The figure below is my own, but it’s also remarkably typical:
Click the pic to get yours.
(It actually feels like a lot more than that – quite possibly because I have, in fact, not for one minute of my entire life been represented by a government at Westminster – or anywhere else, come to that – that I voted for, unless you count the token presence of the Lib Dems in the 2010-15 coalition. Which I don’t, because they immediately betrayed every policy and principle for which I’d voted for them in the first place.)
For Scotland, democracy in the UK simply doesn’t work.
There’s a new hot buzz-phrase in the Yoonstream: “GERS deniers”.
It’s actually been around for quite a few months – coincidentally since this site started exposing the true nature of the figures – but has become a constant mantra recently, in particular since the intervention of an actual proper expert who doesn’t sell cat litter for a living, Professor Richard Murphy.
Ever since he set tongues and tails wagging by writing a series of hard-hitting articles for his widely-renowned Tax Research UK blog last week, rubbishing the quality of the data, Unionists have been in an increasingly shrill flap about it.
We saw this exchange on Twitter this morning, involving left-wing Labour activist Eoin Clarke, a reader, and Scottish Labour list MSP Elaine Smith.
Smith professed to find it “unbelievable” and “scary” that the reader thought he’d had Tory governments for most of his lifetime. (We asked him how old he was and he said 34, which means he’s had Tory governments for 62% of his life, so that checks out.)
But it’s a standard Scottish Labour line that there’s no real difference between Scottish and English voters in terms of favouring left-wing politics, so we thought we’d just quickly check the arithmetic on that. The results are unlikely to shock you.
It’s important to note, firstly, that the version of Sadiq Khan’s speech to the Scottish Labour conference he tweeted on Saturday morning simply flat-out said that Scottish nationalists were the same as racists and sectarian bigots. Its meaning was as clear as crystal to the Daily Record, a newspaper which is hardly hostile to Khan’s party.
“No difference” is a stark and unambiguous phrase. The speech did not contain the hastily-added qualifiers about “in this respect” and “of course I’m not saying the SNP are racist” which suddenly appeared when he read it out onstage that afternoon.
The reliably-wise Stephen Bush of The New Statesman said something perceptive yesterday on the subject of an EU referendum, although it applies much more widely.
It’s a view we’ve held for many years, most often in relation to UK governments ruling with huge majorities won on pretty tiddly pluralities of the vote (often in the mid-30%s), where the bulk of the electorate has no defence against a party it didn’t vote for.
Despite an electoral system that makes such events far rarer, the phenomenon crops up a lot in Scotland too, and both sides are guilty, often on the same subject. Scottish employment figures, for example, alternate with almost metronomic regularity between being higher/lower than those in the rest of the UK, and whichever it is in any given month one side or the other will trumpet it as conclusive and permanent proof that Scotland’s governance is better/worse than that of London.
(Even though Holyrood in fact has almost no power over the economy, so deserves little of either the blame or credit, whichever applies that month.)
Below is part of a segment from Monday’s edition of Good Morning Scotland (from 2h 35m at the link beneath the clip), which featured an interview with Professor Allyson Pollock, an extremely experienced academic in the field of healthcare on both sides of the border who so far as we know has no dog in the Scottish constitutional fight.
