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"Far right fail in Perth, Peterhead and Aberdeen
FAR-RIGHT attempts to intimidate refugees and spread their hateful propaganda were seen off by solidarity in Aberdeen, Perth and Peterhead at the weekend.
A handful of racists had hoped to whip up the kind of unrest their fellow mobsters had achieved in Nuneaton and Epping in recent weeks, hoping to coax along locals with fabricated tales of the dangers to children that refugees pose — despite a number of Patriotic Alternative and Homeland activists themselves having a string of convictions for offences against children.
Less than 100 stood with the far right in the city Perth, outnumbered more than two to one by a joint mobilisation of trade unionists and Stand Up to Racism activists.
In Aberdeen, the long-term work of the local trades council in countering misinformation was seen to pay off with numbers on the far-right rally halving since their last effort, reaching just 50 at its peak while the counterdemonstration topped 200.
Praising the efforts of comrades from across the north-east to step up to meet the far-right challenge, Aberdeen TUC president Tommy Campbell told the Star: 'We are very proud to have stood with the good people of conscience in Peterhead and Aberdeen who came together to stand up to attempts by the far right to stir up hate in our communities.
In Aberdeen, we are also pleased that the numbers on the far-right demonstration were reduced in number and we outnumbered them four to one: a testament to the efforts of everyone pointing to the real threats.'
'We are all Jock Tamson’s bairns. We should be pointing the blame for this country’s ills not at those who seek refuge but the billionaire class — and that’s a fight we will continue.'"
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/far-right-fail-perth-peterhead-and-aberdeen
The break-in happened at Bruntons Aero Products site Inveresk Industrial Park in Musselburgh, Scotland and messages, “There’s only one way this ends’ and ‘Drop Leonardo on machinery using red spray painr, after midnight on New Year’s Day.
Scottish pro Palestine activists vandalised an Edinburgh area factory linked to the F35 program in the first hours of 2026.
The pro Palestinian group broke into the Bruntons Aero Products facility in Musselburgh, damaging CNC machines, servers, and computers. Graffiti left at the site read ‘There’s only one way this ends’.
Bruntons was targeted for supplying Leonardo, which produces laser targeting systems for F35 jets and military equipment used by Israel.
According to its website, Bruntons is “a specialised manufacturer of machined components and mechanical cable assemblies”.
The website adds: “We supply direct to all levels of the aerospace supply chain, servicing our customers prototype, serial production and spares requirements.”
The break-in comes after similar incidents in October at the Edinburgh offices of aerospace firm Leonardo UK and security firm Securitas.
Source: Act For Free
https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=26833 #antiColonialism #DirectAction #freePalestine #palestine #Scotland #Solidarity #Vandalism
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
This blog post previously appeared in Common Weal’s weekly magazine. Sign up for our newsletters here.
If you’d like to support my work for Common Weal or support me and this blog directly, see my donation policy page here.
My last Common Weal Magazine article was my sum up of Common Weal’s year in policy for 2025. If you haven’t read that, go and recharge your beverage of choice (it’s a long article) and give it a read. I’m sure there were a couple of our successes this year that you’ve missed.
Next year will be one that starts off running. The Scottish elections are scheduled for May and that means for think tanks like us, a lot has to get done – thought perhaps not quite in the way that you might think.
The first couple of months will be busy as the Parliament rapidly runs through its “wash up” period. A feature of our democracy is that if any legislation hasn’t been finished and fully voted on by the time that Parliament shuts down for the election in March then it doesn’t roll over into the next Parliament. It “falls” and has to be started again from scratch. This goes just the same for a relatively inconsequential Member’s Bill as it does for a flagship manifesto promise from the Government, so there’s a lot of pressure from a lot of parties to get things done.
We’ve already seen a couple of bits of legislation that we’re interested in fall by the wayside (the attempt from Mercedes Vilalba to impose a maximum cap on land ownership is still technically a Member’s Bill but when the Government voted down an amendment to the Land Reform Bill that would have incorporated it, that pretty much ended hope of them supporting it as standalone legislation). We’re also still waiting to find out if Katy Clark’s Bill to extend Freedom of Information rights in Scotland will get time to finish its process and we’ll be applying pressure to try to make that happen.
