The Morning After….

Its been a while folks but hey…a blog!

So… its done. Even I went to bed before Highland came in.

But this morning here we are. We have another SNP Government, we have Reform in our parliament, Labour and the Tories feel like yesterdays men and the Green party feels like the future. The LibDems bimble along the bottom as usual.

There were some sore ones. Losing Skye Lochaber and Badenoch and Caithness and Sutherland to the bimbling LibDems was one, seeing the tories continue their grip on the south of Scotland another, but there were also some delights, Alison Thewlis, Kirsten Oswald and Emma Roddick were my particular favourites.

And now we start again. The media onslaught we faced in the run up to the election which told us how shit Scotland is over and over again will now change to how the SNP hasn’t really won the election after all. Vote share means they haven’t won, pro union parties mean they haven’t won, turnout means they haven’t won, sausages means they haven’t won, the weather, the outlander tv series, clouds, and the price of union flags means they haven’t won!!!!

Lets be clear – the SNP won 58 seats. The nearest other party won 17.

I feel like I should say that again. the SNP won 58 seats. The nearest other party won 17.

That is a definitive win. The gap between the SNP and the other parties is almost twice the number of seats their nearest rivals won.

This gives the SNP an unprecedented fifth term in office and a pro Independence outright majority when you take into account the Greens.

We saw terms being used last night like the SNP “got away with it” and one newspaper used the phrase “cut it fine”.

This is however an emphatic win. And it means that for the first time ever, in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland the Parties committed to leaving the UK have won their respective elections. Thats wild.

So why then? Why are we seeing the SNP keep winning? It seems to baffle the media, the mainstream press, the uk government and many pundits but it seems clear.

The repeated election wins for the SNP reflect the fact that the constitutional question has not been resolved. You can add in loads of other bits and pieces but fundamentally that is it.

Lots of people are blaming Keir Starmer and they have a point but it’s maybe a bit more subtle than you might think.

For years, people have said – just wait til we have a Labour Government, things will be different, Scotland will have its place.

I imagine an Independent Scotland as a fairer better society and see Independence the only way to have a chance of getting that. People who oppose Independence have said to me for years – imagine a Scotland in the UK with a Labour Government. That hope and expectation drove the General Election Results.

Well, we don’t have to imagine anymore. We know what that is like and it’s more of the same lazy, disrespectful crap that we had under the tories. Its the same targetting of the most vulnerable in our society, its the same inequality, its the same jobs for the boys, its the same fuck you for the working class.

That there is no apparent route to an Independence referendum for Scotland is ridiculous. That there are arbitrary comments about super majorities, winning not being winning at all, is an indication that WM is scared. The SNP is winning. They will keep winning until we get a referendum again. The UK government can sit with its fingers in its ears singing Rule Britannia as long as they want. It wont change that.

The people of Scotland have voted an SNP government in with a significant majority. There is an outright majority of Indy supporting MSPs in Holyrood. That victory and the one in Wales mean that this morning it is as clear as ever it has been – Westminster – yir coats on a shoogly peg.

#YouYesYet

International Women’s Day 2026

It is  International Women’s day today and I find I am reflecting on the fierceness, resilience and drive of ordinary women,

I am blessed to be surrounded by strong, impressive women in my family. Their love, kindness and support has helped shape the woman I am and supported me during my toughest times. 

The women in my sons’ lives are all kind, clever and committed. Fighting for their own rights, the rights of their children and their careers, I have seen them stand up for themselves and others. They are all working hard to build their lives as they want them to be, overcoming the obstacles that they face and inspiring me and others every day. Im in awe of their resilience, their ability to advocate for themselves and their families and the careers they are building. All of them at an age when I was just lost. 

I am however, lucky enough to work with incredible women and watching them connect with the people we work with, sharing their lived experience through peer support is one of my life’s great joys. Today I honour these women. These are women who have stepped out on and are continuing their own recovery journey. They bring hope and kindness to people who struggle to find that anywhere else. I know they inspire me, but they also inspire others. I am frequently told that someone has changed or grown or had their life saved because of the work done by the peer workers in our Discovery College. 

