Are You Listening Now?

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By Jason Michael

Back in January when, in clear violation of the Good Friday Agreement, British military personnel were being deployed to search suspected Republican safe-houses in the north of Ireland I commented on social media that, according to the Provisional IRA’s own manual of operations, “British soldiers are now legitimate targets.” This was not mere opinion. This, considering the nature of the armistice, is a simple matter of fact. Brexit threatens to undermine the terms of the Anglo-Irish peace treaty and the Irish peace process. The closure of the British imposed border between the Republic and the occupied counties – as promised by a hard, no-deal Brexit – would constitute Britain breaking the treaty, resulting in a resumption of the war.

Rather than taking these valid observations seriously, the unionist press in Scotland and the SNP’s Maree Todd decided to twist what had been said – and not only by me, but by a number of commentators in Ireland (north and south of the border) – so as to present the inevitable return to violence and the targeting of British police and soldiers as my personal opinion. British opinion on Brexit and its consequences (which includes Maree Todd and other British sympathisers in the Scottish National Party) has consistently and wilfully ignored and downplayed the dangers of a no-deal British departure from the European Union to the point of posing a serious threat to the wellbeing, peace, and security of all the people of these islands.

Not that I was ever in any doubt, but as it turns out my analysis of the situation in the six counties was spot on. Saoradh – the de facto political voice of the New IRA – has been recruiting in every part of Ireland since late 2016. The New IRA has surpassed the capabilities and activities of its dissident cousins in the Continuity IRA, and is now – according to independent monitors, the PSNI, and the Gardaí – at full combat strength. The morning after I returned to Dublin from a visit to the border counties of Donegal, Tyrone, Fermanagh, and Monaghan they detonated a bomb targeting police officers in the north. Their intention was clear and unambiguous – to kill. Already the organisation has murdered a young Belfast journalist in Derry and exploded a car-bomb in the same city. Regardless of how we choose to see them – as criminals, idiots, romantics, or adventurers, they are serious about themselves and are right now following a tradition of armed, physical force Republicanism that does not take unnecessary risks in its asymmetric struggle against the British occupation. That they are now active is all the proof we need to know they the New IRA is on a war footing and waiting for Boris Johnson’s Brexit to light the fuse.

Thanks to Britain’s selfishness Ireland is now on the threshold of yet another outbreak of the Troubles. This was precisely what I had predicted in January. Even then it was as clear as the nose on our faces. What happens next is still up to the British government, but it is showing little sign of caring what happens in Ireland. It has never cared what its policies cause in Ireland.

At the same time, I was predicting what a hard, no-deal Brexit would cause in Scotland and in the rest of the United Kingdom; food and medicines shortages, the deployment of troops to enforce public order, and civil disorder to the point of state collapse. It seems I was right about this as well. By the beginning of 2019 operation ‘Yellowhammer’ was on the drawing board and the then British Prime Minister, Theresa May, had consulted with the British Army with a view to pursuing military options to deal with “Brexit contingencies;” contingencies Britain’s senior most (non-royal) officer, General Sir Nicholas Carter, made clear would not be concerned with the distribution of food and medical rations. Even then Yellowhammer was about a military crackdown on the civilian population – a skill the British Army has perfected in the north of Ireland, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
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Britain is making these preparations because Britain’s domestic political and military leaderships understand what will happen – not what might happen – when food and medicines are cut off from the continent and when the stockpiles are exhausted (which will succumb to corruption). Brexit, the Brexit we now face, presents the United Kingdom with certain unavoidable realities; war in Ireland and a renewed and intensified IRA bombing campaign in England, food and medicine shortages, civil disorder, and widespread rioting over England, Wales, and Scotland. What the Daily Mail and the entire British media apparatus and establishment-friendly people like Maree Todd (people who are worse than useless to the cause of Scottish independence) are not telling us is that Brexit will be catastrophic, that it will cost lives, and that it will result in serious civil disturbance.

These were the views Todd described as “abhorrent.” So, on her own head be it (or as my aul’ faither says: Let them hang as they grow). Ordinary Scots must be prepared for what is coming. We cannot afford to keep our heads buried in the sand – this is too serious! Yes, we must stockpile food and what essential medicines we can. There will be severe shortages. Rioting will begin before the Brexit deadline – not in the days and weeks after it! The moment it dawns on enough people what is happening, there will be a rush on the supermarkets and pharmacies. The shelves will be emptied – we’ll even be forced to buy bread and milk emblazoned with the butcher’s apron. Prices will rise and black markets will be formed. Illegal raids will happen and angry, frightened people will take to the streets. At this point, there is no avoiding it; Brexit will be chaos, the likes of which we have never seen before, and we have to be ready for it.

My suggestion is that the independence movement in Scotland makes the very most of this time. We have to forget the idea of helping our English neighbours. Sure, it will be awful. But we cannot save England from itself. It will be suicide to waste our efforts trying to rescue England from its own suicide mission. When this begins, my suggestion is that we work like we have never worked before to maintain order and discipline in our own ranks, that we use the chaos on the streets of our cities to hit the British political and state infrastructure in Scotland hard; that we shut down the BBC and occupy the headquarters of the British administration in Edinburgh. In a non-violent and bloodless coup, but with force and determination, we must take back our country from the monsters and the army of idiots who have done this to us. You can take my advice or leave it. But it is what it is.

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‘Operation Yellowhammer’: Leaked UK document warns of no-deal Brexit chaos

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