Nicola Sturgeon: she’s making way for somebody fresh.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is resigning after eight years in the role, saying she knew instinctively, “in my head and in my heart” that it is time to step down.
But is there a more calculating aspect to this decision, that has her bowing out when her party, the SNP, is about to hold a special conference on how it should move on the issue of Scottish independence, in light of the UK government’s refusal to engage with plans for a referendum?
Is she hoping that a new, dynamic and charismatic leader will rise to grip the hearts and minds of Scottish people, finding a way to break the deadlock with the Westminster government that she has not seen, due to fatigue?
Let’s not forget that this is the longest-serving leader of the Scottish Parliament, having been in-post for eight years, and an MSP since Holyrood was set up in 1999. If Ms Sturgeon says she is tired, This Writer can sympathise very easily!
One thing I don’t expect to happen is any rethink of the Union and Scotland’s place in it, as some commentators have been suggesting.
The SNP is committed to taking Scotland out of the UK, so any such discussion is redundant to the thinking of its members.
And if anybody in the Westminster parties are inclined to celebrate her departure, This Writer would suggest that they don’t do so too soon.
They don’t know what they’ll be getting next!
Vox Political needs your help! If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers) you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
And it gets worse for the Tories, because in her SNP conference speech, Sturgeon set her sights on Suella Braverman’s “dream” of deporting refugees to Rwanda.
Here’s what she said, with comments from supporters:
As a former Asylum Seeker, what @NicolaSturgeon just said about Asylum Seekers and her dream, makes me feel more Scottish than ever, makes me proud to even live here, makes me confident to say In Scotland Refugees are welcome truly not just rhetorically . pic.twitter.com/YsSD538qiZ
Nicola Sturgeon quotes Suella Braverman who said it was her “dream” to see an asylum flight take off for Rwanda.
She adds: “*My* dream is that we live in a world where those fleeing violence and oppression are shown compassion and treated like human beings, not shown the door.”
This Writer has no doubt that, after reading this article, Sturgeon will have many more supporters – and Braverman will have many more detractors.
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
Vox Political needs your help! If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers) you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
I can do this article almost entirely via tweets. Read:
Tory cheerleaders thought jumping on Sturgeon’s comment would get them some sympathy. It did the opposite. Their “outrage” simply forced us to ask the question “is it right to detest this government?” Turns out, for most, it was an easy YES.
There was no outrage, I even remember a senior tory Mp and a c list celebrity finding it funny that he was assaulted. No one cared. So miss me with this fake outrage.#DetestTories
Nadhim Zahawi led the charge against Sturgeon’s words. The Tory minister who last week had to apologise for the mess caused by Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, said: “I think that language is really dangerous.” As dangerous as crashing the Pound and massively increasing the cost of borrowing?
The public have picked up on the nonsense in this response – and they’re not letting it pass:
Nicola Sturgeon was wrong for saying she “detests the Tories”.
What she was meant to say is she “detests the fucking Tory bastards”.
Since when was the word 'detest' too hardcore for Tories?
When you support the politics of making the rich richer, the poor poorer, support the destruction of our services, corruption and hardship for ordinary folks, then consider being detested as getting off lightly.
— Damien Willey, Detester of Tories. (@KernowDamo) October 9, 2022
It’s not just acceptable but actually quite reasonable to detest people who are trying to trash the economy, the society we live in and the planet at the same time as destroying businesses, making people homeless and killing people through austerity and indifference to Covid.
Detesting the Tories is not a sign of nastiness, as they are claiming. It’s the sentiment of a caring human being who cannot stand Tories loathing most people in this country.
The verdict is clear: there cannot be one rule for Tories and another rule for everybody else.
If Nadhim Zahawi doesn’t want people to say they detest the Tories for what they have done to the UK then, firstly, his party should not have caused the harm that it has and, secondly, his prime minister should not have insulted the First Minister of Scotland.
But one supposes that is too much for his tiny Tory mind to comprehend.
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
Vox Political needs your help! If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers) you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Nicola Sturgeon: she’s going all-out for Scottish independence – and who can blame her, when Boris Johnson has made such a mess of the United Kingdom?
