Split Personalities AKA the Politics of Deceit

For me the critical thing to emerge from the referendum preamble is the entirely schizophrenic nature of the so-called major political parties – how they represent themselves to a UK-wide audience and then how they offer a completely altered image in Scotland.

The Conservative Party really doesn’t try very hard at all in Scotland as they know that the less said the less collateral damage caused. They realise that popping up north of the border is counter-productive and David Cameron himself is running scared when it comes to the matter of debate with Alex Salmond. “But it’s a matter for the people of Scotland” smiles Cameron refusing to be drawn into the debate but then spreading bad faith wherever he ventures and denigrating the Yes campaign at every turn.

The Russian news agency Itar-Tass reported on December 31^st that "Great Britain is extremely interested in the support of Russia, as holder of the G8 presidency, in two vital areas in 2014: the Afghan pull-out and the Scottish independence referendum." The Russian journalist added that although the referendum might "look like a UK domestic matter", it had, according to his UK Government source, the potential to "send shockwaves across the whole of Europe". The Sunday Herald published an article about this on January 12^th. This story has been attacked by BT supporters as unsubstantiated but the BBC News website referenced the story on January 19^th and there has been no official denial from London. Taking into account many other reports of UK diplomats being tasked to drum up support for the Union abroad to the detriment of the Yes campaign then we have to consider that Itar-Tass is accurate – David Cameron is more inclined to connive off the record on Scotland with Vladimir Putin than he is to debate on the record with Alex Salmond.

But of course it is Alex Salmond's conduct that is microscopically examined and condemned by all and sundry. The Unionist bloc smile and say of the Itar-Tass report, "It didn't happen..."

Shocking!

The LibDems posture with an amazing degree of arrogance on the Scottish stage which is pretty amusing for a party that will, in all likelihood, finish 5^th in Scotland in the May Euros. Danny Alexander pretends to be an economic colossus when in reality he might have just, possibly, been an adequate Scottish Secretary. He was promoted way beyond his pay grade very early in the life of the ConDem government. He seems to be an affable enough chap but let’s not mistake geniality for competence.

Michael Moore has been seen off with Alistair Carmichael now as the third Scottish Secretary of this government and on the basis that you can only stretch a limited number of MPs in so many directions he would seem to be the last one for the time being. That’s fine. He’s a gift. Bob Smith's a genuinely nice bloke but he's recently had to face up to health issues so I doubt that there will be any role for him.

But as a party they pretend to still be relevant in Scotland when that ship has long since sailed. In the UK context they are fumbling from one mess to the next but in Scotland they are this bullish group, not discernible in any way, shape or form, from their Tory sugar daddies.

However the Tories and their coalition pets are a mere appetizer on this menu of political schizophrenia.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Labour Party.

Ed Miliband and his acolytes pitch themselves to England as a progressive liberal party of the centre but in truth they are barely discernible from the Conservatives. The so-called Bedroom Tax, a staggering assault on the poorest in society, was not opposed by Labour and, in fact, many Labour MPs did not even turn up for the vote at Westminster. This is the party that promises to follow the Conservative line on benefit caps. This is the party that will now not rule out an in-out referendum on EU membership because the Tories have promised to have one. This is the party that pledges to continue George Osborne’s austerity rout.

Move north and cross the border into Scotland and we have the same Ed Miliband telling the party faithful that Labour will outflank the SNP as the true party of social democracy. Make up your mind Ed. Are you going to punish the most vulnerable in society or are you going to be their saviour? Or are you really going to offer this split personality model of Labour and hope that nobody notices? The tame media have never been too quick to pounce on Labour’s inherent hypocrisies so the party might believe that they can get off with this one for a while.

At the end of April Alex Massie writing in The Spectator described Miliband as some sort of PG Wodehouse composite character and arrived at the conclusion that he is, “Clever enough in a droopy kind of way but, ultimately, a gawd-help-us kind of fellow.”

