Stephen Bird

Watching the drama of the US Presidential election this week, I was struck by a simple phrase from Democrat Vice-President candidate Governor Tim Walz. He said there’s a simple political rule of thumb in small town America; “mind your own business”. It strikes me that this rule applies just as much to Scotland as it does across the pond. Governments do well when they only step into people’s everyday life a) when it’s necessary and b) to make things better. Anything else is asking to be punished. In the 20 months or so until the 2026 elections the Scottish Government has the time to turnRead More →

Well, like most of you I’ve had better election nights! But I’m old enough to have had many worse election nights too. But the most important thing is to learn from each result, good or bad. I am pretty sure that there has never been a proper debrief after 2014 which is a problem we cannot fix. I know of none being done after 2019 either which perhaps was a contributing factor to July 4. Like Johnson in England, it’s undeniable that we benefited from a huge rejection of Jeremy Corbyn and this perhaps has allowed people to believe that the result was due toRead More →

As anyone who knows me will testify, I am generally not a fan of glorifying anything to do with “Britishness”. I do however make an exception when it comes to remembering those who gave their lives defending freedom from fascism in the War. They had no choice whether to serve, their personal or political opinions were neither asked for nor heeded. They simply served that the idiots on the rabid right would not conquer, and that freedom of speech, movement and opinions would survive. The Americans often describe their system of government as an experiment in democracy and I think that’s as much as weRead More →

What’s the definition of “democracy”? “a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives:” “control of an organization or group by the majority of its members:” Just 2 of the definitions from a quick Google of the word. For most of us it boils down to the old “Government of the people for the people by the people” But, as the saying goes, not for viewers in Scotland. In Scotland, democracy has been put into cold storage because no matter how many votes, Councillors, MSPs or MPs the SNP and those parties who alsoRead More →

Over the years there have been many good arguments put forward for why we need a written constitution but none have been as persuasive as the utter farce we witnessed as the SNP’s Gaza ceasefire motion was “debated” in the Fun Palace on the Thames calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. That place defends itself on the grounds that it works because of “conventions” and “precedents”! Aye, right! Just as a wee background. The Government of the day, usually Tory, allows the Opposition parties to command the agenda on a whole 20 days in a Parliamentary session. Of these Labour get 17 days and the SNP get the other 3. The idea is that the opposition partyRead More →

Right now, the UK reminds me so much of that old cliché of “A dead man walking”. The strangest thing about it is that there’s no secret, we have many people recording the final stages, the terminal decline but no-one who can hear the death rattles is paying the slightest bit of attention. I first started to really consider that its end was nigh when I read “How Britain Ends” by Gavin Esler with its descriptions of institutional decay throughout the British “Establishment”. I was encouraged by his conclusion that of course Scotland would become Independent although he believes that the driving force will not be our movement so much as England’s inability toRead More →

There are many, many things about the right wing in politics which I find detestable, selfishness, xenophobia and bigotry to name but three, perhaps though the one which irks me most is their utter inability to learn the simplest of lessons from history. This is highlighted just now by the crass stupidity of the Republican “Party” in the US. They question whether the support for Ukraine from the US, in its fight for survival is “worth it?”  This displays all the blinkered ignorance we have come to expect from a party which claims to be the party of law and order but is prepared to nominate a serially impeachedRead More →

Some years ago at Annual Conference, Nicola said that we needed to concentrate on explaining the “why” of Independence rather than being caught up in the Unionist game of “how” to win independence. I was reminded of this again yesterday when I saw a graphic on Facebook about Electricity Standing Charges. Now I always try to recall the words of Rabbie Burns “Just because you read it on Facebook doesn’t mean it’s true”, but given the current controversy around the impact that standing charges have on bills, I felt it was worth pursuing. The Westminster Government has recently kindly reduced the Energy Price Cap to £1923 a year for a typical household. Ok we don’t liveRead More →