Labour are still ahead (in Scotland, anyway)
Dear Alex Salmond,
Seeing as ‘broken promises’ are pretty much a given with most political parties these days, it is no surprise to see you clutching at straws to keep your political integrity in tact. After the humiliating u-turn that you were forced into on abolishing council tax – your main election pledge – earlier this year, you now have to face up to a few more harsh realities.
You were obviously feeling quite chipper about becoming a significant force in Scottish politics and have not been shy about setting lofty objectives for the SNP. First, you set yourself a target of reaching 20 seats in the Scottish Parliament from the current 7, and second, you repeatedly declared your absolute commitment to Scottish independence. On the first issue of reaching 20 seats, it’s not looking good. 24% of Scots now say they will vote SNP at the general election, down from 36% recorded by a YouGov poll conducted in August last year. This represents an increase of 6% from the 2005 general election, but is not even close to the level required to meet your target of 20 SNP MPs. What’s more, Labour has seen a sharp revival in its fortunes north of the Border, with support increasing ten points to 39% since the August 2008 poll. Tom Harris, Labour MP for Glasgow South and blogger extraordinaire, said: “Coming on top of the SNP’s collapse in Glasgow North East, these figures show that Salmond’s target of winning 20 seats is a fantasy beyond fiction.” On the second issue of Scottish independence, a new poll for the Daily Telegraph found that 57% of people (+4) would vote against breaking away from Britain with only 29% (-2) in favour. In a further blow, only 12% said they thought a referendum was one the top priorities on which the SNP administration should be concentrating. Ouch.
Needless to say, any rational individual would take stock at this point and consider what would be the most appropriate, measured and composed response to such disappointing figures. Sadly, you’re not rational. The Government is about to unveil plans to transfer more powers from Westminster to Holyrood, but you have decided to publish a rival blueprint next Monday on your preferred option of an independence referendum, which you want to hold next year and is expected to cost around £9 million. The fact that all three main Unionist parties are vowing to vote down the legislation plus the fact that nine out of ten Scots do not consider the referendum to be a priority right now is evidently not enough to curb your unjustified enthusiasm. Annabel Goldie, Scottish Tory leader, said: “This is another terrible setback for Alex Salmond and the SNP. Mr Salmond should stop wasting millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on his obsession with an independence referendum, ditch his doomed bill and get on with the job people elected him to do. The figures on separation are even more stark. Separation remains a minority sport and Alex Salmond should abandon his damaging referendum now.” Quite.
Your limp fightback against such a wall of opposition was led by Angus Robertson, SNP Westminster leader, who said that “some surveys have shown support for independence lower, others higher.” How very deep and considered of him. “The reality is that the SNP have the confidence to put the option of independence and equality for Scotland to the people in a referendum, so that they have their say.” No, the reality is that the SNP have the bloody-mindedness and arrogance to ignore the wishes of the Scottish people. In case you hadn’t noticed, there is the worst recession in living memory taking place right now, yet all you guys can think about is your own little political soapbox moment instead of giving a damn about the Scottish public who are suffering like everyone else right now. Shameful stuff.
Yours disrespectfully,
A.Tory
I want an independent Scotland. No more rule of the English by the ‘Scottish Raj’ – look at the last decade: Blair, Brown, Reid, McCartney, Mick Martin and the rest. All enjoying different laws in their homeland from the ones they vote through for the conquered English.
No more, I say.
Its not just about Scottish independence – it’s about English independence from Scottish Labour and that’s something I want us to seize with both hands!
There should be an announcement on the Calman Commission today. And in true joined-up government style it will come before the Treasury’s factual paper/ review on the Barnett Formula.
It will be interesting to see how Cameron responds or whether he will keep a respectful silence (given that he’s only got one MP in Scotland he’d be better off leaving it for Goldie to comment).
It would probably be better for the Tories if the SNP were polling well. If Labour win a lot of seats in Scotland it could dig into the Conservative majority, or erase it completely.
Can you imagine if the Conservatives failed to win power because of Scottish and Welsh MPs, or if Scottish and Welsh MPs held the balance of power in a hung parliament?
Shaun, what about the mighty Badger in Number 11?
EC, it would be horrifying if a hung parliament is caused by Scotland or Wales, leaving the overwhelming conservative Englanders like myself in a permanent state of sufferance!
Salmond lives in a Scottish shortbread and tartan hat fantasy land.
Personally, i hope he does hold a referendum, as I am quite confident his independence option would be soundly trounced. I would vote against independence and I don’t know anybody who wants it.
Would put it to bed rather nicely whilst leaving a good amount of egg on the face…perfect.
Unfortunately, the Tories are a long way from recovery in Scotland, so people vote Labour without thinking or SNP as a protest vote. When they get pissed with SNP they go back to Labour.
