Independence – mackaycartoons

Thursday March 30, 2017

March 29, 2017 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday March 30, 2017

Scotland to press on with referendum

Nicola Sturgeon has pledged to press on with a fresh independence referendum after dismissing Theresa May’s promise of substantial new powers for Scotland Brexit.

June 25, 2016

The first minister said May’s decision to trigger article 50 on Wednesday, beginning the UK’s divorce from the EU, was one of the most destructive acts by a British leader in modern history, threatening hundreds of thousands of jobs across the UK.

Writing for the Guardian, Sturgeon said the decision was dispiriting, economically foolhardy and constitutionally reckless, threatening stability in Northern Ireland. It also undermined European efforts to combat climate change and collective security, she said.

“Brexit – especially the hard Brexit shaped by May’s inability to shake off the agenda of the Ukip-tinged right wing of her own party – threatens to be an act of self-harm on a scale barely understood,” she said.

She accused May of paying only superficial attention to the Scottish government’s demands for a special deal on the single market, opening up further conflicts with the UK government over the benefits Scotland could gain from Brexit.

“The result is that we must now ensure that people in Scotland are given a choice between the hard Brexit deal now being negotiated, and independence,” she said.

Just as the prime minister told MPs at Westminster she had formally triggered article 50, Sturgeon had received a letter from David Davis, the UK Brexit secretary, insisting his government was engaging seriously with Sturgeon’s proposals.

Neither government would release Davis’s letter but it is understood that he told Sturgeon he was disappointed that she had launched her claim for an independence referendum before she saw the full extent of the new powers on offer once EU laws and regulations were repatriated. (Source: The Guardian)

Saturday June 25, 2016

June 24, 2016 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday June 25, 2016

Nexit, Frexit or Italeave? British vote fires up EU’s ‘Outers’

Britain’s vote to leave the European Union fired up populist eurosceptic parties across the continent on Friday, giving fresh voice to their calls to leave the bloc or its euro currency.

June 22, 2016

Right-wing and anti-immigrant parties in the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and France demanded referendums on membership of the union, while Italy’s 5-Star movement said it would pursue its own proposal for a vote on the euro.

Geert Wilders, leader of the Dutch anti-immigrant PVV party, said he would make a Dutch referendum on EU membership a central theme of his campaign to become prime minister in next year’s parliamentary election.

“I congratulate the British people for beating the political elite in both London and Brussels and I think we can do the same,” Wilders told Reuters. “We should have a referendum about a ‘Nexit’ as soon as possible.”

On Thursday, Britons voted to leave the 28-nation EU, forcing the resignation of Prime Minister David Cameron and dealing the biggest blow to the European project of greater unity since World War Two.

“There is no future any more (for the EU),” Wilders said.

France’s far right National Front party also called for a French referendum on European Union membership, cheering a Brexit vote it hopes can boost its eurosceptic agenda.

Party leader Marine Le Pen celebrated the result by displaying the British flag on her Twitter page.

September 19, 2014

“Victory for freedom!” she said. “We now need to hold the same referendum in France and in (other) EU countries.” Her deputy, Florian Philippot said: “Our turn now #Brexit #Frexit.”

The populist anti-immigration Danish People’s Party (DF), an ally of Denmark’s right-leaning government, also called for a referendum on membership of the European Union.

“I believe that the Danes obviously should have a referendum on whether we want to follow Britain or keep things the way we have it now,” DF party leader Kristian Thulesen Dahl said.

In Sweden, the anti-immigration party the Sweden Democrats, which has the support of around 17 percent of voters according to a poll last month, said it would step up pressure for change.

September 4, 2015

“We demand that Sweden immediately starts to renegotiate the (EU) deals we have made and that the Swedish people will be able to speak up about a future EU-membership in a referendum,” party leader Jimme Akesson said.

Austria’s far-right Freedom Party (FPO) called for the heads of the European Commission and European Parliament to resign after the Brexit vote, and said it may also call for a referendum unless the EU is reformed.

