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