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Will an Independent Scotland have an honours system?

The UK honours system is as old as the hills. It dates back to the crusades when people were ‘knighted’ for service to the monarchy. Its been turned into a more ‘civil’ based awards process and since around 1890 there has been a New Years honours list almost every year.

Honours of course are issued at other times and usually at the hands of the Prime Minister.There is a resignation honours list and that one is where all a PM’s political allies get paid off in one go.David Camerons is here. Tony Blair’s resignation honours list was caught up in a ‘cash for peerages’ scandal which meant any lists would be getting vetted by a committee of the House of Lords. He failed to make the deadline. Gordon Brown’s ‘dissolution list’ became a mishmash of some of Blair’s non-runners and some of his. (Rev. Iain Paisley was in there somewhere.) 22 peers were appointed to the House of Lords this year alone.It is what some politicians strive for, that well paid, free day-care place for life.A place where the wine and the food is subsidised and you get paid for just showing up.

Bringing it bang up to date many observers have slated Theresa May for using honours to ‘buy’ support for her failing Brexit deal, some would go as far as to say that is why she delayed the vote from before Christmas.There are even some companies now that exist to raise your chances of getting on the Honours list. We kid you not. If you have about £3,900 they will knock you up an awards profile and punt it for you increasing your chances of a gong!

Arise Sir Rod….

Here at Yes Scotlands Future we thought that we would propose a completely new system for a bit of fun on Hogmanay :

The Yes Scotlands Future iScotland Ne’erday Honours List.

In the interests of equality all recipients would receive the award of:

  • 1 fish supper (2 fish) haddock of course
  • A Morton’s crispy roll
  • A glass bottle of original recipe Irn Bru!!

We did contemplate different categories of award based on region and status such chips and cheese (Ayrshire) and white pudding (Edinburgh and the Lothians) but in the interests of equality it is a fish supper or nothing!

Now this system is proposed to be self financing and will actually be good for local business. The Honours Committee of the Peoples Republic of Scotland will identify special fish and chip shops ‘by appointment’.These super-chippies will be the purveyors of the awards scheme and in return their businesses will grow with the increased status and they will gladly donate the grub to the successful nominees. This is much the same as the venue Oran Mor ‘pays’ the artist Alisdair Gray for his amazing work on their ceiling, only with fish and chips. We have seen him sitting in the corner tucking into a nice steak pie with a ‘half and a half pint’ on the side, that is for life. It’s a normal way of supporting art in many countries.

Like the UK system some honours can be lifetime awards but let’s face it if you only eat fish suppers you are not going to live very long so it will be a self regulating honours system.There will be no hereditary fish suppers awarded. That is just going too far.

In this first year the committee has proposed two categories of award, one for organisations making a contribution to civic life in Scotland and their community and secondly to individuals who are also doing the same. If it is a big organisation we realise this might mean a hell of a lot of fish suppers but hey why be mean about it!

Organisation Honours List

All Under One Banner (AOUB) for organising all the marches which took place in Scotland last year and giving us all the opportunity to join other Scots on the streets declaring our support for independence. You worked tirelessly to do this and took a lot of criticism in the process but you succeeded. Good luck with the plans for 2019.

Orkney News for being a newly founded community newspaper dedicated to bringing alternative news to the people of Orkney. They are a model of citizen journalism and the committee believes all parts of Scotland deserves a local citizen led media outlet like them. Very best wishes for 2019 and thank you for the encouragement and support to the wider networks trying to build citizen journalism elsewhere.

Independence Live for bringing all the years events to a larger audience. They are great ‘citizen live streamers’ who you are bound to have seen at many of the events throughout the year. From The Hague to Dumfries, Inverness, and Faslane and the big one in Edinburgh they covered them all and most importantly provide a means to share and encourage more people to come out on the street next year. Good luck for 2019 and thanks for all you have done.

