The cost of Union is £2 billion, at least that’s the cost in cash. The cost in self respect is incalculable. According to the think tank IPPR Scotland that’s the amount that the Scottish budget will be cut by over the next few years due to the policies of a Tory government that Scotland didn’t vote for. Increasing austerity is Scotland’s reward for voting to stay a part of the UK. Punishing the poor and the low paid, rewarding the rich and big corporations. It’s the British way that means that public services will be slashed to balance the books that were unbalanced by bankers betting our houses on profits that could never materialise. So Scotland faces cuts, increasing poverty, and a widening chasm between rich and poor.
Everywhere else in the UK the Labour party campaigns against Tory budget cuts, but in Scotland Labour talks only about SNP cuts. Search amongst the press releases of the Labour party in Scotland for condemnation of Tory cuts, and you’ll find only the tumbleweed between the ears of James Kelly MSP. This is that Labour party, remember, which wants to sell itself as Scotland’s best defence against the Tories. The same Labour party that abstained on Tory austerity.
Cuts are on the way, imposed by a Tory government and these cuts will of course be presented to the Scottish public by the Unionist media as SNP cuts, eager as the Tory boys are to boost the Labour party in Scotland as their only hope of avoiding the inevitable slide towards independence. It’s one of the strange ironies of Scottish life that the Unionist media which campaigned so bitterly and fervently for Scotland to remain a part of the UK treats Scotland’s finances as though we were already independent. They never look to London when the topic of discussion is the Scottish budget, blame starts and ends in Edinburgh. The Scottish budget is determined in a vacuum, this time one which isn’t between James Kelly’s ears.
The only thing that Scotland’s Unionist parties are interested in is what the Scottish Government can do to ameliorate the policies of the Westminster Government. Never mind the mad Tory axeman chasing Scotland’s public services with a hatchet, the only important point is how many plasters Holyrood is going to put on the wounds. You might have though that devolution meant Scotland having the ability to make its own way within the UK, but apparently it means Scotland getting the ability to raise its taxes or axe its public services in order to deal with cuts that Westminster makes. Westminster’s still going to punish us, Scotland gets to choose the between the methods of punishment. But we shouldn’t complain about Westminster’s generosity, every new power for Scotland comes with a free gift of handcuffs and a muzzle.
It’s not so much devolution as it is 50 Shade of Grey as a constitutional principle. Scotland only gets to decide whether it wants George Osborne to whip us or whether we’ll suffer the cuts. Either way we’re still in shackles, still on a lead. Apparently this is the home rule that they promised us, a dog on a slightly longer leash that still doesn’t run free. Holyrood can still be called to Westminster’s heel any time the Tories or their Labour enablers choose.
I’m fed up with this. Fed up with Scotland’s legitimate desire for self-government being used as a plaything by Westminster parties and a means to beat up the SNP. Fed up of waking up of a morning and turning on the news only to learn of another way in which the rich and powerful and well connected are screwing over the weak and the poor. All they ever do is to take the piss.
The settled will of the Scottish people means nothing, it’s all just fuel for a game between rich men in a pretendy parlie far away, where invented traditions and fancy costumes act to disguise the naked power grab of an elite that’s accountable to no one. It’s the mother of parliaments, the great parade of British democracy, the pretence that your vote makes a difference. Clean for the Queen while the rich clean up and you’re left in the gutter.
Here we are, a few weeks out from a Scottish Parliament election, and the press is obsessed with a turf war between two cheeks of a Tory arse. It’s the Dave and Boris show, two spoiled rich kids using the future of you and me to settle a teenage argument. A century ago British politics revolved around the interests of the landed gentry, 100 years on and nothing has changed. A century ago Scotland was promised home rule, 100 years on and we still don’t have it. A century ago the Labour party promised to abolish the House of Lords, 100 years on and it’s stuffed full of Labour peers. Do you need any more proof that the British state is incapable of reforming itself?
And the price tag for the privilege of our domicile in this dysfunctional disaster of Downton politics is a cut of £2 billion to the Scottish budget. Here’s your real choice, you can tug your forelock, defer to your betters. Accept the future that Dave and Boris decide for us. Swallow the swill and smile gratefullly. Down in the garbage there’s a place for you. Just don’t get ideas above your station, don’t imagine that this land that is yours is run for your benefit. And don’t think that it’s going to be any better for your children, who’ll be born into debt and remain indebted for the whole of their lives. The payday loan and the student debt are the slave collars of the 21st century.