We also see Bills pass and fail in somewhat strange ways. The Bill to specifically criminalise the theft of dogs passed this week – despite existing legislation covering the theft of property more generally both already covering dogs and imposing potentially harsher punishments for doing so, meaning that you could interpret the new legislation as posturing at best and the part-decriminalisation of theft at worst. Even as a cat-lover myself, I can’t help but wonder if this was the best use of limited Parliamentary time.
Meanwhile other Bills with arguably much larger social impacts have been dropped such as plans to accelerate the decarbonisation of home heating (albeit not in the way we’d prefer to see) or plans to cut speed limits on roads which absolutely would have saved lives.
All this is to say that the first couple of months trying to sort out what we can help get done (or help to avoid happening) is going to take up a fair bit of time in the first part of the year.
During the election period itself though, think tanks like ours can be remarkably quiet. Sure, you might see some of us as talking heads and pundits on various commentary outlets or perhaps even on election night itself (not that I’ve been invited yet – though I have done the 10pm-5am stint in a previous election) but in terms of policy and lobbying, all of the manifestos have been written and we have no idea who will and will not have a seat until the count happens.
After that, depending on how shaken up Parliament is, we’ll have our work cut out of us to introduce ourselves to the various new (and returning) Ministers and party spokespeople and to start laying out what we can do given the balance of parties. Who knows. We might well get a progressive alliance of parties looking for fresh ideas. We might get a collection of conservative (small-c) “old guard” who need to be strongly nudged along the way. We might well get a Parliament that is openly hostile to our views and needs to be opposed to prevent them from doing damage to the fabric of Scotland. Whichever way, there’ll certainly be a role for Common Weal and I hope you’ll continue to follow and support us on that journey.
Beyond that we’re going to keep doing what we’ve been doing. Our policy pipeline remains a long one and we have some major work upcoming on inequality, on education, on healthcare reform and on digital security as well as ongoing work from folk like our Care Reform Group and Energy Working Group who have been making real strides in changing legislation and regulation in Scotland and in the UK (for just the latest example, see our mention in the Committee evidence report on the Children’s Care Bill published this week where we’ve been advocating for the Scottish Government to keep its promise to remove profit from such care).
“But that we’re seeing the world darkening as a result of the drawing away from those invisible hands shows how powerful they actually were.”
This year has been a dark one. I’m personally extremely worried about the rise of militarism and the pulling away from the only things that will ever actually prevent wars before they start – the world appears to be collectively abandoning climate action, foreign aid, help for displaced peoples and peaceful diplomacy.
But there’s hope too. It’s hard to see the work that went into preventing a war that was never fought. Or to prevent the famine in which no-one starved. But that we’re seeing the world darkening as a result of the drawing away from those invisible hands shows how powerful they actually were. There’s hope that what is happening can therefore be undone and reversed – perhaps with the appreciation now of what could be.
For the smallest glimmer of that, this week I finished work that I’ve spend the last two years working on alongside SCIAF and Friends of the Earth Scotland in which we drew together a dozen people from across four continents for a consultation on how Scotland can make its Circular Economy strategy more powerful.
We’ll be reporting on that next year too but it was an empowering thing to see Scotland actively reach out to others beyond our borders to ask them how our policies on trade, manufacturing and waste management was affecting them and how we could improve ourselves. One of the attendees openly said that this might be the first time that a Global North Government has done consultation on domestic policy in this way and they hoped that it might become the inspiration for others to follow. I’m thankful to the Scottish Government for taking to our pitch with the enthusiasm that they did and for their support in making it happen.
And I’m grateful to all of our readers and supporters who keep us doing what we’re doing. Common Weal is an unusual think tank. We’re not beholden to a particular political party, or to government funding (while the Scottish Government funded the project I’ve just mentioned, neither I nor Common Weal took a fee or compensation from that pot – not even expenses), and our policy programme isn’t dictated to us by the demands of advertisers or funding bodies.
