Syria, Scotland and the UK Government

As Parliament sits today in emergency session to discuss the merits of military intervention in Syria subject to confirmation that chemical weapons have been used, I hope they will consider the matter with some gravity. The usual response that we must back up our American allies isn't good enough. There is no doubt about the response of France. They are completely gung ho because they desperately need influence in the middle east because their oil leases in Libya are in the pocket of a jacket that's hanging on a very shaky nail.

One approach might be to consider that if we intervene militarily then the lives of some of our people will be lost. That is inevitable, whether it be in the theatre of war or at home when the Syrian people exact their revenge by terror attacks in the UK. But our troops or our civilians will die one way or another as a result.

Cameron and his crew may well consider that this is a price worth paying, so I urge them to consider, if by killing your children you could put an end to chemical warfare, would you kill them. or perhaps it is only a price worth paying if you are not the one who has to pay. Someone else's children will pay the price for your global ambitions, because all of this chemical warfare talk is nonsense, there are no nice ways to be killed. But the Eton / Sandhurst ethos doesn't care about that. They will sacrifice other people's children in the interests of empire without a second thought. That's what all of their training is designed to do. Those who do not belong to the elites are sub-human as far as they are concerned and unworthy of the same consideration they give their own children.

This is all about being seen to be a global power. There doesn't seem to be the same moral imperative on Denmark or Norway or a host of other countries to throw away the lives of their people to retain global influence. It's about English imperial ambitions, and not even all of England, only London and the south east. The rest of the U.K. are firmly against any intervention.  But the Joint Intelligence Committee will produce a review of the intelligence. The last one acquired the title 'the dodgy dossier' because they are so politically motivated that a neutral review of the facts is almost impossible. And off to war we'll go again.

But Scotland can opt out of those global ambitions and try to be a country that lives at peace with its neighbours. Scottish soldiers have been at war virtually unbroken somewhere in the world for the best part of 100 years, and what have we to show for it. The massive wealth of the U.K. has agglomerated into the south east and we have been forced by the money, our money, wasted chasing dreams of empire into poverty for which we are now condemned.

It doesn't have to be that way. There is a referendum on independence coming up and if we only have the courage to grasp the thistle it could be very different. It's time to say, 'enough', keep Scottish troops out of foreign wars, and call a halt to Westminster rule.

Free Public Transport

On Thursday 19th the SSP launched its week of action on free public transport by leafleting and posting around stations and other transport hubs.

I've put a link to the site in 'Some other views from the left' in the sidebar.

Public reaction was very positive, as you might expect from people who are about to have to buy a ticket for an inferior service at an extortionate price to feed the fat cats who operate and mis-manage public transport for their own and their shareholders benefit.

Perhaps more surprising was the number of people who took the opportunity to express their support for our other policies on abolition of the council tax and its replacement by a fair system of taxation, on ending our involvement in American wars, on council housing, and on independence in a socialist Scotland.

It seems that it has taken a global financial meltdown to get across the message that capitalism is destroying itself through its own greed and to make people seriously consider an alternative 'not for profit' system which puts people before profit.

Harry, the Warrior Prince

I hear in the news that Harry, the warrior prince is not going to be sent to Iraq. What a surprise !!

Frankly I couldn't care less, what concerns me more is getting the poor sods who have been sent out there to fight in Bush's war back home safe and sound. Everyone knew that Harry would't be sent, the real upper classes send out the middle classes to do their duty in foreign climes, and the working classes to be the casualties. That is how it is and has always been. Harry would no more have had to go than I would, and we all know it.

What is less understandable is his wish to go, if that is true. How could a young boy be brainwashed into believing that his duty lay in killing people in Iraq for no real purpose as far as British interests were concerned.

I suppose he might have been suggestible due to his upbringing as his family have a history of being on the right, which is strange when you consider that they are everything that the right hate.

His grandfather was an immigrant who by his public statements showed he had only a passing familiarity with British culture. He never had a proper job living in publicly owned housing off his wife's state payments.

His father was a fox murdering adulterer who flaunted his promiscuity in the face of his young wife, the boy's mother. He also never held down a proper job, which is possibly why his family became dysfunctional to the extent that the boy had to go to a drugs clinic.

The mother hadn't the bottle to tell her husband 'I dont care who your mum is, if I see you around that woman again her face and yours is coming off'. Any decent working class woman would have done that or something similar, they wouldn't have settled for the position even at the cost of their dignity.

Ah, Kate lass, you had a lucky escape.