May 3 1979 I had my first bout as an amateur boxer, I won a unanimous decision and gave my opponent a standing count by the way. Later on running about for my dad helping out I saw a wee guy of similar age to myself selling the next days paper and I saw the front page. June 9 1983 Andy Rodger and myself were on a doomed from the outset grape-picking holiday in France. We had hitchhiked to Boulogne and got into the campsite late at night, the in-camp shop was closed, we had no food, it was pouring with rain and windy as hell as we set up the tent. A couple from Aberdeen pitched next to us gave us some apples and gleefully told us the news. June 11 1987 I was at home watching TV. Already numb from the 50 or so minutes earlier revelation, I watched Spitting Image and as their wonderfully poignant Caberet spoof of Tomorrow Belongs To Me came on I cried my eyes out. April 9 1992 It was the last day of term at Uni before the Easter break. It was also the day our final year projects had to be submitted and more to the point out of my group of friends, three of us including myself were celebrating a birthday come midnight. Could life be any better? The news came on at ten and I was home by elevenish. That was the four moments when I discovered the Tories had won the election. Be it a Daily Record caricature of Thatcher putting a knife into Scotland, a delighted Aberdonian couple with it blasting over their radio, a magnificent piece of satire from Fluck and Law or the abrupt ending of a long awaited, for many reasons, party. We dont need to go through that possibly ever again come September 18, in one of those once in a lifetime unique political experiences the only way the Tories will ever be a power in Scotland again is if THEY COME TO US, they shift their position to a more centrist party. Theyll still be there, theyll still have representation given the PR make-up of Holyrood but it will be a long, long time before I and you have to suffer days like that again. On September 18 we can literally consign them to the political dustbin for several generations (unless they radically change). From September 19 onwards they can literally become bogey men to scare the kids and grandkids with, no more will Cameron, Gove, Johnson, McVey, Thatcher, Tebbit and Currie be names with any relevance to us. It wont answer every doubt, every concern, every fear, I grant you, just one reason to consider but for myself its as good a reason as any to vote Yes on September 18th. This might be my version of scaremongering, but I genuinely think its positive scaremongering. We are talking about a party who hasnt had the biggest single party mandate of this country for 79 years and 19 general elections. And this is where my scaremongering is different from the No campaign, my scaremongering is about something we wont get THAT WE ACTUALLY HAVENT WANTED for the better part of 80 years.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 22:08:17 +0000
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