Hold your nerve...

It's taken over a week for me to come to grips with what is going on with politics in the UK as well as Scotland.  I do apologise for this, however, here goes:

Let's get one thing straight right now; despite what many would have us believe, the SNP won the General Election in Scotland.  To win 35 seats after winning the most seats in the Holyrood elections and making gains in the Council elections too, I think it's a great achievement.  So to those who claim that indyref2 is should be taken from the table, I simply say, "get stuffed".  The SNP will never have a clearer mandate that they do right now.

However, I am absolutely furious with the likes of Tommy Sheppard, Kenny MacAskill and the rest who are claiming that Nicola Sturgeon should withdraw indyref2.  Sheppard also makes the ridiculous claim that the Party needs to move further Left, ehm, no Tommy it doesn't.  If he's not happy then he can leave.  Simple as that.  I've never had much time for him anyway.

I have been surprised at how quiet the leadership seems to be at the moment but I trust Nicola Sturgeon's judgement.  This is something I think the Party membership needs to do.

Hold your nerve. 

Let them have it...

I am sitting here on the other end of a computer staring at a screen and I feel angry, no, make  that...really angry.  Why?  Well, in all honesty, and I can't believe that I am going to be so blunt here, but just how f*****g stupid do people in Scotland need to be that they are happy to tactically vote for a Tory candidate in order to stop an SNP candidate being voted in?  Really!  Please someone tell me!  How stupid are they?

This Tory government are one of the most evil and incompetent government's we have ever had and yet...and yet there are quite a number of clowns out there who are happy to vote for them.  Their contempt for the administrations in Scotland, Ireland and Wales by not even discussing Brexit with them is breathtaking.  Even now,  they still have no idea what they are going to do.  Oh yes, they posture and gesticulate to Europe, and for what?  For May to openly admit that she will walk away with no deal if she has to.  Already there are companies moving their successful businesses to an EU-based country.  This is only going to increase.  We are all going to suffer for this.  But hey, let's vote for them as long as it isn't the SNP.  If you vote for a Tory candidate then you support:

• The Rape Clause
• Infants losing their free meal at school
• Old people having to use their houses as collateral for their care.

But...even more than that...you're a traitor to your own country.  Are you really happy to see Scotland being pulled out of the EU against her wishes in order to stay in the UK?  Are you ready for the job losses, the economic collapse that will happen?  Is the UK worth that much to you?  Your own children's, grand-children's and their children's futures will be very hard and for what?  An incompetent Tory government and a UK that doesn't care about you or your country.

Is it really so bad that the SNP are asking that once we have seen the Brexit deal that the people of Scotland should be able to decide if it's for them by having another referendum?  Is it really that bad?

The trouble is that the SNP have made it very easy for the other Parties to snipe at them because they have, by and large, been very good in not only Westminster, but Holyrood too.  Yes, they have made some mistakes and not everything goes to plan, but, and this is a very big point I have to make here:  they have protected the people of Scotland from the Bedroom Tax, Prescription charges, Uni fees and Winter Fuel Payments.  The NHS in Scotland is the best performing in the whole of the UK.  And still there are ungrateful gits out there moaning.  Even today, Nicola Sturgeon pledged to protect the care for the elderly.  So, I have an idea for the SNP (an idea which they'll rightly ignore) stop protecting Scotland from the worst of this useless government.  Introduce uni fees, prescription charges, means-test Winter-Fuel Payments and bring in the Bedroom Tax.  Let the Scots take the full hit.  Labour, Tories and LibDems won't be able to moan because those are the very policies they defend by wanting Scotland in the UK.  If those policies are good enough for the English and the Welsh then they're good enough for the Scots.

You don't know how good you have it in Scotland, you're spoiled and it's all thanks to successive SNP administrations.  If you want something to moan about come and live down in England, that'll shut you up.  Actually it probably won't, you'd still blame the SNP.

Let them have it Nicola, let them have it all.

The great unwashed...

Well it would seem that in Scotland, politically at least, the SNP have become the great unwashed. No-one wants to work with them.  Arguably, we could agree that along with the Greens, Labour and the Liberal Democrats, these parties have worked either on the Left or centre Left.  No any more. Labour and the LibDems seem to be rather happy working with the Tories.  Take Aberdeen for example.

You may find these tweets by Guy Ingerson very helpful:

They have 4 Cllrs so could have supported SNP admin (19 Cllrs, 23 if Lib Dems had supported them)

SNP reach out to Labour (9 Cllrs)

— Guy Ingerson (@guy_ingerson) 17 May 2017

This new admin would have a Co-Leadership to soften the pill (legality still in question). However, Scottish Lab HQ ruled out ANY deal.

