SOME o ye’se wull hae mind o thae great Saund an Sandals movies o the 50s an 60s: Quo Vadis, Ben Hur, Spartacus, Cleopatra an The Fall of the Roman Empire. Muckle swashbucklin epics that aye an oan staund the test o time! Lik a wheen o us ah’ve bin watchin aa the Brexit farce as it kythes its twists an turns in the media; newspapers, TV, social media, etc … Sae instead o switchin it aff the day ah thocht ah’d get a bit o pey-back an fling ma ain tippence warth intil this Brexit bourach!

It seems tae me wi hae a perfeck Fall o the Roman Empire o wir ain here! This is whit heppens at the fag-end o empires! It aa faws apairt an ony morsels that are left are then focht ower bi ruthless fowk else sell’t aff tae the heichest bidder (see final scene o The Fall of the Roman Empire).

A pottit history; Edwardian England, jist afore warld war wan, hud enjoyed aamaist a hunner years o byordnar peace an prosperity, Britain wis the richest it hud e’er been in its history – the global map kythed the red shaded colonialism o empire that wis that muckle the sun ne’er set oan it! Then fir some insane raison Britain entered intil warld war wan an Britain (an a wheen o ither European kintras forby) near bankruptit herself. Tae mak maitters warse, follaein the great depression o the 1930s, they hud anither warld war that marked the end o this michty empire (mind ony war agin Fascism is aiblins a war that must aye be focht – we’re fechtin it yet!).

Syne 1945 mair as 50 kintras hae votit fir Independence an left the British Empire. Ah they’re aa daein quite weel thenk ye verra much! Thair nane o thaim that ah can see are desperate tae reinstate direct rule frae the UK. E’en the wee island o Malta (that is e’en wee’er than Arran!!) is an independent kintra (a republic in fact) – yet Scotland is ower wee, ower daft, an ower puir tae become independent; accordin tae some!

Empires tak a lang, lang time tae bigg. An a lang time tae faw apairt. Syne 1945 this disintegration haes bin a slow painful process. Likesay, nou we’re at the rael dowp end o this process; an the snarlin greedy tykes o richt wing reactionism are nou poised tae fecht ower the banes o the rank rotten carcass o this lang deid empire!

The little Englanders lik Farage luik oot their railway cairriages throu their rosy specs an see the lush sunlicht kintraside o a HE Bates novel, or a Boulting Brothers comedy. They hae nae idea that Britain’s ethnic an social mix chainged firevir eftir WW2. These dinosaurs cannae accept this. Sae whaur are we nou!? In scary times fowks!

The feck o the UK sleepwalked intil this Brexit thing. A wheen o thaim wi thae rosy Ukip sunglesses oan! An nou we face the spectre o a bunch o faur richt wing lunatics sayin we shuid juist turn oor backs oan ony European deal aathegaither; embrace the tender mercies o the World Trade Organisation an fling oot ony internationally agreed warld trade tariffs! Afore ye ken it we’ll aa be in the samen boat as aa the ither third warld sweitshoap warkers. The crumblin state o wir UK NHS wi its Westmonster underfunded, understaffed an utterly demoralised warkforce pents a grim picture o the future fir ye! But Scotland wull hae the chaunce tae escape this – gin the people wake up an hae the smeddum tae vote fir it! The alternative is gaun doun the stank wi Englandshire!

Like the Roman Empire, that eftir its faw saw centuries o ceevil war an unrest, we cuid e’en be in danger o revolution in the UK. As wi the French Revolution, the Rhodesian Bush War (that gien us the dictator Mugabe), the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia (a peaceful ootcome) ye can push the people ower faur – an we’re gettin dangerously near that tippin pynt! The American plutocrat, zillionaire, an unapologetic global capitalist Nick Hanauer, haes predicted this verra thing, “the pitchforks are coming …”, unless the brakes are pitten oan rampant capitalism. Aiblins we hae oor ain modren Timonides in Bill Gates? Ah howp sae!

A completely deregulated UK, wi nae checks or balances frae Europe, wid jist mak up white’er laws that pleased thaimsels. Ye can say cheerio tae ony haurd won labour laws or warkers richts (tho dinnae wirry – ye’ll be free tae wark 60 hours a week or mair, gin ye like!), the welfare state wid collapse, as wid oor pension system, an thae auld Victorian values sae beluved o the likes o John Major, micht see future generations o UK weans warkin in UK sweitshoaps.

Whit little pouers national assemblies in the UK hae won or bin verra reluctantly gien wull be glaumed at bi Westmonster an we’ll aa be unner direct rule aince agane.

The jack-buit o neo-imperialism is waitin tae trample ony notion o independence athin the UK intil the grund; see the treatment o Catalonia bi Spain. We missed the bus aince – we cannae afuird tae miss it agane!

The decline an faw o empires is ne’er guid news fir ordinary fowk. We’ve hud mair as 50 years o peace athin Europe – that peace fir us aa is unner threit frae a Tory UK government that husnae a clue whit it’s daein an is draggin us aa wi thaim ower this mad Brexit precipice. Mark ma wirds, it’ll be a bumpy ride!