Lord Dunderheid

With Brexit day almost upon us I feel I should explain why I voted to leave - and why I now regret doing so. The first thing to say is that I did not vote to leave to escape the free movement of people, as required by the single market. I was not being racist in my outlook. I was happy that the UK, or Scotland if independent, paid for access to the single market and continued to work within the rules of free movement. I assumed we’d be joining EFTA or coming to a similar agreement with the EU as the other EFTA countries have done. I should have realised, given the attitudes being expressed south of the border, that the UK, on the whole, was going to aim for as complete a break from the EU as possible. This included getting out of both the single market and the customs union. I was happy to escape the customs union as I very much dislike the CAP and the CFP but I was also happy to pay for access to the single market and retain the free movement of people. But the main reason I voted to ...

So, at least two Labour leadership contenders (Phillips and Nandy) have come out against allowing IndyRef2 - and just yesterday, on the Andrew Marr programme, Ian Murray stated that he agreed with them 100%. All three stated that the way to beat nationalism was to elect a radical, left wing, Labour government to Westminster. Two points to make on that view. Firstly, the N in SNP stands for NATIONAL - not NATIONALIST. There is a difference. Nationalist movements are, on the whole, ring wing and racist (promoting the rights of the indigenous population at the expense of incomers). Neither label can be applied to the SNP (although there are those seeking Scottish independence who hold such views - but they are a minority and the SNP quickly shut them up when they expound on such views). The SNP seek to remain, or rejoin, the EU and actively seeks people from anywhere in the world to move to Scotland. The SNP hopes for a left of centre Scottish government which will forever reject the rig...

Well, it’s nearly three weeks since the general election and I suppose it’s time I made some comment on the outcome. For reasons not yet fully understood, that (in my opinion) cheating, dishonest buffoon Johnson won by a majority of eighty seats. That, amongst other things, means that his pretty hard Brexit deal will go ahead - without a second EU referendum being needed. As indicated in a previous post, that will likely leave the country still badly split over leaving or remaining in the EU. Then again, perhaps the size of the majority will result in the remain side just accepting the decision? That might be the case but with the parties either wanting to remain or have a second vote getting around two million more votes than the parties who just wanted to ‘get it done’, we are left with a minority pushing through a major change against the wishes of a majority who didn’t want to proceed with this under Johnson’s deal. I am not saying a majority voted to remain - that’s unclear due t...