The polls have just closed in Scotland and we now wait the long hours to find out if we, SNP supporters are about to be let down once again by folk in the thrall of the dead hand of Westminster or whether the surge of 2011 that swept us to a majority at Holyrood is about to be repeated.
Listening to members at the golf club wittering on about tactical voting, arguing with Tory fellow travelers to vote Labour because the Tory (though lying second in recent constituency polls) did not stand a chance; I could only hear one sentiment - fear, absolute terror, so wrapped up are they in the idea that a majority of SNP MPs from Scotland means another referendum.
How could this be, they argued, the No vote won in September, why are the SNP doing so well. These men have waxed so fat on the rubbish they have read in their Scotsman's, Telegraph's and Daily Mails that they have failed or been unable to see that Scotland is changing and leaving them behind. In their blind panic they are left shouting the odds about SNP policies which only exists in the inflamed minds of a Cockburn, a Hjul or a Gardham. Their ignorance of what the SNP are actually saying is only outstripped by their anger and hatred. How dare the SNP and its supporters seek to change the face of British Politics by engaging fully in the UK Union Parliament, they should just bugger off back into their box because they lost in September, they do not want Westminster so why are they there.
As you listen while trying not to slap them, Monty Python style, with a large, cold, wet cod around the chops you wonder how these men, many of whom have run their own businesses or had high power roles in multi-national's and major corporation, are in so much denial. Their diatribe of the feckless poor, pregnant unmarried girls and immigrants comes straight from the pages of the papers they read without any cognition. These are not unintellectual men, they are not 'stupid' but to hear the rubbish they talk about a benefits system over which they have no clue and their denial there is now an underclass in the UK of the 'working poor' or the suicides directly related to Westminster Government policy on welfare as just SNP propaganda, leaves you speechless - even when, as I did today, point out the UK Courts were forcing the DWP to release all the figures relating sanctioning 'clients' with suicides.
Sadly these men are my friends. If I ever needed help, many of them would be amongst the first to offer it. They are not without compassion or empathy for people they think are 'like them' of whom one, even if I have weird political tastes, is me.
I could make the excuse they are 'old men' but some of the worst are my own age, late 50's; early 60's, but fixed in their prejudice - a mix of deliberate ignorance, denial and fear. Their 'world' is under threat, so they must fight for something that ever actually existed, except in the pages of their newspapers.
By this time tomorrow night I hope change has happened and the SNP are sitting on 30+ seats, at least next time I can quietly smile, sitting over a coffee, as they chunter on about the impending disaster of 30+ SNP MPs in a UK Parliament of 650, thinking about the real constitutional change the UK Parliament will have to face with the SNP representing the considered will of the people of Scotland at Westminster. If they think the election of a large number of SNP MPs is going to be a disaster; they ain't seen nothing yet!
Listening to members at the golf club wittering on about tactical voting, arguing with Tory fellow travelers to vote Labour because the Tory (though lying second in recent constituency polls) did not stand a chance; I could only hear one sentiment - fear, absolute terror, so wrapped up are they in the idea that a majority of SNP MPs from Scotland means another referendum.
How could this be, they argued, the No vote won in September, why are the SNP doing so well. These men have waxed so fat on the rubbish they have read in their Scotsman's, Telegraph's and Daily Mails that they have failed or been unable to see that Scotland is changing and leaving them behind. In their blind panic they are left shouting the odds about SNP policies which only exists in the inflamed minds of a Cockburn, a Hjul or a Gardham. Their ignorance of what the SNP are actually saying is only outstripped by their anger and hatred. How dare the SNP and its supporters seek to change the face of British Politics by engaging fully in the UK Union Parliament, they should just bugger off back into their box because they lost in September, they do not want Westminster so why are they there.
As you listen while trying not to slap them, Monty Python style, with a large, cold, wet cod around the chops you wonder how these men, many of whom have run their own businesses or had high power roles in multi-national's and major corporation, are in so much denial. Their diatribe of the feckless poor, pregnant unmarried girls and immigrants comes straight from the pages of the papers they read without any cognition. These are not unintellectual men, they are not 'stupid' but to hear the rubbish they talk about a benefits system over which they have no clue and their denial there is now an underclass in the UK of the 'working poor' or the suicides directly related to Westminster Government policy on welfare as just SNP propaganda, leaves you speechless - even when, as I did today, point out the UK Courts were forcing the DWP to release all the figures relating sanctioning 'clients' with suicides.
Sadly these men are my friends. If I ever needed help, many of them would be amongst the first to offer it. They are not without compassion or empathy for people they think are 'like them' of whom one, even if I have weird political tastes, is me.
I could make the excuse they are 'old men' but some of the worst are my own age, late 50's; early 60's, but fixed in their prejudice - a mix of deliberate ignorance, denial and fear. Their 'world' is under threat, so they must fight for something that ever actually existed, except in the pages of their newspapers.
By this time tomorrow night I hope change has happened and the SNP are sitting on 30+ seats, at least next time I can quietly smile, sitting over a coffee, as they chunter on about the impending disaster of 30+ SNP MPs in a UK Parliament of 650, thinking about the real constitutional change the UK Parliament will have to face with the SNP representing the considered will of the people of Scotland at Westminster. If they think the election of a large number of SNP MPs is going to be a disaster; they ain't seen nothing yet!
What will these men think of 56 SNP MPs? I wonder.
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