Or you can say screw this for a gemme o sodgies. There’s got to be a better way, and there is a better way. The better way is to shake of the powerlessness of union and take the future into Scotland’s hands. In May you can vote for a party that won’t play by Westminster’s rules. Vote to break the shackles. Vote to empower yourself. Vote Scottish.
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Reblogged this on Bampots Utd.
Yes, bugger this for a game o sodgers, indeed.
– Westminster.
A sad and almighty ironic thought came into my head this morning getting ready for work, listening to the radio commentariat on the Middle East and the Syrian refugees.
Westminster, I thought, yes, that’s right, it was them that said we (Britain and the West) really have to bring democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan. Laugh! I verneer choked to death!
Un-bloody-believable.
[…] Screw this for a gemme o sodgies […]
As usual an excellent assessment of the current state of play
Paul, when you have a mad on you’re at your best. 🙂
Just to be perfectly crystal clear on two points. Firstly if there is less money to go round from the Scottish budget there is one and only one reason this is possible. Less money is being granted to Scotland by Westminster government end of.
Secondly that self same Westminster government, through the Scotland Bill, intended that a further £7bn would have been cut over a ten year period. Every establishment party would have signed up to this deal without a second thought. Conservative, Labour and Lib Dem, this was their Scotland Bill, their Smith Commission, their punishment exercise.
Never forget, every single amendment to that bill proposed by 56 SNP MPs was binned out of hand by our ‘nothing off the table’, ‘respect agenda’, ‘better together’, ‘greatest family of nations’ Westminster system of government.
This is our present and our immediate future, but it doesn’t have to be a neverending nightmare of austerity and remote central government by an uncaring elite. Every single vote makes a difference and people can take back their government, their politics and their future. We’re half way there already and second chances in life, while rare, do happen.
London’s £14.8bn Crossrail tunnel takes shape below capital… but they’ve been going three years and are still only a fifth of the way through. perhaps it is just possible some of your / our money has been pooled and shared in this project.
Compare and contrast the paltry (28th Jan 2016) ‘Government confirms £250 million City deal for Aberdeen’ – the North Sea of course having bank-rolled the entire country for decades – your reward – your jobs are assured if you chose Better Together…………….. (true or false)?
It’s all about ‘pooling and sharing’ of resources. The resources get pooled, pooled towards London and then shared out equally across this sceptred isle……………………(true or false)?
It doesn’t have to be this way. The number of people penniless or homeless and forced to live on the streets whether in Glasgow, Manchester or London or anywhere is unacceptable.
You are pretty good at this stuff as well macart. Another great post by Paul and nail on the head hitting comment from yourself. (That’s quite a long adjective from me there).
For a moment Paul every bone in my body ached in despair when I read this piece, we’ve got to keep on hoping that the guys who voted no wake up and smell the shit (I was going to say Coffee).
It Will Happen. Good stuff as usual from the Dug. Cheers
But Will, not so many did actually vote NO. The report of the Argyll and Bute monitors who’ve researched the count nationwide in depth and brought out their final report yesterday confirms Scotland voted YES but MI5 rigged the postal vote so massively that the official outcome was NO. So people should stop upbraiding all the supposed NO voters and address the issue of how to get an non-rigged referendum next time.
Exactly, Brian. The results of Referendum2 have to be clearly above board. Now we know for sure that these people are desperate to hang on to Scotland’s wealth for, as Paul says, “pooling and sharing” always comes minus a fair deal for Scotland. They cheated 300 years ago and intend to cheat for as long as we allow them to do so.
Can you direct me to this report Brian? I would love to get my hands on it.
I read about the Argyll and Bute issues shortly after the indyref and was very intrigued. I, too, would very much like to read this final report if you could provide a link please.
http://tartanarmyboard.co.uk/forum/index.php?/topic/3893-postal-ballots-at-the-referendum/
Best I could get via Google. I Have asked Dave Mc Ewan Hill if he has a better link.
Thanks, Gerry.
Just a wee addition.
We know what’s coming. Its started already.
Whatever folk can do for local charities is more important than ever. A bag of food, old clothes, some time even. It all counts. I know times are hard and it feels as if our pockets are being pulled in a dozen different directions at once for all sorts of good causes, but every wee bit helps.
