Happy St Andrew’s Day

I get more than fed up sometimes hearing negatives about my beloved homeland.

The gless half empty and with a hole in the bottom sort of stuff, the response to a day of stunning glorious weather being “we’ll suffer for this the morra”.

The too wee, too poor, what currency would you use trope, the media droning on about our public services, like our health service, which if they looked above the trees and compared them with other countries who are party to the union, they’d see that we are miles ahead, whilst setting extremely challenging targets which we struggle to achieve because they are so challenging, but we are striving and determined to get there anyway, that’s why we set them that way, aw ae that.

It’s the Scottish way, the way of my generation and those that came before, partly I suspect as a defence mechanism over the years, often turning to self-deprecation and dark humour in times of strife, poverty and hard times. That, and of course the dreaded Scottish cringe. Our coming generations don’t see it that way, hopefully.

This witch-hunt that is currently taking place for the political head of the eminently capable Jeane Freeman, Secretary for Health in Scotland’s Government, is a perfect example of that grinding downward negativity. A more hardworking, sincere and committed public servant you’ll never meet.

Belying the propaganda almost all of the personal experiences I’ve had with the Scottish NHS have left me humbled and marvelling at the existence of such a fine service.

When my Dad was in his last days,
I spent the best part of every day for around three weeks sitting with him at his bedside, observing the absolutely first class compassionate, dignified and respectful care he received. I don’t recognise that as the health service that gets slagged off every day in your evening news. The nurses, ancillary staff and the doctors couldn’t do enough for him, and for us, his family.

His doctor, who was from France, took my wife and I to one side one day in a side room to break the news to us that they couldn’t continue to provide Dad with blood transfusions, which were boosting him up, because each time he got a transfusion the consequent decline was making him more ill.

In effect the doctor wanted me to know that Dad was definitely going to pass away but he couldn’t give me an idea of how long that process would take. My goodness, the poor man himself was nearly as upset as we were at the telling of the news. He was distraught, I nearly gave him a reassuring hug masel. That’s my Scotland.

Then when my wife’s Dad was becoming frail and nearing the time for residential care we travelled to see him and found him positively surrounded by carers looking after his needs. One, a wee Polish lassie, even popped in to see him at night time, after her shift on her way home, just to see he was awright and settled after his tea. No requirement to do so, not part of her work, but she did it anyway.

When he eventually went in to care the staff in the NHS run home were superb. Cheery, thoughtful, positive, interested in what he had to say when he was chatty, and importantly, always putting a reassuring hand on his arm or around his shoulder when he needed it. Real people who cared about others, not just doing a job, following their vocation. NHS Scotland. That is my Scotland.

All of this madness that seems to be surrounding much of the rest of the island which Scotland is part of, an island floating in the North Sea off the coast of mainland Europe,is a grave danger to our country, the thin end of a narrow-minded, inward looking, fear of foreigners,separatist right-wing British nationalism which threatens to engulf us.

Our cultural sense of ‘I’d rather dae ye a gid turn than a bad yin” must prevail. Scotland must take steps to ensure that our children and grandchildren’s futures do not suffer because of extreme political decisions taken in another country which impact our country.

#VoteSNP on 12 December and Yes in 2020. Independence is normal, being governed by another country is not.

Happy St Andrew’s Day one and all!
Why no’ dae somebody a gid turn today?

Feartie

Who would have thought it?

After First Minister Nicola Sturgeon submitting herself to a half hour of Andrew Neil (under his increasingly fascinating to the casual eye ever-decreasing-wig) shouting at her, unceasingly and unrelentingly, getting louder every time she tried to open her mouth to speak (what passes for scrutiny of political leaders these days) we find that surprise surprise, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson has bolted for the hills at the very thought of being in the same room as Neil when it doesn’t involve them both wearing a dinner jacket, and drinking port.

