Saturday, August 21, 2010

They fool only themselves ... again

Let me see if I have got this right, writes G M Lindsay in a letter to The Scotsman (no link). In February 2010, the UK Carbon Trust awarded a £4m grant to Norway's Hammerfest Strom to build and test a 1MW tidal power device off Orkney.

In August 2010, Alex Salmond visits Norway and announces that Hammerfest Strom plans to "invest £4m in Scottish businesses" to build a tidal power device off Orkney and claims this is "a massive vote of confidence in the talent, expertise and infrastructure in Scotland".

"How exactly does this funding circle display a Norwegian vote of confidence?" Mr Lindsay concludes.

And the obvious – transparently obvious – answer is that it does not. Salmond who 20 years ago was quite an astute Westminster politician has now so lost it that he now believes his own propaganda, and also believes that we are stupid enough to believe it as well.

Politicians can, in fact, rely on a certain amount of inertia and a certain amount of inherent stupidity in a goodly segment of the electorate – after all, he did get voted into office. But no politician is wise assume that his electorate is uniformly stupid, or anywhere as near stupid as the politicians they vote for.

Most importantly, even if a distressing proportion of the electorate does struggle to maintain a quorum of brain cells, no one likes being taken for a fool – even (or especially) fools ... aka Salmond voters.

It may still take a little time, but eventually this man will find that he is only fooling himself. In due course, this discovery will be shared by the rest of his contemptible class. Preferably, this will not be early enough to save their bacon.

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