Week 12 2014

Tendring Topics……..on line

The Scottish Referendum

            The date of that referendum that will decide whether or not the Scots will remain in the UK or become an independent sovereign nation is getting nearer and nearer.  I think that the top politicians of our main political parties, once certain in their own minds of an overwhelming NO vote, are now a little less sure of the result.  Why else did they arrange for the head of BT to publicly announce his disquiet at the possibility of Scottish independence (a pity that he isn’t even British)?    Then there was the all-party announcement that an independent Scotland couldn’t hope to keep the pound sterling as its currency, would have to make a fresh application for EU membership and would find the process long and difficult, and that many financial institutions would probably relocate south of the border.

            Had I been a Scotsman and resident in Scotland I have little doubt that I’d have been an enthusiastic YES voter.  It is clear to me that public opinion north of the border is strongly opposed to virtually everything that many supporters of the Coalition Government stand for – payment for medical prescriptions, university tuition fees, indirect taxation that penalises the less-well-off, bedroom tax, and giving up our membership of the European Union.  Nigel Farage may get a triumphal reception in England but his one excursion into Scotland was brief and inglorious. How many Conservative and Lib.Dem. MPs are there north of Hadrian’s Wall?  How refreshing it must be to realize that a simple yes vote could shake off that Cameron/Osborne yoke for ever.  And, of course, I find Alec Salmond more honest and straightforward, and more convincing than any of that lot at Westminster.

            But I’m not a Scotsman and I live in East Anglia.  Consequently I rather hope for a NO vote in the referendum because I value the successful alternative course of action that the Scots display before us, and the fact that the Scottish vote makes it unlikely that David Cameron and his ilk will have a permanent majority in the UK parliament.

            I have just received what seems to me to be a very balanced view of the situation from a regular blog reader who is also a successful business man with interests on both sides of the Scottish border.  

I am now convinced that what the Scottish people want is autonomy, not separation.  It really is surprising that they want to keep the £ and the BBC and the Queen.  , It was wrong of Cameron to rule out that third option from the ballot paper.  All they want, is for the wealth which Scotland generates to be spent by the Scottish government, to raise their own taxes on whatever they consider to be appropriate, and spend Scottish taxes on whatever they think is right for Scotland – even if that means extending the welfare state.  They should also be seen as a “Partner”, not a “Regional council” on foreign affairs, EU policy etc. Currently it seems to me there is absolutely no consultation at all with them on National issues and, as a result, decisions are constantly made which almost everyone in Scotland disagrees with – but many in Scotland could finish up dying for.

I think when you are in Scotland, it is much clearer that this is a vote against “Westminster” – an expression they constantly use; not against Manchester, Newcastle or Liverpool, but against the political elite from both parties who have run the whole of the UK from a South-Central perspective for decades.  I think people in England feel either slightly offended that the Scots want to do their own thing, or else are completely uninterested – let them do what they want -  and don’t realise that it isn’t really a rejection of the “English people” or its traditions or way of life, but of the Westminster political system.  Maybe there should be wider support for that point of view, because the majority of people north of Milton Keynes and west of Shrewsbury think the same.  You wouldn’t believe the venom with which the staff of our East Durham customer regard the Tory government, with memories of pit closures still very raw

Actually I don’t believe that they will vote for independence, but if they do, I think that really will be the Cameron legacy. He played hard-ball, took a gamble and broke up the UK in the process.

I just hope, that if the vote is close, as I expect it will be, politicians will realise that they cannot just go back to business as usual and ignore the feelings of 2 - 3m people who may vote yes

I wrote the above on Saturday 8^th March.  Today (Monday 10^th) I have heard on the tv that former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has suggested much the same idea as my blog-reading correspondent.   Mr Brown is a Scotsman and I have to assume that, as a politician, he has a pretty good grasp of Scottish public opinion.

Perhaps then, as a southern Englishman who has nothing but good will for the Scots, I should be hoping that the No vote will prevail but by a sufficiently small majority to make ‘that lot at Westminster’ appreciate they’ll have to grant Scotland greater autonomy, and consider Scottish opinion before making pronouncements and decisions about foreign policy (including relations with the EU) and defence.

