Dear All
The die is cast, support for Scottish independence has died,
every among the SNP supporters, just after the referendum the result came in as
a strong victory of 55% for keeping Scotland’s current constitutional
arrangement with the UK. The losing side tried to make out that the 45% for Yes
was a strong vote and it could be grown.
That 45% was in part based on emotion; now the cold light of
day has dawned on the people of Scotland who voted ‘Yes’, the SNP aren’t the
people who could ever lead Scotland to independence. If watch events, the old
guard of the SNP are slowly but surely drifting away, the resignation of Angus
Robertson, the defeat of Alex Salmond, and the sidelining of people like Alex
Neil; don’t show rebirth, but a party in terminal decline.
Just as I said that Scottish independence is dead, so is the
direction of the SNP, their record of government proves it, the SNP is a party
in crisis, led by an ineffectual leader in Nicola Sturgeon. The SNP jumped on
the bandwagon of identity politics, where they gave special treatment to
minorities at the expense of all Scots, this created a vacuum. The same vacuum
can also be found in other parties if you chose to look closely enough.
The SNP support was never sustainable for a simple reason,
the SNP are awful in government, they don’t address the needs of the people,
they are incapable of doing their job, and they don’t want to do their job.
That message has found its way down to the rest of the
population, but as well as that the goodwill extended to the SNP by voters is
deserting them. The recent elections under Nicola Sturgeon show this quite
clearly, but as well as that; the support for independence has dropped
significantly to 32%.
2014, the support was 45%, and now barely a little over 3
years later, the support has dropped to 32%, the question is why did the 13%
abandon the cause? The answer is clear; the people of Scotland know
that the current constitutional arrangements are developing.
Developing towards what?
Are we talking about an reinvention of the Union, I would
say yes, the new powers coming to Scotland are a sign of this, Brexit leavers
such as myself have done something which the SNP couldn’t do, delivered a
stronger Scotland.
After Brexit is done and dusted, we will see a politically
stronger Scotland in
terms of powers, but there is something more powerful grown, the people’s
voice, this uncomfortable fact is doing to breakthrough into the public domain
as more people say to politicians, the word….. no!
Adam Tomkins, constitution spokesman for the Scottish
Conservatives, said of the new poll:
“This poll shows that there is no mandate for any more
constitutional wrangling.
“Indeed,
the highest quantity of respondents clearly endorsed the current constitutional
settlement. What all voters want is for the SNP to stop banging on about
independence and start improving health and education.”
This is pretty much a matter of fact statement; the problems
in Scotland in
health and education are ‘unacceptable’; yes the word for those services is
really ‘unacceptable’, we have to prioritise our services for our people.
An example of gesture politics which impacts our services is
the ridiculous nonsense that the SNP want to continue to fund rich European
students by providing them with free tuition while Scottish working class
youngsters are being squeezed out of higher education.
How can that be right that the SNP is denying Scottish
working class youngsters opportunities? The answer is painfully simple, the SNP
don’t care about Scottish working class youngsters, they don’t care about
giving the working class opportunities; in fact the SNP are keen to introduce
measures to further curtail life chances for the poor.
The people of Scotland are
slowly but surely waking up to this nonsense which is why Scotland is
in political flux, the voters are scunnered by what is going on.
The real challenge for the people of Scotland comes
in the election for Holyrood in 2021.
At the moment, the situation is looking very bleak for
Nicola Sturgeon, she goes into that election dreading two things, firstly not
getting an overall majority, and secondly not getting a mandate for a second
independence referendum. Public services and the SNP record will feature
promptly in that campaign and the blame for service failures will rest firmly
at her door!
Finally, have a read at this, is a variation of this model
in the works?
Is this the shape of a possible new United Kingdom ?
One thing is certain, change is coming.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
Ye God's George, do PLEASE get shot of the telex tape format.
ReplyDeleteGo back to the old one, but increase the font size. At least that we can read.
Louis
Interesting! Very interesting, George. I reckon if and when she gives up on indyref2 then it's curtains for her - the party and remaining support would split and shatter, and go off in different directions. Would confederation be the right move? I also reckon it's high time for for Scotland to rid itself of the SNP and do what all of Britain should do in wake of Brexit.
ReplyDeleteMake a fresh start.
Hello George
ReplyDeleteSuperb blog. One of your best this year. I had begun to worry a bit about the fall in support for the tories. Not because I support the tories but because, like so many, I am desperate to see the back of the deadbeat snp. You have cheered me up considerably.
The whole snp episode has seemed like a non stop nightmare to me. I could not believe the ongoing support they seemed to be getting for so long. I am delighted to hear that, at long last, the halfwit nationalists are in serious decline.
Is it just me or does la sturgeon look increasingly haggard and angry these days?
Thanks George.
Auld Jock
cannot come soon enough georgieboy
ReplyDeleteSturgeon believes she's popular and liked. Well i'm ex SNP and i can honestly say 'Ive never came across a more detestable political leader' The damage this weirdo has done to Scottish nationalism will take 50 years or more to repair.
ReplyDeleteThe Swiss describe themselves as a confederation (Confœderatio Helvetica), with a system of highly autonomous local government based on their ‘cantons’. They would not be nearly so stable a country if they had instead created regional assemblies based on their German-, French-, Italian- and Romansh-speaking areas (probably would have split long ago, uniting with their linguistic neighbours).
ReplyDeleteYet we have little need to copy the Swiss when we can study our own past system of at least as highly autonomous local government based on our Royal Burghs.
Holyrood was the wrong Devolution model and its existence prevents us from enjoying a much superior alternative. All Britain once enjoyed genuine devolution until progressively eroded over the course of the 20th Century: a marvellously devolved system of local government that had evolved over centuries, based not on remote regional assemblies or county authorities but on our burghs, with hospitals, welfare (until 1911) and police in their charge (not even the Swiss allow their cantons to run their own police forces). For further reading, see Lord Stoddart, HL Deb (2002–03) 20 Feb 2003 cc1309–1310.
Part of what defines a country and its people is evolving traditions; but a society in a state of permanent revolution, reinventing itself from year to year, is a recipe for instability and discontent. Let’s stop reinventing ourselves, chasing political fads and turning ourselves into an inferior imitation of America; rather, let’s restore what demonstrably works and start defining ourselves as British again by readopting our tried and tested legal and political customs.