I voted NO to Scottish independence and I am angry

I voted NO to Scottish independence.

My side won - but I am angry

WHY  

For many reasons - most of them residing in England - in Westminster

The YES side so so nearly won. Latterly - It seemed it could have gone either way

Initially it was unthinkable, but as time went on and Salmond orchestrated a brilliant and terrifying YES campaign, it became obvious to all in Scotland that things were changing

Yet – the parties in Westminster either didn’t know or didn’t care.

Neither did the people of England

Even a family member of mine in England was reported as saying “Well who cares” when the subject of Scotland becoming independent was raised.

I know now how the people in The Falklands felt before Maggie Thatcher decided to come to their aid.

To live in part of The UK and to be afraid that your little corner of it may soon be separated from the rest is a horrible feeling. To realise that the rest of the country doesn’t really care about you is devastating.

Some English people took the line – well let them decide their own destiny.

Fair enough one might say. However what they did not realise was that we were being made to decide by a campaign of lies, bribes and intimidation.

Those with a certain level of education and experience could be immune from that. But a very large proportion of Scots are from disadvantaged areas where unemployment and poverty are rife and poor education is now the norm. They were ripe for the big con trick which was the SNP propaganda.

They were held in a form of hypnotic trance by Salmond, in which they moaned at not being given the facts, and yet when given the facts by independent experts, believed Salmond’s constant refrain – “it’s only  scaremongering”.

So here below is why I am angry – with all politicians and their games;-

First – the setting up of the referendum

Cameron did not pay attention - perhaps because he thought he couldn’t lose. It was apparently not put before parliament properly in any way, just pushed through by a nod and a wink.

Why did he more or less force Salmond to hold it?

And

WHY was it arranged that a mere 51% of the vote could break up our country – The United Kingdom.

Surely something as momentous as that should have required at least 75% of the vote.

Why did he allow Salmond to choose the question on the ballot paper in such a way that his campaign was the YES campaign?

Clever Mr Salmond understood the value of a positive YES campaign. Mr Cameron was perhaps either clueless or didn’t care.

Second – the NO Campaign in Scotland – The Better Together Campaign

They were not up to scratch.

Westminster did not help them in the way they needed it.

Labour is the party that should have fought off Salmond in Scotland.  Scotland is /was the Labour heartland in the UK. But Labour was in disarray after their defeat in the UK elections. The two big beasts Blair and Brown (both Scottish) were disgraced. Only the C team was left in Scotland to campaign against the biggest beast and most able politician of all – Salmond.

Their name Better Together became a parody, as all the different parties it comprised disagreed with each other and with Westminster.

The day was saved by the big beast Gordon Brown thundering back last minute and giving the best speech of his career in which he casually mentioned that – by the way – Westminster was going to definitely – cross your heart and hope to die – definitely going to give much more power to Scotland and it would be done by Burns Night (January).

Did he check this out first with Westminster one wonders, or was it part of a cunning Gordon Brown plan?

But – the day was saved. The NO campaign won – just

I personally feel as if I have been on death row and have been given a last minute stay of execution.

Now

Just one day later

The B…….ds are at it again.

Cameron now has a cunning plan of his own.

Cameron has announced that the extra powers for Scotland will be given by Burns Night, but that at the same time, extra power must be given to England in the form of denying Scottish MPs the right to vote in England on English matters

Fair enough you might say – this will at last address The West Lothian Question.

But it is a very clever plan because it will destroy Labour in England just as the Conservatives have been destroyed in Scotland.

The majority of Labour MPs are in Scotland and the majority or Conservative MPs are in England.

If Milliband can’t rely on the votes of his Scottish MPs he will not be able to get through much legislation

So Milliband and his Westminster Labour Party are now fighting this as hard as they can.

If they succeed in blocking it, then Sturgeon – the next fish in line in the SNP party, now that Salmond has swum away into deep waters – will announce that the referendum was invalid and demand that Westminster holds another one – and it might go the other way next time.

It is hard to see how this game can play out.

I feel so angry with all of them – as I think does the whole country.

We are all fed up with lying politicians and their petty games for power.

