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.

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.

The gloves are off...

Bloody hell, I take a few days off for Easter, and missed being able to comment on the great Holyrood boycott from Ruth and her mates.  Ruth Davidson supporting the absolutely ghastly and inhumane rape clause.  Then today, St Theresa of May, she of the 'we are all as one' Party has gone and called a General Election in June.

Down here, in the office, they reckon that May has pulled a blinder and that this will neutralise the SNP in Scotland.  Naturally...I disagree.

In a very short space of time, the people of Scotland need to answer just one question:  what kind of country do I want Scotland to be?

If you are happy to be isolated in the world and tied like some third-rate appendage to England, then vote to stay in the UK.

If however, you want to live in: a forward looking, inclusive, progressive and modern country that makes its own decisions, then it has to be the SNP or the Green Party.

That's it, it's that simple.

It's Official...

So…Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales are not really all that important when it comes to matters of the UK.  Thank you Supreme Court for clearing that up.

Just what is the UK?  We were told that we were a family, a collective, a better type of togetherness.  Well, I think we can safely say that the cat is out the bag and we really aren’t anything at all.   We can do what we’re told, we can go where we’re told to go, but make our own political decisions?  Hell no!

If today’s decision is not enough to sway any Unionists in Scotland to finally see that they are thought of as nothing more than a subject by the British State and they’d be better off in an independent Scotland, then nothing will, and I will always feel sorry for them.

What now though for the SNP, Greens and the broader Yes movement?

The SNP need to really consider their word carefully and make their next move decisive.  Do they or don’t they push for a second referendum?  Sooner or later (preferably sooner) they are going to have make that decision.

The Greens need to keep doing what they are doing: support where necessary and criticise where it’s warranted.

The Yes movement…hmmm well that’s a completely different puzzle altogether.  It can’t be seen to be centred around the SNP, but at the same time I don’t want to see it hijacked by the vacuous mouth-pieces that are Cat Boyd or Angela Haggerty and their ilk.  Who should head it up?  Finance it?  Give it direction?  When some made the battle cry of ‘get the old band back together’ my initial reaction was ‘No! Let’s not”.  They failed the last time.  They didn’t resonate enough with the public.

The Labour Party in Scotland are in terminal decline, The Conservatives in Scotland are very arrogant considering they have 1 MP and a bunch of list MSP’s, as for the Scottish Liberal Democrats, well, one word sums them up – woeful.  We need to look to the SNP, Greens and any independents to look after the best interests for Scotland.

This really is a crucial time for Scotland.  She’s being pulled out of the EU against her will, she’s been slapped down and told that her voice, where Brexit is concerned, is not important.

What happens here, today, will determine the type of country that Scotland will be in the future.

2016...

This post is really one big long rant at all the personal annoyances from 2015:

Scotland voted overwhelmingly for the SNP in the General Election and that support seems to be increasing, which is a great thing, however, told you his is a rant, there are a few things that have annoyed me about all this.  The first one is that the Labour Party in Scotland seem to have nothing more to offer Scotland now other than an SNP Bad mentality.  The recent closure of the Forth Road Bridge, which was totally justifiable, was used by Labour to try and make the SNP look incompetent.  If Labour have nothing positive to add to the political landscape in Scotland then they should just shut up shop and leave.  The second aspect of the General Election result was the ridiculous swearing in of the SNP MP's that we had to endure.  I am an SNP supporter but I found the whole thing to be a complete joke and a total embarrassment.  Was it really necessary for them to make such a pig's ear of it all?

On the plus side, they have been a very good Party in opposition maintaining their discipline and Party unity where others have failed.  This is where I have to mention Labour.

Labour don't seem to really know who they are any more.  Their membership overwhelmingly voted for Jeremy Corbyn as leader and yet their Parliamentary membership don't seem to be able to grasp this.  The fiasco over the bombing of Syria was the lowest point this year for them as a Party.  Those MP's that refuse to get behind Corbyn need to be removed.  It's a simple as that.  Labour needs to get its act together and pretty soon, because, their current weakness, if maintained, could condemn the rest of us to another Tory government after 2020.