Young Lochinvar on A Matter Of Declinature: “Got to say I find all this Anne Widdecombe stuff totally bizarre. I can’t be the only one that saw…” Jul 16, 16:51
James Barr Gardner on A Matter Of Declinature: “Due to exceptional work done in unraveling the Bourach of the SNP Financial web and intrigues can “We” the congregation…” Jul 16, 16:39
Mungo Armstrong on A Matter Of Declinature: “https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/16559310/nicola-sturgeon-david-davis-alex-salmond-murrell/” Jul 16, 16:36
Aidan on A Matter Of Declinature: “Do you have any evidence that Professor Robert Black KC believes there “isn’t a union”, I have read his essay…” Jul 16, 16:23
Aidan on The Invisible Rabbit: ““Heather” Herbert (friend of the site) has been arrested and charged.” Jul 16, 15:55
Alf Baird on A Matter Of Declinature: ““Roddy Dunlop has also given his view” Professor Robert Black believed for almost 60 years that there was a ‘union’…” Jul 16, 15:52
Northcode on A Matter Of Declinature: “You express a fundamental truism by quoting Cesaire’s observation, Alf. An observation similarly described, though fictionalised, by George Orwell. Colonial…” Jul 16, 15:42
Dan on A Matter Of Declinature: “@Aidan Be braw if you could have provided a link (preferably to an alternative archived page link of said thread…” Jul 16, 15:38
Andy Wiltshire on A Matter Of Declinature: “He only does it in order to get off.” Jul 16, 15:00
Tinto Chiel on Off-topic: “Think it’s warm enough for some swamp rock from these Glasgow Bad Boys: www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlrUzAmKO1Y BTW, in the chorus, it’s not…” Jul 16, 14:40
McDuff on A Matter Of Declinature: “Excellent stuff rev. Let right be done. I suspect this letter may produce a brown stain in certain quarters.” Jul 16, 14:14
Andrew scott on A Matter Of Declinature: “I see that “heather” the aberdeen uni employee has been charged by the police over HIS disgusting post about widdecombe…” Jul 16, 14:09
Aidan on A Matter Of Declinature: “Of course all of these issues have been determined, at length, by the English and Scottish courts and as everyone…” Jul 16, 13:32
SilentMajority on A Matter Of Declinature: “What I am looking forward to is how the media will describe ‘him’…will ‘he’ be described as:- a/ she/her b/…” Jul 16, 13:30
Mark Beggan on A Matter Of Declinature: “Cesaire!!? Grow up. Why do you never mention Transvestites? Not once in all your rhetoric do you even touch on…” Jul 16, 12:53
Mark Beggan on A Matter Of Declinature: ““structural prostitutes” Do tell Northy. So that’s what you get up to when your not saving Scotland with your in…” Jul 16, 12:49
Willie on A Matter Of Declinature: “The Police are institutionally corrupt No one, and zi mean no one can have any confidence in them. From people…” Jul 16, 12:37
Mark Beggan on A Matter Of Declinature: “Aberdeen university disgraced itself by encouraging his fantasy and giving him a job in the first place. Reap what you…” Jul 16, 12:28
Alf Baird on A Matter Of Declinature: ““‘United Kingdom’ is a calculated double misnomer” Yes indeed, the ‘United Kingdom’ is a constitutional impossibility given the Claim of…” Jul 16, 12:06
Alf Baird on A Matter Of Declinature: ““in a civilised state” And that’s a rather big assumption given Scotland’s longstanding and ongoing ‘colonial condition’. As Cesaire reminds…” Jul 16, 11:30
Oneliner on A Matter Of Declinature: “‘United Kingdom’ is a calculated double misnomer. Tell a lie often enough …….” Jul 16, 11:29
ABruce on The Invisible Rabbit: “Great to see you back Breeks. You have been missed!” Jul 16, 11:06
Northcode on A Matter Of Declinature: “These requests in the form of legal letters for information surrounding the SNP’s ring-fenced monies will most likely be answered…” Jul 16, 10:08
Black Joan on A Matter Of Declinature: “It’s great to see it spelled out in an exemplary legal letter: “We are instructed by the REVEREND Stuart Campbell”…” Jul 16, 10:08
Alf Baird on A Matter Of Declinature: “There are two Crowns and Kingdoms here. The important question, which has remained for over three hundred years is which…” Jul 16, 09:51
100%Yes on A Matter Of Declinature: “I believe the turn of events is now proceeding faster than the SNP and its organizations can cope with!!! Two…” Jul 16, 09:08
Angus on A Matter Of Declinature: “Police refusing to investigate a massive known crime in a civilised state can be because of one of the following…” Jul 16, 04:03
