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

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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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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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None so blind…

So… politicians fiddle whilst Rhodes burns. This is a bit of a long one so go get a cuppa.

The reports from Rhodes are frankly terrifying. Families with children in 45 degree heat fleeing wild fires, their holiday turned to ashes, their belongings lost, many having to be evacuated in small boats or sleeping on the floors of conference rooms or community halls.

No matter though how awful it is for these tourists, imagine how bad it is for those people who live there. For whom Rhodes is their home, where their families live, where they work, go to school, live their lives and it is on fire. For some, everything will be gone.

Despite this, stories of the kindness of the Greek people are everywhere, the boats, free food, beds, care and kindness.

The holiday companies are nowhere. Some apparently were still flying people out to Rhodes, assuring them it was ok, despite their hotels being evacuated. Then these holidaymakers were left stranded at Rhodes airport and reportedly told to find their own alternatives.

Money, money money money money.

We are in a Climate Emergency. It’s hard for us to recognise that when faced with drizzle and mist, but it is true. Last week Italy endured temperatures in excess of 40 degrees and then hailstorms which led to an ice river flooding through the streets of a northern town.

It looks like the stuff of Hollywood disaster films. We can all gawk at our phones, our Tv screens, our newspapers and then scroll past, change the channel, flip the page but it’s real and it’s happening now.

Despite this, our politicians are cooling on their environmental policies. Last week Labour blamed their loss in Uxbridge on a low emission zone. The Tories, saw this hold as an opportunity to warn that environmental policies will lose them seats and labour warned that they will need to “reflect” on environmental policies.

Also last week, a random man punched and kicked a Just Stop Oil protester as he and others walked in front of traffic as part of their protest. In another incident, a coach – a full size coach- pushed protesters along a road by driving into them.

I get that these people have been held up, but you know, it took us an hour to get through the Dartford Tunnel last week and no one was punching anyone else, a coach did not drive into us and push us along.

We have been told for years by politicians and the media that climate activists are cranks, weirdos, Marxist agitators, dangerous extremists and some of us seem to believe this, seeing protestors, activists, environmentalists as the enemy. And yet here we are, Rhodes is on fire, temperatures are breaking records, and our Government steps away from its responsibilities again.

And what about Scotland? We are doing better in the journey to net zero. Not enough by miles but better. We are fighting our own battles with how to balance public opinion and environmental concerns to try to do the best we can to address the climate crisis. It’s not easy or straightforward as discussions about transport, roads, heating homes, oil and gas exploration have shown just over this last couple of weeks. We are however, currently on target to meet our commitments. Despite this, any progress we are making is being be put at risk by a UK government determined to undermine devolution. Scotland does not have the full fiscal powers to invest heavily in significant climate informed policies, nor does it have the powers to regulate energy policy and other reserved matters. This last few days we have seen an amendment to the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill making its way through the House of Lords . This is raising concerns that any progress Scotland is or may want to make will be at risk.

I’ve written before how Brexit, this Tory Government and the opposition seem hell bent on overturning devolution and this is yet another example.

The amendment relates to environmental laws and states that UK Ministers can overturn and amend environmental legislation across all nations of the UK. The Tories, and Labour if in Government, will be able to alter or remove our existing environmental protections and legislation. As Uk party politics sees commitment to tackling the Climate crisis fade in the face of a general election, under pressure from voters who have been persuaded that its all a Marxist plot and who adopt an “I’m alright Jack” attitude to everything – never mind the environment, there is a danger that once again, Scotland’s small gains won through creative use of limited powers and budgets will be swept aside.

The Bill is a direct attack on a Scottish Parliament that the UK Government sees as subordinate and in need of reining in. It appears from the bill that in order to override environmental laws in Wales and Northern Ireland the UK Government will need to “obtain consent”. In Scotland however, the bill requires no such consent, they will simply be required to “consult”. Treating Scotland like a naughty child seems to be par for the course.

