‘We have achieved a great duty in these critical times…we have been the
first to revive the spirit of our country and give it a national existence’
(Thomas Muir, 1798
It’s become something of a family traditional, attending the Thomas Muir Lecture, so I was delighted to be in the audience , listening to Tommy Sheppard’s giving the Thomas Muir Lecture 2017 Lecture (St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh August). http://tommysheppardmp.scot/
If you missed it, tough. No seriously, but I would urge anyone interested to get a back copy or link into The National which provided a full write up two days later, 26th August . http://www.thenational.scot/
The
range, scope and observations from the MP enthused my partner to remark that
it
was quite some time since he’d heard a politicians speak with such passion,
vision and strategy!
With so much to mull over, there were a few particular points for me as ‘take aways’, not least the knowledge that that in the region of 14 million UK voters didn’t vote in the 2017 UK general election. Why? Apathy? Disinterest?
Here
in Scotland there is a realisation that no matter how we vote in a
UK election, the UK government of the
day is determined by votes cast out with Scotland. But if you set that against the knowledge that
the SNP got 37 % of votes cast and won 60% of seats in Scotland, doesn’t that
demonstrate the desire for independence hasn’t dimmed.
But
where did those previous, now missing, SNP voters go in June?
Did
they stay at home?
Were
they caught in the push-me-pull-me of the actual EU question?
Was
it the exclusion of the younger age range?
The
reasons will be multiple, but it is obvious we require to win back those
missing voters. For me, that means focusing on the continuing need to bring about social-economic change,
and the demonstration that such changes
will be achieved through independence and not from Westminster governments formed
by voters from rUK.
The
changes will have to be more than aspirational, but demonstrable, practical and tangible. Not set up for the
advantage of organisations,
institutions, ‘businesses’, conglomerates, but for the people of Scotland.
To
achieve this, I believe we need to see we social change, brought about by social
engagement advocating for
a Prosperous Scotland
one of the four areas defined in the lecture by the MP, followed by a
Democratic Scotland, a Caring Scotland and an Open Scotland.
We know that the powerful don’t give up power, willingly, and if we are to
achieve political change we need to win back those voters!
The
continuing fracturing of the Tory party openly disagreeing over Brexit, almost
rudderless due to its weak leadership, is a sight to behold.
That ‘with
immediate effect’ announcement from
Kezia Dugdale as out-going leader of Labour in Scotland has opened the door for
further warfare: pro and anti Corbyn factors, or ashe put it…’I want to give the next person space…’ http://www.independent.co.uk/
Call
me a political simpleton if you will, but we can’t wait for others to sort
themselves out whilst pretending to have our best interests at heart. After all,
this last visit by Corbyn showed he didn’t understand the difference between
Scottish and rUK legal systems. What else doesn’t he know? Their (latest, how
long will it last) stance on Brexit?
But,
you know, I could work around those four broad, encompassing ‘headlines’ as defined by Tommy Sheppard.
I can see where
discussion and debate would flourish again, since we’d not be bogged down in the likes of policies,
statistics, the manipulation GERS figures that scream doom and gloom instead of
‘get me out of here’.
But
we’d be back to discussing the bread and butter issues that sparked a multitude of interests across the multitudes
in the lead up to Sept 2014. We’d be
back to designing our Scotland, fashioning our future. We’d be back to
transforming every day dialogue into every day politics, and from there to the
ballot box.
So
what’s not to like, what’s stopping us, when you think of A. Sarwar, MSP hoping
to be next Labour leader, telling John Beattie, today, 4th Sept ,’indeyref2
is off the table’? www.bbc.co.uk/radioscotland
This isn’t the way to go, no way, so I think my partner was right: we heard
passion, vision and the outline of a strategy, another step towards indeyref2
and indeyscotland!
Sorry, Sarwar, .it ain’t off the
table, no way
http://bellacaledonia.org.uk
Interview with Tommy Sheppherd, Thomas Muir 2017 Lecture.