The British Traitor Lord who enabled the fall of Singapore and Pearl Harbor–and Churchill’s folly and complicity.

This was - and is - Britain, the British Establishment and the British aristocracy. A conspiracy of wealth and power, significantly immune to the law and democratic accountability.

The Master of Sempill and Lord Sempill

WIKIPEDIA EXTRACT

“His father, the eighteenth Lord, had sired four children in total; the succeeding Lord and three daughters. The youngest daughter, Elizabeth Forbes-Sempill was born on 6 September 1912. On the death of her father, her brother, the new Lord and Baronet, entrusted the management of his Fintray and Craigievar estates into her hands.

Elizabeth subsequently changed gender, becoming Ewan Forbes-Sempill in 1952. On the nineteenth Lord's death in 1965 the baronetcy and barony were separated; the lordship passed to his daughter Ann, the twentieth Lady Sempill, while his new younger brother, Ewan, succeeded in the baronetcy, which could only be inherited by male heirs, after a two-year legal dispute to determine if he was a legitimate male successor.

After his death, the cousin born in 1927 became Sir John Alexander Cumnock Forbes-Sempill, bt. The twentieth Lady Sempill was the wife of, firstly, Eric Holt. They were later divorced and she then married secondly Stuart Whitemore Chant, who in 1966 by decree of the Lord Lyon assumed the additional surname of Sempill. As of 2010 the title is held by Lady Sempill's eldest son from her second marriage, the twenty-first Lord, who succeeded in 1995.”

An extraordinary story of a Scottish Lordship, which if presented as fiction, would be dismissed as an outlandish fantasy. An independent Scotland won't have such anachronistic things as Lords. They're one of the many reasons Scotland wants its independence. It's old history, of course, but such history and such men are represented as all that was great about Britain by apologists for the Union.

The British aristocracy

The ludicrous farce of the British Empire

Unionists share their identity crisis

The traitor - the 19th Lord Sempill

The present Lord Sempill

Get the facts, Scottish voters!

The following represents my individual understanding, as a voter, of some essential facts about the background to the referendum vote in Autumn 2014. Since I am not an expert in any of the subjects covered, my understanding may well be in error: it is undoubtedly simplified. I speak for no one but myself.

I have tried to exclude any personal value judgements from the details set out below – I believe them to be factual, and not coloured by personal beliefs or political orientation. I am happy to accept correction of factual errors, but please don’t offer complex interpretation, since my objective is to contribute as an individual to my Voters in The Village initiative, and I want to keep it simple – but not simplistic.

I would ask particularly that you do not offer legal interpretations or views: almost everything to do with the referendum is contested by legal and other experts, all highly vocal – and in some cases abusive(!) – in their assertion of the absolute rightness of their particular perspectives.

The dilemma of the referendum voter will be how to decide between alternative legal, political and ‘expert’ views in deciding how to vote. Faced with conflicting views and interpretation of ‘facts’, ultimately the voter decision will be based significantly on belief and trust.

That’s democracy  - that’s life …

MY UNDERSTANDING OF ESSENTIAL FACTS ABOUT THE REFERENDUM

In early 1706, Scotland and England were two independent kingdoms with the same monarch and had been since 1603. (If Scotland becomes independent, Scotland and England would again be two independent kingdoms with one monarch – the Queen will be retained as constitutional monarch, as will her lawful successors.)

Following negotiations between England and Scotland, a Treaty of Union was agreed on 22^nd July 1706. The English Parliament then passed The Union with Scotland Act in 1706 and the Scottish Parliament passed The Union with England Act in 1707.

The two acts took effect on 1^st May 1707, and both the Scottish and the English Parliaments united to become the Parliament of Great Britain based in the Palace of Westminster. (The two Acts are referred to as the Union of the Parliaments.

IRELAND

Ireland, the third kingdom, was not included in the Union. Ireland was legally subordinate to England (until 1784) but had its own Parliament. It asked to join the new Union of Scotland and England, but was refused. It eventually was accepted into the Union (The UK) on 1^st January 1801

Ireland was partitioned into two parts on 6^th December 1922 by The Government of Ireland Act of 1920, Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland, known as The Irish Free State.

For a very brief period, Northern Ireland was no longer part of The United Kingdom, but was given the right to opt out of the Irish Free state and did so on 13^th December 1922. In 1937, The Irish Free state was renamed Ireland, then in 1949, The Republic of Ireland.

