Something quite significant happened down south the other day, it may have been symbolic, but like a pebble dropped into a pond, it will cause ripples!

Will this act as a beacon nationwide? If others follow, a political party that ignores the warnings does so at its peril.

Symbolism has a loud voice, it’s just a pity our own FM doesn’t catch on to its importance. There is nothing to stop JS from holding a referendum in Scotland. Yes, Westminster would ignore it and say it wasn’t legal, but the people would have spoken, and it wouldn’t go unnoticed in certain quarters. If a wee community can do it and grab the headlines, so can we!

But, no, that’s not his style, real democracy involves people and they can’t have that!

There is a reason politicians prefer representative democracy, it’s called power!

When the FM talks about the people of Scotland having the right to self-determination, what he really means is that Holyrood has the right…and all who sail in her!!!

But then his mind is on other things, like kicking cans down the road at our expense. But soon the road will run out and all the cans will fall over the cliff!

People say loyalty to a party is important, but here’s the thing, loyalty is a two-way street. Blind loyalty is dangerous, it removes accountability and opens up the way for abuse and criminality. The Murrell case is a perfect example.

So, the SNP chiefs are determined to block their members from debating the way forward, it’s John’s way or no way! Great how democracy works isn’t it? Like all cult leaders, he demands loyalty.

There is no point of just focusing our anger on the SNP, we have to get off our backsides and do something about it. The fightback starts with every council election, every by-election!

There are other independence parties!

I am not convinced the ‘Celtic’ way will go anywhere, because each country’s grounds are very different. Swinney will talk the talk but he won’t walk the walk, but he will show up for the photo shoots!!.… travelling business class of course.

With this level of intelligence where it matters, don’t expect the SNHS or Education to improve anytime soon!

And these are the people who say they can run an independent Scotland…heaven help us!

This is where Direct Democracy comes into its own, no grafters, no more morons, just the right people in the right place, with the ability to remove them if they aren’t!

We don’t demand academics but we do expect common sense!

Leadership brings responsibility, and part of that responsibility is recognising when someone on your team is not up to the task. Not to do so has the potential to bring the government of the day down.

On the other hand, there are some world leaders, one in particular who think they are the new Messiah. Shutting down the Kennedy Centre because he can’t have his name in shiny big lights proves one thing…he is not quite the Fundamentalist Christian he makes out to be and certainly does not know his scriptures, even the American version!

New American Standard Bible
‘You shall not make for yourselves idols’.

Now I know many who read my blog, are not believers, but my point is, he says one thing but demands another and his followers remain silent!

When one knows something is wrong and remains silent, you become complicit.

A great wrong wasn’t just something that happened to Scotland over 300 years ago, it continues today, yet many remain silent.

Why is that?

Ending on a positive note, I look beyond independence to a future relationship with Europe. During that particular referendum, which was also bolstered by lies, Scotland voted to remain. The Europe we have today is not the same as the one we left, neither are we! So, would we vote the same way again or would it be EFTA? There also appears to be a new level of entry, ‘Associate member’ as Canada has been offered. Exactly what that means has not been fully explained yet, although the very thought of it has upset Trump…which must be a plus😂

Many say, once we are free, we should remain free…food for thought!

We can be funny folk at times, when we see what we call a bad apple in an organisation, we quickly assume the whole lot are rotten even though the original assumption may only be our perception. Sometimes born out of a disagreement.

We don’t have to support an individual who fundamentally disagrees with us, but there is a difference between supporting them and the organisation they might belong to.

There is always the bigger picture and to see it you just have to be the bigger person!

So, we’re skint!

You can always tell when the Unionists are getting scared, they always fall back on the old favourites. Forgetting of course that they too are skint!

There is a difference between being ‘cash short’ and having numerous assets. Westminster borrows money on the back of Scottish assets, [not having many of their own!!] At the moment we live in this peculiar position of having vast assets but we can’t touch them! We are skint because Westminster keeps us like this, they hold the purse strings, to what is rightly ours!

Remove them and we remove the problem!

Now I am not going to disparage what is happening with the 3 Celtic nations’ drive for Independence, but I will say this, Burnham will put a nail in that coffin pretty quickly even if it’s just by delaying things with his continual NO stance, and that will suit honest John fine.

Between court cases, his own conference and the Westminster inquiry, he is in for a tough winter and his survival is in doubt.

