Hmm...my promise that I would be back blogging soon in April didn't really come true. Anyway, I feel inspired to do so today by having been awakened this morning by a text from David Linden and an e-mail to my Blackberry from Anne McLaughlin to inform me that David Marshall is resigning as the Labour MP for Glasgow East.
Most unexpected and quite exciting news. Of course, this has still to be definitely confirmed but if and when it is, we can look forward to a summer of campaiging in Glasgow's east end. The result in the constituency last time was a fairly overwhelming Labour victory, but in the current climate I am confident that the SNP can poll very well in any by-election there.
However, expect there to be two by-elections on the same day should this contest in Glasgow East come to pass. I would imagine that the Labour Party will take advantage of this to sort a by-election for Motherwell and Wishaw to run concurrently with any Glasgow East poll and to allow Jack McConnell to head off for his new job in Malawi.
Anyway, as exciting as this all is, if the news being reported on the BBC this morning that Wendy is for the off, then expect the Glasgow East by-election to not quite dominate tomorrow's headlines as it might otherwise.
Showing posts with label Jack McConnell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jack McConnell. Show all posts
Saturday, 28 June 2008
Monday, 11 June 2007
Not the Best Wee Country in the World
Jack McConnell's tagging of Scotland as the "Best Small Country in the World" in his former incarnation as our First Minister really annoys me.
It annoys me for several reasons. Firstly it smacks of the kind of national chauvinism that I shy away from. I never have bought into the idea that Scotland is somehow the "best" country in the world, or somehow better than others (the implication of best logically being that we must somehow be better than others). In fact all I want for Scotland is equality. I just want my country to be an equal member of the community of nations.
Secondly, I am hugely irked by the suggestion that Scotland is somehow "small". It annoys me when this is literally suggested. If you actually look at the size of Scotland in comparison to other nations in the world, our population places us right in the middle. (See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population) So in fact we are not a small country, but a perfectly reasonably sized one.
I am even more moved though by the suggestion that Scotland is figuratively small. Certainly the unionists would keep us confined to our own backyard and think small, but Scotland presents limitless opportunities for itself if it only demands the means to achieve such. The "Scottish cringe" is conjured up by this talk of us being small and I really hate it.
So having made my case against Scotland being the "best small country in the world", it is interesting to see today a report commissioned by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) that has attracted plenty of attention to quite clearly indicate that even if you bought into the rhetoric, the reality is somewhat different.
I certainly think the reportage that we are the "worst small country in Europe" is a tad over the top, but the report and its coverage brings into stark contrast McConnell's slogan with reality. Using measures such as health, life expectancy, employment prospects and educational attainment, this report places Scotland bottom out of ten countries of nine million or less.
And it is not just the FSB that can point to the ludicrous nature of Scotland being the best of the small. The United Nations Human Development Index - which broadly speaking measures quality of life in each UN member country - has consistently ranked Norway as the number one place to live on Earth in recent years. This country has a population some half a million less than ours. If any country can boast about being the "best" (although I would hope all nations would shun such pomposity) then surely it is Norway.
It annoys me for several reasons. Firstly it smacks of the kind of national chauvinism that I shy away from. I never have bought into the idea that Scotland is somehow the "best" country in the world, or somehow better than others (the implication of best logically being that we must somehow be better than others). In fact all I want for Scotland is equality. I just want my country to be an equal member of the community of nations.
Secondly, I am hugely irked by the suggestion that Scotland is somehow "small". It annoys me when this is literally suggested. If you actually look at the size of Scotland in comparison to other nations in the world, our population places us right in the middle. (See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population) So in fact we are not a small country, but a perfectly reasonably sized one.
I am even more moved though by the suggestion that Scotland is figuratively small. Certainly the unionists would keep us confined to our own backyard and think small, but Scotland presents limitless opportunities for itself if it only demands the means to achieve such. The "Scottish cringe" is conjured up by this talk of us being small and I really hate it.
So having made my case against Scotland being the "best small country in the world", it is interesting to see today a report commissioned by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) that has attracted plenty of attention to quite clearly indicate that even if you bought into the rhetoric, the reality is somewhat different.
I certainly think the reportage that we are the "worst small country in Europe" is a tad over the top, but the report and its coverage brings into stark contrast McConnell's slogan with reality. Using measures such as health, life expectancy, employment prospects and educational attainment, this report places Scotland bottom out of ten countries of nine million or less.
And it is not just the FSB that can point to the ludicrous nature of Scotland being the best of the small. The United Nations Human Development Index - which broadly speaking measures quality of life in each UN member country - has consistently ranked Norway as the number one place to live on Earth in recent years. This country has a population some half a million less than ours. If any country can boast about being the "best" (although I would hope all nations would shun such pomposity) then surely it is Norway.
