Supporters of Scottish independence have known for years that the civic “nationalism” espoused by the Yes movement bears no relation to the so-called “blood and soil” varieties found in many other countries. Every racist or ethnic-nationalist organisation in Britain – the BNP, the EDL/SDL, the National Front and so on – was stridently No.
The BBC lunchtime weather forecast of 15 October 1987 is now fondly looked back on as a moment of shared national doh-what-are-we-like? comedy, in the same vein as a Morecambe and Wise Christmas show or something.
Eternally angry Conservative MSP Adam Tomkins has been even shoutier than usual this week, purple-faced with rage about the fact that the SNP has decided to spend some of its own money (not taxpayer cash) asking people for their opinions.
It’s a curious argument from a member of a party that’s been rejected in successive elections in Scotland in 1964, 1966, 1970, 1974, 1974 again, 1979, 1983, 1987, 1992, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2015 and 2016, but keeps turning up and barking orders anyway. You’d think the first 50 years might qualify as a hint.
Fear and lies work. Over many decades (and really for centuries) the Unionist parties and the media have succeeded in persuading a large percentage of Scots that they’re beggars, scroungers, vagrants and “subsidy junkies” dependent on the ever-generous charity of England to keep them from starvation.
And in terms of the facts, that hasn’t always been an easy sell.
More or less since the morning of 19 September 2014, the Unionist parties in Scotland have kept up an unceasing chorus of “You lost! Accept it!” directed at the entire Yes movement, but primarily the SNP (despite the SNP having never to date disputed the result or called for a re-run of the referendum).
Readers may not be entirely astonished to discover this morning that at least as far as Scottish Labour are concerned, that principle only applies to other people.
Because we’re pretty sure there’s already a name for when political parties set out an “alternative programme of government”.
Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz gave an interesting interview to Good Morning Scotland just after 8am today, in which he expressed a number of careful, measured and qualified views on a variety of subjects including currency.
But obviously Scottish people are much too stupid to understand stuff like that, so the BBC quickly dumbed it down for them.
The problem is that there’s a difference between simplifying and falsifying.
The Scottish Mail On Sunday felt obliged this weekend to devote newsprint in what’s technically an actual newspaper to a piece of snark that might just be a new all-time low in the highly competitive barrel-scraping field of “SNP BAD”:
Half a page was given up to a bunch of sour complaints that the First Minister had built in FIVE MINUTES on her itinerary on a school visit (aimed at encouraging girls to take up traditionally male careers) for people to get selfies with her.
Dismayingly often, the thing that irritates us the most about the Unionist press lying to its readers isn’t the fact that they’re doing it, but the fact that they do it so insultingly badly. As an illustrative case in point, here’s the Sunday Times’ reliably dull-witted Scottish columnist Gillian Bowditch today:
Now, let’s be generous and ignore the honkingly stupid first paragraph, which paints a couple of exceptional bad years as a permanent status, and focus on the second one.
