Wednesday 22 April 2015

LESSONS HAVE NOT BEEN LEARNED

I've had it in mind for a few days to write something about some of the interventions that have been coming from London politicians and commentators about the SNP.

So many of them have now put their two pennyworth in that it seems to be almost impossible to keep up...

Sarah Vine, (close mate of Cameron's wife, and wife herself of the funny looking, snippy wee man who reminds me of a Hogwarts house elf, and who managed to lock himself in a toilet on his first day as Chief Whip) warning that the SNP with its small numbers of MPs in a British parliament, would turn the country into a communist dictatorship.

We all know about Mr Major insisting that no one who is not standing for the parliament should be allowed to pass an opinion on the subject. His announcement of where he is standing is expected shortly.

The along came Boris, with his usual lack of tact and diplomacy, to liken Nicola Sturgeon to king Herod, the bloke, you'll remember, that had all the kids in his country killed, lest one of them turn out to be competition to him in the king stakes.

Then you get Cameron announcing that he intends to set up inspections of the work of the Scottish parliament... So much for the most power for any devolved parliament in the world, anywhere. Way to get our approval, Poshboy.

 Anyway, I've spared you from my thoughts becasue I saw THIS and could never have bettered it. 

Every day someone launches an attack or vitriol at the SNP or at Nicola personally. 

What I can't understand for the life of me is why, over the last few months, they haven't learned that that kind of thing doesn't actually do a lot of good.

OK. In the referendum they alternately love bombed us and blasted us with hatred. A teary-eyed Cameron one minute saying how it would break his heart if Scotland left (presumably because whatever else he was remembered for ...very little I suspect... he would go down in history as the prime minister who lost Scotland)... and the next they screamed at us that we would be broke within a month, they'd take our currency away from us, bar us from EU membership and put up barbed wire border posts. We really were too wee, poor and stupid to do what Iceland could do with its 400,000 population.

None of that worked. The more they ranted, the more the YES numbers rose. From 22% at the beginning to over 50%. They panicked, got Gordon to come out of retirement to promise Federalism, because they had known all along that that was the most popular option... and, as we know, they won the day 55/45.

But we also know that the day after the queen purred down the phone at him, Cameron stuck a great big evel knife in Gordon's back. Voting on English laws in the UK parliament would exclude Scottish MPs. (Not desperately unfair in my opinion: why should a Scottish MP vote on English matters for which he has no responsibility to his constituents?) But effectively this meant that Labour would almost never again really be in power, even if it won a UK election. The Tories would nearly always be able to vote down Labour's legislation for England, because the Tories would nearly always be in an English majority.

Game, Set and Match, Cameron.

The Eton boy famously said that he had Alex Salmond bagged, stuffed and mounted on his wall after the referendum. Given what has happened since he may well live to regret that!  What he really had on his wall though, was Ed Miliband. And Ed had signed the vow, and Gordon had made it credible. Sheesh, how they must have broken out the good Bolly that night.

If I'd been in any of the major English-based parties at the beginning of the campaign for May 2015, with the SNP in the ascendancy, I think I'd have been looking back at the near past to see if I could learn from the mistakes that were made which led to a post referendum situation where the losers were the winners; where the SNP was the third largest party in the UK with probably around 14 times the number of members in Scotland as their nearest rivals, Labour. And the Greens had at least as many members as Labour.

I might well have ruled out another vow. I'd certainly have ruled out Gordon "I guarantee all this.... oooops" Brown.  And I think, given its obvious popularity, I'd have ruled out gratuitous insults of the SNP and its leadership.

Who do they impress, these insults? I wonder if even solid Labour voters like to hear Sturgeon being likened to a child murderer by a posh boy whose party has overseen thousands of deaths of our poorest people by cancelling their social security payments just weeks before their deaths. 

Maybe some people are amused by these things, but you don't convert floating voters with that kind of talk. 

If you don't believe this, look at the debates where the unionists ganged up on Nicola and Patrick, or just Nicola, and then look at the SNP membership spike that followed them.
I can't quite work out why the London parties are so intent on committing political suicide.

