I DON’T know if it’s the “interesting times” we live in or if we’re in a state of flux but politics, politicians and their policies are all over the place at the moment.

Labour seemed to think that this month’s by-elections would be a sign that power and government were about to come calling. But the morning after the night before, they responded with more shooting in the foot.

Instead of celebrating their win with baby Keir, they wrung their hands, obsessed over not taking Uxbridge and turned not on the Tories, but on their own, Sadiq Khan and Ultra Low Emission Zones.

Ulezs won’t immediately affect the fires burning across Europe and North Africa but they are health improving and life enhancing. We know that because the wee girl Ella

Adoo-Kissi-Debrah died in London in February 2013 with her “death being caused by acute respiratory failure, severe asthma and air pollution exposure”. So said the coroner at her inquest.

But in an effort to apportion blame post-Uxbridge, we saw the unedifying spectacle of Labour turning on Labour with a rush to reconsider their already limited green policies. The Tories were doing the same and what the Tories do today, Labour nods at tomorrow.

What’s more important – quality of life improvements or votes? We don’t need to ponder that too deeply. We should always remember that Labour puts the rape clause and benefit caps in the same place in the queue as green policies – namely, behind votes.

Both the Tories and Labour are now so craven in their pursuit of government and power that both are lurching further right, Tories to stem disenchantment and for the possibility of wooing back their no-show voters who stayed at home this month, while Labour want to get back into power at any price.

But for all politicians, what you’re “against” isn’t good enough, not when you can’t articulate what you’re “for”. Climate change isn’t an abstract and there is quite literally no future in denying the urgent need for action.

But who pays for the required change, when and how? Surely the parties recognise that the weakest, those earning the least, cannot bear the financial burden of change.

Between now and the elections, a canny leader should come out articulating something beyond sound bites and not just around a currently hyped climate change agenda.

In Scotland, we need pro-indy parties and politicians to do more than talk up Scotland into some pseudo political enthusiastic froth, but with no follow up. That’s well past.

It is essential for clear messaging on the harm that the Union does to us now, and will do in the future – social, economic, cultural. Not as negative campaigning but laid out as fact, the very actuality of our situation.

Then alongside that we have to communicate how we can bring about the necessary alterations with the powers that come only through independence. Give us facts, provide us the power that comes with knowledge to make changes informed by that relatable information.

What has the Union done for us with all its asset stripping and double dealing, versus the gains wrought via our Parliament? And then there’s all that we need to do but cannot tied as we are to Westminster.

We need to remind folks of the skullduggery of Labour as opposed to their honeyed words, empty promises, reworked lures of federalism, straight-faced tropes of fiscal rectitude – all due to come our way in the coming months.

And the Tories? Tory and Labour are interchangeable continuity. They’re not a choice, they’re Scotland’s death knell.

Selma Rahman
Edinburgh