Letters: Tory Budget bungs hint at a Brexit deal election

READ MORE: Pete Wishart: This is why backing a People’s Vote is a bad idea

READ MORE: Ruth Wishart: Brexit is too important not to back a second 'People's Vote'

Now, I’m no Brenda from Bristol saying “Not another one” about elections. Come elections and referendums, I will go out and vote. After all, I cut my teeth – or rather had my thumb inked – in former East Pakistan and then Bangladesh all those years ago.

I stood in the queues: women only, so what!? The fact was we were out, we were taking part. Our x mattered and no matter I couldn’t read Bengali script. I did what the majority of women were doing in my area: looking down the list for the pictorial design that indicated your favoured candidate.

I’m just wondering then if the much touted hostility between May and Hammond is really a love-hate relationship: hate one another, but love Tory, Tory ideology. I don’t trust May one bit when she declares she “is not preparing for another general election”, but the sweeteners offered by Hammond potentially undermine that assertion. The feel good factor he’s generated all the way from the NHS to potholes, bungs by any other name to middle England, could provide hard wired soundbites and brochure headings come a snap election. These would feature frequently and sufficiently to become entranced like a slogan on the side of a bus, far negating the prospect of the cuts in Hammond’s earlier budgets still to be implemented in 2019-20+.

But if this Budget has been sufficiently successful to woo any of his backbench doubters, and keep hold of wavering Tory voters, has he done enough to ensure a Tory majority in a snap? Bye bye DUP, you’re redundant now! But why would May make herself need to change her mind having said “I’m not preparing for another election?” Well, if Parliament won’t back the EU deal when it is finally brought before the House, then a general election might be the only way to solve that impasse. So call me a cynic when I see the need for Tory leaders to bring forward a sweetener Budget before the Brexit deal is defined and brought before Parliament. The Budget then is a sugar-coated pathway  to an unintended general election!

But where in that scenario and timeline is the possibility of a People’s Vote on the deal? Oh you Wisharts! (Not related, but both include interesting detail in their respective articles.) Call it what you will, I rather think the Tories would want to win a general election based on the “deal” rather than call a second referendum or agree to a People’s Vote.

I still believe Brexit is bringing the UK to its knees and potentially dragging us down, too. I tend to chime however with the question: If we have the People’s Vote, and get the same outcome, what changes for us here? We voted in the EU referendum and our collective vote has been ignored and negated over the months and at the negotiating tables. Should we lend ourselves to a People’s Vote? Is there any indication even now of changing attitudes and any actual outcomes for Scotland relevant to our expressed democratic choice? It might be base of me to ask, but what’s in it for us in Scotland if we take part in a People’s Vote?

So, if we are to go down that path, will there be some form of negotiations between our Government and Westminster that gives us something concrete, that recognises our political base that is the majority of pro-indy MPs and MSPs?

You see, there I do agree with Brenda: so please not just another vow, nor promises that we know will be broken. We don’t trust you London, where our democratic future is concerned.
Selma Rahman
Edinburgh