In the referendum campaign I always thought that they would find a way at the end to scupper our hopes. 

I couldn't, of course, guess what it would be. You'll remember that I proposed it might be a terrorist plot to bomb Holyrood, foiled by the might of the British Empire's secret police. (Not difficult if they had organised it.) 

Or maybe the death of a senior but expendable royal.  

Or the wedding of Harry to someone or other, anyone will do,  and great rejoicing and celebrations throughout the land. 

I must admit I never saw coming the Vow or the Clunking Fist guaranteeing it.

I still think it quite possible that they have something up their sleeve for a couple of days before the election. 

Please let it be Gordon again. That would just be so funny.
***********

PS.... A propos de Gordon, I have just read this tweet from Iain:


It's 2! "All we need is Gordon Brown trundled out like Mons Meg for one last blast against the Nats". My Herald column tomorrow.

22 comments:

  1. "I still think it quite possible that they have something up their sleeve for a couple of days before the election." You can bet yir bottom dollar there will be...............regards, Ronnie.

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    1. Aye Ronnie... but what?

      Any ideas?

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  2. Tris

    I agree and I suspect that they might have something up their sleeve to throw at the voters before the big day but I think they also might just have this one wrong. I still don't think the SNP will get anything like 50 MPs but even I'm starting to think that 30 plus is possible and that in it'self will be a huge achievement.

    What I suspect they are learning is that they threw away most, if not all, of pretty much what they had left to save their union and believe that at the very least another referendum is at best 10 years away at the earliest. Enough time to suck the life out of Scotland or deliver more devolution that will forever put Scotland at a disadvantage knowing that Labour will follow them to hell and back.

    But I have spoken to former Labour voters who feel that they were well and truly shafted by Labour, not by the Vow specifically but falling for the lies that they have seen for themselves everyday all around them. Scotland is not getting real power, Scotland can't end benefit sanctions, bring about the conditions for social unity and social justice, create employment. What I suspect people are learning is that anything Scotland does cannot and will not give it any slight advantage over what is happening in England, that Scotland cannot do away with the worst of the neo liberal attacks on the poor and they have seen that actually the Labour Party, not the Tories, were the ones to block even the smallest concession coming to Scotland via the Smith Commission stitch up.

    I think people are also seeing that we only live in a democracy when it is on London's terms, on the terms dictated by a very small elite who will not for one minute allow their influence, their power or their wealth to be diminished in any way. The other side of the coin is though that this unionist cabal are seeing the start of the real march to independence and they know that they won't be able to stop it the next time. They have got to make Scotland poorer, esp with oil etc picking up, the world economy picking up, they know that they have to cement the shocking victorian style conditions we live under and make them law. Many will think this is my conspiracy rant but I really believe we live in a country even more disgusting than places like Libya because our so called betters detroy our spirit and kill us slowly, their cruelty is unforgivable and there may be a pay back on the way in the short term and I really believe independence in the longer term but I will live to see it.

    Bring it on I say, I'm up for it.

    Bruce

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    1. Good post there, Bruce.

      The deal is that the "greatest devolution of power, ever" has been watered down, firstly by Cameron's EVEL announcement (which left Labour going into Smith, wanting to devolve as little power as possible, on the basis that every thing that is devolved becomes something that Labour could nevermore control in England).

      You can understand why they don't want to give up any power there. Why would anyone vote for them if they, as the country's government, had no power in 85% of the state?

      Secondly it was watered down by the Tory Cabinet (most specifically IDS and Theresa).

      Then parliament got its hands on it and a shed load of unelected peers came crashing down on it.

      But every time they treat us like second class members of the union, they push some more people into the independence camp.

      The demographics of the Yes/No divide show that one day we will be independent. The obviousness of that may be harsh, but young people want it, old people don't. To put it crudely...who will die first...?

      What I think the London government will do now, is to try to reduce the amount of power Scotland (and Wales) has. (I doubt they will dare touch NI.)

