A new Scotland

[alanjjohnstone]

I noted during the campaign that there is a North East Party.

Perhaps the Scottish border should now be debated and it re-drawn…A new Scotland from the Newcastle to Carlisle line…perhaps even the Labour Party might support that just to have a political presence once again in the North.  

A bit of history

Newcastle upon Tyne – Capital of Scotland 1138-57

Nor am i the first to suggest this

http://theconversation.com/could-newcastle-ditch-england-for-an-independent-scotland-31760

And why stop there…

[ALB]

There was also a Yorkshire First party. All this is an expression of the "politics of scarcity" where people accept capitalism and its artificial scarcity and band together in separate groups to try to get as much of the scarce resources (as reflected in money) as they can. It inevitably involves squabbling with other groups.This is what the SNP phenomenon is all about. They don't really want "independence". In fact they'd shit themselves if they got it as that woild deprive the government there of any grants from the central UK government.  Like the DUP in Northern Ireland what they want is more money from the central UK government, only they are adopting a different approach. Rather than saying they deserve more as loyal Unionists they are waving the threat of breaking away. It might work. In fact it probably will given that they now have 54 of Scotland 57 MPs.But this kind of nasty, divisive politics pitting imagined "national" groups against each other over crumbs from the capitalist table  is working both ways. I hadn't followed the election campaign in London till the last week and was rather surprised to see the tactics employed by the Tories to get their erstwhile coalition partners, the LibDems, out. They ruthlessly played the anti-SNP, not to say anti-Scottish, card.I found leaflet headed "SNP puts Miliband in Downing Street. Your vote can stop this" which says:

Quote:

A vote for the Lib Dems or anyone else risks getting the chaos of Ed Miliband, with Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon holding Britain to ransom for the next five years. Don't risk it — Ed Miliband and the SNP will take us back to square one.

Another leadlet said:

Quote:

Clegg opens the door to Miliband government backed by SNP.

And, in a leaflet for a local council by-election, another said that there was a choice between a Conservative government:

Quote:

Or we have a Labour/Scottish Nationalist Government, taxing London and harming Britain.

"Scotland holding the rest of Britain to ransom for more money", "England/London being taxed more to give more money to Scotland", this is the dismal prospect of conventional politics over the coming years.And completely unnecessary as the world has the resources to adequately feed, clothe and house not just the population of England and Scotland but that of the whole world's once class ownership and production for profit have been replaced by common ownership, democratic control, production directly for use, and free access to what has been produced.

[alanjjohnstone]

Quote:

They don't really want "independence". In fact they'd shit themselves if they got it

Umm…ALB so the separation referendum was all a bit of reverse psychology and a double bluff, then? SNP (and the Yes voters)  didn't really want a sovereign state…Now that is what i call a true conspiracy They did make it clear that in this election independence was not an issue but that it was a negotiating ploy for the promises of extra powers made during the referendum and of course claiming to be the real anti-austerity party for all UK was a stroke of genius by the SNP spin doctors. But regards their nationalism, like ourselves, i think we have to treat what is on the label as what the content is. I see no parallel with the DUP. (or with the Sinn Fein's boycott of London position.)I think the real parallel is with the Catalonian nationalists or Italy's Northern League, a feeling that they are subsidising the other regions …or at least before the North Sea oil price crashed.This regionalism and we cannot forget about Wales, Cornwall…and dare i suggest London is what anarchist/Green decentralisers seek and you are right that it is going to lead to sectional rivalries of either politics of envy or i'm alright jack politics. Small is not always beautiful. I think the publications committee will have to return to their draft nationalism pamphlet in preparation for the upcoming debate on British nationalism and European internationalism (sic). 

[alanjjohnstone]

It seems the fight between nationalists will continuehttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/snp-are-marxists-says-conservative-mp-10239827.html

Quote:

"Are you going to vote for, effectively, a Marxist SNP, or would you vote for a prudent Scottish Conservative party offering lower taxes and better service?"

[alanjjohnstone]

North of England to secede to Scotland petition – signed now by almost 18,000…https://www.change.org/p/the-uk-government-allow-the-north-of-england-to-secede-from-the-uk-and-join-scotland?recruiter=30737323&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=share_facebook_responsive&utm_term=des-lg-no_src-no_msg

[alanjjohnstone]

Or alternatively demand the return of Northumbria which can now include that Yorkshire First regional party

[ALB]

This is amusing:http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/snp-launch-attack-labours-left-5717707So much then of the SNP-Left Labour united front against austerity ?

[alanjjohnstone]

A game of musical chairs…?

[Young Master Smeet]

That's actually the sort of thing I always thought Socialist delegates could do…

[alanjjohnstone]

 i noted at my visits to Conference and ADM that the Chair gets the best chair …the nice comfy one…is this still the practice , comrades? 

[alanjjohnstone]

  42,845 have signed now….Can it be something we endorse as a form of anti-nationism…that political policy choice determines nationality, not blood and birth….But will those who have signed pass the Norman Tibbet test and support Scotland's cricket and football team, or its variant, John Major's test ..a pint of warm heavy which a whisky and Iron Bru chaser …

[alanjjohnstone]

Independence for Londonhttp://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/may/30/london-should-be-treated-as-city-state-says-labour-mayoral-hopeful"London should be treated as a city state and given tax-raising powers to match its equal standing with the four nations of the UK"

[alanjjohnstone]

double posting

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