted nor was it the society that the vast majority of people in the four nations that make up the United Kingdom wanted. However, it is the society that has emerged because the system is designed to favour the few at the expense of the many. That is not ill informed Marxism or Communism or even Socialism but the reality of a political system that allows a privileged minority to govern the majority through ‘Minority Government’. When we consider that no Westminster Government has come to power with more than 32% of the entire electorate vote then we realise that even Margaret Thatcher at her peak could only muster around a third of all those entitled to vote. This means that the other 68% or more than two thirds of the entire voting population either voted against her or did not bother to vote. The Labour Party once the champion of the working class bares more resemblance to a slightly watered down Conservative Party than the Labour Movement created in Scotland by the Founding Fathers such as Keir Hardie. Even the staunchest Socialist has known for many years that the Party of the Workers and the Poor is now the Party of the Middle Classes and those potentially disaffected Conservative voters. So where does that leave the working class and the poor who still represent the vast majority of the ‘British’ population and where does it leave the people of Scotland? The political system that elects Westminster Governments is designed in such a way that it allows a privileged minority of the population to dominate and rule the majority without the majority consent. That same system and that same Westminster Parliament harbours politicians and a politics that is far removed from the politics in Scotland. Uniting in solidarity with the working classes of the other three nations that populate these islands is no longer enough and will not see the change we want here in Scotland nor anywhere else for that matter. The Powers that be are pitted against us in their entirety and pose a formidable foe that will try to set families and communities against each other in order to sabotage the campaign for Scottish independence. They did it with the miners and they will do it with the Scots because they have tried to frighten, intimidate and bully us without success and the only thing they have left is division. When we see Campaigners attacking each other verbally and physically then we know that more sinister forces are at work just as they were during the Miners’ Strike. If we were not aware of the treachery and deceit of others who act against us then I would be worried. We do know what they are up to and that is half the battle. Doing something about it is the other half of the battle and the best thing we can do is affect the change we desire ourselves by voting ‘Yes’. By doing so we can lead by example and illustrate to the vast majority of citizens in the other three nations which make up the United Kingdom that they no longer have to settle for a system imposed on them by a minority. In truth it is not the ‘Virus of Nationalism’ that flows through our veins but a longing for that which is taken for granted by so many others and in essence ‘a sense of Nationhood’. Chic Macgregor LikeLike · · Share 8 people like this. James Maxwell A well written piece. 12 mins · Like Stevie Carruthers
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 03:54:01 +0000
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