MY bended knee is getting a tad arthritic. Asking for a Section 30, or seeing my parliament reduced to a talking shop that on more and more occasions will be telt to sit down, ken your place and stop asking for “more”. It’s all getting more than a bit annoying.
The latest being the Deposit Return Scheme, so why bother to support our Scottish NHS doctors and their call for a ban on disposable vapes? It may be health-related, health may be devolved, but Union Jack and his party will find a way to slap us down again should we proceed.
The idea of setting a precedent across rUK should they choose to follow Scotland with our proposal for a “cash first” approach in an effort to support those experiencing “food insecurity” could be another step too far: us getting above our station. And don’t forget what that station is: lowly!
READ MORE: Gillian Mackay: Disposable vapes will lead to a sea of plastic if we don’t act
Imagine, money in local pockets, spent in local shops. People having the ownership to choose what to buy, what to eat. But if it were to proceed, I can just see the headlines now, something along the lines of: “even with its devolved powers, an independence-focused Scotland can’t support its people”, or any other slur to that effect!
Whether it’s Section 30, Section 35 or the Internal Market Act, the anti-independence parties will always put their flailing Union first, at our expense. That Tuesday’s National covers this whilst noting that Scottish Child Payment is making a real difference almost made me weep. How come the majority electorate don’t make the connection: Scottish Government intervention, limited powers, mitigating, equals good? Westminster and its anti-democratic mindset (Scotland has a pro-indy majority both here and in Westminster) equals bad. That maybe oversimplified, but what has the anti-indy brigade done for us recently?
I mean apart from losing us our lucrative market across the Channel, leaving us to watch fruit and veg rot in fields without a mobile workforce, or the ignominy of being last in the queue for EU food exports, or being dissed by the USA over trade deals,or accepting inferior terms from our new buddies in Australia/New Zealand, or imposing voter ID. Answers on a large postcard, please.
READ MORE: Scotland's deposit return scheme to be delayed until 2025
But if the polls are correct and there is to be an SNP wipeout at most, or a diminishing of its majority at least, come next year’s General Election, what happens next to devolution, to Holyrood, to the drive for independence? How much work would be needed to regain that which might be lost? I hate to think, or is that Gerry Hassan’s new initiative/body: Campaign for Self-Determination?
With the potential time involved, I just might not see that come to fruition, so I’d rather try and use my time as a member of the indy movement to balance some messages: that of identifying the perfidy of Labour, the myth of federalism, the retention of the House of Lords no matter what is promised. Noting that Labour aren’t a better option just because the Tories are so bad. Or reminding folks of the sleekit cooperation between Tory and Labour, joined at the hip as they manipulated councils into power.
All that and more, balanced against the positives: the future for Scotland and the potential that independence can bring. I’m not too sure though who’s going to write that script, provide the heft, the political heavy lifting, that will re-light the fire in the belly. And that alone is insufficient, so where is today’s vision aligned with progressive policies that folks can relate to? Not pie-in-the-sky but the reality around where we require change: the likes of food, jobs, money, schooling, the environment, fuel bills.
A change from blue Tory to red isn’t the answer, but we do need to be able to provide an answer, and soon.
Selma Rahman
Edinburgh
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