![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gregrussell.scot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Ian-Blackford-TV-grab.jpg?resize=300%2C236&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\nSO that was Christmas, and I, for one, am glad it has gone.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve 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 \u2013 even years apart \u2013 is something I wouldn\u2019t wish on my worst enemy.<\/p>\n
It does make the years they spent as the primary influences on my life all the more precious, but it doesn\u2019t lessen the hurt when Christmas comes around.<\/p>\n
Now that it has come and gone though, we can turn our attention and hopes to the New Year and what that might herald.<\/p>\n
It won\u2019t be Scottish independence, that\u2019s for sure, but perhaps a few steps down that road?<\/p>\n
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\u2019ve ever seen and their business friends.<\/p>\n
Boris Johnson MUST go.<\/p>\n
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 \u2013 in short the complete clusterfuck he\u2019s made of trying to run the country.<\/p>\n
I quite enjoyed hearing my old friend Ian Blackford escape a reprimand from the Deputy Speaker when he called Johnson a \u201cbarefaced liar\u201d \u2013 opening the gates for anyone else to do likewise, albeit within a very narrow context.<\/p>\n
But labelling the clown a liar does nothing to prevent the Tories wreaking havoc on the lives of people who are not their friends \u2013 the people who are \u2018governed\u2019 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.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Several times I\u2019ve 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 \u2013 along the lines of \u201cwe\u2019ll leave when our job is done \u2026 I can\u2019t wait for the day when we walk out of that place for the last time\u201d.<\/p>\n
That could mean many things \u2013 including independence, shaking off the shackles of London and restoring full fiscal and legislative powers to the Scottish Parliament \u2013 who knows?<\/p>\n
One thing I do know is that while many independence supporters are becoming increasingly impatient with the SNP\u2019s lack of direction on the matter, others are simply giving up on it.<\/p>\n
If the SNP really does want independence it has to embrace the whole indy movement, including grassroots supporters and Alex Salmond\u2019s Alba Party \u2013 and not just the old apparatchiks who are propping up the pillars of SNP power.<\/p>\n
Whether or not they do will impact on their own future as well as ours.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gregrussell.scot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Durness.jpg?resize=300%2C200&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n
If I don\u2019t post before 2022 I hope you have a great New Year and achieve all that you want.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SO that was Christmas, and I, for one, am glad it has gone. I\u2019ve 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 \u2013 even years apart \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}