These women have brought their lived experiences to their work, helping to shape the service we provide and the future we want to see for the Discovery College and more widely for people living in the Highlands who are struggling with poor mental health or addictions.  I see the personal growth and changes they have made on their own recovery journeys. I am inspired by their determination to develop their practice to be the best it can be.  I recognise their commitment to each other, seeing them continue to work at building  relationships even when there is tension or misunderstandings. I value their insights and their ideas and I am in awe of their resilience.

We are all ordinary women but it is the ordinary that we can find the extraordinary.  I see that every day and whilst I try to reflect that back to each of them in my daily work it feels right to publicly share my admiration and thanks to them on International Women’s Day.

Thankyou for your wisdom, your hard work and your commitment to Peer Values. Thank you for sticking with it, for your patience and your kindness and thanks for being extraordinary women.  I am proud to know you all. 

Scotland Demands Better

A very warm welcome to you all – I am honoured to chair this Scotland Demands Better Event on behalf of the Poverty Alliance.

For those of you who don’t know me I am Sue Lyons. I am a Trustee for the Poverty Alliance and for SPIRIT Advocacy – a collective advocacy organisation for people living with mental illness and learning disabilities across Highland. I am also the Manager of the Discovery College which provides peer support for people living with mental illness, poor mental wellbeing and drug and alcohol addiction and is delivered by Centred (Scotland) The Highlands biggest Mental Health Charity.

I have been involved in anti-poverty work for over fifteen years, Poverty is part of my own lived experience and it frustrates me massively that at 60 I am still seeing people facing the same difficulties that I faced at 30. 

 

The Scotland Demands Better Campaign is uniting civil society, faith groups, trade unions and individual activists right across Scotland. Often we feel overlooked here in the Highlands so it is really important that this meeting is taking place here. Poverty is devastating wherever you are but the Highlands is widely seen as an idyllic place to live. This means that rural poverty is often overlooked and underestimated. Research however tells us that people living in rural poverty have the lowest levels of mental wellbeing, and we also know that Highland has the second highest rate of suicides in Scotland. Beautiful scenery does not protect us from poverty and poor mental health. Housing, Energy, Transport can all be more expensive here and Living in a beautiful part of the world doesn’t fill hungry tummies.

 

The Scotland Demands Better campaign demands change across a range of issues but in a week where we have seen the announcement of the closure of Aonach Mhor on the back of recent reports in the press of the appalling waiting times that people are facing for mental health support the demands for better public services resonate particularly for me.We cannot continue to see people waiting for years for an appointment for their mental health. We cannot continue to see people left, abandoned and alone unable to fulfil their potential because of a lack of investment in our public services. 

Our social care system is falling apart. I spoke to someone recently who’s son has complex and chronic mental illness and who was receiving 30 hours a week of social care but following a review is now only getting two. I spoke recently to someone desperate for mental health support who was sent home and told the risk of their suicide was a risk that our public service was prepared to take. We have schools which should have 12 pupil support assistants existing only on 5 and in the paper just today we heard about the lack of resources for children with Special needs at Drummond School. These cuts affect the poorest in society most and are further examples of the need for better funding for public services so they can actually serve the people in our communities that need that support.

Filling many of the gaps in public services is the third sector. Voluntary Groups and Charities like Centred, Spirit Advocacy and Befrienders are providing much needed support and yet  the funding of our sector has become more and more difficult. The commissioning of third sector services is so difficult and challenging that I know many in that sector find the process of securing funding for desperately needed services damages their own mental health. What is that about? We often keep the public sector afloat delivering fantastic services and value for money. In Highland our charities and voluntary organisations organise local people and resources, delivering trusted support for thecommunities that we are part of. We are working with the most marginalised people and the most remote communities – people and places that are so often not reached by our statutory services. Our Third Sector Organisations in Highland are masters of collaboration, of making the most of every single penny we have for the benefit of those we serve. We are innovative and responsive and we can highlight and often mitigate the causes of poverty, supporting individuals and communities, advocating for change and holding decision makers to account.  The value of the third sector is huge and we must see it recognised through fair adequate and secure funding that allows us to continue to develop and grow the help we provide without having to fight for it or risk life saving services closing because our Statutory Organisations see us as an easy target when they are saving money.

When Third sector organisations are abandoned, the people we serve are abandoned too. 

 

Finally  I know that Poverty eats away at who we are. Those of us who are in low paid or insecure work and who rely on benefits and social security run the gauntlet of stigma and shame which is perpetrated by the media, some political commentators and the dreadful targeting of sick and disabled people. The damage of this to our mental health and our communities can be significant. I am grateful for the lack of that narrative in our Scottish Government but here in Highland where people are facing huge levels of  fuel poverty, where people are facing a freezing winter with wind driven rain that eats away at the fabric of our homes making it harder to heat them, kind words are not enough. We demand that the Scottish Government increases the Scottish Child payment and that all political parties commit to that payment reaching £55 per week by the end of 2030. 

As someone who campaigned for welfare to be devolved to Scotland in its entirety during the Smith Commission review and knows the difference that a compassionate, kind system which focuses on lifting people out of poverty can make, I recognise that some of the levers around Welfare do not lie in Scotland. Scotland demands a minimum income guarantee and the removal of the two child cap from the UK Government. Removing the two child cap alone would instantly lift 350,000 children over the poverty line and reduce the depth of poverty for many more. The UK Government must also act quickly to end damaging and unfair cuts for those who are sick or disabled and increase disability benefits to reflect the true additional costs of being disabled. This must include addressing the inadequacy of health payments in the review of Universal Credit. The UK Government must also focus on delivering a new human rights based social security system that is fair, non-stigmatising and accessible, ensuring those in need are guaranteed an adequate income and ending the scapegoating of those on the lowest incomes. 

 

Highland cant resolve poverty by ourselves, but nor can Glasgow or Edinburgh. Raising our voices together and championing policies which make realdifferences can help to pressure the decisionmakers to do better. Enough is enough. Scotland Demands Better. Highland demands better. Lets make sure we are heard by raising our voices and joining the march in Edinburgh on Saturday 25th October. 

 

International Women’s Day 2025

So its International Women’s Day 2025.

This is the second time I have tried to write this. The first article descended into misery, pessimism and fury. That is not just because I’m a gloomy pessimist. It is because, as a woman, there is much to alarm, distress and anger me.

The list of dead women killed by men read out in Parliament by JessPhillips; the attack on social security by a labour government (yes a LABOUR government) which inevitably affects women more than men; the failure to remove the two child cap condemning women to poverty should make us angry.

Across the world we see Trump’s attacks on women’s reproductive health, the sacking of women disparaged as DEI hires and there is much pessimism that hard won rights for women will be rolled back never to return.

In Afghanistan women are being denied their basic rights to exist, to an identity, to be educated, to be healthy, to be seen. Child marriage, maternal and infant mortality are rising and the very voices of women are being silenced as they are banned from even speaking.

So gloomy pessimism and fury feels like a rational response. And yet look around us. Even in Afghanistan we see women fighting to be heard as stories are smuggled out and shared with the world.

We see every single day women standing up for each other, lifting each other, celebrating each other. We see women overcoming terrible tragedies, appalling hardships so that they and others can fly.

I have spoken before about how it is in the ordinary that we so often find the extraordinary. I have seen that just this week where women I know and care about have overcome their fears to speak up about things they know are not right.

I have seen women I know overcoming health issues that have made life difficult, stepping forward in a way that seemed impossible a year ago.

I have seen women fight feelings of desperation, staying alive when they struggle to find a reason to do so.

I have seen women strive to achieve career goals that they never thought they could reach and that others actively tried to dissuade them from aiming for.

I have seen women supporting families, battling trauma and being amazing.

And most importantly, i have seen women reaching out to other women, holding them up, supporting them, uplifting them, championing them.

And that is just this week.

On #IWD2025 there is cause for gloomy pessimism and fury but there is so much more to be hopeful about and women, supporting women to be the best we can be is the most optimistic of all.

Celebrate yourself, celebrate each other, lift each other up, be courageous and true and together we are… well…. We are Woman hear us roar.

Ten Years On

Today’s blog was written for Women For Independence and is on their website

Ten years on

It’s been ten years since the referendum and on the 18th September, I did some reflecting on my own journey with Women for Indy as we marked the anniversary of the vote that many of us hoped would herald a better fairer society for an Independent Scotland and for women. It wasn’t to be of course, and as we move on I think it is worth thinking about where Women for Independence is going over the next ten years.

Women for Indy is something that I am hugely proud of being part of. After the referendum I thought it was over if I am honest. I thought that would be it. After all, we were a pro-independence group and Scotland had voted No to grasping that Independence we had been campaigning for. I had no experience of “next”. I hadn’t been involved in political activism before WFI and I wasn’t expecting to continue as we moved forward post referendum so I was stunned when women in Aviemore demanded a space to talk about what just happened and I met with around 30 women, angry, agitated, sad, disappointed but determined women. This was quickly followed by a meeting at Perth on the 4th October in a Church where 1000 women turned up to hear what WFI had to say and more importantly, to tell WFI what they wanted us to do, what they wanted us to be.

The energy in that room was amazing. Women came together from right across Scotland for a healing space. To lick our wounds and reflect on the loss of something we wanted so badly. In addition, we also wanted to think about what was coming next. We had demanded to be heard, demanded our voices were included and demanded our right to imagine an independent Scotland which included women and here we were, 19 year olds to 90 year olds and we were not going away.

Women for Indy had set out to be the opposite of political parties. There was no need to predefine ourselves in terms of feminism or other ideological or political positions. We offered a space for women to ask questions, air ideas and voice opinions – there were no daft questions and it was precisely this that created a safe space for women from all backgrounds, of all ages to get involved. Women like me who had no notion of themselves as feminists, as activists outside of their own heads. We actively countered the idea that politics and the discussions about Independence were for politicians, other people, smarter people, shoutier people – men – and not for us. It all came together in that church with those women. I can still remember that overwhelming feeling of being part of something that had shifted. This wasn’t over, we were not going to disappear and go back to the kitchen. We had things to do.

It feels like a long time ago and bizarrely like yesterday as seminal memories sometimes do. In the ten years since that meeting WFI has been involved in local and national campaigns, baby boxes, prison and justice campaigns, local matters of importance to our own communities, hospital closures, maternity service changes, anti-poverty campaigning. Many WFI members have taken an elected role, MPs, MSPs, local councillors – many more have put themselves forward for selection as I did, and weren’t successful, and in those early days following the referendum, WFI supported those women and others to take a front seat role in politics. That was exciting and impressive but there are a myriad of other women sitting on Community councils, boards of small charities, school parent associations, village trusts and hall committees who are there because they were enthused by WFI.

For many women, their communities are where their activism took them. Women for Indy is rightfully proud of those women who have helped to shape our parliaments help make decisions about policy and strategy at a national level. But my goodness, those women who help to hold up our communities, support families, tackle poverty on the front line, improve lives across Scotland, are the real legacy of WFI. They did not go back to the sofa, they took their disappointment, their fire, and they have gone on to build on that and change lives of people in small ways every day. They have worked as if in the early days of a new nation.

Politics with a capital P may have slipped from the front and centre of many of our lives. The last ten years has been brutal. Social media has turned into a battle ground. the social media onslaughts we have seen around gender have been divisive and Brexit, the pandemic and appalling UK Government policies have seen the lives of women become harder.
Health, maternity care, Social security, poverty, violence against women – we are at the sharp end, negatively affected and bearing the brunt of punitive policies that leave women behind.
The heady days of imagining a better nation seem far behind us.

WFI are also battered, struggling for committee members and for direction. The theft of our funds and the subsequent investigation and long drawn out trial was painful and caused huge anguish, local groups are dwindling and membership is falling, elections for the National committee have not taken place for a long time, and there is the feeling that Independence is no nearer. It feels a long way from Perth and 2014.

So what do we do? Well, in 2014, we carried out a listening exercise, we surveyed our members, we listened to women, we thought about what they told us and we came up with a plan.
So that is what we are going to do again.

We need to hear from Independence supporting women about what matters to us. We need to hear what WFI can do for the women ofScotland. We need to hear from you about what you want WFI to look like. Is there even a place, a space, a need for a women’s organisationthat is not affiliated to a political party but is focused on campaigning for an Independent Scotland? Can Women for Indy be that organisation and should it be?

Looking back, reflecting, is useful and gives us a warm fuzzy feeling. Looking forward is what leads to action. As we face up to the next 10 years we need to think hard about the role of Women for Independence. A new listening exercise is being planned, engaging through paper based surveys, online and face to face. You’ll see some old faces and some new faces, some cafe conversations, some coffee morning meetings, some evening get togethers, some one to one chats. Let’s work out together where we go next, because looking back can’t be all we do.

YouYesYet

Ten years on

So… ten years ago today Scotland said no to Independence.

Looking back on those ten years and everything that has happened since it is hard not to feel sadness and disappointment.

But the 18th is always a lovely day for us. A year after the referendum my eldest son got married so above all else, when I think of the 18th of September, I think of the wonderful and joyous day we had that day in 2015. The sun shone, the wine flowed, my sons embarrassed me with their speeches. It was glorious.

Today though it’s of folk are reflecting back. I often think about what the Independence campaign gave me. Apart from sleepless nights and sore feet, I learnt so much. About politics, about society, about myself. Being part of the very early days of Women for Independence was exhilarating. I met women I would never have met in my small world. I found a voice that I had only ever heard inside my head. A socialist voice, a feminist voice. A voice that I raised in a campaign for change, for a better Scotland, for a better society.

Idealistic? Absolutely! Wrong? Absolutely not. All those things were possible and still are – a better Scotland and a better society. We have watched as successive Tory Governments and now a Labour government target the poorest to put money in the pockets of the wealthy. Independence still is the only way to have any sort of chance of choosing something better for Scotland and our people.

I never thought the 18th was end of it. It was always the start. That it wasn’t the start of the brand new Country I wanted Scotland to be was a sadness. Frustrating, baffling and disappointing. For me though, the referendum was the start of what was next and as I sat in Aviemore later in September 2014 at a Women for Indy meeting, I listened to women who did not want their voices quietened. In Perth just a few weeks later, I listened to women who didn’t want their voices quietened. I didn’t want my voice quietened and it began a journey which took me to university, to public speaking, to writing and to making a difference in my community.

Today I can look around and see women of influence in all sorts of walks of life and we can trace the roots of that influence back to the referendum.

I see women helping other women. Women standing up for what is right and just. Women who are not only hoping for change but driving that change, demanding that change, in their homes, in their communities, in our councils, in our Parliament. Women who can trace a change in their own lives back to the Independence Campaign. Women for whom their involvement in the run up to that day ten years ago – changed their lives.

My life is different than it would have been. I have achieved things that I never would have even tried without the Independence campaign. I have tried to be a woman of influence on an individual and community level. I am not standing there on the world stage greeting leaders, nor am I rich or famous. But change isn’t led solely by the great and the good. It is led by women, around a kitchen table, deciding they need to be heard, demanding a space and a voice and getting on with it.

Here we are, the 18th September is a joyous day for me. A day of family celebration, a day of thanks for the women I met through the remarkable organisation that was Women for Independence. Women who changed my life, showed me it was possible to have a voice and use it to lift up the voices of others and helped me to see who I could be.

Ten years on and we are not close to Independence, although I still feel it’s just there – just in our reach if that’s what we – the people of Scotland -choose. Maybe it is and maybe it isn’t but you know what, I am going to continue to hope that we will get there.

In the meantime, I will add my voice to those women of influence I see and that I am in awe of every day. I will continue to stand up and be counted and demand more and demand better from both our Governments.

It’s been a wild ride but I am still Yes and still hopeful and that’s not bad.

#YouYesYet

Manchester’s Horror Show

So … if any of you are watching the Conservative Conference and are not appalled. Why not?

