Hola folks,
It’s the last comic post before the referendum, and I’m not going to labour any more points on here – What I want to say is to think carefully before you vote, and most importantly to make sure that you DO vote.
So much is at stake here. It’s not just about nationalities, or even party politics. It’s about shaking up the system, about removing the rot and the complacency and making it easier for the downtrodden and those in need to speak up, be heard, and be helped.
So, following the minor lead that Yes garnered at the weekend, the heavy-hitters have come up from London. Denying that they are panicking, they cancelled their appearance at Prime Minister’s Questions, informing the Speaker of the House only a day before, despite it being a well-planned long-awaited and well-advertised trip, and travelled up to Scotland to walk among the people.
David Cameron, Nick Clegg, Ed Milliband, and for some reason John Prescott are here to push the case for the union. But they’re not offering new things to encourage us to stay, because that would be in breach of regulations. No, instead they’re offering things that they’ve been saying all along, you’ve just not been listening to them telling you about them before, that’s why they sound so new! And even then, it’s not the UK Government that’s offering it, it’s the pro-union parties – they’re not subject to purdah!
As the 18th of September looms large in the distance and the Scottish people prepare to make what might be the biggest political decision in their lives, there are some very interesting things going on.
First off, Yes are beginning to edge ahead in the opinion polls.Disregarding undecided voters, YouGov reports that Yes is ahead of No by two points, merely two weeks before the referendum.
It’s an exciting, thrilling, terrifying time to be a voter of either stripe. For No, it represents a gradual crawl away from the union, a potential step across the line. For Yes, it represents a growth in support, but may provide us with a false sense of security.
In what has been a disappointing few days for politics, discussion, and sanity in general, somebody has decided to pelt a politician with eggs.
For context, read here,
And also here.
I’m going to be up-front with the common sense here; there’s no need for aggressive barracking and egging. We’re the Yes campaign, we’re a civilised revolution, and we’re a damn sight classier than throwing foodstuff at people we don’t like. The kind of people who would do this are only making it harder to make our case; you might as well be handing Better Together whole clips of 5.56 if you believe this kind of behaviour is acceptable.
One thing that concerns me about general public discourse over the Scottish Independence Referendum is the repeated insistence that somehow Independence is First Minister Alex Salmond’s vanity project. It’s not difficult to find evidence of this; Seriously, try it. Go onto twitter and search for ‘Alex Salmond’. How many tweets did you find insinuating that he only wants his name in the history books, or that he is forcing his own vision upon Britain, or that it’s all going to be his fault?
Now, I’m not sure how much the major news item in the UK seeps out into the world at large, but in a few weeks’ time one of the most important days in our political history will come to pass. It is the referendum on independence for Scotland, wherein the Scottish people choose whether or not to remain as a constituent part of the United Kingdom, or to strike out on its own as an autonomous nation for the first time in three centuries.
You’ll probably see me mentioning this a few times in the run-up; I’m a Yes voter, convinced of the opportunities offered by seceding from the union. However, in this post, I want to address an overarching topic before going on later to my arguments as to voting Yes.
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