Light the Saltire Blue touch paper

The UK Supreme court has a problem by its own admission its English judges can not rule on issues pertaining to Scots Law and this was why, as an after thought, Blair and Derry Irvine had to invite Scottish Law Lords to join the UK Supreme Court. This was never Blair's intention.

The big problem here is in AXA et al vs The Scottish Parliament (Asbestos Plaques) the judges, in part of their judgement, stated they could not set aside a bill of the Scottish Parliament which reflected the sovereign will of the people of Scotland, as voted on by their representatives at Holyrood. The Brexit Bill of the Holyrood parliament has exactly this majority backing from its elected representatives.

Lord Cooper in his 1953 review of McCormack vs the Lord Advocate made clear that the claim for Westminster's sovereignty based on the "Crown in parliament" had no equivalent in Scots Law or constitutional practice as the Scottish people are sovereign and the claims that Scotland had been subsumed by England were based on a fundamental error regarding what the 1707 Treaty of Union stated and established.

Further he predicted at some point in the future all the fudges over where the sovereignty of the people of Scotland was enacted and exercised, fudges which had held the Parliamentary Union together ever since 1707 would ultimately fail and give rise to a massive constitutional headache which would have the potential to end the UK Parlimentary Union.

As of today we are at that point, the UK Parliament upheld the reality of the sovereignty of the Scottish people in a SNP debate on the issue, it is clear the Tories already believe they are heading for another defeat in the UK Supreme Court and are already talking about how they are going to subvert the very court which was supposed to prevent this from happening, if Blair and Derry Irvine had got their way.

We were told, by experts in the media and BBC, Holyrood would lose the AXA case and Holyrood would be a laughing stock. A lot of legal experts then claimed AXA would have won but the used the wrong legal argument. It appears the same "experts" are being trundled out by the same media mouthpieces of the British Establishment this time around, as well.

This time the stakes are even higher, the British Establishment knows this, and what ever the outcome I will be ready for a rapid independence referendum within a few months.

48 Blue Bottles Standing on the wall

I am confused about the Tory Party's present position. According to the Torygraph; the 1922 Committee has the 48 blue bottles required to trigger a party leadership contest. Yet there seems to be major hesitation of the said 1922 Committee to announce this officially. The Tory civil war would be almost childish, given the temper tantrums of the right wingers in the party, but what ever occurs it will be a disaster for the UK as a whole and for Scotland in particular.

Theresa may hang on as a lame duck prime minister holding little control over her UK Government Ministers or party for the remains of this UK Parliamentary electoral session, until the next GE is called, demonstrating no leadership to the civil service and with a Brexit negotiating position which is despised by the right of her party and continues to be deemed inoperable and unacceptable by the EU. In reality a "no change" to the current dysfunctional, out of their depth UK Government.

The other option is for there to be a "night of the long knives" as the likes of Boris or Rees the Emperor Ming fight over the leadership of the increasingly rotten corpse which is the Tory Party; where party cohesion has gone and the likes of the small fry players like Gove, Hammond and Hunt, who have little traction with the main Tory backers (they are, after all, just new money "oiks"), are thrown to the lions.

If the latter is the case the blood letting, personal attacks and general off the record briefings against other potential leadership contenders will start when the UK Parliament rises for summer. The problem for the party overall is they have no real contender to put forward from the old "One Nation (as long as it is England)" wing of the Party. This then leaves the Tories with a choice of right wing or extremely right wing party leaders who will then cause even more trauma to the UK GDP as they push ever more extreme conditions, they claim to require from the EU negotiations, simply so they can have a "no deal" outcome and bugger off out of it, all just to save their tax free, accumulated dosh in British Virgin Islands Banks from EU fiscal strictures.

The blame shifting game has already started. For example: a Tory list MSP complains the Scottish Minister for Rural Affairs does not have a plan for Scottish Farming post Brexit. He claims it is intolerable for Scottish farmers not to know what will happen to current levels of farming subsidies until just prior to Brexit.

