And They're Off!

Sorry it's been a whiley since the last posting. I've been laid low with viruses and vomiting and other such treats as always seem to come around when you have time off work full of plans for doing nice things and nothings at all. Such is life eh?

So - the election race to get to first-past-the-post has started and what an exciting and upliftingly fine spectacle it is to see our wonderful Westminster political leaders all laying out their stalls with positive messages about the wondrous policies they'd bring to the table, except they're not of course. Well, with limited exceptions and no-one believes the Lib-Dems any more.

Maybe I should recap - refresh my memory - what's been happening while I've been shouting at Hughie and Ralph down the big white telephone or lying comatose on the sofa while my wife tries to get me to go to bed and stop making the place look untidy or polluting the atmosphere with groaning and constant demands for neck rubs and scrambled egg on toast that almost never gets eaten. Oh yes. You can almost feel the love. It's like that 'Love Bombing' that happened in the referendum all over again isn't it?

Oh no, Right. It isn't.

Parliament has dissolved - which might explain some of the smell - but before that we had a wee budget where Dave and George seriously avoided telling us what a wonderful job they'd done racking up more debt than all previous labour Govts in history combined, missing their financial targets, demonising the poor and the vulnerable and blaming the ills of society on immigrants while trying to get us to ignore anything that might remind us of stagnant wages, zero hours contracts, tax cuts for millionaires, senior Tories involved in cash for access or any dodgy business scandals and removing from their website the 2010 list of  'judge-us-on-these-and-kick-us-out-if-we-fail' promises which they were so keen on sticking down the electorates throats to get elected in the first place.

Meanwhile Wallace, sorry, Ed Miliband has been desperately trying to be interviewed in one of his two {WTF} kitchens but most definitely sans bacon roll as he tries to prove that he's a millionaire public school educated man of the people who understands what it is to be poor and living outside of the M25. He's got street cred and the insight that brings, despite never having had any job that's anything even vaguely divorced from politics. He knows that Labour is good and that Tories are bad. He knows the only way out of Tory austerity is to wear the sack cloth of Labour austerity which looks like but won't feel like nasty Tory austerity because well, it just won't. They'll tax millionaires just a tad more and will have a mansion tax that any worth his fee accountant can avoid to make the NHS funded the way it should be. They'll cut tuition fees to £6,000 a year to prove they're on the side of 'yoof' but don't be unemployed or on benefits because their shadow welfare minister has warned Labour doesn't represent people on benefits, just people in work and that's why their called Labour rather than Tory Lite {TM} and remember that Labour Good/Tory Bad so vote Labour.

Both Tory and Labour parties have awakened to the likelihood of a hung - don't you think that's an expression worthy of so much more than a solely mental image - Parliament and the fact that us splittists Jocks actually never got back in the box after the referendum but have instead taken to responding to any kind of political poll that we're going to vote in our millions again and not in the kind of way that any self respecting Westminster MP would have us vote. ie for them. They've been outraged, betrayed, frightened, incredulous, frustrated, annoyed, dismayed, disappointed and hurt beyond belief so they've done what they do best and lined up the right wing MSM {mainstream media} to demonise us and ensure that everyone without a brain but still with a vote where it really counts - in Engerlund - knows that Westminster MP's good, SNP MP's mad bastards led by some wee lassie and that horrible Alex Salmond we all learned to hate during the referendum who are going to destroy the world or democracy as we know it at least {which to be honest isn't much of a democracy at all really} so you better give one of us an outright majority so we can all go safely back to doing what we do best - ignoring the Jocks, Jockland and anything tainted with even the faintest whiff of Jockery. Thank God for England, Queen Liz and St. George!

Yes, us rabid Nats in Scotland could well be sending a veritable tartan army of splittist MP's all the way to dear old Westmonster, all clad in tartan, claymores waving, woad on their faces and murrrder in their black hearts. They're going to eat English young, steal Big Ben and all the subsidised wine from the Palace of Westminster bars, make it law that everyone has to wear tartan and learn Gaelic and even {huge intake of breath} VOTE ON THINGS LIKE DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES. The bastards! Those nasty SNP monsters might even hold the balance of power since neither of the main parties looks likely to convince the voters who really matter - Yes it's THE ENGLISH again, do try to keep up - that one or other of them is good/smart/responsible enough to be trusted to run a government in anything other than blatant self-interest.

