One simple question for those in Scotland who support the Union

Looming like that oversized elephant in a small room is, of course, the cost of living crisis. And it is worth noting that this is a crisis brought about by failure of economic strategies from multiple governments stretching all the way back to 1707.

It is not the asylum seekers that have brought this about. It is not the nurses. Furthermore, it is not the paramedics. It is not the teachers. It’s not the rail workers or border security. It’s not the EU. It’s not Northern Ireland or the Scottish or Welsh governments. It is the fault of Downing Street.

It and only it must take the blame. The problem with our political system is that politicians never suffer from the consequences of political actions. Not one member of the Cabinet Office will be directly affected by the monstrous cluster bombing of the economy. Not one person in the Cabinet will go cold, nor feel the pain of hunger, and the crushing weight of despair will pass them by.

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So removed have our politicians become from the public they effectively orbit another star system. We have a system centred on an unelected head of state with his lords and ladies the innermost bodies dancing around his resplendent throne. The next orbit contains the wannabes of the Commons, with all the characteristics of an asteroid belt.

But perhaps the saddest orbits are those taken up by those of the pleb class. For they still believe that after all the scandals that have beset Buckingham Palace, the monarchy is a good thing. They still believe, after reading all the evidence to the contrary, that the House of Lords is good for democracy. They still believe that, after 315 years of abject failure, the Union benefits all and not just the few. Oh, what a truly desperate place they must be in when they regard scraps from the top table as a banquet!

I ask a simple question of Unionists. Of what benefit is this Union? As it is, the whole world is laughing at the implosion of ukplc except for Putin’s Russia and those crazy guys in North Korea yet you, the Unionist, still pretend to be imperial. It is as if the last 122 years of “retreat from empire” have never happened for them.

The humiliation of that retreat has caused a blind spot in the collective consciousness of the occupiers of little Britanicus. Their nation is no longer a player on the world stage, but they act as if it is. They think that because it possesses a nuclear weapons platform, the UK is a top-table team, when all it has done is bankrupt financially and morally the system it was designed to protect.

Cuts are made at every turn and cracks in projection of force papered are over. Conventional forces have been run down to feed the insatiable appetite of nuclear deterrent. That is the true swansong of an empire in retreat, and empire in denial, an empire that in its death throes strikes out at all it presumes a threat.

Many people are regularly borrowing to fund everyday expenses such as buying groceries or are visiting food banks to get by

It is strange that in its final form the empire could not save itself from its biggest weakness – rampant corruption. It will snuff out as if it were a candle starved, and to a large extent that is what has happened, after all a parasite can only take substance for so long before it kills its host. And that is what the British Empire has been, one long-lived parasite on the face of planet Earth.

Empires always die and only last on average 250 years before overreaching in the search for power. So, this one is due its collapse and I, for one, vote it happens this year.

There is nothing from the King’s Christmas message down and through to his Prime Minister and out the ordinary controllers that says anything other than: “We are in charge and there is nothing you can do about it”. Unless, of course, that is, we decide to ...

Cliff Purvis

Veterans for Scottish Independence 2.0

WEST Dunbartonshire Council, at its full council meeting this month, again pushed through millions of pounds of budget cuts. This time it was done by a Labour-led administration, previously the SNP did likewise.

People will be left poorer, with our public services at breaking point. Many are regularly borrowing to fund everyday expenses such as buying groceries or are visiting food banks to get by. Those in employment continue to suffer real-terms pay cuts and attacks on their terms and conditions and pensions (deferred wages).

If tame councillors cannot see what is happening in the real world, ordinary people can and are mobilising.

Support for striking workers on picket lines in 2022 has exceeded the unions’ highest hopes. The public is clearly with the strikers as poll after poll indicates.

There is only one solution to the situation we are in, and as millions are now discovering, that is through collective action. Rail workers, posties, teachers, university workers, and others are now striking for fair pay. And more are set to join the fight, including health workers and possibly firefighters.

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In localised disputes, unions are chalking up win after win, as employers give ground before a new militant mood from workers.

RMT leader Mick Lynch has come out with some great one-liners summing up the current climate such as “ workers refuse to be poor anymore” and “the working class is back”.

Trade unions have risen to the challenge, building strike-ready workplaces and honing their communications and organising tactics.

Labour’s refusal to support the strikes now dominating the news shows the other side of the coin. If the working class is back, the party of organised labour is not.

Without a political challenge to the government, pay will continue to fall and public services will continue to fail. The need for real opposition is urgent and currently that opposition is taking place on the picket line not in the council chambers, Holyrood, or Westminster.

Thomas Morrison

Secretary Clydebank Trade Union Council