Let’s just do this!

Slowly but surely the Salvo train is nearing its destination. The destination being a statement saying Scotland has the right to seek self-determination. But what happens here in Scotland is also important. There can not be a political void, where no party is in place to take the consequences forward.

True independence parties need to start thinking about where they stand on issues like UDI and Direct Democracy, because many believe that’s the road we will have to take.

A statement by the UN is only a statement until a political party runs with it. The SNP won’t so somebody must fill the space, and now is the time to step up and be counted. If you’re up for UDI backed by the UN, say so and make the relevant policy stating it.

I truly believe people are waiting for a party to lead them toward independence, one with a map.

The map is there…the foundations are being prepared…where is the party?

Now is the time to let your light shine!

Clear, unambiguous statements are needed.

Is it time to topple egos off their pedestals?

Is it time to not just think the impossible, but to actually do the impossible and replace the SNP?

There is no doubt any party taking this forward will need an event at some point to show the will of the people. This would be democracy at work, but that party must be in place first… It’s all about the process. Just because Westminster tends to skip processes doesn’t mean we have to!

I don’t mean to be facetious but some believe these two words, extant and extinct mean the same thing. They don’t, and the position of the Scottish Crown is a perfect example of the meanings.

Extant means it is still exists, the dictionary goes further and says it is still ‘living’. Which means our Crown could still sit on a king’s head, provided that King takes the Scottish Oath, which Charles hasn’t and can’t without breaking his English oath and condemning his own Parliament.

Extinct on the other hand means it no longer exists in any way, shape or form. But it does, and Charles can only touch it, as he did, in reverence.

I bet that when he touched it, he was thinking…if only!!!

Westminster’s greatest fear is the day Scotland wakes up and realises its power. They also don’t want their fellow citizens to know how much Scotland subsidises them…the story being that we are a drain on their finances.

For a true record of Scotlands history, forget the history books and look at what is now surfacing through Salvo. Documents kept hidden for hundreds of years are now coming to light, and what a story they tell.

But it’s not just the story that matters, it’s the power they bring with them, and like the Crown, they are not extinct!!

Westminster are experts at breaking treaties and memorandums of understanding, if they don’t fit with today’s agenda, but there are some treaties you just can’t break or lie about!

And lies don’t go down well with the UN, especially if you lie directly to them!

Time-wise, now is the best time to bring all of this to the attention of the UN, because Team GB is not at its most popular. Sometimes geopolitics works in your favour.

But we must do our bit and prepare the groundwork. The day will come…and we must be ready! Therefore the news from Common Weal today is most welcome. The jigsaw is coming together with some very notable people at the helm.

I noted this morning on Politics Live that a generation is now defined as 25 years…referring to Alex’s comment of ‘once in a generation’. How nice of them to try and interpret what he might have meant.

AI by the way says it’s 15-20 years!! I guess it depends on who is moving the pointer😂

The words “Grievance Politics” when used towards Scotland are used in a very derisary way. But people forget that in England, grievances brought about the Magna Carta in 1215! The first version failed, but Henry III tweaked it and made it law.

The grievances in Scotland towards Westminster are not petty, they are significant. From broken ‘supposed’ [alleged] Treaties to the theft of resources, which continues to this day.

I often wonder how England would behave had the shoe been on the other foot!

The core voters in England see Scots as moaners, who gripe about anything and everything. This is because like us, they have been taught a lie. So, they still have the mentality of ‘we conquered you, suck it up’! I think they are in for a shock!!

It is not wrong to complain when one has been wronged and it’s not wrong to seek reparation.

The words of Theresa May still ring in my ears… ‘Now is not the time’! {2017} Move on 9 long years, and it’s ‘off the table’ altogether! Well, I did say Burnham had misspoke on Wednesday!!

As a People are we focusing our anger in the wrong place? Surely we must change Holyrood and all in it first?

Holyrood is full of MSPs wearing masks, take the independence mask off and you find a Devolutionist.

We must stop playing the game!

Where has Devolution got us? This relationship was supposed to support us, remember ‘Better Together’! On Friday nights news there was an person being interviewed about why fuel prices have risen so sharply. He spoke about how the number of refineries has over the past years depleted from 14 to 2! Saying last year alone, we lost 2 mentioning Grangemouth…we didn’t lose this refinery, it was taken from us!