Just to add to what Macart said, its worth remembering people in need have pets, I gave a load of cat food to a local food bank and you have no idea how grateful they were for it, they said everyone forgets the pets.
I think “no” voters should be made to read each and every blog from our canine seer until they at last see the error of their ways.
“It’s one of the strange ironies of Scottish life that the Unionist media which campaigned so bitterly and fervently for Scotland to remain a part of the UK treats Scotland’s finances as though we were already independent.”
Yes its not been lost on me either. But the other thing that was not lost on me, was when they campaigned for union. You were struck by their cringe inducing language. It was never about what Scotland brought to the Union, it was always about what Scotland took from the union. We don’t contribute anything of value. We are a subsidy junkie. According to the GER reports, we can’t even afford to be British, so its kinda cool that the British pay our subs for us. And if we can’t pay our subs in the union, how can Scotland ever run its own affairs. And so they sit back with a smug grin on their faces. So proud to have proven that they are inferior Jock-Brits. Subsidised sweaty scotchy folk with a union jack label sowed on, so as to remove the smell of their Scotchy naffness. Wear your shame with pride Smelly Scotch Jocks! For that is what it means to be a “Proud Scot But”. Nothing wrong with being dependent on someone better than you. If it wasn’t for the British, we couldn’t have taken party in WW2 don’t ya know. How could we take part in the Olympics without Britain letting us use their swing park to practice rounders. If it wasn’t for the British we’d all be talking Gaelic or worse broad Scots & Brythonic Celts. If it wasn’t for the Britishness letting us use the BBC, we’d still be looking at goats entrails for the news.
This relentless assault on their own sense of Britishness – (for your average YES voter is not British and never thinks of themselves as such) cost them dear. It cost them so much and to be honest, it was too expensive and they really couldn’t afford it. They couldn’t and still can’t afford the lost of relevance of British politics in Scotland. But they don’t know how to bridge the gap. The booby prize that is the union was supposed to be enough. Its enough for them. And so they rage…they howl…they stamp and they champ. They spit on us, puke on us and hate us. They demand obedience and craven surrender. They demand that we be grateful for what we have. We demand that we be “British” like what they are. And when it is rejected for the jobbie on a stick that it is…they are genuinely upset and can’t figure out why the ridicule and the endless hate isn’t making us love them and their booby prize. So they decide they just aren’t doing enough of it, and so the British bazaar of the bizarre starts its dreary circus all over again. There is not the slightest sense of awareness, of the magnitude of the error they made. None whatsoever.
The truth is the Union is dying. Its being brutally stabbed to death by…unionists. And we, the ones who wanted out of this snuff movie called the UK, can only stand by and watch in horror. It’s truly sickening.
Chapeau a vous aussi, David. Formidable!
Brutally brilliant
Can’t fault any of that only to say that Scotland can make a change, unlike us poor saps in England whose choices are being whittled away by a rampant Tory party aided and abetted by Labour malcontents who would rather see Corbyn fail than whup the Tories. I wish I had a vote in Scotland as I think it has value and hope that the electorate vote for the changes we need to show us the way.
Good comment pwest9, more of your ilk need to speak out too. The “I’m alright Jack” mentality is not the long term answer.
A welcome comment pwest.
Yes we can and are making changes pwest and its been a long, hard road. Ordinary people are in the process of making these changes. We simply got sick to death of being used and abused by our employees (politicians). God we were all mugs, allowing them decades to abuse power and offices we gave them, trust we placed in them. We even allowed them to use the media to divide and manipulate us. We let the bastirts tell us who to blame and who to hate so they can escape responsibility for the carnage they cause whilst pursuing their own self serving careers.
Folk in England can and will see through what they’ve done and are continuing to do to all of society the length of these islands. What it will take, as in Scotland, is a complete overhaul of the political status quo, a literal clean out of establishment politics, or politics as it is ‘practiced’. It’s not easy what follows next. Either an existing party gets overhauled and the people get behind it, or a new party, with an actual social conscience gets created. Either way, it has to be an entity that acknowledges its duty of care to ALL of the population, from the least fortunate, to the most.
This won’t happen overnight. Its taken the Scottish electorate decades just to come as far as we have and its a job only half ways done, but you can see the potential in it. English people are better than their government, though to be fair that is true of many countries the world over. Most folk just want to get along and get through life wherever they are, with the least strife possible.
