Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 1:52pm

Another Vote For Scottish Independence

“The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees, is the high road that leads him to England!”

Dr. Samuel Johnson

As faithful readers of this blog know, I am in favor of Scotland voting to break away from the UK.  Go here to read my reasons why.  I welcome Groundskeeper Willie to the cause, particularly because of his keen insight into the Scottish national character, as he demonstrates below in mentioning some of the mortal enemies of the Scots:

Update:  Ah, PJ O’Rourke has joined the chorus calling for Scottish Independence:

 

This coming Thursday the Scots will vote on whether to make Scotland an independent nation. And I hope they do because it will be a disaster.

I don’t say this as a prejudiced Irishman. Even though the thistle-arse sheep-shagger Scots swiped Ulster and sent a herd of Presbyterian proddy dogs and porridge wogs to squat on our land and won the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 by using unfair—indeed, unheard of —- organization, discipline, and tactics on an Irish battlefield. We Micks only hold a grudge about such things for 300 years or so.

Nor is Scottish independence a misery-loves-company moment for us Irish. True, Irish independence has been no bed of shamrocks, what with the Easter Rebellion, the black-and-tans, the civil war, the IRA, and the Celtic Tiger turning out to be a mangy barn cat drowned in the well.

We Irish don’t hate the Scots per se. They’re too much like us Irish, who all hate each other. So we’re just looking for a fine entertainment from across the Irish Sea as Highland Scots have a donnybrook with Lowland Scots, Glaswegians dust up with Edinburghians, and Clan Dewers unsheathes its claymores for battle with Clan Johnny Walker.

Go here to read the rest.

 

 

 

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Michael Paterson-Seymour
Michael Paterson-Seymour
Wednesday, September 17, AD 2014 6:16am

καὶ ἐχθροὶ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου οἱ οἰκιακοὶ αὐτοῦ [Matt 10:36].

TomD
TomD
Wednesday, September 17, AD 2014 6:39am
TomD
TomD
Wednesday, September 17, AD 2014 6:41am
TomD
TomD
Wednesday, September 17, AD 2014 6:53am

Here is an idea that has raised it’s ugly head: “The [UK] flag at the moment is based on three Christian crosses, is that really appropriate for the demographic of the United Kingdom now? I am not absolutely sure that it is.” says Charles Ashburner CEO of the Flag Institute.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scottish-independence/11091805/Scottish-Independence-New-flag-for-UK.html

TomD
TomD
Wednesday, September 17, AD 2014 6:55am

Congratulations! McClarey & McClarey!

Pat
Pat
Wednesday, September 17, AD 2014 9:08am

National character trumps any so called United country which has lost (legislated away) most sense of the integrity of character, along with that of the nation.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Wednesday, September 17, AD 2014 9:15am

It does not need to be a disaster, but Salmond and the Scottish National Party will do their bloody best to make it one in their drive to create employment opportunities for the second tier professional-managerial types and ruin Scottish labor markets and housing markets more than they have been to date. One trouble with it is that it’s much more driven by petty and unjustified resentments and vain poses than by an interest in local self-government. The latter could be advanced by general devolution within the UK and withdrawal from carbuncles like the EU and the Council of Europe (which is precisely what they wish not to do in Scotland). See also the hostility of the SNP to UKIP, which shows their true colors.

The irony is that the UK is about the least problematic multinational state there’s ever been. The obvious candidates for a velvet divorce in the occidental world are the two halves of Belgium and the two halves of Canada (who are not facing vigorous secessionist movements as we speak).