I laughed (actually, was nearly sick as well) when I saw them crowing over winning Mick Martins old seat. ‘Vindication of Gordon Brown’s policies’ was the quote i heard. COME ON. The feckin seat has voted Labour everytime for the last 74 years – the benefits sheep were never going to vote anything else….
I recently had a discussion with paw-in-law and he agreed with me about how unfit to govern Labour were, how they’d wrecked the economy etc, then said he would vote Labour anyway. Kind of sums up the attitude here.
Shaun – you’re not the only one who wants to escape Labours’ Scottish stranglehold!
An analogy:
Dear English Football Association
As a representative of the Scottish Football Association, I would like to inform you that we wish to change the way the English Football team is managed to bring it more in line with the way our Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, is running Britain.
This will involve the following:
1. The Manager of the Scottish team is allowed to be involved with the running of the English team. However, the manager of the English team should have no say whatsoever in the running of the Scottish team. This shall be known as the West Lothian Question.
2. A sizable proportion of any money the English Football Association raises from, say sponsorship or crowd takings, shall be given to the Scottish Football Association, regardless as to whether you need it or not. This does not apply the other way round. This is known as the Barnett Formula.
3. You are not to call yourself England any longer. You will now be known as the British Regions. We, on the other hand, are still to be known as Scotland, “a proud and noble nation”.
4. Medical treatment to your players will be limited to a few treatments because of cost. No such stringent limitation applies to Scotland.
5. If your playing surfaces are flooded, then do not expect much assistance. However, Scottish pitches will be adequately provided for in the event of flooding.
6. From this moment on, the English Football Association will cease to exist. However, the Scottish Football Association will be allowed to continue to work independently.
A failure to follow these rules will see you branded as arrogant, selfish and unfair.
I’m sure you will find this to your satisfaction. After all, you seem to be happy with this state of affairs with your political system, so why not your Football team?
Yours sincerely
Mr G Brown.
PS You English are so naïve, you are being abolished and don’t even realise it.
You forgot to mention that all Scottish games will be televised live on the BBC but the English will have to pay to watch England matches on Sky.
In fact that will go for all sport.
@j lilburn -
Jack Straw has indicated that he wants PR in a fully elected Lords, which means that the HoC’s West Lothian Question will be replicated in the Lords (because the Lords becomes territorial – Scots will elect members to the Lords who will then scrutinise English legislation but not the concommitant devolved Scottish laws).
Could Labour be any more constitutionally inept?
FLS, the lack of progress for the Conservatives in Scotland is very disappointing and I can’t see it changing next year.
J lilburn, love it!
BS, good point, forgot about that.
EC, indeed it would, although thankfully Straw will never get this through in time (and he knows it).
What puzzles me is where is Mr Salmond is going to get the money from to finance an independant Scotland. Most of the vast amount he curently receives comes from English taxpayers,as one in three Scots receive some form of State benefit so they will not be able to add much to the running costs of the new nation.(I declare an interest as a Scots born Ex Pat I have been paying taxes to subsidise my former country)
Look up any Telegraph poll on Scottish independence and you will always find that the yes vote is always lower than any other poll you see on the subject.
29% yes is remarkably higher than normal for a Telegraph poll. which means the real figure is probably nearer the normal 40% plus.
Last year’s /yougov poll had yes for independence at 25% (19% in the three option referedum).
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/scotland/1912478/Support-for-Scottish-independence-slumps.html
For them to claim now that support is down is contradicting their own data which shows that support for independence has gone up +4 from their poll of last year.
So I presume you get the £9 million figure for a referendum from the same school of economics as Jim Murphy, don’t you Tories ever do your own sums?
So as you all appear to be wholly against Independence, do you favour the status quo or devolution max still within the UK?
I’m not aghast Monty, I’m downright enthusiastic for scotland to go, stop being a welfare queen on the Barnet formula and, frankly, our welfare budget and do its own thing. Provided, of course, that it takes it’s Jockanese contingent of Raj-esque rulers (Blair, Brown, Darling – thanks LFAT – and Reid, McCartney and the rest) back home with them.
If we had to keep that shower, all bets would be off, I’d say!
LFAT,
Rightly or wrongly, Thatcher’s memory is still absolutely despised up here. It could be another 20 years before the Tories can overcome that hurdle at the Westminster level..
I also suspect a significant amount of Scots actually have the perception that the unfairness of Scots MP’s voting on England only issues (which it is) is justice for shafting us with the poll tax first.
A nation divided against itself must surely fall.
I’m not sure what good any of this legislative willy waving is actually going to do – we’re all just going to end up belonging to some defined region of Europe, with any remaining national powers ceded to this region.
Shaun, if we are subsidy junkies, why aren’t you vigorously advocating Independence for both Scotland and England?
If Scotland has Independence why would we need representation at Westminster, hence no Labour MP’s in Westminster?
Surely, a tranche of Scottish Labour monkeys in rosettes returning year after year means that the Tories have no chance of a majority rule in Westminster. It’s in your interests to be free from us. I think you’d find we’d be better neighbours than surly lodgers.