What a guy. The state broadcaster news clip doing the rounds, as a BBC reporter tries to get him to confirm whether or not he plans to agree to a sit down interview with Neil before the General Election,is quite disturbing when you see past the faux-hail-fellow-well-met facade and look at his eyes and facial expressions.

He enjoys being arrogant, evasive and dishonest. He enjoys it because he thinks he should be above scrutiny, he is elite, he stands out above the common herd, a great leader of his time (all in his own mind of course).

Then last night, instead of making himself available to take part in a Channel 4 leaders debate on the climate change crisis, another event at which Nicola Sturgeon demonstrated her undoubted leadership skills, he sent his Faither and the bad-pixie-like dreaded Gove to make a scene outside the studios, blurring the issue of his non-appearance, and the fact the Channel 4 replaced him and Farage the fascisti icon with a large ice pole and a giant Thistle pop.

Talk about con-men and snake-oil salesmen! The tragedy is though that the Tory Party HQ handlers, manipulating all of this, have clearly calculated that the ridicule Johnson is likely to encounter by avoiding being interviewed is less damaging than being subjected to even a watered down version of Andrew Neil scrutinising what laughably the Tories describe as their one Nation Britain.

Worse than that, at the moment it looks like Johnson could dance naked across tower bridge with a smiley face painted across his bum cheeks, singing a selection of show tunes from Oklahoma, and still the Tories would win the General Election.

Meanwhile in Scotland, following the release of yet another favourable poll (‘sic’, polls best used for holding up your dark wash in a good breeze) Ipsos MORI/ STV shows that currently 50% of Scots are in favour of independence, a prospect that just about anywhere else in the world wouldn’t cause an eyelid to be battered, but here, it’s a catastrophe for ‘the most successful partnership, or parsnip, the world has ever seen.’

We, of an independence mind though cannot rest on any laurels, oh no. We need to continue to work at persuading our friends, family and colleagues right up to the wire on 12 December, and most importantly, encourage others, and do so ourselves, to get out and vote!

#VoteSNP on 12 December, and Yes in 2020. Independence is normal, being governed by another country is not.

“With respect…”

What can you say about the First Minister’s ambush by the dreadful bully that is Andrew Neil last night?

The rate, range, tone, adversarial aspect of the questioning and,at times, just plain shouty arrogance of the man, was a sight to behold. The British establishment media in the full rat stuck in the corner of a sinking ship spotlight.

The kindest thing to say (in the face of such an onslaught of hearsay inaccurate headline grabs, cutting, pasting, and gluing information from separate parts of a document about separate issues (the EU and the Euro) together to make arguments and false statements about a third and fourth issue (the ill-advised,long awaited, then much disappointing Growth Commission Report easily lends itself to that end) to comply with a pre-determined agenda) is that Nicola Sturgeon is too well mannered, and keen to remain respectful and First Ministerial, even in the face of a known establishment media attack dog throwing false figures and shameful accusations at her.

Sometimes I wish she was a wee bit more Margo MacDonald, and a wee bit less Moira Anderson, but hey, she’s human. These things will happen. He got her rattled a couple of times, but she mainly withstood the barrage of wind coming out of Neil’s orifices reasonably well. He simply didn’t allow her the right to challenge his bank of trite Daily Mail standard headlines, by talking over her. On the occasions where he had valid points he wouldn’t even let her answer these, points she was willing to concede and explain what she, and her progressive policies, intended to do about it.

“Her polite corrections of inaccurate agenda driven jibes, prefacing her corrections with the words “With respect Andrew…” were a touch grating to the casual Scottish ear, her comments being made to an interviewer who clearly wasn’t showing the slightest hint of respect in return (it was a good hard verbal equivalent of a rattle in the baws he was needing), but that’s not our First Minister’s game.”

For all the attention Neil gave to the responses the First Minister managed to get out between interruptions this interview would have resulted in roughly the same outcome had the BBC just set up their studio layout to have Nicola Sturgeon tied up to a chair with a gag in her mouth, allowing Neil to spend half an hour circling the chair throwing insults at her.

