Having decided that none of the Scottish Conservative MPs are competent enough to take over from David Who-he? Duguid after he was demoted from his position as a junior minister in the Scotland Office in the recent cabinet reshuffle, the Conservative Government has finally decided on a replacement to join Alister Jack at the Scotland Office. You can’t really blame them for not wanting to promote any of the others in the small contingent of Scottish Conservative MPs, who struggle to constitute a talent drip never mind a talent pool. Few of the Scottish Tory MPs have any sort of public recognition at all. There’s former Scotland Secretary David Mundell, who is thought of so highly by his colleagues that they’ve shipped him off to New Zealand as a special trade envoy where he can sell out his Scottish farming constituents from the other side of the globe.
There is of course also the permanently infuriated Douglas Ross, who already has several other jobs to keep him red-faced and fuming, he’s the branch office manager of the Scottish Conservatives at Holyrood in charge of appearing in huffing interviews on Reporting Scotland and maintaining a constant state of rage about the existence of a Scottish Government that isn’t a Tory one, the concept of democracy being alien to the Conservatives. He also still finds time for his other job as as a junior referee, running up and down fitba pitches, blowing a whistle at footballers for rule infractions. Giving him yet another job would merely elevate his perma-rage to infra-incandescent levels and send it beyond the range at which it could be detected by normal human senses.
Then there’s Andrew Bowie, the actual Tory boy, who has the fresh face of a teenager but whose public pronouncements rarely manage to reach that level of maturity. Andrew is most notable for thinking that six artfully stacked chips constitute a fish supper and for possessing a smugness which is inversely proportional to his abilities, which makes him exceptionally smug indeed. He gives the impression of being a man who would drop everything in order to rush to the scene of a traffic accident, not to offer help, but just to say “I told you so.”
Boris Johnson has instead decided to give the millionaire Conservative donor,failed Holyrood candidate, and resident of England, Malcolm Offord a peerage so he can take over as a junior minister in the Scotland Office. Offord will then join Ruth Davidson and the political reject’s reject Michael Forsyth as unelected politicians who are able to influence legislation and UK Government policy affecting Scotland despite the fact that no one has voted for them and they have all the democratic accountability of a 19th century Highland laird, which not coincidentally is the preferred role model of the Conservatives for dealing with recalcitrant Scottish people.
Offord couldn’t even manage to sneak into Holyrood on the list vote, but he’s still going to have political influence anyway, despite being rejected by the voters. As such he joins former Conservative MEP Ian Duncan, who was rejected by voters in the Westminster Perth and North Perthshire constituency but was given a peerage so he could still sit in the Lords.
One of the strongest arguments for independence is that it would mean that when a politician is rejected by the electorate, that would be the end of their political career. As a part of the UK a British government representing a party which fewer than a quarter of the Scottish electorate actually voted for is able to subvert the democratic will of the people of Scotland and foist upon us politicians who have been rejected at the ballot box.
Offord is perhaps best known for being the man behind the so-called grassroots Unionist Vote No Borders organisation during the 2014 referendum campaign. Despite being as grassroots as the plastic wrapping on a roll of AstroTurf, when it was launched Vote No Borders was given a gushing three minute long promo puff piece on the BBC’s News at Six, although no genuine grassroots initiative on the Yes side was ever given even a fraction of the same publicity on the flagship BBC 1 news programme. The BBC has never deigned to explain this gross imbalance and blatant bias in favour of the No side in Scotland’s constitutional debate, but then the BBC is as accountable to the people of Scotland as a Conservative member of the House of Lords. Amongst other scaremongering gems the supposedly “positive” No Borders campaign was forced to pull a cinema advert which claimed that after independence seriously ill Scottish children would have to get in the queue behind a “long list of foreigners waiting to be seen” at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.
“No Borders” Offord is now happy to represent a British Government which has erected twenty seven borders to trade and the free movement of people between Scotland and countries where there was previously no such barrier. So it’s not so much “vote no borders” as vote against borders but get them imposed anyway by people you haven’t voted for.
Offord’s elevation to the Lords and his appointment to the Scotland Office is a perfect illustration of the anti-democratic contempt that the Conservatives have for Scotland. Only independence can truly guarantee democracy in this country and ensure that the wishes of the Scottish electorate are respected.
There are those on social media who criticise this blog for continuing to highlight the mendacity, hypocrisy and contempt of the Conservatives when it comes to Scotland, saying, “we” already know how much damage the Tories are doing to this country. Well no.
Just who is the “we” here? Confirmed supporters of independence might already know, but independence will not be secured by only talking to those who already support independence. A significant number of Labour supporters felt able to vote tactically for the Conservatives in May’s Holyrood election. Clearly those voters are not part of the “we” who already know how much damage the Conservatives are doing to Scotland otherwise they wouldn’t vote tactically for the Tories, yet as Labour voters they could be persuadable of the need for Scotland’s independence.
This blog remains confident that the Scottish Government will deliver on its promise of a referendum within the term of this Scottish Parliament, until that happens “we” cannot cease making the case for independence, highlighting the lies, deceit and mendacity of the Conservative Government, and trying to reach out to those who could be persuaded. Although my health issues mean I can no longer blog on a daily basis, that is exactly what this blog is going to continue to do.
This is your reminder that the purpose of this blog is to promote Scottish independence. If the comment you want to make will not assist with that goal then don’t post it. If you want to mouth off about how much you dislike the SNP leadership there are other forums where you can do that. You’re not welcome to do it here.
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