Odds and Ends Thursday 26th January 2023

Yes and no – I agree that teacher numbers need to be maintained to give young people the best possible chance in life but what I don’t agree with is Nicola Sturgeon dictating to local councils how to spend their budget, there is too much top-down in Scotland as it is, this decision will only result in more cuts in other vital public services, many of which also add to the education and life chances for young people such as social work and youth work, services that have diminished over the years in virtually every local authority. We cannot keep making cuts at the local council level year after year. Not only does this damage local communities it damages the cause of independence as local people lose more and more of the services they depend on and therefor why would independence be any different in their eyes.

This should not have even been a discussion in the first place – So the guy convicted of a double rape is not going to be placed in a Woman’s Prison, you would like to think you were happy that common sense prevailed but this should never have been an issue in the first place. Sturgeon has only u-turned because this issue is now starting to sit at her door personally now. The whole transgender debate has not only damaged the SNP, but it has also divided Scotland to a degree and has unforgivably damaged the independence cause. The fact that Sturgeon only ever changes her mind, like the story above on teacher numbers, when it starts to impact on her perceived popularity tells you everything you need to know about how weak she is as a leader and how bad she has been as a First Minister, really is time she went before she does any more damage.

I’ve never been one for the polls even though I do take part in panel base ones – Polls in the SNP Fanzine The National have shown that 54% of people would vote Yes while 46% would say No. Results showed that 30% of people thought the BBC had done “not very” well at reporting accurately on Brexit’s impact. A further 23% said the BBC had “not at all” accurately represented how the decision to leave the EU has hit Scotland. Our poll revealed that nearly 55% of voters would back pro-indy parties if this was how the next General Election was fought as a de-facto referendum with 52% of voters would backing the SNP, while 2% would back the Greens and 0.4% would vote for the Alba party. The Tories were left languishing on just 12% while the LibDems recorded 7%.

Polling also found that Scots overwhelmingly prefer to see a Saltire on Scottish produce over a Union Jack and that 56% of people in Scotland point the finger at Westminster for the critical issues in the health service.

Yes and no figures will go up and down until there is an actual date for a campaign and a vote on Scottish independence. Surprised that only 30% of people believe the BBC reporting on Brexit has not been very good, bloody hell, the BBC makes North Korean News look impartial. Disappointed that Alba is still not making any inroads but hope the party keeps going and does not get too downhearted, their time can come if they keep up the hard work. The NHS is being set up for privatization no matter if it’s Labour or the toilet stain Tories in power. I did used to care about the labeling issue but now I don’t all that much as it is an own goal for the yoons and anything that keeps our colonial status front and center to remind people of how Scotland is seen by our masters is fine with me.

Poverty is a political choice – I hate poverty anywhere, Scotland, England, Ghana, the USA it doesn’t matter where it is it is a political choice. The fact that Scotland has a lower rate of poverty (18%) than England (22%) and Wales (24%) and around the same rate as Northern Ireland (17%) does nothing for me as it is not good enough either way. Poverty kills, it kills aspiration, it kills hope, it kills people and too many people have lived in poverty in Scotland for too long, we have generations of families in Dundee who have lived and died in poverty, all of this down to the cowardice and choices made by politicians who are not willing to make the hard calls everywhere not just here in Scotland.

The Scottish Child Payment and a temporary rent freeze in the private sector while obviously helping a little in the long run also does little. Social housing rent for those just outside the benefits range is crippling, as is the rest of the cost of living crisis, pushing many hidden families into poverty. It is not good enough.

I confess, I use Amazon a lot but I support the strikes 100% – Amazon is probably one of the online shopping sites I use the most for household goods and my clothes. I also support the workers in their strike 100%, a 50p an-hour pay rise in one of the wealthiest companies in the world, owned by one of the world’s wealthiest people was nothing short of a crime. We have all heard the stories from Union reps of workers penalised for toilet breaks, driven relentlessly to hit unreasonable targets set by algorithm, collapsing on the job, and requiring ambulance call-outs. Amazon is a disgusting company and I should hang my head in shame for using it, maybe we all should, I use it due to delivery via prime but good luck to the workers. It will be difficult for them to win, especially given the very low number of trade union members in the private sector.