Think about that for a minute.

In the first place the Scottish Minister can not begin to plan until the outcome of the Brexit Bill of the Scottish Parliament at the UK Supreme Court is decided and only then if the court decides in favour of the Scottish Parliamentary bill. A bill being opposed by a Tory Government who sees this bill going forward as a danger to their increasingly sell off public assets, pro-oligarch, fascist policies they wish to enforce on the UK as a whole. The most obvious example of this sell off cheap policy is seen daily in the piece meal sell off of NHS England and the fact, the new Health Minister for England is sponsored as an MP by one of the multinational, private health companies - who he is also is on the UK board of.

If the UK Supreme Court agree to set aside the Brexit Bill of the Scottish Parliament then the reality is the Rural Affairs Minister will have no say on what happens to farming subsidies in Scotland and any subsides will be controlled by Whitehall and focused, as at present, towards Tory Land owners in England.

Proof you say?

Let us start with the £160 million of EU support grant for Scottish Farmers which never has and never will come to Scotland and according to Mr Gove has already been spent elsewhere. I wonder if this particular Tory MSP has written to either "Fluffy" or Gove to ask what happened to his list farming constituents, EU grant support money; me, I doubt it and will not be holding my breath.

I mostly disagree with Micheal Fry's 'let the market decide' economic trope but he has pointed out the Scottish Tory high heid yins still think they can turn the clock back to the 1950's in Scotland and things will be just "tickety-bhoo". To some extent this belief they are "The true Scottish Governance in waiting" explains why they are surprised and upset that their black money, slush fund has been exposed. " Well, for goodness sake, obeying the law is just for the 'oiks' and not the likes of us." remains their position. No wonder they are increasingly frightened of an independent Scotland where their ability to manipulate will be curtailed along with their land holdings, currently held outside the UK Tax system in British Virgin ghost companies and other tax dodging vehicles, being properly rated and taxed.

Clearly 'Rees the Emperor Ming' agrees with the "Lord Snooty" Scottish Grandees opinion on the applications of the Law of England and Scots Law on him and his pals is; they do not apply to him and especially EU fiscal law which would rip his portfolio of tax dodging schemes to shreds. Tough for the plebs, if his plans cause ever increasing poverty among his constituents, they are not rich so do not deserve his sympathy or concern, they are after all just "oiks", folk to be worked into the ground for his benefit. The truly frightening thing is this; he could end up as UK Prime Minister.

It is not surprising that amongst the politically aware and informed in Scotland there is a rising cry to have the referendum sooner than later. Nor is it much of a surprise the Westminster controlled media is doing everything it can to hide the increasing support for Scottish independence with topsy turvy headlines such as 48% of Scots do not want a referendum yet 47% of Scots want independence never saw much light in the aftermath of 2014, did it.

Are we seeing a gradual realisation among the owners of Scotland's "big titles", with the editorial support for the average Scots and SNP's position on Trump, that like it or not Scotland will soon be independent. The Record could just about get away with their leaders, given Scotch Labour's position on Trump but the Scotsman, the Conservatives' pal in Scotland, I find harder to swallow. Unless the Scotsman Editor is getting in some preparation and practise for an imminent take over by Alex Salmond and his backers. Over the weekend BBC News in Scotland stood isolated, trying to pursue the Tory Party line on Trump that the protesters were just embarrassing their country. In psychological terms this is called 'projection' and reflects their own embarrassment at sucking up to Trump and their attempts to hide it.

You know what happens in the bottle song, one by one the bottles crash to the ground until there are none left, that I predict is what is about to happen to the Tory party, just as soon as the 49th blue bottle takes the hint and accidentally falls or maybe she will be pushed - but watch out for all the broken glass in the inevitable fall out.

May's Resignation Blues

Well Ms May's cabinet unity on Brexit lasted long, didn't it.