— Guy Ingerson (@guy_ingerson) 17 May 2017

While Labour implode internally, their Tory allies decide to 'help' by electing Lab leader as the Council leader (de facto their leader)

— Guy Ingerson (@guy_ingerson) 17 May 2017

Labour claim to have 'won' & that their manifesto will be implemented in full

Tories support as they have no manifesto... (No #IndyRef2 )

— Guy Ingerson (@guy_ingerson) 17 May 2017

Meanwhile the Lib Dems sit on their hands -1 Cllr, the SNP cry foul, Labour in chaos, Tories rubbing hands with glee & we Greens despair...

— Guy Ingerson (@guy_ingerson) 17 May 2017

Up-date. The Labour Cllrs are now, temporarily, not Labour Cllrs (Lab now -9 Cllrs, Ind Cllr +12).

Shambles.https://t.co/hnJZwU0TzK

— Guy Ingerson (@guy_ingerson) 17 May 2017

 

All eyes are on Kezia Dugdale.  What will she do.  To her credit she did say no deals with any Party that supported austerity.  If it were me I’d sack the lot of them. They’ll continue as independents or maybe even join the Tory Party.  I don’t really care, I’m more interested in seeing if she has any moral backbone as a leader.

As for the people of Aberdeen, and really this is a country-wide issue.  If you are stupid enough to vote for Tories and Labour then you’ll get what you deserve.  You were all warned before the Local Elections. Unfortunately, the people in Aberdeen may pay a heavy price.

The Tory cesspit runs deep...

If you don’t already know who this is, please let me introduce you to James Heappey.  Mr Heappey is the Tory candidate for Wells in Somerset.

This ball of charm was talking to a group at an all-girls school, when one of them, who was Scottish, said that she supported independence (wise girl). Did Mr Heappey just have a laugh with her about this? Oh no, not him, this guy decided to tell her to, “f**k off back to Scotland then”.  That’s right, he actually told a school girl to f**k off.  When talking to the Sunday Mirror he said it was meant as a joke and that no offence was intended.

You’d think an ex Army major would have more sense and be a bit more courteous to a young lady. Putting aside the misogynistic attitude of what he said, there lies the more serious problem that the Tories just cannot hide their contempt for Scotland or indeed the Scottish, which begs the question, why would any self-respecting person in Scotland vote for the Conservatives?

I know that the Unionist vote up there seems to be gathering under their banner, but, and again, I have to ask, why would they?  I know that I couldn’t vote for a Party that holds my country in contempt. Indeed just look at the Tory talent-free that is their list MSP’s.  Murdo Fraser and Adam Tomkins. They have never hidden their disdain for Holyrood, yet they don’t seem to  mind taking a very good salary for being members of it.   Yet, and yet, incredibly they are given air time to spout their nonsense.

We have had almost a week of various Tory Councillors either being suspended or getting embroiled in one scandal or another; usually around the topics of racism or sexism.   We have rape-clause Ruth trying to politicise   Irish politics for her own opportunistic gains (she failed rather spectacularly).

I’ve tried to think of reasons why people in Scotland would vote Tory or against independence and I have come to some rather stark conclusions (all of which could be wrong…it does happen from time-to-time). You’ll vote Tory because:

• You don’t really care about what happens to Scotland at all as long as it stays in the UK.
• You don’t care that the Tories despise you.
• You’re British – not Scottish regardless of how ugly being British looks like right now.

If, like me, you wouldn’t vote Tory, even if it was the only option on the ballot, then please, any Unionists who vote Labour, do not, DO NOT, vote for a Party that hates you.

In truth we fought each other mair...

That title is a line from one of my dad's songs called Scotland Yet.  If you have an interest in Scottish folk music my dad is Davy Steele, and he wrote Scotland Yet just before the vote for devolution.  However, that song seems more relevant today than it did then.

One look at my Twitter feed from last night and this one line came to mind.  Unionists and Independence supporters at each other, and now unfortunately, we see that Unionist or British Nationalists will now vote Tory instead of Labour and LibDem in order to beat the SNP.  I wouldn't, couldn't vote for another Party if it went against my politics.  So shame on those Labour/LibDem supporters who will sell their souls to keep Scotland shackled to the UK.

When I suggested that free uni fees, free prescriptions and the best performing NHS in the UK were good results I was met with:

'Cutting grants means fewer students from poor backgrounds going into University' and 'Nobody who couldn't afford it paid for prescription and now well off folk are getting free toothpaste etc which is wrong'.

Maybe I am wrong, but it seems that if it's a good, working SNP policy then Unionists will still moan, no-matter-what, because people are having no difficulty in voting for a party that wants women to prove that they were raped, has taken mobility cars from the disabled and has implemented policies that has seen a sharp increase in the number of people using food banks, and the list goes on.  Their priorities are completely screwed up.  I don't know what's happening to Scotland, I thought the people there were better than that, evidently I was wrong.

We really do fight each other mair.