That's me just back from being at the Glasgow Lourdes, also known as the disability assessment centre.

That's me just back from being at the Glasgow Lourdes, also known as the disability assessment centre. According to the UK Government you go in ill or disabled and come out miraculously cured. If that was actually the case I would have no complaint whatsoever. What usually happens however is you remain ill, and probably more so, as you have had the income you need to exist taken away for no reason other than they require to remove half the attendees from benefits so that the company contracted to do the assessments can get its bonus. And then you require to go to tribunal to get the money you are actually entitled to back and in the meantime have to live on air and water alone. I have yet to see what positive this actually achieves apart from a big needless bureaucratic jungle (jobs for the boys) which results in the weakest and most vulnerable in society ending up in misery and on the breadline. Perhaps Ruth Davidson and Theresa May can actually tell me (as Nicola Sturgeon asked Ruth to do on Sunday). #FreeScotland #Dignity #Lourdes #Bonus #UKGovt #TheYESmovement #MAYhem #NicolaSturgeon

Scotland's Yes Movement for Independence

Ask yourself this question?

What is independence or self determination about?

Its about this...

 Scotland's vast natural resources being squandered....

It is about the weapons of mass destruction 30 miles from Scotland's largest city. Scotland doesn't want them but it has them and will continue to have them as part of the UK.

Its about being attached to the Brexit shambles which Scotland did not vote for. The UK still has no plan, and has ignored Scotland's input to the extent the Scottish Government found out when the leaving process was being triggered was by watching the BBC that well known UK Government mouthpiece.

It is about the EU and the European Economic Area...

Its about European open borders as Scotland needs European immigration to be a more prosperous country. Without it the Scottish Government will not have the tax income to provide so many services in future. Scotland doesn't control immigration. This is done for it currently by the UK Government who wish to drastically reduce it without thought for Scotland's future. ...

It is about being lied to prior to the Scottish Independence Referendum in 2014...

It's about the future. It is only thanks to the SNP that Scots get free prescriptions, free university and college tuition, free bridge tolls, etc.With a Tory Government in Westminster intent on constant austerity and cuts to spending and tax giveaways for the rich, how long will these advantages continue?

And lastly...

UNEXPECTED COMMUNICATIONS and RESULTANT REVELATIONS FROM ENGLAND

Last week I was going about my business as you do when I received two communications from friends who reside in England and news of a third person who also resides in England.

What were these communications about? Was it something in their respective cities of Sheffield and Manchester (and also Nottingham)? It wasn't. It was about something happening in Glasgow and someone in particular and it was all good.

My first friend resides in Manchester. He has never understood my pre-occupation with Scottish independence and was against it, from the point of view (which I can understand from a person who doesn't know a lot of Scotland's position) of 'we should all stick together'. After all I have never subscribed to the view of independence for Scotland just because....

However Nicola Sturgeon's first speech at the SNP conference in Glasgow last week seems to have changed his views, although I had obviously working on him for some time. Recently it has not been that difficult to dent his belief in the UK, since he voted 'remain' in the recent UK wide referendum on membership of the European Union (when the UK as whole on the back of England and less so Wales voted 'leave'), he is a left of centre voter who is not a fan of Jeremy Corbyn and has no time for the Tories. He wishes Nicola Sturgeon was leader of a party which covered the whole of the UK as, he said, she is speaking his language as far as Brexit, services in Scotland, compassion and general style of leadership. If in Scotland she and the SNP would definitely be getting his vote in any imminent election. Unfortunately he can't vote for her however.

However this revelation was closely followed by another one, this time involving two people which made it even more amazing.

My second friend lives in Sheffield. He also voted 'remain' in the recent European Referendum and has been appalled by the fall out so far, from the xenophobic rhetoric of the campaign, to the rise in hate crime in England, and then on to the shambles afterwards. I have never 'worked' on him with any Scottish independence propaganda, as I never thought I had a hope of persuading him, although he is aware I am a member of the SNP and have been on and off since 1992 and was also aware of my involvement in the Yes campaign in the first Scottish independence Referendum campaign.

To quote...

Nicola Sturgeon has been very scathing about the Tories and she's right to be so. She is the best Prime Minister the UK has not had, yet?

He also has a close friend this time who stays in Nottingham which the next part of his communication was about...

