An important feature of the SNP's huge losses at the recent General Election was that they were not all in one direction.
By electing Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat alternatives, generally in line with historic local political cultures, those constituencies expressed their desire for Scotland to be treated as the diverse place that it is, and for the full range of political issues to be discussed.
I hesitate to mention this next point, but old ties to Sinn Féin, which are a source of indifference in most places and which are not demonstrably the cause of enough hostility to lose or to fail to gain any specific parliamentary seat, are a positive vote-winner in parts of the West of Scotland, and quite possibly also elsewhere.
Speaking of Sinn Féin, however, a principled abstentionist stance would not involve claiming parliamentary salaries, using parliamentary facilities, or employing parliamentary staff in and from an office in the Palace of Westminster.
Not only is that party now depriving the floor of the House of Commons of an Irish Nationalist voice for the first time in 200 years, but it is as much an enabler of Theresa May as the DUP is, and it is being thoroughly ungrateful to Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell.
The solution? Most obviously, Vote SDLP.
That would expressed the desire for Northern Ireland, and specifically for Nationalist Northern Ireland, to be treated as the diverse place that it is, and for the full range of political issues to be discussed.
Speaking of Sinn Féin, however, a principled abstentionist stance would not involve claiming parliamentary salaries, using parliamentary facilities, or employing parliamentary staff in and from an office in the Palace of Westminster.
Not only is that party now depriving the floor of the House of Commons of an Irish Nationalist voice for the first time in 200 years, but it is as much an enabler of Theresa May as the DUP is, and it is being thoroughly ungrateful to Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell.
The solution? Most obviously, Vote SDLP.
That would expressed the desire for Northern Ireland, and specifically for Nationalist Northern Ireland, to be treated as the diverse place that it is, and for the full range of political issues to be discussed.
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