Never enough time
It’s been a while yes, but there’s been a lot going on. I’ve started a new job and just haven’t had enough time to update the blog. This is just a holding piece until I improve my time management skills.
A parting thought though, I am not surprised at the local election results or Boris Johnson clinging on desperately as he tries to salvage his political future.
Back soon!
Return of The House of Cards?
A BROKEN UK, a broken, blatantly corrupt and inept government lurching from one crisis to another as their leader clings on to power by his fingernails as his aides form a not-so-orderly queue to flee Downing Street.
You really couldn’t make it up – or could you?
It got me thinking about how the original Spitting Image caused something of a stir and much merriment when it lampooned the leading politicians of the day – and before that the success of Yes Minister and its successor Yes Prime Minister.
The original saw James Hacker, played by Paul Eddington, propelled through the corridors of power to the post of Cabinet Minister for the Department of Administration, where his overwhelming desire to reform it was frustrated by his civil servants Bernard Wooley (the late Derek Fowlds) and his boss Sir Humphrey Appleby (Sir Nigel Hawthorne).
Despite them, Hacker found himself thrust even further along those corridors to No 10 Downing Street in 1986 in Yes Prime Minister – which I thought was even better than the original.
It was a hilarious series which is still one of my favourites, and while very much a comedy it did shine a light into the secretive (and influential) workings of the civil service.
Fast-forward a few years and an altogether different drama, the magnificent House of Cards and its sequels, To Play the King and The Final Cut, from the Michael Dobbs novel. 
In this we were introduced to the Tories’ chief whip Francis Urquhart (note his initials FU), brilliantly played by the late Ian Richardson – a Machiavellian character whose darkly-delivered catchphrase “You might think that; I couldn’t possibly comment” even went on to be used in the House of Commons.
His asides, direct to the audience, were masterful and gave viewers an insight into the workings of his character’s ruthless mind.
The mini-series premiered against the backdrop of Margaret Thatcher’s final weeks, and it took little imagination to think that similar events were happening behind the scenes at Westminster as she was dumped as PM and John Major installed.
In the drama, Urquhart sets out to destroy everyone in his path to No 10’s top job after he is passed over for a Cabinet post when his candidate for PM wins the job.
There’s a lot more to it, but suffice to say it remains as pertinent today as it did more than 20 years ago.
These two mini-series were followed by The Thick of It, which premiered in 2005 and went on to run for four brilliant seasons, taking us through the everyday lives of incompetent politicians being guided by advisers, including Malcolm Tucker – played by the superb Peter Capaldi.
I have known political party media advisers who tried (unsuccessfully) to emulate Tucker, constantly butting into conversations where their presence wasn’t required, raising their voices, punctuating their sentences with swearwords and castigating everyone around them. It did them no good whatsoever.
Which brings me back to the broken UK and the desperate scrambling of Boris Johnson trying to save his own skin (because he cares about nobody else).
His latest Cabinet mini-shuffle sees Jacob Rees-Mogg – yes, the one who lives in another century – today ends his tenure as Leader of the Commons and is given a new post as minister for Brexit opportunities and responsibility for government efficiency in the Cabinet Office.
Former chief whip Mark Spencer becomes Lord President and replaces Rees-Mogg as Commons leader, while Chris Heaton-Harris leaves the Foreign Office to take up Spencer’s old job and former deputy chief whip Stuart Andrew becomes a housing minister – all of which is reminiscent of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
I’m laughing at the pathetic sight of them (and other expected later) wandering around, befuddled – not knowing exactly where they’re going or what their actual jobs will be, other than to shore up what remaining support their PM has.
Anybody sense a new parliamentary comedy coming on?
A walk in Helix Park
The Kelpies
SO we’re nearing the end of January and I must say it’s been an interesting start to the year – for me in any case – but more of that another.
To escape the constant barrage of revelations from Westminster, I took the opportunity of a decent spell of weekend weather to head up to the Helix in Falkirk, a very pleasant walk along the canal and an opportunity to see the Kelpies close up (again).
They never fail to delight me – I know simple things, etc – but among the hundreds of people who had decided to do the same thing, there was a huge number who were accompanied by their dogs.
I was brought up around dogs and I’ve had them at various points through my life, so it gave me a great deal of enjoyment to wander through the park happily speaking to and petting any of the animals that approached me.
Unsurprisingly, many of the owners confessed their pets were Covid dogs, bought at various stages of lockdown when families were confined to their homes. I know several of my neighbours did likewise, but I wonder what will happen to all these dogs when (and if) people start physically returning to their offices and other places of work.
We have all heard the Dogs Trust phrase that “A dog is for life, not just for Christmas” but should it now be altered to “… for life, not just for Covid”?
I don’t mean that in a flippant sense, but I fear that when the pandemic eventually passes, we’ll see countless canines being dropped off at animal charities and dog homes as their owners return to the dreaded commute.
