A guest post by Samuel Miller
Right then. George Osborne’s recent history in the No.2 chair.
Since November last we’ve gone from this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34922394
to this: http://www.thenational.scot/politics/george-osborne-warns-of-more-austerity-as-18bn-hole-looms.15008
and now as of yesterday, this: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/osborne-budget-stinkers_uk_56e96801e4b03fb88ede7e6b?utm_hp_ref=uk
Just so we are crystal clear, Osborne and ‘his’ OBR missed their target (yet again) and have come back to the ‘bank of the helpless’ to tap those least able for the funds to put a sticking plaster on the UK economy. In fact, and I’m happy to be corrected, but I don’t think Osborne has met a single forecast target since rolling into office in 2010.
This is the real upshot of six years of Conservative government and austerity economics. Catastrophic record of deficit and debt reduction targets missed and not one OBR forecast met, but six years of an ideology where the welfare state (what’s left of it) gets disassembled before the public’s eyes. Six years of tax breaks for some, six years of heartbreak and hardship for far too many to count. Oh and don’t get me started on Osborne’s shameless trolling of the Scottish benches during his speech. His praise for Sir Nick Macpherson and his contribution to the civil service was beyond bilious. http://www.civilserviceworld.com/articles/news/george-osborne-pays-tribute-sir-nick-macpherson-treasury-perm-sec-marks-final-budget
So are we now all perfectly clear on what Conservative austerity ideology is all about?
Now, you don’t suppose that this is the reason for the media and establishment doom fest over the recent release of this years GERS do you? Surely nobody would be so crass and transparent as to paint a picture of Scotland as a financial basket case, just so George and Westminster look good by comparison? Why that’s crazy talk.
Could it be that George, once again doing his best impersonation of a robber baron, may have dented the better togetherness bubble somewhat? After all, Scotland rejected Conservative government quite comprehensively in May 2015 and yet we WILL still feel the effects of that government’s economic legislation for years to come and that is whether the union continues or not. Near as I recall, this is a government that promised broad shoulders in times of economic hardship, job security and opportunity, pension protection and a ‘nothing off the table’ approach to devolution and partnership. Has the reality lived up to the hype? Too harsh to say, not even fecking close? This ladies and gents is what’s known as yer DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT. Government by a party the vast majority of your own electorate rejected. Are we feeling better together today?
Just something to think about, but when the media and establishment parties say, ‘don’t look over here, look over there’? Look anyway.
Okay then. Yesterday is yesterday and today we have to live with the reality of ongoing austerity. Most folks on the pro yes side of the debate in the run up to the 2014 referendum feared that this is exactly where we’d be today in the event of a no vote. Well here we are and yes it’s bad and probably set to worsen even over the period of this parliament. Well poverty and hardship doesn’t care how you voted in the referendum, or even if you voted and a lot of people are going to need help. I know we have a lot of demands on our pockets these days for many worthy causes, not to mention just making ends meet ourselves. If its possible though, don’t forget every wee bit helps those local charities. A bag of food for your local food bank, old clothes, rag bags, even time if you have any to spare for whoever needs it.
What is happening now is bad, but folk can make a difference simply by giving a damn and that’s something this readership has proven time and again. Give generously where you can folks.
Wee Ginger Dug 
[…] Don’t look over here… […]
“What is happening now is bad, but folk can make a difference simply by giving a damn and that’s something this readership has proven time and again. Give generously where you can folks.”
Yes, Sam, we’re now having to endure the pain that we all feared would come to pass with a No vote in the referendum.
Perhaps it’s a pain that we have to pass though in giving birth to a new independent country. It’s very sad that most of the pain will be endured by those least able to cope. That’s a tory government for you. Many of us have lived through a tory government before and knew what to expect, but there are many who would not have believed that it CAN be this bad. They are now learning the hard way,
If we can all try to live up to your statement above then we have a chance, but it does mean that WE all have to make the effort, both financially and physically to try and mitigate the worst of the pain. If we can do that then it, in itself will change minds that were previously too frightened of change to vote for independence.
