There is every reason to assume Russia ‘undertook influence campaigns in relation to the Scottish independence referendum (paragraph 41),’ but then, thanks to Joe Pike’s tell-all exposé of Project Fear, we know the British government was interfering in Scotland’s democracy. It may not always be comforting to think about it, but Scotland was a pawn in a bigger game in 2014 and the outcome of our referendum was going to have far-reaching consequences for the global balance of power.
This is not Russophobia
Putin’s Russia is by no means a righteous victim of US and British propaganda. Just as the European Union, the US, and the UK have their own geopolitical interests, so too does Russia. When it comes to the game of propaganda, counter-propaganda, fake news, and misinformation they are all as bad as one another. Yes, RT may have thrown the Scottish independence movement a few bones, and Russia’s meddling in the Brexit referendum may prove to be to our benefit, but we cannot afford to be uncritical the methods. The crippling of democracy in the UK...
Bleakest Forecast
Russia’s big bite has thus far been a dazzling success. In the Trump election we see that Putin has most likely purchased for himself the highest prize in international politics – the US president. US influence over the UK and the success of its cyber war in Britain and the effect of its dark money programme during the Brexit referendum has delivered for Russia a heavy blow to European unity, creating at least the possibility of an exploitable weakness. It is unimaginable Putin would not push the EU door if it failed to offer much resistance. Power – after all – abhors a vacuum.
Talking to the Russians: Scotland and the New Russophobia
Alex Salmond’s choice to broadcast his talk show on Russia Today, given that he would not be given such a luxury in the United Kingdom, has ruffled a few feathers. The British media and unionist voices in Scotland want to present this as Russian interference in our democracy, and in doing this they have deliberately re-ignited the fuse of the Russophobic prejudice they installed. This was easy for them to do because, as I have admitted, the fear of Russia is still very much part of our cultural psyché. All the old McCarthyist buttons are being pressed.
Absolved From all Allegiance to the British Crown
Pointless and meaningless rhetoric is something the United States does very well. On this side of the world, utterly culturally dominated by the US as we were, during the Cold War, we were brought up on the neoconservative lie – the American Dream and the bullshit of America as the home of the brave and land of the free.
Fidel Castro has Died: ¡Viva la Revolución!
Leftist revolutionaries of Latin America were well acquainted with the Monroe Doctrine of hemispheric domination by Uncle Sam. It meant terror campaigns by CIA funded paramilitary death squads.
So What Happens Now?
This titanomachic conflict in Syria already amounts to what is a world war in miniature, the product of which is the single largest displacement of refugees in human history.
What Renewing Trident Will Really Cost
On top of the repugnancy of spending so much on weapons of war, and the real and significant risk these weapons pose to Scotland, we can’t avoid the fact that they are weapons of a by-gone age.
Random Public Journal 