It seems the Scottish National Party is planning to race Northern Ireland’s Sinn Fein to be the first to gain independence from Boris Johnson’s UK.
The new majority party in NI has a plan to secede from the Union within the next five years, but the SNP’s Nicola Sturgeon has proposed October 19, 2023 as the date for a referendum on Scottish independence.
Her party has published a Referendum Bill, to be debated by the Scottish Parliament – but this will not happen until the UK’s Supreme Court has ruled on whether the Scottish government has the power to hold a vote without UK government approval.
She has requested this approval, writing to Boris Johnson to request formal consent for the vote to be held. He has said the UK government will consider it, but its position that “now is not the time” for another referendum has not changed.
Sturgeon’s aim is to avoid legal challenges to her Referendum Bill when it comes to be debated in the Scottish Parliament; Supreme Court backing will make that possible.
So the plan is that – in the belief that Johnson’s government will refuse to back her request – it will still receive validation that it is lawful and constitutional from the Supreme Court and the Referendum Bill will be passed by the Scottish Parliament.
There is a back-up plan, which is for the SNP to fight the next UK-wide general election on a single issue: “should Scotland be an independent country?”
It is only eight years since the last referendum on Scottish independence, so one can understand why the UK government in Westminster is reluctant to tolerate another one.
In 2014, around 45 per cent of voters supported independence, with 55 per cent against. Current polling shows little change, with 48 per cent in favour and 52 per cent against.
This makes a new referendum a big gamble for the SNP. It may annoy voters into believing that the party is too focused on a single aim, to the detriment of a nation – the UK – that is trying to pick itself back up after the double-blow of Brexit and Covid-19.
Alternatively, the same phenomena may be the reasons for people to support the plan – as the current version of Brexit was Johnson’s brainchild and has been a disaster, while his policies on dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic have been similarly ham-handed, resulting in many thousands more deaths than should have happened.
In any event, the Supreme Court may simply rule against the referendum, forcing Sturgeon’s party into its fall-back plan – but what if Johnson calls a general election early in order to wrong-foot her?
Meanwhile, across the Irish Sea, Sinn Fein’s leaders have a plan to get Northern Ireland out of the union at some point over the next five years – if they can get Unionist parties to stop throwing their toys out of the pram over their election loss and allow the Assembly at Stormont to sit again.
They will be watching what happens in Scotland very carefully, no doubt.
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
Vox Political needs your help! If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers) you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Nicola Sturgeon: she reckons schools must stay open, even though Covid-19 infections in Scotland have rocketed since the new term started.
This is what will happen in England – and on a much larger scale.
Scottish schools have reopened after their summer break – and Covid-19 infection rates have surged to their highest-ever level.
It is the predictable result of Boris Johnson’s ‘Freedom Day’ – the relaxation of all legal restrictions on gathering and distancing, which Scotland copied a few weeks ago.
Infections have been rising since the August 2 low of 799 and stood yeterday at 5,021 – Scotland’s highest-ever total.
Stunningly, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is refusing to face the facts and go back into lockdown. She’s reluctant even to go back through the stages of social distancing.
Speaking yesterday, the First Minister said: “I don’t want to go back to anything like a full lockdown.
If we, all of us, take the basic precautions right now that we know can slow the virus, then I hope no re-imposition of restrictions will be necessary.
How many people would have to die before she changes her mind?*
And she is determined to keep schools open, even though it is clear to anybody with a brain that they are the principal point from which Covid-19 is being transmitted to the population.
Her government has stressed that keeping schools open would be a number one priority regardless of what happens, with deputy FM John Swinney saying closures should be avoided “at all costs”.
Do those costs include preventable deaths? From what Swinney said, it seems they do.
How sad. We might have expected more intelligence from the Scottish government.
Perhaps Boris Johnson has just proved that stupidity is as easily-transmissible as the virus.
*Personally, This Writer thinks Sturgeon – and any other leader whose decisions cause preventable deaths (Boris Johnson) – should be made to visit personally the families of anybody who dies as a result of her decisions to apologise and offer restitution for the wrong she will have intentionally inflicted on them. At least that would keep her out of mischief for a (long) while.