To be honest it's just not cricket, sorry, DEMOCRACY, except that it is, just not the kind of democracy we have told you to vote for, the traditional British kind that works just for us.





Scotland, HOW VERY DARE YOU!

Meanwhile back at the {B}ranch {Office}, or Scotland as they call it, the branch manager of {not}Scottish Labour {which is just UK labour with a see-you-Jimmy hat on and therefore not anything like a separate or proper Scottish only Labour party with it's own ability to decide/promise/deliver anything not approved by UKLabour and that's not fully devolved to Scottish Government control and therefore of relevance only AFTER being elected to control of said government which means also that nothing they are promising currently is of any point since they are not in government in Scotland, are unlikely to be this side of hell freezing over and even if they were, based on previous performance, wouldn't bother their Scottish backsides in delivering any of it anyway. Phew!}

As I was saying: Branch Manager J. Murphy esq, {he of the  'I'm going to keep on talking quietly and in reassuringly reasonable tones over every interviewer and around every question repeating ad nauseam any or all of the five magical mantras I've been taught by Master McTiernan of Babble so I don't have to really answer anything that might incriminate me, cos I'm so clever I can do this and none of yous is going to notice cos yous is aw as thick as mince and nowhere near as smart as me as I pull down my blackout glasses and stick my fingers in my ears so reality of each and every poll over the last 6 months canny get in cos we're no gaunny get wiped oot so we're no cos WE ARRA PEEPUL!} has been making the best of all his wee pals in BBC Scotland to make sure each and every utterance is given widespread and obsequious homage, acknowledging them for the manna from heaven they undoubtedly are. These are being laid out with simplicity and clarity, the only way us poor simpletons can understand things and are being repeated by each and every MP, MSP, Party Supporter and clone who gets near a newspaper, microphone or TV camera:

1 Labour Good/ SNP bad
2 Vote SNP Get Tory
3 The fact is the biggest party gets to form the Government.
4 Labour isn't going enter into a coalition with the SNP under any circumstances.
5 Labour Good/ Tory Bad

Now, let's take these one at a time.

Labour Good, SNP Bad.

This depends on your point of view or potentially grasp of reality. Unfortunately for {Not}Scottish Labour, it appears almost inevitable now, after 6 months of polls telling us that most people are prepared to vote SNP, that Labour and the Lib-Dems in Scotland are going to be either wiped out or simply  significantly stuffed after the election. But what's a wee annihilation or two amongst friends, right? Only the Tory vote has held up. SNP membership has soared to 103,000, while judging by the signs on TV from their conferences, Labour is dying on it's feet - members at conference appeared to be sitting with an empty seat between them to make them look more numerous than they really are while the Lib-Dems are basically left with a few ex MP's and remnants who are potentially zombies or so old they can no longer find an exit. Labour's staged meetings featuring on TV, like Gordon Browns last appearance, appear to be happening in private with bussed in support and party activists making up a crowd that means wide angle lenses are banned. Meanwhile SNP policy is viewed by voters as being more progressive, more representative of voter expectation and their leadership and candidates more trusted than the current mainstream, even in England. {holds in a smirk} Local council by-election results are backing polling as SNP candidates are winning these in similar ratio to polls.

Vote SNP Get Tory.

Sorry, this is just bullshit. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, SNP Party leader has been explicit. SNP will not facilitate a Tory Govt. No matter how many SNP MP's are elected they will vote against the Tory's getting a second term. This completely negates the argument unless the Tory's get an outright majority, which can only be won in England, where as usual Scotland's votes - no matter for which party - make absolutely no difference. The reality of this argument is an attempt to gain an outright Labour majority. Again, Scottish voters don't seem to want this as Scottish Labour MP's historically have been vote slaves for the UK party line which has meant Scotland's voice and needs are often ignored. Strong SNP representation without having to hold solely a UK party line is what most voters appear to understand guarantees the strongest influence in our interest. Sorry {Not}Scottish Labour.

The fact is the biggest party gets to form the Government.

Again, this is nonsense. The biggest party gets the FIRST CHANCE to form a government but the result isn't guaranteed. The party who can carry support to form A WORKING MAJORITY forms the government. Even Jim Murphy is saying the last time that happened was in 1924, but it still happened so he's proving his 'fact is' argument is rubbish. This was repeated for weeks before MSM began to challenge it {probably as a result of on-line alternate media pressure} Polls are showing no party having an outright majority is the most likely outcome. With a guaranteed SNP vote no matter how many {or few} MP's they have Labour will maximise opposition to Tory Govt, not ensure it gets in. That's an outright lie. The Tory party can win an outright majority, but that can only be won in England and therefore also can only be lost in England. Scotland's votes won't make one iota of difference. In actual fact as SNP candidates are likely to wipe out the Lib-Dem's in Scotland and by default carry their votes for a Labour Govt, the SNP makes a Labour Govt actually more, not less, likely.

