EU referendum

On June 23rd, voters in the UK will go to the polls to decide whether to stay in the EU or not. I am not eligible to vote, but will nonetheless summarise my stance on this important issue.

The European Union was started in 1957 as a trading association between Germany, France, Italy and the Benelux nations (Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg) in the aftermath of the Second World War. It has ballooned into a political force, comprising of 28 countries, 17 of whom now have a shared currency, the Euro. There is plenty wrong with it, bureaucracy being the worst aspect of it. Why does it need to have three headquarters, Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg? Each has a full complement of civil servants etcetera. Why does it need to do with regulatory affairs encompassing all member states? Some aspects are best left to individual countries, as nuances may differ across nations.

The UK has always had a fractious relationship with the EU. Although a desire was expressed to join the EEC (the precedessor to the UK) in the 1960s, it was France's General de Gaulle who stymied that desire with his infamous 'non'. The EU has caused severe disruption within the Conservative Party, which has had major fallings-out over the issue. Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher lost her position over the EU in November 1990. The UK has negotiated a 'special deal' and a rebate from the EU, although I have never properly understood what made the UK eligible for such a special deal. And all that haranging, with handbags or without, will have decreased the likelihood for other EU leaders to give the UK leeway in any future discussions about its status. 

Current PM David Cameron has felt compelled to call a referendum, although he himself is backing the In campaign. Senior government ministers in his cabinet are all for Out. However, I would be for In, if I were able to vote. I have indicated that there is a lot wrong with the EU, and change will need to happen. It is far better to effect change from within. The Out campaign are playing on base fears such as the fear of strangers - immigrants from near and far and base emotions such as sovereignty and national pride. The job of any government is to decide on a way forward which will be the best for its people. Again, in my opinion, it is in the best interests of the UK for it to remain a member of the EU.

Election 2016 - the outcome

Scottish Parliamentary elections have yielded an interesting outcome. The Scottish National Party increased their share of the votes, but decreased the number of seats in the chamber. That is due to the vagaries of the system of first-past-the-post and proportional representation which rule here. This means the SNP will rule as a minority administration, with support from other parties. As a result, the likelihood of another independence referendum has receded. Fortunately, that is my opinion. The Labour party, once the strongest party in the land, was relegated to third place by the Conservatives, who once were very impopular, in the wake of Margaret Thatcher's reign in the 1980s.

Here in the Western Isles, the SNP's Alasdair Allan retained his seat, but with a decreased majority.

Next: the EU referendum on June 23rd.

Elections 2016

10.20pm. The light fades on election day as the polls have closed. Scotland's Parliamentary elections are supposed to be a foregone conclusion. I have never seen such a ridiculous campaign, with two parties vying for second place, to be the most effective opposition. What a defeatist attitude. The next few hours will see journalists, politicians and know-alls talking amongst themselves whilst the votes are counted. A couple of hours into Friday will find us facing the results, with the remaining hours of that day filled with more endless talk. The next 7 weeks, we'll have politics coming out of our ears with the EU referendum. Once the result of that is in, there WILL be interminable talk of another independence referendum in Scotland. In other words, we'll be plagued by referenda, elections, politics for more than 5 years. And even longer if there is another independence referendum. For crying out loud, give us a break. Oh, unless David Cameron quits after the EU poll. That's when the fun will start all over again.

May Day 2016

We leave our cold April behind and head into our cold month of May. As I type this, on a quiet Sunday evening, it's overcast, breezy and wet. The first day of May has been a difficult day for me since 2008, when my mother passed away. I think I have come to terms with that fact, and will continue to (endeavour to) move forward. Over the years I have spent in Stornoway, I have made a major contribution towards the remembrance of the Fallen of the Great War, quite important in this island. Of the 6,200 men who set off for war, some 1,300 did not survive. I have also digitised the Napier Commission's Report into the conditions of Crofters and Cottars, which was compiled in 1883 and 1884. It continues to be of relevance, but I fear that politicians are failing to keep up with developments in landownership and land usage. The obsession with independence, as displayed by the nationalist Scottish Governments since 2007, is standing in the way of addressing other issues that are of far greater importance. There are elections to the Scottish Parliament on Thursday 5 May, and the nationalists are expected to be returned to power. Seven weeks later, on Thursday 23 June, voters in the UK will go to the polls to decide whether to stay in the European Union or not. Another fraught subject. If the Brits decide to leave, this could precipitate another independence referendum in Scotland (I thought that the 2014 No vote was to be the answer for a generation, but the pipedream never dies), with even more uncertainty.

Uncertainty is also the watchword for your blogger, who is shifting from one area of focus to another, one that is vastly different to the one of the last decade or so. Preparatory work is underway, and steps to implementation will follow later in the year.

Visit Scotland

Scotland is a scenic place and we should all encourage people to come and visit. I do agree with our esteemed Member of Parliament, Mr Angus Brendan Macneil, on that. During a speech in the Commons on the occasion on the Queen's 90th birthday, he invited everybody to come and visit his constituency (Na h-Eileanan an Iar). He should have added a call for people to come and WORK here, set up businesses and create sustainable employment.

