I am 65 years old. In the, slightly more than, half a century that I have been politically aware, I cannot recall a time when ‘we’ were not in the midst of an economic crisis; on the verge of and economic crisis; or struggling to recover from an economic crisis. In all circumstances, the measures … Continue reading Killing politics
Tag: Alistair Darling
Should we be nice to No voters?
I guess it depends on what is meant by being nice. If the question is whether we should maintain reasonable levels of civility in our exchanges with those who voted No in last year's referendum, then the answer is clearly in the affirmative. We should absolutely eschew petty insults and epithets which call into question … Continue reading Should we be nice to No voters?
Transparent duplicity
Side-lined Darling (Photo credit: Wikipedia)The Herald reports Cameron to make two-day foray to Scotland to fight for the Union. The only interesting thing here is that the supposed leader of the anti-independence campaign, Alistair Darling, isn't even mentioned. It seems that Cameron has abandoned hope of making the hapless British Labour back-bencher his scapegoat when … Continue reading Transparent duplicity
Journalist or propagandist?
Ben Riley-Smith, posing as a political reporter in The Telegraph, appears to imagine that "wriggle room" is a terrible thing. However, if we were to use less pejorative terminology we'd see that what he is actually talking about is "options". And options are among the most valuable commodities in politics.Ben Riley-Smith actually seems to take … Continue reading Journalist or propagandist?
Silencing the proles
It's not difficult to see what is behind the latest inane rant from an increasingly frenzied and incoherent Alistair Darling as he berates unidentified persons for unspecified "online abuse". He is facing crippling, career-ending humiliation over the threat to abolish the currency union and so he is, perhaps understandably, trying to divert attention.It would certainly … Continue reading Silencing the proles
Desperate Darling
Alistair Darling is looking increasingly beleaguered and desperate. When he rants about how his Project Fear is winning the economic argument, (The Herald), he sounds increasingly like he's trying to convince himself and his little band of British nationalists rather than the people of Scotland.But Darling has never seemed to be talking to the people … Continue reading Desperate Darling
Unionist mindset
I had an interesting exchange with a unionist on Twitter recently. No! This is not an April Fool thing! It really was an interesting exchange. Allow me to explain why.It started when the unionist in question tweeted the following:Nicola Sturgeon is now telling the rUK that they cannot have a say on a currency union.An … Continue reading Unionist mindset
Independence: Day One not Year Zero
March 2016: Doomsday for Scotland?The campaign to deny Scotland the normal constitutional status of a sovereign nation is inherently illogical. Independence is the default status of nations. It simply makes no sense to claim, as British nationalists do, that independence must be argued for. That a case must be made in order to establish that … Continue reading Independence: Day One not Year Zero
Peter A Bell 