Not a joking matter

As UK Prime Minister does Boris Johnson have a media spin team? Does he have a bunch of PR gurus running around in his entourage advising him of issues to discuss, to emphasise, to downplay, in any given situation, and importantly topics to avoid at all costs, or to dodge if questioned? If he does, they are either entirely mince at their jobs or in his arrogance he’s no’ got the sense tae listen to them.

As a member of the movement for an independent Scotland I am always happy to see him skulking around our country, on his occasional visits, trying to avoid coming into contact with the vast majority of the people who live there, who don’t vote Tory. 

His perpetually failing attempts to appear as a hail-fellow-well-met good egg and his put-on persona as a bumbling eejit are great adverts for independence.  I’m sure that every time he makes one of these trips, and opens his mouth to let the wind out, the numbers of Scots pledging to vote Yes in the upcoming referendum increases.

However, yesterday, on his latest trip north, he really went too far. He kicked the arse right out of it.

My first thoughts on reading his comments to reporters, when discussing the extraction of fossil fuels and the transition towards green energy sources, that “Thanks to Margaret Thatcher, who closed so many coal mines across the country, we had a big early start and we’re now moving rapidly away from coal altogether,” followed by a laugh and an added throwaway line “I thought that would get you going.” were, did he really say that? What a heartless crass reptile this creature is.

My next thought was anger, anger because we, the people of Scotland, let this man and his like trample all over us. We don’t vote for them, we don’t support their policies, but we let these bunch of self-serving chancers and their predecessors make all of the major decisions about our country’s future.

We believe in giving everyone a fair deal, we want to be an outgoing progressive trading nation, in the main we believe that anyone who pays us the respect of wanting to come and live in our country deserves to be one of us, and we want our children and grandchildren to have options and opportunities to have great lives without having to move away from their home, ensured by the fact that the people who live in Scotland, with Scotland’s priorities always at the centre, govern Scotland.

Allowing Unionism and the British State to continue to rule us is clearly counter-intuitive to all of these beliefs and aspirations. Why do we continue to let this happen? 

Why do we let this man stand there and joke and make light of the terrible increase in poverty, economic and social depression, breakups of families, rises in addictions, the heartbreak, the violence, the mental and physical health issues and homelessness, and the sense of desperation which came about as a result of Thatcher wiping out the mining industry and, by extension, de-industrialising Scotland? 

Why does the fact that he has made such comments not result in him instantly having to be hurried back into his portable fridge inside his helicopter and chased off back to his grace and favour country home in Buckinghamshire?

Do something First Minister. Start the ball rolling, announce some key target dates to take us forward to a referendum. By all means put a Covid-19 caveat in place, but do something, make it clear that a section 30 request is just going to be a nice letter informing them that we will be having a referendum whether he agrees to one or not, but do something to take us forward.

Postscript…

Oh, aye, I forgot to mention the guy who runs the political party which goes under the guise of calling itself ‘Labour’, the guy  that’ has a ‘Sir’ before his name, he was in Scotland too this week. 

What a red neck. A guy who has nothing to do with Scotland, knows very little about us, but feels like he needs to tell us what we should be thinking. Aye right.

The spirit of an honourable man from a bygone generation who shares the name Keir with this individual must surely be spinning in his grave at the thought of what has become of a once proud and noble movement for the progressive betterment of ordinary people. The sham husk of that transformed neo-liberal project is dead in Scotland.