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THE SECRETS OUT
“THE conspiracy theorists have added some colour to the controversy over Dunfermline Building Society's merger with Nationwide. But they're coming at it from opposite sides and from a flawed perspective. First there are the nationalists' claims that this is all part of some grand plan by the English government (run by Scots] to undermine every Scottish institution and thereby the case for independence. It would be plausible if it were not so laughable”.
So wrote Terry Murden, business and city editor of Scotland on Sunday.
Well Terry, it is plausible, and it ain’t laughable.
I am no conspiracy theorist, I am a conspiracy ‘factualist’ and happily, under the Freedom of Information Act, we can at last prove it: that for the past 50 years, Labour and Conservative governments shared a common agenda - stopping Home Rulers and Scottish Nationalists from breaking up Britain and making Scotland independent.
Both parties have resorted to spying and underhand tactics to discredit the SNP, its members and supporters. In this, they were, and are, aided and abetted by a compliant Scottish media, who along with time-serving Westminster politicians, found that it was (is) in their interest to support the Union.
The likes of Eric Joyce (who claimed £187,334 in allowances over and above his salary, in 2008), is unlikely to jump off the gravy train just yet, but that day may come sooner than you might think, as things are starting to unravel.
The excellent BBC Alba documentary “Diomhair” (Secret),
produced by respected journalist George Rosie and directed by Les Wilson, of Caledonia TV, deals only in facts from Government files. It is a brilliant and forensic examination of what the British state gets up to behind our backs.
In it, they reveal how official documents proving the viability of independence were kept hidden and how politicians and civil servants tried to obstruct independence and keep Britain united.
The programme reveals how, in the past, civil servants, MI5 and Special Branch were used by Westminster to obstruct and even sabotage the Scottish Nationalist movement and how successive governments used and abused their power to keep Scotland in the union and sabotage the causes of devolution and independence.
‘Dionhair’ also unearthed government files that showed how the police were diverted from catching criminals to spy on legal and peaceful demonstrations; how the will of two million Scots was defied by simply ignoring their demand for devolution; how Edinburgh Police encouraged young Nationalists to commit bomb outrages and supplied them with dummy explosives, and how evidence that an independent Scotland could be among the richest countries in Europe was stamped "Secret" and buried in the archives.
No conspiracy there then.
Such revelations, you would think, would have been the subject of huge interest to our Scottish media, especially at a time in our history when the British Government are pushing through proposals for a surveillance society that Stalin would have been proud of?
Yet, not a cheep from the Fourth Estate in Scotland.
The recent brouhaha about a perceived rise in anti Englishness, prompted an investigation by Newsnight Scotland, so why not a similar investigative programme to ask present day British ministers to explain why a legitimate political party, who now form the Scottish Government, was subjected to this kind of treatment?
No doubt everyone’s friend, Jim Murphy would jump at the chance for another outing to the studios to say absolutely nothing again, but to do it more eloquently than Iain Gray!
Well done, BBC Alba for having the guts to commission a programme that the English speaking BBC still won't touch with a barge pole. And well done to Caledonia TV for producing one of the most interesting documentaries shown in Scotland for years.
But shame on the rest of the Scottish media who are either too complacent or just too gutless to root out the rest of the story.
To Terry Murden and the rest of the Scottish media, I say ‘get up to speed’ with the conspiracy FACTS. They are there in the archives for you to dig out. It really did happen.
But firstly, you must view this documentary. It really is an eye opener. You have nothing to lose but your prejudices!
Note: Diomhair has been uploaded to Youtube, and can be viewed by clicking the links at our Links and Resources section. It’s at the top of the page ”Scotland’s Oil”
Comments
James Wilkie 07/04/09 |
None of what was revealed on Diomhair surprised me, because we in the Scotland-UN group experienced the same and even worse - including the murder of our member Willie MacRae and the attempted murder of our General Secretary John McGill. To say nothing of character assassination, interference with employment, and the usual phone-tapping, letter-opening, etc. We succeeded in the end because we kept our mouths shut about the Council of Europe project in Strasbourg until we had pulled it off, otherwise it could also have been sabotaged. You can read all about it at www.realmofscotland.com/paper |
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Dot Jessiman 09/04/09 |
Apart from the impossibly naive, no-one should dismiss out of hand claims that the British Government - run by Scots, Mr Murden, who stand to lose their seats come Independence - would never undermine Scots institutions in an attempt to ward off Scottish independence.
I can still recall the horror and disbelief I felt in finding during my history studies the facts surrounding the acquisition of Hong Kong and South Africa - understandable in an l8 year old English schoolgirl but naivety is not acceptable in a mature journalist assessing Government actions. The decisions taken at cabinet level to target rural creameries during the fight for Irish independence also come to mind. I do not know whether Dunfermline was a dastardly attack on another Scottish Institution or not - but the possibility certainly cannot be dismissed out of hand.
The lesson taught by Diomhair however should surely be to focus, not on what the British Government did to keep the oil, but the imprudent, short-termism with which both unionist parties wasted this priceless asset and opportunity. Invested in the eighties in a Futures Trust it would be doing much to shield us from the present cold economic winds.
So, be indignant, but remember it every time anyone anywhere suggests that Scotland needs Britain to mismanage its assets. |
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Jim McLeod 13/04/09 |
Well written David. Good blog.
For too long lies and deceit have been the order of the day from successive British governments when it comes to Scotland and our continuing fight to be treated like any other normal country which rightly takes their seats at the United Nations.
For 10 years we were told that Chancellor Brown was the best thing since sliced bread.....he was our economic helmsman, our saviour. The economic plight, particularly the part that UK government played, or should we say did not play re the likes of regulation or lack of it within the financial sector, over those 10 years and more, must continue to be questioned. And over the next year in the run up to the Westminster elections we should continue to remind Gordon Brown of the part he and his cohorts played in our economic decline.
Tony Blair saw the writing on the wall and got out before the cards collapsed completely. Off instead to play peacekeeper in a part of the world that along with George Bush he helped to set alight.
We must continue to wonder what the UK has done and delivered for Scotland. But much more we must wonder what some of our Scottish UK parliamentarians, unionists members, have ever done and delivered for Scotland. Of course they may insist that they delivered a devolved parliament in 1999 (a parliament that we should have had in 1979) but they did so in an attempt to try and dilute our argument for independence. And like other matters....they have failed in that as Scotland's people are being further drawn towards our just and sensible arguments for independence.
As I have always thought, we should be grown up enough to be able to take our own decisions and at times make our own mistakes. I would rather we did those for ourselves than continue to allow "others" to make bad decisions and mistakes on our behalf, and God only knows that over the last 300 years there have been plenty made in London! |
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Martin 15/04/09 |
They should repeat Diomhair on BBC1 or 2 in Scotland, with English subtitles for the masses of course!
Ideally I'd suggest having it shown on the UK-wide BBC 1 or 2. But they would never expose such things to England, which wouldn't be able to cope in knowing the truth about their Beloved United Britain.
I'd smash it even if it was truly United. |
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