I hear the likes of Jeremy Corbyn and the increasingly ludicrous Jo Swinson talking about having a ‘plan’ and my first thought is that they are three years too late. This is almost immediately revised upwards to 13 years, or possibly more. Because the time for planning was before the Brexit project was launched. And a project so complex would surely need at least ten years preparation time.
I know this has all been said before. And I know it’s too late to do anything about it. But when politicians are talking as if the situation can be resolved if we just put our faith in them it is as well to remind ourselves that the Brexit situation cannot be resolved.
I suspect most couples have gone through a period of hardship. The economic system under which we are obliged to live is driven by insecurity, inequity and imbalance. It’s engine is the tension created by contrived difference – differences among individuals and groups and differences between the ideal with which we are presented and the reality with which we must exist.
So most couples, and possibly others, will be able to recall times when it’s all gone wrong. Unemployment, debt, rising costs, family responsibilities and eventually ill-health all combine to imprison them in a web of intractable problems. They will recall those long hours spent in fruitless and futile discussion, pushing and tugging at the tangled threads of the web trying to find a way out. They will recall moments when a thread seemed to come loose. They will recall the wrenching, crushing despair on realising that this has only tightened two threads elsewhere.
When people have shared problems they tend to talk about them even when the talking takes them round in circles. However much they talk things through, they always end up back at the same place, or in a worse place. Sometimes they try to deny the soul-sapping powerlessness, insisting there has to be a way out. There just has to be. What if we….
Brexit’s a bit like that. Some foolish choices have sent things spiralling out of control, and now we’re at the talking-in-circles stage with politicians pretending they have solutions by pointing at the loose thread while ignoring the ones that are tightening. Those with nothing to gain from such pretence/deception stand back – to the extent that is possible when you’re trapped – and take in the whole snarled and ravelled knot, or as much of it as they can. And they see no way out.
Tug at the tread of an Article 50 extension and you are merely buying some time before you end up back at the same place.
Tug at the thread of a general election and you end up in the same place but with some new cast members.
Tug at the thread of a ‘people’s vote’ and the result puts you back in the same place.
Tug at the thread of revoking Article 50 and you find that the place you’re trying to get back to no longer exists; so you end up in the same dire situation but with a different web.
Where stands Scotland in all of this? We stand trapped in a web inside a web – the web of the Union. Deemed incapable of making our own choices, despite having made the choice that would have avoided the Brexit web altogether. Deemed helpless, despite being expected to help those who dragged us into the web. Deemed undeserving of a fate any better than that which England has chosen for itself, despite having a clear way out.
Brexit isn’t Scotland’s problem. The circuitous and circular discussion about how to ‘fix’ Brexit is not our conversation. The posturing of British politicians like Jeremy Corbyn is not for our benefit.
We don’t want to be here. We don’t deserve to be here. We don’t need to be here. But here we remain. Why?
If you find these articles interesting please consider a small donation to help support this site and my other activities on behalf of Scotland’s independence movement.
Peter A Bell 
Why are we here?
Our leaders seem to be waiting for that perfect moment.
Sometimes that perfect moment is only seen with hindsight.
Sometimes you just need to grasp the thistle and say ‘fuck it, let’s go for it’.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Brexit isn’t Scotland’s problem. The circuitous and circular discussion about how to ‘fix’ Brexit is not our conversation. The posturing of British politicians like Jeremy Corbyn is not for our benefit. We don’t want to be here. We don’t deserve to be here. We don’t need to be here.’ Well said Peter
I agree, Juteman, ‘Fuck it, let’s go for it’.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s beginning to remind me of that old chestnut about Brazilia… “Brazilia is the city of the future, and always will be”.
McAlpine’s recent stuff is depressing. He seems to talk with authority, but I do question some of his observations and conclusions.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Right to the heart of the matter, Mr Bell: there never, ever was any way out for us except independence. That has been the unvarnished truth since that vote in 2016. The other thing about Brexit, for Leavers in Scotland, is that it is not unique and never was, and will continue to be the same old-same old dressed in different clothes next time and the time after. It is McCrone; it the varying of the maritime border; it is the 40% rule, uniquely for us. It will be the theft (because we ain’t getting them back) of our powers, with even more to be filched and added to those already staked because there is no power than does not have several others relying on it or as part of the whole – wait and see. It will be the deliberate pitting of the large, Northern and Midlands English regions against Scotland for funding post Brexit because London is where it’s at, and the rest can make do – wait and see. It will be the gradual reduction of Holyrood and its powers to a dilapidated water wheel on a dried-up burn – wait and see.
