This seems a very apposite date to be surveying the runes of the Disunited Kingdom.
Once more Mr Dominic Cummins and his Facebook Fusiliers have delivered victory.
After a dogged rear-guard action in the Commons of “indicative votes” and the like by remainer MPs, the game is very much up.
It is now clear that the UK will leave the European Union at the end of next month.
No doubt dear reader, being the erudite person that you are, you will have immediately spotted the point I was making with my choice of title.
As an undergraduate, I drilled into Christopher Hill’s locus classicus of those tumultuous times in the making of Great Britain.
I found myself re-visiting that brilliant work earlier this year as Westminister seemed deadlocked in Brexit chaos resulting from their unwritten shambles of a constitution.
It seemed as if the conventions of the centuries were being revisited and thrown in the bin.
Therefore, my decision to take the Master of Balliol’s magisterial work from my bookshelf.
I’m now convinced that something equally seismic has happened in England and that the Brexit referendum was the first warning tremor.
In Labour’s North of England heartlands something stirred.
The impoverished and ignored precariat have bought the same elixir that Trump successfully sold to the desperate of the rustbelt states in 2016.
“Get Brexit done” could be translated into “let’s make Britain great again!”
This week I’ve been working on the sequel to The Squad.
Yesterday and this morning I was playing around with a character bio for a fictional British Prime Minister.
Whatever I tried I couldn’t come up with anything so unlikely, so outlandish and as multi-layered as Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson.
My fictional PM is also Eton and Balliol.
He is not, as Frankie Boyle once described the present incumbent as “a bin bag of albino body parts” or a “confused sex yeti”.
I’ve been studying the Machiavellian manoeuvres of the British political elite for over 40 years.
Increasingly I’ve been struck by the parallels between David Lloyd George and the current tenant in Number Ten.
The Welshman from Manchester was the Prime Minister who issued the ultimatum to Michael Collins and the other Irish plenipotentiaries of “terrible and immediate war”.
On this island, we are still living with that legacy.
Lloyd George was the leader of a major power.
Back then Britain was a serious player on the global stage.
Victorious in the Great War along with their allies in the Entente cordiale they set about dividing up the body parts of the Ottoman Empire.
Of course, it was a shameful betrayal of the Arabs who had backed the British during the war.
Sykes-Pichot created the cartography that would lead to the Middle East of the 20th century, permanently in flames.
Similarly, the deal imposed on the Irish delegation was classic Pax Romana.
Buy your enemies and sell your friends.
In the Partition settlement, each side betrayed their own side on a quid pro quo basis.
Southern Unionists were cast adrift in the Irish Free State theocracy and the Northern Nationalists were abandoned to the tender mercies of Stormont and the RUC.
You know how that worked out.
Now Boris has thrown his DUP allies under the Brussels omnibus.
Once he decided that he didn’t need their paltry ten votes in the Division Lobby he cast them aside like an unloved technology tutor.
The statelet that Lloyd George created on this island was based on a crude sectarian headcount.
Essentially two-thirds of the province of Ulster would deliver a two to one ethno religious majority of the union in perpetuity.
Well, that was the plan.
Mixing my geological metaphors, the tectonic plates of underneath the polity of Northern Ireland have been shifting at a glacial pace.
Now, for the first time a minority of unionist MPs have been elected to Westminster.
Arlen Foster thinks that this is a blip and not a trend.
However, your humble correspondent could not concur with that assessment.
I’m sorry to have to tell that wee girl Kelly from Fermanagh that she is wrong on that one!
Moreover, there is now a significant trickle of people from the unionist tradition defecting to a #think32 point of view.
If Boris Johnston’s Brexit deal goes through then in terms of trade, imports and exports Narne Arne is not as Bradaish as Finchley.
As in 2015, the Scottish National party will send a sizeable contingent to Westminster.
They seem to think that this will make a difference.
Firstly, by being there they confer legitimacy on the British state.
This is the oath that each of them will either swear on a holy book of their choice:
I, (Insert full name), do swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, her heirs and successors, according to law. So help me God.
