Tuesday 14 August 2012

The Bleeding Obvious, well its bleeding obvious ... isn't it?

the problem for most human's is it is not 'bleeding obvious'.

Because we take in so much information each day our brains have developed a very sophisticated filtering system which tends to look for things we did not know and want to know or things that interest us. The vast amount of information we absorb each day finds itself in the brian's equivalent of the big round filing basket.

A simple example of this process is when the majority of us are walking in the park or woods we enjoy the bird song where as a keen ornithologist will be able to tell you which birds are singing. We may well be impressed by our ornithologists ability and knowledge but remain in the same state of ignorance - it just does not interest us that much to make the effort to 'learn'.. So what is 'bleeding obvious' to the ornithologist is not to the rest of us.

The point I am making is in follow up to an open letter in Bella Caledonia by Kevin Williamson who makes the clear point that we must seperate the Independence Referendum from the political posturing leading up to an election in 2016. He makes a clear and important point that no matter how or why politicians try to conflate the two they are two very different processes in terms of democratic process. The referendum is about how the Scots wish to be ruled in the future the election in 2016 is the about the policies the future Scottish Government will follow in the event of a 'yes' vote. 

The importance of this to those seeking a 'Yes' vote in 2014 is to ensure that every time Westminster politicians or even Holyrood politicians conflate this point is we must state the 'bleeding obvious' they are two different democratic processes leading to two different outcomes.

This is a simple fact I ask all 'Yes' supporters have raised to a high level of awareness in their brains over the next two years of debate. This will be the difference between a successful campaign or failure.

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