Vote Early, Vote Often
I cast my 'Yes' vote in the independence referendum yesterday, by post which is why the deed has been done so early.
As I wandered around the west end and centre of Glasgow, the Yes campaign had a visible presence in lots of different locations with the equivalent of a big smile on its face.
I read a report in a newspaper that one of the leading No campaign figures, Labour MP Jim Murphy, was calling for Yes Scotland to accept responsibility for the actions of some idiot who heckled and threw an egg at him in Dundee recently.
Yet the same newspaper reported a 'death threat' against Alex Salmond by some sad loser (who claimed to be making a bad joke) and separate 'road rage' incident involving another lunatic and the First Minister's official car.
But no one called upon the No campaign to accept responsibility in the manner of Jim Murphy, so it seems to me that the Better Together side is getting a bit desperate.
A clear sign of which is that they are beginning to fight amongst themselves over whose dumb idea it was to commission the 'patronising lady' advert, for example.
'Squeaky bum' time, as they say.
I've finally made up my mind on the business of Scottish independence and after a lot of thought I have decided to cast a 'Yes' vote in the referendum on 18 September 2014.
Now I'm not a 'committed nationalist' and I'm neither a member or supporter of the Scottish National Party. In fact I attended every Scottish Labour Party conference during the 1990s (as a union delegate from Nupe and then Unison) and I've voted for Labour on and off even after I resigned my Labour party membership in 1999.
I started out on my referendum journey strongly supporting a second question on the ballot paper for more powers or 'Devo Max' for the Scottish Parliament, but the Westminster parties ganged up to deny people the choice that most Scots wanted, as if we're all too dumb to hold two thoughts in our minds at the same time.
So, having been left with a straight Yes or No, my vote is going in support of independence. Because while the Scottish Parliament is properly representative and accountable to the Scottish people the same can't be said of the Westminster Parliament which has palpably failed to reform and reinvent itself in the wake of the great MPs' expenses scandal. At the same time the House of Lords has become even more bloated with a record 760 peers and its very existence is an insult to democracy.
The case for the Scottish Parliament having far more extensive powers is absolutely overwhelming if you ask me, and not just because the Scottish Government, Scottish Ministers and our MSPs have shown themselves to be as capable and competent as their Westminster colleagues over the past 15 years.
No, another big reason for the Scottish Parliament to have full control of tax and economic policy, over immigration and the welfare system, is that the influence of London is distorting and destabilising the rest of the UK economy. The out of control housing market being the obvious example and one which helped lead the country to near financial disaster in 2008.
And while I can see the argument that the UK is 'greater than the sum of its parts' when it comes to defence and foreign policy, I don't believe this is true of other areas of policy and public life where there often is a distinctly Scottish agenda or political culture.
All of which boils down to the question of whether the Scottish Parliament is capable of taking over responsibility for the country's affairs. Or should we be persuaded by the last minute, death bed conversion of the Westminster parties to grant 'more powers' to the Scottish Parliament after the September 2014 referendum was called.
I might have been persuaded by the 'more powers' argument if this had been backed up by a second question in the referendum because the overwhelming support of Scottish voters would have made it virtually impossible for the Westminster parties to deploy cynical wrecking tactics.
As the Labour Party to its terrible shame did back in 1979 when a Labour MP, George Cunningham (a Fifer originally who defected to the SDP), moved an amendment to the Scotland Act 1978 which effectively denied Scotland its Scottish Parliament for another 20 years, while at the same time ushering in a 18 long years of Tory rule.
So as I see things there are risks and uncertainties either way, and nor has it escaped my attention the Westminster Parliament was responsible for fuelling the great 'boom and bust' which Gordon Brown claimed to have abolished, yet the country's economy was brought to its knees under Labour in 2008 and is only now beginning to recover.
In other words, these people are in no position to lecture Scotland on how we should now organise our own affairs.
Yes Scotland (8 August 2014)
I've finally made up my mind on the business of Scottish independence and after a lot of thought I have decided to cast a 'Yes' vote in the referendum on 18 September 2014.
Now I'm not a 'committed nationalist' and I'm neither a member or supporter of the Scottish National Party. In fact I attended every Scottish Labour Party conference during the 1990s (as a union delegate from Nupe and then Unison) and I've voted for Labour on and off even after I resigned my Labour party membership in 1999.
I started out on my referendum journey strongly supporting a second question on the ballot paper for more powers or 'Devo Max' for the Scottish Parliament, but the Westminster parties ganged up to deny people the choice that most Scots wanted, as if we're all too dumb to hold two thoughts in our minds at the same time.
So, having been left with a straight Yes or No, my vote is going in support of independence. Because while the Scottish Parliament is properly representative and accountable to the Scottish people the same can't be said of the Westminster Parliament which has palpably failed to reform and reinvent itself in the wake of the great MPs' expenses scandal. At the same time the House of Lords has become even more bloated with a record 760 peers and its very existence is an insult to democracy.
The case for the Scottish Parliament having far more extensive powers is absolutely overwhelming if you ask me, and not just because the Scottish Government, Scottish Ministers and our MSPs have shown themselves to be as capable and competent as their Westminster colleagues over the past 15 years.
No, another big reason for the Scottish Parliament to have full control of tax and economic policy, over immigration and the welfare system, is that the influence of London is distorting and destabilising the rest of the UK economy. The out of control housing market being the obvious example and one which helped lead the country to near financial disaster in 2008.
And while I can see the argument that the UK is 'greater than the sum of its parts' when it comes to defence and foreign policy, I don't believe this is true of other areas of policy and public life where there often is a distinctly Scottish agenda or political culture.
All of which boils down to the question of whether the Scottish Parliament is capable of taking over responsibility for the country's affairs. Or should we be persuaded by the last minute, death bed conversion of the Westminster parties to grant 'more powers' to the Scottish Parliament after the September 2014 referendum was called.
I might have been persuaded by the 'more powers' argument if this had been backed up by a second question in the referendum because the overwhelming support of Scottish voters would have made it virtually impossible for the Westminster parties to deploy cynical wrecking tactics.
As the Labour Party to its terrible shame did back in 1979 when a Labour MP, George Cunningham (a Fifer originally who defected to the SDP), moved an amendment to the Scotland Act 1978 which effectively denied Scotland its Scottish Parliament for another 20 years, while at the same time ushering in a 18 long years of Tory rule.
So as I see things there are risks and uncertainties either way, and nor has it escaped my attention the Westminster Parliament was responsible for fuelling the great 'boom and bust' which Gordon Brown claimed to have abolished, yet the country's economy was brought to its knees under Labour in 2008 and is only now beginning to recover.
In other words, these people are in no position to lecture Scotland on how we should now organise our own affairs.
