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Monday 2 February 2015

Vacuous vows and paltry pledges

English: Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown: A bag of wind and pish

I see Gordon Brown has made another of his interventions (Labour in pledge to go beyond powers of ‘the vow’). It's all lies and deception, of course. There cannot possibly be a "distinct Scottish ­Labour manifesto" for the very simple reason that "Scottish Labour" is not a distinct political party. It is no more than an accounting unit of British Labour. A branch office with absolutely no authority to formulate policy.

Murphy's bosses in London have found it expedient to tolerate his posturing as if he was a real party leader because they desperately hope that he can dupe Scottish voters into giving British Labour yet another chance. But the moment those votes are in the bag, Murphy will be slapped down just as his predecessor was.

And now Murph The Mendacious is joined by Brown The Blether. A dishonest, incompetent bag of wind and pish whose only attribute is a wholly inexplicable ability to attract the most sickeningly sycophantic attention of the media. Brown is already, by his own boast, an "ex-politician". He has no authority and no influence now. And he will have have even less when he steps down as the absentee MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath.

Brown is not "credited with playing a key role in the defeat of the Yes campaign". He is blamed for the mass deception of the infamous "Vow". And now he imagines he can pull the same confidence trick with a "Pledge".

Stewart Hosie sums it up perfectly. British Labour in Scotland are "pledging" nothing that they haven’t previously said was already being delivered - after first claiming that it was never part of what had been promised. The phrase "all over the place" hardly seems adequate.

But there is something interesting about this laughable pretence of offering "more powers" supposedly over and above the "Cameron's Clauses" which are a watered down version of the Smith recommendations which, in turn, merely paid lip service to a vacuous "Vow". The frantic flailing of the British parties as they try to find some baubles shiny enough to beguile a few Scottish voters underlines the fact that devolution is entirely about withholding powers that should rightly belong with Scotland's democratically elected parliament.

It also illustrates the point which underpins the gradualist approach to securing independence which is proving so successful. As more powers are devolved, however minimal or even illusory those powers may and however grudgingly they are granted by the Westminster clique, it becomes increasingly difficult for British nationalists to justify the continued withholding of other powers.

Imperious Britannia's jealous grip on Scotland is gradually being loosened by increasing numbers of people asking the simple question, "If this, why not that?". If the people of Scotland are deemed fit to exercise powers that British politicians claim are extensive and significant, why then should we continue to tolerate being denied the powers that we want - the powers which every other nation takes for granted?

If the British establishment had a persuasive answer to that question, they wouldn't be calling for help from Gordon Brown as they frantically try to preserve the structures of power and privilege which define the British state..

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