Never Their Fault – The McGuigan View
You’d be forgiven for thinking that a political party which has been in a position of power at the top of government for 14 years would take responsibility for its actions and admit when it gets things wrong as opposed to blaming others. Well that may be true in other countries but here in Scotland, the SNP are always finding someone else to blame for the state of our country.
They’ve managed to socially engineer a great number of Scots into believing somehow all of Scotland’s problems are at the feet of the Conservative government in Westminster and not the SNP Scottish government.
Immigration, defence and some elements of the environment policies are in the hands of the Tories… outside of that Scotland pretty much already has its own ability to make decisions over a majority of issues. The Sturgeon government is indeed very powerful, but having power and using it are two separate things. We could have a government of national unity in Holyrood working together to end child poverty for good, tackle in work poverty and fix our education system as well as drugs crisis but nope instead we have another 5 years of SNP/Greens chaos pursuing the same old ideological, grudge and grievance politics.
Nicola Sturgeon seems to be an architect of this theory, in that she blames Boris Johnson for literally all of Scotland’s ills despite the fact she is the most powerful First Minister in the history of devolution, and her government is the most powerful devolved administration in the entire UK. This covers issues which Scotland badly needs to pay attention to and fix. Notably, the drugs crisis where Scotland is the drug death capital of Europe, where in 2019 stats show deaths were 23 per every 100,000 people (Powell, 2021). Powers over drug misuse are devolved to the Scottish Parliament, as part of the massive overhaul of powers we’ve seen transferred between the governments over the past 5 years since the Scotland Act (2016) was passed, closest to ‘devo max’ as we’ll ever be surely?
It seems that all the nats are interested in is virtue signalling and finding others to blame. This can be extended to issues regarding child poverty, a subject to be treated with great sensitivity no political point scoring. SNP MP Mhari Black (known for her maiden speech where she lamented the rise in food banks usage in 2015), appeared before a committee at the House of Commons and called out the Tory government. She said, “People in poverty are not the problem – the government that ignores them is.” Clearly, referring to the UK government and how immoral it was. If only the SNP could do something about it… well, actually they could.
Education and health (factors which can be used to tackle child poverty) are fully in the control of Holyrood, as well as powers to increase financial investment. Powers which won’t be used by the SNP to make things better. Mhari Black likes to virtue signal, but perhaps she should have a word with her colleagues in Edinburgh. It’s typical and become boring. 14 years later, and the people keep falling for it. Black talks about being ‘ignored’ yet, she is a member of a party which has openly stated it will gladly put key matters of the day to the side to pursue an ideological route to separation. Again, that’s the term ‘separation’ because it’s not actual independence.
Education, another issue which needs to be paid attention to more. Scotland’s education system has been ranked the worst in the UK for attainment, where consistency those deemed to live in ‘poor areas’ haven’t received equal opportunities.
Notably the exam fiasco last August where low income students were punished. Across the UK, Scotland’s system has ranked 15 out of the 15 metropolitan areas. John Swinney has wrecked our education system, he may as well wreck our recovery from Covid now.
We’re 14 years down the line, why can’t they take responsibility for their own actions? Scotland still receives very generous Barnett consequentials, and has the ability to take on these challenges face-to-face. In the 2000s, when it was the ‘Scottish Executive’, the administration was much less powerful but did tackle Scotland’s knife crime epidemic and got back positive results. This was because we had a government of pragmatists.
Currently, we have a government of ideologues who constantly want to whip up tension and pursue a ludicrous course of separation. Recently, the SNP also claimed the lowest income for each Scot in an independent Scotland would be £37,000 not bad, that sounds great but wait… ‘these figures aren’t fully costed’ was the small print. Okay then, so you can make nonsensical claims but no way to cost them. Welcome to Scotland in 2021!
As I stated in articles before the election and now after, this parliament has to be about recovery. Scotland needs to recover and be fixed. We have a drugs crisis, waiting times at A&E not being met, a failing education system and an economy which is driving away investment with these pointless job and life destroying restrictions.
At this stage, even with the Indian… I mean April-02 variant around (have to extra PC now), the vaccine has worked and it’s time to end all restrictions yet Sturgeon for the sake of a good old nanny state wants to deflect from other domestic matters. I should note that the rise has been in cases, not deaths or ICUs but cases. There is absolutely no need for this and the people continuing to support these measures need to get a grip.
What our political discourse has shown is that the SNP never want to take the blame for their own actions. They’ve took their foot off the pedal regarding massive problems Scotland faces, like drug deaths and lowering educational standards and they’ll never have to worry about the opposition as a threat. A 3 way split will cement decades of SNP rule to come, independence or not.
If the Scottish government didn’t have these powers and was like a local council, essentially powerless I would sympathise but they have had enough time and power to get these problems sorted. Instead, they want to pursue an agenda of grudge and grievance. I’m no fan of the Johnson government in Westminster and goodness knows what those new Northern Tories see in the party but they are not to blame here.
So remember next time you see Mhari Black, Ian Blackford or any other SNP MP try and deflect blame from the incompetents in Holyrood, it’s because of the agenda to maintain their strong grip on power.
14 years down the line, when will the SNP start admitting maybe some things are their fault? 🤦♂️
So remember next time you see Mhari Black, Ian Blackford or any other SNP MP try and deflect blame from the incompetents in Holyrood, it’s because of the agenda to maintain their strong grip on power.
14 years down the line, when will the SNP start admitting maybe some things are their fault? 🤦♂️