Rising Crime
About 10 years ago, just as 'austerity' - or the punishment of the poor, as I call it - got underway, friends in Dundee described to me the effect of the Thatcher Years on the city: as industry died and unemployment rose, so did crime. All crime, but especially crimes 'against the person' as well as crimes against property. These friends had been involved in local politics their entire lives and were very proud of their city, but they knew as austerity bit into their communities they were looking at a repeat of those terrible years.
And they were right. Only a fool - or a Tory - would fail to see the connection between poverty and crime: as people become more and more desperate for survival, they are likely to take chances on ways to make money. So drug crime increases, as do robberies, car theft, housebreaking, muggings - all the 'easy' ways to get hold of cash.
Add to that a reduction in the numbers of police on the streets (luckily not affecting Scotland so much - more a problem for England) and we find the 'perfect storm' of lawlessness.
Today I'm reading about a gang riot in Birmingham, where criminals armed with machetes took on the police. Although a police spokesman reminded us that this kind of event is 'rare', it happened and perfectly innocent families on their way to see a movie got caught up in it. The most worrying aspect to me is that children aged 13 and 14 were involved in the gangs.
Over the past few weeks, we've been hearing about the extent of knife crime in the Greater London area. Almost every day - there was another death reported today - there's a report of a young man being murdered by someone wielding a knife - and sadly, it's often a young black man who is the victim.
It was interesting that a member of the audience in the recent Leaders' Debate gave the impression that Glasgow was a hotbed of knife crime, when the truth is this form of crime is down by 60% in a decade in Glasgow. But that was only one of several inaccurate views given of Scotland by audience members.
So what to do? I'm starting to think nothing - given the backing of the right wing press and the BBC - will get rid of the Tories. Tory voters seem to accept it's okay to reduce the police force in England by 22,000 and then boast about 'investing' in an 'extra' 20,000 officers. Falsifying news reports - putting up a video of Johnson at the Cenotaph in 2016 to replace a disastrous video from 2019 where he looked liked a bag of spanners and placed the wreath upside down; cutting off the hooting of the audience when he advocated honesty and trust in the leaders' debate; repeating 'Get brexit done' over and over, even when it's clear there are bigger issues here - none of that is a worry to faithful Tory voters.
As for Labour...If I lived in England, I'd vote for them. They are the only hope of ordinary people.
What, you can't vote for them because they're anti-semitic? Labour members (I used to be one) are anti the Israeli government and its treatment of the Palestinians - but anti-semitic? Never came across it in 25+ years. You think Labour dropped the UK into terrible debt? No, the bankers dropped us into debt - Labour tried to save a situation that was in fact set up by the previous Tory government with its 'open borders for finance' attitude - the bankers still haven't been brought to book for it and are still pulling down their bonuses. Labour's position on brexit isn't clear? I would argue no party has a clear position on brexit - certainly not the brexit party, which has never yet explained what brexit means.
But at least Labour give people hope.
So what's the position in Scotland? The current Tory government is more and more threatening: will they cut the powers of the Scottish government? Will they reduce the budget 'allowed' to the Scottish government? Will they even close the Holyrood parliament? The current Secretary of State for Scotland displays open contempt for the country he's supposed to represent at Westminster.
Corbyn is at least more open about why he wants to hang on to Scotland and it's got nothing to do with the solidarity of the workers, believe me. It's the oil and gas, the revenues from whisky and farming, the Scottish vat returns to Westminster. He needs these to finance his grandiose plans for improvements in social care, the NHS and social security; to pay for the WASPI women's pensions, etc.
I won't vote for that. Not while there's so much to be done in Scotland. I get tired of hearing (heard it again on the leaders' debate) that Scotland has some of the lowest life expectancy rates in Europe. But nobody ever asks why that is. It's about poverty. Both the people who lived in the industrial Central Belt and those living and working the land in the other half of Scotland have suffered from poor diet for over two centuries. And that was because of poor wages. If you're a poor person in Scotland, there's also a chance you'll smoke, drink, take drugs (not always though - illegal drugs have found their way into the middle class), eat badly.
