I see Gordon Brown's been scaremongering about Scottish nationalism again. There are problems with nationalism, but anyone who's tempted to just believe Gordon's "The sky is falling!!!" words of doom should remember that for him an independent Scotland would be a nightmare, because it would mean he wouldn't get to be UK PM.
The article says:
"It is very important to recognise that Britishness and Britain itself is not based on ethnicity and race," he said.
"It is founded on shared values that we hold in common: a commitment to liberty for all, a commitment to social responsibility shown by all, and a commitment to fairness to all."
He said there was now a dividing line in Britain which pitted "those of us who are prepared to support the shared values of the union" and "those who are prepared to play fast and loose with the union and put the whole future of the union at risk".
I wanted to comment on this because it's a new application of something that tends to pop up in discussions about religion, and annoys me every time. He's taking some general qualities or values, saying that they apply to people of the UK, and then making the completely inaccurate and rhetoric-based jump that they don't apply to anyone else, and that us people who have them should stick together. I'm sure he doesn't really think that only people in the UK have a commitment to liberty, social responsibility and fairness (and I'm almost sure he's not naive enough to think that everyone in the UK shares these commitments, either), yet he's saying "We should stick together because we have these values", implying that nobody else does.
He says there's a straight divide between "supporting the shared values of the union" and "putting the future of the union at risk", thus implying that it's impossible to be an independence supporter who also has these values. He is, in fact, turning into George W - "You're either with us or against us". "If you don't support the union then you must be against liberty, social responsibility and fairness". Fuck off, Gordon.
In other news,
- Current Music:Murray Gold - Love Don't Roam
Comments
While I get that it would cause some inconvenience for him, and this is the main way the story's being interpreted in the media, I'm also sure that another 'safe' constituency would be found for him in England if it really came to the crunch.
Not sure... there have certainly been a couple of New Zealanders (Sir Trevor Skeete and Bryan Gould) and a Dutchman (Rudi Vis) who have been Westminster MPs, though no idea whether they also held British nationality at the time.
There have been two doctors since the series re-started, and that's the first one. Cos I like him better :) There wasn't an explicit romance between them in the show, but there were lots of subtexty bits. The doctor in that video is number Nine in the whole show (the character can regenerate into different people) and the one who plays him now (in this icon) is Ten.
Until, that is, I heard this Radio 4 programme...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/document/document_20060130.shtml
This detailed Treasury documents newly released under the 30-year rule, hich showed how worried the goivernment was about the possibility of losing the oil revenue if Scotland left the union, at a time when it would have crippled England's economy. The dirty tricks hinted at in those documents turned me into a (soft) Nationalist I'm afraid.
Sadly, My MP is a complete government stooge, never having voted against the party line even *once* since 1997 and has the traditional industrial-area tendency to vote for the Labour candidate because their familys have always voted labour. Fortunately we have a form of PR in Scotland, so my vote won't be completely wasted.
The Speaker's my MP, so he does less than nothing :S