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Reflections on recent events, plus the occasional fact free rant unfiltered by rational argument. 

"If you want to read a blog to get a sense of what is going on in Hong Kong these days or a blog that would tell you what life was like living in colonial Hong Kong, this blog, WALTER'S BLOG, fits the bill."  Hong Kong Blog Review

26/1/2021 1 Comment

The Flowering of Scotland

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"Voltaire asserted: "We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation." Obviously, he'd never seen Sauchiehall Street on a Saturday night, but the point is well made."
"We don't take foreign money": That's the response a Scots relative received when he presented a Royal Bank of Scotland £20 note at a Bridlington fish & chip shop. He replied with profanity and something about 'Remember Bannockburn'. Such episodes do nothing to foster the 'Union'. For the record, Scottish notes are legal tender in England.

As if Brexit and Covid-19 wasn't enough, the United Kingdom is facing the prospect of a breakup. If Nichola Sturgeon, Scotland's First Minister, has her way, the path to Scottish independence is heaving into view this May. With Scottish parliamentary elections due, Sturgeon has said her party will hold an independence vote if it wins. And the polls show the majority of Scots want independence. By setting out her 11-point roadmap, Sturgeon seeks to bypass Boris Johnson's veto on the issue.

Until now, the serial adulterer Johnson failed to win over Sturgeon. And henceforth, saying 'no' to Scotland isn't going to work. Further, Johnson's blundering over Covid-19 has awarded Sturgeon a victory. She came across as a leader with vim, control and vision. In stark contrast, Johnson flip-flopped and proved incoherent at times. No matter that Scotland faired no better than England on deaths and Covid-19 cases, because wee Nichola looked superior. 

Many Tories are starting to believe that Sturgeon is the real opposition rather than the unfortunate Labour party. Last week, the Spectator magazine ran an article that Sturgeon is the biggest threat to Johnson's premiership. Things must be bad when she enjoys better poll ratings with English voters than Johnson.

Plus, we know that Johnson tends to ignore issues until the last minute. Thus sticking to a blocking approach amounts to drifting towards a constitutional crisis. And, as if the prospect of Scotland heading off isn't worrying enough, Northern Ireland is watching with interest. They may yet take a cue from Scotland. 

While Johnson managed to bluff his way through Brexit and Covid-19, his career is over unless he acts to safeguard the Union. The man who idolises Churchill may yet go down in history as a latter-day Chamberlain. Outflanked and outclassed by a savvy opponent.  

Let's not forget that Scotland produced the most astonishing array of philosophers, engineers and mathematicians. Voltaire asserted: "We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation." Obviously, he'd never seen Sauchiehall Street on a Saturday night, but the point is well made. 

Scotland gave birth to many ideas and innovations that transformed Britain and spread out into the world through the Enlightenment. That this all spilt forth from a population of just over a million in the 1700s is remarkable. In truth, much of this was possible because of the Union, which conferred stability and synergy (hate that word, but it fits the bill). 

As Boris appears incapable of forming a vision for the Union's future, and the SNP is in the ascendancy, is the die cast? What shape the independence will take is now the question.  

​Meanwhile, not all Scots welcome independence. Here is one delivering his opposition with some levity.


1 Comment
Willms
29/1/2021 07:54:40 am

Independence is not achieved by ballot, rather the bullet. Especiallynot, when the ballot can only be used by permission of the ruling entity, the other wants to get independent of

The SNP should study the catalonian example. The Catalans had voted independance, but than just looked on as the central government took away the catalan own police, the Mossos d'Esquadra, and reinforced the Guardia Civil, the superficially reformed internal army. Soon the independence turned out to be a fantasy. The leaders of the independence movement were arrrsted and put on trial in Madrid, for sedition.

The Catalans would have to control of their borders, disarm any police or military under Madrid command and/or loyal to the monarchy, bring any institution of communication and transport under their command, short perform a real revolution. This requires a wide mass mobilization of popular forces, and that means mainly the working classes. But historical experience shows that the bourgeoise fears „their own“ working class more than the national oppressor. Mobilizing the working classes evokes the possibility of them keeping as their own the points of power which the bourgeoisie wanted the to conquer for her, and the go home.

Will Sturgeon's SNP dare to ride the tiger? I think that they believe that their ballot has magic powers.

BTW, Boris Johnson was in Scotland today, a trip which was declared superfluous by N Sturgeon. Johnson visited a military installation, if I have not completely misinterpreted what I have seen on BBC World.

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    Walter De Havilland was one of the last of the colonial coppers. He served 35 years in the Royal Hong Kong Police and Hong Kong Police Force. He's long retired. 

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