Scotland deserves better, so.....

......On polling day…….May 2016

…what chance Labour voters will hold their noses and vote Tory, just to give SNP and independence a bloody nose and to luxuriate in the ‘morning after headlines? Imagine that! ’SNP fail at the polls. Proof independence is off the agenda’. 

But various comments and murmurings indicate this might happen in an effort to lessen the SNP hold. Would a Tory ‘bounce’ then enable Labour to ditch a failed leader with a view to regrouping in time for next year’s local elections and beyond? 

Ok Labour has more than ‘lost its way’. What does it stand for? Is it sufficiently left wing? What does printing its manifesto so late in the day say about its organisational, strategical capabilities and its view of the voters? Who truly knows, since the Labour Party doesn’t! 

But that shouldn’t make the Tory Party worth of a vote, not even a protest vote. 

And Lib Demmers? They too know their credibility is so far gone, thanks in no small part to firstly Cleg, but most definitely due to Carmichael. Maybe LibDemmers could switch votes to Tory; they’ve done it in the past. So take a moment Labour LibDem voters and weigh it up. 

Post war 1945, would a Tory Govt have enabled, struggled for and set up an NHS? No way! They would have knocked down any suggestions as being..’too expensive, post war’. There are many on the right who would argue and still do that Attlee’s government were wrong to bring many of our largest industries under state control: coal mining and the railways. But they were left-wing, manifesto pledges that Labour made and kept. And Bevin as Foreign Secretary helped start de colonisation:  India, Pakistan, Burma, Ceylon and Jordan, whilst Churchill (and the Tories) hummed and hawed with him asserting he had not come to oversee the dismantling of the British Empire.

So how can you possibly vote Tory and (further) abandon your commitments to socialism, equality, solidarity?

But  if post war is too far back, too historical, what of now? Take 2014 and just one pledge: for ship building on the Clyde: allegedly ‘secure’ within the Union. Where are we now with that? That’s what the Tories do to you, to me, to Scotland; say one thing, do another. How could you possibly vote for them, even with a ‘tactical’ tag attached to your votes? There may have been food rationing long after the end of WW2, but it’s only with Tory, propped up by Lib Dems,  that we saw the need for food banks, now a very visible sign of the failure of Tory policies.

And if that doesn’t stick in the craw, think of the young, vulnerable refugee children, abandoned by the Tory party last week. How does that sit with the Attlee government’s commitment to the UN? Take that into consideration along with various, current Tory positioning : T May, Home Secretary; her recent speech on ‘human rights, workers’ rights; the Government’s  relationship with junior doctors.  

But wait, a smarmy speech yesterday, Wed 4^th May from Cameron and an apparent change in Tory policy towards child refugees? Watch for the details, as they play the numbers/age/country of origins game.

Tories don’t change their ways, but they want Labour Lib Dem voters to. So, weight it up, please.

Endorsing Tory party dictate as passed from Westminster via one solitary MP, then on to Davidson, won’t benefit Scotland.  

A vote for the Tories will only prolong austerity, and weaken the next Scottish Government’s ability to challenge and mitigate Tory policies. Policies that include furthering neo liberalism and the continuing transfer of monies, resources to the private sector away from the public sector.

Scotland deserves better. 

And with this vote and emerging inde parties, such as RISE, and hike in popularity of the Greens, there could be a real ‘bounce’ in our Parliament, headed up by a strong Government, that takes us even closer to independence.

Selma Rahman

Really Mr Hamilton!

Dear Mr Alex Cole Hamilton, Lib Dem Candidate,

You recently sent me a personalised leaflet, seeking my vote later this week. 

Now call me an old cynic, but photos of yourself and the sitting Councillor, Robert Aldridge, didn’t exactly scream empathy or understanding with myself as an older woman. 

Couldn’t you think of portraying at least one older woman on…. Wait a minute. You did and that was exposed as a ‘untruth’. Remember that older, voting woman leaflet? Discredited? Discarded? Gone to the big shredder in the sky?

Alright, let’s move on. With austerity continuing to decimate people’s lives and well-being you chose to highlight ‘5 points to combat pollution’. 

Mmmmm, I’m not convinced you’re seeing the bigger picture here: perhaps some policies to ensure improving education, from nursery upwards;  routes into employment; apprenticeships? 

OK, the SNP seems to have stolen a march in certain areas, so how about detailing how you could build alliances with your MP, and MSPs, working for a better Scotland? 

Hang on. You didn’t even include a picture of your Scottish leader, your Scottish MP and your national leader. Could that be something to do with their toxicity and each one, Rennie, Carmichael and Fallon having received in excess of £35k from the JRR Trust? 

Receiving money from a Trust is one thing, but the process whereby LibDems appear to have managed a coup on the Board ensuring a pro Lib Dem bias is another. The JRRT continues to claim its primary activity is ‘fighting for civil liberties, human rights and justice’. Could your leaflet show us anything the LibDems have done in those areas? Justice and Carmichael just don't seem to go hand in hand, do they?

OK, I see you would have a problem even if you were to go back just a few years to propping up the Tories. 

No, come to think of it, it was worse than ‘propping up’. You gave them the route into government via the coalition that saw the beginning of attacks on the poorest in society, the most vulnerable, but then hey ho. ‘They’ don’t normally vote Tory and they’re not going to vote Lib Dem again, are they? 

So what about a policy then? What about that  penny for education? No mention of that in my leaflet. Do you think that perhaps your record on being untruthful, and follow- through specifically in regards promises and education is so tattered that we just can’t believe LibDems. 

But throughout that leaflet, you make great play of the 2015 results in this ward: SNP 39%, Lib Dems 33%, Con 12%, Labour12% ; the inference and assumption being that Tories and Labour voters will vote for you, even if just to keep the SNP out. A kind of 'hold your nose' job.

You do voters a great diservice with that assumption. 

You’re assuming that we’ve fallen out of love with Independence, and that we deny the need for pro Independence parties to pursue policies that fight for Scotland. 

Policies such as land and justice sector reform coupled to strong negotiating skills that secure the very best from Westminster, a government of one person, one vote, that  has no mandate here. 

You are assuming that the 2015 turn out here was a fluke; that the 24% of  Labour Tory unionists have closed minds, and are not able to see broken promises and vows. 

You need to believe that they have not watched with despair the rise in food banks, the continuing assault on the less well off. 

You need to hope that voters can’t and don’t change their minds. 

You are mistaken. 

One of the most dynamic outcomes of  2014 has been the politicisation of voters, Voters who are engaged, thinking and challenging, no longer content with old parties, old ways. 

My vote will not go to the Lib Dems or any unionist party. 

It will go to ensuring Independence becomes a reality, through the democratic process, will of the people, whilst our elected representatives from across the Independence spectrum focus  on priorities that relate to Scotland and the Scottish population.

Yours, Selma Rahman 

 PS....I resist the temptation to provide links to you and other Unionists named in this article.