Festive post
SO that was Christmas, and I, for one, am glad it has gone.
I’ve not really been a fan of the festive season for some time. One Christmas death in a family is bad enough, but the passing of two dearly loved ones within a few days of each other – even years apart – is something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.
It does make the years they spent as the primary influences on my life all the more precious, but it doesn’t lessen the hurt when Christmas comes around.
Now that it has come and gone though, we can turn our attention and hopes to the New Year and what that might herald.
It won’t be Scottish independence, that’s for sure, but perhaps a few steps down that road?
Covid is likely to cement its place as a permanent fixture worldwide and I wonder what further riches it will bring to members of the most corrupt Westminster government we’ve ever seen and their business friends.
Boris Johnson MUST go.
He has made the UK (and by association its constituent nations) a laughing stock around the world with his bumbling buffoonery, his lying inside and outside Parliament, his disregard for rules his government introduced – in short the complete clusterfuck he’s made of trying to run the country.
I quite enjoyed hearing my old friend Ian Blackford escape a reprimand from the Deputy Speaker when he called Johnson a “barefaced liar” – opening the gates for anyone else to do likewise, albeit within a very narrow context.
But labelling the clown a liar does nothing to prevent the Tories wreaking havoc on the lives of people who are not their friends – the people who are ‘governed’ by the devolved parliaments, those on low incomes, immigrants and asylum seekers, and of course our NHS and its dedicated workforce and other care workers.
Several times I’ve told Ian it appeared to Scottish voters that SNP MPs were becoming far too comfortable on the Westminster gravy train, and his answer is always the same – along the lines of “we’ll leave when our job is done … I can’t wait for the day when we walk out of that place for the last time”.
That could mean many things – including independence, shaking off the shackles of London and restoring full fiscal and legislative powers to the Scottish Parliament – who knows?
One thing I do know is that while many independence supporters are becoming increasingly impatient with the SNP’s lack of direction on the matter, others are simply giving up on it.
If the SNP really does want independence it has to embrace the whole indy movement, including grassroots supporters and Alex Salmond’s Alba Party – and not just the old apparatchiks who are propping up the pillars of SNP power.
Whether or not they do will impact on their own future as well as ours.
If I don’t post before 2022 I hope you have a great New Year and achieve all that you want.
Just for the hell of it here’s one of my favourite images of the beach at Durness on an autumn day that was much colder than it looks
YOU know what it’s like …
Waiting ages for a bus then four come along at once.
Well, I hadn’t had a broadcasting gig for a while and in the past week I’ve had two.
In the first, on John Drummond’s TNT (The Nation Talks) show, I was a late replacement for one of the best known members of Scotland’s legal establishment, Aamer Anwar, but I thought it was interesting, especially with the variety of questions coming from online viewers.
TNT is here:
The second was the following night at Civic House in Glasgow, where members of the Assemblea Nacional Catalana (ANC) hosted a meeting with their president Elisenda Paluzie.
ANC is the pro-independence grassroots group which has organised some of the memorably massive marches of recent years (pre-pandemic) in support of Catalan independence.
The group has a network of international brnaches, including one in London and another in Glasgow.
Ms Paluzie and I were joined there by broadcaster, journalist and author Chris Bambery, who has written a number of books, including A People’s History of Scotland, and Catalonia Reborn, which he co-wrote with George Kerevan.
The Catalan discussion is here:
Now it’s back to waiting for the next bus.
An early start
I tried getting up and out early this morning to catch the sun rising over the Cromarty Firth.
The temperature was 3C, the wind was blasting, bringing with it rain and sleet and a significant wind chill factor. I lasted around 90 minutes but the sunrise never came.
Strange the things we do on wee breaks.
This was the sunrise from Chanonry Point, in Fortrose
The lighthouse was more weatherproof than my wet weather clothing
Still here … but taking a break
Sunset at Key West – just the sort of escapism I need after 18 months of the Covid crisis and (some of) our politicians bearing more of a resemblance to cartoon characters that professional people. Much more to say about that later, but it’s beer o’clock at the weekend, so enjoy it.
Hello world!
It’s taken a while, but Independent Thoughts is back, with your host Greg Russell
The Road to the Isles – aka the long and winding road to independence
THOSE of you who know me will be aware that I’m a journalist and broadcaster but if you’ve landed here by accident or through curiosity, welcome. I hope you find something that sparks your interest.
My subject matter will mainly be Scottish and UK politics; the SNP and what they are doing (or not) to take us closer to independence; the importance of the Yes movement; the media; and how we can escape the clutches of Boris Johnson and his crooked coterie, the public schoolboy brigade who have dragged politics here to depths previously only plumbed by Donald Trump, the worst US president ever.