Individual Honours List

For this category we take for granted that Nicola Sturgeon deserves more than a fish supper for what she has put up with this year so we have limited the nominations to just two individuals.

Mhairi Black has been the ‘baby of House’ at Westminster, but she continues to act with such maturity and level headedness when it comes to representing Scotland.It must be so annoying working within that environment and yet she does it without being reduced to their level and regularly points out to us just how ridiculous and outdated that system of government is. Keep going Mhairi you are a credit to Paisley and all of Scotland.

Ian Blackford MP and leader of the SNP at Westminster has also had an amazing year of keeping up the pressure on the Tories.You can tell he has got them riled when he was told to his face by Nicholas Soames MP to ‘go back to the Isle of Skye’. We hope our MP’s can all in fact go home to Scotland when we gain our independence from this out dated mess that is Westminster.

All winning fish suppers will of course be wrapped up in newspaper and award recipients will be able to state a preference for salt and vinegar or salt and sauce, no west coast bias here. They will have to buy pickled onions and portions of sauce from their own pocket.

We were considering a special award to Theresa May for services towards furthering the cause of Scottish Independence but we have heard she doesn’t eat fish and chips wrapped in newspaper. She prefers single use plastic.

Have a great time and everyone at Yes Scotlands Future wishes you and your family a Happy and Healthy New Year.

Alba gu bràth-Team Yes Scotlands Future

Tis the season to be deceitful…..

While everyone is celebrating this is the time of year Unionist parties have already prepared their press releases to take advantage of the lack of stories in the media, hoping that some of their ‘spin’ will make the headlines as fact.

In the case of Scotland that will not be a problem there is a willing press pack in radio, print and TV media eagerly awaiting stories which can help to undermine the Scottish Government, and the Scottish Parliament.

Like a broken record (remember those 12 ” bits of plastic you put on a record player) these press releases get stuck in the same message that the SNP are not doing enough to prevent austerity. They usually highlight issues that you would expect such as pensioner poverty , low pay and the increased use of food banks. All sounding quite normal ground for a political party to cover. But when you take a closer look you see them for what they are, thinly veiled lies and spin.

Take Richard Leonard for example, we do not know if he wrote this himself but his piece in The Scotsman on 21 st of December is a classic example of seasonal deceit. The headline screams at you:

Why are working Scots living in poverty? The SNP refuse to help

source here

He starts out talking historically and ends up talking hysterically.

‘I joined the party over 35 years ago’.

So that would be the 1980’s then just after two back to back Labour governments of Harold Wilson and James Callaghan heralded in 11 years of Margaret Thatcher. Another 13 years of Labour Governments were to come in the shape of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. We point this out as Richard seems to get all heated up about Labour and positive and practical things it could do to eradicate poverty. In the 24 years of Labour Governments since Wilson’s 1964 government they have had 5 chances in government to do something about it and little has changed. And they want us to vote Labour to let Jeremy Corbyn govern us.Assuming he would win if there was an election?

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave…when first we practice to deceive.”

Walter Scott,Marmion

So why are Scots living in poverty? Let us answer his question for him by using the well worn phrase , ‘It is the economy stupid’. Here is a standard overview of the UK economy right now and its recent history. A history Labour conveniently forgets when blaming others for their own continued failings.

UK Economy – overview:

In 2008, the global financial crisis hit the economy particularly hard, due to the importance of its financial sector. Falling home prices, high consumer debt, and the global economic slowdown compounded the UK’s economic problems, pushing the economy into recession in the latter half of 2008 and prompting the then BROWN (Labour) government to implement a number of measures to stimulate the economy and stabilize the financial markets. Facing burgeoning public deficits and debt levels, in 2010 the then CAMERON-led coalition government (between Conservatives and Liberal Democrats) initiated an austerity program, which has continued under the Conservative government. However, the deficit still remains one of the highest in the G7, standing at 3.6% of GDP as of 2017, and the UK has pledged to lower its corporation tax from 20% to 17% by 2020. The UK had a debt burden of 90.4% GDP at the end of 2017.