      What we need to do is make sure that we have enough Scottish MPs to stop them. It's no use counting on Labour. Scotland may be important to them, from the point of view that they have been used to getting 40+ MPs from here, but the main goal for them is the power of being in charge in England and on the world stage.

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    2. PS... interesting post on your blog (which I still can't comment on).

      It's hard to even imagine Michael Gove as being Scottish... or Tony Blair, who clearly loathed the place.

      Gordon Brown
      John Reid
      Alistair Darling
      Lord Falconer
      Douglas Alexander
      Alistair Carmichael
      Tony Blair
      Ian Duncan Smith
      Yvette Cooper
      Michael Fallon
      Michael Gove
      Robin Cook

      Seriously, who do you identify there with being Scottish?

      Most of them, seriously, I had no idea. IDS? Yvette Cooper?

      And Brown who said he was North British.

      As for the Warmonger, who'd want to claim that monster?

      Even the North Korean government would be ashamed to admit he came from there.

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    4. When we look at the list of inhabitants of the village of the damned maybe it is us after all,
      maybe we are just as terrible a country as they would have us believe,
      naw
      wheres my tshirt that says
      "Its not me its you"

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    5. When we look at the list of inhabitants of the village of the damned maybe it is us after,
      maybe we are just as terrible a country as they would have us believe,
      naw
      wheres my tshirt that says
      "Its not me its you"

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    6. No. We are just like most other countries. There are good and bad amongst us.

      But they desperately don't want us to go it alone, because we'd be like Denmark or Norway. Yes that would be good for us. Have you seen how their ordinary people live?

      But when did you last see the Norwegian or Danish Prime Minister called to the White House for a conference, and strutting the world stage as a leader with Obama, Merkel, the Saudi King and the Chinese President?

      Never?

      It's what they want more than anything.

      Worrying about trains running on time and social security in the backstreets of Edinburgh, are well beneath their dignity. No one goes down in world history for getting the drains sorted

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  3. oh botheration I was going pen something along this theme. As well folks, you've been saved from reading PP's musing for a while. Seems like there is a God.

    Good post Tris. I think MSM have gone to defcon hysterical, fully bypassing defcon havering. Still it isn't over until the votes are counted. Since postal votes are already out, maybe Ruth Davidson can let us know who is winning at the moment :-)

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    1. Oh lord, I'm sorry PP...

      There's probably room for more on the subject though. It is after all, pretty important.

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  4. One lesson Scottish unionists should have learned is that there is no union.
    The london establishment view Scotland as a colony in the same way as say Australia was and the idea of e.g.Australians having any say in the running of their country (England) is complete anathema to them.
    We are supposed to know our place and vote for candidates carefully selected by Westminster for our consideration.
    Anything else is undemocratic in their view.
    Strange people.

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    1. Yes, that is now as clear as day.

      They forget that for 290 years we were directly ruled from London and with only around 10% of the MPs had very little power to alter our own laws.

      Scottish laws were made in London by MPs from all over the union, many of whom had never been anywhere near Scotland.

      Even today the Scottish grand committee has to have English Tories in it because they can't have ministers and their only MP is a minister, albeit a crap one.

      So effectively we have people deciding on our futures, who have absolutely no personal stake in them, and no chance of going back to their constituencies on Friday and facing the wrath of their constituents.

      Just like no one ever had to face the wrath of Canadians, Indians, Australians or any of the other nationalities that the British Empire ran roughshod over.

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  5. Excellent post, Tris.
    You summed up exactly how I feel today.

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  6. Good article. Boris Is an idiot who I actually quite like, provided he doesn't become Prime Minister. "What does this button do? Oops..."

    But the unionists don't need Broon to come out.......Neil Hay just dropped a clanger which has immediately switched attention to the "Nasty Nats".

    Nicola was right to question how her opponents deal with abuse from their side, but she should have booted Hay out of the door. Anyone who hides their identity to start insulting people does not deserve public office. I know it's not exactly a hanging offence, but the man wants to represent all his constituents. Nicola has been working hard to promote the message of the SNP wanting to help everyone, then this happens.

