I hope Anas Sarwar and Monica Lennon are reading this, Blair. Douglas Ross would do well to read it too. Constantly saying we don’t want another referendum is useless in fight against SNP - it just keeps it in the headlines. Headlines should be about their failure in government.
Well said Blair. Not least: "Today’s SNP aren’t disorientated social-democrats or absent-minded dreamers, they are cynical populists deliberately using identity politics to retain power."
I keep thinking that there should be adverts across Scotland saying something as simple as 'Keep the pound, keep the NHS.' 'Keep the pound, keep the triple-lock', 'Keep the pound, keep the cash [reference to Barnett formula], 'Keep the pound, keep influence' [reference to Britain on the world stage (permanent member of UN Security Council, NATO etc.)], 'Keep the pound, it saved RBS', 'Keep the pound, keep control' [reference to interest rates set in Frankfurt]' etc... no Saltire in place-- this has to be about making the SNP face up to hard truths about how Scotland does well out of the union and not only financially and not about identity.
Few people realise the Union was Boris Johnson's fault. In an LGBGT+ world, we have to be flexible with what Albert Eisenstein called "the time direction effect". Any SNPeepers worried about the risk from their official opinion-minders of associating the eighteenth century with the twenty-first should remember just how valuable the emotion of hate can be when you want to destroy something in ANY century.
When, for example, Donald Trump asks how Nicola's Sturgeon's associates apparently got the money to buy Judy Murray's house, allegedly, for nearly £1 million, you should all resist the impulse to go for an Unexplained Wealth Order against her. HE is the man to hate, not her. I know the Murray Mansion is not quite Putin's Palace, and that Dunblane is not quite the Black Sea Riviera, but still, if you come from Dreghorn, you have to move stealthily when aspiring to join the international Euro Club of the hyper-rich, famous and powerful. The wealth direction effect can be shockingly "flexible" in its perceived direction, as Sturgeon clearly hopes Donald Trump is about to find out. Shares can go down as well as up.
You are absolutely right that we must move off the SNP's agenda. The place to start is to stop using the magic spell word "independence" in the way they nationalists do.
There are two basic kinds of independence - legal or constitutional and practical. For example, any country could be legally independent on climate policy but cannot be practically so because no government can control the climate of its own country. Britain could legally have left the EU more than two years ago without the tortuous negotiations of the last four years. We could not become practically independent of the EU as the SNP themselves point out.
For practical reasons, true independence has to be considered policy area by policy area. Even the SNP do not propose to make Scotland independent on monetary policy - in fact the opposite. Heavens know what other legal commitments Nicola Sturgeon would make in withdrawal negotiations with Boris Johnson but she is absolutely determined that the Scottish people will have no say in this.
Once the SNP lose their magic word their true abilities will come under proper consideration. As you say that will be painful.
I hope Anas Sarwar and Monica Lennon are reading this, Blair. Douglas Ross would do well to read it too. Constantly saying we don’t want another referendum is useless in fight against SNP - it just keeps it in the headlines. Headlines should be about their failure in government.
Well said Blair. Not least: "Today’s SNP aren’t disorientated social-democrats or absent-minded dreamers, they are cynical populists deliberately using identity politics to retain power."
I keep thinking that there should be adverts across Scotland saying something as simple as 'Keep the pound, keep the NHS.' 'Keep the pound, keep the triple-lock', 'Keep the pound, keep the cash [reference to Barnett formula], 'Keep the pound, keep influence' [reference to Britain on the world stage (permanent member of UN Security Council, NATO etc.)], 'Keep the pound, it saved RBS', 'Keep the pound, keep control' [reference to interest rates set in Frankfurt]' etc... no Saltire in place-- this has to be about making the SNP face up to hard truths about how Scotland does well out of the union and not only financially and not about identity.
Few people realise the Union was Boris Johnson's fault. In an LGBGT+ world, we have to be flexible with what Albert Eisenstein called "the time direction effect". Any SNPeepers worried about the risk from their official opinion-minders of associating the eighteenth century with the twenty-first should remember just how valuable the emotion of hate can be when you want to destroy something in ANY century.
When, for example, Donald Trump asks how Nicola's Sturgeon's associates apparently got the money to buy Judy Murray's house, allegedly, for nearly £1 million, you should all resist the impulse to go for an Unexplained Wealth Order against her. HE is the man to hate, not her. I know the Murray Mansion is not quite Putin's Palace, and that Dunblane is not quite the Black Sea Riviera, but still, if you come from Dreghorn, you have to move stealthily when aspiring to join the international Euro Club of the hyper-rich, famous and powerful. The wealth direction effect can be shockingly "flexible" in its perceived direction, as Sturgeon clearly hopes Donald Trump is about to find out. Shares can go down as well as up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPv0bWYf524&feature=youtu.be
You are absolutely right that we must move off the SNP's agenda. The place to start is to stop using the magic spell word "independence" in the way they nationalists do.
There are two basic kinds of independence - legal or constitutional and practical. For example, any country could be legally independent on climate policy but cannot be practically so because no government can control the climate of its own country. Britain could legally have left the EU more than two years ago without the tortuous negotiations of the last four years. We could not become practically independent of the EU as the SNP themselves point out.
For practical reasons, true independence has to be considered policy area by policy area. Even the SNP do not propose to make Scotland independent on monetary policy - in fact the opposite. Heavens know what other legal commitments Nicola Sturgeon would make in withdrawal negotiations with Boris Johnson but she is absolutely determined that the Scottish people will have no say in this.
Once the SNP lose their magic word their true abilities will come under proper consideration. As you say that will be painful.