Scots Wha Hae*

I'm finding the row over Scottish Labour Party leader Wendy Alexander's call for an early referendum on Scottish independence to be rather bizarre. That Gordon Brown, at Prime Minister's Question Time, failed to back her comments, says volumes about just how split they are.

I think Alexander's tactics to be very astute. Why wait another two or three years for a referendum? Well, if you are in favour of winning the referendum, then another couple of years in the union won't be such a big hardship, surely? This would give the SNP time to show how responsible they are in government. It would also, of course, give time for a Tory government to be elected in London and thereby causing more grief for Scotland, being, as it is, traditionally difficult in recent decades for the Conservatives to get a stronghold in the country. More resentment toward the union will obviously surface should this happen.

Alexander, on the hand, can see that, the earlier that a referendum takes place, the better chance of a No vote for independence. So what's the problem with her Labour colleagues?

All I can read into things is that Gordon Brown is a control-freak and that the split has occurred as a result of Alexander showing some autonomy. How dare that northern upstart try to develop a policy which does not follow London's lead, eh? It is also all about Brown's - and Blair's before him - obsession with panels, commisisons, inquiries, etc. This one, the Calman Commission, which is supported by Labour, Tories and Lib-Dems, will no doubt come up with a conclusion which does nothing to clear the matter up but which merely confuses the matter further or, at best, supports the establishment of an English Parliament (and how can any person with more than two brain cells oppose such a thing?).

Alexander is a Unionist. Brown is a Unionist. It surely should have taken anyone, just anyone, with a modicum of bravado, to have said to Brown: "Gordo, she's onto a winner here. We should break with that Calman Commission pish and back an early referendum. The longer we wait, the bigger the danger to our beloved Butcher's Apron.!" Of course, such is Brown's control-freakery, the respons would have been: "You're sacked!" But at least the point should have been made. And are those cunts in the Cabinet, or all those hordes of ministers and junion ministers so shit scared of Brown that they feel they cannot give him advice? What a weird thing democracy is!

For what it's worth, I would like to see an independent Scotland - not as part of some shitty fucking monarchic set-up, like that right-wing tosser Salmond has been proposing. And why do I think this? Well, it's different. It would be a laugh. The bottom line is, it can hardly be any worse than we have at the moment, can it? But I suppose it has fuck all to do with me as I haven't lived in Jockland for nearly 20 years.

* Robert Burns