His shouty comment about the tragic child deaths at the Royal Hospital for Children were beneath contempt.

Let’s watch carefully how he interviews Oleg the Woodcutter, the saviour of the Murmansk tractor factory, tonight, Jo Swinson, whom presumably he’ll no’ understand due to her multi lingual regional, and most recently South Australian, accents, and then, let’s see how he treats the poshboy clown, who, unable to answer, when asked by a journalist a prearranged question about his party’s dodgy twitter account, at his manifesto launch the other day, found himself taking on the facial expression of a heavily constipated Highland coo looking through the mist hopefully for sight of a vet strolling over the nearest Ben with a hose and a bucket of soapy water.

These days will happen. The First Minister does our bidding, she does it very well. She, and we, will prevail.

#VoteSNP on 12 December and Yes in 2020. Independence is normal, being governed by another country is not.

The BBC is impartial. C’mon now, stop laughing

Naw, nope, no, the BBC manipulating their news coverage so as not to show the Prime Minister, who does the bidding of the UK establishment, as they do, being humiliated by audience laughter in response to a question about his views, (a man known widely for his dishonesty) on honesty, didn’t, and couldn’t possibly happen.

Just as the same media organisation definitely did not replace a clip of the same Prime Minister looking like a sack of Ayrshire tawties, complete with a slash up the middle of the sack, carrying the hangover from hell, and an upside doon, roon the wrang way wreath in his sweaty mitts at the Cenotaph the other week, with a younger, slightly less dishevelled clip from a few years before when he was, for those poor folk’s sins, the mayor of London. Nope that never happened either, nor in fact did countless other figments of our Scotch grievance conspiracy theorist minds.

There’s a story that the people of Gdańsk in Poland, in the early days of the Solidarnosc movement, in response to the biased state broadcasting news each evening initially would,as a community, take an evening stroll at 6pm, the time of the main broadcast. This then escalated to a larger protest whereby thousands of citizens would leave their TV sets sitting on public view in their window’s facing the street, room light on, telly switched off. This then comically developed into some protestors taking their telly with them in wheelbarrows for a walk, all to protest their point, and highlight the propaganda they were being subjected to on a daily basis.

It surely cannae be too far away from somebody with the necessary wit within the movement for the rightful return of self-government for Scotland to come up with something equally as effective. Humour has helped us through the great SNP wars which the media keep trying to drum up out of nothing, and other fallacious quips of the unionist press. A mass exposure of pathetic British nationalist media propaganda via good auld Scottish wit could be next.

Meanwhile let us reflect on the continuing confidence we have in our statesman-like vibrant, virile leader, Prime Minister Johnson (seen in the attached photograph during a recent media briefing), a confidence engendered in us by our trusted media that in the end we needn’t ever worry, because Westminster and the union’s broad shoulders always have Scotland’s interests at heart.

#VoteSNP on 12 December and Yes in 2020. Independence is normal, being governed by another country is not.

A Stateswoman

So there it was, the UK General Election Question Time leaders special, which turned out really no’ tae be that special at all.

In fact the only thing special about it was the performance of the only real qualified leader under the microscope, the only leader not eligible to become the Prime Minister of the tired, worn out, seen through,and not fit for purpose, not in many ways great, Britain, Nicola Sturgeon.

Having said that you wouldn’t have thought so this morning on the BBC tv breakfast programme, where she hardly was mentioned, Jezza the Messiah being Brexit-neutral being their headline.

For once, just the once, Question Time for the most part, managed tae find some normal (even normal looking) straightforward citizens as a studio audience (maybe their usual background research team are away on a winter road trip, one last time in mainland Europe perhaps, touring the ten most celebrated alpine gardens and beer kellers of the 1930’s) and it showed, as one-by-one the three incompetents who are purported to be standing as leaders of a UK government in London in the upcoming GE (or Moe, Larry and Curly for older viewers) had their arses, large and skinny, tied up in various differing coloured bows and handed to them.