The Act also permits the oath to be taken in the Scottish manner. With uplifted hand but not holding the sacred text. Members may also take the oath by kissing the book and using the same words.
For the less religious among them, they can take the solemn affirmation.
I (name of Member) do solemnly, sincerely, and truly declare and affirm, that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, her heirs and successors, according to law.
However, you cut it they are still pledging their allegiance to the matriarch of the Sax Coburg crime family and her line.
That includes this guy.
No, doubt First Minister Sturgeon will ask for a Section 30 order, this will allow here the legal power to call a second independence referendum.
Boris will almost certainly refuse this.
No one in Scotland seems to have got their heads around this “taking back control” stuff.
The SNP MPs will then indulge in consequence-free grandstanding, but in the end, they will be as effectual as a boatload of Redmondites.
Secessionist movements rarely get very far by first giving legitimacy to polity that they want to leave.
Consequently, Colm Eastwood is not representing the aspiration of the folk of Derry by taking that oath.
The constitutional wrangles to one side, I fear for the poor and the sick in Britain.
In my darker moments, I dread what Dickensian vista Boris imagines as some kind of Darwinian social progress.
Yes, dear reader, it is Black Friday.
Discover more from Phil Mac Giolla Bháin
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Nationalists are the most confused bunch of people among the Electorate.
It is Nationalism that has furthered the chaos we have seen these past years.
It isn’t root cause however that came in the form of Recession.
A recession born of an avoidable situation where Neoliberal Economics created the situation we all of us found ourselves in.
You cannot sustain a system built on the Foundations of Debt.
That is exactly what the Globalist has done and will continue to do so long as we subscribe to their plan.
The EU is built upon Neoliberalism and there is neither a mechanism or will within it to change it.
Thatcherism was Neoliberalism.
Thatcherism and those who wish to Subscribe to it do not care for the General Population.
It is about self preservation and greed.
Looking after no 1.
When Cameron gave Scotland the chance to vote on Independence it wasn’t to give Scotland a choice it was purely designed to create divisions within the Socialist Vote.
He knew that dividing opinion on a Nationalistic level would cause fractures within Socialism because deep down whether Nationalists want to or care to admit it there is an us and them mentality within the human psyche.
Tribalism is deep rooted within us all.
When the tribal part is activated the common sense part goes out the window.
He knew or highly suspected that the NO vote would win.
After all what was there to gain by going solo in a World in the midst of a Global Recession?
The negatives no matter how you spin it ( and Salmond certainly did some spinning) far outweighed the positives.
That result was academic.
Scotland said NO.
THE question of Brexit was then put to the entire Nation and again Cameron gambled on the Tribal mentality of the Nation as once more the Socialist value of a great many were put to one side as the us and them question was raised.
He didn’t think for one minute that the majority would rule in favour of Brexit from Europe.
That was not the point of the exercise here.
The point of the exercise was to kill off the concept of Socialism in the UK.
The point of the exercise is that Neoliberalism wins no matter the outcome of the Vote,
To that end it has.
Well played Cameron you snake.
What we are now left with ironically is NO LEFT.
We have Thatcherism controlling both sides of the Scots English Borders with a complete dough ball of a cretin in charge.
There will be no Indy 2 under BJ.
There will be no Socialist Challenge from Labour be that North or South of the Border as the Blairite/Thatcherites rise again within the Labour Party.
Already they are sticking their heads and hands up from the parapets.
Nowhere to be seen when the real fighting was going on.
Corbyn has been attacked from day one week 1 as Labour Leader.
Socialism now decreed a bad word in the UK or something to be ridiculed by a complicit media.
Nationalism in whatever guise to be hailed as the bright new alternative to it.
It never was and never will be an alternative to Socialism and it’s values.
It’s dangerous and in the wrong hands can lead to a real warped sense of Entitlement.
See the Right Wing versions growing in strength all over Europe for clarification on that.
Listen to the rhetoric.
It’s repulsive much of it.
