IN the recent Scotsman poll forecasting a revival in Labour’s fortunes, surely the salient fact is that even in the absence of a referendum and therefore without the full thrust of debate about the benefits to Scots of independence, indy support holds, but there is a lesson to be learned by the SNP (Scottish independence support remains strong – new poll, Oct 14). But which lesson?
Could it be the poor treatment of a sitting MP and the ill-advised witch-hunt which was always certain to precipitate a by-election in conditions and timing at best undesirable and at worst downright politically crazy?
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Or could it be the party’s stoic adherence to its deal with the Greens, which has hindered the indy campaign through poorly considered policies around the trans issue, the bottle return scheme and ludicrous timescales for environmental policies that have alienated so many Scots who’ve sent a message in the recent by-election that enough is enough?
There’s time for common sense to resurface, ditch the deal and place indy at centre stage again in Scottish politics.
Yet, Scottish support for the Tories in Scotland is increasing? A vote for Unionism is a vote to embrace the appalling standards of social provision acceptable to this Westminster Unionist establishment.
Within the last few days an 80-year-old relative, in a south of England city, collapsed on the bathroom floor at 3am, unable to move. The family struggled to make him more comfortable on the floor. A paramedic arrived at 3pm. An ambulance arrived at 10pm to take him to hospital.
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The ambulance crew sat with him for two hours before he was triaged into A&E. He remained there for two nights before a transient ward space was allocated and he is still to find his way to a ward where his now diagnosed pneumonia and associated conditions can be properly evaluated and managed. His prognosis remains unclear despite many tests being conducted.
Three hours of valuable time for an ambulance that should be helping other patients in the community, their time wasted fulfilling a function that our austerity-decimated NHS is no longer capable of doing adequately, such is the erosion on infrastructure capability, highlighted in ongoing struggle by health workers for reasonable pay and conditions for them and the patients they serve.
This is Britain in the 21st century after 13 years of Tory austerity, cutting public service budgets and destroying infrastructure, assaulting the living standards of ordinary folk, and winding the clock back a century to a Britain being run for the benefit of a few rather than the many.
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And yet some Scots are adding their support to this failing Tory party with their appalling handling of public finances, the fraud they’ve allowed to be perpetrated on taxpayers by their “pals”, and their stoic largesse to people and commerce that have gotten richer while we’re all considerably poorer. What is wrong with these people? Have they lost all sense of proportion and social conscience?
Yet the Labour Party haven’t demonstrated how they’re going to remedy Tory financial and administrative failures, just Starmer’s “confidence” they’ll get the growth to afford improvements. How can anyone in their right mind reasonably vote Labour now?
How can they possibly refuse to understand there is no grand plan and that if this Labour Party can do deals with the Tories, and the Tory media are now happy for Labour to hold the baton of power for a while (a big clue), then the equation must be true that Labour equals Tory? There’s no difference, more of the same Tory mantra inflicted on us assured.
Don’t the SNP, through their Scottish Government and Westminster MPs, need to get on the front foot and attack every vestige of this pernicious Westminster government and the establishment that supports it? Don’t they need to shelve the policy failures (perhaps return to them after indy with fuller consideration) and highlight how the Union is failing us, and ONLY indy offers any prospect of improvement? Don’t we need to make the next election only about indy, putting country before party interests and make it clear we have an opportunity to make a real difference?
And perhaps more important, shouldn’t the SNP show unity of cause by widening their involvement among all the groups fighting for the freedom that every independent nation enjoys, and which we’re entitled to?
Jim Taylor
Edinburgh
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