The multi-accented (none of them palatable to the ear)Jo Swinson in particular was verbally tossed around and rag-dolled by an audience keen to remind her of her right-wing voting record, and that her party can’t be trusted to even spell the word progressive out loud lest they jump back into the rat sack of being a prostituted junior partner in a coalition with the Tories Brexit Utd. As we all know, they have form.

Swinson, previously anxious to get her hand on the nuclear codes, would have been best served, after the initial mauling handed out by the audience, when she clocked which way the wind was blowing, to feign sudden illness, a migraine perhaps or an onset of the skitters, which might not have been too far from the truth. At least that might have saved her from further anguish. I can’t see it being too long after December before she’s phoning Ruth Davidson to ask if her agent needs another client.

Talking of skitters, and in fact talking shyte, the much beloved (in his own imaginary world, somewhere in the Home Counties) Boris Johnson, is looking increasingly tired, worn down and truly perplexed as the fact dawns on him that real people,with fully functioning and correctly wired up brains, can see through the bumbling blustering chumminess charm act with no substance or basis in fact that he tries to pull. You could see by his body language and facial expressions that his arse was certainly making buttons at the thought of what the next question he might be asked might be.Theresa May’s ‘Strong and Stable’ trope has become under him ‘Get Brexit Done!’

One of the main reasons that it is crucial that the people of Scotland regain self-determination over their country soon is that there is a very good chance this poshboy second-rate after-dinner comedian might win December’s General Election with a majority. Think about that for a moment.

Back to the circus, Oleg the woodcutter Corbyn, fresh from a three month self-flagellating retreat in a Siberian salt mine, played his usual spartan self for the audience.

He says the right things much of the time, if perhaps in a not very interesting way. He seems to want the rest of the UK to catch up,or at least head in the same direction, with regards to policies protecting and enhancing the social contract, as Scotland, but every time he mentions us he betrays either a complete lack of knowledge of a country which in the main has a population strongly voting socialist for the last 60 years, and betrayed by his rightward moving party, or he’s kidding himself, and us, on, which I suspect is the truth.

Every nation should have the right to determine their own future, apart from Scotland, says Jeremy, and nuclear weapons are an abhorrence which should be banned, apart from when they are stored 25 miles from Glasgow.

His childish jibes over the last few weeks about the politics of 40 years ago when it was actually Labour government dissenters who triggered the onset of Thatcherism, not the SNP, and his constant use of the trite “independence would lead to turbo-charged austerity in Scotland” nonsense betray what he actually is, a dreamer and a fraud.

Memories of New Labour activists frightening pensioners into spending their pension to stock up tins and dry goods unnecessarily in case of a Yes vote in 2014 will never be forgotten.

I’m not going to say too much about the performance of Scotland’s First Minister last night. That would be gloating as she shone like a beacon.

One Important consequence of her words though, and you could see by the audience reaction to her answers to questions, and hopefully as social media has reflected today through influencing the tv viewing audience, is that she has firmly put to bed all of the right wing media nonsense which is forever trying to make a scurrilous link between the rightful rights of Scotland’s people to determine their own future and an entirely false accusation that because we passionately believe in this right we then somehow must hate or dislike our neighbours in England. She killed that one stone dead.

She was never in a fair contest, as none of these three numpties are,or never will be, anywhere near her calibre in terms of being a stateswoman. Her honesty, integrity, intelligence, empathy and leadership abilities were clearly communicated for all to see. Surely even the most ardent ProudScotBut must recognise that fact.

We are lucky to have her.

#VoteSNP on 12 December and Yes in 2020 to put an end to the inequality that is holding Scotland back.

Not just censored, trolled as well

It seems that our masters, the ones who govern Scotland from another country, were not content with only just completely blocking any possibility of the First Minister of Scotland taking part in a televised General Election debate, a debate where, frankly, she would have wiped the studio floor with both Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn before hanging them up by their shirttails from the stage scenery as wet dish cloots.

