IT’S fair to say that democracy in the UK is on a shoogly peg. Nothing exhibits this better than what has followed on from Prime Minister Cameron’s failure to stand up to Ukip, ie the dodgy 2016 EU referendum and the unprincipled actions of many of the supposed leaders at Westminster over the last three years, now epitomised by a Prime Minister who can’t be trusted to tell the truth.
These failings are exacerbated by the lack of interest of most of the media to speak up for decency and principle in political actions and debate. Acres of newsprint and many hours of broadcasting have been devoted to the contortions of House of Commons debates etc. Despite this, a simple question remains. What about the dubious behaviour of Messrs Johnson, Gove and Cummings, as leaders of the official 2016 Vote Leave campaign, which has been found to have broken the law, and is subject of two ongoing investigations?
READ MORE: UK Government to back push for December election if vote fails
Vote Leave broke electoral law during its campaign. The Electoral Commission has refused to release evidence they have relating to multiple electoral offences, due to a current Metropolitan Police investigation. In addition, the Information Commissioner is looking into possible illegal sharing of personal data by Vote Leave. When will these inquiries be concluded?
Instead of giving the 2016 referendum result the sanctity which Leavers claim, should we not be stopping the whole circus and asking: should this result stand? If not, it looks as if Scotland will be grabbed out of the EU. It will be no consolation if Johnson, Gove and Cumming later have their collars felt.
No doubt sometime in the future, the BBC will do a documentary explaining how the public were conned (without mentioning their own part in it).
Roddie Macpherson
Avoch
I DO love (not) those on our side who have already surrendered. Mostly conjecture and lazy assumptions are reported by George Kerevan (Yes movement’s radical wing is reawakening -and this is why, October 28), who is already retreating before we even start. Our opponents must love to see it.
The right way to gain independence is through a referendum, agreed with our present partners in a Union with them which we wish to terminate. To move for this is the only correct thing to do. There may have to be, depending on outcomes, some other options considered at a later stage. I doubt it however. But that is for then.
READ MORE: The Yes movement’s radical wing is reawakening – and this is why
So let me get this straight. If the SNP says it is going for a referendum – repeatedly – it is not? Somebody said this. It must be true. So if it says it is NOT going for a referendum it probably is? Or what? And I do love these “experts” that appear to know better than the UK what the UK will do. The UK has no idea what it will do at the moment on anything.
No UK political leader has in fact “ruled out” a Section 30 (which of course is “agreed” not “conceded”) and the Electoral Commission is presently contemplating the wording of the next referendum, which the Institute for Government has conceded must be held.
Dave McEwan Hill
Sandbank, Argyll
IT’S no secret there are enough Tory voters in Scotland for that party to be fit to send MPs to Westminster. Number-wise there are multiple times more Tory voters in England, but notably this is also so in percentage terms, which is why Scotland has had so many Tory governments in charge of it over the years.
Not until devolution, and several years into that, has Scotland finally found its individuality clear and distinct from the politics of England’s Westminster rule. Indeed, given some percentage mathematics, if the population of Scotland was to equal the population of England, its representation in a Westminster parliament, based on its present SNP representation there, would likely mean that the SNP would be in charge not only in Scotland but in England too.
Which idle musings aside, there would certainly be no Brexit nonsense, and it would probably also be so that much of the archaic procedures of government that occur in the parliament at Westminster would be markedly trimmed.
There are indeed differences between Scotland and England and to say otherwise defies all the political evidence to the contrary. While the differences are inherent in the different histories of the two countries, it can be likewise said that these different histories are maybe less because of event and more because of social character.
There is the observer’s anecdote from the time when Scotland and France were chummy and it was common for visits between their people. Some visiting French knights were shocked to find that the Scottish peasantry didn’t take kindly to the visitors riding their horses through their standing corn and were quick to stop them doing so. Apparently the knights were in the habit of doing this at home. But as they say in France – vive la difference!
Ian Johnstone
Peterhead
WELL, I have “dithered and delayed” long enough before putting finger to keyboard. We now have the EU extension possibly to January 31. It may well be time to look out the winter woolies for canvassing. On my route I will check all ditches after Halloween just in case there is the odd Prime Minister about.
Hector Maclean
Glasgow
THANK you for the ironic photo on page five of Saturday’s paper showing a toy spider next to Boris Johnson’s head. For younger readers please note the classic 1966 song by The Who, Boris The Spider, the last verse of which is:
He’s come to a sticky end
Don’t think he will ever mend
Never more will he crawl ‘round
He’s embedded in the ground
Thank you John Entwhistle for this wonderful thought. Life must soon imitate art!
Keith Duncan
Moffat
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