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No contest
I’ve just read David Cameron’s passionate defence of the Union in today’s Sunday Herald., all 130 words of it.
A year until the vote, but the question is very simple. Will Scotland continue to be dependent on a Westminster government, run by a gang of old Etonian prefects or, God forbid, the limp-wristed Ed Miliband, or will we stand on our own two feet and build a society based on fairness and equality for all?
Mano en mano
For those of you who think that independence movements are just people blowing off steam . . .
Yesterday was the annual National Day of Catalunya; by coincidence it falls on 9/11. This year it took on extra significance because of an organised public demonstration in support of a binding referendum on Catalan independence, not simply the consultative poll that has been proposed, and ignored by Madrid. The idea was that people should link hands all along the road that runs from the French border to the territory’s southern limit. They made it work: an estimated 1.8 million people of all ages and stages turned out in one of the most impressive and peaceful displays of national spirit that I have ever seen.
There’s no way that we in Scotland could link hands from the Shetlands (making allowances to the water!) to Gretna Green, but I hope that Blair Jenkins and his team are looking at the precedent that’s been set.
Deja vu
It seems that we are being told, on the basis of top-quality US intelligence, (Does that ring a bell?) that the Syrian President possesses weapons of mass destruction, and has used them against his opponents, killing innocents in the process.
It seems also that our government is going to join the US and anyone else who can be recruited in ‘punishing’ him, by launching massive missile strikes against his country, a tactic which will lead inevitably to the deaths of still more innocents. Change a few names and we could be back where we were ten years ago.
Will a missile strike bring back the dead? No, it will only add to their numbers. Will it bring the regime to heel? Unlikely; but it could provoke them into doing the same again . . . that’s if it was them in the first place and not the rebels. So why has David Cameron suddenly become a war-monger? Hasn’t he cast an eye upon the haunted figure that is Tony Blair today, to recognise the danger to his reputation?
Can we have the referendum now please, before Scotland is sucked into another Westminster War?
Cumpleanos, Guillem
It’s Bill Clinton’s birthday. Does he look older than me, or younger? Answers please.
Boston soul
In conversation with the lovely and very talented Barbara Nadel this morning, this came up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiuL_rezDZo
If you like the Troggs, and were around at the time of Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy, you may enjoy
Slippy Banister
How refreshing. This woman is a special kind of idiot. Too bad she’s an Aussie; she’d be great in UKIP, if she stays out of jail.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/08/08/stephanie-banister_n_3724519.html?utm_hp_ref=uk-politics
Coward
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23512954
The conviction of Bradley Manning for passing thousands of classified US government files to the anarchist organisation Wikileaks has given its founder yet another media opportunity and he has taken full advantage of it. However I wonder if he realises how it makes him appear.
The misguided private is facing life imprisonment, no parole, but at least he has had the courage to face the consequences of his actions. While he is being sentenced, Julian Assange, the man whose abuse of Bradley’s stolen documents put him in the dock, will still be skulking inside the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, hiding from a Swedish arrest warrant that has nothing to do with sedition or anything similar, but was prompted instead by allegations of rape. Ironic isn’t it, Assange professes contempt for international law and yet he is hiding behind it.
The man is a coward and a creep. If he had a scrap of respect for the poor fool Manning, and a scrap of courage, he would go to Sweden, defend himself against the allegations, which he denies, and let events unfold. Will he? Don’t be daft.
Eton mess
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23505723
This geezer was a member of the coalition government, aged 76, until last September when he was reshuffled off by Cameron. Well before that he was a member of two Thatcher Cabinets. In those days he was known as David Howell, and was rarely seen to smile.
I find it amazing that a man with such a track record can be so ignorant of the nation that once he helped to govern. Amazing, note, but not surprising; if you hadn’t guessed, he’s an old Etonian.
Slippery Vince
I saw Vince Cable on Andrew Marr an hour ago, apparently toeing the coalition line, while doing his oily best to destabilise the high speed train project.
There are people within the Lib Dems who want to ditch Clegg and replace him with the wizened seer. The rival parties must be rubbing their hands at the prospect.
Simples?
In the aftermath of all the political crap about the venue for last week’s Open Championship, there is another example of blatant sexism that Harriet Harman should be raising as a matter of urgency.
Why are there no female meerkats on http://www.comparethemeerkats.com?!?
House of ill repute?
This morning’s Herald newspaper is running a story about a series of raids on sauna premises in Edinburgh, in which customers and employees were taken on to the street and questioned, in public. It’s called Operation Windermere, apparently. It’s surely no coincidence that we are seeing this soon after the formation of the new Police Scotland, or Greater Strathclyde as I prefer to call it, through which policing policy across the nation is being laid down by a man in Glasgow, who arrived in Scotland in 2007, after a 26-year career in various English forces, including the Met. In other words a man with no experience whatsoever of on the ground policing in Scotland.
In the light of what would appear to be a cunning plan to drive prostitution in Edinburgh back on to the streets, I wonder what other surprises Sir Stephen House has in store for us.
10%? Not enough.
A pay rise for MPs of £6,000, taking their salaries up to £74,000, been recommended by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority. We can expect howls of protest. Here’s mine. I don’t believe it’s nearly enough.