A couple of gawd-help-us kind of fellows

Ed, we’ve noticed.

Massie continues, “I dare say Miliband’s belief that Scottish independence would be a bad idea – for Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom – is sincere. That this belief is in his own narrow, strategic, sectarian interest is beside the point. And, sure, we all know that Labour-minded voters in western and central Scotland are a vital constituency in the referendum campaign.

“But I rather approve of Miliband’s simpering, no, thunderous warning that an independent Scotland might be the kind of rogue state in which taxes were cut. I’d like to believe in it a little more than I do. Time – and hard learning – might bring us to that point but not before an awful lot of expensive mistakes had been made.”

Massie goes on to point out that, “Miliband’s position is spectacularly incoherent.”

What Ed fails to highlight is that the specific tax cuts being considered are in the corporate realm – to make business more competitive and to help create jobs. Does anyone in Luxembourg or Ireland or Estonia agree that lowering corporate tax rates is somehow defining of a rogue state? If that would be the definition then Estonia is the rogue state to end all rogue states with 0% Corporate Tax! To quote dear Margaret Curran, “Drivel!”

Ed, we’ve noticed.

Labour claims to be the party that offers answers to all the ills of the UK. The ills that have been heaped on the country by cruel, uncaring governments. But in the past half century there has been coalition government for 4 years, Tory rule for 22 and Labour themselves have had the longest run at power with 24 years in charge. Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Alastair Darling trashed the economy. That’s the same Alastair Darling that leads Better Together, that’s the same Gordon Brown who last week came north to preach on pensions. Are we so stupid as to be duped by these people? Again? The same people who claim to have all the answers in Opposition have held the reins of power for the longest period of anyone in the last half century and have spectacularly failed to deliver... anything!

Ed, we’ve noticed.

This is the party that at a local government level is delighted to form coalitions with the Conservatives just to keep the SNP out.

Ed, we’ve noticed.

Spot the difference - answers on a postcard please

The schizophrenia within the Labour Party is tilting towards certifiable insanity.

The level of deceit from Labour is abject and utterly craven.

Let me affirm here and now. We are not that stupid. We have noticed.

The parties of Westminster have blurred into differing shades of the same basic colour. There is nothing to define them as any one being different from the other. Yet in Scotland they claim an entirely different reality. Enough.

Euro-Verbals

by Phil Lawrence 11/12/2011

There have been some wonderful quotes emanating from all angles following David Cameron’s veto of European Treaty reform. The UK media has been fairly congratulatory but Europe has been almost universally condemnatory.

So what’s the flavour? From Cameron himself, "I said before I came to Brussels that if I couldn't get adequate safeguards for Britain in a new European treaty, then I wouldn't agree to it. What is on offer isn't in Britain's interests, so I didn't agree to it."

Well that’s all fairly straightforward isn’t it?

And the old pals across in Europe were fairly kind in their reactions.

Nikolas Sarkozy came back with, "We would have preferred a reform of the treaties among 27 (nations). That wasn't possible, given the position of our British friends. And so it will be through an intergovernmental treaty of 17, but open to others."

José Manuel Barroso followed the same line with, "We would have preferred, of course, a unanimous agreement ... This was not possible, because this required unanimity, so I think the only alternative that was left was to do it through this kind of intergovernmental treaty."

Angela Merkel meanwhile preferred to concentrate on matters which DC seemed to be oblivious to, "We have made good progress, especially with regards to the debt brake for all states that will be part of this new treaty and more automatic sanctions."

Angela Dominatrix

Darling David has stuck to his vaguely hypnotic mantra that he was “protecting” the City but this seems more and more disingenuous as every moment passes and the implications of separation from mainstream Europe become less appetizing for the financial sector. He reminds everyone that the EU, Frankfurt and Paris are jealous of the City but Lord Heseltine put it all into perspective with his own succinct putdown, "In saying he wanted to protect the interests of the City, there is no way you can protect those interests by floating off into the Atlantic, frankly."

