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Well we know Tories are sanguine about most things. See these two selections of synonyms from the Merriam-Webster thesaurus:
bloody-minded, homicidal, murdering, murderous, bloodthirsty;
or:
assured, clear, cocksure, confident;
You’ve only got to look at their history of foreign policy initiatives like bombing Libya or domestic ones like the Bedroom Tax. No, I’m not giving it inverted commas.
For once, we can welcome their sanguinity after a survey of Tory activists led by Professor John Denham, Director of the University of Winchester, Centre for English Identity and Politics, enabled him to feel able to say:
‘Even allowing for the self-selection of respondents to this survey, it is likely to provide a fair reflection of the broad views of Conservative activists. It is striking how few Conservative activists display a whole-hearted commitment to the Union and to the retention of Scotland within it.’
I think I knew they hated us. I couldn’t be happier. Here are the main conclusions from the survey:
- Fewer than a third of Conservative activists believe that the loss of Scotland would cause ‘serious damage’ to the rest of the UK, while over two-thirds would not want Theresa May to offer any new financial or policy powers to the Scottish government in the event of a second referendum.
- 73% of English Conservative activists believe that the devolution settlement since 1999 has been ‘harmful for England’
- Nearly a third of English activists would welcome the break-up of the Union as ‘an end to unreasonable demands on England to provide ever greater financial and political concessions to Scotland’: as many as believe the break up would do serious damage
- 16 per cent of English activists believe the break-up would have no real significance for the rest of the UK, while a further 23 per cent believe any problems could be manageable.
- When asked if the UK Government should offer the Scottish government further financial support, policy powers or involvement in foreign policy in the course of a referendum campaign, 68 per cent of English respondents would rule out any further powers; 28 per cent would support further policy devolution, and less than four per cent would support either further financial support or involvement in foreign policy.
Add the figures from points 1 and 4 and you get a figure of up to 69% who want us out, couldn’t ‘give a’ or think it’d be no hardship for them. Some Tory activists must be the MPs of the future.
Talking-up Scotland 
I can understand rich people being Tories, but working class, naw that’s nuts. Then up here we’ve got a supposed socialist party that keeps us under the the thumb of the Tories.
The Labour Party in Scotland are worse than the Tories. At least the Blue ones do what it says on the tin.
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I can’t understand anyone being a Tory unless they’re a psychopath.
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There was a really interesting documentary a while back about an American scientist (?) investigating what a psychopathic brain might look like: they took MRI scans of known psychopath criminals, and compared them with ‘normal’ people brains (I am not shy of using inverted commas 🙂 ) – and discovered he himself had the same traits as those psychopathic brains, they interviewed his family and they agreed he had traits indicating a distance of emotion (or complete lack). Fascinating! So, yes, quite likely many tories have psychopathic traits, as long as it is understood I don’t mean the torturing-cute-fluffy-kitten kind. Apparently that brain type make very good businesspeople. And financy people. Scottish tories effectively hating themselves is just a bit weird really, but, you know, it takes all sorts.
I noted some better reporting on the dire BBC reporting some people watch, that is, mostly presenting the positive first:
http://indyref2.scot/reporting-scotland-relentlessly-slanted-relentlessly-negative
Still a bit negative, and I didn’t go near watching any of the clips, but I definitely think your positivity is catching on John!
On good news, though not political or ground-breaking, I was surprised to hear radio Scotland GMS reporting on the RSNO about to leave on their tour of the US, with Nicola Benedetti (fabulous, young, beautiful, violinist, even has an MBE). But I guess the RSNO is unionist-acceptable, particularly since they added the R. I was at the concert last night ‘Benedetti plays Brahms’ and the concert hall was stowed, must have been a sell-out. Have to say I didn’t particularly like the Brahms piece, but it is always a pleasure seeing Nicola play – even if, as a woman, her perfect figure & amazing talent fills me with a tiny bit (?) of jealousy. She is half Scottish, half Italian, and thinks Scotland is the best place ever. The last piece, Tchaikovsky’s 4th symphony, was excellent, so in the end I thoroughly enjoyed the concert. The RSNO have not toured America in 35 years… Ah, even more unionist-acceptable, America. I don’t remember any reporting by the BBC of the tour in Spain. Sigh. I should not have been surprised.
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Thanks. Did see that doc. Thought he looked a bit nasty from the outset. Enough of the perfect figures! Glad you enjoyed the music though.
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I bought her “Homecoming” a couple of months ago – some superb Scottish music on it. Worth a listen if you don’t know it.
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Thanks but maybe a bit classy for a geriatric punk like me.
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