The Union, that pernicious enabler of UK domination and Scottish subservience, the abiding ambition of every English administration, and their shabby Scottish adherents, for almost a thousand years, must be the target of any campaign. By sleight of hand, many have been persuaded that there is no way other than the Union way, no constitution other than the UK (English) one, no law other than UK (English) law that is fit for purpose. There is no way for Scotland to fix Brexit or to stop that Tory (British Nationalist) One Nation State. None. Except independence. Any politician who tries to claim otherwise, knows he or she cannot wave that magic wand on your behalf. Dreams of persuading the English (and there are many sensible Remainers in England, but even they are not necessarily in favour of Scottish independence) that they must reverse Brexit, is to risk major civil unrest there, a risk no English politician is willing to take, and there is simply no way Scotland can then escape the fall-out. The parliamentarians at Westminster might be able to stop a No Deal Brexit, but, then, they would have to vote for Mrs May’s deal or a very slightly tweaked version of it, or, God Forbid, another extension, taking us right back to more ‘let’s wait and see’.
Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the Americans are champing at the bit and plans are going forward to create the new One Nation State UK, US style. There are times when democracy cuts its own throat, and Brexit and the paralysis in Scotland caused by that accursed NO vote in 2014 are just two such times because we simply cannot get our heads round the fact that even democracy can come at the behest of the stupid and terminally foolish, the venal and the wilfully blind. Both the EU referendum vote and the indy vote were driven, to an extent, by no means completely (there are very decent Unionists and very decent Brextieers) by those elements, and I make no apology for saying so. I am a democrat, so it is difficult for me to gainsay those votes, but I would say that we have the Treaty, and resiling that could save both our nations because: a) it would afford us a way out without another equally divisive and dangerous referendum; and b) it would, perhaps – only, perhaps, give the English part of the Union the opportunity to think about Brexiting alone, and that, perhaps – only, perhaps – is not what they voted for at all. The beauty of it is that it is perfectly democratic and legal, legitimate and do-able. That we should shriek for another referendum – no, two – to fix the NO vote of 2014 and the Brexit vote of 2016, given that it has been referendums that have caused the problems we now face, how insane is that?
LikeLiked by 3 people
What does “resiling” the treaty mean and how could it be done?
LikeLike
Well it started as Scotland not voting for any Brexit at all.
The SNP then moved us to a position of trying to mitigate this by offering a soft Norway style Brexit. Now it’s anything but a no deal Brexit. The SNP mandate regarding Brexit is very clear. The Scots voted to stay in the EU. So they should be saying that leaving the EU at all is grounds to dissolve the union.
Why are SNP mp’s arguing about degrees of Brexit. They should be arguing for independence on the grounds that some form of Brexit is happening at all.
This muddled position is of the SNP’s making.
Stop negotiating on something that was utterly rejected by the people of Scotland.
LikeLiked by 1 person
My instinct says that it’s not so much a web within a web that we’re in as a corral within a corral.
The one thing the herder fears above all is a stampede. Maybe, just maybe, we should go for it
LikeLike
Big Jock you are absolutely correct , why are the SNP SG IGNORING the FACT that Scottish voters voted overwhelmingly 62% to 38% to REMAIN in the European Union a difference of 24% of the electorate and is projected now to be even more , yet we are still daily assaulted by the unending pish of Scotland voted 55% to 45% to remain in the UK union a difference of 10% of the electorate , what makes the UK union that Scotland the country and nation is a supposed partner of more important and legally entitled to refuse our right to leave
Scotland the country and sovereign nation voted to remain within the EU and instructed our elected representatives to facilitate the majorities requirement , we did not instruct them to dilute our requirements to facilitate or pander to an equal partner whose sole intent is to leave irrespective of the consequences to our country and nation
It is admirable that our elected representatives have attempted ( though they have been ignored and denigrated at every turn ) to point out the possible disastrous consequences of Engshit but the time has come to respect the wishes of their 17.4 million Engshit voters and leave them to it , and address the needs and wishes of the 62% of our electorate to remain .
This can only be facilitated by either a referendum of the people of Scotland or a court case ( in the ICJ ) to dissolve the treaty of union , either way our elected politicians should expedite it
LikeLike
some thoughts on the Corbyn plan and a few other things – enjoy!https://eurofree3.wordpress.com/2019/08/17/disunited-kingdom-flounders-england-the-cruel-state/
LikeLiked by 1 person
To a country blinded by Stockholm syndrome….
I weep for what awaits you.
LikeLiked by 1 person