Separatist hypocrisy

[Gronnuck]

IMO In all your posts and from the beginning of this thread Orkneycadian you have disparaged the SNP and Nicola Sturgeon despite the fact that this party has been re-elected time and time again. Your posts are continually confrontational and bitter. You may call us ‘seperatists’ but many of us would consider ourselves ‘normalists’ for it is not normal in the 21^st century for one country to be ruled by another, regardless of its history.
I haven’t read all of your posts so I have yet to find your suggested alternative way forward. Boris Johnson and the conservatives? Labour and who? You’re obviously a unionist so please tell us why you are so enamoured by parties working from London and explain how and why they are so supportive of Orkney. I am genuinely interested.
FYI Boris and his conservatives won 43.6% of the UK vote and claim a mandate to govern. Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP won 45% of the Scottish vote and so are entitled to claim the right for a referendum and allow the people of Scotland to choose their way forward. What is there to be worried about?
I don’t want to read another bitter malevolent rant otherwise I will consider this all a waste of my time.

[orkneycadian]

I think you overread things a bit there Gronnuck. I guess before I reply, you're not part of the Corky Smeek / Oddquine / Maggie747 franchise are you? Just checking.....

Scotland is not ruled by another country - Its part of the UK, and Scotland has its fair share of representation in that union. 59 seats out of 650. Whats not proportional is that 80% of those 59 seats are filled by SNP MPs who collectively only took 45% share of the vote. But that's just a quirk of our election system, and one we are all used to.

You enquire as to my political allegiances. Well, I can tell you this - I did not vote Conservative, nor did I vote tactically to keep the SNP, or any others "out". I voted for who I thought was the best person to represent Orkney's interests. The rest is between me and the ballot box, but the above perhaps busts a few more myths you have developed in your mind.

You enquire why I am supportive of being in the UK. Well, from the wiki page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Scotland

"Scotland still conducts the majority of its trade within the UK: in 2014, Scotland's exports totalled £76 billion, of which £48.5 billion (64%) was with constituent nations of the UK, £11.6 billion with the rest of the European Union (EU), and £15.2 billion with other parts of the world."

The rest of the UK is our biggest trading partner, by a long shot. We export more than 4 times the value of products and services to the rUK than we do to the EU. And we export 31% more to the rest of the world than we do to the EU. In return, we see terrible governance from the EU. Its the EU who dictate things like our agricultural and fishing policy, to the detriment of so many Scottish communities.

Regards the elections. What we are being forced to do is try and defend the misinterpretation of previous elections and referendums, and the SNP are undoubtedly the main protagonists of that. I would be quite happy to accept that in 2016, the whole of the UK voted to leave the EU, with 52% support for, 48% against. But the SNP are not happy with that. They try to twist and turn the result to their own ends by saying "Scotland didn;t vote to leave". Sorry, but the ballot paper asked if the UK should leave. I don't recall a ballot paper asking if Scotland should leave. Its this twisting and turning of results that caused so much division, and the SNP are primarily responsible'

What we should have, SNP arguments excluded is;

*2014 - Scotland voted, as a whole, to stay in the UK - Case closed
*2016 - The UK as a whole voted to leave the EU - Case closed
*2019 - UK constituents in Scotland elect 47 or 48 SNP MPs to send to Westminster. Case closed

That's how it should be. And I would be happy with that. Instead, we have the SNP twisting and turning the results again for their own gain. The election on Thursday was solely to elect MPs for Westminster. That's all. Nothing more. Then, those MPs should go to Westminster for the next 5 years and represent their constituents - Not their party whips, but their constituents. But somehow, the SNP are turning that election of MP's into some kind of mandate for the next chapter of the Neverendum. Eh?

So that's where we have to come out on the defensive and point out all these errors, and highlight that only 45% voted for the SNP and 1% for the Scottish Greens. 46%. No mandate. But then, that question wasn't even on the ballot paper.

Nicola and all her friends really need to try and separate elections for MPs with constitutional matters. It is true that Boris has a mandate to govern with just 43.6% of the vote. But that's the same quirk that allows Nicola to grab a selfie with 80% of the Scottish MPs with just 45% of the vote. That's a quirk of the constituency election system and the SNP have come out handsomely on it.

But constitutional matters we settle by referendums - Like those in 2014 and 2016. And in those, we don't have the first past the post quirk.

So read this if you wish. But in doing so, take a look at the SNP and what they are trying to achieve. Forcing through a constitutional matter that wasn't even mentioned on the ballot paper last week, on the strength of a 45% vote. If that doesn't make Scotland Afraid, Very Afraid, then I don't know what does.