REPORTS have indicated that the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has made several visits to Scotland in recent weeks to rally support for his Unionist Labour Party.

Stephen Flynn’s witty description of Starmer being like David Cameron in a red tie, for many of us, hit the nail on the head. Looks are not everything, but red tie or no, for one who seeks to lead the UK, the notion of having all the charisma of an empty milk carton just doesn’t cut it!

Starmer frequently now talks keenly of the financial potential in the development of the natural resources in the waters off the north coast of Scotland. He says these resources can help put much of what is wrong with the UK economy to rights. How Thatcherite can he get? Starmer never acknowledges that these resources are Scotland’s (including that part filched by Tony Blair), and that decisions about how they are to be developed or not belong to the people of Scotland. In the same way as Starmer and his Unionist predecessors historically plundered Scotland’s oil and the wealth that came with it, Westminster entities are currently still helping themselves to Scotland’s wealthy resources of oil, gas and water ... and now they want even more! They appear oblivious to the fact that folks are aware that more exploitation for fossil-fuel resources means more climate damage and that an increasingly growing number of people in Scotland just don’t want it.

It would appear that Starmer and his associates expect the people of Scotland to roll over, welcome them and their anti-Brexit rhetoric back into power at Westminster, let them and their policies keep damaging Scotland, acting in concert with the Tories, screwing us all over again like they have done with Scotland’s oil since the 1970s.

Currently, the Unionists are out to continue to further control us in Scotland and to beggar us. Why else have the Unionists denied Scotland a bespoke Brexit deal comparable to that of Northern Ireland? Researched and thoughtful, carefully written papers from a Scottish perspective with suggested strategies were prepared and submitted to Westminster’s Tory politicians at least two years before Brexit was finally done. Some of the suggestions would also have benefitted other parts of the UK.

However, Westminster effectively ignored Holyrood’s submissions and suggestions on Brexit and it perfectly demonstrates how senior, powerful figures in the Westminster political machines treat Scotland. Scottish politicians received wide publicity about their submissions on Brexit but never once did Starmer raise Scotland’s needs and views on Brexit in Parliament.

When Unionist politicians talk of the Westminster government working with the Scottish Government, it’s a sham. In effect, their idea of working together means: “You crowd in Holyrood just cut along and do what we have told you to do. Stop asking for things, stop annoying us. Just you lot be quiet.”

On a good day, the Westminster government’s idea of the family of nations of the UK working together around the table means symbolically they want and insist that they cut the cake and then serve themselves first with by far the biggest portion.

When Starmer, Sarwar, Baron Jack and the rest of their Unionist oppressive crew accuse those of us in the independence movement of primarily being interested in divisive politics, at least they now appear to have some idea of what the aims of the independence movement are about! However, it appears that they have yet to intelligently grasp why we want and need to be an independent nation – looking after our own nation’s interests – and to share the wealth and consequent prosperity mainly with those who choose to live and work in Scotland, as opposed to emulating the toxic unequal norms of wealth distribution and class-based dogma promoted in England.

Noticeably, to date, there are no comments from Starmer about Brexit having adversely affected Scotland’s economy by at least a significant 4% due to the loss in trade with Europe.

Maybe the next time Starmer visits Scotland, he can give us his opinion on the 4% loss at the hands of the policies of his Brexit buddies and why he has now joined them in their anti-Brexit ploys. It would also be interesting and informative for him to tell the electorate why he never speaks of the circumstances of each of the countries in the supposed UK family of nations. As in any family, we are all different, with individual needs, and he can’t truthfully say anything different.

Scotland’s citizens’ proud record of assisting those needing help demonstrates that her people are anything but mean and inward-looking, or indifferent to those in need in our own community. Also, we take very seriously our obligations to protect the environment and the planet by our attitudes and actions to address climate change and the needs of the natural world. While this view may be common to others living in the UK and not living in Scotland, those of us who do live here will have a choice of leaving the broken-down UK union and further advancing activities to protect the environment and re-track how we relate to and treat each other. For many of us, this just can’t come soon enough.

Starmer needs to have regard to how Unionists are perceived. Since 2014, the majority of folks in Scotland are now wised up to the lies which Unionists promoted about Scotland being too wee, too poor and too stupid to be self-governing and prosperous. Some of the Unionist politicians’ antics (including “The Vow”) have finally worn out the trust and patience of at least half of the Scottish electorate. The headline-grabbing news that Labour, like the Tories, now support Brexit and do not want to return to the European Union is only further evidence that their policies are no good for Scotland.

The benefits from Scotland’s oil have been largely taken from us since the 1970s – through to the present day. The financial benefits which came from it were needed in Scotland for renewal, but they were plundered and then frittered away by successive Unionist administrations based in London. Ironically, some of the money helped Thatcher to savage our traditional industries and throw workers on the scrapheap.

However, we aren’t fooled anymore by either Labour or Tory politicians that belittle Scotland, and we know what Scotland can be when politically separated and independent of the rest of the UK.

So, Keir, while it will be nice to welcome you and your pals to Scotland for visits, don’t expect too many of us to vote Labour. Our best future lies as an independent country – as opposed to one that meekly takes orders from Westminster’s Unionists.
Anne Thomson
Falkirk