The political events of the past month in the UK as a whole, have created a morass and one which prompted a political and philosophical debate in Ashgrove, with Bunty's Honours degree in the topic being of paramount importance (and relevance).
We both struggle to understand why in today's society, there is the glaring anomaly of traditional socialist constituencies voting Tory and in particular this brand of Toryism!
Hartlepool being a glaringly obvious example of this !
It would be too easy to just suggest that the electorate had become disenchanted with Starmer's version of Labour since the Tories have had such an elongated time in charge of Government policy and finances and it was not the Labour Party that were in control of national finances and budgets.
The most ludicrous comment I have ever heard in my entire life on this topic was from a native of Hartlepool on LBC saying that the Tories had given them 9 foodbanks but Labour hadn't given them any !
Sweet mother of Jesus what has he between his wing nut lugs?
In Scotland, with our First Minister has been consistently showing the leadership that has propelled her and the SNP to a fourth term in office and this under the form of proportional representation that is deliberately constructed to avoid a landslide of whatever hue. This leadership too, had to fight the vagaries of a committee of enquiry based on unsubstantiated allegations of having misled Holyrood over the actions or otherwise of her predecessor.
1. Why then do we have a young voter in the East End of Glasgow (hardly Bearsden) on the radio this morning purporting to vote Tory, bearing in mind we have two principal alternatives to the abhorrent party rejected totally up here since 1955 ?
2. Why do we have a whole group of working class or indeed even unemployed, voters in Scotland who would gladly sacrifice their political principles on the basis that potentially their football team utilise the Union Jack/Butchers Apron in their support?
3. Why did we have the diabolical scenario of died in the wool socialists and right wing Scots Tories tactically voting for their hated adversaries merely to stop the rising tide towards Independence?
For the answer to these anomalies, Bunty and I have come to the conclusion that not just in the U.K. just now but across the globe generally there is a drift to the right and a haemorrhaging of care in society.
In the U.K. but predominantly in England, this rise of the right is appearing to manifest itself in a form of xenophobia with the populace ire being directed towards "immigrants". This patently manifested itself in "Brexit". Scotland is by nature a "left of centre" country yet we too have inexplicable anomalies in voting patterns.
However that does not wholly explain the transfer of votes from left to right wing in political terms, and why people who are very, very far from being archetypal Tories in terms of income and wealth status are flocking to vote for the Boris Johnson version of Toryism..
Could it then be; A fundamental need for people to feel superior to someone else irrespective of how irrational it is in real terms?
Think of the rise of the Third Reich in the 30's! Not all Germans were fundamentally Nazi in outlook, but a combination of the global economic collapse and the Wall Street Crash allied to crippling reparations from WW1 had a domino effect on the population of an entire country.
This financial catastrophe had the German people looking for someone to blame, and the right wing of the new Weimar pointed to the Jews, Catholics, gypsies, homosexuals and anyone perceived to be less of a human than the "ruling" elite.
Back to the U.K. then !
Under this Tory Government (and earlier ones too!) we've had over a decade of "austerity" in which the cuts occasioned by their austerity programme have all been aimed not at the rich, but at those who depend on social security, PIP benefits, working tax credits, incapacity benefit, unemployment benefit, job seekers allowance, housing benefit, universal credit etc;
Then ally all those perceived drains on the national economic purse to the equally illogical perception amongst the alleged "working class" (who are working themselves but for a pittance) that immigrants are flooding the straits of Dover in dinghy's to allegedly milk the system and you have a mirror of the situation in the Weimar Republic after the Wall Street Crash. Someone to blame after all !
Toss into the equation Covid and the pandemic and you have a truly poisonous brew.
No mention whatsoever about the alleged corruption of Government contracts in which the coterie of Johnson's cabinet colleagues were dispensing multi billion pound contracts without tender !
Fortunately Scotland had sufficient support for the SNP to overcome the diabolical tactical voting and a proportional representation system (D'Hondt) which specifically is meant to ensure no party overwhelms the system. Had the Holyrood election been held under the "First Past the Post" system as in Westminster, The SNP would have had 109 seats out of 129. Now that truly would have been a mandate for not just a referendum but a declaration of Independence !!
A final thought on this whole farrago is that Democracy will win out in the end and despite the Mainstream Media attempts to muddy the waters, Scotland will be a nation again and we are not despite what my colleagues and friends down south may or may not think a mere region of England
SAOR ALBA !
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