The greedy make strife for profit and the poor pick up the tab.
Hi pwest. What Scotland is doing is being the change that we want to see. I have friends down in SE England that are banding together at grassroots level to fight back in some movement called Momentum, though I do not know much about it.
I have sent them links such as http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/mps/ (sorry I cannot do hyperlink here but paste in search engine) which lets you know who your MP is and how to contact them to let them know how you feel about issues and to hold them to account. http://www.theyworkforyou.com/ will let you know how your MP actually voted, not how they say they voted. So hold them to account and make your feelings known. Also spread far and wide on facebook and twitter and other social media.
In Scotland we tend to gather round some good blogs using the comments to spread news and communicate with the like minded. England also has good blogs such as http://www.thecanary.co/ or http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/. You always feel better when there is something you can do together with like minded people to make your voice heard and to fight back. So good luck and here’s hoping we can take the establishment on from different sides.
Ruth Davidson and her wee gang of Unionists , and Kezia Dugdale and her New Labour acolytes are all neo liberal spawns of Thatcher and Blair. We have a Westminster that is as one backing Laissez faire Free Market capitalism, while enforcing a neo-conservative highly centralised agenda dismantling of our Social Democracy and destroying any vestige of social justice remaining in these isles.
Reward the rich, underwrite the casino bankers, and strip public services to the bone, get rid of public servants, sell off everything worth selling to pals in the City, and shut down libraries and sports centres.
In January 2015, The Blue Red and Yellow Tories Down There voted through a £30 billion cuts package, and fought the UK GE on the same ‘austerity’ ticket.
Kezia was Murphy’s willing deputy during the May 2015 Final Defeat of New Labour Up Here. She was and still is, an arch Blairite. We now know that Our Tony was even more neo-conservative than Maggie. It was our Gordon who introduced PFI, sanctioned Tuition Fees, and introduced the massive subsidy to Big Business in the form of Working Tax Credits. We invaded Iraq and killed 100’s of thousands of innocents to open up that country to Freedom and Democracy and free trade. Aye, right.
Kezia, Ruth, and Willie, are Unionists who will follow the Westminster HQ Party line.
It is a disgrace that Labour Up Here is not savaging Ruth and Jackson and Murdo because of their Rich Peoples’ party’s unrelenting assault on the People of Scotland and our society. It’s all the SNP’s fault.Isn’t it?
No it’s not. It’s an Eton Mess coordinated by the Old Bulligdon Boys, Kezia.
This Thursday, how about having a go at them at FMQ?
Thought not.
Labour is dead. Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, John Reid, Peter Mandelson, Jack Straw, Alistair Darling,Jack Mc Connell, and the rest of that motley carpetbagging crew destroyed the party, for a shedload of cash, and privilege.
They are all Tory Unionists who would sell Scotland down the river for their own ambition.
Shame on them.
It is not too late for real Labour members to come over from the dark side, and support Scottish self determination.
Their Union is finished; we’re leaving.
Some Labour people already have come over, Jack. However, your point is good. It is not too late for more to come over.
Saor Alba, the Herald today has that schizophrenic approach to supporting Unionism.
They reproduce the risible photie of Ruth Davidson atop a tank, her legs astride the cock and balls of this machinery of war, while using the latest GERS nonsense to exhort us all to breathe a sigh of relief that we didn’t vote for self determination and find ourselves plunged into the financial wilderness as a too wee, too poor backwater on the fringes, but excluded from, the Continent.
Since Iain McWhirter is peddling Kezia Dugdale as the greatest Labour thing since sliced Dewar, we can assume that the Herald , like Pacific Quay, will be backing New Labour in the run up to the May bunfight, Having a wee snigger at Ruth Tank Commander at the top of an SNP Bad piece of mince kills two birds with one stone.
I sincerely hope that ‘traditional’ Labour supporters, and by ‘traditional’, I mean honest working folk who didn’t buy in to Peter Mandelson’s /Tony Blair’s/ Gordon Brown’s New Labour/ Old Tory guff, have at last seen the light and realise that the Union is past its sell by date. We desperately nee self determination now, before Ruth Davidson’s Party, and/or Chkka Umana’s/ Andy Burnham’s New Born Again Labour destroy Scotland Social Democratic democracy completely.