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
Vox Political needs your help! If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers) you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
It isn’t often one has an opportunity to praise a politician but this is one such event.
Earlier this week, This Writer criticised Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon because she failed to demand that permission for the planned new Cambo oilfield west of the Shetlands should be withdrawn in the light of the UN’s report on climate change.
“Nicola Sturgeon just met a climate change protester and said to her face that she would not oppose a new oilfield in the North Sea,” I wrote.
“She’s got issues (to consider). Truer words were never spoken – in defence of the indefensible.”
Well, it seems she has reconsidered those issues, changed her mind, and called for Boris Johnson’s mob to cancel permission for the new, polluting oilfield.
In her letter, Ms Sturgeon asked Boris Johnson to commit to “significantly enhancing the climate conditionality” associated with offshore oil and gas production.
She added: “I am also asking that the UK government agrees to reassess licences already issued but where field development has not yet commenced. That would include the proposed Cambo development.
“Such licences, some of them issued many years ago, should be reassessed in light of the severity of the climate emergency we now face, and against a compatibility checkpoint that is fully aligned with our climate change targets and obligations.”
Sturgeon’s change of heart only serves to highlight the prime minister’s hypocrisy.
Having said that we should “consign coal to history” he has proved unwilling to do the same to oil.
Contracts should not be “ripped up”, he said – but that is precisely what is necessary.
And his words are exactly as I predicted politicians would react in the fact of opposition from big business.
Referring to Johnson’s Tory colleague Alok Sharma, who is hosting the COP-26 climate change summit later this year, I wrote:
“He’ll merrily tell all the other politicians that they must switch to green energy immediately; they’ll say, “Oh, but we’ve got this multi-billion [name the money unit of your choice] project on the go, it’s a huge investment that will create jobs for the plebs and MASSIVE PROFITS for us,” and he’ll say: “Oh, that’s all right then, You go ahead.”
“See if I’m right.”
Well, it didn’t take very long at all before I was proved right, did it?
And now it is important to remember that Johnson’s comment is not the last word on this subject.
He is a weakling who buckles in the face of strong public opinion.
So all we have to do is show him that his decision is unpopular and he should change it. He will.
Of course, for all I know, you might agree with him, and want us to go on burning fossil fuels. The lack of popularity attracted by my previous articles on this subject suggests that this may be the case.
All I can say – if that’s your attitude – is, I hope you don’t live on particularly low land.
If you do, then I hope you’re a strong swimmer.
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
Vox Political needs your help! If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers) you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Heat death: this was Siberia – LAST YEAR. The far north had experienced its hottest temperatures ever, with fires breaking out across the world. But the Tories saw no need to adapt to climate change and Keir Starmer had abandoned Labour’s policies to deal with it.
Our planet will burn because we elected selfish, greed-driven hypocrites who are in league with the fossil-fuel moguls.
That is the message conveyed by Alok Sharma, and he should know because he is one of the principal selfish, greed-driven hypocrites behind it.
Don’t believe his guff about “this” being “the moment” to stop a climate change catastrophe – he has admitted that he supports the start of more fossil fuel projects in the UK and funded by UK cash.
NO! In what moral universe is it acceptable to acknowledge we’re on brink of climate catastrophe & simultaneously back new oil and gas fields? Ministers cannot be allowed to get away with this grotesque immoral deceit #NoMoreExcuseshttps://t.co/3mM3ahaFtG
This is the man who will host COP-26, this year’s climate change summit. He’ll merrily tell all the other politicians that they must switch to green energy immediately; they’ll say, “Oh, but we’ve got this multi-billion [name the money unit of your choice] project on the go, it’s a huge investment that will create jobs for the plebs and MASSIVE PROFITS for us,” and he’ll say: “Oh, that’s all right then, You go ahead.”
See if I’m right.
And it’s not just the Tories of this world. Nicola Sturgeon just met a climate change protester and said to her face that she would not oppose a new oilfield in the North Sea.
