A pro-independence blog by James Kelly - voted one of Scotland's top 10 political websites.
Monday, July 1, 2024
My day out in Dundee: the Alba manifesto launch, HMS Unicorn, and the Frenchman who was hellbent on giving me money
Labour in Scotland are running on two of the most fraudulent slogans since George Bush said "Read my lips, no new taxes"
Those two slogans are -
"This is an opportunity Scotland can't afford to miss!"
If the opportunity here is "a Labour government", that's a rather rum opportunity Scotland couldn't miss even if it tried. The voters of England decide general elections in the UK, and with three days to go there is no remaining doubt that they will elect a Labour government with a landslide. There is, however, an opportunity that Scotland does have and can choose and therefore could miss, and that is the opportunity to have an independent bloc of Scottish MPs as a counterweight to an all-powerful Starmer government and that will speak up for Scotland rather than being sycophantic cheerleaders for every decision made in London. "An opportunity you can't afford to miss" really means "please miss the only opportunity you have, because we want to be able to do whatever the hell we like without anyone even being there to question us".
Oh, and by the way, Ian Murray as Secretary of State of Scotland is an opportunity that any sensible person can easily afford to miss, thank you very much.
"The change that Scotland needs"
If the election in Scotland is defined mainly as a contest between the SNP and Labour, then the SNP represent the radical change of independence and Labour represent the no change position - both constitutionally and in every other sense, because they are committed to largely continuing Tory policies when in power. Labour have spent the last seventeen years running in terror from the radical change the SNP represents and doing everything they can to prevent and frustrate it. They see this election as a golden opportunity to finally put an end to all hopes of change in Scotland once and for all. To run on a "change" pitch in that context is the height of cynicism - in fact it's Orwellianism on stilts.
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I have two more constituency profiles in The National - North Ayrshire & Arran and North East Fife
Motherwell and Western Isles constituency previews
I've written previews of the constituency races in Motherwell, Wishaw & Carluke and Na h-Eileanan an Iar for The National - you can read them HERE and HERE.
One point I was half-toying with making in the Na h-Eileanan an Iar piece, but it would have been too much of a digression, was that we've heard a great deal of talk in this election about "change", mostly from politicians who love the status quo, but the Western Isles really are undergoing a profound and negative change. I saw a YouTube video two or three years ago in which an American travels to Lewis to try to track down some genuine Gaelic speakers, but is disappointed to discover that young people who know the language don't actually use it in their day-to-day lives. "But my granny does!" one of them explains.
However, he then spends the evening in a pub, where the youngsters eventually start singing traditional songs in fluent Gaelic. At that point he concludes the language is safe for the future - apparently oblivious to the fact that he's just observed precisely the way in which a language dies, ie. when only the elderly use it as a fully-fledged social language and the young relegate it to a few peripheral spheres.
As far I know Gaelic is still a majority language in places like Uist and Barra, so it still has a toehold and therefore a chance, but it really is in the last chance saloon now and urgent protective action needs to be taken.
On the subject of Motherwell, you might be interested to read this Glasgow Herald article about the Motherwell by-election of April 1945, which was won by the SNP. Even though war was still raging, the two main campaign issues seem to have been Prestwick Airport and the Forth Road Bridge! Jarringly modern...
Sunday, June 30, 2024
Independence BOMBSHELL hits Westminster just days before general election as Yes support rockets to *50%* in new Norstat poll - SNP support increases by 1% as Swinney emerges again as most popular leader in Scotland
It's a great pity that we're four days away from a general election rather than an independence referendum, because we'd be on the brink of victory in the latter if tonight's new Norstat poll is to be believed.
Should Scotland be an independent country? (Norstat)