I’m not inclined to agree with Tarzan too often but he has nailed it here. The UK needs to be inside Europe and not on the outside looking in.

Another one that I am not too inclined to agree with – no let’s rephrase that, one that I NEVER agree with – is Douglas Alexander with his assessment, "The roots of Cameron's fateful decision lie in his failure to modernise the Conservative Party. He promised to leave the European People's Party, and ever since he has been following his party, not leading it." That is pot calling kettle black as the Labour Party is the long-time master exponent of weather-vane politics as so brilliantly championed by Anthony Charles Lynton Blair. However Alexander has speedily cut to the nitty gritty here and what we see now is a Conservative Party leadership being chivvied along by the Eurosceptic backbenches. Suddenly the City is not the relevant factor and it is the MPs stacked behind DC in the Commons.

But what about other views from Europe? The Austrian Chancellor, Werner Faymann is quite kind with his, "The British Government is called upon to compromise and to represent their own country. But to simply present conditions and to say either/or, that's a blatant contradiction to the spirit of the European Union," and that’s a pretty common thread although the level of dissatisfaction varies quite a lot.

A less charitable tack is taken by Franco-German MEP Daniel Cohn-Bendit, "Cameron is a coward," whilst German CDU MEP and European People’s Party foreign policy spokesman, Elmar Brok, led with, "If you're not willing to stick to the rules, you should keep your mouth shut."

Make no mistake, 26 EU members see Cameron’s intransigence as one of the grandest betrayals in modern history. His constituency in Europe has evaporated overnight and we can be certain that the White House is silently fuming as they wanted the Euro issue put to bed to give Barack Obama the chance to take centre stage as the 2012 US election campaign cranks into action in the first week of the year. Obama’s initial summing up of Cameron upon their first getting acquainted is sure to become common currency before the dust settles. And for those with short memories that line was, “What a lightweight!”

Back to London and Lord Oakeshott opined that, "He went to Brussels with a set of impossible demands. He wasn't there to negotiate; he was there to stage a walk-out. LibDem leaders must stop Cameron kowtowing to the Tory right and force him back to the negotiating table."

He is backed up by Tim Farron who chips in with, "The idea of this being any kind of victory for us is just madness. We have lost massively. It was a lose-lose situation and unsurprisingly we lost, while making ourselves isolated from our colleagues in Europe."

I’m not one to give the LibDems credit for anything at the moment as they sold themselves and the country down the river in an unashamed power grab in May 2010 but this pair are not entirely dumb. If Nick Clegg really is as disturbed as he privately makes out that he is then this is his moment. He can bring down the coalition by withdrawing his party’s support immediately and calling a confidence motion in the Commons at the first opportunity.

Of course that is unlikely to happen as he is far too comfortable with his feet wedged firmly under the Cabinet table at No. 10 but maybe Nick might grow a bit of backbone. Who knows?

Anyway back to the words that matter and Foreign Secretary William Hague assures everyone that, "We're not separating ourselves from the European Union."

Well it does not look like that from the continent. Cohn-Bendit insists, "Now we must put pressure on the British and force them, by implementing tough regulations on financial markets, to decide if they want out of the EU or if they want to stay inside," and EPP vice-chairman, Manfred Weber, helpfully adds, "You can't be a little bit pregnant," which nicely sums things up.

So what of the implications of this in the sphere of Scottish politics and the debate on independence? In The Independent Jane Merrick points out, “Some believe that Cameron's isolation in Europe could make it even easier for Scotland's First Minister, Alex Salmond, and the Scottish Nationalist Party to secure independence – and eventually, perhaps, to join the euro.” She then quotes a ‘senior’ LibDem as saying the following, "So Scotland walks away and joins the euro and leaves the Little Englanders having finally got their Little England. The Little Englanders think we will be like Switzerland, but with nuclear weapons. Actually, we'll be like Norway, but without the oil."

An Upper Volta with rockets for our generation! Classic! Who said the LibDems have no sense of humour?