Doing a great job there Sam having to fill those large shoes of Mr Kavanagh. Always did say you should have your own blog, but then, how would you find the time with your prolific posting in every corner of the Yesnet. 😀
Not the post I’d intended to start with, but after Osborne’s declaration of intent yesterday, its hard not to say something.
Well, it’s a pretty good something so thanks for that.
I really, really wish I didn’t have to bring up another child under a malicious Tory government. I don’t nor will ever get why Tories are rated as beneficial to the country…
Reblogged this on pictishbeastie.
Excellent article and thank you for stepping into the breach for WGD.
Big paws to fill, but on this performance, WGD has left his pup in safe hands.
It is a tragedy that your first guest blog should be this one. We are supposedly the 6th biggest economy IN THE WORLD, and yet we have an exponential growth in food-banks, charity shops, self-help schemes are the rest. If we are not yet back to Victorian levels of disparity between those who possess the wealth and those who actually created it, we must be getting close.
What will it take to convince people in the UK (my father hails from the North East of England and they are and have suffered tremendously under Labour and Tory governments) to say “ENOUGH!”. Brits are not particularly good at revolution. No violent marcher, no massive push to overthrow the establishment. And when we have tried, it usually ‘corrected’ itself within a generation.
Is this time going to be different? Perhaps it will be.
Closer to home, will this persuade the 55% to critically examine where we have been led by their (well meant, I hope) desire to remain under the umbrella of the “broad shoulders” of the UK (please excuse the mixed metaphor) and to think again about what they were told and the harsh reality. Or are the polls correct and they are the most well-off, or too afraid to change?
These days I sometimes find myself despairing of the future, but then I recall the spirit and verve and enthusiasm of the Referendum campaign, and I read the lies and hysteria of the Corporate Media and the Labour party, and I know that if we can battle though these next few years, we will get a re-run (this time WITHOUT postal votes!!!!) and win our chance to forge a new path.
In the meantime, as you say, let’s do what we can, when we can, to help those less fortunate survive to see a better Scotland.
Alba gu bràth
Regarding postal votes, we should remember the words of Joseph Stalin:
“The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the
votes decide everything.”
Hadn’t heard that one before, Guga but aye, kinda nails it.
Welcome back Sam
When I was wee, the Grousemoor Tories who had lived through the war didn’t really want to rub the poor’s noses in it, because they were vaguely aware of their immense contribution to the war effort, so we had Harold MacMillan and Iain Macleod.
Now we have rabid Thatcherites who simply have the foot on our throats and love to keep pressing, so we have Gideon, Gove and EK’s finest, Liam Fox GP.
Yet while making the tea and listening to Pravdasound 4 tonight I heard even Tory backbenchers expressing concern about the budget assault on the disabled.
Tories with a conscience? Shurely shone mishtake…..
Thanks, Sam, for getting us to let off some steam.
And Guga, sadly, spot on. The SG needs a plan for the next one.
Yes, you’re a first class stand-in for the W.G.D , mac.
The problem is of course long standing, and that is the M.S.M will still try to paint any cuts to essential sevices in Scotland, as the fault of the S.N.P Scottish Government, and in some folks perception, will be believed.
That is our real battleground, as the media will never be our friend, because they are a tool, probably the most valuable the establishment have at their disposal.
Yeah sure all the independence websites help, but we are still faced with a mighty enemy, who will stop at nothing, literally anything, to deny us our birthright.
One way we can defeat them is to get our message out to as many people as possible, and in our constituency we are now out six days a week, soon to be increased to seven. And if the stats over the last six months are correct, and we were correct to one percentage point at the G.E, then it’s looking good. No complacency of course, but, locally at least, I look forward to the 6th, May.
Alex, Kezia was at it again today at FMQ.
Rather than attack the Blue Tory cuts, she somehow blames the SNP Administration for not increasing taxes Up Here by 1p to paper over the inhumane and savage neo liberal attack on our sovereign state.
