When are the working class not working class?

 The other day on the radio, Scotland's National Clinical Director, Jason Leitch, was asked about the effect of the Old Firm game taking place during the Scottish Government's so-called "circuit breaker" lockdown.

In his answer, he made reference to his time working in hospital and how incidents increased in the aftermath of Old Firm games. I can't remember the precise words used, but his disdain for mass-appeal football was all too apparent. (And it's not the first time that this particular figure, who is meant to be apolitical, has allowed his politics and personal opinions to cloud his judgement, but I digress.)

The SNP like to paint the Tories as posh snobs, out-of-touch with working people. But they turn their noses up at working class culture to exactly the same extent.

Though not working class myself, my wife and her family is, and you can take it from us the working class want a fag with a pint. They enjoy mass-appeal sports, especially football. They want to buy their own council house.

One middle-class MP, acting in a grossly offensive caricature of a Scottish working-class person by strolling into Parliament and impersonating Rab C Nesbitt, doesn't quite cut it if you want to show off your working-class credentials.

Two plus two equals five

One of the favourite tactics of SNP politicians and supporters, and increasingly other leftists, is to take two completely separate issues, smoosh them together, hope nobody notices the issues don't have anything to do with each other, and create a faux outrage.

Let me provide an example.

A few weeks ago Joanna Cherry made the point... well, it wasn't really a point. It was more fodder to be sent around the Internet by the faithful. Apparently the problem was that the Government were trying to get the DUP's support on Brexit, and the DUP have links to the UVF, yet the Government hadn't consulted with the Scottish or Welsh Governments on their Brexit plans.

How, in the name of all that is holy, does the DUP's links to any unsavoury organisations have the slightest shred to do with consultation with the devolved governments???

Are they trying to say that if the DUP didn't have links to the UVF then it would be perfectly OK to fail to consult the devolved governments? I very much doubt it. The Scottish government would claim grievance if the UK Government hadn't consulted them about the type of digestive biscuits served with the tea at Number 10. And if government did consult the devolved governments, then it's OK for the DUP to have links to the UVF?

Of course, they don't even need two issues to be able to make stuff up. A friend recently posted on social media some manufactured nonsense about Jo Swinson. Apparently the Conservatives aren't standing in her East Dunbartonshire constituency because she's secretly made an electoral pact with them, and this proves she's really a Tory.

Sound implausible? That's because it is. There is a Conservative standing in East Dunbartonshire (that took all of five minutes to find out), and even if there wasn't, that doesn't in itself prove that Swinson is a Tory.

Take each issue or incident on its own merits. Don't allow irrelevant matters to cloud your judgment. And please, please check your facts are right before vomiting them on social media.

A Liberal in Limbo

Well, a General Election for 12 December 2019 has just been announced. Normally, this would enthral me and ensure "lively" pub conversation for the next six weeks. This is because I've always been a political geek, as have most of my friends.

But recently I've found this more of a curse than a blessing.

Every political view in the UK, and Scotland, tends towards extremes these days. Any attempt to take a balanced view, or to at least attempt to understand an opponent's viewpoint, is met with scorn and derision. This is exemplified in social media platforms such as Twitter, which I once thought would be the ideal method to debate with like-minded political geeks. In reality, Twitter generates more heat than light, as the short snappy messages allow only for generalised, polarised views on most topics, with no room to identify exceptions or counterarguments. Any reasonable attempts to debate quickly descend into insults, with people entrenched in their own position. This becomes exhausting and mentally draining. Many don't even bother to debate and only read and interact with those posts offering similar views to their own.

As people's views are shaped by such platforms, they become more and more extreme on both sides, on and offline. This is not good for a healthy political landscape.

I became so frustrated by this that I decided to start this blog. I'm not advertising it on any social media, and to be honest I don't even care if nobody reads it - as I said above, I find online political debate to be more trouble than it's worth. It's merely a method to let off steam on some of my opinions - getting them out there, even if it's to an audience of zero, feels better than bottling them up!

So what, very broadly, do I think? Well, I'm aware that the UK is not perfect, and neither is the EU. However, by any reasonable comparison, and certainly by any historical one, life in Scotland within the UK within the EU is actually pretty good. Leaving either (or both) is a knee-jerk reaction will cause an unpredictable social and economic disaster that isn't worth it. What problems there are with the status quo can be more constructively resolved, and in a manner that benefits a far greater number of people, by working with our friends and neighbours at all levels of government.

Yet this looks to be a very unlikely way forwards. I really do feel like a Liberal in Limbo.