A Labour/SNP coalition. Not happening. Nicola Sturgeon said weeks ago she couldn't see it happening. The red line of getting rid of nuclear weapons rules it out, likewise a formal 'confidence and supply' agreement. Issue by issue is the only realistic prospect. Listen to what {Not} Scottish Labour are not saying. They're very careful not to answer the question about them being prepared to deal on that basis. They won't rule it out.

Labour Good/ Tory Bad.

Again that's a perspective issue. I'd say Tory Bad/ Labour Not Quite So Bad/ SNP best option.

Better get ready. It's going to get really nasty in the next few weeks. {Not} Scottish Labour are fighting for their very expenses - sorry - SURVIVAL. They're going to turn feral very quickly.
Already they've wheeled out Gordy Broon again to make promises that anyone with any amount of common sense can see will never be delivered. £800 million a year extra for Scotland if you vote Labour? I don't hear Ed Miliband or Ed Balls agreeing to that and they will hold the purse strings if elected. If there are as few {Not}Scottish Labour MP's as it looks like there's going to be what's the chance of that happening?

Let's not forget this is the same Gordy who appeared a couple of weeks after the Smith Commission proposals were announced, just as Labour really started getting a pasting in the polls. to announce the proposed and put through proper proposals didn't go far enough and Scotland should get this, that and the next thing on top {even though {Not}Scottish Labour's Smith Commission proposals were the weakest of the lot} Do you remember any of the two Ed's coming out at any time since to say "We agree and we guarantee good ole Gordy's guarantee, guaranteed."

By the way, am I the only one getting even more confused every time a Labour or Tory MP says "I've /We've been very clear on that." I think my clarity sensor is buggered.

It's going to get messy. Better fortify yourselves folks.

Porage anyone?

It will never happen again - I PROMISE

 Listening to Jim Murphy repeatedly telling us that that Scottish Labour has changed makes me feel like I'm listening to a broken record. It's the broken record of a guilty man, the liar caught cheating, the wife beater saying "It will never happen again. I love you. Don't make me go. I LOVE you."

Like the faithful wife of an abuser, We've stayed too long. We've been loyal too long. We trusted you too many 'one more time's'. We've had our loyalty strained beyond breaking point. You've broken our hearts and betrayed our trust, not just once but over and over. You're a junkie addicted to power and the dealer's in Westminster. We've had all we can take and no amount of pleading will change that.

Like that abuser, you can't accept that we're going to walk. If you can persuade us just one more time to give you just one more chance then it will all be ok - for a while at least. As long as you get what you want then everything will be fine. Just the way it's always been, eh no? A change for a while at least until those urges begin to niggle again. Cold turkey in this unimportant wee Scotland before you start twitching and aching. How long before the sweats kick in and you can't resist any more. You know you NEED it. Is it fair that we deny it to  you. Isn't it our fault anyway? We MADE you that way. We've never given you what you truly want. It's our fault really that there's never been enough to satisfy you. We've never been that good to you. We're not enough for you. We've never loved you the way you deserved. Westminster is a sexier mistress, better dressed and with that undeniably heady scent of power. It's so... intoxicating. So addictive.

It's just not reasonable for us to expect that you should stay here is it?. Is it realistic of us to expect that we're your only love and your only focus? No - of course not. You've never promised that anyway. You never said you loved us or that you would stay forever. Yes, you made A VOW but it was never really about 'for richer, for poorer, until death do we part.' You only said you'd changed and you have. You said you'd made mistakes but you wouldn't make them again. You said you'd stopped listening but you'd realised that  and you'd changed. You're different now. Yes, if you stay and things do get better then we might give you our undying love. We might put you on a pedestal, make you First Minister and listen breathlessly to every utterance.

 You deserve nothing less after all.

But at the end of the day. We're just a wee wifey sitting in the kitchen making you your breakfast. We have weans to look after and washing to get done. And there's shopping to do. Not easy on our household budget when so much is out of our control. But we work hard to try and make it right. It's not glamorous work and it's taken its toll over the years. We were never supermodels. And we're no as young as we used to be that's true.

