It’s
Europe!
I’m writing this
very short diary on a Wednesday instead of it being
my usual Thursday epistle. I suspect that I might
be too busy tomorrow! As is usual with Parliament,
we don’t sit on election days, whatever Parliament
is being elected (we haven’t had a separate council
election yet, so I don’t know whether we’ll suspend
business for that).
It’s a European
election in the middle of a political maelstrom
which looks like it is just about to sweep
Gordon Brown’s
Government into history. I can’t imagine that he’ll
relish the prospect of a quick election, so my
thinking is that he’ll try to limp on in the hope
that the cavalry will come riding over the hill and
rescue him. It appears, though, that the cavalry is
more likely to come galloping in on the side of his
opponents – maybe he shouldn’t have paid for them
with PFI …
So I think we’ll
have a Prime Minister that wants to limp on,
reasoning that ‘events’ have to turn in his favour
soon, leading a party that wants an election so that
the pain can stop and a country that wants an
election so we can get shot of them. His major
opposition –
Cameron’s
Conservatives – will be happy to sit back and wait,
thinking that Brown cannot be rescued and that the
collapse of the Labour party will be bigger the
longer he’s in power.
Meanwhile, our
nation is being punished for having a Labour
Government in
London controlling
our economy – and running that economy into the
ground – and all the attention is on those MPs who
have been seeking to gain the most from the expenses
system, not on the real problems.
In a tale of two
governments, the Scottish Government retains the
trust of the Scottish people and is doing a good
job. Every measure it can take to protect
Scotland from the
recession is being taken, every ounce of benefit
that can be wrung out for Scotland’s good is being
wrung, and every bit of energy is being poured into
improving Scotland. It’s a great shame that the
Scottish Government doesn’t have control of the
Scottish economic levers – maybe we wouldn’t be in
such a state.
In the midst of
London’s
chaos and Scotland’s endeavours, we vote tomorrow in
a European election. It would be better if we were
voting for the representatives of an independent
nation, but we will content ourselves for tomorrow
with ensuring that we return our two sitting MEPs
and send them at least one more colleague to keep
them company. Hard work, solid work, and a belief
in ourselves and our country – they are our weapons
in this battle to make our country a better place to
be.
Alyn Smith and Iain
Hudghton have done a fantastic job for Scotland –
Iain holding the line in Brussels and Alyn
connecting Scotland to Europe; Alyn bringing EU
Commissioners here to sell Scotland’s ideas to them,
Iain building our relationships with our European
partners; Iain fighting for our fishermen, Alyn
fighting for our farmers; from energy to
infrastructure our MEPs are putting Scotland’s case.
We have evidence of
how much better things could be for
Scotland – clear
evidence. Just recently our Environment and Rural
Affairs Cabinet Secretary, Richard Lochhead MSP, was
at a fisheries meeting in Brussels. Being a
Scottish Minister, of course, the UK Minister
insisted he played second fiddle. Scotland’s
fishermen got what they needed to stay in business –
after the UK Minister left to catch his plane home.
The second fiddle played a virtuoso solo!
We’ve got good
reasons to drive a hard bargain for
Scotland in Europe
– we believe it’s our country, and that gives us the
impetus we need to keep going. Other politicians
are at a disadvantage, much as they trot off
intending to do a good job, they are either, like
the UK Ministers, having to balance Scotland’s
interests against the rest of the UK and reckoning
“well, there’s only five million Scots …”, or
they’re ‘Scots’ MEPs who think that Scotland is a
region.
Do you need any
greater reason to vote SNP or to encourage others to
vote SNP? Have a good polling day!
