IN his long letter on Saturday, Tom Gray from Braco says nothing changes life quite like a pandemic. This weekend it is becoming clear that the consequences for those of us who get through it will indeed be life-changing.
We forgot the lesson of World War Two on the importance of food production. Recently a Westminster politician said we do not need farmers. How detached from reality can you get?
In the Thatcher era we destroyed much of our manufacturing to really become a nation of shopkeepers, wasting our oil wealth in the process. Now the shops that remain are going to the wall.
READ MORE: It’s tragic that lessons about food security were not learned
We took the wrong decisions again with the 2008 banking collapse through sheer stupidity and greed. Borrowing short to lend long has always been a road to failure. The consequences were a world economic crisis and austerity.
This pandemic will be worse economically and a huge tragedy in human terms. Yet whilst much will change, I fear Westminster will get it wrong again. Burdening us all with an even greater debt, Westminster will continue on its damaging centralising path, rewarding the rich as it deals with the aftermath of the pandemic. Indeed could writing off the huge NHS England debt under cover of the pandemic be part of the process and the privatisation of the NHS? The PM’s comment “free at the point of use” is just a cover for privatisation of the NHS.
Brexit is a con heading for a disaster that has been trumped by a pandemic. It was promoted on a big lie by people we can now see are greedy charlatans. To satisfy his personal ambition Boris is now the leader of the Brexit herd and he will not be immune from the outcome. “Leader of the herd” should be his epitaph.
As I write the Queen is preparing to do her duty and speak to the nation at this difficult time. No expression of thanks from her on our behalf for the brave and selfless efforts of so many in the front line and in communities can be enough unless it is followed up with tangible support and just reward. One thing that will be remembered is the action of Prince Charles. His epitaph should be “I ran”. For now he really does need to keep his head down or find something really useful to do in atonement.
I have just scratched the surface of my many criticisms of Westminster and I will resist throwing in my disgust with the BBC, particularly of BBC Scotland and much of the mainstream media. As far as the BBC are concerned, my annual licence fee was paid this month. I am 75 next month and I will cancel the direct debit then and they can sing for it in the future. I might reconsider if any future arrangements waive licence fees for NHS hospitals, care homes and the like and the BBC provided the infrastructure and equipment to the NHS at no cost.
So what will be a just reward for the real heroes? Addressing climate change has to be part of everything we do, and for starters I suggest we should prioritise:
1. The introduction of a universal and reasonable living income and better pay for all frontline employees.
2. Localisation not globalisation as the world order. A “globalisation of localism” that enables communities to thrive. Scotland could lead the way as an example to other nations.
3. Decentralise power, with smaller big government and better local government.
4. Fairness at the heart of government, abolition of the House of Lords, and Scottish independence.
5. An end to the rich-get-richer-and-the-poor-get-poorer approach that is at the heart of the current establishment.
6. A fair price policy for producers, with development incentives in place of subsidies.
7. Energy price reforms with the abolition of the unfair retail and grid pricing arrangements including the dual fuel discount. This could be better used to support lower electricity costs where most needed.
8. Local tax reform incorporating a land tax.
Andy Kaye
Lael
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