I will never vote SNP again, here are a few reasons why and in response with the urgent need for a new left-wing political party at Holyrood, bringing a new form of opposition. Stopping for example, existing parties in their obsession for power only than lasting change for Scotland.
Firstly, before I begin, it is thought, the entire infrastructure of our party-political system today has made the socio-economic model of neoliberalism in Scotland a permanent feature of our reality and that we must all now be grateful for the occasional left-wing policy here and there. I think everyone in Scotland has gone beyond the joy of free prescriptions and has moved on.
The truth is that the SNP have stolen the popular vote and monopolised the hearts of women and men living in Scotland today. They are now more a party of hype than action. Their strategy for independence has become deeply unsustainable and does not match up with the many crises we face.
Their only strategy, which has become the lowest level of modern-day political thinking is to just keep playing the ‘old’ independence card on almost every social and economic aspect of Scottish life.
Where is their imagination? They act as though there is no alternative within our existing devolved powers at Holyrood. As a citizen, I do believe and think Scotland can be and become a successful Independent country, one of the greatest well-being countries on the planet. But I don’t think Scotland can be under the present rule of the SNP, nor Labour, the Greens, Liberal Democrats and especially not the Conservative party, our usual branded parties.
There are ontological moments where the SNP create such political frustration and illusion for the people, those potent and surreal moments appear from nowhere, which are felt logically and are therefore real; these moments reveal a political party representative of Independence becoming anti-Independence. This is deeply absurd for any progressive society in representation of human life.
Also, there are further moments where this party’s own ontological crisis becomes difficult in telling the difference between the SNP and the UK Conservative Party. Of course, SNP policies are not akin to the serious evil of a UK Conservative government today, but this illogical reality nowadays of not being able to tell the difference has become a glaring blur. I don’t think we can any longer consider, or see the SNP as a party for social and economic justice.
Furthermore, it is now apparently clear, after more than a decade of government austerity, that the UK Conservative Party exploit the Scottish Independence question to keep them in power at Westminster and the SNP vice-versa at Holyrood in their now so-called quest for Scottish Independence (exploiting millions of people who live in other parts of the UK in the process). This is bad politics, bad for nature, society, our planet and therefore life itself.
In the end, we as a people rarely get close to the intrinsic power and therefore the essence of our own freedom of being and living on a planet. Our human realisation today is endlessly in a state of loss – at bay. The eternal shore, the Iapetus ocean that once separated Scotland from England 500 million years ago, can no longer be a heavenly place of bathing and swimming in celebration for the people of Scotland in our new founded society.
Instead, we just keep drowning, drowned out from within the Holyrood elite. People are tired and have had enough of parties indulging in the game of playing party politics. Human time is now a luxury beyond the value of any modern market commodity in the middle of a climate crisis today, politicians therefore should seek this realisation within themselves and serve Scotland better – but they don’t.
Holyrood is now becoming less of a powerful political institution in representing the true needs of people in Scotland today. The SNP have no vision for the country, no genuine economic plan (very little idea or will for a collective human economy). Too many people in Scotland for too long have been and still are being permanently excluded from Scotland’s economy and not genuinely a part of the ‘bigger picture.’
Perhaps, the SNP might further exploit the idea of a Universal Basic Income as a way of filling in the gaps of our present economic inequality – rather than expanding on economic equality once a UBI has been established for every citizen once independent. But more urgently now, we are all beginning to see parts of Scottish life becoming privatised, like dentistry (which is being done in a slow and deceitful manner). Or, worse in other parts of Scotland where some dental practices have no competition, are exploiting their economic position within our communities further.
This is not good at all for the people of Scotland, the SNP should be deeply ashamed for allowing this to happen. This means more debt (people being forced to accept expensive finance for the health of their teeth), whilst creating more pointless human poverty. In reality, private dental practices are offering at first – in what appears to be an affordable monthly plan – but it is nothing more than a service charge in subscription over a year (the SNP are expecting our communities to subsidise the entire service whilst protecting CEO and shareholder profits).
This is a quantifying example of how the SNP have fractured, thwarted and tarnished the quest for Independence in Scotland, the UK Conservative Party are not to blame for this one. The SNP have created a kind of political wormhole, that is depressing and at times demoralising. SNP are exploiting the genuine attitude of citizen enthusiasm and passion for Scotland, becoming too often an intensifying reality for many of us. This misery is not just about ‘voter fatigue’ because of what has felt like endless general elections in recent years. No, for that has never been our problem, rather voting and still nothing changing. What then is the real solution, regardless of the endless debate for the success of an Independent Scotland?
Critically, the other tragedy for Scotland under the SNP is that if Scotland was to become Independent tomorrow, the people of Scotland could have the same status quo fight for democratic control – as we do today at Westminster in Holyrood – just so we can have our sustainable and progressive principled policies. On, and on and on the political absurdity might continue for Scotland. A pittance in response for radical, life-changing policies. The question: ‘who is Independence for?’ is perhaps the most important question of the 21st century that the people of Scotland should now ask themselves today.
Critically, therefore we urgently need to make sure that Scotland’s social and economic direction does not become tied up in some new Scottish political elite (post-independence), who simply don’t care enough about nature, economic ethics, history, human wellbeing, our communities and humanity itself.
I don’t think Scotland will ever be Independent with the SNP, that is what I have slowly and painfully considered in conclusion. This is why I feel it is another sad day for Scotland (and our ancestors) because Independence is not just about escaping Westminster rule and often ‘brutality’, independence is about transcending all of what Scotland has lost over the centuries, before the so-called Union was formed.
But more importantly about making up for lost time, where the social and economic injustice of the past must have resolve (recompense). And finally, our present moment of living in Scotland must be allowed to catch up with itself – a place where the freedom to be human to live must be seen, heard, touched and tasted in the deepest tangible way possible. Scotland is yet to become Scotland.
And lastly, perhaps the most important: a few observations about Nicola Sturgeon during her time as First Minister of Scotland. Nicola Sturgeon lost that passionate zeal in representing working people today, not the poor but the economically forced out and oppressed – forced into low wages and poverty of mind and body.
The fight for their social and economic rights living in the world and quality of life had all been dropped at Holyrood, that is the truth of the matter. SNP have become without any official acknowledgement a centre right-wing party, they are no longer centre-left. For example, Nicola Sturgeon no longer spoke about the unsaid in opposition to Westminster (for example Scotland is today in a humanitarian crisis), political progress is nowhere to be seen. Slowly, those around her, those we did not see had taken away from Nicola that raw and organic fight, a fight that only a person who knows just how much human pain the UK Conservative Party have done over the centuries would only be prepared and willing never to let real justice go by.
I still have a deep respect and love for Nicola Sturgeon, she served the people of Scotland very well, but over time I think she became disillusioned and tamed, influenced by Scotland’s status quo, but mostly I think by neoliberalism. It is for all of these reasons that I can never vote SNP again, all of this through experience, which cannot be erased. The time has come for a new political party, a party that will go beyond the mitigation of the UK’s endless government austerity agenda, No 10’s profiteering culture, and finally, make Scotland the greatest well-being country that lived – now and only now.
Featured Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Eternal revolutionary, writer and artist Patrick Phillips was born in Truro in 1984. He lives and works in a mountain village in Scotland. He has written articles for The Stage, Elsewhere Journal, CommonSpace, Scottish Left Review, Freedom Press, Scottish Farmer and The National. In summer 2021, he published his first book of essays, Eternal Mountain: Essays from Afar. This is his third non-fiction book. He is now working on his latest project, The Modern Giant: How to Be A Giant In An Age of Neo Ontology. It will be published in 2023.
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