The UK economy has begun to slow since the referendum vote to leave the EU in June 2016. A sustained depreciation of the British pound has increased consumer and producer prices, weighing on consumer spending without spurring a meaningful increase in exports. The UK has an extensive trade relationship with other EU members through its single market membership, and economic observers have warned the exit will jeopardize its position as the central location for European financial services. Prime Minister MAY is seeking a new “deep and special” trade relationship with the EU following the UK’s exit. However, economists doubt that the UK will be able to preserve the benefits of EU membership without the obligations. The UK is expected to officially leave the EU by the end of March 2019.


In 2008 it was Labour’s Gordon Brown who presided over the banking crisis admitting he did not do enough to regulate the finance sector. What followed was Conservative imposed austerity starting with the Cameron government ( including an alliance with the Lib Dems).

Here is the rub.

Government programmes like austerity are set out at Westminster not Edinburgh and run for years.At the time it was Labour, in opposition at Westminster who abstained and did not not put up any kind of fight against the imposition of austerity.

That leaves us with two main conclusions, one Richard Leonard is lying to the Scottish public as the programme of austerity which sets the block grants for years to come were in effect supported by Labour.

Secondly, he disrespects the Scottish public because he thinks we are stupid enough to belief this rubbish.He consistently repeats it at every opportunity especially now at the end of the year when editors will be very willing to use any press releases they can get. Nothing but deceit and disrespect for the people of Scotland.

The Scottish Government took positive and practical steps to mitigate the introduction of austerity measures as early as 2014. This was in response to the UK Government introduction of the ‘removal of the spare room subsidy’, more commonly known as the “bedroom tax”. The ‘mitigation’ continues and has come to the point using the limited powers of devolution the people on benefit have been involved in large scale consultations to help design a rights based Scottish Social Security system- but he says the SNP ‘refuse to help’. 

Note also at this point after the 2014 referendum the ‘Vow’ and the promises of ‘substantial new powers’ were made to the Scottish people, remember ‘as close to federalism as you can get?’

Being deceitful is a prerequisite for Labour Party leadership. You have to call out the lies every time you hear them repeated because they will just keep on saying them.

Gordon Brown being deceitful in 2014 by promising us things he could never deliver.

Look to the future…its only just begun

Merry Yessmas……and an active New Year on the streets of Scotland!

It was a small step for us back in 2014 which sadly we did not take.

We were bullied and lied to by Project Fear…that tactic cannot be repeated.

Those Labour/Better Together canvassers who called on the doorsteps of old people and people from ethnic minorities to scare them about pensions and immigration status in case they voted YES were and still are a disgrace to Scotland and the Labour movement.

In time people can see that for themselves as Labour stood shoulder to shoulder with the Tories and the Liberals as Unionists to crush the aspirations of the Scottish people. They had and still do not have any real commitment to Scotland only to curry favour with London and gain access to the House of Lords in return for unquestioning service.

As this year draws to a close we have seen even more evidence of Labours complete betrayal not just to Scotland but to huge numbers of people in England and Wales who would at least want to delay if not stop the Brexit bus. It is like the bus in the movie ‘Speed’ and is not only booby trapped to explode but is going to take a lot of innocent bystanders with it.Scotland did not vote to leave the EU but as with General Elections we often do not get what we vote for.This time Scotland is fortunate to have an escape route-Independence.

This year saw the start of a steady mobilisation of All Under One Banner marches across all of Scotland culminating in around 100,000 marching in Edinburgh in support of independence. Next year we will see another round of marches and an all movement campaign for independence which has already started to be funded with over £104,000 raised so far. The momentum will build again march by march, rally by rally and street stall by street stall.

If you cannot get along to marches or street stalls you can still do good by sharing information that challenges the constant drip, drip, drip of misinformation which is circulated in the press daily. That is why pages like Yes Scotlands Future exist. We are here to share information and put it out there so that Scotlands aspirations can not only be voiced, but also heard above the cacophony of propaganda and news designed to have us all look the other way.

