Tag: Pensioners for Independence

Pensioners on the March, End Pensioner Poverty,

Pensioners on the March!

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Pensioners on the March – Are your boots made for walkin’?

Cos it’s only three weeks till the Glasgow March & Rally on Saturday 20th April.

Scottish IndyPodcasters met up with Gordon McIntyre-Kemp of Believe in Scotland and Marlene Halliday, one of our members who will be speaking at the Rally. They told us all about their plans and in particular about the festive atmosphere they want to create for the whole event.

. Watch them here:

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PS If your boots, feet, knees, or hips are not for joining the March

…. then just come to George Square for the Rally. It’s easy to get there on public transport, the stalls will be there, there’s benches to sit on, and there’s lots of cafes nearby.

Sign up here to get updates on the event: March and Rally for an Independent Scotland And have a look at Believe in Scotland online shop.

Pensioners on the March… we’ll be back with news of the speakers and updates soon….

Grangemouth Petrochemical Plant. Closure of Grangemouth Refinery

Closure of Grangemouth Refinery

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Closure of Grangemouth Refinery

This week Ineos announced that they will stop refining oil at their Grangemouth facility. This will leave Scotland with no oil refining capacity. What will happen to the metro-chemical plant on the same site? Will Ineos go ahead with its plans to run Grangemouth on hydrogen? We don’t know.

Jim Stamper has written this article about the implications and possible responses to the refinery closure. It appeared in TalkingUp Scotland on 25 Nov. Jim is an active member of our Greater Glasgow Group.

Grangemouth Petrochemical Plant. Closure of Grangemouth Refinery

The Consequences of Private Ownership?

The real reason for the intended closure of Grangemouth refinery is the same as the reason for the huge increase in energy costs in the UK leading to very high inflation and the subsequent reduced value of wages and increased poverty.  That reason is the privatisation of our oil and gas resources and industries by UK Governments.  The private oil and gas companies have no obligation to provide oil and gas to the UK.  So even although we have these resources in our territorial waters we had to compete for oil and gas supplies on the world market and prices increased hugely due to the Ukraine Russia war.

Grangemouth is shutting down processing because the private company’s priority is maximising profit.  If processing can be carried out cheaper elsewhere the company will stop processing here.  Any damage to the workforce and the surrounding area or the effects on Scotland and its economy are not the company’s priority.

Public Ownership?

As the Grangemouth processing plant and the workforce are of no value to them then why not take it into public ownership.  Its existing function could continue with carbon capture in the Acorn project.  That part of the Grangemouth plant proposed to handle imports would no longer have value to the current owners.

The oil refining in public ownership could gradually be reduced until no longer required and replaced by green energy produced in Scotland.  Avoiding profiteering privatisation of that green energy and keeping it in public ownership should make the just transition easier. 

Our low cost, never ending green energy will reverse the price increases generally.  Industry wanting low cost energy and to meet customer demand for green energy produce will be attracted here, improving further Scotland’s economy.

Believe in Scotland Online Shop. Pensioners for Independence.

Believe in Scotland Online Shop

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Believe in Scotland have added an online shop to their website.

If you’re looking for their leaflets, badges, car stickers, t-shirts, booklet….. this is where to get them. They’ve got starter packs too, with a variety of campaign material. They’ve even got a Believe in Scotland umbrella!

And…. the greater quantities you order, the lower price you pay. Here’s the link to Believe in Scotland Shop. I fancy the umbrella.

Scottish Independence Podcasts. You’ll find us on our website or wherever you get your podcasts.

Scottish Independence Podcasts

GlasgowP4Indy

We have a good relationship with the Scottish Independence Podcasts team.

During the Covid lockdown when we moved to online meetings and talks, we asked them to take on producing podcasts from our events.

If you scroll down through our blog posts on this website you’ll find lots of really good talks and discussions from Glasgow and Edinburgh Groups. Those podcasts are also available on Google, Apple, Podbean and wherever else you get your podcasts. And if we recorded a video then the video is up on their YouTube channel. In all our talks and discussions have had over 5,000 downloads on these podcast channels.

All of that is down to the Scottish IndyPod team. So we thought we’d write this to say thank you and tell you a bit more about them. First thing to say is that they recently published their 800th podcast. And have just passed 250,000 downloads overall. Dedicated is the word that comes to mind!

This is a recent chat they had with Laura Pollock of The National

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You can sign up to their mail-list for advance notice of the podcasts. Click here.

Scottish Independence Podcast YouTube Channel

Although their main activity is creating audio podcasts, they have a YouTube channel called IndyPod Extra where they upload any video footage that they take. Recently they have been tackling the joys of outside recordings. If you go to the channel you’ll find footage from rallies in Skye (wet & windy), Ayr (windy & sunny) and most recently from Edinburgh (sunny and gorgeous). There is some great content and chats, eg two of their collaborators went to Loudoun in Ayrshire with the Saturday Saltire Group and our of that came a great chat about the Battle of Loudoun and Bruce’s victory of the Earl of Pembroke. Click on the image and you can tune into that one: 

Scottish Independence Podcasts

Scottish Independence Podcast Website

They publish a new podcast every Friday. It’s great being able to tune into their weekly podcasts. And as well as making sure those are available widely online, their website operates as a resource and archive. You can browse through the categories on the website. So say you’re interested in defence, you’ll find all the podcasts touching on that topic in one playlist. If you want to find out about ferries or freeports – cos let’s face it, Scottish ferries and freeports are touchy subjects in some quarters – then just click on their Infrastructure Category. Click on the image and have a look.

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Thanks again, IndyPodcasters!

What Is Salvo?

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In July, Sara Salyers of Salvo was the guest speaker at a meeting of our Edinburgh Group. What is Salvo? what are its aims? and how might those aims be achieved?

Historical Context

Sara spoke for about the historical context of the 1707 Treaty of Union in terms of related legislation in both the Scottish and English Parliaments. She also spoke about the role of the Monarch in England and Scotland. This is an important point to understand because the role and position of the monarch is very different in the two nations.

Salvo’s Aim

Salvo’s aim is to clarify Scotland’s constitutional situation.

  • Is Scotland a voluntary partner in a political union?
  • Did England annex Scotland? making us an annexed territory?
  • Or are we a colony?

Salvo’s position is that England annexed Scotland. And Sara went into some detail of how they have reached that conclusion.

The next step is to take their research and conclusions to an international body for clarification. Sara said that when and where that will happen will be announced nearer the time.

Questions from the audience

What gave the English Parliament the right to declare a Supreme Court above Scots Law?

What is Liberation.scot?

We’ve put up with this for a long time. How do we convince international authorities that this is a pressing matter?  Comparisions between what happened in British Colonies re how people were treated and what happened in Scotland.

Our language has certainly be annexed

Will England pay attention to your efforts? Or just treat what you say as some historical anachronism?

Had the Brexit vote gone differently with the EU would we be in a stronger position or a weaker position? 

Salvo and Liberation is about restoring to Scotland something that belongs to Scotland

Have you got any feelers out to other nations, Norway, Iceland maybe?

What are the actual next steps to move this forward?

Joanna Cherry has said that she thinks Salvo is not a viable option. What is your reply to that?

Can there be some debate / conference between Salvo and those who doubt your approach?