Personal Blogs

These are kids from my school. I defy you not to smile and hope for the future.

And by my country I mean Britain. We managed to have a debate, and a referendum, over something that in other places would have involved bullets, killings and centuries of hate and rage. We've shown the world how 'grown-ups' settle their problems: with words, respect for one another and humour.

Things will have to change, I think that we all know that. But today just be incredably proud that we live in a country where fairness, tolerance and fellow-feeling are the norm ratrher than something to be aspired to.

Well done us!

I'm unsure.

I wanted to explain, in the way that the media wouldn't, what it feels to be here just now. I've messed that up, of course.

I talked, perhaps shouted at my old boss today, "can you tell me what s going to happen with our pensions?" He said.

"No",  I said. But a single sentence is not me.

"Can you tell me why ATOS took away my wife's disability allowance? Can you tell me why my niece has to move home because of the bedroom tax?" Funny, he was stushied.

He then concentrated on why I was being decisive. He had examples. He's a self-serving shite. Nice to be a winner in this game of life. Even if people close to you lose.

Why, why, why are we doing this? We're clearly atavistic morons, addicted to breaveheart, out to fuck-over the settled mores of society. Or are we?

This is a jump in the dark, we've never said anything else..

If you are in Scotland tomorrow, cast a vote.

...and still all to play for. We'll not really, we'll maybe. This isn't a game of football. Let me explain.

For the politicians this game is over, they'll go through the moves but, by now, they've said all that needs to be said. [We'll come to the vow in a moment.] We've been given the facts, such as they can be ascertained, we've been warned of the doom that we face, the promised land has been painted. The bozos will keep at it of course, that they would understand that what they say no longer matters would be asking for a self-knowledge that we all know that they don't have.

That doesn't mean that the game is over. The people on the cobbles are still playing.

Today I had a talk with a couple of undecideds.

"I'm a yes. Still I'm not going to pretend that this isn't a leap in the dark..."

[some concrete problems are raised...]

"Let's look at who's ag'in this shall we?" They are expecting the usual suspects.

"How much do you pay your union a month? How much does the boss of that union get paid? £120, 000 isn't it? Have they ever helped you? Have they ever asked you what you thought? When you were trying to get your equal pay money back were they helpful, or just not there? And he, and it is a he, has the blatant gall to suggest that we're better together! Better for him."

"Everybody who is predicting doom, or promising us the world, has an interest in things remaining just as they are.. Why are they so keen that the subsidy-junky scots remain on board? If we're that shite why don't they just cut us loose? It ain't an emotional attachment to us that's for sure." 

See, I can play as unfair as the best German Banker with a portfolio.

Which brings me back to the vow. Stupid thing to do? They now have two choices.

• They stuff the scots with a lie that they'll be called on
• They satisfy us, the scots. In which case they are going to have to satisfy everyone else on these isles too

We've won!

I imagine that, like the expenses issue they imagine that we'll move on and forget. Oh no. Not this time.

This time we are going to deliver the bill,

Well for a start Salmond. He has already won big whatever happens. If it's an aye then his place in history is secure: the man who delivered what I think most of us had assumed was impossible.

To even get this close is something of a personal triumph for him. Almost single-handedly he has led the SNP into power, used that power well enough to show us what-might-be if we had more power and has campaigned in a way which felt positive while still managing to get in some very low personal-blows at the nays.  

I'm no great fan of fat 'eck, as I've said before he has the touch of the scunner about him. It would come as no surprise to me if he had quite a few skeletons lurking in his closet. If fact looking at him, if he had more one skeleton lurking inside his body that would be no surprise either. But there can be no doubt, without him we wouldn't be here. 

You only have to look at the pictures to see which flavour of politicians are enjoying themselves.

Then there's the people of Scotland. I'm not sure if I can get across just how exciting it is to be here in Scotland at this moment. The world's press are arriving in their droves, we feel that we are on the cusp of history and that the world is watching us. For a small nation of little importance that's very flattering. 

So what are we, the denizens, doing? We're talking, incessantly, to each other about almost nothing else. Hundreds of thousands of people who weren't on the electoral roll have registered to vote. We're expecting an 80%+ turnout.

Whatever happens there is a real sense of importance about what we [and we do feel that we are a we] are about to decide. At no other time in my life has there been such an interest in a political event. And perhaps most importantly, there is a sense that what we think, as voters, can make a real difference.

Which leads me to my last big winners, everyone here on these isles. Aye or nae the political landscape has been changed.

Whatever your political leanings you must admit that you feel that an out-of-touch political elite are running this country in the interests of rich corporations and super wealthy. You also feel that there isn't really much you can personally do to change anything. We've been in wrong lizard territory for too long here.

The political class feel secure; they have control of the agenda, they have the media in their pockets and as long as they keep the interests of their backers in mind, they have enough money to squash any opposition.

Didn't work this time.

Yes didn't have a chance, everything was against us. Still here we are now.

Enthusiastic people on the ground, a measured campaign and a sense that we could change the world have turned all that around. People here have long since stopped listening to the bankers, the politicians, the billionaires, the media... We'd stopped trusting them long ago but we didn't think that we could do anything about them. The realization that we could, and might, be able to change something for real has been a huge thing. 

As soon as we stopped listening to the settled-fonts-of-opinon and started talking to ourselves about politics, anything seemed possible. That genie isn't going back in the bottle.

The panicked response to one yes-lead-poll showed how rattled they [the man ] are. Those with power and riches never assumed that people might vote in a way that might interfere with the way that they want the world to be. They've been badly frightened. The whole process has been worth it for that alone.