Yesterday we were told that the UK Government is considering “sanctions” for the Scottish Government as a punishment for spending money on reserved areas. They don’t want the SG talking about independence, they don’t want the SG to have any international voice, any work on energy, any work on anything that we might do differently – we have seen this with Gender Self ID, the Deposit return scheme, and it is escalating.

Westminster want to shut us up, undermine our Parliament and prevent our Government from implementing policies that we voted for, that were in the manifesto and that the people of Scotland voted to see implemented.

Without Independence this is the future. A Scotland where we have no opportunity to do something different, to built something fairer, better for people and the planet. It HAS to be Independence, nothing less will give us that chance as these attacks on devolution are showing us.

#Indyref2

#YouYesYet

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How the Sun does the work of the dead cat dealers

So…. Huw Edwards has been outed as the BBC star whose life the Sun decided to destroy over the last week.

Today, that man is in hospital for the foreseeable future and his wife had to make a statement to the world about her marriage.

Now, I’m not condoning men having affairs or cheating on their wives, I left my first husband because of his relationship with another woman. It was just awful and painful and humiliating. But I imagine having my business, my pain, the pain of my children plastered all over the papers and I would have been utterly broken. If I had to watch the man I was married to collapse and end up in hospital, his mental health destroyed because someone else decided to lie about what happened, sensationalise it for nothing, just because they could, everything would have been so much worse.

Huw Edwards reads the news. He isn’t a politician, he isn’t a prince, he isn’t a priest. Huw Edwards isn’t responsible for the failures of Government during the pandemic, he isn’t overseeing the worst refugee policy I’ve ever seen or driving people into poverty with appalling welfare policies or the cost of living crisis. He reads the news.

It appears that the Sun knew that the accusations were dodgy on Friday, after a lawyer contacted them on behalf of the young person at the centre of this to tell them that the story was rubbish. They apparently ran 39 stories over the last 6 days about the BBC presenter. They alluded to criminal behaviour and fed the ghouls and the ghastly that immediately labelled this as perverted and the victim as a child.

Why would they do that? Why would they set out to utterly destroy a man who really hasn’t done anything to justify this level of hatred?

Well, there appear to be a number of theories. Some think that The Tories want to undermine, destroy and privatise the BBC and the Sun is helping them with that. The BBC response to this story has been woeful, their internal processes seem to be chaotic and ineffective.

But is that really what’s going on?

I think it’s more likely that the Sun is being used to feed us the dead cat stories needed to obscure the failures of the Government.

Slapping a metaphorical dead cat down on the kitchen tables, the settees, the pub bars, the coffee tables of the country seems to be the Sun’s stock in trade. Creating shock waves, the distraction means we turn away from what’s really important and are distracted for long enough for the real stuff to slip past.

If the news, the papers, social media is talking about Huw Edwards, they are not talking about Boris Johnson’s failure to hand over evidence to the Covid enquiry.

If we are embroiled in the sleazy details of someone’s sex life, we are not paying attention to the hideous Refugee Bill going through Parliament just now. If we are angry at Huw Edwards then we are not angry at the poverty and inequality rampant in the UK just now.

Whipping up a mob over some bloke’s sex life serves only to obscure the real problems facing people. The intention is distract us from the hardships we might be facing and to project the blame and anger away from those responsible.

There is more than a whiff of homophobia about these stories too. The suggestions that we are seeing that Huw Edwards, like Derek Mackay, and Philip Schofield, were messaging younger men seems to have singled them out for targeted humiliation in a way that others are not. There is reported to be a bloody politician under investigation for several counts of raping women that no one is plastering on the front page of anything.

In today’s broken and judgemental, bigoted and strangely puritanical world anyone is fair game if they have the potential to be a distraction.

Don’t be fooled. Don’t let Murdoch and the powers that be, con you into thinking Huw Edwards is the devil incarnate.

He isn’t. He is a sad, ill and broken man. Stupid and sleazy he may be, but dear God almighty he did not deserve being used as a tool to protect the Government from scrutiny.