I'd like us to deal with that. Once we have independence, I'll vote Green. Right now, I'll vote SNP to get us out of the UK. There's no future for us there - except to prop up England - and why should we do that?
And they were right. Only a fool - or a Tory - would fail to see the connection between poverty and crime: as people become more and more desperate for survival, they are likely to take chances on ways to make money. So drug crime increases, as do robberies, car theft, housebreaking, muggings - all the 'easy' ways to get hold of cash.
Add to that a reduction in the numbers of police on the streets (luckily not affecting Scotland so much - more a problem for England) and we find the 'perfect storm' of lawlessness.
Today I'm reading about a gang riot in Birmingham, where criminals armed with machetes took on the police. Although a police spokesman reminded us that this kind of event is 'rare', it happened and perfectly innocent families on their way to see a movie got caught up in it. The most worrying aspect to me is that children aged 13 and 14 were involved in the gangs.
Over the past few weeks, we've been hearing about the extent of knife crime in the Greater London area. Almost every day - there was another death reported today - there's a report of a young man being murdered by someone wielding a knife - and sadly, it's often a young black man who is the victim.
It was interesting that a member of the audience in the recent Leaders' Debate gave the impression that Glasgow was a hotbed of knife crime, when the truth is this form of crime is down by 60% in a decade in Glasgow. But that was only one of several inaccurate views given of Scotland by audience members.
So what to do? I'm starting to think nothing - given the backing of the right wing press and the BBC - will get rid of the Tories. Tory voters seem to accept it's okay to reduce the police force in England by 22,000 and then boast about 'investing' in an 'extra' 20,000 officers. Falsifying news reports - putting up a video of Johnson at the Cenotaph in 2016 to replace a disastrous video from 2019 where he looked liked a bag of spanners and placed the wreath upside down; cutting off the hooting of the audience when he advocated honesty and trust in the leaders' debate; repeating 'Get brexit done' over and over, even when it's clear there are bigger issues here - none of that is a worry to faithful Tory voters.
As for Labour...If I lived in England, I'd vote for them. They are the only hope of ordinary people.
What, you can't vote for them because they're anti-semitic? Labour members (I used to be one) are anti the Israeli government and its treatment of the Palestinians - but anti-semitic? Never came across it in 25+ years. You think Labour dropped the UK into terrible debt? No, the bankers dropped us into debt - Labour tried to save a situation that was in fact set up by the previous Tory government with its 'open borders for finance' attitude - the bankers still haven't been brought to book for it and are still pulling down their bonuses. Labour's position on brexit isn't clear? I would argue no party has a clear position on brexit - certainly not the brexit party, which has never yet explained what brexit means.
But at least Labour give people hope.
So what's the position in Scotland? The current Tory government is more and more threatening: will they cut the powers of the Scottish government? Will they reduce the budget 'allowed' to the Scottish government? Will they even close the Holyrood parliament? The current Secretary of State for Scotland displays open contempt for the country he's supposed to represent at Westminster.
Corbyn is at least more open about why he wants to hang on to Scotland and it's got nothing to do with the solidarity of the workers, believe me. It's the oil and gas, the revenues from whisky and farming, the Scottish vat returns to Westminster. He needs these to finance his grandiose plans for improvements in social care, the NHS and social security; to pay for the WASPI women's pensions, etc.
I won't vote for that. Not while there's so much to be done in Scotland. I get tired of hearing (heard it again on the leaders' debate) that Scotland has some of the lowest life expectancy rates in Europe. But nobody ever asks why that is. It's about poverty. Both the people who lived in the industrial Central Belt and those living and working the land in the other half of Scotland have suffered from poor diet for over two centuries. And that was because of poor wages. If you're a poor person in Scotland, there's also a chance you'll smoke, drink, take drugs (not always though - illegal drugs have found their way into the middle class), eat badly.
I'd like us to deal with that. Once we have independence, I'll vote Green. Right now, I'll vote SNP to get us out of the UK. There's no future for us there - except to prop up England - and why should we do that?
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