We’re supported by you and people like you. While this means that our funding is a fraction of what it could be (seriously, the First Minister earns more in a year than Common Weal as a whole does), it gives us the freedom to live our principles. If you’re not already a donor or if you know someone who might like to sign up and start supporting us, then please visit our donate page.
Other than that, my final message of the year is my hope that you all have a peaceful and happy winter break – however you may mark it – and that I’ll be back in the New Year rested, full of cheese and raring to go. I’ll see you there.
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
This blog post previously appeared in Common Weal’s weekly magazine. Sign up for our newsletters here.
If you’d like to support my work for Common Weal or support me and this blog directly, see my donation policy page here.
My last Common Weal Magazine article was my sum up of Common Weal’s year in policy for 2025. If you haven’t read that, go and recharge your beverage of choice (it’s a long article) and give it a read. I’m sure there were a couple of our successes this year that you’ve missed.
Next year will be one that starts off running. The Scottish elections are scheduled for May and that means for think tanks like us, a lot has to get done – thought perhaps not quite in the way that you might think.
The first couple of months will be busy as the Parliament rapidly runs through its “wash up” period. A feature of our democracy is that if any legislation hasn’t been finished and fully voted on by the time that Parliament shuts down for the election in March then it doesn’t roll over into the next Parliament. It “falls” and has to be started again from scratch. This goes just the same for a relatively inconsequential Member’s Bill as it does for a flagship manifesto promise from the Government, so there’s a lot of pressure from a lot of parties to get things done.
We’ve already seen a couple of bits of legislation that we’re interested in fall by the wayside (the attempt from Mercedes Vilalba to impose a maximum cap on land ownership is still technically a Member’s Bill but when the Government voted down an amendment to the Land Reform Bill that would have incorporated it, that pretty much ended hope of them supporting it as standalone legislation). We’re also still waiting to find out if Katy Clark’s Bill to extend Freedom of Information rights in Scotland will get time to finish its process and we’ll be applying pressure to try to make that happen.
We also see Bills pass and fail in somewhat strange ways. The Bill to specifically criminalise the theft of dogs passed this week – despite existing legislation covering the theft of property more generally both already covering dogs and imposing potentially harsher punishments for doing so, meaning that you could interpret the new legislation as posturing at best and the part-decriminalisation of theft at worst. Even as a cat-lover myself, I can’t help but wonder if this was the best use of limited Parliamentary time.
Meanwhile other Bills with arguably much larger social impacts have been dropped such as plans to accelerate the decarbonisation of home heating (albeit not in the way we’d prefer to see) or plans to cut speed limits on roads which absolutely would have saved lives.
All this is to say that the first couple of months trying to sort out what we can help get done (or help to avoid happening) is going to take up a fair bit of time in the first part of the year.
During the election period itself though, think tanks like ours can be remarkably quiet. Sure, you might see some of us as talking heads and pundits on various commentary outlets or perhaps even on election night itself (not that I’ve been invited yet – though I have done the 10pm-5am stint in a previous election) but in terms of policy and lobbying, all of the manifestos have been written and we have no idea who will and will not have a seat until the count happens.
After that, depending on how shaken up Parliament is, we’ll have our work cut out of us to introduce ourselves to the various new (and returning) Ministers and party spokespeople and to start laying out what we can do given the balance of parties. Who knows. We might well get a progressive alliance of parties looking for fresh ideas. We might get a collection of conservative (small-c) “old guard” who need to be strongly nudged along the way. We might well get a Parliament that is openly hostile to our views and needs to be opposed to prevent them from doing damage to the fabric of Scotland. Whichever way, there’ll certainly be a role for Common Weal and I hope you’ll continue to follow and support us on that journey.
Beyond that we’re going to keep doing what we’ve been doing. Our policy pipeline remains a long one and we have some major work upcoming on inequality, on education, on healthcare reform and on digital security as well as ongoing work from folk like our Care Reform Group and Energy Working Group who have been making real strides in changing legislation and regulation in Scotland and in the UK (for just the latest example, see our mention in the Committee evidence report on the Children’s Care Bill published this week where we’ve been advocating for the Scottish Government to keep its promise to remove profit from such care).