    Attacking your opponents rarely works, as demonstrated by the unionist attacks on the SNP and highlighted above. But you never, ever insult the electorate.

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    1. Casting stones springs to mind.

      http://wingsoverscotland.com/a-serious-case-of-hypocrisy/

      Posting anonymously, doesn't really give weight to comments either.
      NB. The name I use is a combo of my name and my wife's, if you care to look back through Munguin's posts you will find my full name and where I stay, along with a description of what I do for a living and what I look like, I have nothing to hide nor an agenda to follow.

      Speaking of hiding identities, what about the Scottish office, leaking a lie and blaming a subordinate?

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    2. Yes, I'm inclined to agree.

      Ordinary people...that is to say, not politicians or spokesmen for them or their employees can say what we want, although it may be at the risk of losing friends. Politicians can;t afford that.

      From what I understand Hay let the SNP down.

      I'm not sure what the procedure for getting rid of someone less than 28 days from the election is though. People have already voted. If someone is no longer standing can they have their vote back?

      I felt vaguely sorry for Kez today, after her tongue lashing from the FM she truly looked like she reckoned that she'd chosen the wrong job. But she is follows Smart on Twitter; indeed has had lengthy exchanges with him on it. She'd have done better not to deny knowing anything about it. The man is a serial insulter most nights after 10 pm.

      Anyway, the good thing to come out of today, is that Gordon's vowed that if they win they will give £5000 to each food bank in Scotland. That should keep them going for, goodness, days and days.

      I do hope they are not going to starve the English, Welsh and Irish poor.

      :)

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    3. I post anonymously because 4 years ago I suffered online abuse by someone who still posts regularly on various blogs. (Not this one I must add). Maybe being paranoid, but I have little trust of social media now. I don't have my own blog or Twitter account. I don't troll or insult people. I understand why people are wary of anonymous posters, but social media can be a minefield, as Hay has found out.

      Tris as you point out we're too close to the election for any action. I believe that is what has saved Hay. Added to that the seat is a Labour (very) marginal, so any damage is unlikely to affect the result.

      But as the tweets were posted about 2 years ago, it make you wonder what else is waiting. The media must have had Hay's stuff under wraps for a while.

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    4. I'm sorry to hear of your experience Anon.

      I worry sometimes that the casualness of "on-line" relationships of any kind, will damage people later in life, when they find that they can't treat people face to face when way that they have been used to in cyberworld.

      Politicians should understand that it rarely does their argument any good to troll or be hateful to someone who opposes them. possibly we are all guilty of it from time to time. Some of my blog comments are far from flattering, especially about people whom I seriously loathe...Iain Duncan Smith comes readily to mind.

      The SNP has been relatively good at getting rid of people who might be embarrassing to them. I doubt that Mr Hay will escape censure, but as you say, it's too late to put up another candidate, if for no other reason, becasue people have already voted.

      I wonder what will come to light the day before the election when even someone as forensic as Rev Stuart Campbell, won't have the time to put some balance into the situation.

      Dugdale, though, would have been advised to avoid it, given some of the poison that comes for prominent Labour people on line. She's ended up putting herself in a situation where she seems to be out of touch with what is happening with her own team.

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  7. Great post Tris, Munguin owes you payment, not a raise as you do not get paid.

    It's amusing to hear the great wailing and gnashing of teeth, from these buffoons; when Scotland actually might have a voice for once.

    It's called democracy stupid! It's what you begged, threatened and loved bombed us for, get used to it.

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    1. Thank you. Munguin has promised that on my 100th birthday he will take me out for a meal.

      So, that's something to look forward to. But I won't start working up an appetite just yet!

      Democracy? Yes, they may just be finding out what that means.

      I see that Digby Jones has said that it could be the end of First Past the Post... now that it seems to be working in our favour and no longer in theirs.

      He predicts everyone getting on British Airways flights if the SNP has any influence.

      I'd advise them to fly Emirates. In my experience BA is marginally worse than Ryan Air and ten times as expensive. At least with Ryan Air the flight staff have lovely accents!

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