A CURSORY trawl through the charnel-houses of social media last night revealed some predictable responses to Kezia Dugdale’s claim that Scotland now possessed the “gayest parliament in the world”.

The leader of Scottish Labour had, a few days previously, chosen to share that she had a female partner. Her joyful claim about the rainbow parliament may have been born of an understandable sense of euphoria that her declaration of her sexuality had been greeted with a degree of warmth and affection. She could now live openly and fully as the person God intended her to be.

The “gayest parliament in the world” claim though, was too much for some. Is this something to be proud of, they asked; is the fact that four out of our six main political leaders are gay not somewhat disproportionate and unreal, others enquired. It is not, though, Ms Dugdale who needs to get a reality check but rather those for whom the sight of so many members of the LGBTI+ community in positions of power is so unpalatable.

Until 1980 in Scotland to live openly as a homosexual was to risk criminal prosecution. From then until now gay, bisexual and transgender people have still continued to face levels of discrimination, ignorance and open hostility that few of the rest of us will ever encounter in our lives. This has manifest itself in physical intimidation, alienation within families and discrimination in the workplace. It is something to be celebrated that several openly gay people have overcome such prejudice to gain influence in civic Scotland. Indeed, if every leader of every political party in Scotland for the next 100 years were to be LGBTI+ it still wouldn’t provide sufficient redress for the centuries of discrimination that this community has endured.

The same can be said of women in government. The aspiration of 50-50 gender balance prized by our political parties has similarly been dismissed and greeted with derision. “Surely,” the usual suspects insist “arbitrarily imposing a 50-50 gender split in government means that some women may get promoted beyond their true capability.” Well, perhaps... but if 100 female politicians were promoted beyond their ability it still wouldn’t begin to match the number of men who have occupied positions of power well above their qualifications for the job. You might even say that women being over-promoted in the workplace is a welcome sign that we are properly unstitching ancient patterns of male hegemony.

To put it more bluntly: positively discriminating in favour of those who have previously suffered unequal treatment is not only fair but morally and ethically desirable.

It will be impossible to quantify to what extent ordinary, hard-working and honest citizens throughout the world have been economically violated by the persistent tax avoidance of the planet’s richest individuals as revealed in the leaked Panama Papers. These revelations, “the tip of the iceberg” according to informed sources, reveal that the default position of many governments and multi-national entities is that tax is for little people. Accountants exist merely to ensure that no portion of the accumulated wealth of these people and organisations must ever be put at the disposal of the country in which such riches were gathered. No matter that many countries, desperately lacking basic healthcare, are deprived of millions by their own political leaders.

Amidst the shady collection of those who benefited from the slew of sleazy financial practices revealed by the Panama documents is one Ian Cameron, father of our Prime Minister. Viscount Astor, stepfather of Samantha Cameron, the Prime Minister’s wife, was also a beneficiary. They have done nothing illegal, of course, but stand accused of immersing themselves in fiscal stratagems that David Cameron himself described as “morally wrong” four years ago. Among the firms revealed to have availed themselves of deeply questionable tax arrangements, the greatest number were British.

In the wonderful satire of the media Network, the film’s emotionally exhausted news anchor Howard Beale declares live on air: “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more.” Yet sometimes you wonder at our seemingly inexhaustible capacity to remain impervious in the face of each new crime and misdemeanour committed by those who, by virtue of ill-gotten wealth and unearned influence, are in a position to affect the direction of our lives. In 2008 the global credit crisis destroyed millions of lives and honest businesses because of greed and fraud on a grand scale. In the UK the victims of this were asked to bear the burden of recovery in an austerity programme imposed by a group of people whose political activities were funded by the culprits and perpetrators. In return for their largesse they were spared proper scrutiny, jail sentences and had all their bonuses restored. In a final act of gratitude, this Conservative Government spared them tax rises in the last Budget.

Now in 2016, following eight years of being told that recession is just something that we need to experience sporadically because of uncontrollable financial trade winds, we discover that it is a lie. As the Panama Papers reveal, there was enough money all along, but it was being used to enrich the few at the expense of the many.

Those few though, will now hope that the political influence they have purchased at Westminster and, yes, also at Holyrood, will spare them from proper justice. Any attempt to enact legislation that would compensate the many at the expense of those who grew rich by cheating and immorality will be resisted. We will be told yet again that Scotland and the UK are moderate countries, populated by moderate people who seek moderate solutions to inequality.

Anything more will be denounced as radical and extremist by right-wing politicians and their pet commentators. Passing laws to restore the decades of financial inequality that powered our economy will be deemed to be unacceptable. Instead, we will be urged to move on to work for a “fairer Britain”. This mantra will be chanted not only by Conservatives but by the UK’s state-approved Left.

For, in 21st century Scotland and the wider United Kingdom, only one type of extremism can ever be allowed. And that’s the type endlessly practised by a tiny elite who wage war and organise royal pageants and sporting circuses to keep our eyes averted. They know that our capacity to take it is endless and eternal. It’s only uncivilised people like the Russians, the French, the Spanish and the Americans that rise up and overthrow the corrupt and the wicked.

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