By John Mowat

Election Campaigns for many Candidates and their families can be a gruelling time. However others who have been around the block previously are much more relaxed, engage more effectively with the public and improve their performances, like a maturing malt whisky improves its taste as time passes.

Most Candidates do not get to appear on National, Scottish or on UK London Channels. They do however participate in local Hustings in halls and on local radio. Earlier we had the opportunity to watch a Party Political Broadcast by UKIP, now called Reform & led by the publicity seeking Hard Brexit , outside everything Leader.

What did we manage to learn?

We learned they had nothing at all to say or to offer the electorate. We got a few minutes of silence. This is no big surprise given that Brexit has caused the UK to be more isolated, internationally, than at any time since the end of WW2 in 1945.

Minutes of silence are associated with funerals and bereavement and the passing of something or someone important.
A resulting Cost of living Crisis, in which inflation which not long ago peaked at over 10%, a growth in poverty and use of foodbanks resulted.

Its Growth but not of the Economic kind, given that the overall Brexit hit on the UK Countries economies is estimated at – 6 %.

The Tories who led the 2016 Brexit Campaign, along with Farage and UKIP are almost as heavily implicated as the chickens come home to roost. The media and polls all predict a massive swing against the business unfriendly Tories to the extent that Labour will not need to win any seats in Scotland or Wales.

The Party Political broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland did not even mention any Tory policies or any indication as to how they may dig themselves out of their self made Brexit hole. Maybe their policies and negative achievements are best kept quiet, after all. Instead they mentioned the SNP lots of times and Independence too. However Independence is seen as providing an Exit from Brexit and a recoupling with 27 EU & 4 more EEA Markets. The Tories agreed to give this privilege to Northern Ireland, but not neighbouring Scotland.

Northern Ireland’s economy remains buoyant as it still enjoys its unhindered access to Mainstream European Markets, denied to Scotland and Wales.

What is good enough for the goose is good enough for the gander too !

The Tories see the SNP, buoyant and competent again, now led by the experienced moderate John Swinney and his business friendly deputy Kate Forbes.

Meanwhile the Labour Party offers plenty of slogans but are weak on substance in Scotland. Labour voters were 80% pro Remain back in 2016 but the present Leader Keir Starmer has been turning them into a Hard Brexit, outside everything Party too, allowing the SNP and LibDems to label them as being much the same, at least in Scotland and Wales. One reads of Red Tories replacing Blue Tories in the press.

Labour are now joining the Tories as the business unfriendly Zero Economic Growth Parties maintaining tariffs, red tape and trading hurdles with our European neighbours.

The LibDems once prided themselves in being highly pro Europe. This may be the case in Scotland, but the UK LibDem campaign has played this down. While the LibDems have the pro European SNP as their opponents in Scotland, their opponents in most of the Southern half of England are the Brexit obsessed Tories. In England the pro European credentials have to be played down. LibDem leaflets and Election Communication coming through our doors hardly mention or fail to mention Brexit.

Everybody knows that Brexit, particularly damaging Hard Brexit, is by far the most divisive issue to hit the UK Countries since the end of WW2 in 1945, all of 79 years ago.

This is the Phoney Election Campaign where many of the main Parties do not even mention the main Issue, Hard Tory Brexit and a route forward.

Labour say Change but “What Change”, if Hard Brexit, the main issue is not even mentioned. C for Conservative and C for Change , OF NAME at least but where is the meat to get a route away from the Brexit enforced Zero Growth.

That leaves the SNP the Pro European outward looking Party not only prepared to mention Brexit but to put the MAIN ISSUE right at the top of their Campaign.

“The damage of Hard Brexit has stripped millions out of the UK Economy” and continues to be felt from Caithness to Cornwall, from Shetland to Southampton, from Aberdeen to Abergele from Birsay to Belfast.

This is the Politics of highly successful Ireland, Denmark, Norway and other similar sized fully Independent Countries, allowed to take their own decisions and trade freely with all their European neighbours, without all the business and job destroying Hard Brexit Trading Hurdles.

The SNP see an Exit from Brexit as a route back to prosperity and economic growth along with the removal of the Erasmus ban which effectively prevents our students from studying overseas. Some young folks are lucky enough to have an Irish, German or French Parent or Grandparent as they can get a European Passport to broaden their horizons by studying overseas in Mainland Europe.

The Cost of Living Crisis is real but much of the blame goes to the Insular Inward Looking Brexit British (English ) Nationalism which has destroyed the UK Westminster reputation in Europe, North America and beyond. We still wait to find out what Starmer’s Labour stands for that is different from Sunak’s Tories, given their obsession with Brexit and resulting Zero Growth.

It would be nice to think that the LibDems can be a bit braver and like the SNP, Tell it as it really is in both England and Scotland.

The SNP does not have to worry about its image outside Scotland as it wants decisions affecting Scotland, taken in Scotland by our elected representatives.

For many young folk this will be exciting for them as they vote on issues concerning their futures for the first time.

The General Election takes place on 4th July. The candidates for Orkney and Shetland are as follows: