Optimism
So…. Brexit
The Labour Party NEC meet today to decide on Labour’s Brexit policy.
They agreed at their conference which people were able to watch on the tv that if there was a failure to agree a deal or a no deal Brexit Labour would call for a General Election. However it was also agreed that if Labour cannot force a GE the party “ “must support all options remaining on the table, including campaigning for a public vote”.
There has been a bit of a row over EU election leaflets that were printed without reference to a confirmatory referendum and on Sunday we were being told by commentators that the big unions Unison, Usdaw, GMB were not supporting a commitment to a people’s vote but by Yesterday we were being told that they WERE supporting a commitment to a people’s vote. So who knows? I bloody don’t.
We also heard there’s a “new Optimism” in the cross party talks. Did you laugh? I did! A new Optimism…. THERE IS NOTHING OPTIMISTIC ABOUT THIS WHOLE RIDICULOUS CARRY ON.
Labour can’t agree with Labour and Tories can’t agree with Tories. Tory activists are refusing to campaign for the EU elections and every single labour voter and member I speak to looks down at the floor and has no clue what’s going on either.
Meanwhile in Scotland we have optimism – we have it in bucketloads – you might have missed it right enough because the SNP conference from Edinburgh was not on the tv. Not on BBC 2 BBC Scotland, not on BBC Alba or even on BBC Parliament. The half hour speech of Nicola Sturgeon made BBC2 but nothing of the rest of it did. In fact as Wings over Scotland showed regardless of the searches he tried to do there was little sign of SNP conference or Plaid Cymru conference stuff on the BBC website. We get Tory labour and libdem conferences shown live – even when the Libdems includes about four people and a dog, I wonder why no SNP. The picture below shows you why not. They filled a 2000 seater hall.
It’s not good enough BBC.
We saw yesterday that the Tories are offering a three year visa for EU students coming to study in Scotland. When it was pointed out by John McNally SNP MP tgat Scottish degrees are 4 years the Tory minister said that students would have to apply for a tier 4 visa to finish their degree. With no guarantee of acceptance, and at significant Cost.
So again, no recognition of Scotland’s needs.
The SNP conference however focused on what is best for Scotland, for the people living here – all of us – wherever we came from. We heard there will be extra Payments for low income families when their child starts nursery There will be Help for first time buyers and
Regulations on short term lets to tackle housing issues. There will be an extra 70 million for NHS to tackle waiting times and there is a recognition of a climate change emergency and a commitment to listen to experts to tackle this in Scotland.
Here was an unequivocal clear and coherent policy on Brexit. How refreshing to hear that. A position upon which the party agrees.
There will be a social justice and fairness commission to look at how economic growth can be shared more equally in an Independent Scotland.
An Independent Scotland as an outward looking Internationalist modern democracy – A better fairer society for all of us.
Here is optimism. 
#YouYesYet?
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