There is a part of me that wonders whether Cameron, all along, has been playing the ultimate game of games. He knew years ago that, if Scotland became independent, his party would have power for ever after in England. What a tempting thought for him to have! Do I believe all his protestations of love for Scotland? I am not sure.

Salmond convinced those who voted yes, that they would have change. That instead of the Westminster Parliament in London they would have the Holyrood Parliament in Edinburgh.

What made anyone think that swapping one lot of politician for another would improve anything?

 Ah – they would argue but at least Holyrood is in Scotland.

Well it feels just as far away and foreign to someone in the Highlands, in Orkney or Shetland as London feels to people in the Central belt.

Those in Glasgow should have known better having witnessed their own Glasgow council recently exposed as being a cesspit of corruption, far worse than anything found at Westminster. And as for Edinburgh Council – well the debacle over the trams tells its own story.

Yes- I would put all politicians in room 101

Pronounced Westminster in English

Pronounced Westminster in Scottish

Who cares?

How can Scotland heal itself?

So - Scotland will not be independent.

55 % will be deliriously happy and relieved

But

45% will feel hugely bitter and disappointed.

To understand how to heal, one needs to understand the problem - to have a diagnosis.

54% voted for the status quo

But - Why did 45% want independence.

Salmond very cleverly appealed to many different groups – all with different axes to grind.

1. He was attractive to all those who were anti the establishment - for whatever reason.

2. He was attractive to all those who had nothing to lose – or were too ignorant and blinkered to see otherwise.

3. He was attractive to drawing room/champagne socialists

4. He was attractive to those romantic few who have always wanted an independent Scotland

5. He was attractive to those who thought they could use him and his party to advance themselves

Etc

Of these groups the largest was

2. Those who had nothing to lose – or were too ignorant and blinkered to see otherwise.

This group comprises Scotland’s poor, uneducated, unemployed underclass as was demonstrated by the YES votes in Glasgow and Dundee. Similar populations are found in all big cities throughout the UK.

These people have nothing to lose (they think). Salmond offered them hope and change for the better. Who in their situation would not be attracted by that? When those with knowledge and intelligence tried to warn them of potential financial problems for Scotland, associated with independence, they instead believed Salmond’s outraged denials and cries of scaremongering.

How cynical of Salmond who, as an economist, must have known that his independence plans risked the money required to pay those people’s benefits.

So was the vote mainly between those in Scotland who had nothing to lose – the have nots  

And

Those who had much to lose – the haves

Perhaps

My family certainly would have lost a lot. Most of what we would have lost was not financial - it was about family; Children being forced to move with their job to England and thus we would lose contact with them and our grandchildren. My family would be split up and have to live in different countries. For our other children, the threat of job losses and the threat of property purchases falling through and for others the loss of essential funding for jobs. All on top of a fear of losing our pension

For us – a YES vote – would have meant very real anxiety and loss

However for someone living on a Glasgow estate, unemployed, on benefits and trying to survive -  today’s vote will mean the end of all hope of change and a better life. That also is a real loss.

Salmond – in his quest for power- has caused huge problems for Scotland.

He has caused massive disappointment amongst the poor with his unrealistic pipe dreams.

He has caused a huge divide between rich and poor and between the educated and the uneducated he has caused a huge divide between those who speak posh and those who don’t and

He has caused a huge divide between those who speak with an English accent and those who don’t

People are talking about the “Silent majority of NO voters”

Why were they silent?

1. Because of their accents and

2. Because of the aggressiveness of the opposition and

3. Because of the impossibility of having a rational argument with the opposition

I am Scottish through and through but I am educated and posh (or at least brought up posh)

It would have been quite impossible for me to enter the debate verbally because of my accent.

Scotland has many many people like me. All we could do was to watch in agony

We were many of the educated part of the community – the ones who should have been out there contradicting Salmond’s lies. We were powerless. Just as David Cameron didn’t dare intervene, neither did anyone else who didn’t have a broad enough Scottish accent to appear Scottish to the uneducated.

What is to happen now in Scotland?  Even well before the referendum we knew of one young man, who preferred to talk with a Spanish accent in the pub to disguise his English/posh accent, to avoid being beaten up.