We should merely put up and shut up, and let Ruth Davidson’s neo liberal free market laissez faire capitalist rat race de’il take the hindmost ideology run rampant throughout Scotland, a country which resoundingly rejected the Red Blue and Yellow Tories at the last UK GE, and will repeat the trouncing in May this year.
I can understand why we have dubbed New Labour the Red Tories.
Blair spent time with Clinton as part of his grooming to become PM.
Clinton’s strategy was the ‘Third Way’ ,which Tony Blair adopted, when he became PM.
Clinton positioned himself apart from traditional Democrats, and murmured warm fuzzies at Republicans, and plotted a ‘middle course’, (‘triangulation’), a third way, across the Pond.
Mandelson Brown and Blair come up with ‘New’ Labour, getting rid of clause 4, introducing private competition/investment to public services, while believing in government intervention on ‘moral’ grounds when required: hence, Afghanistan, Kosova, Sierra Leone, Iraq.
You may recall that it was Mandelson who was ok with ‘the filthy rich’, after all.
Blair introduced tuition fess (‘education, education, education’?) dished out PFI/PPP contracts to private investors to build schools, hospitals, prisons, and saddling us all with billions of debt for 25 years to Big Money; and oh, yes, academy schools…
He was a Tory. New Labour was Old Thatcher Tory.
How New Labour Up Here loved it.
All those Lords (Robertson, Reid, Foulkes, Darling, McConnell, Liddell, and the rest, with their nice little earners are the outcome for 13 years of ensuring a ‘light touch’ on the markets, the economy, regulation of banks, ‘independence’ of the Bank of England (sic), the arms industry, and so on.
Well, Kezia, is the spawn of Blair and Brown.
She is New Labour. As recently as last May, she was Jim Murphy’s deputy, spouting Ed Miliband’s and Ed Balls’ brand of Red Tory/New Labour guff in the run up to UKGE15..
Has she suddenly converted to Corbynism/, Old Labour Socialism?
I doubt it very much.
So when she carped from the sidelines today about schools and hospitals and the plight of the workers, and yet again vainly try to blame the SNP for the continuing domination of this country’s social, economic, and political will by an English dominated Parliament Down There, I ask: ‘What medication is she on’?
Corbyn will not last until the Ides of March next year. A Corbyn Labour disaster at LA elections Down There, a by election duffing, will be excuse enough for a leadership challenge , with the Neo Con New Labourites, of which there are 200 +, and all those hundreds of Socialist Lords and Ladies, will sharpen up their gladii, and make ready to stab Ol’ Jeremy in the back.
Old Labour is dead, New Labour, the Red Tories, will be out of office for at least a decade.
We, the sovereign people of Scotland, are not hanging about any more.
Our Day has come.
Who’ll be the next New Labour Leader? It must be nearly JaBa the But’s turn.
Of course, all of what you say is true Jack. Aye, you might even be correct about Baillie. While I have no time for the tories, at least you know roughly what you are going to get from them. It’s the Labour Party I despise.
I grew up in a working class, Labour Party supporting family, but these days, along with the belief in in a political party that might represent the vast majority of us, has long gone.
The people whom you name were, and indeed are, only in it for themselves, as seen by their acceptance of the baubles handed out by a grateful establishment for their efforts to keep their fellow Scots in line, and deprive us of our independence.
However, their day of reckoning is coming. Independence is inevitable, and I just hope I live long enough to see it happening.
Ditto, in spades, Alex.
I too am from a ‘working class’ background; a Clydesider and fiercely proud of it.
Only the good die young. I oft wonder where we’d be if John Smith hadn’t passed away so suddenly. Likewise Robin Cook.
My family were Labour through and through, and supported Blair in the early years until it became obvious that he was a psychopathic New World Order Freak. He is on record as promoting a world run by the Oligarchs who own multinationals, the elite, whose fabulous wealth counts for more than the X of the great unwashed.Kings, queens, Lords, Barons, Baronesses, Knights…aye, richt.