You of course can dress it up in flags and banners or promote it as a new,all inclusive and forward thinking alternative to what has been in place for hundreds of years.
It is what it is however.
It’s a power grab.
The SNP want control of Scotland.
The BNP the EDL want control of England.
SF control of Ireland.
It’s all about getting control and THEN imparting your own Politics upon your own.
In the case the SNP that won’t be Socialism.
No that will be Neoliberalism or as we call it in old money Thatcherism.
Thatcherism draped in Tartan.
So in effect you will have rejected Thatcherism and control from London and Brussels to replace it with Thatcherism from Edinburgh.
In the North of Ireland Control from Westminster will be replaced with Control from Brussels and again Thatcherism or Neoliberalism wins.
The Globalist wins,the 1% who control wins.
The only loser in this sad state of affairs is Socialism.
The one thing that actually demands fairness and equality for all gets crushed beneath the jackboot of greed and self preservation.
That is the bigger picture.
You need to wake up you have sleepwalked into huge trap.
A trap set by those who wished to and have kept control.
As a Socialist I despair at the situation we ALL now find ourselves in.
Ireland will be United Phil.
It will however be controlled by Thatcherism whether you like it or not.
That’s some wall you keep banging your head on!
Do you think using the name Thatcher actually makes you sound more scary?
Now try to open your mind; and breathe….
Should Scotland ever become independent, the SNP will not govern in perpetuity. There would then be a Scottish General Election in which (I would bet my life) a Socialist Party of some description would win. That party then implements their manifesto to the best of their ability and every 4 or 5 years we (Scotland) get to choose again.
Not Brussels, not Westminster, not Thatcher, the sovereign will of the Scottish people. Aye, sounds terrible. Actually it could well be terrible looking at what passes for talent in politics but you never know.
Neoliberal Capitalism is a pain to keep typing.
Thatcherism will do just fine.
After all it means the same thing and if using the latter scares you.
Good it should.
It’s very real and it is here to stay for the foreseeable future.
No thanks in part to those who neglected Socialism in favour of Nationalism all over this mess of a Nation.
Mission complete the Tories win.
Well done take a bow one and all.
Go and read the McCrone Report and how it was suppressed for years and explain to me how any UK party has The people of Scotland’s interst’s at heart.
We could have been like Norway but were used by Tories to fund unemployment and used by Labour as voting fodder.
The SNP only exist to get Inependence then you will have best chance of a left leaning government in Scotland.
Nicola Sturgeon is provocatively trying her best to nod her head, shout and lure the Tories into an argument.
Just ignore her and her 48 ineffectual MPs at Westminster.
Michael Gove has stated in last hour NO IndyRef2 in next five years. That’s the last word.
Sturgeon rages against the 2014 referendum just as Anna Soubry raged against the 2016 referendum. Indeed Sturgeon rages against the 2016 referendum too. They don’t like the popular will of the people these feminist noisy types.
To quote Phil ‘Oh dear’
The use of CAPITAL letters and sexist insults is no substitute for reasonable debate about a nation’s right to determine their own future.
Oh dear!
Calling a feminist a feminist isn’t a sexist insult.
Sturgeon blabbering today about “Scotland being trapped in a Union against its will” is a dirty little lie.
She’s lied through her teeth for years that one.
I find it sad that Celtic supporters who have cried “bigotry” for over a hundred years should raise a banner stating no Tories here. Clear bigotry against Tories. Clearly a political banner too.
The SFA needs to fine the club on this one and the club needs to come out against the banner, for inclusiveness, and declare Celtic a non political organisation. Anyone, everyone, if you will.
It also said “F*** off Rod” in reference to Rod Stewart regarding his tweet congratulating the PM.
That corner of Celtic Park needs hammered for that.
Rod’s politics, his friends and his views are none of their business at CFC. Bringing their politics and gutter language into Celtic Park, with their drink and drugs and mental health problems cheapens the place. Their views are an embarrassment on a weekly basis. £500k in uefa fines due to society’s dross hanging out at our football club.
If Rod tweets something then you can politely tweet him back. Don’t mention Celtic and don’t bring it to the club dummies.