But we're still us Jim. We're just the same wee wifey we've always been. We need you. We need the things you promised and to be listened to. We need to be respected and we need you to put as much effort into this as we've done. There's so much to do and never enough time or money.

What's that Jim?

You say you've changed?

You say you're sorry?

What do you mean you can't do this any more?

What do you mean there's SOMEONE ELSE?

Oh Jim, I've met someone else too - and she's lovely: a great listener, we have so much in common, she makes me feel - important - like I haven't felt in years.

Your bags are packed and the divorce papers are in your jacket pocket.

Don't slam the door on your way out.


Porage anyone?

Why?

Starting off I think it's right to ask why about a few things.

Why did we vote to stay part of the UK?

To take the first point: {short version}  I believe we voted to stay within the UK because fundamentally any change is bloody scary and because we on the YES side failed to make our argument clearly or strongly enough to convince a vote for change on such an unprecedented and irreversible scale. Scotland voted to stay because, on top of the core pro-unionist voter who will never be swayed from their belief, we allowed - or failed to prevent - the  persistently fear-mongering tactics of the NO side hitting home into parts of the voting public who were not persuaded, or resilient, enough to come firmly into the YES camp and to stay there.

On top of that there was what has become known as 'THE VOW'. This promise of unspecified amounts of unspecified additional powers to be delivered faster, better and infinitely more safely than any unpredictable-leap-into-the-unknown scary vote for independence. It was held up {I believe against the spirit and the letter of 'The Edinburgh Agreement' which set out the process for the referendum} as a last ditch desperate offering by ex-prime minister Gordon Brown, taken up by Scotland's most prolific - and fervently pro-union - daily newspaper, The 'Daily Record' and instantly seized and promoted by the leaders of the three main UK political parties who had been seriously spooked by an opinion poll that showed the YES campaign to be in the lead with only a few days to go.

This more than anything is the reason why Scotland voted no. It's one of the main reasons I want to write about politics and try in a small way to move this forward. It, more than any other single thing affected the final outcome, but much more than that it is THE VOW that is almost single handedly responsible for the state of affairs we are left with now where no one is exactly sure what was voted on, was offered or has been promised to date. {At the point of writing nothing has been delivered. That is dependent on passing into legislation through Westminster after the nest UK elections in May 2015} There will be oh-so-much-more of that in the blog.

How ironic that the very 'vow' that was intended to keep us together may be the single biggest factor in the break up of the Union of Great Britain and Ireland. That would be irony to the max. Maybe I should call it Devo-irony!

Why do I feel this was the wrong decision?

Primarily because I absolutely believe in an independent Scotland as being the best option to build the kind of society I want to live in and to protect and nurture the most vulnerable parts of our society, promote the ideal and reality of an alternative to the purely neo-liberal economics based model that serves the majority so badly and the few so inordinately well. { I will explain what I mean by that in the future}

It was the wrong decision reflected by how many people are left feeling. This is partly due to having such a high percentage of people vote for independence, by the motivation and inspiration of the political argument and engagement across the country, but particularly within the YES movement, by the deceitful means which YES voters believe our campaign was lost and by the blatant chicanery of the political elite since the result.

 The YES vote was 45% of  population which was leaves a large part of the public naturally far from satisfied, not just by the result but especially due to that lack of clarity in the result clinching VOW and the winning sides predictably meek interpretation of it since the referendum result. What I and so many feared and expected is exactly what has happened with the three parties individually pulling back and denying the intention was ever to devolve anything like as much power as people were led to believe they were being promised. We feel cheated - and at the last hurdle. That's incredibly frustrating but, setting that aside, I accept the result of the referendum. Having been beaten by what so many feel was a campaign of dirty tricks, lies, media manipulation and complicity a large percentage of people are determined that if we don't have independence we should get what we feel was truly promised to sway the vote.

What exactly did we vote for by rejecting independence? No one really knows.That continues to sow discontent. Each of the main UK parties says they have been very clear about what was promised, but since that was never explained before the vote yet swathes of the general public seem to believe any promise falls far short of expectations and large numbers seem very unhappy about the chicanery that has happened since. There's been widespread and huge disappointment with what The Smith Commission recommended in trying to agree what powers should be devolved. Certainly it was never going to be enough for the SNP who along with the Scottish Green Party represented the YES campaign. Their aspiration was not for powers to be devolved simply where the UK Government felt comfortable, but for powers to be withheld only for a purpose - if they were incompatible devolved within the Union; powers such as defence, foreign policy and key measures of finance. They wanted the DEVO-MAX {maximum devolution} that could be interpreted, the 'federalism' and 'home rule' that was stated as being on offer by THE VOW and promoted by Gordon Brown.

