If the 'No' campaign isn't led by Scottish Labour then it has no chance. And, depending on who the new SLAB leader is and how much autonomy they manage to gain from their London HQ, if the 'No' campaign is led by Scottish Labour then it has no chance.
Better stock up on popcorn, cos this is going to be fun. If the Calman cock-up is anything to go by, the 3 Unionist parties will put up a laughably weak "last bastion" (copyright: G Broon).
... Mr Duncan Smith, while insisting that the Conservatives are not finished in Scotland, was adamant the No to independence campaign would neither be led from London, nor by the Tories.http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/politics/ids-challenge-to-salmond-on-referendum-1.1102736
“No, it wouldn’t be. The Government position is in favour of the Union but the Labour Party is alongside that, the Liberals are alongside that. In Scotland, there are many groups in favour of the Union, so it’s a coalition of the willing. It’s not going to be led by the Prime Minister.”
He said that “people of good intent, politicians, businessmen, people from the arts, who really care about these things now need to step up to the mark and say this is no longer a vague threat, this is a serious threat”.
... He added: “You saw what happened to independent Ireland when the economic winds changed. It was UK taxpayers who helped bail out two Scottish banks that would have absolutely bust the Scottish economy as they did and are doing in Ireland.
“It’s because we have this greater capacity that nobody in England complains. There was not one whisper from anybody in England. That’s because everybody without even thinking about it said, of course, we should bail out a Scots bank because they are part of the Union.”
IDS clearly doesn't read any blogs if he thinks that "there was not one whisper from anybody in England" about the RBS bailout. I've seen hundreds of abusive blog comments, and I am not that assiduous a reader of blogs these days.
And when will Unionist politicians start to realise that slagging off Ireland and Iceland is not doing their cause any favours?
UPDATE - Press silence
Not a peep from the "Scottish" press today about that astonishing by-election victory in Abereen yesterday. The only exception being The Scotsman, who managed - ta da - three sentences!
Thank goodness that nearly everyone has migrated to the internet for their news.
6 comments:
Awe :-(
I was looking forward to quotes like this one from Michael Forsyth:
"Research shows that an independent Scotland would find its bills exceeded by its revenues by £8 billion. That is the price Scotland would have to pay for severing its connections with the United Kingdom. That would be its admission fee to the Third World."
— Michael Forsyth
Speech in reply to the debate on the constitution at the meeting of the central council of the National Union, 30th March 1996
By-election win makes SNP largest party in Aberdeen
Which Scots banks are those? Does he mean HBOS and the Royal Bank of Scotland? The chairmen of both of which were knighted by the English government for “services to banking”, when the English government wasn’t noticing what a mess they were making of it?
That will be Halifax Bank of Scotland I suppose. Last time I looked Halifax was in England, so that particular bank will be only half Scottish. The other one was RBS? Was that not the product of a merger with the much larger Nat West? I did not realise that the National and Westminster was a Scottish bank before its hostile takeover by Sir Fred Goodwin. Is that not what he got his knighthood for? Funny that, they are British banks when the knighthoods are being handed out, but Scottish when they need bailed out. Despite obviously being more than half composed of hitherto English banks.
Let’s not also forget that English banks also needed a bail out. Northern Rock, Bradford and Bingley spring to mind.
Thanks Gareth (Toque)! A great quote, and one that I'm sure the English self-government movement cherishes ;) Indeed, I may use it myself.
Cynical, Yes, and Newsnet is one of the fine new institutions which is (thank goodness) murdering the dead tree guys. I expect decent coverage on Newsnet, but am surprised by decent coverage in "Scottish" papers (the English ones are often better).
Munguin, preaching to the converted. I blame Thatcher'sbanking "reforms" myself.
I love this blogg because its tone is just right, upbeat and irreverent. I would like to think that your services could be called upon by the referendum campaign; you would be great at rebuttal.
On whether the choice of leader for Scottish Labour will seriously undermine the NO campaign all I can say is; I hope you’re right but I think we will be deluding ourselves if we think that we are in a strong position. We will be faced with having to win over a sceptical majority who will be very open to the arguments about Ireland and the RBS.
It will be too late leaving winning that argument till the referendum campaign itself we need to have made major inroads into changing people’s perceptions well before then and I suppose what happens to Ireland in the interim will have an impact. The 1997 devolution referendum NO campaign may have been weak but that’s not what won it. People had already made their minds up before the campaign.
In this campaign we won’t have the luxury of a weak opposition. London politicians won’t lead it but they will all be up here giving speeches. Basically it will be a loose united front of all the unionist parties and pretty much all the media and most of institutional Scotland. I don’t imagine it will be well organised but it doesn’t need to be it’s not an election campaign.
What will really make a difference will be whether it is a multi-option question or not. A multi-option question will expose differences in the NO camp.
Many thanks for your kind words Alex.
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