Thursday 28 April

I have not been making regular postings on this blog in recent weeks, and I am not foreseeing that happening again any time soon. Over the past week or so, I have been down with a nasty cold, which is only just beginning to shift. Today has been singularly cold, something I don't really mind. The day opened with snow and a very hard frost for late April, -4C. I have completed the upload of war grave pictures on findagrave.com, 813 memorials and 1,836 photographs. The pics aren't just of gravestones, they also include portrait photographs. This is supplementary to the information on the Scottish War Graves forum.

My blogging has shifted to Facebook, which does not lend itself to lengthier postings. In a way, a shame. But times change. In the past, this early morning photograph might have featured the MV Isle of Lewis. That is now the MV Loch Seaforth.

Ten years ago this month, I had some fun on the Arnish Lighthouse blog with the dating extravaganza at the Dell Fank. This (doctored) picture was to have been the conveyance for amourous couples to the Fank on 1st April 2006. Ahem.

Echo from the past

In a Dutch graveyard on-line, I discovered a reference to a name of infamy in WW2 history. The woman dubbed "the Black Widow" has her gravestone inscribed with the words "Waarheid maakt vrij". Dutch is closely related to the German language, and the German version of the above line is "Wahrheit macht frei", not far off that chilling line at Auschwitz: "Arbeit macht frei". What does it all mean? The line on the gravestone means "Truth liberates" and the Auschwitz line means "Labour liberates". However, the Black Widow, who died 9 years ago, was the wife of collaborator Rost van Tonningen, who headed up the Dutch Central Bank during WW2, assisting the occupying Nazi forces whichever way he could. After liberation, he was incarcerated in Scheveningen jail at The Hague, and jumped (his widow always maintained that he was pushed) over the parapet of a balcony, from which he fell to his death some 17 feet below. The truth that she refers to is slightly different from the commonly held view. Common parlance is not to speak ill of the dead. On the subject of the Black Widow, I shall therefore be silent henceforth.

The fish is dearly bought

104 years ago this week the Titanic sank
119 years ago next month, the whole male population of Pabbay, near Mingulay, was wiped out in a fishing tragedy

104 years ago this year Mingulay was abandoned
This week, three fishermen died off Mingulay
 
The funeral took place this afternoon of fisherman Christopher Morrison of Leverburgh, Harris. He died a week ago when his fishing boat, the Louisa (SY 30), sank for reasons as yet unknown. Two other crewmen also perished, Martin Johnston of Caithness and the skipper, Paul Alliston, who is still missing. In the small community of the Western Isles, this has struck a hammerblow. The residents of Uist and Barra are scouring the coastlines of their islands to look for the missing man. It could so easily have been one of them, their son, father, uncle or nephew. It could so easily have been they themselves.
 

In Dutch literature, there is a famous quote by Herman Heijermans, from his play "The Good Hope" [Op Hoop van Zegen]

The fish is dearly bought

* For those in peril on the seas *

Anne Frank

71 years ago yesterday, Anne Frank died in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

Rather than being frog-marched through her former home in Amsterdam.

Rather, even, than reading her words from all those years ago, knowing now what she could not.

I'll just sit quietly and look out into the April showers of 2016, remembering the innocent who had to meet their premature end at the sharp end of a diseased ideology seven decades ago.

RIP

MFV Louisa

The fishing vessel Louisa was lost off Mingulay in the early hours of today, 9 April 2016. Her emergency positioning beacon was activated when she went down, and Coastguard sped to the scene. Two crew have been found deceased, one was airlifted to hospital in Stornoway with non-life-threatening injuries and one remains missing. We remember the deceased and keep their family and friends in thoughts at this sad time.

Louisa was launched exactly 7 years ago for a family from Marvig, South Lochs under the registration of SY30. She fished for crab around the Western Isles. In February 2014, she was on the Goat Island slipway for repairs, which is when I took this image.

The Dutch referendum

The Netherlands went to the polls in a referendum yesterday, which was to advise the government how the people felt about the EU trade deal with Ukraine. About two out of every three people said 'nee', [no], they didn't like it. This coming from one of the founding members of the European Economic Community of the 1950s is profoundly disturbing. My personal assessment is that this no-vote was brought about on the back of the migrant crisis, currently gripping Europe, as well as the political uncertainty in Ukraine. Don't forget that that is a deeply divided country, where the western part would like to be more integrated with Europe, whereas the eastern part would like to be more integrated with Putin's Russia. The civil war in Ukraine, fomented by Putin, has subsided after our Vlad decided that it wasn't getting him anywhere and it was all backfiring on him - I refer to #MH17.

However, there is more to this issue than just the EU and Ukraine. It is about dissatisfaction with the European bureaucracy, which is held to be undemocratic and not properly held to account. The UK is going to the polls on its membership of the EU on June 23rd, and this result will be viewed with interest this side of the North Sea.

