Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing

Theresa May ~ face of the Union?

On 27 March, the UK Prime Minister, Theresa May, visited the Scottish offices of the Department for International Development - a Westminster government agency - to deliver a speech on her plans for Scotland under the UK plans to leave the EU.

The speech came on the eve of the Prime Minister triggering Article 50 to begin the exit strategy form the EU - and also in the same week the Scottish Government will table a motion to ask Westminster to hold a second referendum on independence, which the PM is deeply opposed to.

The speech was therefore also going to be about propaganda rather than plans. What followed however was pitiful. Having read through the transcript of the speech, I add some of my own thoughts.

"the work you do here – in conjunction with your colleagues at the Department for International Development in London – says something important about Britain. It says that we are a kind and generous country. It says that we are a big country that will never let down – or turn our back on – those in need."

In February 2017, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson syphoned off £700 million from foreign aid, to set up a "pro-democracy" fund to spread western influence in former Soviet states and the Middle East.

Under the Immigration Act 2016, as part of the 'Dubs Amendment', the UK government agreed to take in child refugees from the "Jungle" migrant camp in Calais. Lord Dubs said this could be as high as 3000 children. In February 2017 the government reneged on this commitment after taking in only 350 children. A move which Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon described as inhumane, and urged the Prime Minister to reconsider.

So the Prime Minister does not have to lecture me on not turning our backs on those in need - her government has a shameful track record of doing so.

"Indeed, we are going to take this opportunity to forge a more Global Britain. The closest friend and ally with Europe, but also a country that looks beyond Europe to build relationships with old friends and new allies alike."

The UK is not going to be the closest friend and ally of Europe. Far from it, the decision to leave and the hard line which Theresa May is taking is already alienating many EU states and other countries in Europe. And of course by 'old friends' she means the USA. Oh, and the Commonwealth countries, which the Brexiteers are determined are to become the British Empire Mark II. As to the 'new allies', there's the reference to the UK trying to interfere in former Soviet states and the Middle East.

"For example, your work is leading the world in efforts to end the outrage of violence against women and girls, a cause that is particularly close to my heart."

Cases of Female Genital Mutilation are on the increase in the UK, with WHO reporting in 2015 that it averaged a new case every 109 minutes.

From 2010 to 2015 familial abuse of women stayed largely static, while sexual abuse actually increased slightly from 2014 to 2015.

"the work to tackle the awful Zika virus that is a source of such anguish for people across Latin America is being led by researchers at Glasgow University, supported by teams here."

Scottish academia and education is and always has been devolved. Even under the auspices of the Act of Union of 1707, it was agreed that Scotland and England would maintain control over their own education systems. And Scotland has been a leader in medicine since the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh was founded in 1505 - 202 years before the Union. Therefore, for Theresa May to try and make it look like Glasgow University could not fight Zika without UK input is as disingenuous as it is insulting. This is a typical example of Westminster saying that every success in Scotland is a direct consequence of the Union, but every failure is all of our own doing.

"One of the legacies of years of conflict in that country is the deadly phenomenon of landmines that still lie strewn across hundreds of acres of that land."

Many of which landmines were supplied by the USA and the UK to the Mujaheddin, before they became the Taliban.

"thanks to the work of organisations such as the Halo Trust that has its headquarters right here in Scotland – almost 100 square kilometres of contaminated land has been cleared. And around half a million people have benefitted as a result. We will continue with that work – and continue to support Afghanistan’s security"

"The HALO Trust is a non-political and non-religious registered British charity and American non-profit organization which removes debris left behind by war." (Wikipedia)

So, nice one Theresa, for attempting to politicise and claim credit for the HALO Trust, which are nothing to do with either the UK or the Scottish governments. And no, you won't 'continue with that work', because it is organisations like HALO doing it.

"UK Aid is a badge of hope for so many around the world – and I hope that everyone here feels proud to be able to play their part in bringing light where there is darkness, and hope where there is despair. But that badge – UK Aid – says something else. It appears on the side of buildings, school books, medical supplies and food parcels in some of the toughest environments and most hard-to-reach countries on the planet."

