Booby-trapped Trans tape on Edinburgh lampposts injures council worker during removal

Living in Scotland today feels like we are in actual adversarial conflict with the establishment. Every statement or communication has to be checked for tripwires, because nothing is transparent or straightforward.

Quangos and bodies are apparently often just shadowy organisations to prop up the government. There's widespread resistance and outright hostility at the suggestion that public servants should be transparent - see the responses to the ICO. See the refusals to investigate crimes if its the wrong type of person involved. The inappropriate relationship between head of judiciary and FMs.

'Consultations' are generally hiding something - usually more cuts, dressed up somehow as benefits. Nobody in power seems to have any scruples, nobody takes responsibility, nobody has the country or the citizens' best interests at heart. Politics just seems to be a performance and a game to line the pockets of those involved, none of whom seem trustworthy or even responsible enough to do their job.

I'm being pessimistic, and perhaps this is how countries generally run and I've just not noticed it so much before, but tbh I feel so utterly defeated by it all. What happens when people lose all faith in democratic process and legislature? I doubt it's anything good.

It feels if all of the well intentioned principles the devolved government was set up with are actually proving to be inconvenient to those now running it.

Er, sorry. Monday morning rant. As you were.

You have articulated very well how so many of us feel @ArabellaScott . I can't see how it's going to end, how we can get out of this mess.

The quality of our politicians and leaders of so many public services is depressing. I understand that it can be a thankless task but to watch so many of them abandoning reason, integrity and the needs of the electorate in favour of self promotion & niche political arguments promoted by fantasists, liars and predators is not only depressing - it's dangerous.

Agreed, not good thoughts for a Monday.

Devolution is essentially a populist political play. And that means it has all the same drawbacks: population is sold a simplistic narrative that their problems are not intrinsic but because thrir interests have been subordinated to the interests of "those people over there" , so if they just get to priotise their own interests totally separate from "those people over there" everything will be solved, or at least start getting better. Whether it's bankers, billionaires, immigrants or England, the story is the same.

So when it doesn't start getting better, because at least some of the pretty big problems were not just down to being tied to "those people over there" but because there are genuine gaps between what is desired and what is possible within a wider global economy with the available resources, the temptation to attempt to prevent recognition of failure by controlling information and forming behind-the-scenes alliances to protect the people in powerful but precarious positions is almost always too strong.

They tell themselves it's because the good things will come, they just need to make sure there's enough time, and being challenged on every mistake or setback is counterproductive and not in the country's best interests.

But really it's because consciously or unconsciously, maintaining their power, status and income matters more than the best interests of the country.

This is not a description of the failure of Scotgov especially, it's a description of why populism always ends up as authoritarianism.

Honesty. Its the only way out of it, imo.

But I actually don't know that the ones running the show are capable of it anymore.

I could attribute that partly to fear, because there are some things that are very difficult to be honest about (resources, national debt, defence, risks, etc). But I think an honest assessment would also judge that most politicians are in it to get what they can out of the country, while they can. Maybe ego, but quite often, that big fat salary, and the lovely pension is more than enough.

Cross posted, Flirts. That reads as acutely perceptive and unfortunately accurate.

populism always ends up as authoritarianism

This suggests that a democracy, which does rely on power being given/won to/by the party that wins most votes, will always have that risk of populist tendencies, and so always be followed by the shadow of authoritarianism.

Not sure what on earth the alternative might be, or how one ameliorates/mitigates that.

I suppose by strengthening as much as possible the underlying principles of democratic structures - transparency probably being an absolutely crucial fundament to them all.

With you there Arabella

scottish government not fit for anything

The trouble is, littlebrown, it has been going on for so long, and the fish has rotted from the head down. Seems every level has become compromised by this same aversion to honesty and transparency.

Devolution has failed. Nothing is better, our infrastructure and outcomes are lesser in every way by every metric.

I’d say the dream didn’t die, it was drowned by a gravy train.

it’s a fucking disgrace and nobody will take responsibility for it, or, it seems, fix it. Unless aArabella gets us all to hike to Versailles?

Very good Monday morning rant @ArabellaScott and I agree, I look at Scotland now, a country I live and was born in, and I don't recognise it in the politicians who serve us. It's shady AF with no accountability. I am glad David Hamilton (the information commissioner for those who don't know who I mean) continues to be a thorn in the government's side. I worry how that will be continued when his post finishes.

I know this is off the subject of the thread, but is transport (and public transport) really not a hot topic in Scotland? I thought with the ferries needed and the large rural population that transport would be a big deal?

Yes every single public body in Scotland is rotting due to the "governance" (or lack thereof) delivered by the Scottish government. I work in one, those of us who can see the issues keep our heads down, I made the mistake a few years ago of pointing out some issues and I got sidelined quite spectacularly. Would not have bothered me if I didn't have small toddlers and a mortgage to pay, but sadly I try as much as I can to push back but I can't risk getting sidelined again. Thankfully I'm in a better team now but the issues still continue (complacency, lack of accountability etc).

It might be, but I think everyone is beaten down by hopelessness. There appears to be no way to fix any of the increasingly concerning issues piling up. Education, health, care, transport, energy, all of these things are worsening. Business is stuttering.

Tbh I still think we are in a moderately better place than much of England/Wales, due largely to our smaller pop and higher per capita spend. I don't feel the NHS up here is quite so badly fucked as it is down south.

the problem is so much energy is expended on papering over the cracks, showboating, and attempts to pretend that Scotland is simultaneously utopia while also sadly failing due to WestMONSTER's interference.

But council spending - oh my god, the pensions! - is so disproportionate. A tiny knot of people are massively overpaid, and hugely under-able, while the average person is fucked every which way to Sunday and services are being cut and cut and cut back, even when this will worsen longterm outcomes.

For a small example, maintenance of ferries has been abandoned. Not cutback, stopped altogether. Very quickly, this leads to vessels failing and services failing and then services being withdrawn altogether. Same pattern with govt buildings.

Student fucking flats are not going to save us, as the UK education bubble is about to burst rather loudly, nor is tourism, especially when the only inftrastructure spend a govt is willing to countenance is a half dozen trowels in lieu of public toilets.

(I'm not making it up. I wish I was.)

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-57594904

Actually sorry, that bbc item is not the right trowel story.

'...unfortunately the luxury of a trowel will not be available to all, Mr Dawson admitted. “We have about 100 lay-bys in our area but 90 trowels were all that were available to buy,” he said.'

https://inews.co.uk/news/scotland/public-toilets-council-trowels-lay-bys-drivers-caught-short-scottish-highlands-578148

I'm broadly a political liberal, but I don't think people should be able to publicly "joke" on social media about killing politicians, particularly female politicians, who face disproportionate levels of violent threats.

Even if there's no genuine intent to harm, normalising that kind of rhetoric can make violence seem like a legitimate response and is deterring people from participating in public life.

I don't mean locking people up, but it should be straightforwardly illegal to post these sorts of things with proportionate consequences, fines or compulsory social-media courses or anger management for example. Much like speeding.

Lawd! I'm really sorry to hear that it's ah - well I guess it's kind of environmentally friendly.

It depends. Some habitats support rare plants that only thrive in low nutrient environments. They should be providing bags and bins, like for dog waste, at the very least.

And education. It's kind of implicit in democracy that the populace has the tools to assess their electoral choices effectively, but this isn't often called out as an explicit requirement for a functional democracy.

Of course then one carries the risk that people are "educated" based on someone else's idea of what will be good for them rather than given the tools to assess what will be best for them themselves.