Well, I survived the long weekend of very little tv and wall to wall monarchy wonderfulness. The BBC and mainstream media did their best to scunner us with wall-to-wall unionism. The other half checked out the tv schedule for the bank holiday weekend (when did it start Thursday and end Sunday? Just for Lizzie then?) Apparently a lot of the films available to view on tv are all about how wonderful Britain is. I finally broke a week past Monday and commented on a post mentioning Elizabeth the second. I pointed out that she is our first Queen Elizabeth as their first was only of England. I expected some abuse but have not been notified. I guess I was blocked instead. I won’t be watching the festivities but I am guessing the ramping up of Great Britain and a very privileged life paid by the state may just backfire on the intensions.
Social media surprised me. Not as much union flag waving and monarchy as I expected. I know our village community group laid on an event on Saturday and Buckie did something in the square on Sunday. Interestingly, it was commented on the radio that many applications applying for street parties did not specify it was for the jubilee. It is thought that some communities, hoping for better weather, are seeing this as an opportunity to meet up and socialise given the restraints most of us have abided by the past couple of years. We had two, from our small group of people we have met up with in the past 2 years, over to socialise alfresco. We chatted about the muted response to the Jubilee celebrations and the booing of the Prime Minister when attending the service at St Paul’s Cathedral. Now the people who turn out to Royal watch at events are not going there to protest. It’s just not done. The booing took all the media by surprise and is a good measure of what people think of the current government.
Another thing the English did not think of when planning the holiday weekend. June is when many galas and sporting events happen in Scotland. It was great to see communities back enjoying these events.
We had the Scottish Government announce the financial statement last week. There is very little wriggle room at this time and we do need to look at how things are done in the public sector. I keep saying that although we know many people are in fuel and food poverty, there are many more that can contribute a bit more. Is it being left to the Councils to use their powers to raise money for what is needed in their area? With money from Scottish Government often targeted, could it be that Councils are being asked to raise money for the areas they have specific shortfall for? I really shouldn’t wander into this area as I have no experience in either finance or being on the Council.
One thing I have heard about the financial statement is that the unionists are all upset that money has been put aside for a referendum. £20M put aside to pay for the referendum that was in their manifesto. You couldn’t miss it, all the unionist parties led with the Independence referendum rather than their own policies. Even in the recent local elections they led with the referendum and told us nothing of their policies. On leaflets, tv interviews, newspapers. Oh, not to mention that we didn’t want the Brexit referendum but were made to pay for it anyway.
Given how much of the taxpayer’s money disappeared into offshore bank accounts during lockdowns, for services not provided or that were substandard, the Tories have no room to pontificate.
Roll on the next referendum. We need to all get dropping reasons for independence into every conversation. Meetings, conferences, marches, we are all the converted. Queues, bus trips, walking all open opportunities to speak to people we don’t know. Yes, some will be unionists, but some may be very soft.
Lo and behold. Jubilee weekend barely over and a vote of confidence in the Prime Minister has been announced. No time for plotting, announced Monday morning, voting at 6pm same Monday. He won the vote, but 148 of his government voted no confidence. That’s a lot of people to worry about as you try to move on. A sizeable group that could find common ground to block you. How much of his energy is going to be taken up trying to keep the promises made to secure confidence votes? How much will it cost him to take his programme forward? Whatever that is.