While at the same time, the UK sells arms to countries in return for giving foreign aid, or sells arms to those countries which create humanitarian crises. An example from September 2016 is Theresa May's government sending a drop-in-the-bucket £100 million to Yemen, whilst selling arms to Saudi Arabia worth £3 billion; arms which the Saudis are attacking Yemen with.

"And it says this: that when this great union of nations – England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – sets its mind on something and works together with determination, we are an unstoppable force."

If a union of peoples can work as a greater force together than apart, then surely the same must be true of the European Union?  Or is that 'different'?

"That is why the Plan for Britain I have set out – a plan to get the right deal for Britain abroad as well as a better deal for ordinary, working people at home"

By bringing absolutely nothing to the table in Brexit negotiations, and expecting several concessions in return? The fact is that May has absolutely no plan and no idea what she is doing. And as for working people at home, just how are they going to feel when their rights to liveable wages, decent working conditions, the right to leave, all cut from under them, with no EU to turn to?

"has as its heart one over-arching goal: to build a more united nation."

Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer?

"A more united nation means working actively to bring people and communities together by promoting policies which support integration and social cohesion."

EU citizens residing in the UK were denied a vote in the EU referendum, and the UK leaving the UK shall see many of these same people stripped of their right to remain. I therefore fail to see how that is supporting integration and social cohesion.

And there are many other policies of the Westminster government which are dividing communities and eroding integration and social cohesion. Theresa May only look at the gentrified areas of London such as Notting Hill and Streatham, where the working class - and largely black - communities have been priced out of these areas, and many out of London altogether.

"In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that means fully respecting, and indeed strengthening, the devolution settlements."

If Theresa May is at all serious about respecting the devolution settlements, then she should respect the wishes of the devolved Scottish Government to seek a second referendum on independence by early 2019 at the latest.

"But never allowing our Union to become looser and weaker, or our people to drift apart. So in those policy areas where the UK Government holds responsibility, I am determined that we will put the interests of the Union – both the parts and the whole – at the heart of our decision-making."

Are therein lies the contradiction; she won't recognise the call for a second referendum by early 2019. For all Theresa May's fine words, this is nothing more a repeat of the 'Vow' Scotland was promised in 2014 of sweeping new powers both in Holyrood and as part of the UK parliament at Westminster, only to see the Scottish budget slashed, powers never delivered, and 'English Votes for English Laws' (EVEL) introduced, whereby Scots MPs may not vote on English issues, even if they make have a knock-on effect upon Scotland.

"It is about the values we share in our family of nations. Values of freedom of speech, democracy, respect for human rights, the rule of law. This proud shared heritage provides the bedrock of our lives together in the UK."

Freedom of speech, where SNP MPs have been silenced in the House of Commons. Freedom of speech and expression where the government already has our computers and other internet devices under surveillance and have jumped on the attack on Westminster to call for that to be extended. Democracy where the Prime Minister will not honour the wishes of 62% of the Scots electorate to stay in the UK. Both the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Amnesty International have condemned the Westminster government for human rights abuses, at home and abroad, and particularly in the case of those most vulnerable. May's 'clean Brexit' will see the UK removed from human rights protection we enjoy within the EU AND the European Court of Justice.

"And on that foundation we have built a country where we share the challenges that we face, and bring all the expertise, ingenuity and goodwill we share across this Union to bear to tackle them. That allows us to do amazing things,"

And on that foundation the European Union grew out of the EEC, which allows us to do many, many more amazing things - across Europe and around the world.

"So as Britain leaves the European Union, and we forge a new role for ourselves in the world"

An isolationist one of raising the drawbridge, pulling up the ladder, and cutting ourselves off from the rest of the world, save a select few. And given how Donald Trump is blowing hot and cold on the "Special Relationship", don't count on that either.

"But also for the good we can do together in the world, as a Global Britain. A force for good, helping to build a better future for everyone."

Yes, I can just hear the Little Englanders agreeing to a "Global Britain", especially when these are the same people who continually call for foreign aid to be cut - or even scrapped, for cuts in immigration and refugees, and for deportations. And these are the same people who voted the Tories in, and to leave the EU remember.

All in all it was a poor speech. It was largely an appeal to emotion; a tug at the collective heart strings of Scotland, in an effort desperate effort to keep us in the Union. In that, it was little different from the pathetic pleas of David Cameron in 2014.