Italy’s second most popular party, the opposition 5-Star Movement described the result as a lesson in democracy and promised to pursue its own proposal for an Italian referendum on the euro.

The right-wing Northern League, a member of Italy’s opposition center-right, was more outspoken. “Thank you Great Britain, next it is our turn,” party leader Matteo Salvini said.(Source: Reuters)

Published in the Kitchener-Waterloo Record

Friday September 19, 2014

September 18, 2014 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday September 19, 2014

European Integration Emboldens Europe’s Separatists

Scotland’s referendum has galvanized national movements across Europe. The irony is that this has been made possible in part by the European Union, for decades the driver of economic and political integration across a once war-torn continent.

In the past week, Edinburgh has been like a magnet for politicians across Europe who regard their regions as nations. Representatives from Wales, the Basque Country, Flanders, Catalonia, Galicia, Corsica, Sardinia and Friesland visited the Scottish capital.

They have been emboldened in part by the safety net that the EU is perceived to offer to small countries. The institution that was created to make national borders irrelevant may perversely play a role in creating new ones.

Even as voters in many European countries register growing dissatisfaction with the EU, membership offers smaller nationalities the hope of separation with a minimum of disruption.

Today, “separatism has a spring in its step,” says Charles Grant, director of the London-based Centre for European Reform.

Europe’s borders have already fractured in the last 20 years. With the exception of Czechoslovakia, which split in 1993, these changes have been born out of the violent breakup of the former Yugoslavia.

What is seducing nationalists these days is what Michael Desch, professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame, calls the prospect of Velvet Divorce: a gentle segue into an independent state while preserving membership of institutions like the EU and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and retaining the same currency.

But governments across the continent have viewed developments in the U.K. with growing alarm, as support for Scottish independence appeared to strengthen. Europe’s other capitals, surprised that London has appeared to sleepwalk into a potential constitutional crisis, are unlikely to succumb meekly to the phenomenon.

Their reaction, should Scotland become independent, will be instructive. Scottish Nationalists have portrayed Scottish membership of the EU as a foregone conclusion, suggesting it would be waved into the bloc with little fuss. (Source: Wall Street Journal)

LETTERS to the EDITOR

In my lifelong reading of The Spectator, I’ve never been shocked by a cartoon until now. The editorial cartoon of Friday, Sept. 19 was funny to a point. That point was the last cell of the multi-celled cartoon. The real life events upon which it was based are horrible. The Spectator doesn’t need to embed these events, even more, into the Zeitgeist by depicting them as the punch line of a cartoon. It was insensitive, tasteless and thoughtless. You went too far. — B. Kish, Hamilton

Insensitive cartoon disappointing – September 22, 2014: Sorry, Graeme MacKay. I’m really disappointed but that was as insensitive as anything you’ve ever done. I only hope and pray that no family members of these victims ever lay eyes on it. — Virginia Coombs, Stoney Creek

Untimely and tasteless trash – September 23, 2014: I was beginning to think cartoonist Graeme MacKay’s work was showing some maturity. After a brief break, some of his concepts were starting to display some intelligence. However, we seem to be back to stuff that portrays the lack of sensitivity and taste that have been his mark in the past. The cartoon Scotland’s Influence Endures is pathetic and the portrayal of an ISIS executioner with a knife at the throat of a prisoner, especially now when people are totally sickened by what has happened to these poor victims, is obscene. It is hard to believe that The Spectator would publish such untimely and tasteless trash. — Roy Coombs, Simcoe

Scottish cartoon went too far with ISIS – September 24, 2014: I am totally disgusted by the editorial cartoon that appeared in The Spectator on Sept. 19. I cannot stomach anything that would include Scotland and ISIS in the same reference. Is this supposed to be funny or witty? What part of a drawing showing someone being beheaded is in keeping with decency? In this case, cartoonist Graeme MacKay has offended many. It is indefensible that your paper can continue to publish his work. — David McIntyre, Hamilton

SOCIAL MEDIA

Post by The Hamilton Spectator.

