Friday 17 February 2012

Yesterday the ...

... Prime Minister visited Edinburgh to discuss the forthcoming independence referendum, in a surprise move, he said in his speech that "Holyrood could be given more powers if Scotland votes no in the referendum". Salmond responded to this with "Where’s the beef?" (the answer might have been "under your chin fool"), the offer of a straight referendum on independence was clear, in response Salmond was reported by the Times as "being in the weeds making lots and lots of arguments about processology".

The most telling response of the day from Salmond was his "We’ve been through this before in Scottish politics. What’s the old saying, "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me" Scotland, I don’t believe, will be fooled twice", an appeal to those with short memories, for history is littered with success and failure from all quarters. 

Salmond also wants children in the voting booths, no doubt he and his loyal followers have calculated the effect that having 4 years worth of children schooled in the tales of  William Wallace, warrior of the First War of Scottish Independence hung drawn and quartered by Edward I (Longshanks), best not forget the highland clearances where Scots landlords cleared the lands of poor crofters.  Will teachers remember to tell of the flamboyant Alexander Ranaldson MacDonell of Glengarry who portrayed himself as the last genuine Highland Chief while his tenants were subjected to a process of relentless eviction (Robert Burns wrote a satirical poem about Glengarry in the Address of Beelzebub).

In response David Cameron might have repeated the call of the Japanese Satsuma clan who said "there is no history, history will start tomorrow", it wasn't an insult to who and what has gone before, rather a call to look forward to a future strong devolved union of equals, but very equal, peoples of Britain.

The growth of a strong feeling in the rest of Britain that the Union is tiresome to defend and expensive to maintain is something that the Prime Minister needs to counter reports the Times, at least part of his day was aimed in that direction, but the most difficult job for Cameron, say the political pundits, will be to prevent Salmond from successfully insisting that Scots be allowed to vote on further devolution at the same time as they vote on independence without coming across as a bully.

It's not really difficult, "devolution needs to become a level playing field with the fullest measures applied to all regions of Britain", how could the Scots disagree ..............


2 comments:

  1. "..all regions of Britain"

    Wales isn't a region, it's a nation (as is Scotland).

    Salmond is no fool.

    ReplyDelete
  2. In the context of the distribution of government spending it remains a region.

    Of course he is a fool ...

    ReplyDelete