I suppose I was an Independence activist up to 18 September. On the 19 September I went into denial. Fortunately, that only lasted about a day. I quickly realised that I had fallen for the oldest trick in the ‘political manual of subversion’ the ‘false sense of security’ trap. This realisation turned my denial into anger pointing mainly inward. I was disappointed at myself for believing what I wanted to believe and i was disappointed at others, who should have known better.
At the moment, I have become an active observer and a social media commentator in a sort of ‘say what you see’ mode. This is quite positive, but only if we convert our observations into positive and meaningful actions.
It’s actually quite fun as we watch the ‘loser takes it all’ play out. Alex Salmond has crystalised his position as a Statesman, Johann Lamont has ‘crashed and burned’ in a most ungracious way, Alistair Darling has ‘chucked in the towel’ after being sidelines by his old boss; speaking of whom, ‘Lord’ Brown has become a national lampoon for peddling a ‘Vow’ dreamt up by the Daily Record comic. Possibly, the only decent thing that Lamont did was quite unintentional. I think she believed that YES would win and her excuse was that she had been managed robotically from New Labour headquarters in Westminster. It’s almost as if SHE was like the Japanese solder fighting on because they hadn’t heard the war was over. She resigned in a tantrum of upward accusations – deaf to the cries of ‘Johann, we won! WTF’. Too late, she was gone, albeit it hanging on to the the bottom of Ed’s trousers in an attempt to pull him over.
Back in ‘Stasi-land’ bounded by the M25 all is not so great. Ed is trying to shoehorn his Nemesis, Murphy, into the vacant role in the Scotland branch; no doubt to keep them apart. Ed, on the other hand realises he has a hill to climb to draw level in the leadership popularity stakes with Nick Clegg? Yes, Nick Clegg. If you hold a shell to your ear you could probably hear a transatlantic call from Ed to David saying, ‘Hi big brother, are you doing anything in May next year?…….’.
Meanwhile, the Cameron camp is just ‘Dandy’. OK, so his people are side-shuffling to the UKIP camp and a few have already made the jump; and with success. Never mind, ‘call me’ Dave will sort this all out when he gives the Euros a good ‘seeing to’. How is that going, Dave? Sorry to hear about the 1.7Bn. Still, none of us blokes ever really read the small print! Thank goodness George gave you a ‘heads up’. What? ‘heads up where? That gotta hurt! Anyway, the head haunchos from Scandanavia at ‘ECOFIN’ can always be relied on for a bit of support? They what? Look on the positive side, at least you have Blair and Brown to blame for just about everything. Although, I suspect you would be telling us what we already know – worth a shot though! Still, just to keep your mind off the EU budget issue you have the little matter of ‘migration control’ and the Euro Arrest Warrant crisis – good luck with that. Word to the wise. If the big Credit Agents try to screw us on our credit rating because you have defaulted on the debt, give Alex a call; he has a few tricks up his sleeve?
Pause for a moment. My sides are still hurting …. On reflection, just imaging if that lot had lost. I could see a lemming turning to a Unionist and saying, ‘hey mate, wait your turn!’
We waited a number of years for the referendum. Our next key milestone is much closer to hand. 7 May 2015 is the date set for the UK General Election. I am getting quite excited about that. This will be very different from the referendum, but also very similar.
I see two dynamics. The first will be the suicidal attempts by the big two and a half as they face their fate at the hands of the Scottish electorate. Long before they set about that challenge they have to deal with their ‘shoulder Velcro’. I’m thinking, perhaps they will present themselves as the LabConDem party as before.
Of course, the second dynamic will see Yes Alliance keep up the pressure for YES to vote SNP; regardless of whether they are SNP. This will be seen as a ‘Vote for Scottish Nationhood’. This will surely be the main thrust of our campaign.
The first dynamic is well under way. The demise of traditional Westminster parties’ in Scotland is gathering momentum by the day. We don’t need to do anything – other than to stand on the sideline and cheer? They are imploding on a daily basis.
To be fair, and this is a point we must remember, the Unionist campaign is not in a tail spin as a result of anything we are doing. They are doing that to themselves. In a way, that makes it even more satisfying.
The second dynamic is very interesting. We must ensure that SNP pick up as many seats in Westminster as possible and certainly, the majority in Scotland as an absolute minimum.