I believe these 2 issues must be addressed

1. Hope and change must be offered, with a real outcome, to the poor in Glasgow and Dundee and elsewhere

2. The issue of Scotland’s anti English/ anti Toff racism must be brought out into the open and addressed

owHow

The Union Jack in crisis

Yesterday I took part in THE BIG AERIAL NO in which 5,000 NO supporters formed a human NO in Edinburgh. I held aloft the flag of my country – The Union Jack.

However - It was hung upside down.

When the Union jack is hung upside down, it is a sign of distress.

There has never been a time in its history, of more distress than this. If Scotland votes YES in 2 days’ time, this flag will be no more.

It will no longer be my flag because I will no longer be part of the UK

It will no longer be the flag of the rest of the UK because the Scottish cross of St Andrew will be taken from it – the blue part.

It will be a deceased flag – as deceased as Monty Python’s parrot.

I am full of despair and increasing anger

How dare these people with their crazy dreams of utopia take away from me so much which I hold dear.

They are taking away:-

Two thirds of MY country (England, Northern Ireland and Wales)

All my history from (England, Northern Ireland and Wales)

All my heritage from (England, Northern Ireland and Wales)

The BBC

Music heritage such as The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Dire Straits, Eric Clapton, The Who, Pink Floyd etc and instead be left with Lulu , Rod Stewart and The Bay City Rollers –

And let’s not go into Classical music!

Art heritage such as Constable, Gainsborough, Turner, Reynolds and Millais and instead be left with The Scottish Colourists and the Glasgow boys (actually I think they are great) but what of all those wonderful paintings in the London Galleries that will no longer be mine.

Architecture / places such as London and Bath and all those gorgeous little English villages and churches. I am left with all that is mostly grim and grey and Scottish and inferior and mostly not so old and historical.

The NHS. What will be left to us in Scotland will be inferior. Every year Scots are referred to England to specialised NHS units and expertise not available in Scotland.

The Bank of England - Oh how I will miss you and your financial security.

British Embassies – where will I go when I lose my passport abroad?

My British/UK Passport. When it expires it will be replaced with a lonely Scottish one.

My money which will be converted to a Scottish currency - which will devalue and devalue and devalue and devalue and devalue

Defence – who will protect me when Putin decides to push further into Europe?

Intelligence – who will find out about terrorist plots and stop them

My husband’s pension from a life spent working for The NHS and which at present is paid by a Scottish government pension department. It will be paid in the new Scottish currency for as long as the Scottish government remains solvent – How long will that be?????

Food which will cost more

All my relatives and friends in England Northern Ireland and Wales – we will no longer belong to the same country. We will be foreigners - unbelievable

Etc etc etc

It is all just unthinkable and yet it is going to happen – in just 2 days’ time – unless a miracle happens

Emperor Salmond's New Clothes

Do you know the story  about the Emperor's new clothes?
Alex Salmond is weaving a gorgeous cloth of lies.
In his independent Scotland there will be free this and free that and social justice will prevail.
It will all be paid for with oil money and life will be wonderful.
We will use the pound and we will not pay our share of the UK debt
It will be the ideal land and anyone who says anything different is scaremongering.
It is a such a beautiful cloth he is covering himself in.
It is clearly seen by all his supporters  - even some quite intelligent ones.
It is the powerful placebo effect know to all those who do medical research.
You can temporarily believe anything if you want it badly enough and it is catching. The more people who say they can see it, the more likely others are to see it too - mass hysteria.
You have to be brave to say that the Emperor has no clothes.
How long will it take before the shine comes off the cloth sufficiently for the huge and disastrous con-trick being played on the Scottish people to be revealed?
Will it come off in time?
I fear not

Scotland and Social Justice

Those wanting Scottish Independence say it is the only way that Scotland can have social justice.

For many of them this goes very deep and is the main reason they want independence.

But - What do they mean by social justice?

They want a utopia where all are equal, where there are no “haves and have nots”.

