IMPORTANT COMMENT on the cult called the SNP GUESS Campaign. .. I think Twermenbashi hasn’t understood a word of your article, Ewan (and it is one of the top articles on this referendum that I have read). In fact, T’s last paragraph confirms what you’ve been saying – that Yes demands that you put all your own thinking on hold and just go along unquestioningly. I have serious questions of the Yes campaign, and have had since it started, and I simply don’t hear them answered. Instead, we get intimidation of the BBC and, of course, intimidation and name-hurling on Twitter or on the streets. But I want answers to my concerns. (And before someone points out that I’m in the heart of England, in Cambridge, let me remind them that this affects everyone directly. And, as it happens, like many thousands of people in England, Wales and NI, I have dependents, in my case two daughters, living in Scotland – with a vote, incidentally – so issues like prices, currency, interest rates and so on are of direct importance to me.) So what you say doesn’t surprise me, Ewan: it’s all of a piece with the rest of the campaign. A couple of years ago I heard Roy Hattersley speaking and bemoaning the fact that Labour had lost any sense of direction and had no clear or distinctive policies or underlying philosophy. A young man in the audience said he had his Labour Party card on him and he read out what was written on the back – I forget the exact wording, but it was all about building a better Britain, and a fairer society and prosperity and security for all. “That’s good enough for me,” said the young man. But Roy Hattersley replied by saying that those are just words. Who wouldn’t want any of them? The Conservatives, the Greens, the Lib Dems – yes, and the SNP – would all sig up to them. The question is, how are you going to get them? And that’s what I’m hearing from the Yes camp. Fine sounding words – Better Scotland. Better future for our children. and so on. But when you ask how are you going to get there they come up either with economic guesswork that would make Adam Smith weep or more rhetoric. Now I understand why.......
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 02:04:42 +0000