Saturday 25 October 2014

There could be a real alternative in 2015 and Scotland and Wales can lead it.

Three stories from Yesterday ,
Firstly the news that Johann Lamont has quit as leader of the Scottish Labour Party after accusing the UK party leadership of treating Scotland as a "branch office".
A Scottish party source said Ms Lamont had "had enough" and felt she did not have the support of the UK party.
She is said to have become disillusioned with internal criticism of her leadership and interference by the UK Labour party in the running of Scottish Labour.
Ms Lamont wanted more autonomy for the party in Scotland and significant new powers for the Scottish Parliament.
But she felt both of those objectives were being thwarted by some of her Westminster colleagues, and accused them of putting their own interests ahead of those of Scotland.
She was also unhappy that a senior official of the Scottish party - general secretary Ian Price - was to be removed from office without her being consulted
This further   puts Labour in disarray before the next General Election where they face decemation by the SNP.

Then there was an indication that in the next parliament especially a hung one Plaid , The SNP and Greens might work together

 Giving her keynote speech to the conference on Friday, Ms Wood said votes for Welsh and Scottish nationalists, as well as Greens, could decide who holds the balance of power at Westminster following the election in May 2015.
The independence campaign in Scotland had helped bring about the "demise" of two-party dominance by the Conservatives and Labour, she said.
When it came to her argument that she should be included in the Leaders Debate before the General Election  when she said leaving Plaid Cymru out of proposed TV debates by the party leaders meant that "the truth will not be televised and her reference to "four men in Grey Suits" echoed a recent Guardian article. by Alex Andreou
However, the exclusion of parties such as the Greens, the Scottish National party and Plaid Cymru has another deeper effect. It excludes anyone who could lend a modicum of diversity to these debates; who might challenge the status quo on the environment, on devolution, on constitutional change, on free-market economics, on gender politics. What we have ended up with – again – is a platform of two, three or four rich, privileged, white, straight, middle-aged, male, career politicians from a tiny part of south-east England telling the rest of the country what is what.
This monochrome palette, this disturbing example of what Grayson Perry recently described as “the default man”, is bad for political engagement and grossly unrepresentative of the country. It ensures that large swaths of the voting population will flick on to the debates, see a pictorial representation of the same dull grey suits talking in soundbites and switch back to Britain’s Got Talent, secure in the knowledge that, if Britain does indeed have talent, politics is carefully sealed from any hint of it.



Finally there's a report that Alex'Salmond has revealed he is considering standing for a seat at Westminster in next year’s General Election.

The First Minister, who announced that he would stand down after defeat in the independence referendum, said he had not ruled out the possibility.

Asked on the BBC’s Question Time if he would consider a return to Westminster, he told the host David Dimbleby: "The answer to your question David, absolutely decisively I can tell you I haven't made up my mind. So you'll have to wait and see.

"But I tell you what, when I do make up my mind, you invite me back on to Question Time and I'll tell you why I did it."

With a SNP MP calling for a Yes Alliance in Scotland we should be aiming to take it further 

Stuart Hosie MP, candidate for the SNP Depute Leadership said
“I am certain that the best way to make sure Westminster delivers real maximum devolution to Scotland will be to return the largest ever number of Independence supporting MPs to Westminster. I’m equally certain that many of the wonderful, talented people who emerged through the Independence campaign will contest the next election.
While the SNP will be the engine of the campaign and with over 80,000 members it will be a turbo charged one, the wider Independence movement can provide further fuel and momentum to that campaign.
In practice that means looking at ways of working beyond party interests to maximise the participation of those who campaigned and voted for a better Scotland by offering them an opportunity to campaign and vote again for change at next year’s General Election.
I have no doubt that the SNP can and will send the largest ever number of SNP MPs to Westminster at next year’s general election, but if we can build a Yes Alliance, there is an opportunity to do even more than that.What is also clear is that whether we campaign on a joint platform of maximum powers for Scotland, or select candidates from the range of hugely talented people who emerged through the referendum campaign, the SNP should show the same willing to work with individuals and organisations to make sure the largest number of Independence supporting MPs is delivered to Westminster next year.
Why not an Alliance of  the Scottish Parties Plaid  the Greens in England  and Mebyon Kernow an at the risk of adding another Man in a Grey Suit  would not Big Eck be the one to lead it.

It could see over 20 SNP PMs , 5 Plaid , some Greens and maybe see Dick Cole representin the people of Cornwall in the next Parliament.

Indeed may be the biggest winners mauy be our friends in England who currently have no choice from Lab,Con,LibDem or Ukip.

They need an alternative as much as we do.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

.
"Ms Lamont wanted more autonomy for the party in Scotland and significant new powers for the Scottish Parliament.
But she felt both of those objectives were being thwarted by some of her Westminster colleagues, and accused them of putting their own interests ahead of those of Scotland."

lets face it you could substitute the words scotland for wales and lamont for jones - except jones seems happy for his westminister colleagues to put their own interests ahead of those of wales. .