The most ardent group of Yes voters were young, male and working class. I was one of them, although sadly, at least in terms of age, I am drifting out of that category. Many of us are lapsed Labour supporters. It has not escaped my notice that in recent weeks Scottish Labour, and in particular their leader, have been trying to woo us back by pandering to our basest instincts. The thing they have talked about most in the last few months has been football.

The strategy may have worked in the past as many of us would have not been paying attention to the actions of our politicians. Busy as we were chasing the Burds, watching the fitba and downing shots of Buckfast through our eyeballs. However the referendum has changed things. Now we are more likely to look beyond the electioneering and soundbites and investigate the record of the politicians trying to manipulate us.

So Jim, proposing that Billy McNeil and John Grieg should be knighted doesn’t mean we will forget that you didn’t turn up to the austerity vote on 13th January. Most of the other Scottish Labour MPs either voted for more austerity or also abstained. Don’t get me wrong, I love football, and have nothing against these two Greats receiving recognition. However, continued austerity will have a bigger impact on our lives than football heroes receiving a trinket from the biggest benefit scrounger of them all, a person whose sole qualification for handing out trinkets is that she happens to be the daughter of the person who handed out trinkets before her. I’m sure Cesar and The Ledge can make do with the copious number of trophies they won as players and the adulation of their respective fans. While we can look to the more important matters.

Here is a list of MP’s, and how they voted on the recent vote on increased austerity:

Also Jim, it’s great that you think we should be able to drink in stadiums while singing songs about killing each other over our cultural and religious background. I mean who doesn’t like the occasional alcohol and bigotry fuelled stramash in order to blow off a little steam? However, we are not going to forget that you lied about stopping fracking when all you actually did was add a layer of bureaucracy to the process. You abstained from the more meaningful vote on actually imposing a moratorium on fracking until the powers are devolved to the Scottish Parliament. Along with the rest of the Scottish Labour MPs. In the future, when I’m lying in bed cursing myself for the amount of beers I drank at Hampden, I would really like to be able to quench my dehydration with some unpolluted drinking water. I don’t think you creating a few extra forms for fracking companies to fill in is going to help in that respect.

Margaret Curran blatantly lied about stopping fracking and a list of MPs who failed to vote on a moratorium on it:

And it’s great to see you nip into a phone box to whip off your suit to reveal a Scotland Jersey whenever you are in the proximity of a camera phone. I have a Scotland Jersey too, I wear it at Scotland games to differentiate me from the opposition support – a tactic that will come in handy if you get back in to power and make it legal for me to once again abuse them. I am also against renewing Trident as I don’t like Weapons of Mass Destruction being positioned 20 miles from my house, effectively increasing my chances of being obliterated on the way back from Lidl. Or worse, surviving the attack and having to live my life in a post nuclear apocalypse. Now its fair to say that one of the reasons I shop in Lidl is that I like to imagine that this is what supermarkets will look like in the months following a nuclear winter. However, this is not something I want to experience for real. Most Yes voters don’t want Trident. No amount of appearing on camera draped in football regalia, looking like a skelly 5 year old on Christmas day, will detract me from the fact you love the bomb.

I am in that demographic and I really do want to wear my Scotland Jersey to meetings, get pished and hurl abuse in stadiums and see at least one of those old firm legends you mention receive some recognition. However, I will never vote for you. And not just because of some of your recent actions. But also, because to name just a few examples, you:

Now, I would suggest that if you wish to revive the Labour Party in Scotland you look to the principles of people like James Maxton. A proponent of old Labour values like social justice, collective bargaining, peaceful diplomacy and Scottish Home Rule. Instead of paying lip-service to these things while doing your utmost to subvert them. And stop banging on about football.

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