Quite an amazing week.
A referendum that gripped two nations, the Scots and the English. A campaign driven by the people, constantly fuelled
by all sets of media. Stakes on both
sides of the border along with the political parties could have hardly been
greater. The most phonetic time of
politics since Edward Heath’s Conservative government joined us up with the EEC
in 1973.
After last weekend’s Yougov polls put Alex Salmond’s
Scottish National Party a couple of points ahead of the Unionists, alarm bells
rang all around Westminster. Our party
political leaders were stunned into action.
David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband who had all been so lethargic,
almost to an outsider nurturing the idea of an independent Scotland, in the
eleventh hour saw the error of their sluggish like thinking and all made
hastily engagements for early week debates in Scotland to try and halt the
Scottish uprising.
For a short time the Union was evaporating in front of our
very eyes. The most successful union in
history was coming to an end. But as the call went out, one man rose like a
giant above all others, the name of that man was Gordon Brown. For me, Gordon Brown without any doubt saved
the Union. His speeches were almost
electrifying, like a mid-19th century stalwart politician, oratory
almost equalling the great Winston Churchill, who hammered out his convictions in
a most matter of fact, heart felt, respectful, almost humble at times
manner. As the curtain was falling on a
three hundred year old union, he had the ability to make people pause and think
whilst stood on the very brink.
Friday morning when the final results were announced, 45%
of Scots wanting independence from England and 55% still wanting the Union I
reflected on just how close the whole thing had come to unravelling. The referendum has broken seams in an old coat
that has been truly well worn. Seams
that has been broken and weakened by an almost self-destruct idea of being able
to do better, when in reality, England, Scotland and Wales have always put the
Great into Great Britain.
As I sit watching over my Badgers with the full knowledge
of the senseless Badger slaughter starting up again in parts of Gloucestershire
and Somerset, I thought how nice it would be to have a heavy weight politician
of the stature of Gordon Brown speaking up on behalf of the British
Badger.
For twenty years he played second fiddle to Tony
Blair. When he eventually became Prime
Minister the party was over. Tony Blair
had slipped out of the back door and left Gordon Brown holding a cake in which
he would have to have been the Messiah to satisfy the mouths in which it was to
be fed. Our country was broken by a
false economic yearly house price rise which could never realistically cope in
paying back the debts that had accumulated on the de-regulation of the banks in
the mid-eighties under a Thatcher, Tory Government that started up all day
Sunday trading and an endless wallet of plastic cards to quench the insatiable,
ever wanting, must have more British appetite.
An economy of madness that Gordon Brown almost single-handedly carried
the can for.
The double act of Gordon Brown and Tony Blair always showed
Tony Blair in the limelight and Gordon Brown in the gloom. But if their posts could be reversed and now
you had Gordon Brown as peace envoy in the Middle East you would now have a
voice of conviction and integrity, but one can never have it all. And I for one will always be grateful for the
rousing Union speeches of Gordon Brown.
Three cheers for Gordon Brown for saving the Union.
My Badgers came up from deep in the woodland to Daddy
Cool’s favourite spot on the Northern boundary.
The Throne of Daddy Cool. How
very fitting for the most important vote in our Union’s history for over three
hundred years.
Please watch my short film of Daddy Cool in the most
beloved spot of his woodland.
Daddy Cool checking out his Throne.
