Tuesday, June 18, 2013

A value judgement

Kenny Farquharson on Twitter -

"What politicians like to describe as "Scottish values" are shared by tens of millions of English, Welsh and N Irish people."

So why do we keep voting overwhelmingly against the Tories, and ending up either with Tory governments elected by the rest of the UK, or with Labour governments that have had to tack so far to the right to appeal to Middle England that they are indistinguishable from Tory governments? Some people won't like to hear this, but if we measure values according to the governments and policies that people actually vote for, then "Scottish values" are probably shared more by the Nordic countries than they are by the south of England.

But I'll give you Wales, Kenny. Welsh and Scottish values are indeed very similar, as are the values held across large parts of northern England, and some pockets further south. But those areas just aren't strong enough in terms of population to swing the balance.

3 comments:

  1. He also said he "could only assume" that the SNP comparing and contrasting the Scots and English NHS was in order to provoke hatred of the Evil English.

    Perhaps it was to point up how devolved power is beneficial? Crazy I know.

    I can never get over the rabid cyberbrits' lack of self awareness on twitter.

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  2. We are constantly told that we have shared values with America, and when it suits government purposes, with countries in Europe.

    Of course we share some values with some people from every country in the world and we don't share other values.

    However, time and again we vote for a different government from the one voted for in England and time and again our MPs vote against the policies of that government which was voted for largely in the southern part of England where the bulk of the population of these islands is situated.

    I'd agree that I find out values far more in tune with those of the Nordic countries and not particularly similar to those of the Home Counties.

    It's nothing to do with hatred. It has a great deal to do with living in different conditions.

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  3. Agreed, Tris. I wonder if Kenny has a similar problem with the familiar phrase "American values", simply because those values are shared by people in Mongolia and Equatorial Guinea, among other places?

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