Kezia Dugdale: Not Now & Not Ever
Unionists across the political spectrum and across this great land respectfully debate the case of "Not Now" vs "Not Ever" in the context of an independence referendum.
Personally, I'm very firmly in the "Not ever" camp.
I didn't join the Labour Party to defend the union.
Of all the great causes in the world:
- The fight against poverty
- The battle for equality
- The plight for a more just world
Independence? The defeat of a union, a bond, 300 years strong?
It's a huge distraction peddled by fantastists and fundamentalists.
Fantastists who can't agree on what an independent Scotland would look like and fundamentalists who believe that Scots are a nation oppressed by the English.
The case for the union is so clear, so integral to who I am - Scottish, British & European - that I find the whole premise of a referendum ridiculous. The political equivalent of asking me why I put my clothes on before I go to work in the morning.
Some people consider my view "undemocratic" - that I would deny "giving the people a say." I could just about humour that view if it wasn't peddled by a party who have so cyncially ditched just about every other pledge they made to the Scottish people in 2007. That undermines democracy and the public's faith in politics.
I also risk upsetting the apple cart by suggesting that unionists who support a referendum are motivated not by a principle, or a value, but by tactic.
"Shooting the fox" is not what I expect from a party that banned hunting.
For more articles by Kezia Dugdale, take a look at her Soapbox blog here.
Personally, I'm very firmly in the "Not ever" camp.
I didn't join the Labour Party to defend the union.
Of all the great causes in the world:
- The fight against poverty
- The battle for equality
- The plight for a more just world
Independence? The defeat of a union, a bond, 300 years strong?
It's a huge distraction peddled by fantastists and fundamentalists.
Fantastists who can't agree on what an independent Scotland would look like and fundamentalists who believe that Scots are a nation oppressed by the English.
The case for the union is so clear, so integral to who I am - Scottish, British & European - that I find the whole premise of a referendum ridiculous. The political equivalent of asking me why I put my clothes on before I go to work in the morning.
Some people consider my view "undemocratic" - that I would deny "giving the people a say." I could just about humour that view if it wasn't peddled by a party who have so cyncially ditched just about every other pledge they made to the Scottish people in 2007. That undermines democracy and the public's faith in politics.
I also risk upsetting the apple cart by suggesting that unionists who support a referendum are motivated not by a principle, or a value, but by tactic.
"Shooting the fox" is not what I expect from a party that banned hunting.
For more articles by Kezia Dugdale, take a look at her Soapbox blog here.
posted by Kezia Dugdale at
12:00
8 Comments:
Oh dear oh dear ha ha ha ha ha
"cyncially ditched just about every other pledge"
Bill of Rights and Responsibilities
EU Treaty Referendum
ID Cards
New Nuclear Power
Trident Renewal
Iraq War
Afghan War
Privatising Royal Mail
Privatising Schools
Privatising NHS
PFI
Post Office Closures
Abolishing 10p Lower Rate Tax
Welfare Reform
No reform of Council Tax
Abolishing Scottish Regiments
De-regulation of the Banks
No Scottish Specific Airgun Legislation
Cash for Honours
Fiddling Expenses on Second Homes
Fiddling expenses through Think Tanks
Postal Vote Fraud
Planning Smear Campaigns
Engaging in Negative Scare Campaigning
I could go on.....
And get this, the supporter of the party behind these offences to humanity has the audacity to stand up and whimper about eradicating poverty, tackling inequality and 'the plight for a more just world'
I think I'm going to be sick.
The duplicity and hypocrisy is suffocating.....
What has the Labour Party done in its twelve years of power?
It's let the unregulated banking system indulge in greed and speculation to the point where it had to effectively nationalise the banks with taxpayers money to keep the banks solvent.
It dreams of holding everyone's details on databases, of ID cards, of detention without trial and of secret evidence that the accused cannot challenge.
It has enthusiastically joined in with the US neo-con dream of controlling the Persian Gulf oil states with the invasion of Iraq and the UK is still fighting as part of the neo-con strategy to control Afhanistan as a gateway to the oil wealth of the Caspian Sea basin.