“But that we’re seeing the world darkening as a result of the drawing away from those invisible hands shows how powerful they actually were.”
This year has been a dark one. I’m personally extremely worried about the rise of militarism and the pulling away from the only things that will ever actually prevent wars before they start – the world appears to be collectively abandoning climate action, foreign aid, help for displaced peoples and peaceful diplomacy.
But there’s hope too. It’s hard to see the work that went into preventing a war that was never fought. Or to prevent the famine in which no-one starved. But that we’re seeing the world darkening as a result of the drawing away from those invisible hands shows how powerful they actually were. There’s hope that what is happening can therefore be undone and reversed – perhaps with the appreciation now of what could be.
For the smallest glimmer of that, this week I finished work that I’ve spend the last two years working on alongside SCIAF and Friends of the Earth Scotland in which we drew together a dozen people from across four continents for a consultation on how Scotland can make its Circular Economy strategy more powerful.
We’ll be reporting on that next year too but it was an empowering thing to see Scotland actively reach out to others beyond our borders to ask them how our policies on trade, manufacturing and waste management was affecting them and how we could improve ourselves. One of the attendees openly said that this might be the first time that a Global North Government has done consultation on domestic policy in this way and they hoped that it might become the inspiration for others to follow. I’m thankful to the Scottish Government for taking to our pitch with the enthusiasm that they did and for their support in making it happen.
And I’m grateful to all of our readers and supporters who keep us doing what we’re doing. Common Weal is an unusual think tank. We’re not beholden to a particular political party, or to government funding (while the Scottish Government funded the project I’ve just mentioned, neither I nor Common Weal took a fee or compensation from that pot – not even expenses), and our policy programme isn’t dictated to us by the demands of advertisers or funding bodies.
We’re supported by you and people like you. While this means that our funding is a fraction of what it could be (seriously, the First Minister earns more in a year than Common Weal as a whole does), it gives us the freedom to live our principles. If you’re not already a donor or if you know someone who might like to sign up and start supporting us, then please visit our donate page.
Other than that, my final message of the year is my hope that you all have a peaceful and happy winter break – however you may mark it – and that I’ll be back in the New Year rested, full of cheese and raring to go. I’ll see you there.
"Far right fail in Perth, Peterhead and Aberdeen
FAR-RIGHT attempts to intimidate refugees and spread their hateful propaganda were seen off by solidarity in Aberdeen, Perth and Peterhead at the weekend.
A handful of racists had hoped to whip up the kind of unrest their fellow mobsters had achieved in Nuneaton and Epping in recent weeks, hoping to coax along locals with fabricated tales of the dangers to children that refugees pose — despite a number of Patriotic Alternative and Homeland activists themselves having a string of convictions for offences against children.
Less than 100 stood with the far right in the city Perth, outnumbered more than two to one by a joint mobilisation of trade unionists and Stand Up to Racism activists.
In Aberdeen, the long-term work of the local trades council in countering misinformation was seen to pay off with numbers on the far-right rally halving since their last effort, reaching just 50 at its peak while the counterdemonstration topped 200.
Praising the efforts of comrades from across the north-east to step up to meet the far-right challenge, Aberdeen TUC president Tommy Campbell told the Star: 'We are very proud to have stood with the good people of conscience in Peterhead and Aberdeen who came together to stand up to attempts by the far right to stir up hate in our communities.
In Aberdeen, we are also pleased that the numbers on the far-right demonstration were reduced in number and we outnumbered them four to one: a testament to the efforts of everyone pointing to the real threats.'
'We are all Jock Tamson’s bairns. We should be pointing the blame for this country’s ills not at those who seek refuge but the billionaire class — and that’s a fight we will continue.'"
