{"id":25294,"date":"2023-07-04T08:34:20","date_gmt":"2023-07-04T08:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/?p=25294"},"modified":"2023-07-04T08:44:26","modified_gmt":"2023-07-04T08:44:26","slug":"the-real-honours-of-scotland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2023\/07\/04\/the-real-honours-of-scotland\/","title":{"rendered":"The real honours of Scotland"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following article by George Gunn from the Province of the Cat was first posted by bella caledonia<\/a>. It links King Charles receiving the ‘Honours Scotland’ with the seizure of the land under feudalism. This continues \u00a0to this day, albeit it as aggressive capitalist expropriation. However \u00a0it \u00a0acknowledges its feudal forebears in the pomp and ceremony of the ceremony at St. Giles on July 5th.<\/strong><\/p>\n

THE REAL HOUNOURS OF SCOTLAND<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Dunbeath Castle- Flickr<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dunbeath Estate in Caithness, some 28,500 acres, is currently on the market for offers over \u00a325 million. The Dunbeath nursery school, within Dunbeath primary school, is being threatened with closure as Highland Council seek to save money. Between these two events falls the reality of the modern Highlands and the frustration of modern Scotland.<\/p>\n

The movement from suggestion to presence is the story of the contemporary Scottish reality, or identity, or nation, on its way to completion. There are many obstacles in the way to this completion, this presence in the world. For example, to be forced into a political Union and held there against the wishes of the people is not freedom it is slavery. In the 18th century, the Speaker of the House of Commons stated that England has \u201ccatch\u2019d Scotland and we will bind her fast\u201d. We are catch\u2019d and it will take a wheen of resolve and action for us to be uncatch\u2019d.<\/p>\n

In the 20th century, on page 993 of the Daily Record\u2019s Modern English Illustrated Dictionary (that same Daily Record which describes itself as Scotland\u2019s national daily). Under a list of countries \u201cHow acquired by England\u201d, you will find: Wales by conquest \u2013 1282, Ireland by conquest \u2013 1173, Scotland by union \u2013 1603.<\/p>\n

The English aristocrats, and their Scottish vassal lords, stole our freedom from us by using swords, spears, arrows, muskets and cannons, and when that failed they used blackmail and dishonesty.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Reaction mobilised \u2013 The Royal Company of Archers, the Assembly of the Feudal Baronage and the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On this Wednesday (5th of July) King Charles the Third will receive the \u201cHonours of Scotland\u201d in St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh and parade down the \u201cRoyal Mile\u201d which is the High Street and the people of Scotland are invited to issue up cries of joy and weep tears of gratitude; what BBC Radio 3, who will be broadcasting the music, calls a \u201cfestival of celebration and thanksgiving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allan Armstrong of \u00a0the Radical Independence Campaign, who are backing Our Republic. in their organising a demonstration against this pantomime, takes a different view,<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to pay for all this pomp and ceremony and have our streets and lives disrupted yet again. We are still not citizens but live under a constitutional monarchy where sovereignty lies with the Crown-in-Westminster\u2026 The ceremony at St. Giles reinforces state-backed sectarianism, with its recognition of the privileged position of the Church of Scotland. And we have seen another deeply anti-democratic Crown institution, the Supreme Court deny our right to have IndyRef2, voted for by the Scottish people in the 2021 Holyrood election.\u00a0 But the (UK) government has gone further and is now rolling back the powers of Scottish parliament voted for by 74% in 1998.\u201d<\/p>\n

