I WOULD disagree with Kirsty Strickland’s description of Rishi Sunak as a politician. Certainly he was elected as an MP just about eight years ago, craftily working his way up to chancellor and now prime minister for almost a year. Phew! A cunning, manipulative money-maker. But politician? C’mon!
He comes from a billionaires’ background, himself and his wife worth £730 million. Most politicians, back in the day, had a fair bit of a notion that they were elected to do a job of representing the general public who put them into the UK Parliament. Yep, even most Tory MPs.
But not today’s crowd of ministers, from the top down. As shown when Johnson became prime minister and Sunak was his chancellor, the only incentive for governing was Brexit, with the dreams of times past.
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This was followed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Covid gave the aforementioned government, now turned the new “parcel of rogues”, the opportunity to make loadsamoney for themselves, families and so-called friends in the business world. And how!
We are all aware of the deprivation successive Tory governments have created over more than a decade, affecting first the poorest communities in the land, and then including those with jobs and mortgages.
This is not a real parliament of government no matter how you describe its elective democracy. Just how can you call it a democracy when there is no written constitution?
Abraham Lincoln once described democracy as being “government of the people, by the people and for the people”.
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In no way has parliament ever governed this way. The first-past-the-post electoral system denies the reality of what true democracy is.
Such an ethic is more sympathetic within Scotland’s Claim of Right, where the people are sovereign as opposed to the sovereignty contained within the UK Parliament. This might even be the way of escape from the infestation that is Westminster and its long-outdated Union.
Scotland’s independence cannot wait much longer while Westminster continues to rewrite its own unwritten constitution in order to undermine Scotland’s own democratic parliament.
Alan Magnus-Bennett
Fife
INDULGE me for a moment and let me transport you to a never ever land. A constituent in Rutherglen hears a chap on the door. On opening it, Alex Salmond, Nicola Sturgeon, Patrick Harvie and Humza Yousaf are standing there campaigning for a single by-election candidate. After a short conversation the four walk to the next house, happy in the knowledge that a certain vote is in the bag.
Meanwhile a Labour publicity stunt goes horribly wrong when pantomime dame Jackie, slithery Sarwar and their boss the King of Red Tories Sir Keir Smarmy all stand in front of a mirror and ask it who is the most liked and truthful of them all. The mirror then shatters into a thousand pieces but it is reported on and all the Unionist outlets that an SNP sniper was to blame for it and that everyone loved Labour and that they never told lies.
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Let’s just think about why the first part should not be happening. The Alba party is not standing, the Greens are standing but surely shouldn’t be and Humza is left holding the baby. It is obvious to all and sundry that the SNP are going to get a hammering and then the too little will be done too late to find out what went wrong.
We all know what has gone wrong. Every independence party should have sat down together and laid out a plan to put one candidate in there standing on a “vote for Scotland” ticket. Instead we will be subjected to a media frenzy much worse than usual saying indy is finished, the SNP are finished and Labour are back to save us all. God help us!
Old John
Ayrshire
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