And on 29 October 2008 David Milliband said, "Like every other EU member state, and the United States, we regard Tibet as part of the People's Republic of China."
If you are in it because you're against poverty, for equality and for a more just world you're in the wrong party. The Labour Party is slaved to US ideals and US foreign policy like no other government has ever been.
The only reason you advance for keeping the Union is that it is 300 years old. It's done no favours to Scotland so longevity is no reason to keep it. Raise your eyes from London and take a look across the North Sea at Norway with its $410 Billion oil fund and at the states of Sweden, Finland and Denmark who're all doing well and tell me again Scotland's done well out of the Union.
Scotland's status as a region of the UK or as an independent state has a huge bearing on how it benefits from its natural resources and how it decides to run its own economy. "Distraction", is a word bandied about by those who don't want the electorate to think about the benefits of independence.
The label of, "fantasists and fundamentalists" is one that could just as easily be applied to unionists.
The case for independence is so clear, so integral to who I am - Scottish & European - that I find the whole premise of no referendum ridiculous. The political equivalent of asking me not to put my clothes on before I go to work in the morning.
The SNP is a minority government and the pledge to hold a referendum can only be fulfilled if the Parliament votes for it. However the Labour party has a history of not holding referendum pledges made in a manifesto such as a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty so I suppose it would be par for the course to stop someone else's referendum pledge.
Could you list the pledges to the Scottish people that the SNP has "ditched"? Pledges being voted down in the Scottish Parliament or being dropped due to hostility by the LibLabCon alliance or a failure of Labour councils to implement them don't count.
I also risk upsetting the apple cart by suggesting that unionists who support a referendum are motivated not by a principle, or a value, but by tactic.
I don't think you're upsetting the apple cart at all with that statement.
Labour fighting poverty? Don't make me laugh. As the McCrone papers make clear, it was London Labour who cynically betrayed the Scottish people during the 1970's, burying the inconvenient fact that an independent Scotland would be one of the most prosperous in Europe - indeed, last week it was revealed that living standards would have been around 30% higher - with a budget surplus 'to an embarrasing degree'.
How many Scots families have been split up by the need to move furth of this country to find work?
Why are a third of Scots weans still living in poverty?
No need to look further than Scottish (sic) Labour.
Of course the whole poverty industry, rooted in a national & individual dependency culture, has benefited Labour just fine, providing cushy jobs throughout the public sector for its paid up boys & girls.
Labour is on the skids Kezia. Time's up.
"Fantastists who can't agree on what an independent Scotland would look like..."
Well, I suppose the vision of an independent Scotland outlined at www.destination.sco.eu is pretty much fantasy if an independent Scotland were to be governed by the Labour Party.
"Fantastists who can't agree on what an independent Scotland would look like..."
That is not fantastic.
The entire point of independence is to enable the people of Scotland to decide what their country looks like and how it is governed.
So madam, what are you proposing? more equality in the rapid promotion of all to the ' all expense paid House of Lords? '
The fight against poverty... If I had a penny for every time I have heard this one from some here today gone tomorrow politician I would not be switching off one of the bars on my fire.
The plight for a more just world.... For all the years that the Labour party, in all its disguises, has been in power, every small part of our liberties has taken on more of a resemblance of a big brother existence than the old USSR.
Why can you fail to see the successful small countries in this world... the ones who do not need the Barnett formula to support their economies? those self governing independent nations whose people take their own well thought out decisions.. rather than create the fear factor that the Labour party base it's remit on.
Kezia, was it not Keir Hardie, a founder of the Old Labour Party, who campaigned on Scotland being independent? Who ditched what now?
"The case for the union is so clear, so integral to who I am - Scottish, British & European - that I find the whole premise of a referendum ridiculous"
If the case for the union is so clear, why do you not tell us what it is?
Maybe I can help you with some of the NULabour handbook, Scotland is too wee, too poor or too stupid to rule its self.
Maybe you can assist with some of the positive benefits of the union that are "so clear"
If you do it will be a first from Nulabour.
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