This is no longer a Conservative Party, it is a far right group filled with people whose views are so abhorrent that they mirror the words of minority fascist groups like the BNP and the National Front.

Not only that but they lie, straight faced, so often with impunity although they do seem to be being called out on it a wee bit.

Let’s see, so far Andrew Bowie – Scottish Conservative MP has said that 15 minute cities are designed to prevent you from going anywhere else. Only allowing you to shop within that 15 minutes. Like what? What? That is a complete and utter lie.

Michael Gove told conference that “Brexit has been delivered… & there is now more than £350m extra a week for our NHS… promise made, promise delivered.”

Jeremy Hunt declared war on those people relying on benefits because they are sick or disabled, parroting the lie that people are voluntarily giving up work for a life on benefits. When there are 7 million on Englands NHS waiting lists and trying to actually get benefits drives people into destitution and despair.

But Oh my God, if ever there was a horror show it is Suella Braverman.

Some are touting this speech as a leadership pitch. God help us all. Suella Braverman spoke of a “hurricane of mass migration” coming to Britain, she spoke of the Human Rights Act as something to get rid of – calling it the “The Criminal Rights Act”.

She sneered at what she called “luxury beliefs”. So what are these luxury beliefs? They are the beliefs of fairness and equality, of fundamental rights for citizens. They are the belief that we must tackle climate change and treat people with dignity, compassion and empathy. Traits missing entirely from the Home Secretary and the Tory Government in general.

She called the Tories, the “trade union” of the British People. In a year when we have seen strike after strike after strike, that’s a bold take.

I am ashamed that this is the face of Britain on the world stage. That this bunch of charlatans, racists and lying, incoherent spivs are what the world sees.

The United Kingdom is a pale, shadow of its former self. At the General Election the Tories will be trounced, booted out. Traditional Conservatives will find a home in Keir Starmer’s Labour Party as it steps away from socialism, the left overs, if there are any from this Tory Government will embrace Braverman and a hard line right wing vomit inducing ideology. UKIP like, National frontish rhetoric smearing itself across the face of British Politics, leaving an unmistakeable stench behind.

Is this what Scotland wants? Is it? Open your door, look at your neighbours, your children, your grandchildren. Look at them and think about this

There is nothing that gives Scotland an opportunity to build a fairer better society. Nothing. Not Braverman, not Starmer, not the UK.

The only option to do anything different is with Independence. Without it? God help us all because our politicians won’t.

#YouYesYet? #IndependenceForScotland

If you like what I write you can buy me a coffee, I’m always incredibly grateful xxx

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And again

So… Every week is a crazy week but this week has been extra special as Rishi Sunak has decided that we don’t need to worry our pretty little heads over climate change.

Sunak was SO enthusiastic about his anti environment policies that he made a short video which told us all the changes he was making . Except in that film, he got rid of policies which didn’t exist – compulsory car sharing “gone”, taxes on meat “gone” imposing seven bins on households “gone. Except none of these policies existed. They simply open their mouths and the lies fall out.

The real issue is that Britain’s credibility on Climate change looks like it’s “gone”.

Hiding behind this climate change carry on there are some other truly sinister actions being taken by the hideous government.

It’s reported that the Tories have stopped providing food for Afghan refugees being “housed” in hotels. Not content with creating the worst, cruellest and most incompetent system in history, the Tories appear to have started to starve those they refuse to help. Families with children who have no access to cooking facilities cannot provide healthy food. Their meagre allowance has to be spent on takeaways and junk food. And yet the government has spaffed millions and millions on barges with no one on them and flights to Rwanda that no one has taken. These hot air policies could have been spent on people – housing, food, support. But no, the hate filled government pays for hate filled policies rather than putting food in the tummies of some of the most vulnerable in society.

And almost unsurprisingly, they are talking about reducing benefits for those too sick to work, whilst pushing for tax cuts for the wealthy.

