Wings Over Scotland

The No parties were adamant about having only a Yes/No question on independence.  For any promises of more powers to have any meaning they are all going to have to agree exactly on the powers, then have to ensure it is put in their British parties manifestos for the next general election, which happens to be after the referendum.  The likelihood of all that happening is almost 0%.  So basically they only want to defeat Salmond and the SNP, and “separation” as they call self-determination.  That there has not even been one critical critique of the main No campaign in the media is astonishing, if hardly surprising.  Basically it is a dog’s breakfast of a campaign.

As I said on LPW’s blog just now:

The whole premise of the idea of getting more power for the Scottish Parliament from Westminster is completely flawed. When are journalists going to pick up on this? It’s not just that they refuse to detail WHAT powers they would devolve – they won’t tell us HOW they would get them devolved either.

Devolution is a way of pretending to give the people what they want, while all the time keeping the process completely in the hands of politicians. Any further powers devolved would go the same way – a commission of “experts” would be formed, THEY would decide which powers we can be trusted with, and it would fall a long way short of what the people want. This will always be the case, because the politicians know that once we get what we want, we’ll ask for more, so they must always give us less than we want. This is why the Tories and Tory-minded Labour politicians have always been wary of devolution, because they know it’s put us on the one-way track to independence. Ruth’s attempt to draw a “line in the sand” was futile because she’s drawing it on a surface which is constantly moving forward. You can’t stop destiny.

If the devolution process was put in the hands of the people, we’d already be halfway independent by now, if not completely. The people want welfare and taxation controlled in Holyrood. This would challenge the authority of Westminster, as Holyrood would stop being subordinate to them. It would come to be seen as Scotland’s main parliament, and soon people would question why Westminster controlled foreign affairs and defence, and thus lead to independence. This is why English MPs will never vote to give Scotland anything resembling the level of powers people want it to have, and if we had been given the opportunity to vote for Devo Max, they would have been given the unenviable choice of doing something they didn’t want to do, or having to tell us “no”, and face the public outcry.

If we want politicians to decide when Scotland’s grown up enough to have certain powers, people can vote no. If we want to take the powers we want, then we have to vote yes.

Unashamedly plagiarised and modified from Piet Hein

It is the week-end anyway

For the Unionist

Our choicest plans
     have fallen through,
our airiest castles
     tumbled over,
because of lines
     we neatly drew
and later neatly
     stumbled over.Our choicest plans
     have fallen through,
our airiest castles
     tumbled over,
because of lines
     we neatly drew
and later neatly
     stumbled over.

A MAXIM FOR SCOTS
 
Here is a fact that should help you fight a bit longer:
Things that don’t actually kill you outright make you stronger.

A REPROOF
 
 
In view of your manner
of spending your days
I hope you may learn,
before ending them,
that the effort you spend
on defending your ways
could be better spent on
amending them.

 MAKING SENSE
 
Life makes senses
and who could doubt it,
if we have
no doubt about it.

 (on Denmark)
 
Denmark seen from a foreign land
looks but like a grain of sand.
Denmark as we Danes conceive it
is so big you won’t believe it.

and

Why not let us compromise
about Denmark’s proper size,
which will truly please us all,
since it’s bigger than it’s small.

for Rev Stu tongue in cheek

 A TIP
to members of the literary profession
 
Those who can write
have a lot to learn
from those bright enough
not to.

I stumbled across Piet Hein 40+ years ago in Denmark. His ^profession was that of architect.

Even then he penned mainly in English.

I have rediscovered them, by way of some his Grook books, as I sell up in France and clear my house.

Suddenly his simple philiosophy gives me hope and inspiration for Scotland in this phony war period. 

Ouch!  A Scottish Tory Leader getting the Bronx cheer from Cochrane.  That must hurt.