So I’d like to recommend a couple of articles to you this morning. The first is written by someone beyond these shores, about how Britain has just become the first country in the world to surrender to Covid. It’s an absolutely excoriating piece, and reading it may permanently change how you see the situation. All that’s really missing is the ceremony on an aircraft carrier where Boris Johnson hands over the instrument of surrender to the virus. This isn’t even about a horrendous summer, autumn and winter to come – in other words, taking the hit and getting it over with. The point made is that we’re surrendering to an occupying army that will be with us for years or decades to come – Covid will now become endemic in Britain with new seasonal variants every year. We will all catch the disease again and again and again, and in spite of the relentless propaganda from the BBC’s in-house pro-virus correspondent Nick Triggle, that’s a choice we’re making. There’s nothing inevitable about it – other countries are choosing a radically different path.
Scotland at a crossroads: will the SNP give up the fight against the virus, or the fight for independence, or both?
And there’s also a choice to be made here in Scotland. SNP spokespeople at Westminster have criticised Boris Johnson’s strategy, but as per usual we’re not departing from it properly. There’ll be a slight delay in the lifting of restrictions, and mandatory mask-wearing will remain in place for the time being, but the bottom line is we’re still ludicrously ‘going back to normal’ at the exact moment that cases are soaring. We’re engaging in a partial surrender rather than a total one, and that is a matter of national shame. There is still, however, time to reverse course.
But what if we don’t? That brings me on to the second recommended article – Lesley Riddoch’s piece in The National stating with admirable clarity that an independence referendum must be held in 2022, otherwise we’ll miss the boat for this whole parliament. The irony is, of course, that if the SNP leadership urgently change direction and act responsibly on Covid, it would become somewhat easier for them to make the case for delaying an indyref beyond 2022. But as I’ve said before, they can’t have it both ways – if they stick with their current intention to join Johnson in giving up the fight against the virus and telling us “we must learn to live with it”, there are no remaining excuses for giving up the fight for this country’s independence. So which is it to be, guys?
* * *
Donations made to the Scot Goes Pop general fundraiser until the end of next week will be put towards our next opinion poll. If you’d like to donate, please click HERE.
Copyright © 2017 JNews.