No, the leaders of the two main English parties, involved in the debate about the direction of England’s future (let’s call it what it actually is, because we don’t matter, we in Scotland, we are there to stand in a corner and be done to), one whose party is polling at around 20% in Scotland, the other, polling at 15%, decided, whilst censoring any right to reply in the debate, to also troll Nichola Sturgeon and her party, a political party who are currently polling at around 43% in Scotland, by far and away the leading political preference for Scots.

During the flashy, simplistic, sound bitey, almost content-free exchanges between the over-self-entitled former Bullingdon posh boy and the early 1970’s West End musical sensation Jeremy Corbyn Superstar, the First Minister of Scotland was mentioned in a derogatory manner on 10 occasions, the political party she is the leader of was mentioned 7 times and the prospective Independence referendum for Scotland was referenced 12 times.

How in any shape or form, by any right-minded person’s interpretation of democracy, can that be allowed to pass as being considered fair and just?

Thankfully at least the First Minister was allowed to make some comments afterwards in the form of an interview after the main event, an interview in which, with her customary straightforward ease, and that weird thing she does, you know, answering the actual questions she had been asked, she once again established her clear bona fides as the only real leader amongst what is otherwise a bunch of snake oil salesmen, dreamers and multi-accented chancers.

She would have been forgiven, if asked during that interview what her views were about her two main UK party political opponents, if in reply she had stated simply that they were a couple of fannies, and just left it at that.

We would have understood her meaning.

#VoteSNP on 12 December and Yes in 2020 to put an end to the farce often wrongly described as a union of equals.

Not so grand

I usually limit myself to the subject I am passionate about, self determination for my country, but, as a self-professed Scottish republican, here are my my own views on the not-so-“Grand old Duke of York, who had ten thousand me…”mories, none of which recalled anything about his lengthy spells in the company of the notorious Epstein…,(From a children’s rhyme we sang as kids, probably not that much younger than the children trafficked through the cabal of the rich and famous Epstein courted).

Although the Duke can recall visiting a pizza restaurant on a certain date way back then, and of course, in crystal clarity, his version of his service in the armed forces in the Falklands, again memories which seems to be contrary to the recollection of many ex-servicemen who were there at the time when he was there, his allusion, through his preposterous comments about his ability to sweat and the aftermath of a related condition,trying to make a loose connection between his experiences to the very real PTSD suffered by the countless servicemen who have actually laid their lives on the line and survived, sometimes with horrific physical as well as mental injuries, is frankly despicable. His arrogance has no bounds.

His dismissal of the victims in the Epstein case, and sweeping under the carpet any connection he has to the goings on in the various plush mansions and private islands Epstein owned is more despicable.

His behaviour, hopefully the end of a long line of examples of one rule for those born into hereditary power and immense wealth, and another for the rest of us,(the cash for access scandal with his equally loathsome ex-wife, his years of trying to manipulate the royal list (your tax money)to have his offspring added to those receiving huge sums every year from the public purse, the corrupt attempt to get his daughter into uni without the qualifications necessary to do so, excluding someone else who was eligible) these and many many other examples clearly demonstrate the inappropriateness in the 21st century of royalty.

We in our advanced modern nations do not live in a feudal society. This system was designed and worked in medieval times, not in a world where those reaching the top of the pile should do so on ability, intellect and endeavour.

Royalty today exists on the cult of celebrity. In my 50’s I am now in my second generation of young wet behind the ears well publicised charity-working (between months spent on exclusive paradise islands) royals being courted 24/7 around the media.

Then it was hey look at young virile topless Charles frolicking in the surf with queues of Aussie blonde beach babes. “ ‘Randy Andy’ joins the Navy, doesn’t the world’s second most eligible bachelor looks great in dress navy blue”. Super Anne wows showjumping world! (Her I’ll give a pass as an exception to the rule as I admire the fact that she regularly visits my local hometown Hospice).