I believe that Blair and Bush got down on their knees and prayed to their particular god before blasting 1 million innocent Iraqi citizens into eternity, in the name of Freedom and Democracy, of course.
Kezia Dugdale, Ruth Davidson, and Wullie Rennie are three fleas of the same neo-liberal/ Neo conservative dug. The Powers That Be know what’s good for us. Shut up and do as you are told, is the New Scottish Labour version of ‘listening’ to the Great Unwashed.
I dare any man to come into my presence and introduce himself as ‘Lord’ So’n’so.
We are in the 21st Century, yet they still believe that we should doff our caps to them.
Labour Lords? What an insult to those who have gone before.
Kezia is standing on the shoulders of New Labour midgets.
They are toast Up Here, TG.
Not long now.
Great to see you maintaining the WGD site Sam,you’re a top blogger and poster to be sure.Many thanks and it’s much appreciated.
As for that incompetent arrogant waste of space that is George Osbourne-gie me strength!!!
Is it not totally unacceptable that this squirming Establishment dog is in charge of our economy?
How can this be? He couldn’t run a game of bingo ffs.
This whole Rule Brittania mock democracy setup gets more surreal by the day,it surely must be near the end for these imposters,must be.
When his claim to sorting the mess that is our economy is heralded as an enlightened breakthrough by making the most vulnerable souls in the country pay for taxbreaks for the rich,you know we’ve reached the end of the line with this charade.
It’s an abomination that I can scarcely get my head round.
These are the same shower who managed to double their wealth from 2010-2015-which by coincidence matched the doubling of the national debt-funny that?
Roll on May and we get another step in the right direction of free Scottish Independence,so it’s not all doom and gloom,as far as Westminster goes it seems they’re finishing the union all by themselves so lets give the buggers a hand!
Unionist objective: to make Scottish devolution increasingly expensive, so that middle Scotland demands a return to the olden days. That’s why Unionist Kez is so keen on tax and spend.
When the Tories won and went into coalition in 2010, I said to my 3 grown up kids “This is going to get painful” because of course they were only young when Thatcher then Major were in power and didn’t really know what was coming. Then when the Tories won their majority last year, I said “On God, you ain’t seen nothing yet folks. Prepare for the worst.” Sadly I think all this pain has to be endured for the current young folks to realise what toryism means and that sadly there are no socially caring alternatives in Wastemonster.
Thankfully, we have a chance up here to escape and build a brighter and better future – led hopefully by all the bright young things who can now see for themselves what toryism is.
By the way my 3 all voted yes in the referendum and support the SNP and will keep doing so until we are free. Their attitude is what gives me hope for our beautiful but beleagured wee country and its people, and that it will one day be set free from the tyranny and injustice of being ruled from afar by a distant and uncaring government.
“I don’t think Osborne has met a single forecast target since rolling into office in 2010.” I’m going to have to correct you there, but as I’ve yet to tell you – you wouldn’t have been aware of the prediction that he has met. I predicted he’d arse it up several years ago and he as persistently and consistently met that prediction. Clearly enhances his innate Dunning–Kruger complex.
Most unionists don’t care. “All this whingeing and moaning. I blame the SNP, never happy to just get on with it. Oh aye, If the SNP were in we’d all be getting £5000 each, eh?” I get this every day so I just avoid politics with the politically illiterate.
It will be all over by 2020 anyway, the reality eventually sinks in, the unionists debt clocks are just running 5 years behind the rest of us.
It fills me with great hope and comfort by coming on to these this site and other like it (WoS) to see like minded Scots with a passion for the betterment of Scotland and its people. It gives me the absolute strength to keep attending the party meetings and walking the streets for what will be one of the greater causes, Scotland. Thanks everyone. Doug.
[…] we’ve gone over the well worn establishment strategy of ‘Don’t look over here‘, in a post already. For bods of an independent tendency, its what the past three weeks have been […]