Canvassing done. Afternoon/evening session much the same as before: someone replies Id rather not say when asked by a no canvasser then goes onto say how do you think its going? and its very worrying isnt it?. Another says well Im not sure I should tell you, its a secret ballot then goes onto whisper Between you, me and the gatepost, Im voting no. Best was answering a house with two members of a family as dont knows as the dad as yes. The dad answered the door and said hed changed his mind to No as had his daughter but his wife changed her mind every 5 minutes I left some leaflets for her to look at. For completeness I did get two Dont Knows changed to Yes but they were completely civil and reasonable. Looking back on the campaign, Im sure the vast majority of Yes supporters are decent people and Im sure a good many of them have been shocked at some of the things that have been said and done by some elements of the Yes campaign over the two years. A retired prison officer who was delighted to see me as a no campaigner and said hed spent a career dealing with arrogant people but hed never seen anything... (I wont say anymore...) Now, much has been made about Nationalists about so-called illegal wars that Westminster, with a huge government majority, have taken us into. In response to that I have pointed out a number of times that Scottish votes were crucial last year to keeping the UK out of Syria with the majority against Camerons intervention plan only being 13. The other example (which Ive not mentioned so far) was Robin Cooks opposition to Iraq. He was one of many Scottish politicians representing Scottish constituencies that occupied key positions in the last Labour government with he himself being Foreign Secretary. If wed had independence in 2003, Ive no doubt that rUK would have become involved regardless of what any Scottish government or any Scottish politician thought. There simply would have been no Scottish voice or influence at Westminster and Cook not have been there to make that remarkable speech (with which I completely agreed.) To my mind, it simply wrong to remove our voice and influence from the decision making body of what would still be the far stronger country. Scottish influence at Westminster is substantial and crucial. Cook took a position that was unpopular with his peers at the time but acted out of principle and conviction. He was ultimately proved right. It is heartening and makes me proud to see this historic speech introduced by a Scottish Speaker and the former Scottish Foreign Secretary sit down to the congratulations of English comrades who had also decided to speak out against then proposed war. youtube/watch?v=I0f8NBlmwwE
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 21:08:53 +0000
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