More Scottish Republican Terrorism

A while back I blogged on the IRA-wannabees who march at Glencoe each year. But I missed this story - the arrest on firearms charges of three people on their way to Edinburgh hours before the Queen opened the Scottish Parliament.

One of the three, a convicted terrorist, has been found dead in his cell.

During a series of interviews with detectives in 1993, he boasted: "I am a volunteer soldier with the SNLA. I am a cell commander. The actions we have taken are directed at those people who are actively working against the interests of Scotland. Whatever I did, I did in the line of duty."

The SNLA model themselves on the IRA, from the political front to the socialist coat over the fascist torso. They aim "to halt and reverse mass English Immigration into Scotland."

I can have some sympathy for that. On my frequent holidays in rural Scotland and Wales it's increasingly difficult to find a B&B (this fine establishment excepted), post office, general store or cafe run by a local. I treasure those I find. But to control immigration you need a border and political will. You don't need an army. It seems likely that they harbour dreams of reversing immigration in the style of Serbian irregulars, or replicating the ethnic cleansing of the Fermanagh border, where assassinations have driven out the Protestant farming community. Seems a bit unfair on all those hippies scattered from Torness to Lewis.

To think these people are of the same blood as the Black Watch, or Cabarfeidh !

There is also a forum ('no fascists or consitutional nationalists'), where the members seem a trifle peeved at the death of one of the few nationalists who could actually get his hands on a Kalashnikov. A series of posts blames SNLA founder, Dublin-based Adam Busby, for the death. Again inspiration comes from across the water - 'tout' seems the mot de jour. I'd imagine half the posts are from MI5 anyway - truth is at a premium on a board like this.

According to the Scotsman, "McIntosh was recently named as organiser of a group called "The Scottish Patriots" which has applied to stage a march through the centre of Aberdeen on 28 November - on the same day and along the same route as a proposed march by the far-right National Front". McIntosh presumably not being far-right. In the sense of National Socialists not being far-right.

With 629 website visits so far, the Patriots aren't exactly setting the Don afire.

Of course were these organisations from south of the Tweed, you'd be hearing all about them from the Guardian or BBC. But in the world of the UK left, nationalism is always a Good Thing - unless, of course, it identifies as British or English.