David Cameron has been criticised by the SNP for delivering a major speech on Scottish independence in London, rather than Scotland.
As the prime minister prepares to deliver a high profile speech at the Olympic Park in London pleading with Scotland to stay in the United Kingdom, he has faced stinging criticism from the SNP for failing to make the case in Scotland itself.
Declaring it to be a “cowardly speech”, deputy first minister Nicola Sturgeon has commented:
“This is a cowardly speech from a prime minister who uses the Olympic Park in London to give high-handed lectures against Scotland’s independence but hasn’t got the guts to come to Scotland or anywhere else to make his case in a head-to-head debate.
“David Cameron, as the Tory prime minister, is the very embodiment of the democratic case for a Yes vote for an independent Scotland – and he knows it.”
She continued:
“Using the Olympic stadium on the day the Winter Olympics begin and seeking to invoke the successes of London 2012 as an argument against Scotland taking its future into its own hands, it betrays the extent of the jitters now running through the No campaign.
“They see the polls closing and they are clearly rattled – but to politicise any sporting occasion is shameful.”
Putting aside the SNP’s refusal to respond to the substance of the speech, Sturgeon’s word’s would probably have more weight if it wasn’t for the fact that the first minister will next month deliver a speech on independence in London himself.
Commenting ahead of the lecture to be delivered on the 4 March and hosted by the New Statesman, Alex Salmond has said:
“Scotland’s referendum is a unique and historic opportunity to deliver a fairer, more socially just and more prosperous society.
“I am looking forward to using this New Statesman lecture to outline how an independent Scotland will be both a progressive beacon and a powerful economic counterweight to the pull of London, which can help rebalance the social and economic structure across these islands which has seen the UK become one of the most unequal societies in the developed world.”
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14 Responses to “SNP attack Cameron London speech as ‘cowardly’”
dougthedug
Poor Left Foot Forward.
Not sure to attack Cameron because he’s a Tory or to defend him because he’s a fellow British nationalist..
David Lindsay
In opposing Scottish separatism, the Prime Minister talks of “something precious”. He is correct.
The Welfare State, workers’ rights, full employment, a strong Parliament, trade unions, co-operatives, credit unions, mutual guarantee societies, mutual building societies, and nationalised industries.
Those last, often with the word “British” in their names, were historically successful in creating communities of interest among the several parts of the United Kingdom, thus safeguarding and strengthening the Union.
Thepublic stakes in the Bank of Scotland and the Royal Bank of Scotland are such permanent, non-negotiable safeguards of the Union. Any profits from those stakes ought therefore to be divided equally among all households in the United Kingdom.
This is the remedy against the Balkanisation of Britain by means of devolution and the separatism that it was designed to appease, and against their weakening of trade union
negotiating power.
This is the remedy against their ruinous effects on the Scottish Highlands, Islands and Borders; on North, Mid and West Wales; and on the North and West of England; all of which accurately predicted by Labour MPs and activists from the 1970s onwards.
This is the remedy against the Welsh-speaking oligarchy based in English-speaking areas, which uses devolution to dominate Welsh affairs against the interests of Welsh workers South and North, industrial and agricultural, English-speaking and Welsh-speaking.
And this is the remedy against the fears that are rightly expressed by English, Scottish and Welsh ethnic minorities and Catholics that we no more want to go down the road of who is or is not “really” English, Scottish or Welsh than Ulster Protestants want to go down the road of who is or is not “really” Irish.
David MacGille-Mhuire
Endemic cognitive dissonance again from the purportedly British Left – whatever these two things as a collocation pretend to mean. Fossilized since the publication of the “British Road to Socialism” in a lackey capitalist and imperialist mindset – Nairn and Hechter’s analyses having wilfully been allowed to pass them by in a hubris of metropolitan indifference (London-centric and de facto Venetian or Singapore-style city state, in this case).
A hollow, putrefying, navel-gazing apologia for genuine progressive, never mind revolutionary, solidarity with authentic social forces from the bottom of the pile up: Initially treacherous towards Ireland, for example, but jumping on the bandwagon when the writing was on the wall. Silent in the face of British atrocities around the world – lickspittle to the hegemonic, parasitic elites. Always temporising until forced to opportunistically batten onto genuine movements for social change.
Well, the game is kaput now for you as far as Scotland is concerned. Genuine forces of progressive social change which give hope to the rest of humanity have been at work since times well before John MacLean and many others on the liberationary side of the struggle for human emancipation concretely done and not consigned to some theoretical future as a Fabianesque delaying tactic.
uglyfatbloke
How about attacking Cameron ‘cos he’s an arse? All the same, the gnats are right on the principle here. If Cameron wants to use government resources to produce campaign material – and if he is so ‘passionate’ about the union – he should be ready and willing to have a proper public debate. He’s the PM for god’s sake. More to the point, how much would we enjoy seeing him getting smacked around a TV studio by Salmond?
Charles Addison
Except David, Mr Cameron doesn’t believe in any of the things on your list!