WALES

Wales was conquered by England in 1282, had a brief period of independence early in the 14^th century, but then was re-conquered and under the Laws in Wales Acts of 1535-1532 became completely part of the English legal system and Parliament.

DEVOLUTION

Scotland voted in a referendum for the creation of a Scottish Parliament in 1999.

Wales voted in a referendum for the creation of The National Assembly of Wales in 1999.

The Northern Ireland Parliament dates from home rule in 1920/22, and is now the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Northern Ireland Executive.

Scotland has certain devolved powers under the Scotland Act but many power are reserved to the Westminster Parliament (The UK Parliament). The Westminster Parliament is sovereign, i.e. only Westminster can devolve powers and only Westminster can amend the Scotland Act. Westminster can add devolved powers or revoke those already granted.

THE REFERENDUM

A referendum is a direct vote in which the total electorate is asked to accept or reject a direct proposal, usually one of major significance. It is direct democracy, as opposed to elective democracy, where elected representatives then vote on issue in on behalf of their constituents.

Referendums are binding in some countries – in certain circumstance they can be mandatory - but not in the UK. In the UK, a referendum is neither mandatory nor binding, but the result is usually respected by government.

Only two referendums have involved the entire UK electorate – The UK European communities membership referendum in 1975 and The UK Alternative Vote Referendum 2011

A devolution referendum for the creation of a Scottish Assembly was held in in 1977. The vote was 52% to 48%, with 63.6% of those eligible to vote (the turnout) casting their vote. This meant that 32.9% of the electorate had voted yes, and since a condition of the referendum was that at least 40% of the electorate must vote, The Scotland Act 1978, designed to introduce devolution, was repealed.

The Scottish Parliament Referendum – the devolution referendum – was held in September 1997. 44.87% of the electorate voted and 74.3% of those voting voted for devolution. This means that 33.34% of those eligible to vote voted for devolution.

A referendum on the independence of Scotland will be held in the autumn of 2014. Autumn 2014 starts on the 23rd of September. The earliest date for the referendum is therefore 23rd September 2014, and the latest date is 20th December 2014.

The referendum will be a consultative referendum and will not in itself bring about independence. The Westminster Government and the UK Prime Minister have already confirmed that if the Scottish electorate vote for independence, the UK government will accept this outcome and will negotiate with the Scottish Government on the terms of independence. The negotiations are likely to take years to finalise.

The Scottish Government has an anti-nuclear weapons policy, and if the Scottish electorate vote for independence, nuclear weapons systems – i.e. the Trident weapons system - will be removed from Scotland and Scottish waters.

The anti-nuclear policy extends to any defence alliance committed to nuclear weapons. An independent Scotland will withdraw from NATO, but liaise with NATO through Partnership for Peace, a non-nuclear alliance involving other European countries.

An independent Scotland would have its own defence forces and its own foreign policy, and will participate in appropriate alliances and coalitions with other countries as circumstances dictate.

An independent Scotland will be a member of the European Union, but will not join the euro: it will continue to use sterling as a tradable currency, and will operate in a currency union. The Bank of England is independent of the UK government and sets its own interest rates and policy. England, Wales and Northern Ireland will continue to accept the Bank of England in that role. Scotland will accept the Bank of England as the central bank in a currency union until such time as it decides to change to another currency. It is highly unlikely that this could happen within a decade.

The ludicrous farce that is the British Empire and the UK - by an American

(I first posted this on February 11th 2011, but it has a vital new relevance since the renewed historic mandate of the only party committed to freeing Scotland, and because of the impending referendum. Watch and laugh, but most of all – LEARN! We’ll need all the history and all the arguments to convince the people of Scotland to free their nation. This should make Lord Forsyth’s wee kilt birl roon his ears and his sporran go richt up his nose …)

Superb - wonderful, accurate, funny! A spot-on hilarious but hugely informative account of the long-running farce called the British Empire.

Scotland wants out - I want out - anyone with any sense wants out.

Congratulations, USA - you got out a long time ago.

A preamble to my independence blog to follow, a kind of scene-setting …

I received this communication today from a long-term friend and colleague, an Englishman, living in England, who knows and understands Scotland deeply from a long association with the country, and one who has made a highly significant contribution in a wide range of fields to the United Kingdom and all its component countries over his lifetime.