 Ukippers – ‘They’re dangerous, not just a laugh’, says article in ‘The Times’ .

            I have warned in this blog of the similarities between the rapid growth of Ukip during the past year or so, and that of the Nazi Party in Germany in the late 1920s and early ’30s.  Could Nigel Farage be a sanitised and Anglicised version of Adolf Hitler – and every bit as dangerous?  A well-researched article by Rachel Sylvester in The Times (still authoritative though now part of the News International Empire) suggests that he may be.  Here are some extracts from it:

It’s easy to sneer at Ukip. David Cameron called them “fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists”, Michael Howard dismissed them as “gadflies and cranks”. Nigel Farage’s barmy army looks like a one-man-pint-in-hand-band, combining golf club bonhomie with shock-jock prejudice — reactionary, swivel-eyed, out of touch.


Although the country is struggling at the edge of recession, Ukip has no economic policy and its leader has disowned his entire 2010 manifesto. Of the party’s 21 MEPs elected since 1999, almost half have defected, resigned, been suspended or gone to jail. The Ukip headquarters has been described as “Carry On Politics” — ill-disciplined and unprofessional. Even the leader’s wife, Kirsten, has described the party’s operation as a “freak show”. These rebels with a cause seem to revel in their eccentricity: at Ukip’s recent spring conference in Torquay there was fruit cake on offer to delegates at the door!

 This is not just harmless fun, a Monster Raving Loony Party in pinstripes. There is bigotry behind the comments blaming the floods on gay marriage and suggesting that women are sluts if they do not clean behind the fridge. There is cynicism and hypocrisy lurking below the surface, with MEPs happily riding first class on the Brussels gravy train even as they express their disgust at the House of Commons expenses scandal. They stay in smart Strasbourg hotels and dine in fine restaurants, slurping Château Margaux at taxpayers’ expense, while condemning the waste of money by the EU. The party is also facing a European Parliament investigation into allegations that it improperly diverted public money to pay its staff in London. With a higher profile comes greater scrutiny and there is a bad smell around the Kippers.

I have spent the past two months investigating Ukip with Alice Thomson and it is clear that these anti-Establishment insurgents are guilty of appalling double standards. There is also a clear streak of nastiness running through the party. And yet, I can’t help feeling that it would be foolish and dangerous for the mainstream parties to ignore the Faragistes. It’s not just that the insurgents could steal their votes at the European elections in May, almost certainly forcing the Tories into third place and possibly beating Labour to the top spot. Nor is the issue that Ukip is expanding its base in local government, raising the prospect that it could soon be involved in council coalitions, wielding actual power.

What really matters is that the rise of Ukip exposes deep social and economic divisions in Britain. It points to a profound sense of alienation among certain sections of the population. Mr Farage may be a flawed character, more knave than fool in my view, but he is like the canary in the mine who is picking up on the poison gas of class and wealth inequality. His party is full of idiots, but its success is a serious warning to the political establishment and the “metropolitan elite” that includes the media.

It is striking — but no coincidence — that, according to YouGov polling for The Times, Ukip is the most working-class party, with 52 per cent of its supporters coming from the C2DE social groups, compared with 46 per cent for Labour, 43 per cent for the Tories and 32 per cent for the Lib Dems. Its voters are also the least well educated of any party apart from the BNP — 52 per cent of Ukip backers left school at 16 or earlier.

Mr Farage is completely wrong in his analysis of the problems the country faces and the solutions he proposes. His party is cynically exploiting vulnerable people and playing on their worst instincts and fears. But the rise in Ukip reveals a deeper truth that cannot be laughed off or ignored. Britain is still two nations.

            It is only weeks now to the elections for the European Parliament.  Funny, isn’t it – that those who moan about the undemocratic nature of the EU Executive in Brussels and the Council of Ministers, are strongly opposed to increasing the powers of the European Parliament, the one unquestionably democratic European institution.  If you value freedom and democracy, turn out and vote in that election – but do not vote for UKIP!