David Pratt: We must demand more than a Tory Government proven unfit for purpose

A year later I was on the miners’ picket lines at Ravenscraig while simultaneously finding myself steeped in the anti-apartheid movement and support for national liberation struggles from Angola to Nicaragua.

Indeed, it was a visit to that latter Central American country and its Sandinista revolution and subsequent battle against the US-CIA backed Contra rebels that helped make up my mind to stay in journalism these past four decades as a roving foreign correspondent.

In all that time I’ve met countless “professional” politicians, interviewed presidents and prime ministers and talked with those “ordinary” people that such leaders are ostensibly meant to serve.

Politics has always been a dirty business, so I never ceased to marvel at those I met along the way who displayed a genuine commitment to their calling. Those who sought to better the lives of their fellow citizens and were willing to sacrifice all for that cause.

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That many of the most honest, passionate, selfless, and canny of those politicians that I met came from backgrounds of poverty, oppression and injustice, or were thrust into the political maelstrom or spotlight through revolutionary politics, says much about what motivated them.

Which got me to thinking recently about what motivates politicians today. Already I can hear those who would quip back cynically: “What motivates them is what has always motivated them.”

But if a hunger for power, self-gain, narcissism, or control-freakery continues to drive some, then it makes sense that there must also be those public spirited, self-sacrificing, compassionate and decent individuals who fight for the collective good?

That such individuals exist both within and outwith the ranks of mainstream political parties I have no doubt. Such activists are the bedrock upon which political change is built and that they are inspirational is undeniable.

But such stalwarts are already fully committed to the cause and nothing, not even failings by their own party leaders, will deter such activists from their commitment.

But what of those for whom politics is something they largely shy away from – and do so for good reason when in politicians what they perceive is a species inhabited by the self-serving.

How are such people to be reassured and encouraged to commit and throw their weight behind the fight for a collective cause?

Right now, when I look across the same world that I’ve traversed these past decades bearing witness to peoples’ struggle for something better, I’m struck by one thing especially.

In so many places the citizens of those countries appear sick to the back teeth with those politicians whom they might have voted for but have since dismissively pulled the ladder up behind them.

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From Lebanon to London, Brazil to Belarus, Uganda to India, Russia to Edinburgh, there’s a pattern emerging. One where growing numbers of people have become impatient with politicians who fiddle while the world burns around them.

Among too many who these days make up the professional political class, cronyism has become their only battle cry. Opaqueness rather than transparency their political modus operandi. If the coronavirus has proved one thing it’s the extent to which profit, whether financial or political, comes before the interests of people. The very term “vaccine nationalism” tells us all we need to know as to the thinking of so many politicians right now.

As someone still scarred from those Thatcher years when the cruel and mercenary face of Toryism glowered down on the most vulnerable, I look around today and what I see is an even more malign threat. Thatcher’s government were many things, but gross incompetency was not among their most obvious failings.

As 100,000 deaths from the coronavirus sadly proves, Boris Johnson’s Government is not fit for purpose. But so, too, can the same be said about many other politicians today and those pretenders to the throne of government. For, irrespective of stripe, the calibre of some who seek to enter the corridors of power is often woeful.

Too many have risen through the ranks only because of sycophancy. The word let alone meaning of “principle”, is alien to them, while the possession of a political hinterland that has helped shape their values and motives is as rare as hen’s teeth.

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After 40 years of watching politicians globally go about their “business”, rarely can I remember a time when I’ve had less trust, respect, confidence in most to do the right thing by the people who elect them. I know I’m not alone in this thinking.

So, to paraphrase a man called Lenin, what then is to be done? Well, to begin with both here in Scotland and across the UK every election opportunity must be taken to oust the prima donnas and charlatans, the grifters and freeloaders.

In the case of Scottish independence, a cause that personally matters as much as any I have ever believed in, we must prove to our fellow citizens wary of politicians and voting Yes, that we genuinely have their interests at heart.

To do this so we need politicians capable of not just making decisions but making the right ones. Sure, everyone makes mistakes, but now is not the time to leave anything to chance. For that reason too, we need to ensure that those we elect have the proper skill set, rather than giving away free tickets to opportunists eager to climb aboard a gravy train.

Above all, we need those with a selflessness and passion to serve those that elect them. Scotland is now playing for the highest stakes possible and this is no time for poseurs and imposters.

At the next opportunity let’s elect the politicians we really deserve. Those with the concerns, wellbeing and future of all Scotland’s citizens close to their heart.