The Political Philosophy of Status Quo

 Nominations close, at 4pm on Wednesday the 30th March 2022, for persons wishing to stand as candidates in the forthcoming election for Glasgow City Council. No doubt there is a similar deadline for other councils across Scotland. The election will be held on Thursday the 5th of May 2022. That is election day. Similar local elections will be held in England and Wales, and elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly will also be held on this day. No doubt there will be similar deadlines for persons to lodge their papers and become candidates in those forthcoming elections too. This then, is the right time, to encourage persons to stand in the elections, and to offer them a platform upon which they can stand, as part of a great alliance or coalition. Standing as a candidate in local elections is done quite easily. The same usually applies to the assemblies and parliaments in different parts of the UK. This is to encourage participation in the democratic process. I intend to outline ho...

 I n the 1993 film 'The Firm', a recently graduated law student, played by Tom Cruise , is seen going for job interviews in the opening scenes of the film. When he asks one firm what their offer is, they push a sealed envelope across the table, and say that he should not need to open it. They made him an offer he could not refuse! The destiny, fate, and future, of Northern Ireland, is likewise hidden. Just like Schrodinger's cat, until the box is opened, you do not know if the cat is alive or dead. In 2014, as Scotland headed towards it's referendum on the question of independence from the United Kingdom, it dawned on me, that I had not visited all four capitals of the UK. I was familiar with Edinburgh and London, but I had never visited Belfast or Cardiff, nor anywhere else in Northern Ireland or Wales for that matter either. So it was then, that in 2014, I engaged in my Capitals Tour of sentimental sightseeing before any possible constitutional changes took place. Doi...

Earlier this year, I decided to climb Mount Everest. I set off for Nepal with a party of mountaineers. We were led by a famous sherpa guide. However, the expedition was a failure. Most of my fellow mountaineers were almost completely inexperienced mountain-climbers. The expedition was late setting off. We failed to catch up with any of the other parties. They were well up the mountain. We hoped to catch them up, and pass them, as we hiked and yomped, and took the mountain. However this did not happen. In retrospect, we were far too optimistic, foolish and naive to think we could beat the established mountain-climbing parties, insufficiently prepared for our late-season start, our sherpa guide was carrying too much baggage, and worst of all, we really did not realize how big the mountain really was. The mountain is the SNP! There is not going to be another full-frontal assault on the mountain for a few years now. This is a good thing, because it means that there is now plenty of time to...

  To start to tell the story, of the birth of the political philosophy of Status Quo, I need to go way back in time, to the year 2014. It was in this year, that a referendum was held in Scotland, on the question of Scotland becoming an independent country, or remaining as part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. As this momentous referendum approached, I decided that I would accept the result, and when the result came in, I continued to hold to that position of acceptance. Indeed, as time went by, my acceptance became firmer and stronger. The more that I thought about it, the more did I adopt the position, that a referendum decision must be accepted. If a referendum is not a device for making a decision, then it is nothing. Logically then, it also follows, that not only is a referendum a device for making a decision, but to really be a decision, that decision has to be implemented. Further, that decision, cannot be reversed, nor can a second referendum be s...