With the page growing in size we are closing the year with a ‘post reach for the last 28 days of over 1 million- not bad for a bunch of volunteer citizen journalists.

So we urge you to support pages like this by liking and sharing the posts and talking to as many people that you can about what is being posted. Many people are still led by what is in the main stream media and that is why the task to inform and let people make up their own minds through challenging everything is so very important.

The time has almost come to step back into the campaign for independence again. Some of us have never left I hear you say. That is true but its also worth reflecting on.

A new campaign needs new messages and new symbols and strategy.That is what the next phase will be all about, we need to reframe the arguments to the current time period not 2014 . That doesn’t mean giving up in any way it is just about being welcoming of people who have not yet come to being ‘Yes’.

When the time comes we will still be about letting the Scottish people RESET the political landscape in our country….( the redecorating the house analogy is one we like at Yes Scotlands Future ) Let us get control and ownership of the house first then we can sort out the wallpaper and paint.

We need to convince people to go for full on Independence and reject once and for all the cesspit that Westminster has become.They said they would clean it up after 2014 ,we are still waiting.We have seen it degenerate day by day and now Brexit and the ‘power grab’ threatens the existence of our own devolved parliament.

Team Yes Scotlands Future wish you all a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Have a good break because there is work to be done- we have bigger steps to take.

From ‘Strong and Stable’ to a ‘Failing State’-Theresa May’s UK legacy

The imminent deployment of 3,500 troops on British soil has been announced as part of a no-deal Brexit ‘contingency plan’. 

Should we be worried?

We wonder what the government will ask these troops to do and under what circumstances?

When you consider that the UK has just 1,000 troops deployed in Afghanistan it hard not be a bit concerned by the parallels.

Afghanistan has suffered from decades of war and has been a focus for international military intervention. UK on the other hand has put itself through a long drawn out process of extracting itself from an economic partnership with its closest neighbours by a largely ideologically driven ‘Leave’ campaign. The consequences of this are only now becoming real with stockpiling of foodstuff , medical supplies and industrial parts already a reality.

While the UK does not yet meet the full characteristics of a ‘failing state’ it is showing signs of slipping according to the Fund for Peace’s Fragile states index 2018. It is certainly worsening in the opposite direction from ‘strong and stable’

‘A failed stateis a political body that has disintegrated to a point where basic conditions and responsibilities of a sovereign government no longer function properly’

What is clear is that  there has been a failure of political institutions, and an erosion of legitimate authority to make collective decisions.

Whatever the outcome of the Brexit process the result overall in the UK will be less faith in democratic processes not an empowered population as we witnessed in Scotland in 2014.

Instead of engagement and empowerment we have the opposite dominating society. That is something to be very worried about and something we in Scotland can and must try to prevent dominating our society. Independence is our escape route to a more sustainable and equitable way of life.

Team YSF

A Tale of Two Stupids

School playground politics and name calling. She said, he said and the media are all over it like a rash.Its useful distraction from having to convey some useful information to people and a convenient ploy to avoid too much attention to the detail of current reality. Real time preparations for a hard no deal Brexit are under way including arrangements for 3,500 troops to be at the governments disposal. We are basically heading for Marshall law and a scenario whereby medical supplies will be flown in like a country under blockade.

Both leaders are missing the point, they are supposed to stop people becoming poorer not throw us all off a cliff. Time for Scotland to act in its own best interests.You are welcome to join us when the time comes.

G-man

On the Buses

If there is a single lesson to be learned from the unmitigated shambles of Brexit it is perhaps this…

Dont place blind trust in politicians or political parties. Learn to question and to challenge. Think for yourself and don’t be a sheep. Ask yourself if what you are hearing/reading is a fact or merely a sound bite or indeed simply some writing on a bus!