The result of course is that we have to import fuel, including gas! Don’t you love it when our politicians can’t think beyond today?

Labour is closing down Scotlands infrastructure and doing it on purpose.

Remember Bob the Builder’s catchphrase, ‘Can we fix it…yes we can’.

We can start with the Council Elections next year.

We can support the Parties waiting in the wings.

We can put the ‘petty’ grievances aside.

We can put our words into action!

We can put Scotlands future first.

Are you a builder or a demolisher?

Someone once said, ‘if you don’t have a plan, then nothing can go wrong’!…if only life were that simple.

And yet, it seems to many that Westminster cannot produce a cohesive immigration plan, leaving communities to create their own. This is not going to end well for anybody.

The country has not fared well since Brexit has it? It’s like looking at an ECG graph and seeing a few heart attacks along the way!

Heart attacks act as a warning, but no one seems to be heeding them.

All the signs are there, and at some point we will hit the rocks financially.

How did we get here?

As far as Scotland is concerned we got here because we are chained to a lost cause…England!

When another country holds you and all your belongings by the throat, there can only be one outcome…you die a slow death, and that is what is happening to Scotland right now! Every Data Centre, every Battery storage facility and every mini nuclear plant waiting to be built will decimate the land we have left.

Are we really going to let this happen?

Are we being sidetracked by focusing on ‘immigration’ in the hope that we won’t notice what’s happening elsewhere? {that would apply to England also!}

Moving on to Labour’s latest stunt, control by the back door, or should I say through our phones!

In 1849, a man called Henry David Thoreau wrote a book on civil disobedience. This was his opening line, ‘I accept the motto, ‘That government is best which governs least’;

Control is not democracy it is autocracy…and is being carried out without the consent of the people. In other words, we did not vote for this and it was never in anyones manifesto.

Thankfully people are beginning to realise that AI can be both a ‘friend and a foe. In the wrong hands, it can even be lethal. So, take care, my friends, with how much you allow it into your lives. Play with it by all means but don’t rely on it.

I must admit, it does concern me that some young doctors use AI when making decisions about medication!! On the other hand I don’t care that some MPs use it for writing speeches…I don’t listen to them anyway😂

Artificial Intelligence can be artificial!!

Boundaries are important, whether they be personal or professional. But a boundary without a gate is a prison, so always have a gate!

Being human, we build fences/walls, around us when our emotions take charge and we can do so, in seconds! At first, those fences have no gates, but if we keep them that way the only thing we are doing is fencing ourselves in, no one else really cares. We become our own worst enemy!

This happens a lot within party politics, people take very intransigent positions. Even when circumstances change there is no room for flexibility, more so, if it gets personal.

We often use the phrase, ‘there is none so blind as those who will, not see’. You could also say, ‘there are none so deaf, as those who will not hear’!

How can Scotland move forward if we refuse to listen to one another? Fixed ideas don’t work when the ground keeps shifting.

Why for instance won’t the SNP governing party meet with Salvo? They have apparently disparaged their route in a report, yet they have never engaged with them!

Flexibility, or the ability to listen to others, appears to be an anathema to the SNP. It’s their way or no way! Their gate is firmly shut and locked, apparently even to their own members.

When a party is in power, it can become addicted to that power. Decisions are made with one priority, to keep that power. This results in ill-thought-out policies with high costs to communities. Take for example the £2 bus ticket, it looked good and in most cases is good, but not for some on islands, where hundreds of folks coming off the cruise liners, jump on local buses for a cheap tour around the island, leaving no room for the locals to get home!!

Sometimes, governments seem unable to look at all the scenarios when making policies.

Policy-making, should surely involve all stakeholders being at the table. Countries are best governed through consensus.

It would appear that Scotland has no boundaries at the moment, never mind a gate. Our land and seas have become a playground for the rich!

What will be left, when Scotland does become independent?

Time, is not our friend, but what we have must be used wisely.

Do not be fooled by Burnhams false promises, I personally believe he ‘misspoke ’!!

However, if I am wrong and he didn’t, what measurement is he going to employ before agreeing to another Westminster lead Referendum?

But let’s be honest, do we really want ‘rinse and repeat’?

You know what is odd, Holyrood does have the power to hold referendums, they just need to be a little imaginative about the wording!

But no, honest John wants his ‘holy grail’!!…as well as the King!

