BY BRAD JAMES
A Hung Parliament is the barometer of our uncertainty. No one wishes to see the gloomy trio of words: “No Overall Control,” plastered over TV screens on the 8th May, a day that coincides with Victory in Europe 70 years ago, heralding the end of Hitler’s vile grip on Europe, no less. Yet victory may seem seven decades distant to all of the party’s concerned in the aftermath of the General Election this year. They desire a Hung Parliament least of all. Although the outcome in 2010 allowed the Conservatives a semblance of a mandate for rule, concessions needed to be made to the Liberal Democrats. Therefore the true brand, which would have essentially been a firebrand, of the Tories was dampened a shade by a tad of moistened pitch in the form of the Liberal Democrats. Their more egalitarian, soft form government buffeted a wind of Tory austerity that would have turned the nation blue from it’s cold, we are still shivering nonetheless under it’s harsh dominion. A Hung Parliament is the very embodiment of the disenfranchised, apathetic shoulder shrug and contemptuous sneer when the public thinks of politicians and our leaders. It is the quintessential Catch 22. Everyone knows the system needs a good shake-up. A top-down rearrangement that makes the whole system more diverse, divested of greater meritocracy and far more representative of a nation far exceeding the privately educated Oxbridge commanders. Yet who or what will be so bold as to storm the neo-gothic façade of Westminster from the Thames, piloting a well-needed raft of fresh ideas?
Nicola Sturgeon is the poster girl for new democratic process. Coming off the back of a roaring victory for her party, the SNP, last September. Never relenting on the gains made by her predecessor, Alex Salmond, the Scottish First Minister has cast her influence wider than the Scottish Parliament in Holyrood, Edinburgh and has extended her potential reach across the entire UK. What’s more, she is keen for expanding sphere of influence that is to be of benefit to everyone the SNP’s political shadow casts itself over. Most recent polls indicate that the SNP will claim the majority of Scotland’s 59 Westminster constituency seats. Such a wildfire through the Highlands and Lowlands would give the SNP serious clout in the House of Commons. A level of influence UKIP and the Green Party could only achieve in the most outlandish of their dreams. With the prospect of neither the Conservatives or Labour achieving a legitimate majority come May, Nicola Sturgeon’s ability to affect change may be the most potent outcome of our General Election this year.
Speaking to a gathering of SNP faithful in Glasgow today, Ms. Sturgeon argued:
“I think I can safely say that we do still want Scotland to be independent. But at this general election – with the power of the big parties weaker than ever before – I say this to people of progressive opinion all across the UK. As long as Scotland remains part of the Westminster system, we will be your allies in seeking to shake up and reform that out dated and discredited system once and for all.” “Westminster needs to change. To be more responsive to the needs and demands of ordinary people, wherever they are in the UK. So to people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, I make this promise. The SNP stands ready to work with you in making that positive change for all of us.” – Nicola Sturgeon.
ABOLISHING OF THE HO– — USE OF LORDS
She also vowed to try and abolish the House of Lords where she argued that Peers can get: ‘£300-a-day just for turning up.’
Nicola Sturgeon hopes to be even more emblematic to change and become a catalyst for reform in our nation. Instilling a political system, which sorely needs it. The Scottish First Minister is the virtual antithesis to the leaders of the main Westminster parties – female, working class, as opposed to the Old Etonian and Oxbridge educated elite that infect the House of Commons, like a mould a similar shade of green to the leather they sit on! There has seemingly been more action of late, now that Parliament has been about to shut up shop than there has been throughout the whole proceedings of Westminster this year. What with an unsuccessful attempt to elbow out the Speaker of the House of Commons and now Nicola Sturgeon’s call to arms. One salient, overriding factor of these two incidents are action, one positive, one negative.
The move to replace John Bercow was a negative grab for consolidation of power from a Conservative Party that has failed to determine it’s own mandate to rule and very likely faces a few turbulent weeks left at the helm of a nation. The second was a positive action to galvanize and energize a deflated populace and reinvigorate their love for the process that handles their fate, government. The SNP have mastered affirmative action and have left the remainder of the UK wanting for it. As Alex Salmond’s deputy, Ms. Sturgeon watched her leader transform the listless and unrepresented Scottish masses into force to be reckoned with, from age 16 upwards, where 84.5% of Scots turned out at the polls. If less than half of that is achieved at this May’s General Election, it will be miraculous.
Nicola Sturgeon has vowed that SNP MPs would ‘stop a Tory government getting off the ground.’ Extending a challenge to Labor to match her pledge and join forces with a ‘vote of confidence to lock David Cameron out of Downing Street,’ adding:
“If Labour fails to make that commitment, the only conclusion people will draw is that Labour would rather have the Tories back in power than work with the SNP. And that will be the final nail in the political coffin of Scottish Labour.”
“So I challenge Labour today to join us in opposing austerity – not in words, but in their spending plans. And if they won’t, I serve notice now that we will use our influence in the House of Commons to force them to abandon the needless pain of Tory cuts.”
Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP know that Scotland is not only suffering the bite of austerity, but the entire UK. They don’t know how long Scotland will remain part of the Union, but for now, that’s what it is and every part has to be an integral cog of that Union, not just London and the South-East. Therefore an integral aspect of a healthy Scotland is to be involved in a UK strong with vitality, even were Scotland divorced from the rest of the UK that would be the case.
Before the referendum on independence, Alex Salmond quoted an elderly neighbour of his growing up. This woman said: “if Scotland were ever to gain independence from England. England would lose a surly lodger and gain a friendly neighbour.” Nicola Sturgeon is ready to unfurl that sentiment of neighbourhood to tie these islands together for mutual benefit. Little wonder she represents such a threat to the established elite.
