ABRACADABRA! The rabbit has been pulled out of the hat – again! By Gordon Brown – again! Let’s hoist the Union Jack and stop bothering about independence!
Just as soon as Starmer and his English Labour Party win the next UK election, we will get lots more powers for the regions and devolved governments, and they will set about abolishing the House of Lords, as they promised more than 100 years ago. Unless, of course, Sir Keir doesn’t fancy seeing his prospective comfy, taxpayer-funded retirement snoozing seat disappear.
Ever heard of the “power grab prophecy”? It’s the recognition of the fact that, throughout history, the side in a conflict that fears losing promises lots of goodies to persuade their opponents to surrender, and as soon as they have, the promises and guarantees disappear in the mists. For example, the citizens of a town besieged by the English who, on the guarantee of free passage if they surrendered, did so and were promptly executed.
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We have been here before. All three Unionist party leaders in 2014 swore to implement The Vow, devised by Gordon Brown, promising the nearest thing to Home Rule, guaranteed membership of the EU, 13 frigates starting to be built on the Clyde within a year, Holyrood’s status made legally inviolate in perpetuity, the Sewell Convention made law etc.
What did we get? On September 19 2014, English Votes for English Laws, and since then Holyrood has been overruled several times, even taken to court to overturn the signing of a UN charter; we are out of the EU; the power to dissolve Holyrood still rests with Westminster; and Sewell is only a custom “normally” observed.
Are we to be conned again? Any time we meet someone who is being swayed by these rehashed promises, we need to remind them of the “power grab prophecy”.
L McGregor
Falkirk
BRITISH Unionist failure, liar and has-been Gordon Brown is being thawed out and brought up from cold storage.
Like some jaded end-of-pier entertainer, with Benny Hill theme blasting in the background Brown has rehashed his “federalism” lies that were repeated ad nauseam during the last independence referendum.
As well as some vague notion of “federalism” that leaves Scotland trapped as a vassal colony within the UK, He is proposing abolition of the House of Lords.
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However this has already been shot down. Labour’s clique of self-entitled town hall bureaucrats, cronies and donors who see a seat for life in the Westminster cesspit as their entitlement have hit back hard against this.
Some Scottish media hacks still cling to the idea that Gordon Brown has suffered on behalf of Scotland. He is therefore “entitled” and deserving of some position.
Brown is a hardline British nationalist. Thanks to his PFI obsession, Scottish taxpayers have to pay £1 billion per year to private companies in toxic PFI debt. It was Brown’s “light-touch” regulation that contributed heavily to the financial crash in 2008; his stealth taxes wiped out many private pensions.
Browns “promises” are as worthless as a “degree” from Trump “University”.
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We have been down this road before. In 1979 Alec Douglas-Home promised that if Scotland voted no to devolution they would get “something better”. That “something better” was Thatcherism. Scotland had its resources stolen, industry decimated and jobs outsourced to cheaper sources in Asia.
Gordon Brown’s muscular Unionism has nothing to offer. It drips in false patriotism, fanaticism, anti-intellectualism, bigotry, bellicose militarism, peans to empire and the royal family. It revels in the greed-is-good nostrum of Thatcher and seeks to blame its victims for its own failure.
Brown and his cronies need to be exposed, discredited and run out of town.
Alan Hinnrichs
Dundee
HERE we go again, another “Vow” from Gordon Brown, the has-been ex-PM. Why should we believe anything in this latest report when none of the promises last time were honoured? Apparently the House of Lords is “indefensible” and he is going to abolish it. Well, actions speak louder than words, so he could start by getting the 168 Labour Lords to resign now!
Nae chance, they won’t give up their warm ermine robes, comfy red leather seats and £300-a-day attendance for something as trivial as democracy.
So, put the report straight in the bin (or use it for winter fuel) and let’s carry on the fight for our Scottish independence!
Angus Ferguson
Glasgow
I READ The National fairly regularly, solely because it is possible to read stories there which are not allowed elsewhere and which allows discussion, at least, of an independent Scotland. On any subject it’s always interesting to hear alternative opinion from – hopefully – substantial, experienced, respected and respectful people. However this was taken to the limit this morning when I saw Gordon Brown not only on the front page but occupying a whole page (plus) inside.
Brown’s record on pensions, banks and immigration substantially exemplifies the reason we are in such a mess today. I feel we need his opinions like we need a norovirus epidemic and he should be invited to decamp to that nearby uninhabited island in the River Forth.
Robert G Clark
Gorebridge
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