Sunday 18 October 2009

Give me Billy Hayes over Alex Salmond any day

Both Billy Hayes from the Communication Workers Union and Alex Salmond, First Minister of Scotland, graced both the Andrew Marr Show on BBC 1 and Sky's Sunday with Adam Boulton. Where Hayes came across as a moderate, conciliatory figure - whatever the rights and wrongs of his dispute with the Royal Mail - Salmond appeared as even more a posturing bully than ever. If I were the CWU, I would make every effort to get Hayes to put the postal workers case as much as possible. Despite the ludicrous comparisons in some newspapers, he is no Arthur Scargill.

Salmond wanted a hung parliament so he could bully a UK government into supporting his demands. But he was 'willing' to see a third option on Scottish ballot papers. If the SNP wants to ensure that there is no hung parliament then they should certainly let Salmond puts his case on TV in England as much as possible. But if he does want a referendum on Scottish independence, perhaps we could insist that Scottish voters are reminded on the ballot paper what it would mean to each one of them individually to lose the Barnett formula and to pay UK taxpayers back for the cost of bailing out the Edinburgh banking industry, notably HBOS and RBS?

2 comments:

Brian said...

Look at a picture of Mandelson Look at a picture of Adam Crozier Look at your post person tomorrow morning Now ask whose side you're on. It's easy really

Alastair Thomson said...

I think the public realises that the many and obvious flaws with the post service hardly lie with sorting and delivery staff who are far from generously paid (unlike Mr Crozier).