Has Scotland reached a critical stage in its long history? May 2020
If there is one thing this dreadful coronavirus (C19) has brought to the attention of many people in Scotland. It is the leadership qualities and exemplary clarity and honesty shown by Scotland’s First Minster Nicola Sturgeon. She appears before the Scottish people at her podium on a daily basis to speak to the nation and take hard provocative questions from a very hostile pro-Unionist media that she answers without hesitation and in a very professional and dignified manner, despite the woeful line of questioning by the media with their unionist twist where they are always trying to catch her out politically. This also applies to the dreadful quality and sincerity of the Unionist politicians in the Scottish Parliament whom are more intent on putting down their own country than standing up for Scotland.
Contrast this with Boris Johnson who has hardly appeared at the daily briefings in Downing street and instead sends in his clowns to do the job for him. The change of direction by the Tories in England with Johnson mixed messaging in his pre-recorded TV announcement on Sunday will endanger more lives and most likely add to the death toll in the UK. To change the slogan from the “Stay home, protect NHS, save lives” – to “Stay alert, control the virus” is totally irresponsible and very dangerous. In fact, I would go as far to say that what this Tory government has done in its handling of the C19 virus is criminal.
Thank goodness our First Minster of Scotland, along with her counterparts in Wales and Northern Ireland have rejected the removal of the stay at Home message and have kept the lockdown for a longer period in their respective countries.
It is very obvious why the Tories have changed direction and are moving from lockdown to back to work, with a total disregard to the lives of all in the UK. They are only interested in the financial restrains that C19 has put onto the economy and the grand profits of their Billionaire friends, who have Trillions of £ and $ in offshore Tax havens; it is estimated that there is enough money in all the Tax havens to clear all the debt of the world and keep all the countries of the world afloat with profit leading to a healthy worldwide economy. In fact, they are blaming the coronavirus for the most likely worst recession of all time as reported on the news channels. They reported the UK economy has shrank at its fasted pace in more than a decade in the first three months of the year. But the UK was not put into lockdown until 23rd March! Why was there no mention that the fast decline is more to do with Brexit and the £ Billions that has cost the UK economy?
A reported leaked document shows that the treasury is considering tax rises and public sector wage freezes to pay for the £300 billion coronavirus bill, as they have put it the public cannot expect this to continue, too costly! Once more the working class will have to foot the bill and suffer further austerity measures as before. Let’s put this into some perspective. The Furlough scheme so far has coast about £80 billion and might go up to £300 billion. The Bank bailout in 2007-08 was over £ 1.2 trillion. Trident Renewal £220 billion and rising. The H2S Vanity line £80 billion and rising and there are many more other projects that are coasting many £ billions and are mainly based in and around the South of England. Is not the truth that Brexit has nearly bankrupt the UK?
There was a report last week suggesting this could be the worst financial deficit since 1704 – 1709 when the last UK deficit was catastrophic. However, there was no UK in 1704 in fact it was England that suffered a catastrophic fiscal deficit. One of the reasons for this goes back to 1697 when English National Debt was nearly £14,400,000. Scotland’s National Debt, on the other hand, was small, less than £200,000. As part of the Treaty of Union 1707 two ruling classes did a deal and the terms agreed were a bribe to the Scottish nobility who gained the most from the sum of £398,085 England agreed to pay Scotland for accepting a share of the English National Debt. Scottish taxes would rise after the union to help pay the dividend as well as the revenue that would come to the new British (English) government from increases in Scottish customs and excise (GDP); all retained by Westminster to this day and has been for over 300 years. For the record Scotland’s GDP in 2019 was around £174 billion and Tax revenue of around £60 billion. You could add to this around £600 billion that was taken by Westminster from North Sea Oil revenue that was really Scotland’s if we were an independent country. Scotland would most likely have had an oil fund like Norway’s that is around a $ Trillion and growing!
The main question here has to be the unequal Union that Scotland has with England? Do the people of Scotland accept this unreasonable totally one-sided big brother knows better domination, where we have to beg for the fiscal scraps of revenue between all the other devolved nations; which in reality is our own money in the first place. Or do we forget the past and look to a future as an independent country in full control of its own economic growth and fiscal powers to govern the country in the way most Scots vote fore; a fair equal society for all with Universal Income for all with no poverty that would lead to a healthier society!
What is the alternative? A country that is governed by the Tories that Scotland have rejected now for over 60 years. To suffer politicised nonsense from the likes of BBC Scotland, and for that matter every other Unionist Westminster controlled media outlet. For example, the BBC Disclosure programme on Covid in Scotland does not stand up to the slightest scrutiny. The claim about closing the border of Scotland was a “red herring”, because border control is a power reserved to Westminster, and most of the other reports were complete nonsense. This has been the case since 2007 when the first SNP Government was elected to the Scottish parliament and the aggressive lies by the Better Together campaign during the 2014 IndyRef have all been debunked.
However, Unionist Twitter accounts are always attempting to plant seeds of doubt. The latest one is that the First Minister is not following lockdown rules-suggesting Nicola Sturgeon is still going to the hairdresser-when she has previously posted photographs of herself cutting her own hair.
What I can’t understand is how any one can down their own country by voting for any of the Unionists of parties that are controlled from Westminster. I have no problem with anyone voting for a different political party, that is what democracy is about. But I will never understand why anyone would vote to allow their country to be ruled by a foreign government.
People in Scotland have a stark choice to make because this so-called Union of equals is killing us now. People are still dying and will continue to die because we are part of a Union of Nations where we don’t have the full fiscal powers that would have allowed us to close down our borders a lot earlier and locking down the country sooner. Unlike New Zealand to date have only recorded ten deaths from C19 and have been very proactive in testing that helps to trace, locate and isolate the virus. An independent Scotland could have done the same!
There have been more than 50,000 excess deaths across the UK since March, around 50% more than expected for this period and time of year. English Registrars are not reporting the truth regards the true numbers of deaths in English Care Homes to C19, more than half of Care homes in the UK are privately run for profit and many are owned by Tories. The Tory government have lied through their front teeth regarding their handling of the Virus, their woeful supplies of PPE to the NHS and the fact they had not learned lessons from past exercises and weren’t peppered despite plenty of warnings from the WHO has to be questioned at the Highest Court.
So, the next time there is an election or referendum what are you going to vote? Are you going to take a moment and think very carefully about how you will vote? To me it is a no brainer I want to see a better, brighter, more equal society, where Health must be at the centre of society, with a much greener energy driven economy for the people of Scotland with a living wage for all – leading to a better Scotland. I want to see this for my Grandson and his generation.
Scotland’s natural wealth could clearly be one of the key foundations of Scotland’s future prosperity as an independent nation. It is unreasonable to believe that a country as naturally wealthy as Scotland would not thrive if it were to gain the power to manage these resources for Scotland’s benefit rather than have those benefits diluted and distributed across the rest of the UK. The only way this can be achieved is to vote for the SNP and an independent Scotland.
Sore Alba a-nish
Alba gu brath