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Stewarty min, I despair, I really do. When are you guys going to get it that playing the politics of victims hasn't worked over the last six years and won't going forward either. I don't say this as being anti-SNP or pro the Union but it's just so tiresome to constantly be preached to that everything good in Scotland is due to the SNP and everything bad is due to the English/Tories.
Almost six years ago Scotland voted 55/45 against becoming independent. In the last six years what have we seen?
- Not one, not even two but three UK general elections all won by the Tories - six years of Tory rule with five more to come (maybe more depending on who Labour pick)
- An absolute sh1tfest called Brexit
- Six more years of austerity
- A new Prime Minister that has modelled himself on Trump (you win elections by telling brazen lies knowing you will get away with it)
- Six more years of near stagnant economic growth
Yet at the end of all of that what do the Scottish public think (based on any number of opinion polls)? They don't want another referendum any time soon and even if there was one the outcome would be within a rounding error of the last one.
Just stop and think about that for a minute. You couldn't have had a worse six years politically and economically than the Scottish people have seen yet the dial on independence has barely moved (regardless of the rhetoric regularly spouted by various SNP politicians about growing demands for independence from the Scottish people). Now unlike the Labour Party it's not because of an ineffective leader as Sturgeon is one of the more skilled and charismatic politicians in the UK so what do you think is the issue? Let me give you my tuppenceworth.
I think what you have is 35-40% of people that would always vote for Independence and the same 35-40% that would always vote for the Union. That leaves 20-30% that will ultimately decide (a) whether there is a desire for another referendum and (b) what the outcome would be when a referendum is ultimately held.
It's this middle 20/30 that the SNP need to persuade but in my humble opinion their strategy of continually blaming England/Westminster/Tories for all of Scotland's ills just simply hasn't worked over the last six years and won't move the dial enough in the next few years either. That middle 20/30 are far more concerned about jobs/mortgages/NHS waiting lists/kids education than listening to Ian Blackford finish every single question/statement in Westminster with "...and the Scottish people demand to decide their own future/independence".
Your post will play well to the gallery of the converted but does little but switch off the middle 20/30 due to it's anti English rhetoric, fantasy claims and "facts" that are simply wrong not to mention weird voodoo economics. A few examples to amplify the point I am trying to get across to you.
You say that England has better jobs, pensions and wages but you make the same mistake as many which is looking at England as a single country economically. It really isn't, it's London and related commuting suburbs and everyone else (due to the financial services industry in the main). If you ignore London and SE England, which not surprisingly have the highest average wages, of the remaining 10 UK regions Scotland has the second highest wages and are less than 1% away from being the best paid people in the UK outside of London/SE England. I spend a reasonable amount of time in Northern England for various reasons and I can assure you the poverty there is on a par if not worse than anything you would find in Scotland.
You spend a lot of time talking about Scotland's resources but let's sense check that. There is little doubt that the benefit of Oil and Gas has historically been p1ssed away on tax cuts but going forward sadly it is not a game changer. Current revenues are just over £1Billion but as a reference point, our current public expenditure is around £75 Billion so whilst I would rather have £1 Billion than not it frankly won't make a huge difference to Scotland's future, particularly once you factor in environmental concerns that will limit future production of oil and gas. For the same environmental reasons forestry in the future will all be about planting more trees rather than earning revenues from them. On fishing I wasn't aware there were huge fleets of English fishing vessels plundering Scottish fishing waters but I could be wrong of course. On defense assets, the only thing I would imagine that the English would want that is currently in Scotland is Faslane and its submarines but since when was that a Scottish natural resource given it was paid for by the UK Government?
On Undergrounds there are only 4 in the UK, one of which is in Scotland. Some might argue that leaves Scotland over-represented. When cities the size of Birmingham and Manchester don't have an underground what makes you think a city of 500,000 people like Edinburgh, which has a fairly small footprint, needs one - is that really the best way to spend scarce public resources? Remember not long ago we spent about £800Million on the Edinburgh Tram system - how many billions to build an underground for Edinburgh? How many hospitals/schools could we build/refurbish/equip for that? On a similar vein what makes the SNP think that giving free prescription medicine to well off people is a good use of public money or for the same well off people to have their eyes tested for free or to have their kids given University education for free? Personally I would rather spend public money on people who really need it or on things like extra beds/nurses/doctors so that we can reduce NHS queues.