Even Bojo's giant tin of turd polish could not keep the shine on Ms May's Friday claims of cabinet cohesion for long, 48 hours and then Brexit mangling David Davis falls on his sword, swiftly followed by the Bojo clown, the British Emperor elect "Reese the Mong" sends out his battalion's of Tory fascist monkeys to attack Downing Street while, in Scotland, some second hand, second rate Labour non entity who the Labour NEC does not knows exist, calls for a new general election when his party lags some 15% behind the Tories in England.

I mean; what could possibly go wrong over the next few days?

All is clearly well in the Unionist world, things are just tickety bhoo, aren't they?

Well, maybees aye, maybees naw.

Reuters world are running a piece on Lloyds of London Stock Exchange applying for a license to conduct their European business out of Rotterdam - so there is another few thousand jobs and and few billion pounds exiting the City of London, fairly promptish, to go along with the tens of thousands of "City" jobs already departed these shores for Frankfurt, Dublin and other EU financial hubs.

If all the commercial and stock market banking rats are running from London just where does the Tory wish for the self same sector to be "outside EU regulation" come from?

Clearly international commercial banking and trading sector does not see the need or the benefit, in fact the fiscal sector sees it as a major reason to get out of its UK Dodgy City.

Proto British Emperor "Reese the Mong's" own hedge fund has just taken a license to set up business in Dublin to protect their EU interests, according to the Irish Times.

OK, none of this is being covered by the UK media but that does not mean it is happening.

Now throw in all the pan EU manufacturers who are stating they will pull the plug on their UK operations on Brexit; Airbus, BMW, Nissan, Honda and you have to start asking just why, in a Brexit Britain of low wages and a government policy of "laisse faire" in terms of employee contractual terms and conditions, these firms are not champing at the bit to stay.

To understand this you need to have an idea of these business' supply chain. Honda in Swindon use what is called "Just in time" logistics. This means they do not hold massive stocks of parts as they did of old. In turn this system reduces the costs of operating in a high wage EU zone country. These stocks come "just in time" from across Europe from other Honda sub assembly plants and sub contractors within the EU zone, mostly through Dover. Now throw in the delay factor at Dover, even three hours, and the cost to UK Honda of covering that with extra stock. An operation which was profitable for Honda becomes borderline even before you start on the increased costs to Honda of exporting their product and the cost penalties being outside the EU and its trade agreements create.

Going the other way the delays will be even greater for all UK based exporters whether it is Scottish shellfish, cheese manufacturers or woollen products, potentially we are talking over a day stuck at any port clearing EU customs. Not a big deal for Harris Tweed but fatal to the transportation of live shellfish but not including the increased transportation costs of a lorry sitting still, going nowhere to the exporters.

This is supposedly good for the UK, a new deal, better than we have right now?

Given how dysfunctional the Westminster Parliament has now become, with Labour hiding under their seats and the Tory Party devouring itself, it beggars belief the present solution to Scotland being dragged out of the EU against the will of the sovereign people of Scotland is to continue to sit on our collective hands. I have been very patient so far with respect to calling for an independence referendum but given today's events within the UK Government, my patience is now on a very short leash.

Westminster and its system of government is in melt down, surely the time to strike is now.

Mundell; Yer Claimed

The Westminster Unionist Parties were left spitting into their beer in the aftermath of the SNP lead debate on the constitutional position of the people of Scotland's sovereignty within the UK Parlimentary system. Much as they desperately wished to to put Scotland in its place or more specifically under their collective thumb by voting down the SNP motion on the status of the continuing legal and constitutional power of the Claim of Right 1689 (Scotland) and its successor versions, their constitutional advisers knew they had to stay shtuum and just take it on the nose.

