Post election thoughts

Welcome Home Gordie!

So here i am on a train south to england, to visit brother and family. sitting with my laptop and free wifi on board. fab. not that long ago i didnt even have a landline. progress. it has to be said tho that to use the wifi service on the train you are required to have the patience of a saint.


I dont really need to go online now.  We have all this technology (just seen a heron in a tree) so we all expect to be able to use it as and when we desire. our demands increase as technology advances. our idea of our 'rights' change as technology advances, slightly, subtley perhaps, but they do.


i would rather be sitting here with sketchbook drawing, but, funny to say, this is easier.


So with the upheaval in the country after the election; and yesterday's outcome of a Lib-Con - or 'con-dem' as someone has dubbed it - coalition, many people are still waking up to what it all might mean.  Facebook has a 'they have no mandate to govern in Scotland' thing going, to which already 1,000s of people seem to have joined.  Including me.  I was looking at another facebook 'thing' called, i think - democracy in action - or something.  Anyway, i first of all clicked on the 'like' button, but as days went by in this hung parliament state, i read more and more comments the contents of which made me wish i could unclick the 'like' button. so many ill-informed comments which was sad, and a lot of just plain ignorant generalisations peppered with sweary-words.  No debate really, just little smatterings of people trying to have a debate in vain i fear, it just turned me right off.  I thought about democracy and realised this is it; and its what i believe in, including freedom of speech, so .. so be it.

oh and then there was another facebook 'thing' after the con-lib decision which was called something like 'fuck the english for voting in the conservatives' which at first i clicked the like button, then when i thought about it, i thought No, i will delete that on my page - thats not really what i feel.  I do feel they dont have much of a mandate in Scotland, but i dont hate the english for voting they way they voted - thats ridiculous.

We in Scotland just need to sort ourselves out and work out what we are doing.  anyone reading this - check out facebook and the page 'the tories have no mandate in scotland' (i think its called), you can click on it too.
unfortunately the argument will be that this was a UK general election in which case i suppose it has to be legal even tho there is only one tory MP in Scotland.. i still think its worth having some sort of voice or say in the matter tho, even if only through facebook.

I have a suspicion some of my relatives might be pleased to have the conservatives in, and hopeful that scotland's allowance from london will be stopped.  It might be, i have no idea.  Its just that they dont seem to realise it is partly for our oil London just walked in and grabbed, and partly (i think, may be mistaken here) for the far flung and poorly connected communities in the land.

so here i am now in England, at my bro's house. its great to see them all, but it was strange at Peterborough station where i had to change.  I was quite shocked at the state of the station for some reason i had thought Peterborough to be quite a big place, and fairly well to do - brother pointed out that they are, outside the town.
England does feel so different to Scotland, to me anyway. maybe its because of old memories and connections. 

An interesting thing on radio 4 which Michael Portillo is doing about democracy, its origins etc.. listened to the first one, will have to find the next on iplayer.

Comments

dritanje said…
hey my dear I was just thinking tonight to email you haven't seen you for ages then I see you are in Ongeland. The horrid alternative words to the gorgeous [I think] Elgar land of hope and glory come to mind - my father told me - land of dope and tory. Is it elgar? I'm suddenly not sure. I like your comment that our ideas of our 'rights' changes as technology advances. I haven't seen the sites you mention but I agree it was a UK election and I feel quite excited about the possibilities of condem coz of its coalition nature not coz of the con bit of it, too many bad memories of past cons. I do find it strange though that so many people seem to know so much or make out they do, about how it will turn out, it's all a mystery to me, as to how people know what they will be like. I missed not hearing any news whatsoever on the radion about the rest of the world but that's where the internet is useful, you can check it out elsewhere. Since being more able to access it I've spent quite a lot more time on it and I'm not sure if this is a good thing. One annoying thing is that my photo has changed, spent ages clearly doing something wrong, but never mind it's minor, just lots of wasted time.
Enjoy your time away, let me know when you're back, M xx