Alex Salmond... the luckiest man in UK politics?

What a difference a year has made. On November 30th 2009, Alex Salmond must have surely hoped that today would have been the first step on the road to Scottish Separation. Instead, he must today be thanking his lucky stars that he has been saved what surely would have been a crashing humiliation from the Scottish electorate if his dream referendum had ever gone ahead.

As I mentioned at the time and on occasions since, I think the pro-Union parties should have taken him on and delivered that crushing humiliation even earlier. Due to a complete lack of courage, however, they cobbled together the constitutional dog's dinner that is Calman, now translated into the Scotland Bill as of yesterday.

Despite his whinging, Salmond knows today he has been delivered a piece of respectable consolation from what should otherwise have been  a complete rout.

Is Tom fly enough?

Mary Howitt: The Spider and the Fly:

Will you walk into my parlour?" said the Spider to the Fly,
'Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy;
The way into my parlour is up a winding stair,
And I've a many curious things to shew when you are there."
Oh no, no," said the little Fly, "to ask me is in vain,
For who goes up your winding stair can ne'er come down again."

Tom Elliott in yesterday's Belfast Telegraph:

“Let us be clear, Peter Robinson wants to destroy the Ulster Unionist Party, that is what he has always been out to achieve.”

"And....?" is becoming my standard response to such statements.

Larger political parties, of whatever stripe, generally want to *destroy* their smaller opponents at the ballot box and to complain about that fact is a bit like the fly complaining about the fact that the spider's out to get him. It's the natural order, in other words, and there is not a great deal of point moaning about it; how you plan to avoid ending up as the hors d'oeuvre on your aggressor's menu is of much more importance.

He (Tom, not the fly) continues:

“But if he thinks he can move further onto our ground, the centre ground, which we have defended and represented for years, we are up for the challenge of that battle — and a battle it will be.”

Ah right, the fight back. Simply because the fly has been able to fly around the living-room for years (ok, hours) with impunity, it's highly unlikely the spider will respect "tradition" and leave him alone.

So, then on what grounds does Tom think he can win that battle?
Policy? Personality? Philosophy?

Better sorting out the first and last factor (not a great deal you can do about the middle one in the space of six months) there before offering down silly challenges; if there isn't a big enough difference in policy or philosophy between the two parties then the UUP is (and deserves to be)  finished as an independent political force.

The spider hasn't gobbled up the fly- yet- but there isn't that much time left:

Up jumped the cunning Spider, and fiercely held her fast.
He dragged her up his winding stair, into his dismal den,
Within his little parlour -- but she ne'er came out again!

Seen Elsewhere

30 Nov 10

1. "A new generation for Scotland": Progressonline

"Salmond is the last of the old pre-devolution generation of leaders. It's time for common sense Scots to call time on his old style of politics. Let's use St Andrew's Day to celebrate Scottish common sense and hail a new politics for Scotland"

more from http://www.progressives.org.uk/


2. Report on English Speaking Union debate: ‘This house believes that an English Parliament is the last hope for a United Kingdom’

more from http://www.englandcalling.wordpress.com/


3. Gerry Adams' "Uniting Ireland" Tour hits Monaghan

more from http://www.leargas.blogspot.com/


4. "The DUP is out to destroy us": Elliott

 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/


5. "Nats get new powers despite taxing times for Salmond": Alan Cochrane

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/


6. Political Betting: the betting on next year's Holyrood elections

"... many of the SNP gains in 2007 on huge swings resulting in tiny majorities, in almost all cases far below the average of 2000 spoilt votes per seat will return to Labour and the LibDems will lose out in places like Dunfermline which swung back so heavily to Labour in May."

more from http://www.politicalbetting.blogspot.com/