Sunday 2 December 2012

Act I: A plague on both your houses

I have to say that, as we head to the end of 2012, the opening act of the musical - The Scottish Independence Referendum - has been something short of being spectacular. Certainly when you consider the lack of innovative ideas from both sides for taking Scotland forward, regardless of the result.

Or, it has been spectacular for all the wrong reasons - particularly the sloppy errors made by the Scottish Government over the way they have handled issues such as the European Union or by the behaviour witnessed in the chamber at Holyrood.

Firstly, the lack of innovative ideas from both sides of the constitutional divide. The pro-independence camp, led by Yes Scotland, have frankly been playing it too safe by reassuring us time and time again that sterling will remain our currency, the monarchy will stay and that we would continue to play our part in the European Union.

An exciting vision of Scottish independence should be new, fresh, innovative and excitingly different. But I'm not feeling that fresh new thinking from the pro-independence campaign. Also, there seems to be far too much ambiguity with the way they present their policies. How do we really know if we will still really be in the EU? How do we really know if the money from oil revenues will definitely head to Edinburgh rather than London? And how do we know if our cross-border links with England and the rest of these islands will remain the way that they currently are?

The people of this nation are not stupid, they know what is at stake and they want no ambiguity. If Yes Scotland want a decisive victory then they need to be much more bolder and braver.

As for the pro-union campaign, led by Better Together, the biggest question I would ask them is the following - what is going to happen with Scotland's constitutional arrangements if we vote "No"? It is very clear that there is a majority in Scotland who want a change from the current arrangements. For absolute sure, if devolution remains unchanged or diminished after the referendum then the Scottish people will be gasping with complete frustration and anger towards our elected representatives. And rightly so. This whole debate, over these years, will amount to nothing if we vote "no" and both Holyrood and Westminster choose to stand still over Scotland.

It is very welcoming to see an alternative vision presented by the Devo Plus campaign. The problem is, however, that the leadership of the Labour and Conservative parties are not paying enough attention to those alternative ideas. And its not often the Liberal Democrats get a gold star, but they should be given a little bit of credit for endorsing an alternative vision for Scotland beyond 2014.

And secondly, the game of verbal tennis that has been taking place between the MSP's in the chamber - which has sadly escalated into downright unpalatable rally at times. The quality of the debate during First Minister's Questions has descended into nothing more than a national joke. The debate has lacked serious substance at times and instead turned into a game of cat and mouse between Labour and the SNP. Despite the shambolic way the Scottish Government handled the European Union issue, I felt the way Alex Salmond was branded "a liar" was discourteous and a very bad choice of words. And if that wasn't bad enough, then dragging the Presiding Officer into the gutter by being heckled with the words "out of order" took the quality of public life in Scotland to an all time low.

I think what's lacking in our current generation of politicians, is wit, humour and charisma. Its no wonder people from outside the political bubble write off politics at every opportunity that they get. The House of Commons was once full of character and vibrancy. It should be a bit like showbiz combined with substantiated, intellectual and well reasoned argument and people should be able to tune into the news or current affairs programmes feeling engaged and entertained. People find boredom unenticing. Our politicians across these islands should look west to the USA. The past Presidential election was captivating and was full of electricity for all the right reasons!

Thank goodness our Scottish sports stars have been a roaring success this year and electrified the nation. The only piece of advice I can provide to our MSP's is simply - raise your game for 2013.

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