The painter, poet, and writer John Berger (1926 \u2013 2017) once wrote that \u201cMuch of what happens to us in life is nameless because our vocabulary is too poor.\u201d Events such as an unpopular king receiving \u201chonours\u201d from a politically thwarted nation, denied a meaningful democracy, requires us to enrich our vocabulary and to make what happens to us not nameless, but named. The Edinburgh event is a sham, a manifestation of ceremony over substance to disguise a dysfunctional state and a crumbling economy and an ever widening gap between the rich and the poor. The real \u201cHonours of Scotland\u201d , our real jewels, are our children, our culture, our society and our economic potential, so far unrealised.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite the anachronistic attempt through the royal circus to convince us we have an unchanging tradition the reality is that the world is changing politically and in Europe we see it close at hand with the rise of the right, as George Kerevan has pointed out (The National, July 3rd). Scotland simply cannot afford to be shackled to the isolationist and increasingly reactionary UK any longer. Our children will not forgive us if we continue in this vein. Kerevan writes,<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately for the intense navel contemplating that constitutes British liberal political dialogue, Europe has moved on. Everywhere the political right is on the rise \u2013 a nasty, illiberal, bellicose, economically autarkic, racist, anti-immigrant, xenophobic, antisemitic, protectionist right. And there are no US liberals \u2013 no Franklin Roosevelt or John F. Kennedy \u2013 riding to the rescue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scotland does not need \u201crescuing\u201d. What she needs is a working democracy and that is something we do not have. What we do have is a Scotland rich in natural resources. In Caithness we produce far more renewable energy than we ever could possible use, so it is sold off to the south of Scotland and to England and we have to buy it back at ridiculous prices. In the Pentland Firth alone we have the potential to harness the tidal stream energy, which you can set your clock by, and which many other countries would give their eye-teeth for. But as energy is a reserved matter the UK government continually under invest in MayGen, the company who have installed the turbines south of Stroma. Of the massive wind farm of our east coast \u2013 and others elsewhere in Scotland \u2013 we easily produce the\u00a06 gigawatts Scotland requires. We currently produce 35 terawatts \u2013 one terawatt is 1,000 gigawatts or 1 billion kilowatts. You can do the arithmetic yourself but the financial result for Scotland is next to nothing. The wind turbines off shore are not owned by Scots but by French, Danish, German and Irish companies.\u00a0These resources are being stolen from us.<\/p>\n

As the sale of Dunbeath estate with its castle and other assets illuminates, our land will go to the highest bidder, starting at \u00a325 million. Any bids? If so Savills, the selling agent, would be glad to hear from you. On their glossy website they highlight some of the \u201cassets\u201d on offer: Walked-up grouse moor and deer forest; driven pheasant shoot; 12.5 miles of double bank fishing. They go on to say, \u201cIn all weathers Dunbeath is a paradise of moorland, riverside and coastline; a place to relish the absolute personal remoteness\u2026\u201d The only reference to the invisible local population is as \u201cemployees\u201d.<\/p>\n

What all this highlights is that there is no such thing as land reform in Scotland, there is only a cosmetic exercise designed to appear to implement \u201creform\u201d, but in reality all it does is stabilise the status quo. Things appear to be reformed but nothing changes. Landownership is poverty for the many and riches for the few. At the weekend of the very same week as the Dunbeath estate went on the market Scotland\u2019s largest private landowner and wealthiest man Anders Holch Povlsen (worth \u00a38.5 billion) threw a multi-million pound birthday bash at his Highland castle. This even included flying in superstar Lionel Richie via Inverness Airport, to perform. The ASOS boss put on the glitzy party at his \u00a315 million Aldourie Castle on the banks of Loch Ness. The 300 guests who attended were also treated to a fly past by a Spitfire. Povlsen owns 221,000 acres of our country. Royalty makes this theft respectable. What Scotland needs is not land reform but a land revolution.<\/p>\n

As the Scottish philosopher John Macmurray wrote in \u201cReason & Emotion\u201d (1935), \u201cWe ourselves are events in history. Things do not merely happen to us, they happen through us.\u201d In other words we must stop being passive receivers and become historic activators.<\/p>\n