The Parliamentary expenses scandal owed much of its origin to evolution of a system which was created to ensure that no person of ability was prevented from becoming a Member simply because they couldn’t afford it. There’s nothing wrong with that in principle, but if the needs of the job are recognised, surely it is logical that they should be met through the basic salary. I’d rather see Members’ salaries doubled, and the expenses system abolished for everything except travel, with defined personal costs being chargeable against tax.
No way to run a railroad
We’re sneaking in an extra couple of weeks in Spain early August. We are flying from Newcastle to Girona, so I’ve just booked return train tickets, Dunbar to Newcastle. The cost was £32, return, each. I also booked one-way tickets, Dunbar to Newcastle, for a later August date. They cost £6 each. I know from recent experience that the walk-up one way fare from Newcastle to Edinburgh, virtually the same journey, is £47.
The same people who privatised the railways are now going to do the same to Royal Mail. God help us.
QJ in the lion’s den
At the weekend I was a guest at a private function in England, and found myself at a table with some very nice people, none of whom I’d ever met before. It seems that you can’t be Scottish in England just now without the referendum question coming up. My mind has been made up since I was 17 years old, and I never apologise for my stance. Yet I was surprised to realise, if my lunch companions were an accurate reflection of the broader view down south, as I believe they are, that there is a strong feeling of disquiet about the 2014 vote, and about the fact that it’s happening at all. I’m not sure what’s behind it. They know nothing of our history or the issues, so why the negativity? Is it resentment that we should even consider leaving Westminster and resuming the full nation status that we had before the Union of the Parliaments in 1707, (one highly intelligent professional man on Saturday had never heard of that event) or is it fear of the consequences for England? One thing it is not based on, and that is any love of the Scots. One of my companions remarked . . . pleasantly I must say . . . ‘If they asked the English to vote on it we’d all say Yes’, and I don’t doubt that is the truth . . . one that will have been underlined, I suspect, by Alex Salmond waving the Saltire in the Royal Box at Wimbledon yesterday.
I was asked how I thought the referendum will turn out. I said I believe that if it was held tomorrow there would be a No vote, but that next year, I expect the position to have changed.
My resolve hasn’t been weakened by Saturday’s civilised discussion; in fact it has been strengthened. As I’m coming to see it, the majority would probably be happy to kick us out of the Union, but they don’t want us to take that decision for ourselves. I believe that the more that English sentiment is known the stronger the Yes camp will become.
Piss off, The Donald
Merde
Right now, I should be back in Spain. I’m not. Instead I’ve spent the day on an expensive return trip to Newcastle Airport, where I sat for three hours, until Ryanair finally decided they were going to cancel my flight, something they could and probably should have done 24 hours earlier.
The blame for this fiasco hangs round the neck of French air traffic controllers. It is not easy to discern at these people thought they would achieve by inconveniencing air travellers across Europe, destroying the holidays of many families. I saw kids in tears this afternoon. Whatever their grievance is they’ll have no sympathy from me or any other of their victims. For my part, I hope the jackboot of authority comes slamming down on their necks, good and hard.
Live by them
In the wake of the current ‘scandal’ stories, we are told that our weak-kneed, dysfunctional government is looking at ways of giving constituencies the power to recall their MPs, ie sack them.
No way.
I’m a firm believer in the principle that we should live with the consequences of our own mistakes . . . including those that are made in the secrecy of the polling booth.
Stung
I admit to being slightly underwhelmed by reports in recent days of Parliamentarians and their ‘availability’ to lobbyists. This is old news, and not worth the fuss that’s being made. While it’s all a bit seedy, nobody died, and nobody appears to be lying. Apart from . . .
These stories have been generated by deliberate acts of deception by a couple of broadsheet newspapers and by the BBC’s vicious, morally questionable, Panorama programme. Their reporters posed as lobbyists and lured their targets into setting themselves up. That’s entrapment, pure and simple. How could it be legitimate reporting? The story didn’t exist until they set it up.
How were these people targeted? Is it a mere coincidence that Patrick Mercer MP is one of Dave Cameron’s fiercest critics within his own party? I think we should be told.
The sooner the proposed register of lobbyists is set up the better, to protect the public interest and to protect MPs and Peers from themselves.
The other referendum
In Scotland, the Independence debate is in full swing, and it will carry on until the day that our votes are cast.
In Catalunya, a similar referendum will be held next year, albeit without the agreement of Spain’s central government. Nine months ago there was a great outpouring of nationalist sentiment, when fifteen percent of the Catalan population demonstrated in the streets of Barcelona, demanding a total split from Spain. Today, the independence flags are still flying, but there seems to be little discussion of the subject.
A L’Escala businessman friend of mine gave me an interesting insight a couple of weeks ago. ‘It’s all right asking for it,’ he said. ‘But how do me make it work? Where will the money come from? We need to think about that.’ That’s what the argument here is really about. The Catalans believe they are being ripped off by Madrid; at its heart their grievance is financial. They might vote ‘Yes’, but only if the money is right. They won’t bet the house on sentiment.
I hope we’re above that in Scotland. My mind was made up forty years ago. Next year I’ll vote with my heart and soul, not with my wallet.
Quintin Jardine's blog 