HO-HUM....

What is it with unionist politicians and their supporters in the media?

Willie fronts up in a failure of a sports car.

Ruth fights a re-run of the 2014 referendum while being policy empty when it comes to Scotland.

Kez says mostly anything about Scotch Labour's "independence" in policy making, only to be slapped down by London.

Not one unionist politician can answer why their bosses in London are fixated on buying a missile system which is already out dated, the USN is shutting down any further development on Trident after 2020 and current development work will end by 2025. The USN is currently planning to have all its Trident boats decommissioned by 2050 while the first of the UK's next generation 'bomber' submarines is unlikely to commission much before 2030.  Add in the UK can not afford to fully arm its current Trident warheads and will be launching as many lumps of concrete, in retaliation, as nuclear weapons and you are left wondering, why bother in any case. The question remains will Lockheed - Martin continue to run its Trident maintenance program once the USN Trident is out of commission after 2050 and at what cost to the UK taxpayer?

UK Nuclear weapons did not deter Russia from walking into the Crimea a couple of years ago; North Korea from being, well, North Korea or any number of African genocides over the last four decades, let alone the Argentinian invasion of the Falkland Islands in 1982 or any number of US military incursions, contrary to UK best interests.

In the meantime to afford this obscene nuclear willy waving our conventional forces, the ones we actually need to be effective in today's asymmetric warfare, as conducted by the likes of ISIS, are being cut to the bone. The UK can not meet its own home defence needs let alone its NATO commitments as another two type 23 frigates are laid up ten years earlier than planned, the British Army can only support one armoured division in the field and only for a couple of weeks at that (its NATO commitment is to provide 3 armoured divisions, an actual army) while the RAF still can not fulfil its main NATO commitment of maritime surveillance in the Iceland - Faroes gap and Norwegian Sea.

According to the unionist triumvirate we are stronger in the face of terrorism and outside aggression by staying in the UK .... aye, right enough!

Scotland has a basket case economy, reliant on oil, according to arch unionist, Andrew Neil, telling ignorant, wee Nicola off. Wait a minute Andrew, just who is actually responsible for the macro economic decision making that hamstrings Scotland's economy at every turn, that'll be UK Government policy at Westminster, politically driven by the UK Chancellor via the UK Treasury, surely, Andrew?

As this unionist election campaign in Scotland unravels by the day it seems amazing that any person who has more than a single brain cell synapse can still claim any key area of Scottish society is "safer in the UK Union" and control  "better exercised at Westminster than Holyrood" when the opposite, whether it is basic welfare provision, the NHS or State Pensions, is objectively and demonstrably true for Scotland.

When unionist politicians resort to out right lies, such as Ruth's on the SNP manifesto delay, then you have to wonder what the internal polls the unionist party's are seeing in their canvas returns are actually saying. The increasing stridency of Ruth, Willie and Kez suggests the published "UK" media polls on Scotland are pretty far off the beam when compared to actual doorstep returns.

With eight days to go the only policy it appears the unionist parties have in Scotland is "No to a second referendum" with a sub text of "Scotland: just do as yer telt by Westminster, jist like we're daenin', pal. Bein' buggert aa the time by Lunnon dandies is nae tae bad, aince ye get the hang o' it an' as long as ye hae ane o' thon muckle pots o' Union flag bedecked Vaseline haundy."

Ho-hum .... who could seriously vote for the Vaseline pot and smile?

Missing ....

There has been a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes in my life, the private is private, need to know only but has been taking up a lot of my energy and time. Hence the sporradic blogging. Over the next couple of months all the Secret Squirrel activities should be brought to a final conclusion, a full stop and a new chapter in my already chaotic and hectic life story will open for me to engage with.

This creates opportunity but it also requires some calm reflection on where I want to commit my slowly decreasing energies to the best effect.

The most marked public emotion at present is anger and it presents in different forms from the booing of Tories on Question Time, the ranting in the media over trifles - while ignoring what really is happening by journalists and politicians who should know better, I hear it in my Tory voting friends who are starting to feel ostracised, lost, let down and increasingly isolating themselves in a Union Flag bubble of deafness to all but their long held certainties of "Great Britain".

A quick look at Facebook or Twitter and you will see the same increasingly unrestrained anger turning into divisive hatred between Scots, some who have not a clue who the others are, but they are "Yoons" or "Independies" and that it now appears is enough to threaten destruction of political or personal lives.

Yet when we look at the current leadership of the UK in Downing Street what we see is a group of people scared of losing; of losing votes in Parliament, losing seats in the June Election, losing their raison d'etre of their one sided Union with the increasing problems of a Scotland and Northern Ireland pressing to stay in the EU and the pressure for independence and reunification, respectively, increasing as a result. Their fear of losing comes across in an ever more strident and divisive political message, a message which appeals to an England which is narrow minded, bigotted, arrogant and ignorant of the destructive impact this has on their idea of a Great Britain (aka England) in the eyes of the Scots and Northern Irish. This vain glorious and non-existent Great Britain is trumpeted as being real by all the usual London based media hacks from the BBC to the Sun. Sadly it is not just May's Tories who are pushing this "British (England) is best" line, so do as you are told all you foreign Johnies, Jocks and Paddies but Corbyn's Labour is at it as well and I bet if the Libdems had a policy it would also be to suppress the Jocks and Paddies for their own good, mind, and leave the thinking to us English.

The problem with this "Westminster is best" line of thought is when you look at the England their thinking has created over the last four decades it is not a very nice place. The division between the "haves" and "have nots" is bigger than any historical period since Victorian times. England is now a country where if you want an NHS GP appointment that will take four weeks but if you have £140 the same GP will see you the same day. It is a country where the people, UK government policy has driven into poverty, are blamed for being in poverty and the increase in medical conditions which result from being in poverty is to blame for the collapse of the NHS in England. Then there is the additional line of blaming retired people for claiming their state pension as being a "burden on the state". These same people were not a burden on the State when their taxes and job losses were funding Thatcher's 'revolution' in the 1980's. Yet the opinion polls in England are selling the idea the turkeys (English voters) are going to vote for a Tory Christmas anyway.

When I look at all this objectively I am left with one thought; human beings are inherently stupid, English human beings doubly so.

This leaves me thinking on the lines of: If Scotland does not become independent after the next referendum maybe Scotland is not the country I think it is, one where, by and large, we look out for those worse off than ourselves whether through poverty, ill health, disability or age. To me, too many Scots are angry about the wrong things (see most Yoon /Independy posts) and are missing the important stuff. Why do I say this?

Because if we stay in a Tory run, England centric, UK Parliamentary Union we will all soon be paying £140 to see a GP, see increasing numbers of folk on the streets dead from hypothermia, old folk begging on the streets and increasing numbers of children being dumped as orphans because their parents will hope, that way, they will at least get three meals a day. This is the Britain the lead writers in the Telegraph and the rest of their ilk are promoting for their Tory masters. This is the Britian Corbyn's Labour is supporting by their abstentions on key welfare, disability and health issues in Westminster votes time and time again; no matter the current bluster from Labour they will return to type, just as soon as their noses are once again safe in the Westminster trough.

This is a Britain, after objective and calm reflection, I would not wish to live in. So if the majority of the Scottish Electorate wish to vote Tory and stay with the abomination that is the UK Parliamentary Union then I am free to emigrate because Scotland would cease to exist in my eyes.

I would not be going missing but the country, I thought was mine, will; and my energies and desire for equanimity for all will be better spent where they have already been effective and regarded, as in Nepal, or any other developing nation.