We get the press we deserve. Let’s demand better and for fucks sake let’s hope this is the end of the lies, misreporting and sensationalism that the Sun has made its stock in trade over the years. Cruelty surely should not be rewarded. Close it down now.

#DontBuyTheSun

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The continuing disappointment of Labour

So… Keir Starmer is setting out his stall.

I try really really hard to believe that the Labour Party offer something different. Every time I look at them or write about the failure of the Labour Party to BE the opposition, it is from a place of disappointment. I want the Labour Party to be a credible, socialist voice for people across the UK. I might not want them to win in Scotland, but I’ve written before about the importance of a robust opposition in our parliaments. Opposition hold Governments to account, push it to do better, demand accountability, and challenge abuses of power.

The Labour Party should be that. The fact that it isn’t that, is a source of profound disappointment to me and many others.

Over the last few weeks Keir Starmer has stepped away from many labour policies. He has failed to take a stand on Tory policies which curtail freedoms, victimise the vulnerable and damage our National Health Service.
Starmer – the leader of the Labour Party – has stood up for bosses not workers. He has failed to challenge the Government on their refusal to pay proper pay rises, undermined strikers and even sacked Sam Tarry from his front bench when he showed support for picket lines.

Starmer’s unwavering support for continuing with the destructive and chaotic Tory Brexit is well known. In Scotland, where we voted strongly to remain, this is baffling and a vote loser. He says No to free movement of people and the immigration policies being mooted will leave our hospitality and service industries continuing to struggle for staff.

All this is disappointing, it’s all baffling and leaves us wondering what on Earth Keir . Starmer and his Labour Party is even for but yesterday he outdid all of these.

Yesterday Starmer said categorically that it “was not labour policy” to abolish the two child policy from welfare rules.

Just what now? This appalling policy – the “rape clause” plunges children into poverty. It leaves families desperate and without hope, at the mercy of foodbanks and charities in order to survive. But it’s not Labour’s policy to abolish it???

This, their u-turn on free school meals, even whilst Anas Sarwar was criticising the Scottish Government for delaying the roll out to high school pupils, suggest a lack of vision and care for those most vulnerable.

After all what is the point of a Labour Government that simply continues the worst of the Tory policies.

We need a UK Government with vision for a better fairer society. We need a Labour Government which stands up for the working class, the poor, the sick, the vulnerable, a labour government that challenges those with the most, not to get more but to share more, to give more, to see the benefit of reducing inequality and supporting our public services and our people to be the best they can be.

Keir Starmer seems unable to do that, unable even to see that it needs done. Keir Starmer stands for what? Nothing, that’s what.

An independent Scotland would free Labour from the blue coated, identity crisis that is UK Labour. It would allow them to return to their socialist roots, to champion workers, to support our public services, to challenge the SNP, to help grow a better fairer society. That Labour in Scotland refuse to see that, refuse to take that chance, continue to bafflingly support a Brexit that is damaging Scotland and a UK leadership that displays so little evidence of socialism is yet another utter disappointment. And more than that, it will continue to condemn people, children to the life of hopeless poverty that they are experiencing in the UK today.

That’s shameful.

#YouYesYet

#Indyref2

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Where to Start? Let’s start with Independence

So… oh god – where do you start. Brexit anniversary? Covid enquiry? Boris Johnson? Rumours that Liz Truss is being touted as the come back queen – suggestions the Tories will bring her back as leader? It’s chaos again. Today I read that Rishi Sunak has been using erasable ink and potentially has “rubbed out” notes which might have been important to the Covid enquiry.

Jeezo, these are people supposed to be running a country. These are the people that want Scotland to stay in the UK. That think we are better together because …. Because what?

It’s not because the UK is thriving. The UK is a backward, insular, broke, selfish crock of crap. Driven to this pale, sad, imitation of a modern democracy by those who would line their own pockets with money from the pockets of the poor and sick and walk away laughing.

