{"id":701,"date":"2015-05-21T16:00:37","date_gmt":"2015-05-21T16:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/?p=701"},"modified":"2015-05-21T08:52:35","modified_gmt":"2015-05-21T08:52:35","slug":"scotland-has-woken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/?p=701","title":{"rendered":"Scotland has woken"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the Thursday after the Election I went into the Scottish Parliament for First Minister\u2019s Questions, and the first person I bumped into was Jean Urquhart, Independent MSP for Highland Region.\u00a0 \u201cHow are you feeling today, Jim?\u201d she enquired. After reflecting a moment or two I replied \u201cAfter 49 years of being patronised by the Westminster parties, this morning I am smiling\u201d.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I have to say, to quote Johnann Lamont\u2019s most repeated phrase at First Minister\u2019s Questions, I have always been wary of opinion polls.\u00a0 These polls for probably the last six months have been forecasting an SNP win, but I kept repeating to myself polls are not votes, and people lie.\u00a0 However the steadiness of the figures made me doubt my judgement.\u00a0\u00a0 Even the exit polls on polling day itself seemed dubious, as no one seemed to emphasise that these took no account of the postal votes which have increased significantly over the past few years.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In any event I have been a pessimist as for too many years I have seen swings disappear as polling day approached, or as I put it rather crudely, used to being kicked in the goolies by an uncaring electorate time and time again.\u00a0 So that is my only girn as I am astonished, astounded and highly delighted at the outcome of 7th<\/sup> May 2015.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Just think \u2013 before the days of a Scottish Parliament Scotland had 71 Westminster seats, and if we got 36 seats that would have been a mandate for Independence.\u00a0 Scotland\u2019s seats are now reduced to 59, and we hold 56 of them.(We also have an outright majority in the Scottish Parliament in a voting system specifically designed to block that happening.)<\/p>\n

\"Alex_Salmond\"<\/a>
Alex Salmond<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

How did this 56 seats come to pass?\u00a0 When a referendum was announced and a Yes campaign was launched I was\u00a0 a bit wary.\u00a0 I passed\u00a0 a Yes stall in my local area, nodded politely, and carried on walking.\u00a0 I stopped at the corner, and said \u201cYou\u2019re an idiot \u2013 most of your adult life\u00a0 you\u2019ve been preaching independence for Scotland, and you\u2019re walking past!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 So I retraced my steps, picked up some leaflets and started handing them out.\u00a0 When I got home a couple of hours later my wife said \u201cWhere have you been \u2013 I thought you just went out for bread\u201d\u00a0 At least I remembered the bread.<\/p>\n

That started me on the Yes campaign trail, and I spent quite a bit of time, some on stalls, but most of it canvassing.\u00a0 Being on the doorsteps with other campaigners was revealing and inspiring, the enthusiasm of people from other parties and none was amazing.\u00a0 A lot of the times I was with non SNP members and was able to put in my twopence worth based on experience due to my length of service, eg the demand for independence has been around long before my time, but a lot were unaware of that.<\/p>\n

As Referendum Day approached support went up and then down; two weeks before the day the Sunday Herald had us in the lead, but it was too early.\u00a0\u00a0 The No campaign imported the Westminster Cabinet, woke up Gordon Brown, and got big business to threaten the loss of jobs, no right to use the pound and every other scare story they could imagine, culminating in \u201cThe Vow\u201d.\u00a0 This formed the front page of the Daily Record, signed by David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband,\u00a0 solemnly pledged near enough full fiscal autonomy;\u00a0 this vow was enhanced by Gordon Brown, the retiring back bench MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, who said \u201cNear federalism\u201d.\u00a0 The people were afraid, and voted NO.\u00a0 Incidentally, after the publication of the Vow, a researcher for Tom Clarke, at that time Labour MP for Coatbridge and Chryston, sent an email to the Office of Ed Miliband asking for a copy of the Vow.\u00a0 The response was that they did not have one, it had been made up by the Daily Record!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

On\u00a0 the morning of 19th<\/sup> September, David Cameron, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, addressing the Press outside No 10 Downing Street, stated that he would put in, as a matter of urgency EVEL \u2013 English votes for English laws, thereby making every Scottish MP\u00a0 a second class one, and barring any of them from ever holding ministerial office.\u00a0 Scotland had voted NO \u2013 job done.\u00a0 On the same day, Alex Salmond said he would resign as leader of the SNP and First Minister of Scotland saying \u201cThe Dream will never die\u201d.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The nation \u2013 Scotland\u00a0 – drew in its collective breath.\u00a0 Far from a feeling of defeatism, the Yes campaign moved over, virtually wholesale, to the SNP.\u00a0 There was no membership drive, rather SNP Headquarters was engulfed by a\u00a0 tidal wave of recruits.\u00a0 Nicola Sturgeon became leader of the SNP, First Minister of Scotland, and continued to tour the country as she had done in the Referendum Campaign.\u00a0 The Referendum campaign was continued by the grassroots of the people of Scotland \u2013 they had been fired up and\u00a0 wanted more.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Nicola<\/a>
Nicola at the Manifesto Launch \u2013 photo Mark English<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The astounding rout of the Westminster parties took place with great\u00a0 delight, leaving one Liberal, one Tory, and one Labour MP \u2013 the latter a self inflicted wound for us. Now we have to face the fact that England voted Tory and that Mr Cameron has an outright majority;\u00a0 it is also undisputed that if every one in Scotland had voted Labour Mr Cameron would still be in Downing Street.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What is incontrovertibly true is that this situation emphasises the urgent need for Independence;\u00a0 in May 2011 the Scottish people gave an overwhelming vote to the SNP, a majority in impossible conditions.\u00a0 In September 2014, the naysayers lied and cheated to frustrate the people of Scotland, and in less than 24 hours after the Referendum the Unionists betrayed their \u201cSolemn Vow\u201d.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The haste to appear to implement that \u201cvow\u201d resulted in the Smith Commission being set up, with 10 members, an outright majority of Unionist members, who managed to water down the proposals.\u00a0 As far as can be ascertained, a new Scotland bill will limit these further.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Now we have an almost total w\u00edpe out of the Unionist parties, but because England voted Tory we will be ruled by it, the negation of democracy, and Westminster proceeds apace with antique invented procedures and meaningless pomp and flummery.\u00a0 Scotland continues to be ruled by a party it did not vote for.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Our gallant 56 MPs will have to cope with seeing their powers cut, seeing the onslaught of the repeal of human rights, which will be fiercely resisted by Scotland, the renewal of the flawed , unusable and immoral nuclear weapon that is Trident, a European Referendum, as the Tories rush towards the exit like the Gadarene swine, policies to shrink the welfare state and inhumane attitudes to refugees and asylum seekers.\u00a0 The collapse of Labour in England is not good news for Britain.\u00a0 Independence for Scotland will shake that selfish introverted society, and lead to a better United Kingdom for all in\u00a0 these isles.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Verily indeed, Scotland has woken and the people have spoken.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the Thursday after the Election I went into the Scottish Parliament for First Minister\u2019s Questions, and the first person I bumped into was Jean Urquhart, Independent MSP for Highland Region.\u00a0 \u201cHow are you feeling today, Jim?\u201d she enquired. After reflecting a moment or two I replied \u201cAfter 49 years of being patronised by the Westminster parties, this morning I am smiling\u201d.   I have to say, to quote Johnann Lamont\u2019s most repeated phrase at First Minister\u2019s Questions, I have always been wary of opinion polls.\u00a0 These polls for probably the last six months have been forecasting an SNP win, but I kept repeating toRead 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":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701"}],"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=701"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":710,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701\/revisions\/710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}