BY EFFIE DEANS In the Scottish Government’s latest paper An independent Scotland in the EU we learn that the SNP thinks that it would take between two to five years to join the EU. This is despite us learning that civil servants had previously warned that it could take up to eight years. The truth is that no one knows how long it might take for an independent Scotland … Continue reading But Does the EU Want Scotland?
BY EFFIE DEANS The Scottish Government in its latest independence white paper expresses concern that Scotland’s population is aging and the birth rate is declining. It argues that migration is the sole driver of population growth and would like migration to increase. It therefore sets out various new visa schemes that an independent Scotland might adopt, would make it easier for asylum seekers and add … Continue reading Does Scotland Need More Migrants?
BY EFFIE DEANS Like everyone else I did not pay much attention to the SNP conference which took place nearby me in Aberdeen. The turnout was poor with plenty of empty seats. But this isn’t the SNP’s main problem, nor indeed is Humza Yousaf. The real problem is Scottish nationalism has become a movement of fantasists. In 1989 two million people in what are now … Continue reading The SNP is a Dwindling Band of Fantasists
BY EFFIE DEANS There is probably nowhere in the world which has had such a long and on the whole successful experiment with socialism as Israel. In no other western country that I can think of are there anything like the kibbutzim in Israel. Here are small experiments in socialism which to various degrees put into practice the ideals of shared ownership, collective living and … Continue reading The Left Has Disgraced Itself Over Israel
BY EFFIE DEANS The president of Guyana Mohamed Irfaan Ali recently argued that Britain owed his country reparations for slavery. So too an international judge from Jamaica claimed that Britain owed nearly £19 trillion for its involvement in the slave trade. We are constantly reprimanded for the British Empire and urged to decolonise. Yet nobody in Britain living today took part in the Atlantic slave … Continue reading Should Britain Pay Reparations for Slavery?
BY EFFIE DEANS I started reading David Copperfield earlier this year and got stuck. I was about a quarter of the way through and finding it a bit tough going and so I laid it aside. It might have stayed there, but something brought me back. Could I really be defeated by Dickens when I had managed Dostoevsky in Russian? So, I finished Copperfield’s adventures … Continue reading Can I Change Race?
BY EFFIE DEANS It’s now around 13 years since we last had a Labour Government. People in their twenties will barely remember it. In Scotland too we have had SNP Government since 2007. The days when Labour and the Lib Dems were in coalition are a distant memory even for those of us who do remember. Change is coming in both the UK and in … Continue reading The SNP Can Now be Decisively Defeated
BY EFFIE DEANS It ought to be possible for a Celtic fan to go to an Old Firm Game and stand amongst the Rangers fans in his Celtic shirt while cheering every time Celtic score a goal and booing each time Rangers score. Amongst all those blue shirts it ought to be possible for a single green and white shirt to be enjoying the match … Continue reading Covenanters Preaching Outside Again
BY EFFIE DEANS Penny Mordaunt’s appearance at the Fringe in Edinburgh proved controversial for her statement that the SNP’s approach to independence fails because it is based on bile and hatred. But who does the SNP hate? The answer would seem obvious. England. The English. But both the SNP and its supporters deny this vehemently. There are two main hatreds in Scotland. Anglophobia and Sectarianism. … Continue reading Is the SNP motivated by Anglophobia?
BY EFFIE DEANS There is a problem with free speech in Scotland. The most important political events in recent times cannot openly be discussed. Secrecy still surrounds the time when Alex Salmond was First Minister and the court case in 2020. The only way to discuss is to write about something else and hope that people understand the point. The point is to illustrate the … Continue reading What Once was Free Speech
BY EFFIE DEANS There is always going to be a problem with the predictability of the future. I think it is for this reason that the SNP can essentially say what it likes about Scottish independence. It will give us each an extra £500 pounds assuming we don’t have to join the Euro. It will give us free travel throughout the former UK and the … Continue reading Beer & Thistles
BY EFFIE DEANS With Labour closing the gap with the SNP to three points there is a real prospect of Scottish nationalism facing a God is dead moment. When Nietzsche wrote about the mortality of God, he was not of course suggesting that God had been alive and had then died. Rather he was saying that God had become a dead issue like believing in … Continue reading Mhairi Black is the Reason the SNP Just Died
BY EFFIE DEANS As France descends into anarchy with rioting, looting and arson because of a policeman shooting a 17-year-old in Nanterre on the outskirts of Paris, it is easy to look on French difficulties and reflect fortunately such things don’t happen here. But of course, such things have happened here. There were riots in London in 2011 when the police shot someone and further … Continue reading We Too Must Embrace the Benefits of Migration
BY EFFIE DEANS The likely result of the next General Election in Scotland is that the SNP will lose around 20 seats to Labour and a few to the Conservatives and the Lib Dems. If that happens the SNP might still just be the largest party in Scotland on around 25 seats, but it will no longer be the dominant force. Alex Salmond has come … Continue reading The SNP Should Ditch Sturgeon
BY EFFIE DEANS I voted for Brexit mainly because I realised contrary to the Remain argument that leaving the EU would make Scottish independence all but impossible. EU membership encourages sub-national nationalism by allowing regions to argue that nothing much would change after independence. If the whole of Belgium is in the EU and ruled by Brussels, it matters little if Flanders and Wallonia separate. … Continue reading We Are Being Conned
BY EFFIE DEANS It is terribly important both for the world and for Joe Biden that he ceases to be president when his term ends. It is cruel and unusual punishment that a man obviously suffering from dementia should be expected to do any more than relax at home. It is dangerous that such a man is president when the world faces a serious threat … Continue reading No Sex Please, We’re Scottish
BY EFFIE DEANS I haven’t been following UK politics much lately. I think the British public has already decided that Labour will win the next General Election and that Keir Starmer will be the next Prime Minister. This may even be a good thing. I am a Conservative, but I’m also a democrat. The Conservative Government has done a rotten job since 2019. Boris Johnson … Continue reading A King of all the Britons
BY EFFIE DEANS We all must take seriously the warning from Police Scotland not to discuss people who have been arrested. As soon as this happens such persons become unpersons. Their names may not be mentioned like יהוה [YHWH] in the Bible. We mustn’t put in the vowels, so that in time we even forget whether it was Potur Marrol or Pator Merril. Better just … Continue reading S(teal) N(ick) P(inch) Unmentionables
BY EFFIE DEANS How should one take advantage of the series of scandals that are beginning to overwhelm the SNP? Sit back and watch. Don’t get too excited. There are no doubt more to come. Look forward for the first time in a decade to the next General Election but don’t make a fool of yourself by saying too much. There are two factors that … Continue reading Have SNP Hopes Been Towed Away Too?
BY EFFIE DEANS The SNP is not a normal party. It is this that explains recent events and also events in the recent past. The SNP is the means by which Scottish nationalists hope to achieve independence. This explains everything. Of course, there are other Scottish nationalist parties. Alba, the Scottish Greens, some small far left socialist parties. Not every independence supporter likes the SNP. … Continue reading The SNP is Descending into Hell
