By Craig Mahon
Bandwagons are interesting vehicles. They have a tendency to pick up unwanted or unwilling passengers.
The “Constitutional Change” bandwagon has been rolling along for some time now, but with several empty carriages with unfilled seats. First Class has been full, with the SNP and Patrick Harvie, noses pressed to the windows, watching a changing political landscape pass by outside.
The wagon has stopped occasionally at stations but no additional passengers have hopped on.
That was until recently, when a certain David Cameron boarded in Edinburgh.
I’m not sure that he intended to get on board, or whether he mistakenly boarded the wrong wagon, but onboard he came. He’s sitting in second class, all on his lonesome.
He brought along a deck of cards to pass the journey and is currently contemplating what hand to play, somewhat lost in thought and looking a little uncomfortable as to where this particular bandwagon is heading.
You see, when you jump on a bandwagon, either intentionally or accidentally, you have a tendency to get caught up with the journey and all of a sudden you start to do strange, alien things, such as develop ideas.
Now David, with his deck of cards, is going to have to come up with a hand to play. And he will. I suspect that it will be a somewhat stronger hand than his opponents in First Class might give him credit for.
Indeed, I predict that David might not be sitting alone in second class for long. He doesn’t much like the idea of being the only Tory on the wagon and he definitely wants to move away from the cheap seats to the plush, warm surroundings in first class, from where a strong smell of coffee is wafting down the wagon’s interior.
While David is sitting watching the world pass by outside, he might want to contemplate the various juicy conversational topics being discussed in first class, and being an intellectual snob, Dave’s going to want his carriage to be buzzing with life.
He might want to consider the advantages to him and his kind that a bit of Blue Sky thinking could bring. You see back in Dave’s home turf things are not as rosy as they might appear.
With all that’s been going on in first class these last few years, Dave’s kith and kin are now starting to think about changing the way things are run in their patch and, as Dave sits shuffling his cards, I suspect that this will be on his mind.
Now that he’s aboard, Dave has an opportunity, to play a blinder … or deliver a busted flush. He’ll need some of his friends to get on board at the next station to help him with his game and some strong coffee to keep him focussed.
I wonder if anyone of a somewhat different political persuasion will get on board, or will they remain in London? Time will tell, but while they make up their minds the bandwagon keeps-a-rolling with a new, unexpected, passenger aboard.