Over the past six months or so when I’ve sat down and put fingers on keyboard to start writing this blog, something has happened to put me off – usually the latest incredulous nonsense coming from the Bullingdon Club old boys who inhabit Downing Street.
I would take my hat off (if I wore one) to Labour MP Dawn Butler, who did what SNP MPs should have done years ago and had the guts to not only call Johnson a liar but refuse to withdraw the comment (not within the boundaries of parliamentary etiquette).
She left the chamber when told to do so by deputy speaker Judith Cummins and won praise from across the political spectrum.
The MP for Brent Central told MPs about a video by Peter Stefanovic, which has been viewed tens of millions of times, detailing the many lies and falsehoods told by Johnson during his time in office, and said poor people had paid with their lives because Johnson had spent 18 months misleading this Commons and the country “over and over again”.
She said Stefanovic’s film: “Highlights the Prime Minister said the economy is growing by 73%, it’s just not true. Reinstating the nurses’ bursary, just not true. There wasn’t an app working anywhere in the world? Just wasn’t true. Tories invested £34 billion in the NHS? Not true. The Prime Minister said we have severed the link between infection and serious disease and death. Not only is this not true, madam deputy speaker, but it is dangerous. And it is dangerous to lie in a pandemic.
“And I am disappointed that the Prime Minister has not come to the House to correct the record and correct the fact that he has lied to this House and lied to the country over and over again.”
Great stuff – and among the support for Butler was this from economist Richard Murphy: “This is so ridiculous. Everyone knows Dawn Butler is right. Boris Johnson has lied repeatedly in the Commons but that is apparently OK. She says he has – which is the truth – and is suspended from parliament for saying so. Excluding her undermines the credibility of parliament.”
Philosopher AC Grayling chipped in with: “Dawn Butler has been banned from the HoC for a day for correctly saying that Johnson is a serial liar. This is the same punishment given to five Tory MPs found in breach of code for attempting to subvert the course of justice in a sexual offence case relating to another Tory MP [Charlie Elphicke].”
So, the Tories will come in for the bulk of criticism here, but that doesn’t mean others will escape it.
Once, many years ago when asked to define my politics, I replied: “Traditional (left-wing) Labour with nationalist tendencies,” and I suppose I would still be of that mindset if Labour were remotely electable.
Now, if asked, I simply answer, “pro-independence and to the left”.
In past interviews, I have challenged Willie Rennie and Alistair Carmichael over the damage the LibDems’ ill-fated dalliance with the Tories would cause them. Everyone else remotely aware of politics in the UK knew they would struggle to pay for Nick Clegg’s ambition as he cosied up to David Cameron.
Both tried to defend the coalition deal and said their members would stick with them, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary – which resulted in the LibDem wipe-out in the 2015 election.
To date, their 2010 coalition debt is still outstanding and until it is paid in full, including interest, the LieDems will be as much a waste of space as Labour has been for years.
The Greens? Well, they’re almost likeable compared to their political opponents and, while they are well-meaning, I can’t help but feel they’re a bit insipid.
Which brings me to the SNP, for many the only electable grouping in Scotland, which isn’t as flattering as it could be.
I am not a member of the SNP (or any other party). I did join briefly after the 2014 result, the first time I’ve ever joined a political party. But I didn’t like the centralised fashion in which it was run (controlled) in a manner that stifled ideas and proper debate, despite my then local branch officials’ stated intention to welcome “new blood” from across the entire Yes movement. Yeah, right.
That control-freakery, which has seen many good people bid them farewell, has landed them in bother with various authorities, most recently their own creation Police Scotland.
I am not convinced by the party’s latest “pledge” to accept motions from grassroots members at this year’s conference. Too many perfectly sensible and reasonable motions have been swept under the carpet in the past, so it will be interesting to see what they come up with this year.
I’ll have more to say about the SNP another time, but for now I see them simply as a means to an end – independence.
I’ll end this post with a brief word or two about [Alliance/Action for Independence] AFI, which spawned ALBA, Alex Salmond’s newest political hobby horse.
I know many people who joined the original AFI when the arguments were still raging with the electoral authorities about their name. Dave Thompson, the former SNP MSP who fronted it, was told umpteen times by various members that the fledgling party needed a big-hitter to join their ranks to give them some much-needed credibility, and Alex Salmond’s name was frequently bandied about.
And so it came to pass that just six weeks or so before the last Holyrood election, ALBA burst onto the scene, AFI having paved the way for the grand(ish) entrance of the former FM, adopting its manifesto commitment to push for “an independence supermajority”.
But I frequently wonder if they missed a trick by standing only on the Holyrood list. Would that have made a difference to the current makeup of the Holyrood chamber?
I’m still getting to grips with the ins and outs of this new setup and in the meantime you can contact me:
on Twitter – @National_Greg or @g11greg
on Facebook – NationalGreg or G11Greg
by email – greg@gregrussell.scot