What are the prospects for this current freshfaced bunch in twenty or thirty years time? Will they be just the same as the previous lot. Where inherited power, boundless privilege and influence exists will corruption eventually occur?

If Andrew Windsor had any real self respect, backbone or conscience, instead of covering up his involvement in the sordid Epstein affair he’d volunteer to be interviewed by the local constabulary or appear before prosecutors in the US law courts. He won’t.

Instead the palace machine will crank itself into life in his defence. They’ll bar him from further comment, lest his foot gets further into his gob, and then let the dust settle on his car crash interview and today’s revelation by a former aide that he used an inappropriate term from the 1930’s involving the ‘N’ word best left in the 1930’s.

Then we’ll start to see reports in the news media about how all of this has destroyed him, how he’s not such a bad chap after all, perhaps an old wardroom chum at Portsmouth will recall him bravely ferrying an unconscious ‘Argie’ conscript or two onto a hospital ship in San Carlos Sound, and we’ll maybe be subjected to a better staged, controlled, interview with a tear or two and a hint about remorse, just a hint mind.

His mother has been a success at what she does for 60 odd years largely by keeping her mouth firmly shut, and showing very little of her own self and emotions in whichever situation she finds herself in, apart from on a few notable exceptions, for example during a series misjudgement, when the palace’s perceived indifference to the untimely demise of the mother of a future King and his brother attracted mass public ire, and on her government’s prompting, outside Crathie Kirk on the Sunday prior to the 18th September 2014.

When she passes I believe it’s time for the people to decide how they see their constitutional future. If royalty is to exist it needs to adapt, downsize and adopt perhaps the model of many of the former royal families of Europe. There’s nothing wrong with travelling around your kingdom on a pushbike or in an average saloon car, or queuing in the fruit shop with everyone else.

In the 21st century we live in,with all of its societal ills, it is not appropriate or sustainable to retain an expensive Daimler simply to carry a magic golden hat from castle vault to cathedral to parliament and back again. We are human beings, not worshippers of living Gods.

Censored

So, let’s just recap that then……

The Scottish National Party, the party elected by the people of Scotland as Scotland’s devolved powers government in the last three Scottish elections, since 2007, the political party with overwhelmingly by far the biggest number of elected members representing Scotland sitting at the last Westminster parliament, the party who in the previous General Election to the most recently held ‘snap’ election held 56 of the 59 seats allocated to Scotland of the 650 seats in London’s chamber of power, the third largest political party in the UK by seats, and membership, even though they only stand in the Scottish part of it, the party who the polls, even the reputable ones, are suggesting have a fair chance of carrying out yet another landslide victory in Scotland on December 12, the only party in Scotland currently putting up a serious challenge in all the Tory held seats in Scotland (Labour having become a sham mouldy husk of what was once a proud vehicle for the progression of working people) the party which steadfastly refuses to betray the democratic majority 62% decision of Scotland’s voters to continue to remain a member of the European Union community, yes that party, is not to be allowed a voice in a UK wide televised electoral debate between the satirical posh boy comic singer clown who currently passes as the UK Prime Minister and his dithering fence-sitting petted-lipped 1970’s Wolfie Smith acolyte leader of the opposition opponent.

Even though the Scottish National Party, and their electoral votes translated into bums on seats in the Commons, may well hold the balance of power within their ken in the event of a close thing, a hung parliament, voters throughout the UK will not be allowed to see, hear about or scrutinise their progressive outward looking policies under the microscope of a live debate.

In effect the voices of Scotland’s democratically elected political views are being cut off, blocked and silenced.

What happened to the ‘precious Union of equals?’What is equal about closing down debate and allowing two political parties, in a unitary system of countries which is clearly not now a two-party old boys club, an advantage over others by allowing them media access to the public that others are not given?

Is this fair? Do you feel in Scotland that your views are considered and respected by Westminster’s power brokers and their supporting media friends?

#VoteSNP on 12 December and Yes in 2020 for a better, fairer, prosperous Scotland. Be represented, not ignored.

