Which do you prefer Project Fear v Project Fear plus Project Hate

I have voted Remain. I believe strongly that something like the EU needs to exist and for Scotland to be a member. But the EU is far from perfect. 

Scotland is currently a sub-nation as long as it is in the UK

As long as we are a sub-nation within the UK Scotland is most definitely better of IN rather than out. 

Neither campaign inspired, both campaigns were #ProjectFear, but we did have a new development i.e. #ProjectHate from the #VoteLeave campaign and their more extreme bedfellows. 

Project Hate of Vote Leave actually made me definitely vote Remain

The Project Hate of Vote Leave actually made me definitely vote Remain when initially I was decidedly lukewarm in doing that, wondering whether to just abstain and not bother. 

I started off about 55% Remain and ended up according to an online questionnaire 81% Remain. So the leave campaign was very successful in making me go for the opposite of what they wanted.

What a difference in atmosphere between EuroRef and indyref

I am stuck between the atmosphere for this referendum in comparison to the last one that occurred in Scotland. 

It was also most definitely nothing like a General Election which the television commentators were comparing it to in England. There was nothing happening and nobody at the polling station. It seems just a mid summer overcast Thursday night in summer.

I have seen 3 Vote Leave stalls and one Vote Remain poster on one window. 

This compares with 15 Yes posters still displayed on peoples windows from the Scottish Independence Referendum almost 2 years ago.

I have also become increasingly concerned as the campaigns have gone on about the xenophobic rhetoric coming from the Vote Leavers. If people do generally feel that this relates to them and their lives then I am even more sure than I was that Scotland will most definitely be better of outside the UK but still in Europe.

WELFARE BILL currently going through the UK Houses of Parliament

I have caught some of today's debate on the welfare bill in the House of Commons debate. I am one of the people who will be adversely affected by the proposed changes as I receive Employment and Support Allowance and am in the work related activity group. I receive approximately £5000 per year ESA. Under the UK Government's proposals this will be reduced by £1500 per year. This is scary as all ready I cannot balance the books and frequently my house is cold and saving money is always on my mind with every decision. I did not ask to be long term sick and never wanted to claim this benefit. Thank goodness the SNP MPs including my own MP in Glasgow North East, Anne McLaughlin are fighting this bill as I am in quite a good position in comparison to many who will be affected even although it will put me in more financial strife that I don't know how I am going to stand long term.

Who is going to stand up for Scotland?

Who is going to stand up for Scotland after the UK General Election 2015?

Wind of Change

A wind of change is blowing through Scotland... Every day it blows stronger and stronger. The movement for change is now unstoppable!

Westminster party leaders made a solemn vow on more powers. Now they must listen to the people and deliver on that promise. 

Just got home from seeing my Mum who is unwell and needs some assistance at the moment, to discover someone has stuck Naw stickers on my front windows.

Just got home from seeing my Mum who is unwell and needs some assistance at the moment, to discover someone has stuck Naw stickers on my front windows. The person who did this was obviously trying to balance the somewhat larger Yes posters on the windows. The former were however easily removed.

If I was a Better Together activist perhaps I could claim assault and get quoted on the BBC, perhaps even making the headlines!

As it is I put it on Facebook as yet another example of the petty minded vandalism being targeted at people displaying Yes posters in their windows and who have Yes Flags in their gardens. It seems that NO activists (the few of them there are in Scotland, many being bussed in from down south and paid for the joy of visiting their northern outpost) seem to dislike the democratic process that is going on in Scotland at the moment.

A YES vote is about social justice, normalism, self determination, internationalism, the future, and the settled belief that we have a very good chance of being able to do things better (as we certainly have all the resources to do so – as the YES and the NO campaigns agree, or at least say they do).

We are one of the most unequal countries in the western world; we have 1 in 3 children born in Glasgow living in poverty; we have one of the lowest life expectancies; we have increasing numbers of people relying on food banks just to feed themselves from week to week, we have western Europe’s biggest nuclear weapons arsenal situated about 30 miles for our largest city, and for 27 of the first 65 years of the post WW2 years we have been ruled by Westminster Governments Scotland didn’t vote for. But we have best of both worlds they say.

All I’d say is if you’re planning to vote No and you’re NOT a billionaire businessman, a UK government minister or a Scottish Labour MP (who doesn't really give a **** about his constituents), it might be worth wondering why that is.

#indyref #scotland #freescotland #yesscot #yesscotland #voteyes #yes2014 #bettertogether #nothanks #saoralba #buchoir

Better Together? Scotland is Better Than This!

It really baffles me how anyone in this country actually believes that we are Better Together. I can't get my head around it. The best of both worlds they say. I don't think we have the best of any worlds. 

We are one of the most unequal countries in the western world; we have 1 in 3 children born in Glasgow living in poverty; we have one of the lowest life expectancies; we have increasing numbers of people relying on food banks just to feed themselves from week to week, we have western Europe’s biggest nuclear weapons arsenal situated about 30 miles for our largest city, and for 27 of the first 65 years of the post WW2 years we have been ruled by Westminster Governments Scotland didn’t vote for. But we have best of both worlds they say. 

Waken up! Is there anybody actually voting No in September? Why would that be?

 

All I’d say is if you’re planning to vote No and you’re NOT a billionaire businessman, a UK government minister or a Scottish Labour MP (who doesn't really give a **** about his constituents), it might be worth wondering why that is.

LIBERAL DEMOCrats

Prior to the 2010 the Liberal Democratic Party seemed to offer something different to the UK electorate.

Some of the party’s positive points were…

1.  In the absence of a proper opposition (since the Labour Party went from red to lavender in the 1990s) the Liberal Democrats were actually more left wing on many points than the Labour Party. 
2. They offered a new vision of working together for a better future. 
3. They promised an ‘End to broken promises’. 
4.  They offered a clear guarantee on student funding. 
5.  They offered a fairer electoral system. 
6.  They offered the promise of a federal United Kingdom. 
7.  Mr ‘read my lips’ Clegg promised that the party would never go into coalition with the Conservatives. 
8.  They therefore promised real change.

What actually happened was the Liberal Democrats sold out. As part of the coalition agreement…

1. They ditched the vast majority of their left wing promises. 
2.  They decided to work together for a worse future by virtually giving the Conservatives a free reign over everything except a select few items. 
3.  They broke almost every promise they made. 
4.  The guarantee on student funding turned out to be a lie and was ditched at the first opportunity. They should have been done under the trade descriptions act. 
5.  The electoral system offered as part of the coalition agreement was no fairer (indeed arguably even less fair) than the existing one. 
6.  They ditched the federal United Kingdom. 
7.  They went into coalition with the Conservatives. 
8.  They have merely removed some of the nastiness from some of the Conservatives policies but any positive changes they have achieved have been minimal.

 

The Liberal Democrats have therefore have proved themselves to be in many ways just as bad as the others, if not even worse, as you cannot trust them at all.

For people in England what is the choice? There are only 3 parties likely to gain power and all have sold people out. This is except for the rich, and those with shares or owners of big corporations.

At least in Scotland there is a 4^th realistic option.