You've probably heard by now that the unspoofable Tory MP Rory Stewart is using crowdfunding in an attempt to finance his new "Stones Against Self-Determination" project (aka "Plan C"). The highlight of the fundraising page is a photo bearing the caption "the first stages of design", but which actually appears to be of Rory and a couple of groupies randomly performing Tai Chi in a field. He's looking for £50,000, which I would imagine will be quite a challenging target, given that so few of his friends in the Conservative parliamentary party have any spare cash. But in a valiant and self-sacrificing effort to hurry things along, he's offering this irresistible perk to anyone prepared to stump up £1000 -
"£1000 - A walk with Rory Stewart, MP
A tour of The Auld Acquaintance [ie. the pile of stones] followed by a walk in the beautiful Scottish borders with Rory Stewart OBE MP. Rory is an acclaimed author and has walked 6000 miles on foot across Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nepal. More recently, he walked 400 miles across his constituency of Penrith and The Border."
Three hours ago, the first £1000 donation came in from an anonymous benefactor - but he/she decided against claiming the reward of a walk with Rory. It does give a whole new meaning to the phrase "you can't even give it away".
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PS. How exactly do you give someone a "tour" of a pile of stones? Isn't that another way of inviting them to walk in a circle for approximately twenty seconds?
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PPS. Are you as impressed as I am that Rory didn't merely walk 6000 miles, but did it "on foot"?
Not so strange. It's a bit like that Proclaimers song: "And I would walk 500 miles on foot"
ReplyDeleteI hope he has applied for planning permission for his monument to stupidity?
ReplyDeleteYou can walk on your hands too. Sloppy thinking from JK there.
ReplyDeleteYou can walk on your hands too.
ReplyDeleteIf Rory the Tory was offering to give a tour of the 'middle lands' doing that as a donation perk I might have chipped in.
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In the meantime, I posted this elsewhere.
Why not here again....
Also, coming back to ICM's poll which shows the very low (<30%) firm support for the union.
This is of course dropping even lower as each year passes.
Completely against an independent Scotland:
16-24
18%
25-34
19%
35-44
24%
45-54
32%
55-64
36%
65 plus
47%
Unionism is literally dying in Scotland. Youngsters today are the least British of any group in Scotland; up to 72% Scottish only.
I'm not sure how it would be possible to stop this. It's something that has been slowly happening for generations as the purpose of the union (Empire) vanished and what made it most strong (post-war British socialism) is destroyed bit by bit.
If No wins this time, it will only be another union rearguard battle with independence one step closer. Stemming the tide of history is very difficult.
EDIT
Those having a 'British' component ('British' only and 'Scottish + British') to their stated national identity (2011 census):
16-24
21%
25-34
24%
35-44
27%
45-54
28%
55-64
32%
65 plus
32%
The correlation with being open to the idea of independence being quite obvious.
Interestingly, Britishness in Scotland peaks in those born in 1944 at 34.4%, declining to 21% now. The very oldest people are actually less British; for those born in 1926, the figure is 29% and the trend would suggest even lower before that. Britishness is something young and rather short-lived.
Of course these people's identity has changed with time. They feel more Scottish now than they did in the past (in 1979, Scotland was actually 43% British. However, in terms of age vs natID that people say today you still see the rise and fall of British identity associated with the concept of a British society which was intimately linked to the post-war consesus of British socilaism.
It's ironic how Better Together go on about 'pooling and sharing'. Scots were fine with that in principle during the post-war period. Then the UK went right-wing post 1979 and while there was lots of pooling (of Scotland's resources and taxes),
the sharing bit was increasingly focussed only on the wealthy in the SE of England / London.
I guess we might ask, given the seeming inevitability of the end of the union, maybe it would be better to just get it over with in September.
Based on the trend back to the peak of Britishness just after the war, the union has just one fraught - in terms of continuing constitutional crisis - generation left in it at best.
I guess that could have been the Devo Max generation.
It may yet be Generation Yes.
http://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/3417/Ipsos-MORI-Political-Monitor-July-2014.aspx
ReplyDeleteDavid Cameron is highest rated as having what it takes to be a good Prime Minister, with 46% agreeing and 44% disagreeing. He holds a big lead over Ed Miliband; just over one in five (22%) agree the Labour leader has what it takes to be a good Prime Minister, with two thirds (65%) disagreeing...
Just under half (46%) think the economic condition of the country will improve over the next year, with 29% thinking it will stay the same and 21% thinking it will get worse. This gives an Ipsos MORI Economic Optimism Index score (% improve minus % get worse) of +25. This is down from +35 in May, the highest ever Economic Optimism Index score, when 53% thought the economy would improve, though is still high.
Dave will so be our next PM if Scotland votes No. Him and his extra right-wing eurosceptic cabinet.
It's the same in all polls. Ed struggling to get positive ratings any more than the low 20's.
If Cameron's ratings continue as is, Tories will be on for a majority never mind largest party.