SCOTTISH Enlightenment versus Tory Entitlement – this is the real battleground for the Scottish voter in 2019. Never has the difference between the two been so transparent or stark for our country.
Andrew Tickell in his article in the Sunday National (Tory trio’s ‘we in Scotland’ moment says it all on state of the Union, July 7) vividly reveals the Tory pysche and exposes their complete inability to empathise with the Scots and Scotland.
These highly predictable, rather second-rate politicians once again show their complete lack of understanding of Scotland and its political landscape. Theresa May’s hollow-sounding platitudes, not believable, it wisnae my fault, the usual threatening delivery in evidence and as usual punctuated with “precious Union” rhetoric, which the Scots do not believe and which has time and time again been proven to be just empty words.
Her track record for listening to Scotland is appalling, in fact she listens to no-one. Her attitude is there for all to see in her responses to Ian Blackford at PMQs – here you will get a clear insight into her attitude to the Scots. She should have simply faded into the background, tail between her legs, and reflected on the way Scotland has been treated by her and her government, particularly over the last three years. No self-respecting Scot is buying her last-gasp attempt to “win us round”.
In relation to the clumsy recruiting drive for PM by the two mediocre candidates, none of their posturing or pompous statements on Great Britain, the Union “we are all in this together” holds any truck in Scotland. Boris with his “British jingoism” and appealing to a long-gone sense of Empire is almost laughable to us. As for Jeremy Hunt, his animated stance on “no never” to another independence referendum has cringe written all over it. Their view of the “precious Union” is a falsehood, a lie, a fallacy, a platitude and it does NOT exist.
Brexit has exposed for all to see not only the dire state of the Union but the clear attitude the Tories have at every level for the other nations of the UK. There is and always will be only one nation in the UK, and that is England. It is the UK in the eyes of those in England.
What is the basis for this attitude of English Tories towards Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland? This is a crucial question and one that goes beyond just politics. What creates such an attitude? In simple terms you have to examine closely the psyche and mental attitude of your average Tory. Its one word: “ENTITLEMENT”.
Toryism is not a political stance, it is an internal “state of mind”. Sadly this entitlement has been the foundation of UK politics since the “sell out “ of 1707. The Tory elite, the Tory grandees and the Tory political classes still rule the roost. “It is our god-given right to rule!” they cry, even in a modern democracy. Royalty, the landed classes, the Lords, big business, the civil service, the judiciary, academia, the diplomatic corps are all permeated by the ENTITLED!
This closed-shop network is bound together by wealth, influence, education, class, the old school tie, by title. The ENTITLED’s access to ALL things private – health, education, legal system, banking – and the corridors of power not only prevents them from understanding the day to day lives of the rest of us but leads to an attitude of indifference, lack of empathy and sadly arrogance. How can they understand the welfare state and the need for a public sector?
At last there is room for optimism; there is ENLIGHTENMENT. Scotland has shown the way with social democratic policies that provide another way. These are there for all to see in our education, social care, our laws, our NHS and our public services and instead of the Tory laissez-faire attitudes our people have a completely different attitude towards the helpless, the poor and those in want. There is an ever-widening, palpable difference between the quality of life in Scotland and the rest of the UK.
In conclusion let me spell it out: there is no 1950s “caring conservatism”. There is no “Scottish” dimension to Toryism. There is only one Tory philosophy in the so called UK/England and that is “I am entitled it is my right!” There is no Scottish prefix to the word Conservative in Scotland. They are just a bunch of Tories who wish to destroy devolution and consign any thought of independence to the dustbin of history.
Dan Wood
Kirriemuir
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