So Mhairi Black is stepping down from Westminster, well it’s no wonder. We have read of women calling the Palace a cesspit, brutal, Boys Own caricatures, 19th century, jokes about accents and straight forward perverts on steroids, it doesn’t seem possible with corridors filled with journalists and spies, yet we see no reduction in complaints or improvement of conduct. Even in front of cameras.
So why did Mhairi upset so many on the opposite benches! Well, trying to reduce her spirit by laughing at her accent. Or pretending they can’t understand her by gesticulating with their hands behind their ears as if they needed help understanding. Wee boys with wee minds. The fact is, she is a fighter, does she care what they say, who knows, but she puts up a great fight. A bonnie fechter.
But at the end of it all. Why do we send women especially down there to be brutalised because they think Scotland an irrelevant entity only to be endured?
There is an alternative, and it’s not just Independence. It’s about decoupling ourselves from a system which simply doesn’t work.
Many MPs who just go in, do their job and leave, are equally dismayed at the process and archaic protocol, which takes time and if anything, holds democracy to ransom. It’s a sad fact so few MPs are able to get questions in but Mhairi did. Her successor must keep a grip of the baton, not just to speak for the sake of it, but to make the point, Scotland is more than grouse shooting and playing soldiers in the Highlands. It’s to get over that important ground that means the ordinary Scot being affected by poverty and want is exactly the same as those people in London, Cardiff or Belfast. Not a world apart, but part of a Union which isn’t working.
The most important factor now is to get as many of pro independence members into the chamber as possible to carry on the work to secure the foundations of change. Not just a head count but there to counteract the discrimination, and childish rhetoric. To make Scotland relevant in a place where they either don’t hear, or worse, don’t care.
The job now is to rebirth the Scottish Parliament by making it a showcase for democracy and free speech, where a whip is for horses and the right to speak is for all. No back room parties, or dirty deals with journalists just plain, straight forward politics where the people matter, not the headlines. Let’s make the Westminster elections a victory for Scotland, not a showcase for Unionists and Brexiteers.