THE Tories won the election in England and Wales with 43.6% of the vote. Ignorant narcissist Boris Johnson claims this gives him a mandate to pursue Brexit.
In Scotland the SNP won 45% of the vote on an explicit pledge of holding an independence referendum. The Tories are now trying to say there is no mandate. Their reasoning is that several SNP candidates said stopping Brexit was more of a priority and did not link it to independence.
However the Tory house of cards collapses as they made the election about stopping another independence referendum. They had no other polices. They said nothing else. As too did the LibDems who too were run out of town. Labour were woolly on the issue.
The United Kingdom is finished as a political entity. Political parties seeking it’s dissolution hold majorities in two of its four constituent parts. It’s moribund, corrupt and despised.
The Unionists are now saying that Boris Johnson will refuse a Section 30 order and that will be it. This completely ignores the fact Johnson has no moral or democratic imperative to do this.
READ MORE: Bernard Ponsonby destroys Scottish Tory's argument against indyref2
Other than casual schoolboy racism and an inflated sense of entitlement Boris Johnson is bereft of anything. He is a poundland Trump. It will be this almost inconceivable incompetence which will smash the UK into a thousand pieces and be blown into the wind.
Alan Hinnrichs
Dundee
THAT England definitely wants to leave the EU family of nations is now crystal clear. Many of those that sought to ignore the English electorate and simply block any type of Brexit were unceremoniously booted out, with those who sought to provide a similar result with an option of a EUref2, also given a doing.
Open warfare within the English Labour Party, with MP’s openly referring to each other and their leader as racist, even taking out media adverts to encourage their potential electorate to vote for other parties, also took its toll.
That said, it would appear that the English electorate did sufficiently understand that the proposed Labour manifesto, which whilst commendable, would in fact be reversing 30 to 40 years of the rolling process of austerity/privatisation, at the same time as reversing 40 years of EU/UK generally beneficial entanglement, but crucially both over the next decade.
READ MORE: Jeremy Corbyn hints he will stand down as Labour leader early next year
Their conclusion appears to have been that these matters were necessarily sequential and that as the process of Brexit had already started and been delayed for three years, this would have to be substantially completed first. Sticking plaster patch misdirection was also offered by PM Johnson to reduce their focus on austerity.
However, membership of the EU represents the preferred status quo to Scotland, which renders some of the fears over the magnitude of change required to be an independent nation state within the EU, as probably manageable.
The question for pro-independence parties to answer therefore, is how to reduce/minimise the fear of change for those who cannot yet even contemplate self-determination, are resistant to change, are readily accepting of MSM “facts” – and at the same time highlight the levels of change that being an independent nation state could deliver, for those who are desperate for change.
With any significant change comes a long timeline and, with it, something and someone has to be the last to receive the change they desire. Small incremental steps, over a wide spectrum of needs, over a long period of time, offers sustainable change, but it must be set out with both honesty and integrity, and with cross-party support in the Scottish Parliament, as soon as practicable.
It is now looking like UK Labour will be reconfiguring for the next decade and not be offering any potential UK governance. Whether Scottish Labour will sit this decade out “carping from the side-lines”, or get involved making cross-party agreements, some of which will overlap reserved powers, will possibly be their last major decision this decade in Scotland and for the sake of democracy in Scotland, it is to be hoped that they at last step up to the plate.
Stephen Tingle
Greater Glasgow
OH dearie, dearie me! The English Labour Party have caught the Scottish Labour party’s disease. I have lost count today of the times Labour Party members have said the immortal Scottish Labour whinge: “We were not listening ... but we are listening now.”
For years now, we in Scotland have had to listen to this rubbish from Jack McConnell, Jim Murphy, Kezia Dugdale, etc.
READ MORE: Ian Murray warns Labour 'will die' without change
And what has been the result? SNP bad, SNP bad, on and on and on. The SNP could cure cancer tomorrow, pay off the national debt, halt climate change and still Scottish Labour would tell us that they have failed, rather than joining in and benefitting the people of Scotland.
English Labour are now in the same situation as the Scottish party were in 15 years ago and I sincerely hope that they do not copy their counterparts up here. It is not enough to just listen, what is more important is that you do as you are told and not what the party, or the unions tell you.
Jim Mc Gregor
Kirkintilloch
BRILLIANT speech today in Edinburgh Nicola!
Thank you for affirming that those who have chosen to make Scotland their home are welcome here. Scotland is no place for bigotry or prejudice against those of a different race or background.
Thank you for acknowledging that diversity in our community encourages cultural and economic wealth. This outward-looking policy will see Scotland’s star rise and hopefully see that star become one of the stars in the European Union flag.
SC
Aberdeen
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