Stop the world - we want to get on!

 

As a teenager developing an interest in politics in the 1970s, those words of Winnie Ewing in 1967 always inspired me. I was only 6 at the time of course and so too young to be aware of that famous by-election (ever since which the SNP has had continuous representation in the House of Commons). My first vague political memories were of my father being pleased Labour had lost in 1970 (or was it that the Tories had won – ah the political spin of that one!) and another vague but definite memory of Margo McDonald speaking in Govan on the television in 1973.

So when my life took one of its unexpected turns (as it has over the years) and my first job after qualifying was in Lanarkshire, until then merely a county name on a map, home to football teams such as Airdrie and Motherwell, it was natural that I would gravitate to the SNP and its Hamilton branch. So you can imagine my disappointment when I walked into a meeting attended by 8 or 9 people at which the main order of business was a forthcoming jumble sale.

I don’t mean to denigrate the people involved. They were all genuine enough and meant well. But mostly they didn’t have ambition. The fact that within months of joining I had been selected as a candidate for one of the three Regional council seats spoke more about the lack of ambition that permeated the party than it did about my abilities.

And that’s the difference between then and now - that one small word: ambition.

It’s been shining through the SNP campaign from start to finish this year and is in marked contrast to the doom, gloom and positive disaster that has been the Labour campaign, which seems to be a re-hash of what we fell for in 2010 – that only Labour could stand up to the Tories.

But this time the electorate appears to have actually listened to what is being said to them. That doesn’t mean that at other elections they have been stupid as some on the Nationalist fringe avow. It just means that this time the SNP has pitched its campaign correctly and has struck a cord with the electorate. And guess what? The electorate has realised that there are precious few Tories and the chances of Annabel Goldie becoming First Minister are as slim as Dundee United winning the SPL.

So there isn’t actually anything to fear – and fear is the lowest common denominator factor running through the Labour campaign: mindless fear at its very worst. Fear of the Tories, fear of knives, fear of unemployment, fear of running our own affairs. It's what Labour are usually good at - I always remember at that very first election in 1986 being told by someone that they couldn't vote for me (in a seat where Labour usually polled 65% of the vote) "in case I let the Tories in". It's gone on that long. But at last the electorate are seeing through it. Mind you someone else announced they couldn't vote for me because I had a beard - but that's another story.

I come now to another word. A bigger one this time: Independence.

I am an unashamedly fundamentalist Nationalist. Running Holyrood is all very well, but as it stands it’s just a bigger version of a council chamber. My ambition is of a nation truly participating in the affairs of the world at large.

I’m not scared to talk about embassies – after all Norway, Denmark, New Zealand and a host of other small countries seem to manage them without much fuss.

Customs and Border posts? I think it’s likely that after Independence the only guards will be found on the English side!

Armed forces? Yes we’ll have them like any other small European country. But we won’t need an expensive fleet of nuclear submarines berthed 500 miles from our capital as we won’t be labouring under the mistaken belief that it’s still 1930 and the map is coloured pink!

So it’s with some relief that at last Independence is being talked about in the campaign. Because that’s what the SNP is all about.

We stand on the verge of an historic second victory, one that will catapult us towards that dream of Independence like nothing in the last 50 years has done. Because I have little doubt that given the platform an Independence referendum will afford us to properly and fairly debate the issue, that the ambition will shine through and finally the fear will be banished.

Tomorrow you have an opportunity as never before – to stop the world and allow Scotland to get on!  Both Votes SNP!