Well it's official - the SNP now have a majority in the Scottish Parliament with 21 seats still up for grabs. Unbelievable. Having sat up all through the night enjoying the banter at Subrosa's blog I'm still buzzing. Result after result just kept tumbling our way with some ludicrous swings to the SNP, principally (though not exclusively) from the Lib Dems.
Breaking the Glasgow Labour hegemony is surely a watershed moment in Scotland's modern political history. The habit of many lifetimes has been broken, once and forever. Now that people have come over to the SNP once they will surely find it much easier to do so in future.
The referendum is now a certainty, though I agree with Alex Salmond that this should not be rushed. It's a crucial vote for Scotland's future and the unofficial campaign for a Yes vote should begin right now. Opponents have already begun talking Scotland down (Danny Alexander conspicuously doing so on the BBC earlier today, happily falling into bed with Ed Balls of all people).
Top priority for the SNP though must be getting enhanced powers for Holyrood asap. My great fear is that the reality of cuts to the Scottish block grant will make manifesto commitments extremely difficult to deliver. And we can't use the excuse of minority government now. Labour will paint these as SNP cuts, despite the truth that they are coming from Westminster and are due to Labour's 13 years of misrule. The solution is to gain the extra powers that will allow us to lift our economy up towards its potential. Once that is done we will be in a much better position to persuade the electorate that Scotland's future will best be served as an independent nation, able to govern itself according to its own priorities, taking its place with the other free nations of the world and cooperating with them where common interests occur. We must all play our part in lifting our nation up.
Showing posts with label Scottish Election. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scottish Election. Show all posts
Friday, 6 May 2011
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
"A pointless discussion"
Interesting leaders debate on STV this evening. It looked like a few of the rascals from the Kelvingrove shindig might have sneaked into the audience, especially towards the end when things got a wee bit rowdy. Overall there was more heat than light, partly due to the leaders talking over each other a bit too much (some worse than others, no prizes for guessing who), partly due to Bernard Ponsonby heckling what answers there were (particularly with Eck it must be said) and partly due to party stooges packing out the audience.
Notable moments included Tavish calling Alex Salmond "clever and wily", as though those are bad qualities for a politician to have, Annabelle having a laugh at Tavish's expense as he got a single clap for one of his answers, an SNP supporter (I guess) barely suppressing his laughter as he brought up Iain Gray's infamous Subway tactical withdrawal and of course, Iain Gray's hilarious response to that jibe, saying that he was walking away to avoid "a pointless discussion" with those protesters at Glasgow Central. Oh dear, oh dear. Pointless discussions with the little people that pay your wages, eh Iain? Wow.
The best bit for me was finally hearing the bleedin' obvious articulated clearly: Scotland gets pocket money at the moment and there is absolutely nothing we can do to change the amount we get. How that can possibly be a healthy state of affairs for our country I cannot see. Scotland obviously has some big problems to solve, I don't think many folk would disagree with that. So why on Earth would we not want to have every possible lever at our disposal in order to tackle them?
The sight of various public sector employees demanding more money for their professions at a time when our pocket money is being cut beggars belief. I would have enjoyed seeing the nurse that complained of the SNP's "annihilation" of the NHS (the only public sector organisation that is promised more money remember!) explaining to the supply teacher why hospitals should be taking even more money away from our schools.
Anyway, a suitably feisty affair from Glasgow, my votes for which are:
Alex Salmond: 6/10 Not at his best, did well to stay calm under lots of pressure from irate audience and hectoring moderator.
Annabelle Goldie: 5/10 Seemed pretty comfortable throughout, didn't get much response from her answers though, nice gag at Tavish's expense.
Iain Gray: 5/10 until 5 mins from the end, was actually engaging quite well with the audience but in obvious difficulty on some points, then lost his rag due to the chuckling Subway joker and insulted each and every one of the electorate with their "pointless" views 2/10.
Tavish Scott: 3/10 He seemed to me to be talking more quickly than usual, perhaps he was affected by the excitable atmosphere in the hall? I sort of gave up listening to him as a result though.
Notable moments included Tavish calling Alex Salmond "clever and wily", as though those are bad qualities for a politician to have, Annabelle having a laugh at Tavish's expense as he got a single clap for one of his answers, an SNP supporter (I guess) barely suppressing his laughter as he brought up Iain Gray's infamous Subway tactical withdrawal and of course, Iain Gray's hilarious response to that jibe, saying that he was walking away to avoid "a pointless discussion" with those protesters at Glasgow Central. Oh dear, oh dear. Pointless discussions with the little people that pay your wages, eh Iain? Wow.
The best bit for me was finally hearing the bleedin' obvious articulated clearly: Scotland gets pocket money at the moment and there is absolutely nothing we can do to change the amount we get. How that can possibly be a healthy state of affairs for our country I cannot see. Scotland obviously has some big problems to solve, I don't think many folk would disagree with that. So why on Earth would we not want to have every possible lever at our disposal in order to tackle them?
The sight of various public sector employees demanding more money for their professions at a time when our pocket money is being cut beggars belief. I would have enjoyed seeing the nurse that complained of the SNP's "annihilation" of the NHS (the only public sector organisation that is promised more money remember!) explaining to the supply teacher why hospitals should be taking even more money away from our schools.
Anyway, a suitably feisty affair from Glasgow, my votes for which are:
Alex Salmond: 6/10 Not at his best, did well to stay calm under lots of pressure from irate audience and hectoring moderator.
Annabelle Goldie: 5/10 Seemed pretty comfortable throughout, didn't get much response from her answers though, nice gag at Tavish's expense.
Iain Gray: 5/10 until 5 mins from the end, was actually engaging quite well with the audience but in obvious difficulty on some points, then lost his rag due to the chuckling Subway joker and insulted each and every one of the electorate with their "pointless" views 2/10.
Tavish Scott: 3/10 He seemed to me to be talking more quickly than usual, perhaps he was affected by the excitable atmosphere in the hall? I sort of gave up listening to him as a result though.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)