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/far-right-fail-perth-peterhead-and-aberdeen
"white beach cove"
Ardnamurchan, Scotland
#TravelCat #Photography #TravelPhotography #Scotland #Coast #Highlands #Landscape #LandscapePhotography #Ardnamurchan #Beach #Cove #WhiteSand #BayOfThePledges
"white beach cove"
Ardnamurchan, Scotland
#TravelCat #Photography #TravelPhotography #Scotland #Coast #Highlands #Landscape #LandscapePhotography #Ardnamurchan #Beach #Cove #WhiteSand #BayOfThePledges
"Falkirk anti-fascists building unity
The determined solidarity demonstrations against anti-refugee protests are under attack, but are building a Scotland-wide mobilisation that could be decisive, reports Lewis Akers
The aggression and threats of violence towards anti-racists continued to ramp up this week after over three months’ worth of anti-refugee protests from Save Our Futures, the local racist organisation.
On Wednesday evening, a number of anti-racists gathered outside the hotel to oppose the anti-refugee protest. Wednesday nights are well known by anti-racists as having flash points where anti-refugee protestors feel bolder and act more aggressively. After the usual barrage of racist bile and abuse, counter-protestors made an exit and were followed by masked racists. A group of them started squaring up to a young woman and her mum before an anti-racist counter-protestor stood between them and was met with a punch. This was reported to the police at the time and after but no arrests were made despite it happening in plain sight.
On Saturday, again anti-racists gathered to stand united against the racists. The day kicked off with songs sung by the choir Protest in Harmony who welcomed the refugees in the hotel via song. While the choir sung, they were met with a barrage of hate from racist protestors telling them to ‘go back to the church’ and to ‘shut up’, all for singing protest songs, so much for free speech!
At one point during the demonstration, anti-refugee protestors on the other side moved en masse to confront the police over the arrest of an attendee who was reported to be breaching bail conditions by being within the vicinity of the protests. Save Our Futures still insist, despite a number of arrests on their side, that they and their supporters are peaceful and law abiding, despite the fact that there have been more arrests associated with anti-refugee protestors than men housed in the Cladhan Hotel.
As the counter-demonstration came to an end, anti-racists moved out in a disciplined and peaceful way. A number of attempts were made by Save Our Futures protestors to intimidate anti-racists including by a key organiser. Stewards swiftly dealt with these attempts at intimidation by standing their ground and forcing the police to intervene and stop any possibility of an escalation by Save Our Futures. One anti-racist was told by a masked racist that he would be coming to her house because he knew where she lived."
https://www.counterfire.org/article/falkirk-anti-fascists-building-unity/
The Northern Scot has an article about the group planning a far right rally in Inverness this weekend.
"Falkirk anti-fascists building unity
The determined solidarity demonstrations against anti-refugee protests are under attack, but are building a Scotland-wide mobilisation that could be decisive, reports Lewis Akers
The aggression and threats of violence towards anti-racists continued to ramp up this week after over three months’ worth of anti-refugee protests from Save Our Futures, the local racist organisation.
On Wednesday evening, a number of anti-racists gathered outside the hotel to oppose the anti-refugee protest. Wednesday nights are well known by anti-racists as having flash points where anti-refugee protestors feel bolder and act more aggressively. After the usual barrage of racist bile and abuse, counter-protestors made an exit and were followed by masked racists. A group of them started squaring up to a young woman and her mum before an anti-racist counter-protestor stood between them and was met with a punch. This was reported to the police at the time and after but no arrests were made despite it happening in plain sight.
On Saturday, again anti-racists gathered to stand united against the racists. The day kicked off with songs sung by the choir Protest in Harmony who welcomed the refugees in the hotel via song. While the choir sung, they were met with a barrage of hate from racist protestors telling them to ‘go back to the church’ and to ‘shut up’, all for singing protest songs, so much for free speech!
At one point during the demonstration, anti-refugee protestors on the other side moved en masse to confront the police over the arrest of an attendee who was reported to be breaching bail conditions by being within the vicinity of the protests. Save Our Futures still insist, despite a number of arrests on their side, that they and their supporters are peaceful and law abiding, despite the fact that there have been more arrests associated with anti-refugee protestors than men housed in the Cladhan Hotel.