Now proposals have been made it's clear that what is being devolved is far from realistic {to use many powers proposed will be 'toxic' by having negative effects through un-devolved powers}, practical {don't allow us the freedom to make policy reflect needs} or meets the balanced expectations of the Scottish people. {THE VOW - and remember at this point these have not been passed into statute by Westminster. That needs the approval of the UK parliament which is 85% English MP's with their own party and ideological agendas.}

Why do I feel the need to blog about it and why do I think anyone would want to read what I have to say?

I am going to blog about it because I'm bloody angry and I need to get it out there. I understand people were put off or scared by the scale of the decision, by the complexity of the economic arguments and the scare tactics that were used to prevent people seeing, believing and grasping the opportunities that independence offers. {I don't believe it would be easy or a 'land of milk and honey' - no utopia here} What I don't understand is that people can't see some of the fundamental things that are wrong in our modern political system, the blatant lies and distortions and the means of delivering them that are being used daily to fight an ideological war that is always about the people in power preserving their position. It's not about US. It's not about making a better, fairer, safer country and THAT'S WHAT IT SHOULD BE ABOUT! We can be more than this. We should be more than this.

So frankly, I'm angry. To coin a phrase from a fellow blogger: "If you're not angry, you're not paying attention."

During the campaign I spoke to lots of people about the referendum. I turned some NO votes to YES. So, if I can do that some more I'll be happy {happier}. If I can get the message out there and make people stop and think - even if they don't change their mind, if I can get a few more people talking and thinking about what's going on now and how things could possibly be changed, how people could make a difference then that would be fantastic. If this blog could turn out to be a source of information that would be great.

I'm not an academic. I'm not an intellectual. I'm just an ordinary man in the street. This is going to be as much a journey for me as anyone else who may or may not come along. I have a vested interest and a political viewpoint, make no mistake about that. I welcome comment and challenge that makes me think about what I believe and why, what I do and how I do it, why we should change the system to make it work better than it does and why that's best done through the vehicle of an Independent Scotland. Time is on our side.

Come on in. There's plenty of room by the fire. If you're cold throw a coalition politician or newspaper magnate onto the flames. Porage will be served shortly.

Starting Over/ Auld claes and purritch

If I can really remember I called the blog The Porage Diaries simply because I liked the name. I started blogging on it about my diagnosis of type two diabetes. But it didn't last long. Shortly after I lost interest in talking about that so I took those posts down but kept the title. It's been sitting waiting on me for a long time now it seems.

The last few years have been busy and several aspects of life have intervened to take precedence or more honestly to rob me of inspiration or enthusiasm for blogging. Over at Crivens Jings And Help Ma Blog I've kept it going with the odd piece and regular Sunday postings of poetry. During Scotland's referendum last year I was very engaged with politics and the debate about our future. Some of that found its way into Crivens Jings but I was always a bit uncomfortable. It's a personal blog and although politics is personal it's not what I want the blog to become about. There are times when I would like to write about life or other stuff and I'd like to preserve Crivens Jings for that.

So I'd like to write now and again about politics or share articles from other sources. That's going to be here. As a committed YES supporter I was devastated by the result against independence last year but like so many others I have to come to terms with the fact that many people, the majority in fact, could not find themselves convinced by the argument for an independent Scotland. They will have had as many reasons for their decision to vote No as other people did for voting YES. I don't blame them for that no matter how deep my personal disappointment may be or my conviction that it is still the right thing.

When ever something occurred that he saw as a set-back or at the end of holidays when we had to return to normality my Dad would always say "Ah well. It's back tae auld claes and purritch the morn." That's just how I felt after September the 18th 2014. Not that this is a reality I want or am prepared to accept as anything other than a temporary measure, but it certainly fits with my mind-set.

So, if this blog in any way charts the days towards a time when Scotland can be independent or improved within the framework of the UK then The Porage Diaries seems like a perfectly good name for it.

Welcome one and all. Please feel free to comment, argue or disagree but do it politely or I will cut you off at the knees. Comments will be moderated.

Porage anyone?