Is it really time now to shut them down? How many hundreds of chances do they get? They will never change. Enough is enough really.
The English FA would have hammered Celtic into the fourth division by now due to these clowns.
Remember the founding principles of our club are based on social justice. Not going to be a lot of that around with Boris and chums in charge again. You think it’s ok for Rod to vote Tory – as it happens so do I. I despise them to the last man and woman, but I’ll defend their right to express their politics, no matter how abhorrent I consider them to be.
By the very same notion, I will defend the right of the GB to express their displeasure at a guy who has a very visible public profile supporting our very own Trump Lite Prime Minister.
If you honestly think politics has nothing to do with football, you could not be further from the truth. Politics impacts on every aspect of our lives, and that includes football
I’d also like to say, that’s a bit of a bold statement – drink and drugs and mental health problems – are you that familiar with all members of the GB that you can say that as a matter of fact? Do you believe they’re the only people who attend matches who take a drink, or drugs, or have mental health issues – maybe we should start testing people to see who’s allowed inside Parkhead? Mental health problems – not welcome, like a drink – go to a different club
Final comment – I’m not a member of the GB, and I don’t always agree with what they get up to, especially the pyro lark, but you need to take a long hard look at yourself and your attitude.
Go back to sleep, clown.
Sorry mate but term noisy feminist is sexist. Banding about the lier term as well.
You seem very 😡 🙄 worries your losing argument.
Many people on this thread should realise that you do not persuade people by shouting at them and verbally abusing them.
Have you learnt nothing from your Ibrox brethren?
Let’s make Britain great again !
Absentism from Westminster is tokenism.
SNP members at Westminster best policy to emphasise no legitimacy for Brexit in Scotland and disrupt Westminster from passing Brexit (see Charles Parnell).
SNP members at Holyrood to keep emphasising that Holyrood majority is the legitimate right for 2nd Independence Referendum.
Arrogance & ignorance of Johnson & Tori’s will do the rest!
Sturgeon stated this election was about BREXIT and keeping Scotland in EU.
55% of Scots rejected her manifesto. Rejected her REMAIN political position.
She has no mandate in Scotland to continue to bump her gums about BREXIT.
The election demonstrates that the first-past-the-post system of electing MPs is deeply flawed in Scotland.
By the popular vote SNP should have about 26 of 59 MPs not 48. This must change.
Proportional Representation in NI probably reduces the DUP MPs similarly.
Gary K very selective with facts.
Remain won in Scotland in 2016 Referendum. SNP Got 46% of vote at GE (more than Torles in UK). Remain parties (Libs/Greens /Labour?) got more than 50% of vote in Scotland at every election since Brexit Ref.
I agree about proportional representation like there is in Holyrood which has a majority between SNP & Greens for 2nd Indy Ref. How much more evidence do you need to show there is no legitimacy for Brexit in Scotland.
Stop telling lies. SNP got 45% after all 59 seats declared:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2019/results/scotland
Labour never ever came out as a REMAIN party, more lies.
Scots have very clearly changed their minds since the 2016 EU referendum on BREXIT. Clearly similar to the English who changed their minds too.
SNP on an IndyRef2 ticket would have got less than 45%. She campaigned on one story (BREXIT) and true to form claimed the votes for Independence afterwards. Duplicitous Witch!
From above link:
Remain:
SNP 45%
Lib Dem’s 9.5%
Green 1%
Total 54.5%
Labour neither 18.6% – only MP elected Ian Murray – very Remain
So Remain is in majority in Scotland – any reasonable person can see this.
However anyone who calls me a lier based on these facts not to mention using derogatory terms such as witch is not a reasonable person 😘
The ONLY message of Boris and the tories was “GET BREXIT DONE!” Now, what percentage of the UK vote did they get? More to the point what percentage was that of the total population?
Personally l am completely pissed off listening to tories talking of the BETRAYAL of the 17million who voted for Brexit. I reckon that’s around 43 million who DIDN’T VOTE FOR IT!!
