Lilo

Lilo

Sunday 21 September 2014

After the Referendum...............

............................Well, wasn't that a roller coater of 24 hours, topping off 2 years of debating, talking and working out what way to vote.

And working out WHY you wanted to vote that way.

It's now Sunday evening. Nearly 3 days since the polls closed at 10pm on Thursday evening.
My life hasn't changed THAT much in the past few days.
I still listen to Peter laughing at whatever he has on his laptop, or whatever DVD he's watching.
I'm still listening to Paul doing his music practice.
Matthew still going off to work in the morning, Lou popping in and out and the cats still need fed.

But yet.................................

I still feel as if my country is changing and i'm not sure what to make of it.

Scotland voted No to independence last Thursday.. Yes - it was a 55/45% . Enough to ensure it was an ok result, but not exactly a thumping "we want to stay in the Union" vote.
After all. 1.6 million of the registered electorate voted to GO.

That is a fair number of people in a small country.

I kind of came late to deciding what way to vote.
Some of the girls on a carers group were more active about the referendum than I was.
But about 4 or 5 months ago, I had a chat with one of the Dads at art class. I kind of wanted to see what others were thinking.
He explained Constitutional Law (well, as best you can in a short time) and I began to think "not fair" when he told me of things.
So I asked more questions of people and kind of got to the stage I knew i'd vote yes.

But it was annoying that the leaders of the 3 main Parties barely looked in our direction.

They were telling us from afar "don't leave - we love you".

Eventually, hoddit, doddit and the other one,........................... Sorry, Cameron, Clegg and Milliband got there act in gear and got on a train to Glasgow.

But just seeing them on the news made ne want to stick my foot through the tv and certainly didn't want me to vote for them.

I was at a meeting with the DFM last Tuesday, along with about 20 other carers. This was a great morning - I was so inspired by these woman, who till then, I had only met on line. (and a couple of guys as well!!)

Each one of us asked questions and we got answers.

If I hadn't already known I was voting yes, I would have decided there and then that I was.

But alas, the results were not to be.


The aftermath............................

Well, Friday night in Glasgow city centre was not a nice place to be - and I am so glad I wasn't there.
But the less said about that the better.

What IS annoying me - and many more - is the fact that Hoddit, doddit and the spare promised things for the Friday if it was a no vote. They would look after us.

But the goalposts have been moved and we still wait to see what they will offer.

I have heard that at least one ex Home Secretary has said that wanting to be independent of the UK should be banned.

(Please remind me where I live. Is it the UK in the 21st century, or Russia/Eastern Europe in the 1950's or in a part of the world where you are not even allowed to vote, never mind even think that you could get up and aske for independence????)

BUT  - what has happened is that people have come out in their thousands, millions to vote either way .

They have talked, discussed, argued, persuaded.

No longer will we be silent.

Lynne, Fiona, Jacqui and Kathy - and all the others in our carers on line group, it will be a privilege working with you in whatever way to get out message across, make people listen to what we have to say and work towards making sure that not only are our politicians held to account, but working towards another referendum, whenever that will be.

2 comments:

  1. Hopefully the legacy of the referendum will be that people will be more engaged in politics and more likely to fight for badly needed change in all areas of Scottish life xx

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  2. I certainly hope so. The social worker was in yesterday and we did talk about it. His comment was that no matter how you voted, the genie is out of the bottle and is staying out!! Watch this space!!

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