Jay Anderson
Wednesday, September 17, AD 2014 10:01am

My head says “NO!” But my heart says “YES!”
*
And, like any self-respecting Gael when it comes to such matters, the heart rules.
*
*
*
A! Fredome is a noble thing!
Fredome mays man to haiff liking.
Fredome all solace to man giffis,
He levys at es that frely levys!
*
Freedom is a noble thing!
Great happiness does freedom bring.
All solace to a man it gives;
He lives at ease that freely lives.
*
~ John Barbour, The Brus

Michael Paterson-Seymour
Michael Paterson-Seymour
Wednesday, September 17, AD 2014 10:23am

Art Deco wrote, “One trouble with it is that it’s much more driven by petty and unjustified resentments and vain poses than by an interest in local self-government. The latter could be advanced by general devolution within the UK”

This would need some solution of the “West Lothian Question,” posed by Tam Dalyell, MP for West Lothian. At present, Scottish MPs can vote on English laws affecting, say, health or education, even though health and education are devolved to the Scottish Parliament, so those laws would apply in England, but not in Scotland. One solution would be the creation of an English assembly/parliament, or even assemblies for the English regions with devolved powers, although no one at Westminster seems particularly keen on that idea.

More fundamentally, the whole question of the constitution of the UK would need to be addressed. At the moment the Uk has an unwritten constitution, not that it would be difficult to write it down. Here it is – “(1) Parliament can make and unmake any law whatsoever, including the laws governing its own composition and duration and (2) No person or body of persons can make any law, unless authorised by Parliament to do so.” That is the sum total of our constitutional law.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Wednesday, September 17, AD 2014 10:46am

although no one at Westminster seems particularly keen on that idea.

Well, maybe they ought to get busy and write the enabling legislation: one for the North, one for the Midlands, one for the West Country, one for East Anglia &c., one for London and the densely settled Home Counties, one for the rest of the Home Counties and stray southern counties. While you’re at it, get out of the EU, the United Nations, and the Council of Europe. I cannot see that it’s necessary to muck about with the British constitution in general, bar kicking Tony’s cronies out of the House of Bourgeois Lords and annulling all Euro-legislation.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Wednesday, September 17, AD 2014 10:49am

like any self-respecting Gael

Who got stuck with one of those blah Scandinavian patronymics. My sympathies.

Jay Anderson
Wednesday, September 17, AD 2014 12:04pm

Actually, Anderson is one of the most common surnames in Scotland, unconnected to any Scandinavian derivation. It’s derived from Mac Ghille Andrais (Mhic Giolla Andrais), also MacAndrew, which is Gaelic for son (or follower) of Andrew (the patron saint of Scotland).

Jay Anderson
Wednesday, September 17, AD 2014 12:07pm

But its definitely an Anglicization of Gaelic patronymics. So, yeah, it’s a rather “blah” surname by comparison to many of the others.

Jay Anderson
Wednesday, September 17, AD 2014 12:22pm

Never mind, Art. I misunderstood what you were saying.
*
Yes, certainly, the Scandinavian influence on the development of English led to my unfortunately non-Gaelic surname.
*
Oh well. Still one of the most common names in Scotland.

😉

Micha Elyi
Micha Elyi
Wednesday, September 17, AD 2014 5:28pm

Britain can give the Scots something better than independence–quarantine!

Penguins Fan
Penguins Fan
Wednesday, September 17, AD 2014 6:03pm

Ah, Scotland…..homeland to some of Mr. McClarey’s ancestors…and some of mine.

There is an online Catholic magazine, Regina. It is an excellent publication. The latest issue is about Scotland and its Catholics, incluidng its Catholic and anti-Catholic history. There is an article about clan Lamont – a clan loyal to the Catholic faith who often paid for it with their property and their lives. All of their ancestral homelands have been taken or sold off. What I found interesting is that one of the sept families – a family that belongs to the clan – is the McLuckie family – my mother’s family. So, I’m a member of clan Lamont! Interestingly enough, the chief of clan Lamont today is Father Peter Noel Lamont, a Catholic priest of Rydalmere, Australia.

Soooooooo…I have another great grandparent who fled his/her homeland to escape repression/persecution (Warsaw was under the Czar’s thumb, the Kulturkampf treated Catholics like garbage, and the Scots were, well, they were Scots).

http://www.clsna.us/chief.html
http://reginamag.com

Today, September 17th, is the 75th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Poland.