Today, @NicolaSturgeon told me and my friends that she will not oppose the Cambo oil field. It is so frustrating to see world leaders time and time again refuse to take meaningful action around the climate crisis. It’s even more frustrating when they do so to my face. https://t.co/8OTWN2E7d1
She’s got issues (to consider). Truer words were never spoken – in defence of the indefensible.
The reason for this hypocrisy is well-known. These politicians are capitalists in a capitalist system that demands – no, requires – more and more of the planet must be exploited, and more of it used as a rubbish dump for pollution, in order to ensure that fewer and fewer people can have the very best of everything.
Here’s environmental journalist George Monbiot to explain:
"Capitalism is the Planet’s Cancer & just like cancer in the human body we have to cut it out"
You won’t hear that from Alok Sharma! The reason is clear: he is a part of the problem.
What’s the result of all this doubletalk and dithering?
Stress.
People are getting increasingly concerned about this – to the point where it is becoming too much for them to handle, so they’re switching off.
Putting it out there that I'm absolutely terrified by the climate crisis at the moment. Social collapse feels like something I will live to see. It's got to the point where I've stopped reading news about it because it's too overwhelming.
Isn’t that exactly what unscrupulous political operators like Sharma (certainly) and Sturgeon (possibly) want?
Over the last few years – decades, possibly – we have seen the political atmosphere in the UK heated to a point where people have been breaking.
Benefit claimants – particularly the long-term sick and disabled – have been driven to despair and suicide by conditions that the Tories in government created (people like Iain Duncan Smith, David Cameron, Stephen Crabb, Damian Green, Theresa May, David Gauke, Esther McVey, Amber Rudd, Boris Johnson and Therese Coffey, along with all their deputies) – not because they had to, but because they wanted to.
Brexit was an invented stressor.
Covid-19? The Tories had spent years weakening the UK’s defence against a pandemic, and when it hit, we were stuck with the most pathetically inept prime minister in the UK’s history, using the crisis not as an opportunity for excellence but as a chance to funnel huge amounts of public money to his personal friends and donors who provided nothing in return, and to pile on the stress for the rest of us by telling us we have to pay for it.
There are many more examples – including climate change.
For millions of people, it is too much. They are switching off – not just their TVs and radios, but their minds. They can’t face it. They want somebody else to come along and make it better.
But nobody will. What these people are really doing is handing the planet over to people like Alok Sharma.
And he’s handing it over to people who’ll happily watch the rest of us burn if it makes them an extra farthing in the short-term.
The message is clear, and it will be hugely unwelcome to those who are switching off. It is this:
Nothing will get better if you walk away.
It will only get worse.
If you run away and hide from it because you’re afraid that bad things will happen to you in the short term, then just you remember – always – that you are making sure that bad things will happen to you in the long term. And that future is accelerating towards you at a terrifying pace.
So you have to ask yourself a question:
Are you really such a craven coward?
Do you really think you will be happier – you, personally; this isn’t about other people. They’ll be affected but you will as well, and it’s you that you’re worried about if you’re running away from this – to leave the big decisions to those who have ushered in the floods, fires and heatwaves that have already caused so much harm, with worse to follow?
Yes, you are right to be terrified by this.
But if you do nothing, then you are contributing to it. You are supporting it. You are saying you want it.
Think about it.
Then do the right thing.
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
Vox Political needs your help! If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers) you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
On one side, we see Nicola Sturgeon. The First Minister of Scotland has been found to have misled Parliament by giving an inaccurate account of meetings with Alex Salmond in 2018.
If an inquiry finds that she knowingly uttered falsehoods, then that is a resignation offence for an elected minister of any government, according to the Ministerial Code, and she should go – without question.
On the other side, we see Boris Johnson. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom has been accused of having misled Parliament by failing to provide details of funding for renovations to his official Downing Street flat.
The allegation is that private donations to the Conservative Party totalling £60,000 have been used as part of £200,000 worth of refurbishments to the flat.
If so, it should have been reported to the Electoral Commission, because the Ministerial Code demands that “a statement covering relevant Ministers’ interests will be published twice yearly”. The last such statement appeared last July, eight months ago.
It seems clear that Johnson has knowingly breached the Code in failing to declare the sources of funding for the flat.
So he should resign – right?