The result? It'll be a no. Us yessers are telling ourselves, "one last push". Indeed that was the exact form of words that three of us used at work today. Won't happen. There are too many people out there like my mum, "my heart says yes, do it for Scotland, but..." The missing bit is that her head says no, and we know which rules when we come to vote.

We, the yessers, know that we are probably going to lose but even getting so close is a victory of a kind. This has made things different. This isn't getting rid of the, "effing Tories" for another set of, "effing Tories". This about us telling them that you no longer own, or can buy, us, the voters.

Lots of people have won here before we even have the poll.

Still let me win, God know's it would be the first time...

Edited to add this link and quote:

Everything that has been written pronouncing the death of popular politics in this country has just been proved wrong.”

Prof Matthew Flinders Sheffield University

Edited to add this link and quote:

It is impossible to have visited Scotland in recent days and not to have been exhilarated by the sheer vigour of democratic engagement.

John Prescott joined the campaign today. I'm not sure if he did any good for the naes. He pointed out that Cameron might not be the asset that the better together's think he is, which may be true. But then he made a blunder of epic proportions, he suggested that we should have a UK football team so, "that we could beat the Germans". My jaw dropped at the ignorance and insensitivity of that! 

A couple of quotes from the Scotsman comments:

• "stay together and they'll take away our football team?"
• "So Jabba the Hut bobs to the surface like some great brown jobby."

At least Prezza [notice the yes-thug agenda that I warned about yesterday in the comments] had the bottle to get out onto the streets and mix it. It's just that nobody here much cares what he thinks.

This is the a problem with politicians, they assume that the people of Scotland [and everyone else] are hanging on their words and will be persuaded by them. That time, where we thought that they had anything germane to spout. if it every existed, is long gone now; their words are merely irksome at best, self-defeating at worst.

Worse they believe that the media is where the battle is taking place. Where do they think we are? This is twenty-first century Scotland, we have the internet, do the still think that if they cozy up to some press-plutocrat then things will fall-out as they wish?

What is very noticeable is that although the three stooges jetted in to, fight for the family, there is no reporting about who they are actually talking to while they are here. The thought occurs that this, engagement with the people of Scotland, is just actually just a press-conference, that they might have held in London, a press-conference that was held in a strange land.

I started this indyref stuff because I was worried that the media were going to give outsiders a false idea about what us here, huddled, in Scotland are thinking; I was longing to say something that I thought was very important: democracy and the democratic process is the winner here. Whatever the result we will remember this.

When was the last time that you walked to work and every conversation you heard was about the way you were going to vote?

I hope I'm not boring you.

Things get a wee bit mad after a single poll. Panic in the papers, panic in Westminster.

Suddenly the penny drops that us here in Scotland might actually vote in a way that might not suit the people who run the world. Their answer was pathetic. I'm biased but it really was pathetic.

"The pound is crashing, shares in Scottish companies are in a tailspin, house prices might fall. And we'll get lots and lots of stuff if we vote no".

Time to wake up rich people. There are other people out here who have another agenda.

That there are going to be financial ructions is a given. But just how much does a fall in house prices or shares prices hurt me? Bankers lost billions through greed, my wage has stagnated, they still seem to be doing quite nicely. Does this bottoming out of, what is, betting, matter to most of the people who are going to be voting? A fall in the value of the pound? Isn't that good for exporters? Aren't we supposed to be doing more of that?

Some of us here remember the 1979 referendum where we were promised the better world if we waited. What did we get? Thatcher and 18 years of a government we despised. Then a warmongering scum-bag who thought that God was talking to him in person.

I think that the most telling thing that  read today was someone on disability benefit, "what the fuck have we got to lose? If we don't vote yes they'll take away whatever dignity we have left".

Ask yourself, that run on the pound, that drop in share prices, did that hurt you? And when these things are going great there? Did you cash in?

I'll say Bishop's War, this is the start of our UK fight back against the people who run this world for their own advantage.

I worked in a school where Alistair Darling held his 'surgery'. Like he was a doctor or something. It was often quiet so we spent quite a bit of time chatting about politics. Alistair is a really nice man whose heart is in the right place, he has a strong belief in social justice and really wants to achieve it. He actually believes in the union. He's just madly wrong.

I'm probably going to be writing a lot of posts about the indyref over the next couple of weeks. Mostly because I don't think that the media is doing a good job of explaining what's happening. When I talk to my English mates they don't seem to 'get' the issues and why we Scots might feel that it would be a good idea to be independent. They feel, I think, that we are somehow splitting up the family. Which couldn't be further from the truth -- we love the family, we're always going to have a special relationship. It's just that we feel that it would be better for all of us if we changed some of the fundamentals.

The media cover is skewed, for example, there's some suggestion that things are getting violent; utter tosh. We're all on a Jimmy Reid warning here. ["There will be no hooliganism. There will be no vandalism. There will be no bevying....because the world is watching us.  It is our responsibility to conduct ourselves with dignity and with maturity."] A speech that most Scots know by heart.

Things are getting exciting, we're expecting an 80%+ turnout. I wouldn't be surprised if we hit 90%. Imagine that! As Scots we are having a national conversation about who we are and who we want to be. And it's becoming increasingly real and today.

Something that we all had in the back-of-our-mind's has suddenly gotten huge. In part this is because we're beginning to feel how close this is going to be. I think that most of us on the yes side just assumed that were going to get roundly-scubbed. We're now beginning to feel like the momentum is with us, the nos are looking rattled.

Whatever. The real news is that the pubs have started to apply for all-night licenses, so that we can watch the results, in the pub, bevying.

Well, we are Scots after all. The chip shops will be open early.