The situation in Scotland is a disgrace to democracy 62% of the electorate voted to stay in the EU,this vote has been completely ignored by the UK government in the negotiations.If this isn’t a change in circumstances since the referendum of 2014 I don’t know what is.Phil you’re right to point out the wrongs done in the name of the British empire notably in India, Ireland and the middle east to mention just a few the attempts by some people commenting on this site really disappoints me
some of them should brush up on their knowledge of history.
The situation in Scotland is of Scotland’s own making.They bottled independence in 2014.
Furthermore, the EU Referendum was not a question for Scotland. The ballot paper asked if the UK should remain in or leave the EU. You are distorting facts.
That said, another referendum on independence is justified as the goalposts have moved since 2014. I believe the choice should be one fo three scenarios: Stay in the UK, leave the UK and join the EU or leave the UK and be truly independent.
I’d love to see wee Jimmy Krankie’s face if it were the later option – she’d shit herself!
An independent Scotland would have minimum ten years of austerity to try and get into the EU. The Scottish deficit is too high and the SNP Govt austerity measures have failed to reduce the deficit markedly. EU entry rules are EU entry rules for all nations.
Secondly, every country asking entry to EU requires to have its own independent currency and central bank. We cannot enter EU with sterling and Bank of England with rUK out of EU.
Scots don’t want to bin Sterling for the Scotch Peseta. We don’t have a central bank with reserves. Only debts!
The whole independence thing is flag waving drum beating nonsense.
The situation in Scotland is a disgrace to democracy 62% of the electorate voted to stay in the EU,this vote has been completely ignored by the UK government in the negotiations.If this isn’t a change in circumstances since the referendum of 2014 I don’t know what is.Phil you’re right to point out the wrongs done in the name of the British empire notably in India, Ireland and the middle east to mention just a few the attempts by some people commenting on this site really disappoints me
some of them should brush up on their knowledge of history.
Scots wisely decided independently to remain in the UK in 2014.
That meant abiding by UK laws, rules, elections, referendums,….we agreed to it because it’s better.
The UK wide referendum on Brexit in 2016 was not a territorial/ zone issue. I think the Geordies, the Welsh, the NIrish voted to remain. It was a UK vote and they’re all abiding with it.
The recent election proves Scots are now agreeing with it too. 55% voted against the SNP. Scots clearly changed their minds since 2016. They disliked SNP performances at Westminster for three years.
No matter whether you voted ( oh I forgot you couldn’t vote in the country of your birth ) Leave or remain, Democracy won the election. Labour sat on the fence and the Lib Dems made a huge misjudgment of error. When the people voted leave every democratically minded MP SHOULD have got behind the leave campaign and made sure we got a good deal. May wanted to remain and made sure the deal was not the best for the UK. So no matter what your politics are democracy won and that can only be good.
If a Tory is indeed the embodyment of Lucifer incatnate what does that say for a Catholic Tory.? Shocking are some of the weasel comnents on here. Saor Alba!
The wonderful Jacob Reese-Mogg is a devout Catholic from a Catholic public school background. His six children sport catholic saints names. Mixing politics with religion is so naff of you.
The Catholic Church is the most conservative organisation on planet Earth.
No he is a zoinest
Last night, after his telephone talks with Ms Sturgeon, a Downing Street spokesman said the PM had “reiterated his unwavering commitment to strengthening the Union.
“The Prime Minister made clear how he remained opposed to a second independence referendum, standing with the majority of people in Scotland who do not want to return to division and uncertainty. He added how the result of the 2014 referendum was decisive and should be respected.”
Hurrah for the PM!
Bojo is clearly a political genius and the anti democratic Remain harridans of Westminster have been swept away into history.
Scots majority not only habitually vote against SNP but against IndyRef2 at the same time.
The majority of Scots don’t want an IndyRef2. Boris stands with us.
I have a problem with two or three of your points.
Democracy is the greatest political model humanity has. You encourage democratically elected members not to take up their seats and represent the powers given to them by their electorate. That’s rAther presumptuous from you taking supremacy over their electorate (from another country).Their electorate want them to go. They did not pledge not to go in manifesto.
