THERE was an excellent piece in the Seven Days supplement in the Sunday National last week (‘Rethinking Scotland: Can the nation lay down a vision of a new era?’, May 15). In it Professor Gregor Gall previewed a new book, A New Scotland: Building An Equal, Fair and Sustainable Society. If anyone didn’t read that part I highly recommend you howk it oot your recycling bin and do so now.
To summarise it, though, in a very blunt oafish “Get Brexit Done” style way, it basically concludes that neoliberalism has totally screwed the majority of folk in society and needs to be scrapped for a system that doesn’t! I’m sure Gregor will be horrified that I’ve debased his eloquent piece on this new book in such a brutal and simplistic manner but I’m doing so in a totally unapologetic deliberate way.
It needs to be shouted from the rooftops to everyone, not just those that know what the hell “neoliberalism” means, that they have been putting politicians into power for decades now, who almost to a man and woman have defended this broken system, albeit to varying degrees, to their detriment.
READ MORE: Rethinking Scotland: Can the nation lay down a vision of a new era?
It won’t happen though. Views like mine are just normally ignored and side-lined by the mainstream press and media. On the odd occasion they are discussed these views are totally denigrated as the ravings of loony, lefty, Che Guevara t-shirt wearing types stuck in the dim and distant past.
I wonder if the past they are on about was pre-May 1979 when a certain person called Thatcher came to power and changed the lives permanently of those in society with the least? I think so! They tell us these were extremely dark days indeed, with the plebs going out on strike at the drop of a hat and the rubbish piling high on the streets. Yes, very dark times of almost full employment and no food banks because these pesky plebs insisted via their trade unions that they should receive decent wages. Yes, during these times the richest felt downtrodden at having to pay so much tax and looked on longingly at other much more unequal countries where the few at the top amassed so much more compared to their very own pesky plebs. Well these folk in the UK got their own way and some! Many of them to this day are so inured to the plight of the lesser mortals (in their eyes) they expect Sunak to hand them even more in across the board tax cuts. I’m sorry that is not only immoral but plain evil if you ask me. No-one will ask me though. Those with views similar to mine have been air-brushed out of contemporary society like those Russians that are against Putin’s “special operation” in Ukraine.
I’m not advocating that Nicola Sturgeon transforms Scotland into a European version of Cuba or Venezuela. However, as argued in Gregor’s piece, if I’ve interpreted it correctly, proper and drastic redistribution of the overall wealth in Scotland has to take place to benefit those that have lost out so badly since that dark day in May 1979.
This will inevitably and quite rightly entail levelling down as well as levelling up and this will be anathema to many of those that have benefited so handsomely since that dark Mayday. I’ve got one word for these selfish individuals that are unhappy at the prospect about doing their bit for their less fortunate Scots and non-Scots. Tough!
By the way I do have a Che Guevara T-shirt and make no apologies for doing so. Any neoliberals out there can stick that up yer jacksie!
Ivor Telfer
Fife
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