I have a friend who is English from Nottingham and he has never had any faith in any of the political parties. When I called him today he had just joined the SNP and he said he was proud to be a card carrying member. He had voted 'leave' and now realised he had been conned into voting that way and had been sickened by the vacuum created by there being no plan of action to actually carry Brexit out.

He then went onto say of himself...

The SNP are the only way forward and I want them to be a UK wide party. Nicola Sturgeon is probably the only one who could help save the country. I don't agree with everything she says but I do agree with a lot of it and I am seriously thinking of joining the party myself. Theresa May is continuing the destruction of the country so we need Nicola Sturgeon to fight for our rights.

I am as astonished as anyone that an Englishman wants someone who stands for Scottish self determination to fight for everyone in the UK's rights. Not that I have any problem with it and indeed this is what seems to be her purpose i.e. in addition to protecting Scotland and Scots she is also trying to do the same for those in other parts of the UK.

I stated in response the obvious, i.e. that Nicola Sturgeon is leader of a party that only stands candidates in Scotland as the SNP is fighting for Scottish self determination and the best possible deal for Scotland as long as it remains part of the UK. Therefore Nicola could not without a major re-alignment be Prime Minister of the UK. His replied...

I would be happy if Edinburgh became the capital of the UK. People in the north of England have more in common with Scotland than London. Nicola Sturgeon is feisty and strong and knows her own mind. She isn't scared to fight her corner and would be a great UK Prime Minister. She couldn't do a worse job than Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Theresa May.

So there are my revelations from England! They definitely do set the cat amongst the pigeons.

UPDATE: As of 10.11.2016 I shared this article to my Google Plus account and was most surprised to have the hashtag #utterhorseshit attached by someone named Paul Baker. I want to tell him that I would not have believed the above if it hadn't actually happened! And therefore Paul Baker is in #truthdenial.

UPDATE: As of 14.11.2016 yet another English friend has contacted me this time from Somerset stating that as a Remain voter tired of the British Government's insular Brexit anti-foreigner rhetoric he too has come round to Nicola Sturgeon and her positive inclusive vision for Scotland and the UK and would have no problem the next time a Scottish independence vote comes around of being whole heartedly in favour of it. He just wishes he could be part of it with the same values in what would be left of the UK.

Please don't go....but please don't have any influence on anything that affects you. There's a good wee region!

Watching ‪#‎QuestionTime‬ this evening from Stockton on Tees, on tv in Glasgow, makes me at a loss to understand how anyone could not believe Scotland would be better off in virtually every way if it was independent.

Again we see a Tory representative (Lord Mickey Mouse I think his name was) say something foul about Scotland by using that old chestnut that Scotland is a subsidy junky, which was greeted with a warm applause. For some reason the audience had very few anti trident supporters (there`s a surprise - it wouldn't for the BBC to be biased would it?). All in all it was a painful experience - I knew there was a reason I no longer really watch these sorts of shows on the BBC!

I am in a state of disbelief at anyone with a eyes, ears, and a brain that even partially works, who actually voted voluntarily to remain attached to this mob as that is surely the only way they can be described. I remain completely confused; dumbfounded if you like.

Better Together?

It would be funny if it wasn't so sad! The only sensible one that seemed to know anything about Scotland and about its low position in the United Kingdom hierarchy (or Greater England) was Nicola Sturgeon. Now there's a thing!

It's like we are a different species in Scotland from the rest of the UK these days.

I can't relate to any of the other panel members or the majority of the audience members who just seem like aliens from another planet. But then I have come to realise that they always were and we were cajoled and brainwashed into thinking we were better attached to the UK by the media and the BBC in particular.

Up until last years Independence Referendum campaign this was a subtle malign influence on Scotland as we had kept our place. 

But when we dared to look as though we might cut off the supply of money from the oil and our other assets, and wouldn't any longer supply our lochs to house the UK's weapons of mass destruction to our imperial masters it has gone into overdrive. 
 
 
The emotion is beyond anger. And it is more than sadness. I think it is still called desolation and a feeling I am getting very used to since September 2014. We share an island with people who just don't get it and we chose to stay stuck to them, and given tonight's performance they really don't give a shit. Hopefully this will not be for another 300 years. Its too awful to think about.

#VoteSNPinMay
 
And to think 55% of people who live in Scotland actually voted for this. I don't know what else to say.