Posts filed under 'Social/Political'
May 23rd, 2008
Could Gordon Brown’s demise trigger Scottish independence?
Last night’s by-election result which saw a Labour majority of 8000 reversed to the Tories could presage more than just a Cameron government. It might convince voters who have previously supported the SNP but backed off from full independence to finally embrace their primary policy.
Despite the Tories having the most lightweight and unknown bunch of shadow cabinet members in history (how many of them can you name?) it appears that the English are so fed up of New Labour and Gordon Brown that they’d prefer anything else – except the Liberals who seem to have dropped off the political map after getting rid of two leaders in recent years. Certainly Brown has been unlucky with the US-created credit crunch and having inherited a series of unpopular policies from a Tony Blair who was increasingly seen as having made us a pawn of George W. I suspect that there is also a backlash against a government that is persistently trying to interfere with privacy and freedoms in the name of fighting terrorism in a way that is completely at odds with any idea of a free country.
Here in Scotland it’s impossible to imagine voters turning to the Tories in the way that appears to be happening in the south, and Labour support has historically tended to be more solid, but any move away from them is more likely to see further support for an SNP which is already riding high and is generally seen as doing a good job despite being a minority administration. The prospect of their wishes being overturned by an English Tory landslide might persuade enough of the Scottish electorate to consider going it alone as a viable option. If that idea starts to gather pace then Wendy Alexander’s attempt to force the SNP to hold a referendum before they are ready might rebound even more on Labour than it already has.
April 4th, 2008
We’ve now got CCTV cameras in Dalry Road, on tall heavy poles. More surveillance. It’s getting to the point you’ll need to live in St Kilda to avoid the damn things. Did we vote for them? Did we agree to them? No we didn’t. The British people regularly support politicians who promise to increase the number of police on the beat, yet other than football matches and at railway stations I can’t remember when I last saw a policeman on the street. No, instead of more police we just get more cameras, more attempts to foist ID cards on us (and make us pay for the privilege!), and ever more hysterical terror stories to try to justify them. Is it any surprise that people are leaving Britain in droves, sick to death of a state that appears to want total control over their lives?
I’ve always loved Scotland, but if I’d known the direction the UK was heading when I was 20 I’d probably have emigrated. The personal freedoms my father and grandfathers fought world wars for are vanishing rapidly. I can only hope that Scotland finally gets independence and moves in a different direction to England.
In the middle ages it was the church that sought to control the people by keeping them illiterate and putting the fear of god into them. Now we’re tagged, satellite tracked and videoed. If you use a loyalty card your spending patterns are compiled, your mobile phone calls are recorded and your movements followed. Now the police are pushing for everyone’s DNA to be permanently stored. Maybe the politicians have responded negatively to that one, or maybe it was a stalking horse; a device to see what reaction there’d be so they could see how much they could get away with while appearing to be the guardians of our freedoms. Were this proposal to go through we’d all be suspects.
Funny how if you go out with a camera and take pictures in the street you’re “acting suspiciously”, and god help you if you’re anywhere near a school when you’re doing it. Yet “the authorities” seem to think they can take whatever pictures they like. Meanwhile we are encouraged to report “suspicious behaviour” that is so vague that everyone could be included – apparently if you have more than one mobile phone it’s a sign you may be a terrorist!? Remember the poor guy who was shot by an armed response unit while walking home with a table leg in a plastic bag because someone thought his Scottish accent was Irish and the table leg was a shotgun. That’s what happens when fear takes hold and everyone turns informer.
People used to come to this country to escape exactly this sort of repressive society! Britain was seen as a bastion of freedom. It’s time we made it plain that we want to get back to that situation.
January 9th, 2008
Travelling to Malta over Xmas I was reminded of the astonishing stupidity that seems to overtake humans when they’re in groups.
Firstly I took the train to Glasgow. The train was packed with pre-xmas shoppers (though why anyone would go to Edinburgh to shop escapes me – the shops are awful) and this must have been obvious to those waiting on the platform. Yet they insisted on gathering close to the doors and stared gormlessly when heavily loaded passengers tried to disembark and had to push past them. Did it not occur to them that they can’t get on until the incoming people have got off? Had the train been quieter and the people waiting been fewer then the chances are that everyone would have acted more sensibly, moving aside for each other, yet in large groups such common sense seems to be absent.
An equally brainless scenario can be regularly seen with air travel. What is the point of people leaping to their feet as soon as the aircraft has landed only to have to stand crushed together until the doors are opened and the staircase is in place. It doesn’t matter who gets off first – we all have to wait for the baggage to be offloaded anyway.
Which of course leads to the other scene of idiocy – the baggage carousel. We’ve all seen it, a planeload of passengers all crowding round as close to the moving belt as they can get, all craning to see past each other to see if the luggage coming down the belt is theirs or not. The predictable result is that no-one can see except the person at the furthest up the line and there is a mad scramble to grab luggage seen at the last moment through a pile of struggling bodies. All of it completely unnecessary. If everyone would simply stand back by even three or four feet then the lines of sight would open up and everyone would be able to see, the lucky first recipients would be able to easily retrieve their cases without fuss and with room to manoeuvre, and no-one would have to battle. It doesn’t need an Einstein to work this out so why does everyone insist on subjecting themselves to the crowded scramble?
Next time you find yourself in a crowd, watch carefully. But most important, think for yourself!
November 1st, 2007
I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for the Liberals, if only because they seem to be the only party in Britain who are capable of a modicum of free thinking. (It’s just a pity that they seem so prone to shooting themselves in the foot – like shedding leaders like confetti.) So it was good to see their two leadership candidates both pledging to refuse to register for the government’s proposed identity card scheme. I had hoped that Gordon Brown might have quietly shelved this hopelessly misguided plan, particularly given its vast cost, but there seems little sign of him doing so. If the Liberals would also pledge to reduce the number and spread of CCTV cameras they’d have my support.
Of course the other option would be an independent Scotland – will Alex Salmond promise not just a nuclear weapon-free country but also a CCTV-free one?
Altogether now – FREEDOM
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