But within Parliament there has been no pressure for him to do so, while Tory calls for Sturgeon to take a hike have been punitive in their decibel level.
Labour’s Keir Starmer, despite being a lawyer, has claimed Sturgeon should go whether she knowingly misled Parliament or not – which is another indication that he should not be in politics, let alone running a political party.
10 Downing Street says all appropriate codes were followed, but this rings hollow. What does Allegra Stratton, Johnson’s press secretary, mean by “appropriate”? Something different from the dictionary definition, one would guess.
That’s how Downing Street has explained the other ways Johnson has recently misled Parliament, as I mentioned in a previous article:
After he said there would be no funding cut for the body tasked with improving transport in the north (he’s taking away 40 per cent of its funding), Downing Street tried to suggest he had been talking about transport generally for the north of England.
And after he claimed all Covid-19 contracts had been published and were “on the record” – only to be contradicted by the High Court – a minister said all CANs – Contract Award Notices – had been published. They are not the same thing.
Today’s howler was his claim, in Prime Minister’s Questions, that Keir Starmer had voted against a promise of a 2.1 per cent pay rise for nurses – that his own government is breaking.
The plan was in the NHS Funding Bill last year – which passed without a formal vote because all the main parties supported it. Starmer didn’t need to vote, but if he had, he would have supported the Bill.
Johnson (or rather, Stratton – he’d done his usual runner) eventually came out with a claim that he had been saying Starmer voted against the Queen’s Speech – but the plan wasn’t mentioned in it.
The document Starmer had been waving around at PMQs – and to which he had been referring – was the NHS long-term plan, which was a policy document and not a piece of legislation on which he could have voted.
So it seems clear that Johnson had knowingly misled Parliament but the issue also seems to have gone away because nobody is calling for his resignation over it.
If you’re wondering who did fund the renovation, here‘s openDemocracy:
The Mail also claims that party officials have since been looking for ways to keep the donation anonymous by returning it, and then repeating it through a new ‘Downing Street Trust’ that would conceal the original source.
Lord Brownlow, who served as vice-chairman of the Tory party in 2017-20 and was made a peer in 2019 by Theresa May, is expected to head up this new non-charitable trust.
So the person who allegedly provided this dodgy donation is set to head the organisation dedicated to hushing it up. More corrupt cronyism?
Let’s face it: nobody involved in this is going to come out smelling of roses.
It’s just that Boris Johnson, more than anybody else, is going to be smelling of faeces.
And it will take more than a Union Flag to wipe them away.
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
Vox Political needs your help! If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers) you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Margaret Ferrier: she doesn’t look well, does she?
It’s no more than she deserves.
Margaret Ferrier is an MP for the SNP (whip currently suspended) who took a Covid-19 test on September 26 after experiencing symptoms.
Then, instead of self-isolating (just in case) she visited a gym, a beauty salon and a gift shop.
On September 28, while still awaiting her test results due to the lamentable slowness of the UK’s privatised testing system, she took a train from Scotland to London and spoke in a Parliamentary debate.
That evening she received a positive test result. Then, knowing she may have infected anybody in the gym, beauty salon, gift shop, on the train to London, and in Parliament itself, what did she do?
She took another train back to Scotland and lied to her party whip that a family member was unwell.
She admitted her offences on October 1, in a public statement. Afterwards Ferrier was suspended from the SNP, and referred herself to the police and the Parliamentary standards authorities.
Party leader Nicola Sturgeon has been referring to her as “Margaret Covid” ever since.
The reference may be to Typhoid Mary – a person who carries a disease to many others.
This Writer thinks other key players in the Covid-19 crisis should also be granted appropriate nicknames – and I see that I am not alone:
Love Nicola Sturgeon’s idea of calling Margaret Ferrier ‘Margaret Covid’ and think we should roll it out to everyone who does shitty, inexcusable things.
Dominic Eyetest Matt PPEcock Dido Testfarce Priti Dinghysink Boris Pensionerkillingracistdogturdpic.twitter.com/6ca820qQA8
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
Vox Political needs your help! If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers) you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. This includes scrolling or continued navigation. more information
The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.