All the while Sunak is increasingly looking like a busted flush, no ideas, no integrity, no point. Even Liz Truss is smelling his demise as she popped her head out of the cupboard she’s been hiding in this week. Her list at a speech this week included “ Reduce benefits, raise retirement age, start fracking, abolish the windfall tax, diverge properly from the EU, delay net zero commitments, abandon replacing gas and oil boilers. This will not be easy but it will be worth doing”.

If Liz Truss is emboldened enough to stand on a stage in front of a camera and smile, when she should never show her face again, then Sunak is surely fucked.

Fortunately (or not), there is Labour. However, Keir Starmer, and his Tory inspired policies are once again causing problems for Scottish Labour. And by “causing problems” I mean proving that Scottish Labour is not really Scottish, just regular Labour.

This weeks Labour appears to have told their MSPs not to support the devolution of employment law. A policy they have supported in Scotland for a long time despite arguing against it immediately after the referendum.

It’s an uncomfortable time for Anas Sarwar as he squirms to find a comfy seat in Labour’s ‘Tories through the looking glass’
approach. Their recent bounce in the polls seems to be slipping and trying to find a secure identity for the Scottish Labour MSPs is proving a bit of a contortionist act.

If you still think these parties, these politicians are interested in Scotland then I have a bridge to sell you. They are moving the UK far away from the sort of nation Scotland has repeatedly voted for and, in that process, are damaging Scotland’s economy, endangering our environment, demeaning our vulnerable citizens, risking our children’s future.

The only way to change this is with Independence. If you can’t see that then we are all lost. We will be poorer, sicker, and our future will be darker and less secure.

As we start a build up to a General Election we all must REALLY think about what’s important for us, for our communities, for our country and what gives us the opportunity to build something better, fairer, kinder. Better Together? Don’t make me laugh …. Or actually don’t make me cry for all those people let down by this Tory Government and pale flaccid excuse for an opposition.

#YouYesYet

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Thanks folks

A stinking hulk of hideousness

So.. I saw a clip today where a man complained that he only was able to afford one meal a day. So many people are in this position and worse. Some can’t afford any meals at all. This man compared himself to the asylum seekers who will be housed on a barge who will be getting three meals a day. He was angry about this but not with the Government. He was angry with the people on the barge. The asylum seekers apparently are the reason why he is unable to afford to eat properly.

In other news, a report out this week showed that only 55% of people think everyone should be able to afford a television. In the same survey, only 27% thought that everyone should be able to go out socialising and 40% of people surveyed thought that the poor, those less well off, in low paid jobs or long term sick should not have “seasonal celebrations” – birthdays, Christmas, etc.

The two things might seem separate, but actually they are one and the same.

The man who can’t afford food puts the blame on asylum seekers, and the people surveyed put the blame for poverty on the people who are poor.

None of them blame the Government and in refusing to do so, they absolve the politicians of doing anything about it.

The Conservatives have spent the last 50 years returning us to the Victorian attitudes that sees poverty as a moral failing. The progress we saw in the 20th Century, with the NHS, the Welfare State, Human Rights, Equality, is fading into history. The Uk Government is determined to keep the rich rich and the poor poor. The most effective way of doing that is to ensure that we blame others for being poor and therefore let the Government off the hook.

Never mind that housing is shit, never mind that benefits don’t cover the necessary basic requirements of life, never mind that inflation is sky rocketing whilst multi national corporations line the pockets of shareholders at the expense of the public purse. Privatisation is a racket. Subsidised energy/water/transport companies take public money to provide services. They do an appalling job whilst making millions in profits which end up in the pockets of shareholders.

Never mind any of that. If you can’t afford food or electricity, blame the asylum seekers. Look around you, that guy on Universal Credit has a Tv, a computer or heaven help us – a mobile phone! That asylum seeker gets to eat! How absolutely dare he.

This UK Government is sowing the seeds of division and hatred in order to keep itself in power. And racism. Let’s not beat about the bush here. This government is racist. It uses the language of the far right to encourage the blame culture I have been talking about.

This week Lee Anderson, the Conservative Party’s Deputy Chairperson said of those people being housed on a modern day prison hulk “If they don’t like barges then they should fuck off back to France,” Number 10 said they support Anderson’s comments.