The media constantly refers to the King\u2019s visit to Edinburgh as his Scottish \u201ccoronation\u201d. It is not. To be a coronation Charles the Third would have to take the Oath of the Monarchs of Scotland in order to become King of Scots, not of Scotland. There is also the small business of the Claim of Right which states that sovereignty rests with the people, not the monarch. Unlike in Westminster where sovereignty is the Crown-in-Parliament. A completely different thing. One is power from the bottom up the other is power from the top down. Charles Saxe Coburg Gotha is so vain he would never accept the Claim of Right.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Neil Gunn memorial, Dunbeath<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the Savills ad for the sale of the Dunbeath estate they have the effrontery to quote from Dunbeath\u2019s most famous literary figure, the novelist Neil Gunn. It is a passage from his 1941 essay \u2018My Bit of Britain\u2019. It would have been more informative if they used this quote from his essay \u201cScotland a Nation\u201d, which appeared in Left Review in 1936. Gunn writes,<\/p>\n

\u201c\u201dScotland (was) not a primitive society as that phrase is usually understood. It had, for example a highly developed literature \u2013 an art-poetry as well as a folk-poetry. It had different orders of poets. When this Gaelic polity was converted to Christianity, it sent its scholars over Europe\u2026 Out of it came a social consciousness that can be traced in all distinctly Scottish institutions to this day. For instance, in this Gaelic commonwealth the land was communally held and the responsibility of rulers and officials was downwards to the people: in direct contrast to the feudal system where the responsibility of the rulers was upwards to the king. The feudal system came in with English influence an vitiated the native system; yet the native system was so inbred that as late a late as 1886 the crofters, fighting on the old idea that the land belonged to the people of the clan, by a remarkable agitation forced the Westminster government to pass the Act conceding security of tenure and the fixing of an economic rent by an imperial tribunal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Our historical surrender of this \u201csocial consciousness\u201d and \u201cGaelic commonwealth\u201d can be seen most vividly in the mess that is Scottish local government and most especially in the Highland Council which is possibly one of the worst local authorities in the country. Its sheer size renders it impossible to manage just as the devolution settlement renders real Scottish development impossible. All that happens is a continual holding operation and short term fixes. Money is cut from Inverness by Edinburgh and from Edinburgh by London. At the bottom of this pyramid of unnecessary scarcity is the threatened closure of the Dunbeath nursery. The Highland Council think by closing this nursery they will save money. They will not. It will cost them money as even more young people leave the far north and we face increased depopulation. It is so short sighted it is cruel.<\/p>\n

When King Charles comes to Caithness he is forever both a tourist and a relic from a by-gone and alien age. If you want to protest about this madness then come to Edinburgh on Wednesday and join Our Republic (Scotland) in expressing our right to be citizens not subjects and that we demand democracy not monarchy.<\/p>\n

Details can be obtained here\u00a0https:\/\/edinburghric.org\/events\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Let us show the King and the world that it is in her people where the real honours of Scotland reside.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

_____________<\/p>\n

also see:<\/p>\n

Your Country<\/a><\/p>\n

Ode to the Scottish Republic<\/a><\/p>\n

What happen when it stops raining?<\/a><\/p>\n

The Winds of change at Gartymore<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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The following article by George Gunn from the Province of the Cat was first posted by bella caledonia. It links King Charles receiving the ‘Honours Scotland’ with the seizure of the land under feudalism. This continues \u00a0to this day, albeit it as aggressive capitalist expropriation. However \u00a0it \u00a0acknowledges its feudal forebears in the pomp and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1855,1858,1861,1867,1873,1857,1874,1864,1875],"tags":[9101],"class_list":["post-25294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exploitation-and-emancipation","category-oppression-liberation","category-alienation-self-determination","category-emancipation-liberation-and-self-determination","category-against-unionism","category-environmental-degradation","category-republicanism","category-our-history","category-scotland-against-unionism","tag-author-george-gunn"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/mastodon.scot\/@rcfscotland\/110654892590801325","error":""},"views":1212,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25294"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25303,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25294\/revisions\/25303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}