It\u2019s that time of year again when we say goodbye to the old year.\u00a0 I have to admit it will be difficult to raise a toast to 2016.\u00a0 Politically speaking it has been a roller-coaster ride with more downs than ups!<\/p>\n
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The highlight of course, was the SNP winning our third term in Government at Holyrood.\u00a0 The team played a blinder and the electorate rewarded us yet again.<\/p>\n
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The low points however, vastly outweigh the highs.\u00a0 Brexit \u2013 you all know what that means \u2013 it means Brexit?\u00a0 Don\u2019t worry – no one, least of all the Tory Government, knows what it means either!\u00a0 What started as a \u201c Jolly Jape\u201d by the Eton boys has ended in disaster for the UK (not least for Scotland). \u00a0Theresa though, kept the \u201cheid doon\u201d throughout the Referendum campaign and got her reward – trouble is, she doesn\u2019t have a scoobie what to do now!\u00a0 Scotland\u2019s interests are of no concern to Tessie and her merry men .\u00a0 What a difficult situation we are in thanks to the Tories, but we are lucky that the SNP are in power at Holyrood and will fight Scotland\u2019s corner every inch of the way \u2013 with no help from the Unionist parties in Scotland I may add! \u00a0The Labour Party at Westminster are also proving to be as useful as a chocolate tea-pot \u2013 so afraid are they of the voters in what they thought was their \u201cheartlands\u201d they have given the Brexiteers a blank cheque. The SNP Group at Westminster is all that stands between a good deal and a complete meltdown.<\/p>\n
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One thing that has now become abundantly clear is that in Scotland\u2019s political climate the game is now Unionist versus Nationalist. \u00a0We have evidenced this in some recent Council By-elections. Make no mistake, the Unionist electorate is interchangeable \u2013Tory, Labour, Lib will rank Unionists regardless of Party. We must ensure that our voters understand the importance of voting only for Independence candidates on the list. That is the challenge ahead as we go into the Council elections in May.<\/p>\n
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Then just when we thought the worst was over along came \u201cthe Donald!\u201d\u00a0 Here comes my mea culpa \u2013 did I ever call it wrong!\u00a0 In spite of the time over decades that I have spent visiting family in the fly-over States I just didn\u2019t see this coming.\u00a0 Mind you, I should have guessed, as by the last week of the Presidential campaign, I had managed to fall out with most of my Husband\u2019s relatives on Facebook. This was no mean feat on my part, as my Husband is one of 9 children, all of whom married and had many children and grandchildren!\u00a0 My problem was, that I thought common decency would prevail, particularly among the Evangelicals.\u00a0 How wrong I\u00a0 was.\u00a0 No matter who Trump insulted, no matter how far he was straying from \u201cChristian Values\u201d the more they seemed to think he was \u201cGod\u2019s Choice\u201d.\u00a0 If Trump was God\u2019s choice for President then I can only assume that he\/she was having a \u201clarf\u201d at our expense!\u00a0 It is fair to say that I will not be visiting Oklahoma or Arkansas anytime within the next four years.\u00a0 I must mention that our other set of relatives in Chicago somewhat restored my belief that not all Americans are easily deluded.<\/p>\n
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While the UK and the US have to sort out the consequences of our self-indulgent votes, the Middle East is a cauldron of\u00a0 misery and despair.\u00a0 Nightly we watch the bombing of Aleppo on our TV screens, we see the suffering of the children caught up in the carnage, the bombing of schools and hospitals and our emotions run the gauntlet of sorrow, anger and helplessness.\u00a0 As Aleppo fell, the United Nations issued a statement which said \u201c there is a complete meltdown of humanity in Aleppo\u201d \u2013 a sad understatement underlining the World\u2019s inaction!<\/p>\n
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Meanwhile in the Yemen, another outrage is being played out.\u00a0 The so-called \u201cproxy war\u201d instigated and carried out by Saudi Arabia with, to our eternal shame, weapons bought from the UK. (I never thought I would agree with Boris!)\u00a0 The truth is that the situation across the Middle East is in part a result of the meddling, the manipulation and indeed,the unlawful wars imposed on that Region by none other that the UK and the US! In fact, our great imperial feet have been all over the Middle East for nigh on a century.<\/p>\n
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So folks, I will not be unhappy to see the back of 2016, but 51 years in this wee Party of ours has made me into an eternal optimist!\u00a0 I will raise my glass to the activists we have lost this year \u2013 the stalwarts who haven\u2019t lived to see the \u201cpromised land\u201d.\u00a0 Their\u2019s are the shoulders on which we stand – we owe it to them, to our children and grandchildren to keep campaigning for our Nation\u2019s Independence \u2013 \u201cit\u2019s coming yet for a\u2019 that\u201d.<\/p>\n
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Have a lovely time over the Festive Season \u2013 and back to the fray in January!<\/p>\n
Lang may your lums reek!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s that time of year again when we say goodbye to the old year.\u00a0 I have to admit it will be difficult to raise a toast to 2016.\u00a0 Politically speaking it has been a roller-coaster ride with more downs than ups! The highlight of course, was the SNP winning our third term in Government at Holyrood.\u00a0 The team played a blinder and the electorate rewarded us yet again. The low points however, vastly outweigh the highs.\u00a0 Brexit \u2013 you all know what that means \u2013 it means Brexit?\u00a0 Don\u2019t worry – no one, least of all the Tory Government, knows what it meansRead 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":[218],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1594"}],"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=1594"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1596,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1594\/revisions\/1596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}