I'm still here, just. I know I do on occasion deploy the editorial 'we' but its just me sitting here, there is no team. My Mum isn't well, she has Parkinson's Disease and recently its taken a turn for the worst, which is why there was no post last week and this week's is truncated. I could go on about my Mum but I won't, its just indescribably and heart-breakingly sad.
I've been keeping up with the various sound bites coming from all sides, I think someone needs to tell Jim Murphy the Holyrood Election isn't until next year - the one in May is for Westminster. Arguing the toss about what he'd do as First Minister of Scotland (mind your sides don't split) is - with the best will in the world - stupid.
Beyond that, in terms of the looming Westminster election, the choice in Scotland is stark. Despite the campaign double step being tapped out by Murphy, Dugdale and Marra etc - it couldn't be simpler. The Westminster parliament - of which 'Scottish' Labour is a strident participant - only cares about itself, we only figure in their workings as a means to an end.
The idea of doing something for people like you, me or my Mum doesn't occur to any of them as a serious proposition, they are thoroughly immersed in the austerity consensus that see's the interests of abstract economic ideas and immoral, psychopathic cultures in business and toxic empires within state apparatus as the be all and end all.
When Jim Murphy issues a volte-face closely followed by a breathy denial that he ever thought differently, the media barely notice. Yet, when a political party announces a policy that puts people ahead of those hateful things in the paragraph above; they are vilified and dismissed as naive by the usual suspects, many of whom profit from the status quo.
That political parties would put things like Trident, Aircraft carriers or the personal enrichment of themselves and their cronies above things like free personal care for the elderly, providing a safety net for those whose prospects have been ruined by government mismanagement or looking after the poorest and most vulnerable in our society doesn't just beggar belief, its a fucking travesty of morality.
The whingeing effrontery puked out by embittered Libertarians as they descry the notion a vulnerable person might be getting something they need in place of something one of their wasp-chewing fellow solipsists want is an insult to decency and social responsibility.
I try not to be extreme here, it leaves you open to accusations of hysteria, but under the circumstances I think its okay to say; I hate Westminster and everything it stands for, I wish I could temper that statement with a line like; '...they do some good things' but even the good things they do are a sop to cover the callous disregard they have for those they've decided to leave behind.
Westminster doesn't work for us, it works against us. It seeks to convince us of a perpetual fait accompli - that our existences will be punctuated by struggle grudgingly heaped upon us by an apologetic ruling class, and to expect anything else is naive and simplistic - of course its all total bollocks because we can choose differently this coming May.
This last paragraph is aimed at one person in particular who quite likes their local MP. Unfortunately she's a Labour MP (Fiona O'Donnell). Her voting record is a lesson in itself, she's never rebelled against her party and since its a Westminster party, it stands for all of the above. Fiona might be likable, she might say she's against things like trident and austerity - but her record tells a different story. Austerity isn't just a word, it is a thing that bites, it impoverishes the already poor, puts essential services at risk yet keeps the rich in place - if ever a policy could be said to be psychotic; austerity would be it.
Fiona might be fluffy in person but there's no getting round it - she voted for it.
Posts might be fewer and further between for a while, thanks as always to everyone who takes the time to read; its always appreciated.