There is no hope for the Scottish MSM. Those who have survived the Downsizing/Rightsizing job cuts are all on message and are well aware of the ‘line to take’. Peddle SNP Bad, Independence a pipe dream or else.
Amen to that! I wholeheartedly agree with you.
Reblogged this on pictishbeastie.
[…] Source: Screw this for a gemme o sodgies […]
“I’m fed up with this”. Me too, but we have to work even harder to persuade others and hit the Unionists with only power we have.. For me that means canvassing for SNP x 2. So out we go 3 or 4 times a week. Your blog helps us keep going. Never give up.
It is possible that the 2 posh boys made their deflection plans together long ago.
>
“I think “no” voters should be made to read each and every blog from our canine seer until they at last see the error of their ways.”
I’m with you on that one, Flying pigs, and I think they would have an effect on a significant number of the Nay-Sayers if they were served up on a plate, but few will stray onto this site. WGD’s savage humour is extremely powerful stuff.
Here’s something else which might blow their minds, kindly provided by a sage poster on WoS some time ago. For those of a nervous disposition, have the Valium and a darkened room ready. It’s quite technical for a bear of small brain like me in places but worth the effort, providing a lot of ammo when arguing with Dark Siders:
Click to access TheGreatObfuscation.pdf
‘Twas ever thus, but it doesn’t have to be this way in the future.
Thanks for this link TC.
And since we’re talking of a gemme o sodgies, the same reaction can be achieved by this pamphlet. Same old “Union Dividend” and very sad:
http://www.scottishrepublicansocialistmovement.org/Pages/SRSMArticlesScotlandsWarLosses.aspx
Would it be pedantic to point out that it is costing Scotland £4.5bn a year in debt interest charges on our population share of the UK national debt.
Further, the UK govt is busily hawking off UK national assets valued in 2014 by the UK national audit office at £1,337,300,000, including Scotland’s rightful share of those assets due to us on independence.
https://www.nao.org.uk/highlights/whole-of-government-accounts/
Just as during the referendum, Labour in Scotland are happily continuing to do the tories’ dirty work in Scotland.
Here is an interesting analysis of the GERs figures: https://thecommongreen.wordpress.com/2016/03/09/we-need-to-talk-about-gers-2014-15-edition/
I just came back from the airport having been to the Isle of Man on business and was disgusted hearing the report on the radio in the taxi where the yoon party leaders of the Scottish branch offices were besides themselves with glee on the GERS figures.
How upsetting to see George & Dave getting their arses handed to them on the vote on the Extension of Sunday trading in Engerlund with the assistance of those pesky NATS in westminster with the Nays having it, in Westminster the Nays have it.
Mass suicide is often motivated by a disillusioned cult, political or religious sect becoming so disillusioned or collectively despairing that they resort to this one last act of enraged frustration and defiance.
These sad phenomena are well documented, yet in each case we are left to wonder why a group of previously rational beings find themselves so desperately lost that the only way they see out is to end it all.
Perhaps the world didn’t end on the day it should have. Perhaps God’s spaceship did not swoop from behind Mars and whisk the faithful off to their exclusive Promised Land.
Perhaps the Unionists cannot force the pro Independence supporters to bow down to their SE Imperial Masters rather than continue to vote SNP regardless.
Such was the scene at FMQ to day.
There were Kezia, Ruth, and Willie, out on the ledge, threatening to Jump Together, probably for the last time. One by one they leapt into political oblivion shouting ‘GERS Ya Bass’.
Like a Boy Band Reunion, they couldn’t quite hit the high notes any more; their harmonies were slightly off key, but they ran through their Greatest Better Together Hits with a mock enthusiasm that sadly fooled none of us.
The Gers prove it!
We’d have been right humped if we had voted to leave!
Education cuts, shrieks Kezia, Oil cuts, bellows Ruth. £15 billion Black Hole , whimpered Wullie.
As it stands, Scotland is the economic shit hole of the World, never mind Europe, they all holler as the pavement comes up to meet them with a Splat! What would it have been like if we had voted for Independnece?
You won, chaps, yet 18 months on you will not let up.
I relish the May election….Unfortunately, at least two of you will still be there even if there is only one voter in the whole of Scotland who votes for your party.
It wasn’t pleasant to witness. I lie; I laughed my socks off.