The actions of Margaret Ferrier in the wake of her covid-infected travel spree are causing some consternation amongst those who think she should resign as an MP, but to many in the independence movement her reluctance to relinquish her seat will come as no surprise and should once and for all put to bed the notion that the SNP have gone to London to settle up, not settle down. With the exception of a few genuinely skilled individuals, how many of those SNP MP’s could walk away from an £81,000 salary and walk into a job as well paid? Guy few I’d imagine, and with mortgages to pay and lifestyles to maintain I’d say that it is in the interest of many of them that the present arrangement continues.
Barring a few, I’m afraid that most of the SNP contingent have to some extent gone native and have settled down, and with shades of 1707 in mind I feel that it now goes against their personal interest to pursue independence with the vigour that we in the wider independence movement might expect. Hannah Bardell exposed this when she chided Joanna Cherry for looking to make the switch to Holyrood when she reminded her that she would have to sack her office staff. Follow the money…The cottage industry of the SNP has evolved into a multi-million-pound beast where councillors earning a councillor salary double up as researchers and office staff for MP’s and MSP’s, where family members are shoehorned in to paid jobs before magically becoming candidates for elections where if successful the whole thing starts again. It’s like watching a re-run of Scottish Labour’s greatest hits and as a mere independence supporter who hoped for an ethical, more open and honest Scotland I can see that our current political class, and the replacements that wait in the wings have no such ideals.
We desperately need political reform in Scotland and we need it in place before independence. We must set the benchmark higher and demand more of our politicians, instead of merely indulging in whitabootery whenever another one causes a scandal. The fact that a Tory MP did similar is not an excuse! We were promised better and the SNP have failed to live up to their end of the bargain. Our parliamentarians in Scotland should be limited in the term they spend as a paid politician, there should be an end to the misuse of the list system to insure themselves against the judgement of the people, and we should see the triggering of an immediate by-election when any elected representative is no longer a member of the party on whose ticket they were elected. Those changes would be long overdue and would leave our parliament in a far stronger position, and one which would have the moral right to then criticise the practices of the Westminster parliament, where an MP is sacked but can sit for years until the next election and take hundreds of pounds of taxpayers cash in the process. As it is, with the same practices going on here, Holyrood is just as defective, just as corrupt.
We must bear in mind that blind loyalty allows corruption and bad practice to flourish, and so for as long as the SNP are making big money from Westminster we in the independence movement must not relent in reminding them why they are there. We must also be open to the fact that if there is no change forthcoming then we must be open to changing our own tactics for achieving independence; if that means the formation of new parties with less financial reliance on the current set up then so be it. Shoosh for indy is most certainly no longer an option.
An Independent Scotsman 