I HEARD Sunak say things akin to these: “We have got to get inflation down, it is damaging living standards. If we give NHS workers a pay rise that will only make inflation worse.” “If you union leaders keep taking strike action, we will turn union members into criminals by bringing in new law,” effectively turning workers into slaves. “Any one who vilifies Britain will face being de-radicalised,” so you Scottish independence people better watch out because vilifying has not been defined.
Sunak failed to point out that the reason for inflation and lack of growth is because his Tories took the UK out of the EU. The UK is adrift in a life raft having cut itself off from its main trading partner and having failed to secure trade deals which match what it had.
The rest of the world no longer cares. Cabinet members endlessly repeat “war, Covid and Russian oil”, but those things are happening to everyone in the world so everyone is in that same boat. If everyone is going through the same hiatus economically, it does not mean that much. A lot of economics is about relativity. All major economies produced less and gave out free money during the pandemic, this has been a major cause of inflation – too much money, not enough goods and services to soak it up.
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The UK has doubled down on this by choking off the supply of labour through Brexit and its immigration policies.
A few days ago, the UK sanctioned wind farms on land in England and in the next breath they agreed to the opening of a new coal mine. Their propaganda said it will be good for creating jobs, yet according to every news broadcast, we are told there are insufficient workers to do what already must be done.
They went on to say the UK would import coke if we did not dig it up. Much of the produce would go for export, if only trade deals allowed. Australia has a new “greener” government and they have plenty of mines – I do not know if the Cumbrian coke will fit into their economy, but if the sulphur content is the deal breaker, as it could be in England, it feels to me that the product could be hard to sell anywhere.
Apart from which, what kind of example does it set when the world is on fire? Would they have announced this last summer during a heat wave when houses in East London were being burned to the ground? Of course it is ideal now when it is cold and those nostalgic memories of the fire in the grate are so easily invoked.
A few weeks ago they announced a windfall tax on the obscene profits that oil companies are making, and in the same breath the Government told the oil companies they could have a nice tax reduction on new production!
Meanwhile, Keir Starmer’s Tory B-team grapple with his inability to emulate that charismatic thing that Blair had going. Labour’s poll rating has shot up because people have realised they voted for the Tories’ Brexit and it is this mistake which is reducing their living standards.
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Starmer still thinks that the “red wall” will return to Labour if he supports Brexit – I think that is wrong. As for the report he commissioned from Mr Hasbeen Brown: if you want Scotland to lead the world as it has done so often over the centuries; if you want citizens, refugees and those who live here to be treated with respect and to live without the burdens of poverty; and if you want Scotland to be governed by people that are voted in to office by the Scottish electorate, all of these things and many more are available only when Scotland regains its independence.
For me, independence is about the fundamental way I feel about my identity. I would be happy to be poorer than to live under the Raj. For many people who support the Union, as they realise that Union is responsible for their diminishing standard of living and Tory-inflicted inflation, they will turn their heads towards independence. I suspect that is partly what has caused the surge in the polls towards independence, along with those who are waking up to the deficit in Scottish democracy.
Cher Bonfis
via email
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