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Democracy and inequality from Danny McCafferty After 307 years of social, political and economic union it could fully be expected that by now we would have evolved into a prosperous, equal, just and peaceful society. We are encouraged to believe that this is the case. But is it?

Alastair Darling and Gordon Brown were in office in 2008 and presided over the worst economic disaster to hit the UK. Despite being surrounded and advised by the best economic analysts and advisors they did not see it coming. They led us blindly into recession. And the price is being paid under a Tory government rejected by Scottish voters. Darling and Brown now ask us to believe them on current and future economic prospects. They are hardly credible sources to lecture anyone. They are the architects of Foodbank Britain a “Workhouse without Walls” belonging more to the days of Oliver Twist than the 21st Century.

Instead of prosperity they gave us austerity with the clear promise of more to come if we continue to swallow their false promises. More devolution and the best of both worlds. Well I have seen their other world and I don’t like it.

Scotland has two pandas but only one Tory MP. And yet they still rule over us propped up by a Lib/ Dem Party that no one voted into power. For 34 of the 68 years since 1945, Scotland has been ruled by governments that were elected by fewer than half of Scottish constituencies. The Westminster system includes the House of Lords, whose members are not elected by, or representative of, the people. Members of the House of Lords hold significant power over the people of Scotland. A single Member of the House of Lords has more say over the welfare system in Scotland, than the whole of the Scottish Parliament. Is that democracy?

Lord John Reid challenged on television to state the positive case for continuing with the union put forward as positive reasons that it was Westminster which gave women the vote and Westminster which created the Welfare State. He failed to mention the struggles of the Womens Suffrage Movement jailed and force fed to win their rights. And, he conveniently overlooks the current systematic dismantling of the very Welfare State his party was at the forefront of creating. Keir Hardie must be birlin’ in his grave to see the current Labour Party leadership in alliance with the Tories and Lib/Dems.

Lord John quotes Robert Burns. He would do well to remember the words of the Bard “Ye see yon birkie ca’d a Lord. Wha struts an’ stares and a’ that. Tho’ hundreds worship at his word, he’s but a cuif (fool) for a’ that. “Lord John collects £300 a day for attending the Lords whilst many of his former constituents live on £71 Job Seekers Allowance. Worship at his words if you choose to do so .I won’t.

The five richest families in the UK are wealthier than the bottom 20 per cent of the entire population. That’s just five households with more money than 12.6 million people who are currently classed as living below the poverty line. Equality? The highest earners in the UK have had the biggest tax cuts of any country in the world. Whilst workers and their families have pay freezes, low pay and zero hours contracts imposed on them leading to lowering of living standards and general quality of life, the super-rich are seeing their pay and bonuses spiral up. Equality?

Austerity policies are massively increasing poverty and inequality in the UK - damage that could take two decades or more to reverse. Research by Oxfam points to 800,000 children and an extra 1.9 million adults in the UK being pushed into poverty by 2020. Equality?

As for peace, who can ever forget or forgive Tony Blair for lying to the country over weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? But an individual is not solely to blame for perpetrating that Great Lie which has led not to peace but greater instability throughout the world. The government over which he presided, the Westminster Parliament which sanctioned intervention and the media which backed the action all share in the blame. And now they tell us, they think it was actually wrong and distance themselves. The same people who tell us that we are bigger, better, stronger with shared risks. Still lying to the people out of self-interest and to retain power.

The referendum is not about SNP versus Labour. It is about what kind of country we wish to live in. It is about prosperity, equality justice, and peace as well as economics. Do we trust and respect the Westminster style of government or is it time to take a different road, taking all decision-making into our own hands? Why would we not want to?