Bias, what bias?

Och c’mon now, fellow absorbers of the strict, often painfully so, impartial, non-partisan, even-handed, neutral, without favouring media that caresses our waking hours, get a grip!

The outrageous suggestion being bandied round the slophouses and corner saloons that the fine and stoic statesman who oozes intellect and gravitas, the supreme leader Alexander (as in the Great) Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, has the power of the British state media covering his back, and building up his image, is surely bunkum. A nasty unfair jibe put about by sundry Red infiltrators and Scotch agitators, belligerent as a consequence of the morning after consuming too much untaxed home distilled alcohol.

Really, how preposterous! Our magnificent Adonis,full of the boyish charm which disguises his bulldog Churchillian spirit, needs no such protection.

Seen here, in the photograph above, at a recent Conservative Party arms sale to Middle Eastern despots, in aid of party election campaign funds, a copy of the financial times in his jacket pocket at all times, with party cerebralista Michael Gove and a be-jacketed ‘the fixer’ Jacob Fleas-Dogg, our virile, vital, victorious premier, known to inspire onanism in even those as far away as lost Amazonian tribes, is more than capable at making sure he is getting where he is today by not being where he was yesterday, memorising the floor plans of every venue he is ever due to honour with his presence well in advance with an emphasis on locating the back door or fire exit.

He needs no help from the BBC in that quest.

Let’s instead talk about Michael Foot’s jacket, or Jeremy Corbyn’s hat, or perhaps Alex Salmond’s 7 minute answer to Nick Robinson’s ‘unanswered’ question, or 20,000 Scots meeting together in a Scottish city square to listen to advocates of civic and nationhood normality, including the First Minister of Scotland, going largely unreported, despite the BBC’s political correspondent being in attendance (I saw her with my own, and specsavers eyes).

#VoteSNP in December and let’s get moving for 2020. Independence is normal. Being governed by a neighbouring country is not.

They cannae have it baith ways

News that yet again the credence and authority of the First Minister of Scotland has been undermined by the media wing of the British state comes as no surprise to any of us keen advocates of an independent Scotland.

Leading up to the forthcoming December UK General Election, hopefully one of the very last that that the people of Scotland will have to participate in, a series of debates are set to take place between the leaders of the main protagonist political parties.

Some are set to be face-to-face showdowns between the flimflamming tousled posh boy in Downing Street and his opposite number, the pseudo-messiah of the workers. Others will add Jo Swinson, leader of the jump into bed with whomever gives us a bit of power and then abandon our dearly held policies of social justice immediately party, presumably because she has several accents she can utilise (some at the same time) and it’ll give the audience a bit of a laugh.

None, however, involve the leader of the third biggest political party in the UK parliament, and by party membership, the party of government in Scotland, the SNP. Outrageous.

How can this be? We are told time and time again by the UK biased media that the fact that the voters of Scotland voted overwhelmingly 62% to remain in the EU does not matter because in 2014 Scotland voted to continue to be governed by London, therefore our 62% is absorbed in to the eight times larger vote that the country that governs is generates, an outcome differing from our democratic will as a nation. We are all British together, and the whole must be respected.

Yet when it comes to General Elections the same media turn this view on its head. We don’t deserve to be represented at the media table because the SNP, the political party that there can be no doubt represents the majority democratic views of the people of Scotland, only have candidates standing in Scotland and are not represented in the rest of the UK, despite the fact that they currently have three times the amount of MP’s at Westminster than the Liberal Democrats, have a party membership (from only a 5.5m population not the 67.5m UK population) that is up there with the Tories and Newish Labour, and they are the democratically elected government of Scotland, ahead by a country mile.

You either respect us or you don’t. You can’t have it both ways. Or perhaps they just think the people of Scotland won’t notice or don’t care how they, through their political representatives are treated.

#VoteSNP in December and let’s get this campaign juggernaut fuelled up and ready to roll to independence in 2020. We’ll never need to feel ignored or slighted again.