This is no surprise. It was a fundamental part of Brexit, although coded and more subtle. Taking back control meant “fuck off” back to where you came from. Today it is said out loud by MPs because Brexit empowered those voices, gave them legitimacy and emboldened them to speak racist tropes with impunity.

This is the UK today. I’d like to think that this will end with the Tory Party’s defeat in the next General Election, but Labour are committed to the same appalling welfare policies, immigration policies, Brexit and the slow, insidious undermining of the NHS. The rhetoric might change, thank god, but there is little difference in the Labour Party’s policies or approach.

Except in Scotland. In Scotland the SNP and the Scottish Government are treading a different path. Labour and the Tory’s here remain tied to their UK party policies but the SNP has pushed Scotland away from the worst excesses of the post/Brexit bigotry. More compassionate, fairer, welcoming, here in Scotland, we have a choice to make. We can continue to shackle ourself to a stinking hulk of class ridden, racist hideousness or we can strive for something different. At the heart of the campaign for Independence is the hope of a better, fairer society. As we build up to a General Election remember that. Scotland is already doing things differently – we can do more with Independence. Otherwise God help us all, history tells us where this leads and it’s terrifying.

#IndyRef2 #YouYesYet

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A stinking tale of oil and gas

So, oil and gas, whisky, renewables? Scotland is apparently going to lead the UKs economic recovery.

Well, this is different. Not so long ago, we were told Scotland cannot afford to be independent. We were told that there isn’t enough of anything to make Scotland the vibrant, independent, forward looking country we want it to be. Repeatedly we were told that we need the strong arms of the United Kingdom to protect and guide us as we are too weak, economically, culturally, intellectually to stand on our own two feet in a world where Britain, Great Britain, is our only and best protector.

Don’t make me laugh.

In 2014 we were told that the oil and gas was “running out”. That there was no new work planned because the little bits that were left were inaccessible and we would be unable to get to them. The days of new licences were over. Whether we should continue the oil and gas industry was not the point. If those of us supporting Independence pointed out that we should be moving away from fossil fuels, we were told that we couldn’t do that either because (guffaw guffaw) there’d be no money, no smart people and the wind doesn’t blow every day.

I kid you not, “The wind doesn’t blow every day” was a comment from a hustings I was at by a red faced man who seriously didn’t believe Scotland had ANYTHING useful at all.

This weeks announcement blows that theory out of the water. Keir Starmer’s policy on renewables underlined how rich in energy sources Scotland is, as he announced that we will power the economic recovery of the entire UK.

The increase in duty on whisky is also an indication of how important Scotland is to the economy of the UK. 75% duty on a bottle of whisky from today, breaking their 2019 manifesto promise to support Scotland’s whisky industry.

Lies again.

We have heard them all. No oil and gas, no renewables industry and meh – whisky.

And yet here we have a bad tempered Rishi Sunak flying in on his private plane to exploit Scotlands natural resources because the UK is a basket case.

Aside from the economy, the UK Government is failing across every single measure of Government. They are sinking to the bottom of the cess pit they have created. The people who make money out of this oil and gas exploration will not be us. Those of us struggling with energy costs won’t see the benefit. Our bills are not going to be cheaper. The oil companies will make more profit, their shareholders will rub their hands with glee. Rishi Sunak’s father in law will make money. It is being widely reported that the company he founded -Infosys- signed a massive deal with BP just two months ago. The cess pit stench hangs over the North Sea. The rich get richer but of course – none of this will make Scotland a better fairer place for ordinary people.

The only way to do that is with independence. Independence will give Scotland the power over our own decisions, our economy, our environment, our industries. This UK government is undermining devolution, riding roughshod over the democratically expressed will of the Scottish People for a new referendum. Why? Because ultimately it wants to suck the wealth out of Scotland. The UK wants to leave us with the scraps, the leftovers, whatever we can beg off the Barnett Formula table, whilst Sunak and his ilk fly around in private planes, Chuck back the champagne in their subsidised bars and draw their dividend cheques.

Wake up folks. Better Together? If you believe that then you are fools.

#YouYesYet

#IndyRef2

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