Monty, I am. I enthusiastically want Scotland to get off the knees it was pushed too by its bankers in the South Sea bubble and to stop supplying stroppy, arrogant policemen to the Met and Sussex police (who advertise in Glasgow newspapers), to stop taking our taxes to pay for their services (the barnet formula) and to never, ever, again, send their liars and cheats (Blair, Brown et al) to rule over us again and to put their servile rump back in its box (I mean you, Ian McCartney!).
When I lived in Scotland, I was amazed at the anti-english animus tempered only by an evidenced servility to anyone with a vaguely middle class English accent and a resentment that the Irish *successesfuly* gained independence from Britain while the Scots could only put their hand out for more dole. Or, for the ‘lucky’, a shoddy rifle and dodgy kit and a role in the British army.
Standing on your own feet will be good for Scotland and much, much cheaper for England. Is that too equivocal for you? I WANT SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE AS THEY PONCE TOO MUCH MONEY FROM ENGLAND THAT EARNS MOST OF THE UK’S WEALTH. Simples, as the meerkat says. And who can argue with the meerkat?
‘to stop taking our taxes to pay for their services (the barnet formula)’
Which would have been massive were it not for revenue from North Sea oil, which incidentally has kept the (English based) government solvent for the last 3 decades.
Just thought I’d mention it as it’s at this point that these types of arguments get meaningless.
‘You take our taxes and spend it on dole monkeys’ versus
‘You stole our oil money’
Yawn.
But behind that there are some real issues. The anti-english sentiment is brainless and Scot’s MP’s voting on England only legislation is undemocratic…
I’m prepared to bet that in real terms, Scotland, since the Act of Union (in the wake of the Scots pissing all their money away in the South Sea bubble) in 1707, we have spent more in the last 300 years on Scotland than Scotland, even with the oil from the 60s onwards, has contributed to the overall UK coffers. Dole, dole, dole, subsidised government jobs, subsidised private jobs, dole dole dole, incapacity benefit, jobs in the British Army, jobs in the English police, dole, Barnett subsidy, dole… and on it goes. 300 years of that v 30 years of fossil fuel. Hardly fair, really!
The man deserves a good kicking, it being all the more gratifying to kick him when he’s down.
‘I’m prepared to bet that in real terms, Scotland, since the Act of Union (in the wake of the Scots pissing all their money away in the South Sea bubble) in 1707, we have spent more in the last 300 years on Scotland than Scotland, even with the oil from the 60s onwards, has contributed to the overall UK coffers. Dole, dole, dole, subsidised government jobs, subsidised private jobs, dole dole dole, incapacity benefit, jobs in the British Army, jobs in the English police, dole, Barnett subsidy, dole… and on it goes. 300 years of that v 30 years of fossil fuel. Hardly fair, really! ‘
This is the point i’m making. It’s a pointless argument. It goes back and forth. I could counter with such arguments as to the economic benefits Scottish cannon fodder, sorry, soldiers made to the Empire, that Scottish workers made to the same Empire in terms of shipbuilding, train building etc and the fact that ‘dole’ is not 300 years old etc etc…
The unworking dole spongers that are now common are not a Scottish only phenomenon. I’d be surprised if London’s benefit bill is less than Scotlands.
On a wider note, both my (Scottish) grandfather and (Scottish)great-grandfather died in wars they fought for a United Kingdom.
And i wouldn’t worry too much about a continued influx of Scots police officers in English forces – i believe the Krakow Post now carries those adverts
I presume by South Sea bubble you’re referring to the Darien Scheme, where entrepreneurial Scottish merchants recognising the worth of having a trading ports on both the Atlantic and Pacific side of the Panama Isthmus, attempted our own bit of empire building, only to be actively thwarted by the governments of England and Spain?
“and to never, ever, again, send their liars and cheats (Blair, Brown et al) to rule over us again and to put their servile rump back in its box (I mean you, Ian McCartney!).”
Couldn’t the same florid description be applied to the Conservatives who ruled Scotland throughout most of the last century through a series of High Commissioners?
As to the anti-English tag, perhaps you can explain why with only 8% of Scotland’s population born in England, the SNP have 15% of their members born in England. I agree there are pockets of people who despise English people, in most cases they also despise, coloured, gays, disabled and people of different religions. In polite society we call these people idiots. I’m sure England, Wales and Northern Ireland have their fair share of them too. Obviously, as a decent cove I take it in good part when I’m called Jock and Porridge Wog by well meaning English people in lovely quaint Kent, when visiting friends.
I’ve never met a Scot who willingly puts his hand out for dole money as his entire lot in life. The vast majority of this country wants to work and until we have the levers of the economy, this state subsidised, existence income will continue.
The question, I’d like a rational response to is this. When Scotland is Independent, who will England go back to hating, France, Spain, Italy or the new boys in Germany?