The Conservatives have shown themselves to be arrogant and ant-democratic.  Their changing of boundaries (to suit them) and their attempts to curb to the House of Lords after the HoL gave them a bloody nose recently angers me.  No one Party should have the power to make such drastic changes for their own political advantage.

England's recent lurch to the right also angers and concerns me.  Whether Tory or UKIP, the English seem to think it's ok to be selfish and xenophobic at the same time.  There is an increase in the support for the UK to leave the EU.  Do the English really believe that leaving the EU will sort out their problems?  Personally, maybe we should concentrate on ensuring that the big companies such as; Google, Apple and Amazon should pay their proper share of taxes.

I'm hoping that 2016 will be better and we'll see a credible Labour Party in West Minster and that they'll start to hold this government to task.

A painful night...

I really do need to get into the habit of blogging more (even if I do type a load of rubbish).

It has been a few weeks since the General Election was decided, but I have had to take my time in posting anything about it. 

My first reaction was "what the hell have you done England?" but that's far too simplistic.  In all honesty it was a low night with a few silver linings.  My ward is Wirral West, and Esther McVey was defeated - brilliant.  The second was that incredible set of results from Scotland - well done to the SNP.  Other than those though, it was a really bad night for me and for the whole of the UK as a whole (I'll elaborate later).

The campaigns from the so-called main parties were negative: The Tories frightened enough people in England with an image of the SNP dictating to Labour in government (something that I am convinced Cameron will regret). Miliband tried to pander to 'middle England' far too much.  The LibDems?  Well, their campaign was pointless as everyone except them seemed to think they'd be back in coalition government.

The most worrying trend that came out of the General Election was the four million people that voted for UKIP.  I have no time for UKIP or their policies, but I am really shocked/saddened/disappointed that so many people voted for them.  Owen Jones, the Left-wing commentator seems to think that these people need to be engaged by a positive message, but I think that it's too late for that.

I am not very optimistic about the next five years, and I worry for the state of; education, the NHS and for the community spirit within the UK.  The last time the Tories ran government themselves they almost destroyed the country - now Cameron can let his wrecking ball loose on us.

God help us.

Two more weeks to go...

Despite living in England for the past 18 years, I was really hoping that my home country, Scotland, would vote yes in the referendum.  Unfortunately, it was not to be.  Project Fear won the vote…just.

Or did it?

Since that result, the SNP has seen its membership rocket from around twenty thousand to one hundred and five thousand. I am not ashamed to admit that I am one of those new members.  I was numb after the vote and wanted to join the SNP, despite the fact that I live in England.

Now, here we are just over 7 months later and Project Fear II has been launched.

Why?

There are a number of reasons:

Nicola Sturgeon, since becoming leader of the SNP has won many admirers.  She was one of, if not thee top performers in the televised leaders debates.  She has received a lot of support on Twitter from people living in England.

All polls seem to suggest that Labour’s Northern British branch (I refuse to call them Scottish Labour) is facing a whitewash with the SNP predicted to take 50 seats and perhaps leaving Labour with or five seats at best.

The so-called big parties of Westminster are in panic mode and are slinging everything they can at Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP. If I was to be completely honest, they are, in truth running Scotland down too. The Tories have; made noises about Westminster holding the Scottish Parliament to account, put up huge posters in England depicting Ed Miliband in Alex Salmond’s pocket (oh how they must have laughed at that one).

They have been so petty that David Cameron would not even share the sofa with Nicola Sturgeon on a recent episode of the Marr Show.

The Right wing press have portrayed Nicola Sturgeon as ‘The most evil woman in Britain’, and so on. Labour and the Tories both claim that a vote for the SNP is a vote for the other Party. I’m sorry, but they can’t both be correct.

All things considered, the SNP have bounced back and in some style.

It really has been exhausting, and there’s still two more weeks to go.