Why so late? We're being treated like the followers of the Great Prophet Zarquon whose second coming was eagerly awaited. He eventually turned up in the Restaurant at the End of the Universe seconds before the end. Cheers, then BANG!
At least, for Zarquon, that was his second coming. For the No Better Together campaign this is the first we heard of it. Unless you count the sporadic morsels of future policy dribbled out since the spring by the individual parties.
For me, such abyssmal timekeeping is just disrespectful. Really, it's despicable verging on wicked. It's also calculated to deceive. We're being asked to sign up quick, and never mind the small print. Sign now or the game's a bogey. Why wasn't this presented clearly to us months ago? Is it really a back of the fag packet effort? Or is it a calculated sleight of hand to spoof us with a bag of half promises too tangled to tease out in the final days and too complicated to deliver.
Here's the gift, the vow they didn't call a pledge in case we remembered how Nick Clegg broke his last one on tuition fees. More powers, more fairness, guarantees of Holyrood for ever, Barnett set in stone. Not a lot of it bears scrutiny.
The powers are poorly defined, broadbrush headlines. If you consider them a moment you get this: Scotland sends its taxes to the Treasury (as before), they send only some of it back (Barnett), then Scotland gets to tax itself some more to do the extra stuff like protect the NHS. Westminster still keeps a chunk back, like it's done for years. That's left hand giving and right hand taking. A shyster's trick.
And fairness, laudable but vague. Where has it been throughout the last Labour administration and the years of Cameron's Tories? Buried under austerity, food banks and endemic inequality that began as New Labour polished up what was left of their principles and joined the spiv establishment.
Holyrood enshrined. But, as ever, no government can bind the policies of another to come. Enshrined but still vulnerable to the political weather. Or just plain revenge.
And Barnett, preserved. Not in law. Barnett is a Treasury mechanism and can be varied as they see fit. Remember the London Olympics? The Barnet formula should have added a proportional amount to funding for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland because of the extra public spending on the London infrastructure. That didn't happen because they decided the Olympics benefitted all of the UK. If public spending is reduced, we lose; if the Treasury wants to finagle us into not getting so much, they'll just do it regardless.
Then, against a background of growing Westminster indignation, we see Tory MPs say this pledge comes at too high a price. English people feel the same because no-one asked them. How can three parties who oppose each other, yet have stood hip to hip against Scottish independence, how can they hope to deliver any of this? Not while the back benches fume and sharpen their little political knives. Not while the groundswell of English and Welsh public opinion echoes Scottish cries for fairness (hah!) and self government.
Even Nick Robinson, recovered from his embarrassment over the Treasury business, said tonight on the BBC, they have no detail on these proposals. They can't give any details.
I watched Eck tonight with David Dimbleby. His was the affable, reasonable politician speaking to 'David'. Brown preceded him, 'Mr Dimbleby, you don't understand', he said several times. Compared with Eck's relaxed commitment, Gogs had his customary smug grin and his endlessly tapping feet. They showed just how much he was leaking. Body language is a curse.
Pledge? The Vow? There's nothing there, just a headline with no story. The poke has no pig in it though it's full of porkies. Wake up you NO people! These jokers have you by the snouts. The only pigs around are the flying kind, migrating to warmer latitudes for the duration.
We've better things to do, us and you, than go on listening to this. We've a huge job ahead. We're building the future. That is something we can do better together.
No comments:
Post a Comment