Hamish Paterson
A speech originally given at the Foil Vedanta & Centre for World Environmental History Activist Academia forum, September 13th 2014.
I would like to start by saying that since the two world wars the leading powers have learned nothing. Its the same old squabbles: religion and material wealth. Scottish independence could be the thin end of the wedge in clearing the way for nuclear reduction. As I understand it the rest of the UK has no appropriate facility that can accommodate Trident or its replacement. I hope you would agree that these weapons are a destructive nightmare which keep the economic justice of the common man’s welfare down, as the billions spent on a weapons of defence can only encourage others to equip themselves with the same, only a little more powerful. Why? in ‘defence’. As I hope you’ll agree there are so many avenues in which these beneficial funds could be distributed in the many places of the world we know of which are pillaged for the resources required to maintain the armaments industries where the economic bodies of the world are embroiled. The question is how do we fix it?
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Excuse my ignorance. Does this make sense? As a man who left school without even a leaving certificate and fell into the age old trap of manual labour and only recently got time to sit and actually listen to the Scottish independence debate – has Alistair Darling had electric shock treatment or does he need some? Would he not be better to agree with the First Minister and create an upset that could even cause warring factions to stop and go to work for world peace? Conclusions on a postcard please.
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There should be world wide condemnation of the governmental distribution of wealth through people’s conditions of investment in the banking system. People must be able to choose where the investments they make are directed by banks. At this moment millions have their monthly salaries paid straight into their account, but have no reasonable idea where their savings are destined or invested, and conglomerates and financial institutions give no account of the investment destination and this must be rectified.
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At a seminar where I was in the company of Samarendra Das, the co author of Out Of This Earth with Felix Padel, Samarendra displayed a graph which the layman’s thinking sometimes cannot grasp: a flotilla of ships dating back to the days of piracy and Sir Walter Raleigh (the gentleman who gave us tobacco, and the government the ability to tax us on our addiction) up until today’s trade. In this short time the growth rate of export/import has been astronomical…explaining to me the trillions constantly changing hands through world economics: how many super tankers sail the oceans, how many container ships distribute rubbish throughout the planet in the name of commercial trade – Waste for the riches.
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I constantly hear of billions and more often now trillions. There is no starvation in Switzerland. Is it the African money that feeds them? Is it the slave labour in the gold mines? Is it the bauxite from India? What comes out of Switzerland? Wrist watches and cheese.. but no economic austerity there. The banking industry must be held to account, but not to a governmental committee which has all the answers. And there we have it – independent, an independent Scotland – the opening required for the reduction of nuclear warheads in Scotland and the UK. An opportunity that can resound throughout the planet for the good of all man kind.
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As well you know, this world cannot sustain the unthoughtful level of consumption.
Change the thinking and change will come.
And an independent country like Scotland can influence all denominations because we already have.
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The Scottish received the wrath of English power like so many others in the name of God. I’m glad of that because what would purgatory have been like!? Once upon a time the sun did not set on the British Empire and the way that David Cameron is going there will be no Britain as we know it, upsetting the most economically endowed countries like Germany. Angela Merkel and the banking sector will delete us as an economic powerhouse. We won the two world wars but the few are still in command. And what did the working class end up with? Part time work and zero hour contracts, minimum wages that cover the expenses for gas and electric bills and council tax. So why work to support a government that leaves us with no gain for our labour, except to occasionally take a holiday or buy something new? They put us in a position where we have to take credit and pay tax and interest on it. This is not the USA so why are our banking systems like theirs? And the privatisation of the NHS going that way.. I rest my case.
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England do something about it. Its not the government that needs to do something about Britain, its vice versa.