As usual the article displays all the obvious issues with Sturgeon and the SNPs crazy Baldrick-esque "cunning" plans for our future.
The problem is the message isn't getting to the people that matter, the blindly loyal flock of turkeys marching towards Christmas.
And that problem is compounded by three things
1) A weak and mostly ineffective opposition which have had enough open goals which would normally have put the game to bed.
2) The lack of media exposure of the obvious flaws, and that's mostly due to a cozy compliant commentariot churning out their daily Never-endum copy.
3) The SNP mastery of the dark arts of social media. This must be the only country where there is little to no satire / jokes about the party in power. And it's not that people don't want to, I think it's because they are scared to
And that is the saddest aspect of politics in Scotland, it's so deeply divisive and corrosive that people would rather keep quiet than risk any hassle.
And this is manufactured by the cabal at the centre of the SNP. They may not be directly involved but they seem happy to accept it.
All thanks the ugliness of populist nationalism
But lastly, I do not think that devolution is working, it's civil servants and heart is being misused to bolster the SNP. I'd prefer a regional approach which was in place previously because Holyrood is a centralised Central Belt obsessed blob, growing out of all proportion to it's usefulness. And the vast majority of policies are failing through lack of thought and practicality. A huge waste of money.
The greatest gift our country provided was the Scottish Enlightenment and that was based on honest rationale and debate, free thinking and the desire to discover and solve issues.
These great thinkers would be birlin in their graves (if of course it was possible), at the timorous cautious conformity produced by the Nationalists and their controlled agenda and propaganda.
Important for unionists to make the case for the union based on the devolution status quo, as you have done here. I'm seeing a few too many unionist voices saying things like "devolution was a mistake", which is obviously a tactical error if you're trying to persuade the waverers, but worse than that it's not even really true.
(I can see why they say it, because it's led to a situation where nationalists are governing without the accountability that would normally accrue to a government. But I think the average Scot, even the average unionist, doesn't think of devolution in those terms, the average Scot associates devolution with things like not having to pay NHS prescription charges, and they quite like that sort of thing.)
I think this is right. The problem with too many people who support remaining in the UK is that they buy they buy the idea that devolution is a form of nationalism - that reinforces the nationalist frame that suggests that devolution is part of a journey towards leaving the UK when really it is the reform of the UK which they need people to believe cannot happen. I do think it is just as important when making the case for devolution to remember that it also entails making the case for the things we should still share together - which is what I try to do here.
As usual the article displays all the obvious issues with Sturgeon and the SNPs crazy Baldrick-esque "cunning" plans for our future.
The problem is the message isn't getting to the people that matter, the blindly loyal flock of turkeys marching towards Christmas.
And that problem is compounded by three things
1) A weak and mostly ineffective opposition which have had enough open goals which would normally have put the game to bed.
2) The lack of media exposure of the obvious flaws, and that's mostly due to a cozy compliant commentariot churning out their daily Never-endum copy.
3) The SNP mastery of the dark arts of social media. This must be the only country where there is little to no satire / jokes about the party in power. And it's not that people don't want to, I think it's because they are scared to
And that is the saddest aspect of politics in Scotland, it's so deeply divisive and corrosive that people would rather keep quiet than risk any hassle.
And this is manufactured by the cabal at the centre of the SNP. They may not be directly involved but they seem happy to accept it.
All thanks the ugliness of populist nationalism
But lastly, I do not think that devolution is working, it's civil servants and heart is being misused to bolster the SNP. I'd prefer a regional approach which was in place previously because Holyrood is a centralised Central Belt obsessed blob, growing out of all proportion to it's usefulness. And the vast majority of policies are failing through lack of thought and practicality. A huge waste of money.
The greatest gift our country provided was the Scottish Enlightenment and that was based on honest rationale and debate, free thinking and the desire to discover and solve issues.
These great thinkers would be birlin in their graves (if of course it was possible), at the timorous cautious conformity produced by the Nationalists and their controlled agenda and propaganda.
Important for unionists to make the case for the union based on the devolution status quo, as you have done here. I'm seeing a few too many unionist voices saying things like "devolution was a mistake", which is obviously a tactical error if you're trying to persuade the waverers, but worse than that it's not even really true.
(I can see why they say it, because it's led to a situation where nationalists are governing without the accountability that would normally accrue to a government. But I think the average Scot, even the average unionist, doesn't think of devolution in those terms, the average Scot associates devolution with things like not having to pay NHS prescription charges, and they quite like that sort of thing.)
I think this is right. The problem with too many people who support remaining in the UK is that they buy they buy the idea that devolution is a form of nationalism - that reinforces the nationalist frame that suggests that devolution is part of a journey towards leaving the UK when really it is the reform of the UK which they need people to believe cannot happen. I do think it is just as important when making the case for devolution to remember that it also entails making the case for the things we should still share together - which is what I try to do here.
The SNP very effectively making the case for the Union, it’s priceless! Well argued article, thank you.