education or independence?
5 September, 2009
This was the suggestion levelled by one audience member during Brian Taylor’s new radio Scotland programme on Friday afternoon. The accusation being that the SNP government are neglecting the ‘core priorities’ of the electorate given the absence of education from the new legislative programme for the year … let’s not get into the swathes of pointless legislation introduced by Labour since 1997.
The truth is two-fold, in the first instance the SNP are continuing to push out their curriculum for excellence in primary schools with local authorities as I compose this post. The second truth is that this assertion is an extension of the tactics employed by unionist parties all along, and I have already heard numerous versions of the “neglecting insert chosen subject in pursuit of independence” argument, for example:
The SNP are evil for pursuing their separatist agenda at the expense (insert grievance) of flowers on roundabouts …
It’s something that is based on the presumption that government a) can’t do more than one thing at a time; b) that every institution in a post-union Scotland will collapse from the shock of it all!
Needless to say, but I will anyway, it’s a nonsense and it fails to tackle in any way the arguments in favour of independence. It’s become entirely typical, as was impressively exemplified during the 2007 Holyrood election, of the failure of the unionist parties to develop a coherent and reasoned argument in favour of the union or to engage in a positive fashion in the independence debate.
I’ve yet to hear, and would welcome, any coherent argument in favour of the union that wasn’t an attack on either the SNP as a party or independence as an idea. Actually, I have heard a few coherent arguments in favour of the Union, although I’ve never heard one that couldn’t be easily countered! I don’t think I’ve even ever heard a passionate defence of the union such as you might hear in regard to any of the home nations.
All we hear is more negative politicking, more politics of fear.
I have no fear.
