‘IF someone is ordinarily resident in a city, they should stay there” (Labour peer accused of breaching lockdown rules by going to second home, thenational.scot, April 10).
That is not good enough, sorry. For it to be enforceable it must read: “If someone is ordinarily resident in a city, they MUST stay there”. Anything else is an attempt at watering the message down.
Why should this person be entitled to an unnecessary long trip, submitting to unnecessary risk an entire community that has just barely enough to fight this virus? If you are going to allow somebody from London to travel all the way to Scotland so they can hide here and put at risk an entire community, what sort of moral strength do have left to stop anybody else taking the car and going for a hike, going to the beach, or going anywhere?
None, so consistency please. Embarrassing inconsistency was already shown in the disgustingly privileged treatment given to the Duke of Rothesay and his wife compared to the average Scottish citizen so let’s not repeat it with and English peer, please.
Besides, what exactly makes this unelected individual and his wife (because BOTH breached the rules) to be more deserving of bending the rules for than the average citizen?
Now I understand Ms Calderwood received a police caution due to her trip to her second house. Is this man going to receive also a police caution or even better, a fine or that only applies to the Scottish plebs that live all year round in Scotland? Ms Calderwood had to resign from her post. I fully expect a selfish and self-entitled individual who feels the rules are for everybody else and that knowingly puts at risk an entire community for his own comfort, to be immediately ejected from the unelected seat he holds in the House of Lords.
Sorry, but this is just another pathetic example of a complacent and spineless SNP treading on eggshells and pussyfooting around to avoid upsetting the powers that be and pandering to the English establishment.
They are happy to come down like a ton of bricks on the average Scottish citizen, but when it comes to the self-entitled English ruling elite or their receivers of patronage, they just chicken. For goodness sake, when are they going to put their backbone back? When are they going to actually start defending and protecting the citizens of Scotland rather than the ruling elite and its useful idiots?
Now, this man has just highlighted one of the big problems we had in 2014 and that made the referendum undemocratic and not an exercise of self determination for the natives:
Individuals that have second or even third homes in Scotland when their main residence is elsewhere being in Scotland’s electoral registry. These people are close to 100% No voters. We now know the natives of Scotland voted for independence, but it was the vote of the settlers who frustrated their self-determination by forcing their country to remain in this political union. Now, how many months continuously does this man live in the Scottish residence? Because if it is not more than six months you cannot call that your main residence and I do not think you should be registered in Scotland to vote. You should be registered wherever it is that you spend more than 6 months at a time.
So, when is the SNP going to address that matter and make the elections in Scotland properly democratic and the referendums a real exercise in self determination for Scotland’s natives by denying the vote to those with second homes in Scotland? Because after the fiasco in 2014 and after five continuous years of SNP Government and five continuous years of having a majority in Westminster you would have thought they have had plenty of time to do so (and plenty of time to call the referendum, actually). So why hasn’t it been addressed?
“I am a Scottish peer”
I beg your pardon? “Scottish” peer? And what is that exactly? I am sure what you mean is that you are an English establishment peer appointed by patronage to take an unelected seat. We do not appoint “peers” in Scotland “by choice?"
And “by choice” of whom? Because I do not remember the people of Scotland having ever given the choice to vote for any “peer”, never mind to eject you all from your unelected seats. Are you referring to the fact that you select your second or third home in Scotland as your main residence to help to keep the illusion that those called “Scottish peers” are not in fact England peers and to hide the fact that the House of Lords is just an English construct?
Maria Carnero
via thenational.scot
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