"But that only matters if you’ve got the agency to exercise that sovereignty." Here's the key. In the UK as a whole, we live in a Putin style managed democracy now where whoever you vote for the international plutocrats stay in control. So even if we achieve independence it will be a sham.
However we are the sovereign Scots and we actually do have that agency, regardless of what we're told. We can refuse to vote for candidates or parties that will not commit to decentralising, empowering communities, putting planet and people before private profit. We don't have to be bounced back and forth between 'least worst' choices. I started doing this at the last local election. No candidate would commit to accepting the sovereignty of the people, so I spoiled my ballot paper. If more of us did that, they would soon remember who elects them. In fact I propose that if the spoiled ballots are enough to change the election result, we should demand a fresh election.
Sometimes I think the drugs deaths might be another way of counting deaths caused by the austerity cuts to disabled, benefits sanctions etc. People taking overdoses following benefits cuts which are then counted as drugs deaths. I heard the DWP dont have figures for deaths following benefit cuts. Calling them drugs deaths throws responsibility on the claimants rather than the government policy and as addicts are so stigmatised, a lot of people wont care.
I enjoyed this exchange and wish such probing questions were heard more often. The only jarring moment was the singling out of Forbes in a pejorative manner. I don’t agree with her religion but I agree she has the right to hold that belief just as Humza has the same right to his religious beliefs but no one is quizzing him on his faith’s tenets, tenets which are in many ways similar to the Wee FRee. Good old Scottish mens” unconscious misogyny?
Darren has expressed his thoughts so clearly and eloquently, this has helped me make sense of all the thoughts that have been running round my head. I can see now that letting go of something that was a dream, whilst concentrating on the things that matter to socialists is the only way to come to terms with feelings of disappointment. I hope a better Scotland is possible, and that someday we are governed by politicians who can achieve this.
Great article, I have always been a unionist and found the SNP's student politics risible, but the one hope I had was that with such an electoral mandate from 2014 we would have seen real changes in Scotland for the better and we haven't, by almost every measure we have gone backwards....nearly a decade wasted!
"But that only matters if you’ve got the agency to exercise that sovereignty." Here's the key. In the UK as a whole, we live in a Putin style managed democracy now where whoever you vote for the international plutocrats stay in control. So even if we achieve independence it will be a sham.
However we are the sovereign Scots and we actually do have that agency, regardless of what we're told. We can refuse to vote for candidates or parties that will not commit to decentralising, empowering communities, putting planet and people before private profit. We don't have to be bounced back and forth between 'least worst' choices. I started doing this at the last local election. No candidate would commit to accepting the sovereignty of the people, so I spoiled my ballot paper. If more of us did that, they would soon remember who elects them. In fact I propose that if the spoiled ballots are enough to change the election result, we should demand a fresh election.
Sometimes I think the drugs deaths might be another way of counting deaths caused by the austerity cuts to disabled, benefits sanctions etc. People taking overdoses following benefits cuts which are then counted as drugs deaths. I heard the DWP dont have figures for deaths following benefit cuts. Calling them drugs deaths throws responsibility on the claimants rather than the government policy and as addicts are so stigmatised, a lot of people wont care.
I enjoyed this exchange and wish such probing questions were heard more often. The only jarring moment was the singling out of Forbes in a pejorative manner. I don’t agree with her religion but I agree she has the right to hold that belief just as Humza has the same right to his religious beliefs but no one is quizzing him on his faith’s tenets, tenets which are in many ways similar to the Wee FRee. Good old Scottish mens” unconscious misogyny?
Darren has expressed his thoughts so clearly and eloquently, this has helped me make sense of all the thoughts that have been running round my head. I can see now that letting go of something that was a dream, whilst concentrating on the things that matter to socialists is the only way to come to terms with feelings of disappointment. I hope a better Scotland is possible, and that someday we are governed by politicians who can achieve this.
Great article, I have always been a unionist and found the SNP's student politics risible, but the one hope I had was that with such an electoral mandate from 2014 we would have seen real changes in Scotland for the better and we haven't, by almost every measure we have gone backwards....nearly a decade wasted!