Why I feel I want to run away from politics today

Today, I think I want to run away from politics.

It's because I realise I've been duped again. The moment you let your guard down, you get swindled out of your own beliefs. And it's these times when I think I am just too naive, too decent and too trusting - and that these are bad qualities to have.

Can you imagine that? Being decent is a bad thing.

I feel I want to run from politics because I hate descending down into the murky filth that politicians and political journalists feel is par for the course. I don't believe in God but thank God for the internet and online blogs that expose these people for the shameless unethical people they are.

Wings over Scotland today shows how young SNP candidate Mhairi Black's comments got twisted to mean something else by the Scotsman and Scottish Labour. She said that if Holyrood does win support for a second referendum in 2016, then it is likely Westminster would try to stop it from taking place and the only way to prevent that is for the SNP to have some power at Westminster. But the Scotsman and Labour took only her last sentences to make it sound as if she was trying to get a second referendum by winning a seat at Westminster in this general election and are now making miles out of this deliberate misrepresentation.

Following this, another blog called A True Independent Scotland shows a clip from today's Daily Politics where Andrew Neil exposes the lie that was the Telegraph's letter from 5000 small businesses in support of the Conservatives. It turns out they got it direct from Conservative Central HQ and Andrew Neil read out various signatures that weren't linked to businesses and one business that wrote to complain their name was on the letter but they'd never signed it and wanted their name removed.

This makes me wonder just what involvement politicians have with newspaper stories. Do they work hand-in-hand together? Are certain newspapers really nothing more than party political newsletters?

I imagine this is why bloody revolutions begin. When our sources of morality turn out to be amoral, what do you do?

No wonder politicians want to keep a so-called 'free press.' They want to be able to have the papers that are on their side still have the freedom to print the lies that they hope will get them into power.

Perhaps I am way behind the curve on this. Perhaps most people like me who voted YES and then joined the SNP have already gone through this painful realisation and come out the other side. Certainly, I went through it during indyref.

But even so, my inner goodness kept me from seeing just how extensive the corruption went. And I know why. Because I feel awful today. I genuinely thought Mhairi Black had put her foot in it with her comments but I was willing to forgive her because of her young age (though, in truth, I should be asking her for forgiveness). And I also genuinely thought a lot of businesses do support the Tories.

Now I feel a complete fool.

And it hurts. Badly.

Are there any of the traditional authoritarian figures or institutions left that can still be trusted? Must I now daily submerge my head in the filth of their deceit? Is this my life from now on? Raking about in the muck of others? Shouting furiously at the TV? Ripping up newspapers in sheer disgust?

No wonder so many people don't bother even voting.

We need to change the system. The internet has revealed its filthy stench in all its glory. Once seen through, there's no going back.

We don't just need independence. We need power at Westminster to sort the system out for everyone. Once that's done, perhaps we'd all be happy with a federal Britain.

But until the politicians, the journalists, the banks, the lobbyists, the police and all the rest transform themselves into decent human beings, the best we can do is vote SNP and extract ourselves from this distressing, shameful system.

If we can't, it's either start a bloody revolution or run away from politics.

And that's why I feel I want to run away from politics today.