Scotland, devolution and the United Kingdom
It was December 21st 2021 yet I felt like I had been transported back in time to 2014. Labour are once again talking about a devolved UK instead of Scottish independence. It’s unbelievable that they could possibly think that scots will fall for that old chestnut again. Maybe Starmer believes his title lends more credibility than the words of a former British Prime Minister? (No Brown is no Scot.)
What makes me realise there has been no time warp is that Labour is run by a Lord of the realm who looks more Tory than even some Tories.
Kier Starmer walked onto the stage after an introduction by a pet Scot with as many facial expressions as Gordon Brown… Lets hope she ages better. Kier started with Corona where he said that the UK was now in a real emergency; 60,000+ deaths and only now he considers Covid 19 a “real emergency”? His lack of empathy smacks of Tory as much as his expensive blue suit. I had guessed before I even played the Youtube video that he would put the UK before Scotland and was sadly not disappointed when he began to spew his unionist tripe.
He said we were stronger because we “chose” to pool our resources and I wonder exactly when Scotland was asked to do so? Because I sure don’t remember the referendum to put Scottish tax payers hard earned money towards nuclear weapons. He continued that only as part of the UK can we work and trade across borders and I openly laugh as Brexit is about to end a lot more work and trade across 27 EU states than could ever be done between the so called home nations.
In all honesty I only got half way through his speech as I felt more and more dirty with each passing minute. It was like listening to a Tory trying to be inspiring yet Kier had obviously not been listening when his coach was trying to teach him how to fake sincerity. What I saw was a carefully scripted speech with no real belief coming from Sir Keir Starmer. There’s no sincerity in his voice, no natural movement in his body to mach the words. He reads from a single autocue and with the camera slightly set off centre it looks awkward, forced. This is a man who is reading what someone else believes.
Sir Keir Starmer wants to “renew the case for devolution”. In that one small phrase he ruins his own argument, devolution is working as intended by Labour, it was their idea, they pushed it upon Scots with no second choice of independence and threw in section 30 for good measure. We have devolved administrations in N. Ireland, Wales and Scotland running to the rules made by Westminster, why should devolution be “renewed” when this is exactly how devolution should be?
He takes a swipe at his fellow Tories and tells us that they have no plans to counter the separatist Scots other than to defend the status quo, the status quo is exactly what brought him a title and leadership of the second Tory party at Westminster. What follows is a standard and laboured (pun intended) swipe on the SNP record on education, child poverty (during a recession and now covid 19?) and health. Yes it was to be expected but I once again found myself noticing his lack of sincerity and the constant looking at the autocue to feed him his lines.
I couldn’t believe he politicised deaths from Covid 19 in Scotland, using them like they were chips on a poker table to try to buy the hand. This lack of empathy once again made me think he was a true blue Tory rather than a working class Labour man.
I just cannot call him a Labour politician, he has no normality about him, no sense of being in touch with reality let alone the people of Scotland. I watched him talk and all I could think was that he was a true Tory. He was full of unionist catch phrases like “separatist” instead of “independence supporter” (I guess his advisors held focus groups on that word). There was no mention of federalism a word that scares unionists; because if done correctly it would mean they would be equal to real Scots. Keir said that he spoke to Scots, heard and even understood why Scots felt the way they did however like every true unionist before him he told Scots that he knows better.
Just before I switched off and mumbled “unclean, unclean, unclean…” to myself for an hour Sir Keir Starmer said he would be the first person to run for Prime Minister who wants to push power away from Westminster. When you consider that Scottish Independence would bring all the power of a sovereign state to Scotland not just a few extra scraps why would any Scot actually vote for more devolution?
Watching this lord of the realm talk it became clear to me that the real Labour party is dead. Gone are the days of the party that understood the average, hard working person and worked to raise them up. Now all that is left is the Tory party and you can chose to vote for the blue dominant ones or the red submissive ones. Either way your vote is wasted.