By Rab Bruce’s Spider

Despite their calls for the Holyrood elections to be postponed, it seems the Unionist Parties in Scotland continue to send out electioneering leaflets. Oddly enough, from what I am told by sighted family, none of these pamphlets ever seem to contain any actual policies. All they seem to go on about is stopping the SNP and demanding that there be no IndyRef2.

So where is the positive case for the Union? Why do Unionist politicians not have any actual policies? Are they that devoid of imagination? OK, don’t answer that. But we really ought to have some sympathy for them, because the reality is that they cannot put forward any policies for the fundamental reason that Scotland does not control its own economy. With a fixed budget, any new policy needs to take money away from other policies, and they would need to explain what they would cut in order to fund their new idea. When you add in the fact that many matters are reserved to Westminster, they cannot do anything other than blame the SNP for failings. It is impossible for them to propose new policy ideas because they know such proposals would be blocked by Westminster.

So there is no positive case for the Union, and Unionist politicians know this. All they have is #SNPBad and the old, worn out Better Together slogans about deficits and shared history.

That is why they, with the willing aid of the BBC, will continue to smear the SNP in particular and Scotland in general. Everything must be painted black in order to frighten people into believing that, without the broad shoulders of the UK (remember them?), things would be even worse. Fortunately, recent polling results suggest that a majority of Scots, many of whom have become politically aware over the past decade, are not going to fall for the negativity. That won’t stop the media barrage, nor the election leaflets. But you can use the Off button on your TV or radio, and you have a recycling bin for the leaflets. Make good use of them.