Thursday, August 16, 2012

Telling the truth is the currency of independence, does Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon have lender of last resort status with the public?













Dear All

One of the things I theme on in the independence debate is the truth is the most powerful weapon.

Telling the truth shows integrity.

And the truth of the independence campaign is that the work to prepare Scotland for independence hasn’t been done.

This has led to the Scottish Government putting in place measures to ensure as much as humanly possible a cover up.

The cover up of the risks and information which should be readily available without even having to be asked for by the public on this subject, we should all be entitled to total transparency.

But in their wisdom, the SNP Government decided to hide their embarrassment at every opportunity.

This has lead to a rising tide of difficult questions which there are precious few answers coming back.

The reality of this will be that people will not even enter the conversion they will automatically reject independence.

And of course this could lead to a knock on effects in election post independence.

The problem is also compound by devo max, the last chance saloon that in part allows Alex Salmond to play the role of ‘standing up for Scotland’.

On devo max, Alex Salmond is like a little kid in a sweet shop pointing his digit and shouting ‘juice’ on impulse, he can’t define it, no one knows what it means and the public have a name for something which may or may not include specific powers.

Devo max therefore is a busted flush, it is the wrong time, the wrong place and the wrong strategy and it cannot be delivered by him.

Any additional powers have to be done through Westminster.

Now we know that Alex Salmond and his clique haven’t done the work, it does beg the question, what have they been doing with their time?

We already know they haven’t restructured the government, we already know they haven’t restructured their party and we already know they don’t have a blue print.

We do know however that ‘little groups’ have been setup as fronts and of course there is the empty vessel that is Yes Scotland which is just a platform to speak from allowing others to stand beside Salmond and co.

At the end of the day, everything has to be laid on the table and in a timely fashion, the Scottish Government has passed the deadline for that in my opinion, it’s too late and they have run out of time. It will be interesting to see them go through the motions but it will have little political significance when the campaign is analysed by academics.
The seeds of failure have already been planted and are springing up green shoots.

Alex Salmond is a good talker provided that he has the floor and no one is speaking back, but if he pressed on detail he will caved, a half decent debater could rip him a new arse for the way this campaign has been handled by continuing asking him questions he doesn’t have factual answers to.

Nicola Sturgeon got a taste of ‘hell in the pacific’ when Ruth Davidson blew her apart with a bow shot by pulling out the letter from the EU that showed the SNP have never contacted them about EU membership.

The continual assumptions of ‘entitlement’ which have no legal basis makes them look rather weak, copying other people’s work on defence shows a lack of depth and work ethic and, generally, other than just showbiz and slogans, beneath the surface there isn’t a lot.

And the questions keep mounting, the division of assets and liabilities, revenue and expenditure projections, defence and armed forces deployment, debt and deficit management, rates and levels of tax, financial regulation, employment law, English and Scottish contract law, Royal Mail, the future of the BBC, division of responsibility and management of UK government property and a host of other critical issues.

All must be signed off on ahead of time; there is a strand of thought in the nationalist camp that says everything can be decided after the vote. That isn’t good enough not when its people’s livelihoods and future on the line, and with a nasty poisonous untalented clique surrounding the leadership of Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon, it is doubtful that people looking at them will sign off on independence.

These hangers on don’t have the ability to generate ideas for a new Scotland; some of them are just out and out clowns.

Since Alex Salmond has an interest in land, he should pick out a creek with a decent view because he is about to be up shit creek without a paddle, and since he maybe up there for something he should do the groundwork now for suitable site!

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

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