Where there are no rich and poor

Where woman and men are equal

Where all races are equal

Where all children have equal opportunity

Etc etc etc

Being reasonable people they realise that a total utopia is not possible, but they want to strive towards one as far as is possible.

I don’t think anyone would disagree with this as an ideal – I certainly wouldn’t.

The Scottish Nationalists are a very idealistic lot. They themselves would agree that they are romantic dreamers, who think with their hearts and not with their heads.

So why do they believe that independence will enable them to achieve their utopia?

If there is a "yes for independence" vote next month, it will not give them power to do what they want.

The opposing factions will first have to come together. The main political parties in Scotland -SNP, Labour, LibDem, Green and Conservative will have to come together and negotiate a divorce settlement with the rest of the UK. 

Then there will be a general election in Scotland. 

The SNP might win this, in which case they will have a few years to try to implement some of their policies.

However – traditionally - Labour is the strongest party in Scotland, and it is quite likely that they may win and the SNP having achieved independence, will disappear.

This perhaps is the nub of the matter

For decades now – the majority of Scots have voted labour and the majority of English have voted Conservative. The small variations in this, decide which party governs Britain.

If the 2 countries split up - England will get successive Conservative governments and Scotland will get successive Labour governments.

Conservatism is a belief in Capitalism

Labour is a belief in Socialism

This is why many Scots want independence. They want Labour and socialism and social justice. The irony is that under Tony Blair, the Labour party came to accept that a certain level of Capitalism is essential to make the wheels go round, just as modern day Conservatives realise that it is essential to have a certain amount of socialism.

The 2 party’s beliefs are now so similar and middle ground that they keep stealing each other’s policies.

Yet the dreamers in Scotland still carry the old fashioned way of thinking.

They also feel that a great injustice is done to Labour-voting Scots when the Conservative party is in power, although the English do not seem to feel the same way when the Labour Party is in power.

Those wanting independence believe that if they get independence, there will never be another Conservative government in Scotland again. They are probably right.

They view the Conservative party as being an English party, a party of rich landowners and old aristocracy. The types who had their heads cut off during The French Revolution.

They would like to remove these perceived “rich English landowners” from Scotland.

They already have plans to cap the amount of land any one person can own.

This would perhaps be their first step towards social justice.

However – what the dreamers cannot see is that Scotland is no different to England.

People throughout the UK are all the same. There will always be those who do well, by fair means or foul, and those who don’t.

Those who will immediately do well in an independent Scotland will be in Government and related bureaucracy. They will have a field day awarding themselves high paid jobs, and the same corruption will occur as elsewhere.

There will be the same corruption between those in Scottish business and those in Government.

Scottish business will still behave the same as always – having battles with the workforce if necessary as recently happened at Grangemouth when the SNP Government was forced to side with industry to protect precious, Scottish jobs. Reality had to over-ride idealism.

Property developers such as Donald Trump will still get their way over the wishes of the people but with the support of Mr Salmond and The SNP Government

Scottish banks – the few that do not take their business immediately out of Scotland – will still behave in the same appalling way.

Landowners (in the cities and country) will still charge horrendous rents and behave badly.

Catholics and Protestants will still fight at football matches in Glasgow.

People will still be horrible to those with physical or mental disabilities.

There will still be a large Scottish debt which will require continued austerity.

It will still be necessary to target benefit cheats and cut back on the public sector bill

There will still be food banks.

But - The hated bedroom tax can be abolished and replaced with something less divisive.

Perhaps a mansion tax will be one of the first things that will be implemented – A real Robin Hood gesture

The SNP – like all dreamers - promise many things that will improve the lives of the less well-off.  However - they will not have the money to pay for it. We will be no better off after independence than we are now. In reality we may be worse off.

They claim that we will have North Sea Oil to pay for everything – but the oil is almost finished and what is left is increasingly expensive to get at.

At present we have The Barnett formula which gives every person in Scotland more than every person gets in England. That will end.

An independent Scotland will have to tax everyone in Scotland more than at present, and the government will still not be able to spend as much as they do at present.

The Labour party under Tony Blair governed the UK for about 10 years. Was there a noticeable improvement in social justice during those years?

Why will it be any different if we are independent?

