Pie Falls from Sky

The truth is simple. Everything which was once flavour of the month, will eventually leave a bitter taste in the mouth.

Popularity is a fickle creature which gives with one hand, while taking away with the other. With this in mind,we are beginning to see widening cracks in the once invisible SNP armoury. They are so obsessed with independence, they aren't focused on the real world anymore.

In the past, it took much longer for political parties to fail and eventually fall by the wayside of public opinion. History tells us that. For decades, the Labour party in Scotland didn't, in some areas, count its votes, it weighed them!

This was a Party which had the entire vote of the "working class" especially in the larger industrial cities. Glasgow and Dundee were always rock solid Labour strongholds. Now, because Labour began to take its core vote for granted, the tide turned and the SNP swept in an vacuumed up the disgruntled Labour voters.

This small example of a political party taking its eye off the ball, politically speaking, and losing power in a spectacular fashion, shows how easily this fall into the political abyss can take place. Scottish Labour will never be the same political force again. Their core vote has gone off in different directions and they are unlikely to return.

Years ago the Liberal party were strong in Scotland, as were the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party. But they were put to the sword just the same. The Liberal party were subsumed into the a mishmash with what was the bright new political party, the SDP, Social Democratic Party, started by four renegade Labour party big hitters in the 1980's. They were to have been the next big thing. But at the polling booth, they were never going to be a threat to any other party. So they welded themselves to the Liberal party and became the Liberal Democrats. No original thinking here! Which was part of the problem. A serious lack of originality.

Going further back in time, the once mighty Whig party was just another example of a fall from public popularity. They became an irrelevance and they vanished!

No party is immune from this happening to them.

In today's world, everything goes faster and events move quickly due to the internet and social media. So the fact that the fall in the popularity of the SNP isn't surprising. There was always going to come a time when the independence question, and the continual mentioning of the word, was going to make people think there was nothing else to be said by the SNP government and representatives.

Did they have anything else in the locker, to bring to the electorate? The answer apparently is a resounding no! Almost every subject mentioned, is a "reserved" matter. Today I asked one of the more evolved SNP supporters, what were they going to do about disability benefits. I had read that the Scottish government were going to have powers to create new benefits.

The answer was as usual, "this is a reserved matter" and even if some powers were given to them, Westminster wouldn't supply the proper amount of money to finance these changes. My next question was, "What were the SNP going to use for money if they gained independence if Westminster weren't going to be handing out enough money." Answer? There came none! Complete and utter silence.

This sums up the way this subject is used. "We want. We want" But if they got it, what would they do with it? Who would pay for this socialist paradise? Oil? Not now. Tax payers? Really not enough of them. It's a mystery. The biggest mystery is the length of time it has taken for the public to finally see the SNP for what they are. Yes, a very old and worn out, one trick pony. In fact, an old nag!

Today I read that Nicola Sturgeon is "decoupling" the independence question from this general election. She knows as well as the rest of us that everyone is sick and tired of the bloody word, independence! Mention it to most people, and they just don't want to know. It is boring the arse off not only the Scottish public, but the British public!

The opinion polls are telling the story, even if they aren't always correct, that the SNP vote is crumbling and Nicola Sturgeon is seen as a very divisive leader. Constantly whining about how bad the Westminster government are to poor wee Scotland. It is a huge Electoral turn off.

Scotland is a great country and in my opinion, better off being in a union with the rest of the UK. This isn't 1745! We don't use Groats as currency anymore. Kilt wearers are usually either drunken football fans, or men in full Highland dress for a wedding. This isn't the way we want to see ourselves portrayed. Like some backwater of Brigadoon.

The last man I knew who wore a kilt on a daily basis was Wilf Nicol, a farmer who died fifty years ago. He wasn't a tartan tosser. He wore it because he always had done. Summer and winter. Always. A proper Scotsman. Not some idiot with ankle socks and trainers, wearing a "see-you-jimmy" orange wig, a la Russ Abbot.

If they aren't careful, the SNP will disappear up their own kilts, never to be heard of again!