NI troubles was complex but basically a violent minority of a political minority tried to force the destruction of democracy. The violent minority achieving a political will over the democratic majority.
Society needed to protect itself from that with police and military guardians of democracy. All tyrants hate democracy when it doesn’t work for them.
If that isn’t true then why isn’t the Army going into NI in thousands today to reverse the General Election in NI? To suppress Nationalism? The truth is simple, democracy is being respected.
The Army went into NI to protect catholic minority from Protestant majority violence. A twisted violent republican group saw a political opportunity to call it an army of incursion and oppression. Propagandists flamed the lies.
All the bombs, the bullets, the murders, the hate, the evil did not achieve anything good at all. It did not overcome democracy. It did not achieve the minority wish for a United ireland. If anything it slowed procreation and deferred unity.
Ironically you still rage against democracy as the demographic number swing more favourably towards your politics of a united Ireland. Perhaps therefore the problem is you and what goes on in your mind? Perhaps you started to believe your own propaganda?
The UK electorate exercised their democratic will and expunged those MPs who tried to defy the democratic referendum on Brexit. Anna Soubry acted up in HoC telling everyone her constituents told her to defy Brexit that they didn’t want it. She was lying. Her voters numbered 4,600 and the Tory candidate got 26,800 votes last night. Ms Soubry’s political career is liquidated. Labour got annihilated for their duplicity.
Bojo plainly told the world in his manifesto that he promised NO IndyRef2. He would be breaking his electoral promise if he agreed to such.
SNP got 45% of the vote. That’s not an IndyRef2 mandate at all. Sturgeon asked for REMAIN voters who voted for the union to vote SNP on this occasion. She admitted this on tv it wasn’t an IndyRef agenda vote.
Proportional representation reduces snp mp’s to four out of ten.
Scotland could have an IndyRef vote anytime, it would fail again every time. There’s no fear there from pro unity folks.
The Republic has been economically stunted ever since it left the UK. It was the wrong decision. Visiting the republic is like going into Eastern Europe. Folks in NI have a hugely higher per capita spend on them than the south. Healthcare, welfare, education, etc,…
The Republic’s highest import partner is the UK. It’s highest Export partner is…. the UK. The USA is second and the EU a long third. The Republic financially depends on the UK far more than the EU.
Wake up to 21st century reality. Wise up, park the past where it belongs, stop interfering with other people’s democracy and get over yourself and your own programmed bias.
There are so many inaccuracies in this post it’s hard to know where to start. FWIW, only 11pc of Irish experts go to UK. Ireland is UK’s sixth biggest market. UK exports twice as much to Ireland as to China! Ireland is UK’s second biggest trade surplus. It sells Ireland €18bn more than Ireland sells it.
In 2018, Irish per capita income was c €40.6k, a growth of 192pc since 1995.
That year, the UK had £21.7k (c.€24k); now it’s £30.5k (c. €32k) a growth of 41pc. Ireland per head is growing five times faster than the UK. Our income is already 25pc greater than the UK.
Eastern Europe? LMAO!
https://www.cso.ie/en/statistics/externaltrade/irelandstradeingoods/
UK highest source of imports. USA second.
USA highest destiny of exports. Uk second.
Ireland doesn’t figure so highly on uk trade partners. Ireland needs uk trade more than uk needs ireland. But hey! Let’s all be pals!
What’s the difference between Sinn Feiners taking the oath and an atheist swearing by Almighty God in court?
Republicans are not confined to Ireland and surely it is a violation of human rights to be barred from political life because one will not pledge allegiance to the crown.
Regarding politics: Other careers are available!
Sounds like anti-brexit people are using fear mongering in the same way the better together people did during the indyref. Why does it have to be such a disaster? Whats wrong with a little self confidence as a nation to be able to do it on your own? I have no skin in the game so this is an outsider just making an observation.
I quite enjoy your epistles on the state of association football in fair caledonia, but when it comes to politics you’re a busted flush.
