Democracy not hard to grasp

IT appears that some of the more regular and sometimes more intelligent contributors to Your Voice are confused as to what is meant by the words “democracy” and “cult”.

Not wishing to come across as the know-all and the font of all knowledge but merely in an effort to avoid any further disorientation on the subject, I have given a clear and precise definition and meaning of each as quoted from none other than the data of Oxford Languages. Here is their definition of each.

Democracy: “Is broadly understood to mean ‘rule by the people’. In practice, it is often defined as people choosing their leaders in free and fair elections.

“It is a system of government in which power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or through freely elected representatives.”

To give an example of this: “The SNP has won 64 seats in the Scottish Parliament election – one short of a majority but one more than it won in 2016” (BBC News, May 2021).

In contrast then, Cult: “A system of religious veneration and devotion directed towards a particular figure or object: eg, ... ‘a network of satanic cults...’”

As one can see as clear as day and to which would be very obvious, even to those with a very limited political literacy and knowledge capacity, democracy is the means by which the SNP and Scottish devolution came into being and it is only by such means that it will be abolished, through the ballot box and rightly so.

Can we now please dispense with this absurd notion that we can just abolish devolution like it had never happened and go back to a bleak future where only Westminsterelected parties were allowed to rule over all and sundry without even having won any seats in Scotland in an unfair voting system that allowed Westminster full control, even though the Scottish electorate voted otherwise?

Can we also bear in mind that devolution only gives a very minimal say in how and what it has governance over in Scotland and as such the reins of power remain firmly held in the grasp of Westminster?

This was shown recently in a reform Bill passed by the Scottish Parliament, only to be overturned by Westminster. It does not matter if you were for or against this Bill, it is the principle of the fact that Westminster is still meddling in our affairs.

I would much rather stand or fall by my own acts of commission and omission than be ruled by another country’s “I’m all right (Union) Jack” warped take on democracy and a capitalist, right-wing, skewed politics, where only the rich get richer and too bad for public services because we can afford to use private companies and health care.

Now that I have that off my chest, may I also take this opportunity to state that: “NO, I am not Fraser.”