The Tories are the school bully, strutting around, lying, cheating, stealing and the Labour Party are the sycophants holding on to their coat tails, trying to be “Big” but not wanting everyone to hate them too.

Who even are the Labour Party? No to free school meals, no to strikes, no to pay rises for those who need them, no to rejoining Europe, no to socialism for God’s sake.

And of course – no to Scotland choosing its own path.

That Scotland’s next election will be fought on Independence is now clear.

Humza Yousaf said at weekend that if the SNP win the General Election then that will be a mandate to begin independence negotiations.

Good.

The UK government are torpedoing Scottish legislation and Scottish policies wherever they can. I’m not sure why they think this is a winning strategy.m but clearly, like the school bullies they are they’ve decided to just hit harder.

That’s never a winning strategy. It shames them and pisses everyone off. The GRRA, their ridiculous behaviour over the DRS, the post Brexit power grab which allows them to interfere in devolved matters and their continuing lies are starting to dint even even some committed unionists. Because what is there? What is there to be proud of?

Humza Yousaf is in Europe this week. Talking about what Scotland has to offer, what Scotland wants to be – an outward looking, independent, country at the heart of Europe. Apparently the UK Government are going to stop us from doing that. How? Twist our arm up our back whilst they have their hand over our mouths?

Maybe the Tories think they are “Cock of the school” today (to coin a phrase from my lancashire schooldays) but if all they have is that it’s great to be British, they’ll lose and Scotland will be free. So, 2024, we’ll be voting, get ready folks, if we think it’s bumpy now, we have seen nothing yet.

#YouYesYet

#Indyref2

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The black and shrivelled heart of the Conservative Party is up for grabs

So… Boris is done. He’s resigned and has left Parliament. Done and dusted, gone for good.

Not a chance. Whatever Boris Johnson is doing, going off to lick his wounds, reflect on his role in his own demise and quietly retire to do good works will not be it.

Boris Johnson is a charlatan, a shape shifting illusionist who will do and say whatever he needs to do, in order to get whatever he wants.

A couple of days ago, Johnson was facing censure, he was found to have lied to Parliament, not once but repeatedly. He was facing a lengthy suspension and potential recall – that’s when constituents can sack their MP by over 10% of them signing a petition. It’s happening just now in Rutherglen where Margaret Ferrier has been suspended for 30 days for breaking Covid rules.

That was where Boris Johnson was two days ago. Today, he is leading the narrative, front pages of all the papers, threatening to stand in Nadine Dorries’ seat and warning he’ll be back.

We see a battle once again beginning for what is being described as “the heart” of the Conservative Party. I haven’t see any evidence that the Conservative Party has a heart for years. If they do it must be a black and shrivelled thing kept in a battered shoe box.

Michael Hesltine on Channel 4 last night called Boris Johnson unprincipled, dishonest and talked of his “ruthless exploitation of populism”. There are suggestions that Boris Johnson will stage a coup of sorts. Rees-Mogg has warned the party not to block him if he stands. Johnson’s honours list puts more of his cronies in the Lords, rewards others with knighthoods and gongs, buying loyalty perhaps?

This surely is the concern. We have seen an increase in what is being called National Conservatism. Coincidentally (or not) a party with that name was registered with the Electoral Commission this week too.

Now we have heard that phrase fairly recently. Indeed there was a National Conservative Conference in May at which a number of senior Tory Members spoke.

Dismissed by many as a fringe event it nonetheless raises cause for concern. Speakers talked of “majority rights”, pleaded for the protection of the “normative family” and railed against the “globalist elites”. Suella Braverman of course targeted trans people and immigrants and the whole thing smacked of the Christian far-right that we see in the US, ripping up women’s rights and preventing sex education whilst people die from gunshot wounds and are bankrupted by health care costs.

And now there’s Boris Johnson let loose. Rishi Sunak has been unable or unwilling to pull him into line and his failure to support Johnson has poked the bear. There are some who think Boris Johnson has or will fatally undermine Sunak and God help us another leadership election? There are calls for a General Election now. I don’t know what’s going to happen but once again Boris Johnson is at the heart of it. Dismissed as a buffoon, he is nothing of the sort. Ruthless, what Eddie Mair called “a nasty piece of work” he is dangerous and manipulative.