Never neglect those red lights, the ones that flash in your head as a warning. That inner gut feeling.

We all get them from time to time, especially when a stranger appears bearing gifts!

I swear politicians keep theirs switched off. Their eyes are firmly fixed on the cash, not what comes after.

Cash for access and anything else it can buy, is rife within politics. How else do politicians become millionaires in such a short space of time?

House rules have been ripped up, replaced by a free-for-all, until that is, the media fall out with you and reveal all!

But then what…nothing, maybe headlines for a day, then forgotten unless the media really hate you!🤣

The thing about all this dodgy money is, in the beginning it all sounds harmless…but no-one ever gives money away without expecting a return, even if it’s just a favour or two.

There is always a price and usually the red lights flash!

It’s a kind of blackmail, in reverse!

Don’t think Scottish politicians are above this kind of behaviour, many have been in hock to the big conglomerates and institutions like BAP for years. The reward is not always money, but as they say ‘in kind’…like influence in important places or with people.

No matter what the reward, they have sold their souls to someone or something.

There is an answer to this, it’s called Direct Democracy, the boat that politicians refuse to climb aboard. They prefer Representative Democracy…the one they can control. But I think this boat is about to sink.

Geopolitics is falling apart!

There is a smell of rebellion in the air, the full force of this hasn’t quite reached Scotland yet, but it’s coming!

Policies both north and south of the border, whether they be fiscal, immigration, Data Hubs or even just meddling with the SNHS, are starting to get up people’s nostrils and the grassroots are rustling.

When you listen to John Swinney on the tv he comes across as a nice guy…we don’t want a nice guy, we want a tough guy who will stand up to Burnham and his Westminster lackeys. We want an First Minister who will stand up for our rights, not bend the knee!

And it is up to us, to make sure the next one does, be it a HE or a SHE!

It may even have to be another independence party, and if that is a bridge too far for you…your heart is not where it should be!

Where is your heart?

Is it for Scotland or a Party, and there is a difference!

First, the ‘Who’.

To answer that we must first understand what ‘Data’ is.

Data, is just information, facts and figures. That being so, the ‘Who’ is obvious, those behind these centres are the biggest Tech companies. The main players appear to be, Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Meta. The finance for this big push comes from various investors but mainly Blackstone. This should not come as a surprise as a number of politicians both Scottish and English have appeared in the press having meetings with them.

Now the ‘Why’.

At present most of our data is kept in the ‘cloud’ by these companies, so why do they need more space, and so much of it?

The answer is AI.

AI is going to become our nemesis!

It may be fun to use it to make funny videos, but behind it lies a more sinister idea.

What we once thought was just science fiction is about to become real, but not in a good way! This is not about improving our lives, but controlling them…and they need every bit of information about us to do that.

15-min cities are on the agenda!

By the end of this exercise, they will know everything about us, and I mean everything! Not just our financial information or medical information. Therefore, they will, be able to predict our every movement, how we spend our money and even our thinking!! Human robots under their control.

When they know everything you are going to do, they can plan accordingly and unknowingly force you down certain paths. All of which are profitable to the big companies.

Control and profits are the end goal!

The ‘What’

This is about the centres themselves. They need these gigantic buildings to house and run these massive computers. Sound okay to you? Well, think again, particularly about how they are run. We are not talking housing one or two huge computers, but racks of them, all stored on top of each other, all gathering information about you and others, then distributing that information to various others centres around the world to be analyzed.

In the USA it has been proved that the heat they generate can even affect local weather, and the water needed to cool them is astronomical, again affecting the water needed by communities to survive. And guess what, if there is a water shortage…guess who gets priority!!…not the people, thanks to the previous deals within SEZs!

Remember these?

This has been in the planning for years, and the jigsaw is now coming together!

Climate change policies have flown out of the window, replaced by corporate governance and greed.

All this in the name of AI, which has already proven to be unreliable.

So, what do we get out of all this?

In short nothing! Maybe some jobs in construction.

Do they offer efficiency…well even if they did, does it justify the expense, the secrecy and the environmental damage?

People all over the world are starting to realise the negatives and they are huge and they are saying NO.

Again, in the States, politicians are being ‘recalled’ and sacked for supporting these centres!

If our FM goes back on his promised moratorium, a stand must be taken one way or another and I’m not sure a protest will cut it.