Further analysis is given on the link to the BBC news story.  

104 and 112 years ago

104 years ago today, RMS ‪Titanic‬ arrived in Southampton for her maiden voyage to New York. 112 years ago next June, the SS Norge departed Christiania (modern day Oslo) for New York. Both ships were to founder on voyage. Did you ever hear of the Norge? On 28th June 1904, she went down at Rockall, 250 miles west of Scotland, with the loss of 635 souls. A naval inquiry in Scandinavia found that there were insufficient life-saving apparatus on board for all passengers and crew. A recommendation was made for all ships to carry enough lifeboats etc to account for all on board. Had this recommendation to have been enshrined in law around the world, Titanic's sinking would not have been prevented, but the number of people saved would have been much, much higher.


Tombstone for victims from the Norge, who succumbed after landing at Stornoway


Memorial plaque to the Norge in the Stornoway ferry terminal

Srebrenica

This week, Radovan Karadzic, former president of the Bosnian Serbs of the mid 1990s, was sentenced to 40 years in jail. His general, Ratko Mladic, executed the occupation of and extermination of the people of Srebrenica. More than 8,000 were dead at the end of it all. 

In the 1990s, I worked for the Dutch MoD, and several of my colleagues and friends were in Bosnia at that time. One of those colleagues was a member of Dutchbat, which was supposed to guard the ostensible safe-haven of Srebrenica - with pea-shooters against tanks. He was nearly eye-balling Mladic. He, and others in the battalion, could have pulled a gun and killed Mladic. It didn't happen. 

It would not have made a lot of difference. The commander of Dutchbat, Col Karremans, has been hauled over the coals for apparently collaborating with Mladic. Dutchbat assisted Mladic - what else could they have done? Resistance would have led to many dead among the UN forces. Collaboration was odious. But in truth, what option did they have?

This is a very sore point in recent Dutch history, and the Netherlands government has been reprimanded over the role of Dutchbat. However, it strikes me that the United Nations should similarly be reprimanded for not issuing its forces with proper kit to match that of Mladic's troops. Gorazde and Srebrenica are two names of infamy in the annals of the UN. Srebrenica is a black mark on the Dutch conscience.

Bear in mind that the Yugoslav civil war of the 1990s was justified by referring to a battle from the 14th century. 

Beware of living in the past.

Cameron Terrace

Distances are not often mentioned on island roadsigns. Who needs that sort of information? Does it matter that it is 30 miles to Tarbert or 8 miles to Garynahine? If you live here, that is irrelevant. You just know how long it takes, and what you'll encounter along the way. The masts at Eitsal are your reference point, as is the sea. You'll know the dead tree by Achmore, and the long straight by Loch Ganvich. You can never go far. 80 miles is the longest distance in Lewis and Harris. It's quite cosy, really.

Trump

My preliminary assessment of the US presidential race is that it will go between Clinton and Trump. And of the two, Trump is the one most likely to win. I don't like Donald Trump, politically or otherwise. However, in the current international climate, it could well be that we need a character like him at the helm of the USA. Only someone like him can stand up to Putin, Assad, Kim Jong-un, Xi Jinping and other leaders whose intentions are rather insular, shall we say. Why? Because Trump is about as insular and hard-nosed as you get, in addition to being a flicking nutcase.

Russia and Syria

Russia and Syria fomenting Europe's troubles. Russia threatening WW3 if Turkey invades Syria on the ground - i.e., Syria is VERY important to Putin's gameplan for making Europe his backyard. For he will then claim, in a couple of years from now, that only Russia can take proper care of Europe. Awful truth is, a lot of the Middle East rubbish goes back to the Spheres of Influence policies of the Cold War era, in which both America and the USSR indulged. Latterly, it has been America's badly judged involvement with Iraq which let the cat out of the bag, creating a power vacuum in a region that can only be ruled by odious strongmen, democracy being an alien concept in the Middle East. This power vacuum was taken advantage of by Al Qa'eda, later by Daesh. The latter is being bombed into submission, but their presence has been seized with both hands and both feet by the Moscow regime of Vladimir Putin to really back the uprising against Assad of Syria. David Cameron was all for bombing Assad, but was reigned in 3 years ago. I am not in favour of getting militarily involved in the Middle East at all, but for strategic reasons (oil) we seem to have to. Four hundred people have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea. Eleven million have been driven to flight. Just to keep Bashir al-Assad in power? Putin tried it on in Ukraine, but found that militarily he didn't really get anywhere. But subversion is much more subtle, and in the long run, likely to have a greater likelihood of success. Again, the only language that Putin understands is that of power. We'll have to be strong against his odious little plans.

Saturday 27 February

Absolutely stunning day, so much so that I went for a walk to Sandwick and the Iolaire Memorial in the morning.

 

Friday 26 February

Thursday 25 February

Wednesday 24 February

Moon and Jupiter