Mary De Voe
Wednesday, September 17, AD 2014 9:31pm

Micha Elyi : “Britain can give the Scots something better than independence–quarantine!”
I do not comprehend you comment.
.
“Britain can give the Scots something better than independence–friendship”

Michael Paterson-Seymour
Michael Paterson-Seymour
Thursday, September 18, AD 2014 4:57am

Penguins Fan

The British government treated the Highland clergy with great savagery after the failure of the ’45. Of the priests who had accompanied the Prince, Rev Mr Colin Campbell of Morar was killed at Culloden, shot down by Hessian mercenaries, whilst trying to rally the fugitives. Rev Mr Allan MacDonald, rector of the illegal, but tolerated seminary at Scalan, near Glenlivet was imprisoned for a year in a military garrison and then ordered to leave the country. Scalan itself was burned on the orders of the Duke of Cumberland, as a “nest of traitors.” Rev Mr Aeneas McGillis of Glengarry was put to the horn (outlawed) and fled the country. Of those who had stayed at home, but had “prayed for the Pretender,” Rev Mr Neil McFie of the Rough Bounds, Rev Mr Alexander Forrester of Uist and Rev Mr James Grant of Barra were bundled on board ship and deported to France, without the formality of a trial. Rev Mr William Harrison of the Rough Bounds was later captured carrying dispatches and similarly deported.

Bishop Hugh MacDonald, who had made himself odious to government by blessing the Jacobite standard at Glenfinnan was prosecuted on the charge of being a Jesuit, priest, or trafficking papist in 1756, the first such prosecution in a century and banished, a sentence he ignored.

Bishop Hugh Macdonald had to rebuild the Church more or less from scratch. Himself the son of Alexander MacDonald of Morar and of Mary, daughter of Ranald MacDonald of Kinlochmoidart, he recruited mostly among the Highland gentry; ordained ad titulum patrimonii sui [to the title of their patrimony] and unpaid, they stayed with relatives, or with influential friends, and served their native place. Thus we have Alexander MacDonald of the Scotus family living in Knoydart; Austen MacDonald of Glenaladale in Moidart; Allan MacDonald of Morar’s family living in the Morar area; James MacDonald, son of John MacDonald of Guidall in the Rough Bounds, and so on. Bishop Hugh was succeeded by his nephew, John MacDonald of Morar.

Jay Anderson
Thursday, September 18, AD 2014 9:10am

Now’s the day
And now’s the hour

Penguins Fan
Penguins Fan
Thursday, September 18, AD 2014 5:19pm

Mr. Paterson-Seymour,

Clan Lamont members were killed by clan Campbell members – 136 at Dunoon in 1646 – not the English. This comes right from the clan Lamont website.

It’s a shame clan Lamont did not have the Polish Hussars to defend them. The Husaria would have smashed the Campbells, Cromwell and his army, the rest of the anti-Catholic Scots and English and anyone else in their way. Don’t believe me?
http://www.badassoftheweek.com/hussars.html

Pray tell, just out of curiosity, to which clan do you belong, Mr. Paterson-Seymour?

Pat
Pat
Thursday, September 18, AD 2014 5:43pm

According to the time zones, there are five hours after the 8:00 AM announcement for the eastern US to hear results from the electronic voting machines.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/scotland-vote-on-independence-starts-1411018406?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories

Michael Paterson-Seymour
Michael Paterson-Seymour
Friday, September 19, AD 2014 8:12am

Penguins Fan

The Seymour family is not Scottish, but French, originally from Sint-Maur-des-Fossés in the Île-de-France. I have seen old records where the name is variously spelled Saint-Maur and St Maur.

The numerous versions of the Seymour arms contain blue (azure) fleur-de-lis (“clove gillyflower” in Scottish heraldry) on a gold (or) field.
http://tinyurl.com/p458pe9

Originally vassals of the abbey of St Maur, they borrowed them from the arms of the abbey, but reversed the tints. In the abbery arms, they were gold on blue. It was very common for vassals to include a reference to their superior’s arms in this way.

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