Time for Alyn Smith to Wheesht for Indy

With the goings on over the last week I’ve now become convinced that the S in SNP stands for “schizophrenic” as they are trying to present so many different opinions as being representative of the party. It started with Alyn Smith MP launching an attack on certain interest groups within the SNP whose aims do not wholly align with his (Common Weal, Women’s rights) while being fully supportive of individuals and alliances whose aims are more in line with his “self indulgent views” as he puts it, transgender being a notable one.

This was followed by Humza Yousaf demanding that the SNP “must leave space” for BAME candidates. Does Alyn Smith approve of Mr Yousaf trying to change party policy to fit his “self indulgent views or is this a aim which he supports and which therefore escapes his wrath.

Elected politicians are elected to represent the people, yet often they seek office purely to advance their own personal agendas, and are using the framework of whatever party they join to do so, something which irritates me immensely when they say that they are voting with “their” conscience.

In the past I have written about my objection to women only shortlists, and my reasoning then is the same now; I want to see the best people elected, irrespective of sex, sexual orientation, colour or ethnic background. These principles apply to any other group from society, if you are good enough then stand an be elected on your merits, not because others were excluded .

Then there is “Comfy”Pete Wishart who also joined in alongside Smith with his attack on our pro-independence bloggers. At the present time I would take the opinions of the bloggers over those of those with financial skin in the game, especially one who stated that he wanted to be speaker of a parliament he had been sent to extricate us from. What personal gain is there to the Grouse Beater or the Barrhead Boy to criticise the SNP’s glacial approach to independence? What do they have to achieve by pointing out the repeated use of the“carrot and stick” by the party, other than to prick the conscience of those who deploy such tactics, or to alert the Yes movement to the fact and make sure that they become immune to it, and that they instead hold them to their promises.

The independence movement recognises that as the largest independence party is the SNP, and as such we need them to be successful, whether we support them wholly or not. We must be able to see when attacks on the SNP are warranted and when they are simply aimed at destabilising the independence movement as a whole. Unfortunately many criticisms of the SNP are not only warranted but self-inflicted, and if the bloggers or party members point this out, it is with the intention of having them sort things out, and Messrs Smith and Wishart would be minded to remember this, rather than go on the attack against people who want nothing more than independence. The bullying of party members at every level, such as Joanna Cherry down to the grass roots, for holding views which are unpopular amongst faceless cliques must stop. Scotland is on a race against time against an increasingly English Nationalist parliament’s wishes to close it down, and they need to regain focus on their real goal – independence. Whenever voices are raised within the grass roots about the kind of Scotland they want, be socialist, be it a republic, be it in or out of NATO, they are told to “wheesht” for indy, that there will be plenty of time for that after independence. Perhaps those on charge of the SNP should bear that in mind too, keep your self-interest to your self and create a Scotland right now which we can all rally to protect, one which even the dwindling unionists might think twice about losing.

Coronavirus: When Do We Close The Schools?

With much of the country at level three of the Scottish government’s restrictions, and with the possibility of some areas moving in to level four, I noted with great concern that at no point in the variety of measures which are being engaged are schools required to close. Here in North Lanarkshire we are at level three and are repeatedly being told that we are on the verge of moving to the next level. As I look around I see that many people are still not wearing face coverings or maintaining social distancing. A visit to a supermarket on a Friday or Saturday evening will undoubtedly see people clearly dressed for a night out and stocking up on alcoholic drinks, making a mockery of the rules on visiting other people’s houses for socialising. However, outranking all these concerns is the fact that at all levels of restriction the schools are remaining open.

As a parent I receive almost on a daily basis one or more letters from my child’s school advising me that another pupil or staff member has tested positive, but we should not worry as the virus is not being transmitted in the school. I find it utterly bizarre that we are meant to believe that all of these affected children and staff are somehow contracting the virus outside of school, coming in to school, but not passing it on in the school! While the letters continue to reassure us, our children do actually talk to each other and what we hear does not match up with the official position. There is no social distancing (at least in our school), with children sitting two to a desk and the school has no seating plan to assist with effectively tracing those who have been seated next to someone who tests positive. Yesterday around lunchtime we passed by some shops and were horrified to see around 80 children tightly packed around a takeway, making any attempt to track and trace pointless anyway should one test positive.
Pretending that all is well in the schools has to stop, and the Scottish government must immediately call a halt to the school year until such times as social distancing can be effectively introduced, and if it cannot then other methods must be explored. There needs to be urgent discussion with the teaching unions to bring in measures to reduce class sizes, and if this means staggering classes across seven days instead of five then this needs to be looked at, as should distance learning or the utilisation for education of community centres, town halls and sports centres to give more room for social distancing.
We are hearing that a vaccine is on its way in the immediate future, but in the meantime let us adopt a zero-covid strategy and ensure that transmission through schools ends now, so that every pupil  can continue their schooling only when it is safe to do so – and not a minute before. 

The Cherry Clause

In today’s National I read an article on Scotland’s only MP to be standing for Holyrood, Neil Gray, who will be standing in this constituency, Airdrie & Shotts, and my heart sank. Perhaps the last few years have made me a tad cynical, but this article highlighted the effect the “Cherry Clause” will have on Mr Gray and his staff – that he will have to resign his seat and make his staff redundant. Excuse me, but weren’t they elected to “settle up, not settle down”? Weren’t they elected to effectively end the jobs they were elected to fill? Being an SNP MP should not be looked at as a long-term career prospect, not for the MP, and not for their staff. As an independence campaigner, the idea that those elected on behalf of our movement get comfy in their position and dish out jobs to friends, family or cronies is utterly abhorrent. Didn’t we boot the Labour Party out for that?Mr Gray’s move is presented as a gamble and that he is taking nothing for granted, but I would imagine that he will be afforded a high enough place on the party list to ensure that one way or another he and his staff will be working in Edinburgh and not London next year; By then though, Airdrie will have endured another less than transparent SNP selection process and may or may not still have an SNP MP, and if it doesn’t will it really matter? Is there any point sending pro-independence representatives to London to scrutinise the schemes of the Tories, to rail against them as the government walks out in front of their faces or jeers them down, and to a broadcast media who cuts back to the studio when they open their mouths? Pardon me for not getting excited at the thought of this situation continuing.I want to see no SNP MP’s at Westminster or anywhere else. I want the term MP to be consigned to the history books. For that to happen the SNP must be brought to their senses and made to understand that for me, and others like me, one more mandate to add to the collection is not good enough. Their continuing in government in Holyrood is not an acceptable substitute for independence. So, get your eyes off your bank balances and back on the prize. Let independence be your reward – the same as it will be for the rest of us.