Meanwhile we are talking about this whilst figures published last week show 50% of children are living in poverty in some areas of England. Manchester has a 50.8% child poverty rate according to figures published last week.

For Scotland, a Brexit we didn’t vote for, the threats we see to devolution, to our economy, the refusal to allow the Scottish Parliament to legislate freely within the terms of the devolution settlement, the refusal to allow a referendum are all symptoms of a failing state, clinging onto what it thinks make it look strong. No one is fooled. The UK is crumbling and Boris Johnson could very well be positioning himself to be its saviour. We think that people see through him, we think that it will never happen, but we have been wrong before. I’m not sure we’ve seen the last of him yet.

#Indyref2

#YouYesYet

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Yours Controversially – Scotland

So, it appears that Scotland is the most confused country in the world.

There are so many things that are “controversial” here that are not almost everywhere else.

Over the last few years we have seen controversial baby boxes, controversial anti-fracking laws, controversial gender recognition legislation, controversial minimum pricing of alcohol, and now we have a controversial bottle recycling scheme. Or rather we don’t.

Intriguingly all of these things operate well in other countries and curiously don’t appear to be controversial anywhere else!

Lorna Slater, the Green minister is being held responsible by a bunch of people for the delay of the Deposit Return Scheme. A scheme that would encourage recycling by paying people for the bottles and cans that are returned.

This is not a controversial thing to do. It is not a cutting edge, ground breaking, experimental process. It has operated here before – those of us of a certain age can remember taking bottles back to the shop to get money back. In many other countries in Europe and wider, a deposit return scheme exists and works.

No one thinks this is a controversial policy.

Except the UK. The UK Government thinks that a recycling scheme shouldn’t include glass.

Let’s be clear here, the SNP proposed this DRS in 2017 and the SG began consulting on it in 2018. This wasn’t controversial then. The Scottish Tories DEMANDED glass was included. They stood up in Holyrood and pressed for the inclusion of glass. Labour too supported this scheme. The DRS proposed for Wales also includes glass.

But the thing is, that some industry lobbyists don’t want glass included. They argue that it increases the use of plastic, is hard to store and will cost them money. And they lobbied hard and donated hard cash to the Conservative Party who were so convinced by their … argument … that they changed their mind and from demanding glass was included they now demand it is excluded.

There we have it. The Tory Government refused an exclusion to the internal market act, in the same way they imposed a section 35 order, and the DRS is dead in the water.

How this is Lorna Slaters fault is a bit of a mystery to me. There was cross party support, a consultation, a pretty uncontroversial recycling bill stopped by an intransigent UK Government -again.

This is not about the DRS for the Tories. It’s about keeping Scotland on a leash. Chained like the Unicorn in the coat of arms. This is about putting the lid on rebellious Scots. Someone said to me about this the other day “Well, Scotland clearly needs a heavy hand. There were hardly any parties for the coronation”. The Tory elites see Scotland as North Britain. They always have done and always will – that we are different and want to be different baffles them and is seen as a problem, an irritant to be brought into line.

This blocking of what are devolved responsibilities will get worse. Not satisfied with forcing their Brexit wet dream on a Scotland that roundly rejected it, they are using their post Brexit legislation to fundamentally undermine devolution, here and in Wales and Ireland.

Scotland cannot deliver what it has legislated for – again. The UK Government stamps its polished brogues and stops the democratic right of Scotland to choose the policies that best suit Scotland. That’s the controversy here. The undermining of the elected Scottish Government in devolved matters is the controversy if we look properly.

It is becoming clearer every day that Independence is the only way to get the society we want – fairer, better and more environmentally responsible. It’s the only way to protect Scotland from the basket case that is the UK and there’s nothing controversial about wanting that.

#YouYesYet #IndyRef2