That is not as big an ask as it may seem. We are 1,600,000 and growing. They are not 2,000,000. We were and still are united at 1.6M. They were only united for the 18 September. They are not united now. As such we probably outnumber them. If you are not convinced, read up on Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar [read about it]. Nelson was outnumbered 27:33 and would have lost ‘face to face’, as YES was. But Nelson was crafty and did not do ‘face to face’ but two parallel columns that appeared to be equal. The Franco/Spanish split their forces in half, with 17 engaging the first column. But Nelsons columns were not equal. The first column heavily outnumbered the 17 enemy. In those days the result was generally a numbers game. After defeating the first enemy half, Nelson rejoined the other column with which they also outnumbered significantly – and that’s history. The lesson is, you may be outnumbered but that does not mean you’re outsmarted. That is what we must do for May 2015. We must make sure that everywhere we engage the opposition, be it New Labour {yuk}, LibDems {who?} or the Conservative {wee soul} we must outsmart them to outnumber them; because, just like Trafalgar, in our ‘first past the post’ system it is an entirely numbers game.
But here’s the thing….
There is a very big problem. We need to convert those who voted NO. Some of that is already happening as we have seen, and that will go on. This is a simple task, but not necessarily an achievable one. I say simple because we know that most of those who voted NO are ‘communicable’ {perhaps not a word}. We can communicate with them over the media, social media etc, etc. If our message is good and delivered well we stand a chance.
Here’s the big challenge. There are a lot of people out there who are completely switched off to politics. They may not read papers {if they have any sense}, they may not watch tele; other than their specific programmes or they may detach themselves from society altogether {and who could blame them?}. Some or even many of these people will be eligible to vote. Many of them may not have bothered. Remember we needed 5% from NO and 15% did not vote. Some of these folk may have detached themselves from any form of persuasion and voted NO for whatever reason.
HOW DO WE REACH THESE PEOPLE?
At this point we MUST PUT ASIDE THE POLLS – they are not to be trusted. I heard last night on Question Time that the North East of England polled 70:30 in favour of a Regional Assembly then voted 70:30 against it. OK, John Slugger Prescott got involved on the Assembly side and may have screwed it for them – but that’s polls for you!
I don’t know how we contact these ‘uncontactables’. There must be a way. I suspect they ‘bin’ leaflets, don’t open their door, don’t read papers or don’t watch news or politics on tele. There must be a way, though. What do they do?
I am going to make some {probably daft] suggestions and look for input and suggestions. If we could even get this partly right we are on our way. So here goes, and remember this is a work in progress:
1. Smart networking. Networking is great but we must have a proven message and script. Ask any sales person – they have a script, developed over some time that works. Once we have a really great and consistent message then we must have a plan to network into contact with the otherwise uncontactables. Women are far better at this than men – sorry guys, we have to concede this.
2. Perhaps we need a new kind of politics. Politics and politicians are amongst the most disrespected and mistrusted people in society, and I mean everywhere, not just in the duck pond. Remember, we are voting SNP for the numbers. That does not mean we are on board with SNP politics. That is altogether different. I have always believed and my wish for iScotland was a proper coalition Government – perhaps for a minimum of two terms. This worked well in the UK from 1940 through 1945 [read about]. This does two very important things. First of all, it does away with scourge of the undemocratic Party Whip system. Secondly, it presents an opportunity to run the country on policies rather than parties. Perhaps if this type of message was presented to those disenfranchised Scots they may be persuaded to re-engage to help create a different type of Scotland.
3. In many countries it is mandatory to vote. Some enforce this rule while others pay lip service. Nevertheless, turnout is always high. I am not suggesting we simply force folks to vote. We can offer them a real incentive, as they do in some countries. When you vote, there is a box for [No Confidence] with any candidate. The No Confidence vote is COUNTED and if it wins, the country must come up with some new and better candidates, and so it goes until the people vote for a candidate they have confidence in. Spice that up with a little ‘Recall’ policy, we are back at the duck pond now, and we have a recipe for politics that reflects the will of the people on an ongoing basis.
4. How about using technology. People could vote on line, by phone at their lottery terminal, at their cash point, in the supermarket. The technologies are already there to make this secure and as private as it needs to be. We can have referendi on the really important issues. One problem with numerous referendi is cost. With technology this can be fast and cheap. Also, it is often claimed that people are not informed enough to make judgements on a lot of issues. Technology is already making great strides and inroads on this subject. Is there a more politically aware and historically aware country that Scotland today? not many, if any.
5. Finally, for now. Let’s look at other countries that have a good reputation for engaging their people. Let’s get missions out to these countries and see where we can do to improve our public engagement.
I’ve just realised that I have done quite a bit of political writing and not used the word Establishment once – long may that continue!