Look at me now, not where I’ve been
It is a fact of life that politicians – and therefore media news and current affairs departments – the world over tend to operate as if we’re living in a ‘rolling news’ 24/7 world.
Former UK premier Harold Wilson is attributed with having uttered the line ‘A week is a long time in politics’ and that’s just how our lords and masters would love it to be.
After the eleventh hour desperation applied by all sides to the Scottish referendum vote on 18th September – won 55% to 45% by those saying ‘No’ in case you’ve forgotten – we learn today from the website of The Guardian that not only have 75,000 people joined the Scottish National Party since the referendum took place, but a YouGov poll has shown that 53% of Scots now support independence.
You probably won’t find any Westminster politician making too much noise about this. Why? Because, for them, the issue of Scottish independence is ‘sorted’, hopefully for a generation as everyone was proudly claiming at the time of the vote, albeit that secretly they all knew then – and know now with bells on – that the issue will never go away unless and until Scotland does gain independence.
Furthermore, of course, the main Westminster parties have got other ‘Scottish referendum fall-out’ issues to worry them, e.g. Labour and the Lib-Dems panicking about the Tories’ linking of further devolving of powers to Scotland (as promised) to doing something similar for England [viz. the spectre ‘English votes for English issues’] and now Labour facing the related and devastating prospect of electoral near-annihilation in Scotland on top.
Meanwhile, on the foreign affairs front, Prime Minister David Cameron is currently preoccupied with posturing on the world stage over the West’s response to the ISIS problem in Iraq and Syria.
He certainly wouldn’t wish to be reminded of some of his past, Blair-like, initiatives in the cause of promoting the ‘Arab Spring’ movement which commanded the headlines for a period two or three years ago – but, of course, doesn’t so much now when it all seems to have gone a bit pear-shaped.
Which is exactly why I thought I’d bring to the attention of National Rust readers this hard-hitting piece by Patrick Cockburn featuring today on the website of The Independent – LIBYAN NIGHTMARE