You should ignore the Westminster politicians - the YES campaign is already under way in England. If your referendum is extended to voters south of the Border, you can be assured of a landslide victory! Also for Wales and for the rapid reunification of Ireland. On the latter, perhaps HM can do a deal this week?

I quote this to underline the point that nationalism, in its true sense, is not simply the objective of Scots, Welsh and Irish - the great country of England and its people are awakening to the fact that the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is heading rapidly towards its inevitable dissolution, and that England must become a nation once again.

The true nationalists in these countries are not separatists - although I confess to rejoicing in that term in the recent past, in an ill-considered reaction to pejorative use of the term by unionists - but are deeply concerned that the ancient and modern ties of blood, family, friendship, and  common economic and defence priorities in certain areas are not damaged by the return of national sovereignty to the nation states in these islands. In this, they are no different from the nation states of the European Union, or the Commonwealth, or indeed of any international grouping based on areas of common interest.

The common thread that unites these nationalists is the conviction that the United Kingdom - and the Westminster Parliament as presently constituted - are no longer fit for purpose, and that the present constitutional settlement cannot hold, containing as it does an increasing and disabling series of contradictions, especially as it relates to devolved government. No form of devolution max or independence lite will remedy this structual defect - only national sovereignty will be sufficient.

The UK is also completely out of step with global events, the Zeitgeist, and the new spirit of self-determination that grips the peoples of the world - confused about its international role, devoid of direction or a vision of the kind of society it wants to be, lost in nostalgia about a lost past, one that in significant part never existed, except in the imagination of the South East of England and rapidly diminishing areas of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and there mainly among the privileged and those among the less privileged naturally dependent on their patronage .

The ludicrous farce that is the British Empire and the UK - by an American

Superb - wonderful, accurate, funny! A spot-on hilarious but hugely informative account of the long-running farce called the British Empire. Scotland wants out - I want out - anyone with any sense wants out. Congratulations, USA - you got out a long time ago.

Saor Alba!

The State of the Union – UK, that is …

How any rational Scottish voter can contemplate voting for the Tories, Labour or the LibDems in the imminent general election baffles me.

THE CHARGES AGAINST THE UNION

We have a Union engaged in pointless, unwinnable wars, killing the flower of our young people.

We have a Union committed blindly to outdated, and strategically irrelevant nuclear weapons of mass destruction, at enormous cost, at a time when the Union is close to bankruptcy and deep cuts in essential services are about to be made.

We have an almost wholly corrupt Westminster structure, as the expenses scandal and the political donations to the three major parties have so devastatingly exposed.

Among the minor parties, we have one fascist party and one neo-fascist party.

We have corruption in the House of Lords, with criminal prosecutions of peers of the realm already underway, and with perhaps more to come.

We have parties being funded by mega-rich donors – all three major parties - who are avoiding UK tax, and using the money saved – the taxpayers’ money – our money - to bankroll the political party that they believe will grant favours and preferment that will make them even richer, and more able to subvert our democracy.

We have one of these parties (the LibDems) accepting money from a convicted fraudster and refusing to give it back.

We have a governing party (for the moment) committed to covering up complicity in torture by our security forces.

We have a governing party that has been systematically trying to dismantle the ancient legal freedoms of the peoples of these islands.

We have two dominant parties that have no real, fundamental differences between them on war, nuclear weapons, the economy, privilege and patronage, a fact being belatedly recognised by the electorate, as witnessed by the narrowing of the opinion poll gap between them.

We have a third party, the LibDems, with vestiges of principle and sanity, but effectively lost and powerless in the corrupt system of which they are a part.

We have three parties with delusions of an international role for Britain as a great power, based on brandishing its WMDs, when the reality is that all they have is the rump of a wholly discredited Empire, built on ruthless exploitation of subject peoples, and reluctantly dismantled only when those subject peoples threw off its yoke.

We have three parties whose Scottish minions oppose attempts to free Scotland from the twin curses of drink and violence, because of their political expediency, subservience to vested interests and commitment to insane, simplistic sound bite solutions.

We have three parties in Holyrood hell-bent on denying the Scottish people a voice in their own constitutional future.

************************

Scotland, waken up, or shrink into poverty and irrelevance in the next decade. You have a real choice – England doesn’t. Saor Alba!