Neither the Labour party in England or in Scotland back independence. 

The dreamers seem to think that independence will allow us somehow to avoid all the problems going on in the UK. But those problems are part of Scotland too and will be there after independence

However - A problem shared is a problem halved.

As part of the UK, Scotland can much better deal with whatever horrors the world and mankind may throw our way

Social justice is better fought for as part of The UK

The Scots should be grateful to Maggie Thatcher

The Scots should be grateful to Maggie Thatcher

Gosh - I feel brave writing that.

Saying anything positive about Maggie Thatcher or saying you might vote "No Thanks" to Independence, are 2 things designed to bring on the hate mail here in Scotland

Yesterday our wonderful Scottish nationalist government  won a vote to stop people buying their council houses (social housing). This was something started in 1980 by Maggie and because of it, approximately half a million people in Scotland now own their own home, having bought their council house. Scotland’s population is approximately 5 million - so that is about a tenth of the population.

If you consider that the average household is more than one person then that percentage becomes 20 to 25%
In other words a possible 25% - one quarter of households - now own their own home because of Maggie

In Scotland, owning your home is a big thing – perhaps because of the history of the Clearances or perhaps because the Scots are a fiercely proud race who resent being beholden to anyone.

What Maggie did was to give hard working people on low incomes a chance. That chance has now been taken away. Those people will now be forever trapped in rental accommodation or in social housing.

The nationalists say – quite rightly  - that there is a shortage of social housing stock, and that to continue selling it off is making the matter worse. This is true.

Maggie’s plan was to allow tenants to buy their council house (social housing)  but  -for every house sold another was to be built. No government after Maggie’s has done this.
This is the problem

Many thinkers and philanthropist and social reformers over the years have agonised as to the best means to improve the lot of those in lower socio-economic groups.

When much of Scotland was mainly rural /agricultural, tied housing was provided on the farm/estate. There was no security – the family could be evicted at a moment’s notice.

Rented properties in urban areas were often in the hands of unscrupulous landlords who charged extortionate rents for poor quality properties with no security of tenure.

Now -

Those who own their property – perhaps with the help of a mortgage – also pay each month – but at the end - they own their property – there is security  -and the money they pay goes towards something for themselves

Whereas -

Those living in rented properties (social, rental or private) pay rent all their lives and have nothing to show for it at the end - and they have no security.

Maggie Thatcher – a grocer’s daughter – knew this. She understood that buying your own property was a way out of the poverty trap – a way of moving up the socio-economic ladder and improving things for you and your family.

The policies of the nationalists will keep those at the bottom of the socio-economic pile in that position forever.

I hope that at least those 500,000 Scots and their families, who now own their own homes, will be grateful to Maggie

Wind farm Scandal

Overseas buyers are particularly interested in buying rural Scottish estates  - when they see a possibility of making money by building wind farms.

So says an estate agent having just sold a beautiful looking estate in Perthshire, Scotland - to a foreigner.
Landowners make small fortunes by allowing wind farms to be built on their estates. The fact that they ruin the place doesn't bother them  - as most of them live somewhere else. They don't care about the locals or the scenery.

The locals protest and are overruled by the faceless bureaucracy of the nationalist party at present controlling the Scottish government.The nationalist leader Alex Salmond, has decreed that wind farms are a good thing.

But his government have also set-up an investigation into land use in Scotland. This review - with streaks of pure communism - has announced that no one person should be allowed to own too much land. This is how he plans to attack the big traditional landowners such as The Duke of Buccleuch - the hated toffs.

And yet - being SNP  - they want the Scots to own their own land.Yet they are encouraging every tin pot foreigner with a bit of money to buy up the beautiful wild countryside and make their fortune building wind farms on it.  He is effectively giving away the most beautiful parts of Scotland to foreigners, who will desecrate the land and with no benefit to the locals. In fact - it is the locals who have to pay for it with increased bills for their electricity.

Perhaps in a few years - after they have got their independent Scotland and brought it to its financial knees, the nationalists will behave like Portugal and decree that all land bought less than 150 years ago now belongs to the Scottish government.
Hey- watch out all you foreign buyers