Commentary by Graeme MacKay

Last week the above cartoon in advance of the day the world was to find out the results of the referendum on Scottish independence. Of course, no one knew how the final numbers would turn out, but the pollsters said it was to be close. The choice for me therefore was to draw something that would work with either a yes or no victory. There was an overwhelmingly negative reaction to the cartoon (see above), yet with all the thumbs down communicated to me through social media, I’m still not clear why this cartoon is so repulsive to so many… continued

Tuesday September 9, 2014

September 8, 2014 by Graeme MacKay

Tuesday September 9, 2014

Scotland – Vote No and get something better?

On the morning after the poll before, “Vote No and get something better” summed up George Osborne’s message. It’s a tried and trusted message which worked in the independence referendum in Quebec when a last minute poll lead for Yes was transformed into a narrow No. It is, though, a message with a difficult history in Scotland.

Thirty five years ago it was precisely what Scots were told when they were voting in a referendum on a much more modest proposal – to create a Scottish Parliament with some devolved powers.
A former prime minister, a Scot and, as it happens, a Tory, Sir Alec Douglas Home urged his countrymen to vote No and get “something better”. The referendum rejected devolution and what they got soon afterwards was 18 years of Margaret Thatcher’s government and no devolution at all (until, that is, Labour were re-elected in 1997).

That is just one reason why Osborne’s promise of a plan to transfer new powers to Holyrood – covering tax raising, spending and benefits – caused such confusion yesterday. It is why Alex Salmond felt able to attack it as a sign of “panic” on the No side.

The other reason is that the three rival Westminster parties – the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats – have not agreed a plan for which precise powers to devolve. Each party has published its own set of proposals which overlap in the areas Osborne listed.

The plan he was talking about – but which is still being argued about behind the scenes – is to give Scottish voters certainty that this time – unlike last time – they are guaranteed to get “something better” whoever forms the next government in Westminster.

The Lib Dem Scottish secretary Alastair Carmichael has long talked about the idea of setting up a Scottish Constitutional Convention bringing together representatives of all parties – including the SNP – and none (trade unionists, business groups, the churches etc). This would hammer out a new settlement which all the Westminster parties would then promise to implement whoever is elected in the 2015 general election.

Who should announce this, where and how poses its own problems since Scottish voters – like voters right across the world – are deeply mistrustful of what politicians say. If all three party leaders stood together it would simply allow Alex Salmond to say “I told you they were all the same and that Labour were in bed with the Tories.”

A striking finding of this weekend’s YouGov poll is that the leader of the Labour Party – for so long the natural party of government in Scotland – is trusted by under a quarter of Scottish voters, the same number as it happens as trust David Cameron. (Continued: BBC News)

Wednesday September 5, 2012

September 5, 2012 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Wednesday September 5, 2012

Harper must walk political tightrope in PQ’s Quebec

Blamed by some in his own party for adopting policies that helped reawaken the Quebec independence movement, Prime Minister Stephen Harper now finds himself walking a political tightrope as he prepares to face the demands of a fresh Parti Quebecois government.

“He’s in charge and he’s got to figure it out. So we’re in for great fun and games,” said veteran Quebec Conservative organizer Peter White. “But it isn’t the end of Canada.”

For months, White has argued that Harper and his small team of Quebec MPs were angering a large majority in the province by adopting unpopular policies and decisions in areas such as language, law and order, and the environment.

But despite the fact there are only five Quebec Tory MPs in Ottawa, White has also said Harper could tackle the problem by raising his public profile in Quebec and explaining his policies more.

“Quebecers came very close to saying ‘Yes’ last time (in the 1995 referendum on sovereignty) and things were not nearly as bad then as they are today in terms of the emotion of the thing,” White said Tuesday. (Source: Postmedia)