No matter what happens no one will be happy, fair caledonia had it’s chance in the independence referendum and said no.
It will be at least twenty five years before they get the chance again.
And if Greta is right it won’t matter, we’ll all be drowned anyway.
I noticed that wee Nicola ” elected ” to wear a Royal Blue outfit last night as she strutted her stuff at the Polling Station.
I couldn’t make up my mind if it was to celebrate the Tories winning the Election…
Or Sevco qualifying for the last 32.
Mmm…tough one to call.
I am absolutely sickened by this result Phil. As a member of Sweet for Addicts I took part in ‘Hame’, your take on IndyRef1.
My feelings of that referendum result are akin to what I am feeling today.
Re an IndyRef2 my only concern is the percentage of the vote the SNP got: 45%.
I certainly want a second referendum to take place but the timing of it could be crucial.
Maybe some pain under Boris’ Bastards needs to be felt before enough people realise that independence is the only way forward.
Good luck with the sequel.
Pat
Hi Pat
You were brilliant in “Hame” and many thanks for all your energies on stage.
I’m glad you see where I’m coming from.
Giving Westminister legitimacy is the key error.
In that, the SDLP and the SNP are making the same mistake.
Sinn Fein take part in the Assembly, legitimising the partition of the six countries. Real Republicans abstain.
Of course, this all came about because the Catholic population in the North were abandoned by their fellow countrymen.
The Southerners, as you would say, “shat it”.
The southerners who fought the English criminal army to a standstill? Those southerners?
I see we have a hero of Omagh in our midst.
If Greta Thunberg was dead, she’d be turning in her grave. How big has the UK’s carbon footprint become because sections of the electorate have chosen a PM who, like them, could be described as “the lights are on, but theres nobody in”? Never mind wasting electricity – that’s a sheer waste of intellectual capacity!!
As an American cousin of mine once put it, “The wheel’s still turning, but the hamster’s dead.”
It’s just horrible, Phil, it really is. The English working class have delivered their own form of Armageddon on the NHS, welfare services, the economy, transport and social services. Can it only be their xenophobia that has blinded them? A bleak, dark day made worse because we can see the rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouching towards Bethlehem?
Phil, abstentionism is an emotive topic which has caused splits and divisions in the past. But, when you strip away the emotion it becomes a tactical impediment; which is why Dáil abstentionism was dropped. By abstaining from Westminster you concede considerable tactical advantage to Unionism and this is the same for both Scottish and Irish Nationalists.
The ‘so called’ oath is merely empty words. Bernadette Devlin-McAlliskey took it; didn’t make her any less Republican, didn’t make her any less a target for assassination by state-directed murder gangs. Indeed on the night she was to be murdered there were British soldiers stationed outside her house with instructions to arrest exiting gunmen.
John Hume and Seamus Mallon took it and it’s as well they did or there would have been nobody in Westminster to draw attention to British state violence in the north or campaign against injustice; particularly in the cases of the Birmingham 6 and Guilford 4.
As a previous comment states; Sinn Féin have already legitimised British rule. They did it when they signed up to the Good Friday Agreement, accepted British policing and administered British rule in Ireland. Abstentionism cost them Derry and almost cost them Fermanagh South Tyrone and South Down. Unless the Tories undergo a biblical transformation we could be looking at a hung parliament next time. In that case I’d prefer to be voting for an MP who would represent me anywhere they can exert influence.
You make a huge amount of sense sir. I for one applaud you.
The most sensible post I’ve seen on this matter. Fair play to ye man.
Yep, that’s it, everybody is racist. No debate, just brand anyone a racist that doesn’t agree with you, typical lefty. What’s caused Armageddon on the things you mention is over population. Now away and study the figures, because everyone is fed up being called racist and xenophobic for mentioning immigration. It’s ok to be nationalist if your from anywhere but the west. Open your eyes. The future of the west and our civilisation are under threat and all because of the far left. Corbyn was a test and so was his sidekick Abbott. You really wanted theses to morons to run a country? Says everything about you and your like.