As the counter-demonstration came to an end, anti-racists moved out in a disciplined and peaceful way. A number of attempts were made by Save Our Futures protestors to intimidate anti-racists including by a key organiser. Stewards swiftly dealt with these attempts at intimidation by standing their ground and forcing the police to intervene and stop any possibility of an escalation by Save Our Futures. One anti-racist was told by a masked racist that he would be coming to her house because he knew where she lived."
https://www.counterfire.org/article/falkirk-anti-fascists-building-unity/
The Northern Scot has an article about the group planning a far right rally in Inverness this weekend.
Someone keeps taking our Activist Fair posters down so someone has recreated it as a drawing, it is better than the original.
Saturday 22n Nov, from 11am @ Dunbar Hall #Aberdeen #Scotland
More info https://aberdeensocialcentre.org/fair/
Someone keeps taking our Activist Fair posters down so someone has recreated it as a drawing, it is better than the original.
Saturday 22n Nov, from 11am @ Dunbar Hall #Aberdeen #Scotland
More info https://aberdeensocialcentre.org/fair/
Today (Saturday 8th Nov) we have another racist protest outside refugee accommodation in Aberdeen, at 3pm on Don Street.
Please share and come to the counter-protest to show racism and xenophobia is not welcome in Aberdeen
There is also a protest in Fraserburgh if you are near there please share and attend - https://kolektiva.social/@ASC/115498096228574147
Today (Saturday 8th Nov) we have another racist protest outside refugee accommodation in Aberdeen, at 3pm on Don Street.
Please share and come to the counter-protest to show racism and xenophobia is not welcome in Aberdeen
There is also a protest in Fraserburgh if you are near there please share and attend - https://kolektiva.social/@ASC/115498096228574147
The Devil's Pulpit in Finnich Glen. After years of driving by, today was the day I stopped and made the descent into the Devil's Pulpit. Famous as a filming location for Outlander and Pokémon. A walk not to be underestimated, very steep, very slippery and very uneven. #DevilsPulpit #Scotland #Waterfall #LongExposure #Nature #NaturePhotography #Landscape #LandscapePhotography #Pokémon #Outlander
Westhill Welcomes Refugees, not Racism!
Community groups and local residents are gathering on Saturday 23 August, from 5-7pm, for a peaceful event outside the Hampton Hotel on Straik Road, Westhill. There will be food, music, colourful banners and messages of hope for the refugees living there.
Why Now? Throughout August, angry protesters have targeted people seeking asylum across the UK, standing outside their homes and shouting threats and abuse. This has happened at two hotels in Aberdeen. Westhill is their next target.
These protesters - often bussed in from all over Scotland - say it’s about local concerns. So why are they targeting vulnerable people who have nothing to do with government cuts to public services? Protesters have zero evidence for their accusations about hotel residents, who are stuck here while the Home Office deals with a backlog of paperwork, and who volunteered to clear our parks after Storm Floris.
Imagine fleeing your home, leaving everything behind to escape war or persecution, and suddenly finding yourself not only alone in a new country, but unable to go outside because a terrifying mob is threatening your life.
This is our community and we cannot let our neighbours be treated this way.
If you’re thinking, “plenty of folk will be there, I’ll go if they turn up again,” please note: Saturday will be the fifth such demonstration in our area in just three weeks - it is vital we stand together NOW and reject this message of hate!
Please join us in a spirit of friendship and compassion to say “Our Community Cares.”
Westhill welcomes refugees, not racism!
For the last two weeks in Aberdeen we have had racists targeting the refugee hotel at the links, this weekend they have moved their target to the hotel at the Lang Stracht.
The people of Aberdeen need to stop this hate, they are cynically using 'women and children' as cover for their racism and xenophobia, and attacking the most vulnerable in the city.
Saturday 16th August at 5:30 pm at the Sure Hotel off the Lang Stracht, come by with friends and show that Aberdonians will not stand for this bigotry
GIVE RACISM TWO FINGERS.
Please share and boost the event.
