I think I'll agree with Ignited, it's a slow day.
But being a slow day, more abstract (as opposed to the "How much longer can I afford to pay my mortgage?" variety) thoughts have flitted across my mind.
For example:
Does Gordon Brown's, Jack Straw's and the rest of the New Labour crew's Unionism increase/decrease in an inverse proportion according to their popularity at the polls?
When was the last time did you hear any of them (with exception of good ole Jim Murphy) mention the Union or "British values"*?
Pre Glenrothes? The financial crisis?
I do hope their commitment to the Union isn't simply a case of short-term, real-politik, opportunism.
*Just in case you were wondering they don't exist, but until quite recently it was apparently imperative that we define them.
7 comments:
If I could be slightly off-topic but could I mention something about the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands?
I have noticed no clamour for these territories to be integrated into the UK despite a number of recent problems which maybe you wish to maul over:
The biggest is concerning redundancy pay as unemployment is rising in these territories as elsewhere. Now whilst the Isle of Man's legislation is pretty much in line with the UK, none of the Channel Island's have provision for redundancy pay.
This has caused a row as people have been losing their jobs but not getting any cash, even if they worked over two years (the qualifying period for the UK of course). Indeed the mass redundancies caused in Guernsey by the closure of Woolies has forced the Island Parliament to grant a one-off redunancy package from PUBLIC FUNDS (£140,000 to be precise) to shut people up on this issue.
There is now a campaign on both sides on this issue with some politicians coming adamantly against coming into line with the UK saying that the lack of statutory redundancy provision gives the territories a competitive advantage.
One place where the competitive advantage has been exploited is Sark where the Barclay Brothers (Alan Cochrane's bosses and fellow ultra-unionists - taxes excepting) chucked a quarter of the island out of work after they voted against their candidates in the island's recent elections. To add insult to injury, unlike Jersey, Guernsey etc, there is no social security system on the island and the people who lost their jobs are being kept going by a charitable foundation set up by the Sark Chamber of Commerce.
On the Isle of Man the Manx government has had to ask the UK Treasury for help due to the island's economy being deeply wrapped up with one of the collapsed Icelandic banks.
Strangely the people gloating about the "Arc of Insolvency" are not talking of the "Archiepelico of Impovrishment" that is developing in the Channel Islands.
Tax breaks I suppose.
Do you think unionists should now launch a campaign for these territories to be integrated into the UK and given the same protection as their fellow Brits?
I'll do a bit of research, could be a basis of an interesting post. There's a commentator on some of the sites who goes by the name of Manx Unionist, so there may well be some kind of movement there for closer links with the centre.
Promotion of Britishness has a lot to do with government confidence.
They tend to shut up about it when their backs are against the wall. It makes them unpopular in Scotland (which is a totemic battleground for Labour), and in England (which is the main battleground) people are very cynical about it and see it as little more than artifice, if they care at all.
I got my info on the BBC if that is any help.
They tend to shut up about it when their backs are against the wall.
I think the evidence pre and post November shows the opposite. With the exception of the gloating over the Arc of Insolvency, I've heard very little from Brown, Straw etc about the benefits/necessity of the Union recently. When their backs are against the wall, the Union, in Scotland anyway, becomes like a last throw of the dice- "if you don't vote for us, the nats will nick your Brit pension to pay for their independence" put at its most crudest.
Brown & Co were on their uppers when they started crowing about the 'Arc of Insolvency'. When it comes to electioneering in Scotland they seem to try to accentuate their Scottishness rather than their Britishness.
Certainly it's the case that they are more pragmatic unionists in Scotland, as opposed to British nationalists in England.
I think they've realised that British nationalism doesn't go down too well in England (even if their supporters are deserting them for the BNP in Stoke).
The whole British nationalism thing (ditched in Scotland, and soon too, I hope, in England) was Brown's remit from the start, gifted to him by Blair.
"Brown and Tony Blair are faced with the very real danger of the 291-year-old Union between England and Scotland being dismembered. The Scottish Question remains unanswered and the forces of the Union are having to rethink, regroup and prepare to strike back. It has been a faltering response so far. Brown, deputed by Blair to sort it out, has been in the vanguard, struggling to come up with a coherent strategy…[…]… In the Treasury, and in Labour's Scottish headquarters in Glasgow, Delta House, the party's brightest have been struggling with ways of making the image of Britain more attractive for Scots. 'Cool Britannia had no resonance for most people,' said one of those formulating the new image of Britain. 'They all felt it was something happening somewhere else which they had no part in.' Many Scots never regarded themselves as British anyway. That view of identity has increased with each generation: Scots now present themselves as both Scottish and European, but not British. Why should they remain part of the United Kingdom any longer? Brown and his colleagues have been working on an answer." --- The Guardian; April 7, 1999
I think you'll see a move towards expousing the benefits of a pragmatic unionism, away from the tub-thumping Britishness that he's engaged in previous - it just doesn't play well in any nation of the UK (parts of NI excepted).
I think you'll see a move towards expousing the benefits of a pragmatic unionism, away from the tub-thumping Britishness that he's engaged in previous - it just doesn't play well in any nation of the UK (parts of NI excepted).
Which can only be a good thing as far as I'm concerned- and perhaps there might be a movement forward in that direction in NI too- we can live in hope!
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