Theresa May's logic escapes me. On one hand she speaks of forming new alliances across Europe and the world, then on the other hand is insisting that Scotland can only be an effective force in the world if we are in union with England, but at the same time as speaking in glowing terms of unions being strong, is determined to take out of the EU on the hardest terms possible. Does May somehow imagine that an independent Scotland could not enter into some sort of joint aid agency with the remainder of the UK? Or is she threatening that if Scotland becomes independent, that she will childishly go home and take her ball with her? And if the latter, then just how outward-looking, how embracing of the world would that be? And just how does such an attitude at all help those most in need across the world?

I would never for one moment denigrate the work of the consummate professionals of the Department for International Development, but the fact is we do not need to be in an all-encompassing political union to deliver aid across the world.

The UK already works in conjunction within the EU, and with several other countries to deliver aid where it is needed. Asides from which, aid is often delivered by non-governmental organisations, as May herself illustrated by the amazing work of the HALO Trust - which she disgustingly tried to take the credit for. Yes, groups like HALO often rely upon governmental monetary donations and physical help on the ground. There is absolutely no reason Scotland and England as independent countries could not continue supplying both. Or is May also threatening to huffily pull governmental help for HALO and other such organisations?

The rest of the speech, full of rhetoric and hyperbole, truly was nothing more than "Vow Mk II"; it had the same condescending, crawling tones of David Cameron when he pleaded with Scotland in 2014 to stay in the Union, promising us the earth - and delivered nothing.

I do not for the life of me know what the point of all that was. Nicola Sturgeon will table Article 30 to the Scottish Parliament, calling for a second referendum on independence, and it will pass through the house. We will have a second referendum, by early 2019 at the latest, whatever what Theresa May thinks or wishes, whether it be an official one or not.

If Theresa May however was trying to lay down the law, trying to be another Thatcher rather than Cameron, she would do well to consider just how much Margaret Thatcher was despised in Scotland. Not least because she too tried to tell Scotland to "dae as yir tellt", and imposed her will upon us against our wishes when she imposed the hated 'Poll Tax' on Scotland a year before the rest of the UK.

Theresa May can of course utterly refuse to grant Scotland a second referendum on independence. If she is at all serious about keeping the UK together and making it more cohesive, then she would be strongly advised not to. If there is one thing we Scots hate is being told what to do. It just makes us all the more determined to do it. Refusing a second referendum could very well see Theresa May go down in history as the Prime Minister who broke up the UK, which of course would be fine with me.

And of course, you can forget all the rhetoric about a second referendum 'not now, but later'. Because by her very words of 'strengthening' the UK, Theresa May has made it perfectly clear she has absolutely no intention of ever granting a second referendum. That is why it has to be now; that is why it has to be we who are active now of delivering it.

So, all in all, it was a pretty pathetic and pointless speech. That's no disparagement to the workers of the DfID. They like all public sector workers, know better than Theresa May or any other politician just how hard their jobs are, and how professional they are. They neither need nor want their egos massaged nor smoke blown up their asses.

I have some personal thoughts upon this. In my time I have worked in the public sector at UK government, Scottish government, and local authority levels. If there was one thing which was strongly emphasised in all three sectors it is that you remain completely objective and non-partisan at all times. It is never a good idea to bring your politics into the workplace, but in the public sector it is absolutely sacrosanct that you do not. And like the absolute professionals they are, the overwhelming majority of public sector workers leave their politics at home; I have even rarely heard them discuss politics in the pub after work.

Yet, here we had the UK Prime Minister visiting the offices of a major government department, and giving a speech overladen with her political asperations, pleading to them to follow her political vision, to reject any ideas of a second referendum or of Scottish independence. Theresa May used what should have been a speech about aid and development to preach propaganda to a non-partisan government department, and that should concern each and every one of us.

One can only hope that there were few within the East Kilbride office of the DfID who actually paid any attention to one word of what she said. After all, they know from bitter experience what happened to their public sector colleagues. Before the 2014 referendum Westminster government said that 1200 Scottish tax workers would not lose their jobs if we stayed in the Union. True to their word, after Scotland voted No to independence, the government didn't sack 1200 - they transferred the jobs of no fewer than 2000 tax workers from East Kilbride to Croydon.

Fool me once, Theresa, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.