It is 500 miles from Westminster to Dalwhinnie and just a wee bit more to Oban. Worth the walk, if you want to live in a progressive country.
This week the Scottish Parliament has shown its mettle with two new acts. One on tenants' rights that will make life a wee bit more secure for people living in private rented housing, and the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill that will help secure tenant farmers' land, and show us who owns the big estates.
Like much in politics it is as much the signpost as the journey. The Scottish Parliament is signalling that it wants a fairer, more equal society. The bills and acts of the Parliament are important, but the attitude, the change in thinking away from 'let the rich get richer' to 'let's make Scotland a fairer place' is the piece that will stay.
These decisions are 500 miles, a million miles, from Westminster. On Tuesday Mr 'I'm-not-an-economist' Osborne passed a budget that will benefit the rich, and continue to hit the poor. This Institute of Fiscal Studies analysis shows the effects clearly, and graphically.
The road that Westminster is taking is the neoliberal one; let the rich get richer, and the money will 'trickle down.' It clearly does not. It floats up, leaving a growing wealth gap, and hundreds of thousands of families in poverty.
I would walk to Dalwhinnie to escape a Westminster like that.
Late But in Earnest, tweeting @serosedker
This week the Scottish Parliament has shown its mettle with two new acts. One on tenants' rights that will make life a wee bit more secure for people living in private rented housing, and the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill that will help secure tenant farmers' land, and show us who owns the big estates.
Like much in politics it is as much the signpost as the journey. The Scottish Parliament is signalling that it wants a fairer, more equal society. The bills and acts of the Parliament are important, but the attitude, the change in thinking away from 'let the rich get richer' to 'let's make Scotland a fairer place' is the piece that will stay.
These decisions are 500 miles, a million miles, from Westminster. On Tuesday Mr 'I'm-not-an-economist' Osborne passed a budget that will benefit the rich, and continue to hit the poor. This Institute of Fiscal Studies analysis shows the effects clearly, and graphically.
The road that Westminster is taking is the neoliberal one; let the rich get richer, and the money will 'trickle down.' It clearly does not. It floats up, leaving a growing wealth gap, and hundreds of thousands of families in poverty.
I would walk to Dalwhinnie to escape a Westminster like that.
Late But in Earnest, tweeting @serosedker
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