On your England v Germany v France comment I presume you must be referring to football when you say can't compete with them as in economic terms the UK growth since the beginning of 2018 to Q3 2019 has been in line with France and better than Germany (as an aside Scotland's growth is broadly in line with UK growth). Again don't let the facts get in the way of anti-English rhetoric.
I have no insight into why our drug related deaths are three times that of England when as I said above about 80% of England is poorer and less well paid than Scotland. It can't be as simple as lack of life chances and utter despair for the young when the same or worse situation exists in the vast majority of England. It's also not as simple as blaming the Scottish Government either i know.
Stewarty, I'm sure you are well fed up of my views by now but if I were an advisor to the SNP I would be strongly advising them to stop focussing on the 35-40% of votes that are already in the bag and whom lap up the English/Tory bashing/blame game and start focusing on what will change the middle 20/30 by about 10% or so. The last six years have proven that simply isn't working (back to Einstein and insanity again).
I regard myself as one of the middle 20/30 and what I honestly think would work better for the SNP is to use this time now (where there will not be a referendum agreed by Johnston in this UK Parliament period) to put together a detailed plan that will convince the middle 20/30 in the areas they worry about including things like currency, membership of the EU, border with England, cost of transitioning to an Independent country, how to close the tax v spending gap etc etc. I truly believe that such a plan that is well thought through and contains warts and all (people will be more inclined to go for it if it is believable than milk and honey bullsh1t - see labour manifesto 2019) will have a much better chance of persuading enough of the swing voters than continuing with the last six years of blaming everything on big bad England.
I hope you take this post with the spirit it is intended even though it is critical of your post.
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My attention span isn’t good enough to read it all, but you started off ok.
I’m maybe in denial but I’m still waiting for the last minute court case which stops the English dragging Scotland out of the E.U.
I remember word that it was actually illegal for them to take us in in the first place.
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The English can f’uck off and be English all they like, we know what they are.
They can stuff their “British “ though.
Notice the increase of the dreaded word in all forms of advertising/ labelling lately?
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Sic a parcel o' rogues.
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A question for the middle 20/30. What is it about an insular, right wing, spiv led union that’s worth keeping? Food banks? Royal nonces?
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Mason, you are just making the same mistake as Stewarty and the most of the SNP (although I see that Jim Sillars gets it), which is not like you as normally you are right about everything.Originally Posted by Mason89
Not everything in England is bad and not everything in Scotland is good. The sooner you guys realise that and stop blaming all of Scotland's problems on England then you might see the 45% increase - haven't you learned anything in the last six years?
A little example to help you. You mention Royal nonces but not another particular ex-MP due in court shortly. Why is that I wonder?
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Ill wait to see what a jury has to say on that matter first, although I’ve always hated the fat Jambo mess. Andy’s different as it’s abundantly clear what he was up to & he’ll never see the inside of a courtroom.
Anything else?
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The public are angrier at Harry than they are Andrew. The game really is up.
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I would accuse you of missing the point but I'm pretty sure you are choosing to miss the point.
So let me say it again.
The last six years political/economic sh1tfest (Brexit/3 Tory GE wins food banks etc etc) have been the perfect stage for the SNP to grow the 45% who voted in 2014 for independence if they had the gumption. However they have p1ssed that advantage away on grievance politics and general anti-English bashing. Year after year the figures in opinion polls for independence stay virtually the same yet the SNP continue with their same tactics instead of changing course on a strategy that will actually work. They will ignore people like Sillars and continue on gaily as they are and wonder in a few years time why there is still only circa 45% that want independence.
It's all very weird for me as actually I think that Sturgeon is pretty astute, but maybe deep down she is happy to have the easy life of playing to the converted and staying FM, with all of its trappings, rather than actually being bold and changing tack and having a real chance of winning a referendum.
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It looks like you’re suggesting that Nicola Sturgeon doesn’t actually want the thing she’s spent her entire life campaigning for. That would be absolutely mental if you were
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