The reality for the UK Unionist Parties was, if they voted down the SNP motion, they raised the spectre of Liz being requested to remove her arse from the throne of Scotland as she only holds the Scot's throne courtesy of this act of the previous Scottish Parliament. The original act reinforces the right of the people of Scotland to remove any monarch who seeks to impose their bidding on Scotland. In the original Scottish Parliament bills and acts did not require "Royal Assent" as the monarch was subservient to the people and their parliament. It was James VIIth's attempts to force the royal prerogative on Scotland which saw him unceremoniously booted off the Scottish Throne whereas he was "bought off" the English throne by the English Parliament after lengthy and expensive negotiations.

What happened last night was a re-affirmation that the UK Parliamentary Union is a partnership of nations and not one where England rules the rest, as has long been assumed. Mundell and other Tories claims that Scotland was no different than Manchester, in terms of the UK Parliament, have been shown to be false. The whole edifice of Tory UK supremacy steam roller came up hard against the brick wall of Scots Law and constitutional practise, protected for all time by the Treaty of Union, with a shuddering halt and had to retreat with some serious damage to their presumptions.

The spin offs are many and varied from the obvious one of any future independence referendum will not require Westminster's say so if it is the sovereign people of Scotland's stated wish to hold one, such as voting in a majority for parties whose manifestos state the case for a future independence referendum. Others are less obvious such as how can the UK Supreme Court now legitimately oppose the Scottish Parliament's Brexit Bill given it represents the expressed wish of the sovereign Scottish people through their parliament at Holyrood?

Given the Sewel convention has been deemed to only be guidance to the Westminster Government, by the UK Supreme Court, and not binding on it; just how are the Unionist Parties going to square the circle of the refusal of Holyrood's consent to the Brexit Bill?

The majority of MPs from Scotland are SNP MPs, at Westminster, so clearly the SNP have best claim to being the representatives of the sovereign people of Scotland at Westminster. Where does this leave Mundell et al in the UK Office for the Government of Scotland or whatever the Tories are going to call their new "Scotch" department?

What last night's debate has done is to drive a coach and horses through all the old fudges, nudges, winks and made up constitutional conundrums of the "British Constitution" which were used to keep Scotland in its place have now been laid bare in plain sight, Scotland's wishes can not be ignored at Westminster without ending the Treaty of Union by default as the Westminster Parliament has no legal or constitutional power to change the unalienable right of the people of Scotland to be sovereign.

Lord Cooper in his review of McCormack vs the Lord Advocate (1953) made clear that once the issue of all the previous fudges of Scottish Grand Committees and the rest failed, along with the basic error that English law and constitutional practise was paramount at Westminster, coupled with the erroneous claim that the Treaty of Union saw Scotland subsumed by England, as the basis for these claims for a "British Constitution" came to light and shown to be in error then he could only see a constitutional crisis arising which would potentially break the UK Parliamentary Union.

Whether UK Unionists realise the potential seriousness of what happened last night or not they will place their Union at risk if they do not clearly understand the ramifications of last night's unopposed SNP motion which made very clear, once more, the people of Scotland are sovereign and protected, as such, by the 1689 Act of the Scottish Parliament to this day, as it remains "In Law".

What is the point of Mundell and his pretendy Scotch Department as they do not represent the sovereign people of Scotland in any shape or form either internationally with their "British Emblazoned adverts" or politically, as a minority party in Scotland, and why are we still having our Scottish Parliament pocket money "dobbed" to pay for him and his pals?

Last night's reiving attack by the SNP wounded the Union beast, how badly we will find out in the next couple of months, as it fights with itself over the mess which is "Brexit" and its ability to hold onto any legitimacy in the people of Scotland's eyes.

Maybe some one in Yes2 should put together some "Unionist Hyperbole Bingo" cards, at a pound a shot, to raise funds for the upcoming independence campaign as the Unionist media goes into SNP baad/ Scotland 'too small' overdrive. Maybe the BBC's Distorting Scotland would have to be banned as a source, as you could fill a card in the few seconds after Jackie says "Hello" and lists what the program is going to cover.