I am a political junkie – there I have said it out loud!\u00a0 Not that there has ever been any doubt about my status. There is a family joke that infers that should there be a by-election in say, Outer Mongolia, then I will stay up all night to watch the results as they come in!\u00a0 There may just be a grain of truth in this as, since becoming franchised some 5o years ago, I have always known how I would vote and have campaigned with passion and commitment for an Independent Scotland. In fact, it is probably true to say that I “live and breathe” politics. So why, with a mere 2 weeks to go to the vote am I so underwhelmed at the prospect of the EU Referendum?<\/p>\n
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At the risk of losing the will to live, I have decided to share my thoughts on the Referendum.\u00a0 Firstly there is the feeling that this is England’s Circus, and my instinct is to think, if this is the case, then get on with it, dear neighbours – wake me up when it’s over!<\/p>\n
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Then there is the “Blue on Blue” spectacle, which I have to admit is highly entertaining.\u00a0 Tory Boy versus Tory Boy, just like the playing fields of Eton.\u00a0 My reaction to this is, however, to offer to “haud the jaikets” and watch with much mirth, from the sideline!<\/p>\n
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And maybe, just maybe, the thought of being asked to be Great Britishers rather than Little Englanders by David Cameron leaves me feeling like an orphan with no home to call my own. But given my aforementioned interest in say, “Mongolia” why am I so apathetic this time round?<\/p>\n
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The answer to this is two words – “Project Fear”.\u00a0 Yes folks, that has reared its very ugly head again.\u00a0 I am sure that everyone in Scotland could write the script for this.\u00a0 It goes something like this:-<\/p>\n
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(1) If you vote Leave\/Stay, then the NHS will collapse!\u00a0 How will they be able to tell, given what Westminster is doing to the NHS in England?<\/p>\n
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(2) If you vote Leave\/Stay, there will be a Financial Armageddon.\u00a0 How soon they forget – did the crash in 2008 never happen? Was it the fault of their Banker pals, or did a big boy do it and run away?<\/p>\n
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(3) Immigration!\u00a0 This is the winner as far as the Leave lot are concerned. We are being overrun with people coming to the UK to rape, plunder and generally scrounge off our beneficent Welfare System.\u00a0 Apart from that being simply ludicrous, has no one told these politicians that Scotland isn’t full up, that we have an ageing population and will welcome immigrants with open arms.\u00a0 They may think they have too many, but we know we want more to contribute to our economy.<\/p>\n
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(4) This is the Daddy of them all – Pensions!\u00a0 Remember how well this worked in Scotland, boys – let’s go with it again.\u00a0 We will frighten the bejesus out of the elderly – no matter that our pensions are among the lowest in Europe, no matter that a pension, once earned, will be paid out wherever you are in the World. (I have a cousin, who has lived in Canada for 50 years, and gets his small, accrued UK pension paid every month – not to mention my husband who has his US pension paid into our bank account.)\u00a0 Okay, so it is all lies, but it got us over the line in Scotland! We will scare the frail elderly, after all they are the ones who vote!<\/p>\n
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There are too many wheezes to mention, but I just wish they would complete the circle on Project Fear, and tell us we are “too wee, too poor and too stupid to rule ourselves.”\u00a0 I have always wondered how that would play in Middle England!\u00a0 I feel as if I am being asked to vote for the “least worst” Tory, and for this Nationalist, that is indeed, an apathy inducing, Hobson’s choice.<\/p>\n
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However, fear not dear reader, I will vote on June 23rd and, with gritted teeth, I shall vote to Remain.\u00a0 At the end of the day it is bad enough being ruled by the Tories at Westminster without letting them loose on our Human Rights.<\/p>\n
Kay was among the first MSP’s elected to the Scottish Parliament, served as Chief Whip for the SNP group and is also a former vice-president of the party.\u00a0<\/em>A well known speaker at conferences.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I am a political junkie – there I have said it out loud!\u00a0 Not that there has ever been any doubt about my status. There is a family joke that infers that should there be a by-election in say, Outer Mongolia, then I will stay up all night to watch the results as they come in!\u00a0 There may just be a grain of truth in this as, since becoming franchised some 5o years ago, I have always known how I would vote and have campaigned with passion and commitment for an Independent Scotland. In fact, it is probably true to say that I “live andRead More →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1389"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1389"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1391,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1389\/revisions\/1391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}