TODAY is the climax of the 12-day-long compulsory commournathon. You know it's serious when even the re-runs of Judge Judy have been cancelled.
Overlooked in the royalist overload yesterday was the eighth anniversary of the independence referendum. Look at what we have got and contrast it with the promises and commitments of the Better Together parties. They still bang on about how the SNP need to respect the result of that vote but they themselves have no intention of respecting the promises they made in order to win it.
We were told we would get stronger devolution, a partnership of equal nations, EU membership and respect. We got Brexit, Conservative contempt and a devolution settlement that's under threat. But never mind, we've got Nicholas Witchell, mandatory mourning and a British government that is well along the road to anti-democratic authoritarianism.
According to Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker of the House of Commons, speaking on the BBC yesterday: "We should not let anything overshadow the most important event the world will ever see and that is the funeral of her majesty."
The British establishment and its media have lost their minds along with all sense of proportion. These are, let us not forget, the same royalist sycophants who were forever telling us that the late Queen never wanted any fuss, so they are respecting her by forcing an almighty fuss upon all of us whether we want it or not and giving us blanket coverage of "the most important event the world will ever see”.
Like many people, I managed to avoid today's proceedings by turning off the telly and finding something better to do.
Is Hoyle patrolling the rest of the world to make sure that they too are prioritising the funeral of a 96-year-old lady? Even in the lifetime of the recently deceased monarch we have had a world war, the Holocaust, the moon landings, 9/11, the Covid pandemic, the rise of civil liberties movements, de-colonialisation, the development of nuclear weaponry, mass communications and the Internet and the fall of the Soviet Union and Berlin Wall, all of which have greater historical significance than the death of a British queen and her immediate replacement by her son. Even the current cost of living crisis is going to have a greater effect on people's lives than the passing of the queen.
Hoyle was first elected as a Labour MP, remember. If you really thought that the Labour Party was going to save us from the worst excesses of British establishment privilege and entitlement, now you have your answer.
The most important event the world will ever see. Aye right. Still, it's a comfort to know that when civilisation finally collapses due to man-made climate change, and we are left struggling for survival in a post-apocalyptic landscape of destroyed eco-systems and rising sea levels and large parts of the globe are rendered uninhabitable, we will be able to console ourselves with the knowledge that it's not as important as the funeral of a 96-year-old immensely wealthy and privileged woman. That was the real tragedy.
To be honest, I did respect the not one but two-minute silence for the Queen, but that was only because I stayed in bed very late and was still sleeping. I may have been snoring, but I swear to God I was snoring respectfully.
It would be nice to think that today is the end of it and that tomorrow we can all get back to what passes for normality in this crazed polity that still insists it is a United Kingdom. However, more plausibly, today's events are more akin to the final whistle of that 1966 World Cup final that we are never to be allowed to forget about. They think it's all over, but they'll be going on about it for years to come, and politicising it in the services of British nationalism and Westminster supremacy.
Just this weekend we saw the Sun publishing a seriously dodgy opinion poll in an effort to further the narrative that the death of the Queen had caused support for Scottish independence to plummet. That's about as plausible as today's funeral being the most important event in the history of the world. Even polling expert John Curtice dismissed it as valueless.
And then there will be the coronation next year of King Charles #NotMySpaniel when we will be in for another orgy of British nationalist royalist sycophancy and a media blackout on anything other than monarchical brown-nosing.
Meanwhile, the most right-wing government that Britain has ever had has been using the media distraction of the past week or two as cover to legalise fracking, remove the cap on bankers' bonuses, and issue a slew of new licences for oil and gas exploration in the North Sea so that the profiteering fossil-fuel giants can benefit from years more extraction of the oil and gas reserves that Scotland was told in 2014 were going to run out by 2019. Eight years on and the need for Scottish independence has never been more urgent.
This piece is an extract from today’s REAL Scottish Politics newsletter, which is emailed out at 7pm every weekday with a round-up of the day's top stories and exclusive analysis from the Wee Ginger Dug.
To receive our full newsletter including this analysis straight to your email inbox, click here and tick the box for the REAL Scottish Politics
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel