Politics Round-up: A no, payment cards & MPs behaving sadly

I left you last month with a feeling that Scotland was going to vote Yes. This was purely based on the fact that in my little corner of the blogging world YES was the resounding theme. As you will all know, the answer given by Scotland to the question of independence was NO. I was surprised, but as an English person a little bit relieved, selfishly I wanted them to stay, but as I wrote in my blog post on the topic, I hope it can be a positive no, one where we can harness the passion of the yes voters, join our own pleas to it and work together to achieve a society that works better for all of us.

Others also reflected on the No vote. Mummy Central looked at what she learned from the independence referendum. The Knott Bump And Us was inspired by the turnout and hopes that we can all benefit from this remarkable show of democracy, hoping we can harness that energy to change the way we are governed for the better, for all of us.

Away from Scotland it has been the conference season, and not everyone has been thrilled with the promises being made by some of the parties. The idea put forward by the Conservative Party conference that benefits be paid via smart cards that only enable the purchase of certain goods from certain shops was one that I saw much concern over on social media. They Grow So Quick has plenty of questions as to how the scheme would work – would people have access to the best bargains at market stall grocers? Who gets to decide what is deemed a suitable purchase? Is the scheme likely to just line the pockets of big companies? And more in her post here. Mum Vs Austerity has taken to singing the blues in her poem We’ve Got The IDS Blues. Mummy From The Heart looks at the wider issue of food poverty, at home and abroad.

Another big topic of conversation over Tory conference weekend was, well how shall I put it nicely, the online sharing of a members member?! I think most people think Brooks Newmark has been a very silly boy, but equally we are questioning the entrapment techniques used by a newspaper to get their story. Tattooed Mummy thinks he was sleazy, the newspaper worse but that bottom line MPs need to be more internet savvy, pointing out that such stupidity could lead to far more serious security issues than a penis pic. Mummy Barrow questions whether he should have resigned, feeling that it doesn’t mean he can’t do his job and that really the only people it need concern is his immediate family. She also dislikes the methods employed by the newspaper, and the timing of the story – feeling that the time would have been better spent asking the real political questions.

Onto Women’s issues and Mums The Word wrote a thought provoking post on why she won’t be raising her daughters as feminists, feeling that while she is still all for female empowerment and equality for both sexes, the public face of feminism has taken some turns that are making her steer away from that label. Keynko ponders the recent on air debates over housework, or ‘chore wars’ as they were dubbed, she wonders why we are focussing on something like housework over the bigger battles like getting women involved in politics, improving maternity care and dealing with the over sexualisation of women.

That’s me done for this month, if you write something political, do tweet me the links @sonyacisco for consideration for next month’s round-up.

About Sonya Cisco

Sonya Cisco is a 42 year old mum of three from Dorset. She spent 15 years playing in bands at various festivals and insalubrious locations throughout Britain and Europe. These days she is more of a home bod hence the title of her blog 'The Ramblings of a Formerly Rock'n'Roll Mum' , but she can still be persuaded to strap that bass guitar back on for special occasions. Has an opinion on everything, but always open to discussion. Likes biscuits a little bit too much.

Michelle twin mum

Monday 13th of October 2014

Thanks Sonya, off to read a couple of the other post knows, Mary raises a very good point at the end!

David

Thursday 9th of October 2014

What we witnessed in Scotland was not democracy at work but the attempt to take over a country by perverting democracy. A classic Fascist junta was involved which included many wealthy and foreign business men who saw a chance to buy a country on the cheap. If the citizens of Glasgow had had their way and obtained what they called freedom, they would have woken up a year from now with even less jobs and benefits than they enjoy now. The minimum wage would have been abolished as the new wealthy foreign owners of Scotland began to siphon off the oil revenue which they had paid the SNP to win for them. They would have turned Scotland into a tax haven for the Caribbean tax exiles and Glasgow would have become a theme park for gamblers.The indigenous Glaswegians would have had no entry except as cleaners and toilet attendants; menial jobs for which they would have been paid a pittance. This was not democracy on the march, this was hubris and hysteria which had been deliberately fostered by Salmond and his cronies backed by huge sums of money from their backers and the Lemmings of Scots democracy would have run off of a cliff to be dashed on the rocks of totalitarian rule.

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