Tavish Scott and the bitterness of failure

One of the inescapable points within the debate on Scotland’s future is the personality of the people involved.

In a previous incarnation on the web, I ran a little project named “The White Feather Club” on Facebook. Within these pages I highlighted, in a tongue-in-cheek manner, the various high profile Scots who have, in my opinion, let Scotland down.

Having taken a bit of time out from the White Feather Club, I realised that a revisit to the various personalities is now needed, particularly as the debate intensifies. I also intend to speak from the heart. I do not belong to any political party but I do want to take advantage of new media to make a contribution, however small.

Recently I was appalled to hear the ideas of Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland and his fellow Lib Dem Liam McArthur of Orkney. Now that the initial furore has died down, it’s time, I believe, to look more closely at Tavish Scott as a person and to try to understand why he articulated such extreme ideas. Briefly the pair suggested that if the Scottish National party were to win independence in the autumn 2014 referendum the northern isles could refuse to leave the UK, or demand a much greater local take of Scottish oil revenues or even declare independence themselves.

In short, in my opinion, Tavish has shown himself to be Anti-Scottish. There is no other way to describe his words. To advocate the break up of Scotland is simply shocking in the ambition.

A close look at Tavish’s CV gives the game away;

http://tavishscott.com/bio/

I’m afraid that Tavish is simply a professional politician. He has tried to carve himself a career within the framework of the Lib Dem party and, quite simply, has been a failure. He is now marginalised and bitter. I suspect that Tavish probably blames every one else for his disintegrating career. He is little man, with little political intellect, no vision and a negativity born of ill will and malice.

The sad thing for Tavish is that he clearly fails to identify the opportunity that he is presented with to make a positive contribution to the future of the entire British Isles.

Instead, seeing his career flounder and his undoubted ambition for a peerage in the House of Lords go under the waves, he has reacted like some spoiled schoolboy who has lost his marbles in the playground.

All of which brings me to an idea that I have been toying with for some time and have found difficult to articulate. It is this;

I do not believe that Tavish and others like him actually have any sense of altruism in the sense that they have big ideas to present to people in order to change society for the better. With his shocking ideas regarding Shetland and its relationship with a Future Scotland, Tavish shows himself to be very much less than a politician. I’m not exactly sure what he actually is, but on thing I am certain, the good people of Shetland deserve better than this bitter man as their representative in Scotland’s Parliament.