Hatey McHateface on Or Something: ““I was wrong” But then you’re used to that. Seriously though, Northy, even if your claim and your logic are…” Aug 3, 22:45
Carol Neill on Or Something: “@angus that’s exactly what they’re hoping for Oor Stu’s well up for them Little do they realise how many will…” Aug 3, 22:33
Hatey McHateface on Or Something: ““All the right credentials” Nah. White, white, white. “am I being just too cynical?” Naw. Not cynical enough. Peak cynicism…” Aug 3, 22:33
Alf Baird on Or Something: ““It would be good to sneer at the SNP as it couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch but there is…” Aug 3, 22:29
James Jones on Or Something: “Why on Earth would you think that when devolution hasn’t delivered “greater democratic accountability” and independence would only put greater…” Aug 3, 22:14
Northcode on Or Something: “I previously said no entrustment existed in the ring-fenced SNP money case. I was wrong… the Inner House has now…” Aug 3, 22:00
Bilbo on Or Something: “It’s hard to know what to make of it. Is the SNP going to be destroyed from without by state…” Aug 3, 21:46
Angus on Or Something: “One word of caution. Be vigilant at all times and do not go for hikes in isolated places.” Aug 3, 21:44
James on The Nobodies: “Here’s unionist Walloper #3 arrived in his clown wagon. Well, Adrian, petal; your posts certainly gie me a migraine. I…” Aug 3, 21:42
Angus on Or Something: ““Please do not make the mistake of thinking that I will eventually get bored and go away. I will not.”…” Aug 3, 21:39
Angus on Or Something: ““Doubtless we’ll receive the same reply as before, but in three different fonts, in around a month’s time, so make…” Aug 3, 21:36
Aidan on The Nobodies: “As usual James, nothing you write (or rather copy and paste) is worth reading. Just a collection of childish, unsophisticated…” Aug 3, 21:24
MaryB on Or Something: “Bilbo @ 6.57 Re Nicola Sturgeon’s latest outburst. It seems as though her handlers have now told her to throw…” Aug 3, 21:23
robertkknight on Or Something: “Let justice be done…” Aug 3, 21:16
Hatey McHateface on Or Something: ““Robin acts as if the UKG is a genuine article” It does take a “special” kind of genius to pretend…” Aug 3, 20:51
Hatey McHateface on Or Something: “Why don’t you read the article again, Dan? Maybe then you’ll be able to write a sensible post about it.…” Aug 3, 20:38
100%Yes on Or Something: “Its funny how its alright for Westminster to play dirty tricks. Robin acts as if the UKG is a genuine…” Aug 3, 20:30
Hatey McHateface on Or Something: “Odd. So when Murrell bought the Northern Lights pendant with funds he had embezzled from the SNP, he wasn’t thinking…” Aug 3, 20:05
Dan on Or Something: “Hmm, looks like some serious franchise fanny shizzle going on here… https://robinmcalpine.org/scotland-will-be-independent-but-not-through-electoral-tricks/ So forget for a moment using the ridiculously…” Aug 3, 19:42
agentx on Or Something: “She wrote: “To say I feel completely and utterly betrayed is an understatement. It isn’t just that in committing these…” Aug 3, 19:34
Frazerio on Or Something: “Reminds me very much of this: Andy Dufresne: How can you be so obtuse? Warden Samuel Norton: [his anger rising]…” Aug 3, 19:32
Hatey McHateface on Or Something: ““pay for a more professional spin-doctor” You having a laugh? It’s me paying for it all. Me, you, and every…” Aug 3, 19:01
Bilbo on Or Something: “O/T I see that Sturgeon is tearing into Swinney in a new preface to her book which I presume is…” Aug 3, 18:57
Hatey McHateface on Or Something: “Ach, Alf, if “colonialism may speak in the native tongue” then I’m going to have to be wary of those…” Aug 3, 18:56
Hatey McHateface on Or Something: “Odd. The only enthusiasm I’ve ever seen for Scottish gas chambers is BTL here *. From people who loudly like…” Aug 3, 18:42
Hatey McHateface on The Nobodies: “Look everybody! Indy support up 5% today. Just another 5% and we’re free. Wonder what’s been driving it, eh?” Aug 3, 18:32
holymacmoses on Or Something: “It will be interesting to see if they decide to up the anti and pay for a more professional spin-doctor…” Aug 3, 18:22
Alf Baird on Or Something: ““According to Fanon, the whites” Wrong again, Hatey. Fanon warned colonized peoples in Africa, Asia and Latin America that “colonialism…” Aug 3, 18:21
James on The Nobodies: “Ah yes, the intellectual giant that is the Tory cave dweller showing off the limits of his rhetorical skills there.…” Aug 3, 18:09
twathater on Or Something: “TBQH I cannot understand why our legal representatives in Scotland are not up in arms at this blatant protection of…” Aug 3, 17:59
