Gaza ceasefire debate cowardly
A fortnight ago, my last Express column was in part about the SNP’s motion to the UK Parliament calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Little did I know that even while the ink was drying on the newspapers, Labour were bullying and harassing the Speaker to ditch our motion and our debate and, instead, bring Labour’s forward, purely to save themselves the embarrassment of being ordered by Keir Starmer to sit on their hands.
It was a shabby and cowardly moment in a place that gets shabbier and more cowardly the longer it goes on. It might seem like an obscure piece of parliamentary theatre about a conflict far away.
But if the establishment think they’ve got away with it this time, there’s no reason they won’t repeat the trick over something else – like action on the cost of living or the democratic rights of people in Scotland.
And it’s an insight into the authoritarian mindset of the new model Labour party under Sir Keir Starmer.
Clearly, no dissent will be tolerated and no sunlight will be allowed to shine in the darkness the Labour leadership want to surround their operations.
It shows why Labour can’t be allowed a free rein to govern after the next election without a strong SNP in the UK Parliament to drag them into the daylight.
Mind you, their counterparts in the Tory party seem to be doing their best to hand that election directly to Labour.
I’ve seen a lot of incompetent, dismal Tory Prime Ministers in my time but Rishi Sunak has broken all records during his short term in office.
His latest attempt to rally his collection of ferrets in a sack was to address the nation last Friday teatime – lecturing the rest of us about extremism in politics.
It took some brass neck for the man leading the party of Lee Anderson, David Cameron, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss to try and point the finger at others for their “extreme” politics.
Of course, the UK and Scotland have their fair share of political bampottery and unpleasant views – and anyone serious about defending democracy should be committed to rooting them out and defeating them at the ballot box.
But Sunak’s cynical and grim attempt to conflate that sort of extremism with the belief – held by the majority of people in this country – that a ceasefire in Gaza must happen immediately to save innocent lives says so much more about him and his politics than anything or anyone else.
That cynicism allows Sunak and his cronies to try and distract people from the ongoing cost-of-living crisis with his manufactured culture war nonsense.
While he prattles on about nonsensical threats to democracy, millions of our fellow citizens are still – still – having to choose between heating and eating.
The toothless UKappointed regulator leaves the energy price cap at 59 per cent above the prices of just two years ago.
Mortgage rates remain at the highest rate for over 15 years, hammering anyone coming off fixed-rate deals with increases of hundreds of pounds a month – a crisis created by Sunak’s deluded predecessor, Liz Truss.
The costs of basic foods are still sky-high, hitting every household hard every time they do the messages.
All the while, the 14year long programme of Tory austerity continues to hammer our public services and plunge the country into recession.
A programme of austerity Labour are pledged to follow, come what may.
More and more, the UK looks like a failed state, attempting to bask in past glories but in reality managing a broken system.
There’s no reason why Scotland should be dragged down with them by parties we didn’t vote for.
And every reason why we can grasp the potential of independence.