Thursday 13 May 2010

What next? Politics as a spectator sport.

OK, I am a bit depressed. I am a member of the SNP and, frankly, I have no idea where we go to next.

I see the loss of both our by election gains as a kick in the teeth by Scottish voters.

I really do not understand the dynamics of what exercises Scottish voters sometimes.

It seems to me obvious that Scottish voters are actually liberated in who they can vote for.

For instance, a vote for the SNP was not going to increase the overall Conservative majority at Westminster.

It seems that the availability of that freedom of expression - vote Green if you like - was denied in some sort of self serving masochism by voting Labour. Despite the fact that, if you think about politics at all, it would never have mattered. Scottish voters could have voted better, but were feart of the big bad bogeynman and assumed that the beautiful Princess that is Labour would save them, when it is now quite evident that they can't and weren't really interested in even trying.

Odd times we live in.

For, whenever we feel threatened by Tories, we revert to that.

It is a failure to, simultaneously, see how wee we are and how much better we could be. And a vote for the SNP would not have been a vote for the Tories, either.

This blog has kept an eye on Steven Purcell, but Glasgow voters just ignore that sort of stuff.

It is quite astounding. Usually folk will see the wood from the trees.

It seems to me that Scottish voters don't.

However, This is probably down to a pretty poor election strategy by the SNP. We should have done better, but we didn't, probably because we don't understand the electorate, and I don't mean 'focus groups'. It is far more fundamental than that.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Dougie,

I have been feeling your exasperation for the last thirty years or more. The Labour party still talks about the SNP having brought down the Calaghan Government and allowed Thatcher's entry to Downing Street when I remember that not even the threat of losing a no-confidence vote could make them implement their own manifesto commitment to bring forward devolution after the rigged referendum failed to deliver a decisive vote. A referendum rigged by an amendment proposed by one of their own MP's - George Cunningham.

What I have found though is that over that period, despite the SNP's electoral fortunes waning on occasion, the movement seems to come back even stronger when it rallies the next time.

So do not loose heart. The most important thing is that those of us who believe in Independence keep active, such that when the next wave breaks, we can push it even further up the shore than the last time and I predict that when the Scots eventually do turn against the Labour Party that that revolt will be extremely fast and complete.

In the meantime I think the most important thing we can do is to develop some sort of alternative media that will give us a fairer crack of the whip than the outrageously biased media we have at present, and you are already participating in that activity with your blog. Who known where that might lead in a few years.

Keep up the good work.

Regards,

douglas clark said...

Rab o'Ruglen,

Thanks for what you have to say. It is very encouraging. This is an attempt to be modern.

in the meantime I think the most important thing we can do is to develop some sort of alternative media that will give us a fairer crack of the whip than the outrageously biased media we have at present, and you are already participating in that activity with your blog. Who known where that might lead in a few years.

I'd have thought that is what we, you and me, ought to be trying to do.

douglas clark said...

'Course, if I actually understood HTML and shit....

I would be a lot better.