Saturday, 21 April 2007
Our Delusional First Minister
You may recall that I previously posted on the blog about Tony Blair begging the people of Scotland not to "give him a kicking" by voting SNP. Now we have Jack McConnell on Radio Four repeating his master's message.
How convenient for Jack to try and obscure the fact that the election is to form the next Scottish Executive which HE has been in charge of since 2001. What exactly does Tony Blair have to do with this. It is he who will get an electoral "kicking" on 3rd May, and d
eservedly so. The campaign of the Labour Party in this election has been one of the most unremittingly negative going.
eservedly so. The campaign of the Labour Party in this election has been one of the most unremittingly negative going.Meanwhile we took the positive message of the SNP to the streets of Kilsyth and Cumbernauld, as well as finding time to pop by the Tesco at Craigmarloch (pictured) where we found a great and warm response from the members of the public we spoke to there. And I didn't have to suggest they kick anyone at any time!
Friday, 2 March 2007
The poverty that shames our country
Poverty has been a consistent problem in our country. However, what many people probably don't realise is that the level of poverty in Scotland today is some four times the level that existed in 1968. In the last forty years we have seen a quadrupling in poverty levels. And they call this progress?
The growth in poverty seems to have been spurred by the drive towards neo-liberalism in the 1980s. In 1979, when Margaret Thatcher's Tory government was first elected, child poverty stood at one in ten. By 1997 when the Conservative's left office to be replaced by the new Tories of New Labour the levels were one in three. It is true that child poverty has come down under Labour, but only to one in four. After a decade in power, New Labour has barely shifted the levels of child poverty from 33% to 25%.
However far from being shame faced about presiding over such levels of child poverty, Jack McConnell was actually on Radio Scotland crawing about this "achievement". He then went on to utter some mundanities about how his "founding principle" was to deal with the inequalities that exist in society. Given the one in four kids in poverty in Scotland today - not to mention the one in five pensioners in poverty as well - it seems pretty clear that Jack is able to put his founding principles on the backburner.
He then went on to utter some nonsense about how with Labour you get a party that is committed to combatting inequality whilst with the SNP you get a party that is committed to constitutional change ahead of this aim. Well I have news for Mr McConnell. Independence and fighting poverty are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, I would say that it is the fight against inequality that drives me most in politics. Scottish independence is not about changing flags. Nor is it an end in itself. Certainly I will be delighted the day we celebrate independence, but for me it is because that it empowers us to tackle the inequalities that exist in our country that motivate me to seek to end the union.
Consider this - Scotland is the only country in the world to have discovered oil and seen poverty actually increase amongst its people, other than Iraq (which had very unique circumstances, such as a decade of sanctions imposed against them). Do we actually think that would have been the case with independence?
Only with independence will we ever be able to start making real inroads into the poverty that blights Scotland and end the ludicrous nature of a resource rich country with such obscene levels of poverty in our midst.
The growth in poverty seems to have been spurred by the drive towards neo-liberalism in the 1980s. In 1979, when Margaret Thatcher's Tory government was first elected, child poverty stood at one in ten. By 1997 when the Conservative's left office to be replaced by the new Tories of New Labour the levels were one in three. It is true that child poverty has come down under Labour, but only to one in four. After a decade in power, New Labour has barely shifted the levels of child poverty from 33% to 25%.
However far from being shame faced about presiding over such levels of child poverty, Jack McConnell was actually on Radio Scotland crawing about this "achievement". He then went on to utter some mundanities about how his "founding principle" was to deal with the inequalities that exist in society. Given the one in four kids in poverty in Scotland today - not to mention the one in five pensioners in poverty as well - it seems pretty clear that Jack is able to put his founding principles on the backburner.
He then went on to utter some nonsense about how with Labour you get a party that is committed to combatting inequality whilst with the SNP you get a party that is committed to constitutional change ahead of this aim. Well I have news for Mr McConnell. Independence and fighting poverty are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, I would say that it is the fight against inequality that drives me most in politics. Scottish independence is not about changing flags. Nor is it an end in itself. Certainly I will be delighted the day we celebrate independence, but for me it is because that it empowers us to tackle the inequalities that exist in our country that motivate me to seek to end the union.
Consider this - Scotland is the only country in the world to have discovered oil and seen poverty actually increase amongst its people, other than Iraq (which had very unique circumstances, such as a decade of sanctions imposed against them). Do we actually think that would have been the case with independence?
Only with independence will we ever be able to start making real inroads into the poverty that blights Scotland and end the ludicrous nature of a resource rich country with such obscene levels of poverty in our midst.
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