What to do on a Wednesday evening? Drive past Faslane, keep an eye out for any stray nukes, keep going along the banks of Loch Long, Trident now a distant memory and we break through into Arrochar.
My mission, should I chose to accept it, is to attend the Yes Scotland public meeting for Undecided voter. This week the chairs were set up for us so had a go at handing out the pens.
The venue, the Three Villages Hall. We had canvassed with flyers over a week ago and the Undecided turned up in – cars? There was not a great turn out, but the seasoned campaigners explained that the area was a bit like that. However, we did have a decent number and the show got under way.
The speakers were David Cowey, a worker from the oil industry, Michelle Thomson MD of Business for Scotland and George Anderson of Labour for Independence.
The speakers gave us a bit of background about themselves and what they do. The opening topic was a rhetorical question asking whether Faslane had been good for the area and Helensburgh specifically.
To be fair – no, why should we? the big film included a snapshot of Jackie Baillie at the Helensburgh public debate, which I attended, and where she talked up the positive impact of Faslane on the local economy of Helensburgh. The crescendo came from a member of the audience who confronted Jackie Baillie with a whole bunch of inconvenient facts about the lack of positive impact that Faslane had on the local community. Normally very vocal, Ms Baillie was conspicuous by her silence. Word to the wise politician – isn’t it awful when you are confronted with someone who knows what they’re talking about and, worse, knows what you’re not talking about.
I was disappointed because the volume of local attendees did not match the quality of the speakers. George Anderson was a miner, a labour man through and through and one of the longest serving union officials around. George has been there, got the political education and the tee shirt. He enthused about the steady rise of labour for independence and explained how crucial was this movement to success in the referendum. He was imprisoned over the Skye Bridge protest, but turned that into an informative book telling the story over 8 years.
Michelle Thomson start life in music, financial services and change management within IT. Now chair of Business for Scotland that is enjoying exponential growth – any wonder after the CBI’s partisan behaviour. Michelle is a fabulously, inspirational speaker, not least because she has some very important messages. ‘Don’t accept received wisdom – challenge what you believe is wrong’. For example, don’t look outward to oilfields and inward to food banks and accept that as inevitable. The people of Scotland have been handed down ‘information’ through ‘establishment’ controlled media with not option but to accept or whinge. After living and working in the City of London for more than 20 years I have heard and challenged the common put down of ‘whinging Scots. Well, guess what, that whinge became a shout and on 18 September 2014 that shout will become a roar, a roar of a lion. Another key message from Michelle that I can concur with from my years with the IIBi is the sheer volume and importance of the Small to Medium Enterprise SME; companies from 1 through 500 employee consisting of more than 98% of all businesses by number with around 55% of GDP. The pattern is the same in Scotland as it is in rUK. Moreover, the volume of SMEs with up to 10 employees exceeds 99%. So when you here threats of companies like Standard Life hinting at an exit I hear the immortal words of Catherine Tate; Am I bovvered? am I bovvered? I’m not bovvered!
Last but by no means least was David Cowey. David described himself as an oil industry worker. What an understatement. Speaking about his own industry could easily flown over the heads of the audience – not with David. When he was recounting his many years of experience in the oil industry, in the North Sea and all over the world, I heard a noise at the back of the hall – someone had dropped a pin! David explained some of the dynamics of oil extraction, the methods whereby companies return to oil fields in suspense, now viable, how the oil extraction is monitored to the thimbleful and how easy it is to manipulate the figures. He drew a great comparison between Norway where they managed their oil in a total colaboration for the benefit of all whereas in Scotland or should we say Westminster it was a ‘rammy’ and a ‘feeding frenzie’. One of the most important points David made was the respect with which the rest of the world viewed teams of Scottish oil workers and engineers and how their skills are a commodity in its own right.
Over to the questions and answers and this is always the best bit. I made a comment about the absence of attendees when there were a number of Undecided from the canvassing. My concern was bedded in the not unique belief that the Undecided held the key to the referendum. We really just agreed that we continue doing what we are doing and don’t let it get to us – there will be busy days and quite days, and that’s that.
The first question was aimed at George and was interested in the growth of Labour for Independence. George explained that there was a ground swell of support within the traditional Scottish Labour movement. Clearly this was at odds with Westminster Labour and that old devil they call ‘whip’. George explained that there probably about 9000 Labour members left and many of them were deeply entrenched in UK Labour.
One women asked a proxy question on behalf of an Undecided voter. I immediately thought, this is what it is all about. Whether it was for herself or a friend, this was what the meeting was all about. She was concerned about interest rates in an independent Scotland. Michelle was ideally placed to answer that question with a cast iron assurance that Standard’s and Poor’s had intimately that Scotland could expect their highest rating AAA even without oil.
Oil is always a controversial subject in the referendum. David explained the sheer volume of oil in the North Sea and scotched the myth about oil in the Clyde Estuary – it’s not a myth, it’s a fact and the MOD has blocked development while Trident has to come out to play. The killer remark from David came when he announced that if his son decided to go into the Scottish oil industry he would be very pleased for him and see a long and sustained career – his son is 7 – say no more?
There were a number of other keen questions and one young guy wanted to know why Scotland had ‘supplied’ England in the drought rather than sell them drinking water. Suffice to say that he got his well deserved applause. If Scotland was a bit low on electricity could we see England approach us with a giant socket – probably, with a giant invoice underneath – these snout get everywhere.
My summary and most important issue remains Scotland’s Labour Party. Scotland is a socialist country, certainly in my life time. If Scottish Labour came out on the side of Independence we would be out canvassing for the election, not the referendum – that would have been a ‘slam dunk’.
Trouble is the Scottish Labour Party has let down the people of Scotland, the home of Labour if you will, in the most disgraceful way. Senior Labour wimps has bowed to their own vested Westminster aspirations and traded a countries future for their short term political selfishness. We know who they are – they are the Jackie Baillies, the Johann Lamonts, the Margaret Currans and the Douglas Alexanders of this world. You couldn’t make it up. Labour and Conservative have been, and continue to kick seven bells out of each other across the House, then nip into bed with each other to defeat their own countrymen and rob them of their future and their legacy.
Now here’s a bit of short-termism. After a YES vote, which will happen, do any of them think in their wildest dreams that they have a political career – in Scotland as traitors or in England as failures – that’s the NO vote. There are your ‘parcel of rogues’.
Of course, I have saved the best for last. Consider this. Alistair Darling, Gordon Brown or even Johann Lamont are sitting on one of the most historic opportunities in Scotland’s history. Any one of them could go public and say ‘F*ck it, what am I doing, I’m defecting to YES. That would make history and after a successful YES vote they would be national heroes, the stuff of folklore.
But here’s they thing. Even with such a monumental opportunity to carve their name in their country’s history, there is not one of them with the guts, the decency or the moral backbone to even contemplate such a move – now there’s real treachery!
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