Dear Scotland: contemporary views on how and why the union harms scotland

In an independent Scotland, we could sack the government

Labour MP Ian Murray says the first duty of government is to keep its citizens safe. But he doesn’t say how a Starmer Labour government can conceivably do so when it is studiously copying its policies from a Tory playbook which has delivered the discredited, incompetent and failed government of the last 13 years. The UK electorate is being offered more of the same. Starmer is the preferred choice of the British establishment, the ultimate continuity candidate. There is no alternative.

No one mentions what is blindingly obvious. Like the US, the two main UK political parties, both English, have become the UK uni-party. This happened because there is no democracy in the UK – the first past the post electoral system prevents it. If there were, you’d see dissent, debate, and political alternatives to the uni-party. You’d have a media that would air divergent viewpoints and encourage public debate. You’d see more people standing for office and new political parties emerging that reflected the issues and concerns of the majority of people.

The uni-party can’t risk letting in even a chink of democracy because then it would crumble. The oligarchs who control the British establishment and the media and who fund both parties, won’t allow it because democracy is an existential threat to their power and control. They’d rather fund foreign wars than keep people here safe.

The fear of democracy is why Labour ditched its manifesto pledge to introduce proportional representation that would give people a real voice. Starmer will do the bidding of the establishment by doubling down on failure. We will end up with him as the next PM and absolutely nothing will change.

That’s why Scotland must end this union.

Leah Gunn Barrett

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