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Wings Over Scotland


Positive-case-for-the-Union update #6

Posted on January 13, 2012 by

(See here for the whole story.)

An exciting development this time, readers. Right-wing magazine The Spectator makes no bones about its opposition to Scottish independence, and fair play to it. This week it very sportingly republished an archive of the editorial column it also ran expressing its opposition to the first Scottish devolution referendum, back in 1979.

(Alert viewers will recall that the Scottish people narrowly voted Yes in that poll, but were foiled by a rigged amendment proposed by Labour which effectively counted the dead as No votes, and thereby denied devolution for 20 years.)

There's much to enjoy and admire in the piece, such as the use of the quite splendid word "fissiparous" and the revelation that even in 1979, "Until the last moment the Labour Party in Scotland held out against the devolution proposals, and had to be cajoled and bullied into line". But the thing that really tickled us about the column was a sentence which shows how little some things change across the generations.

"We have left unargued the essential case for the Union, because we do not believe that most British people need to be persuaded of it."

Endowed with this new knowledge, we've adjusted our clock accordingly.
 

TIME ELAPSED: 31 years, 11 months
CONFIRMED SIGHTINGS OF POSITIVE CASE FOR UNION TO DATE: 0

 

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2 to “Positive-case-for-the-Union update #6”

  1. AFaulds
    Ignored
    says:

    I dearly hope this is the argument employed by all Unionists throughout the campaign. It’s not only unconvincing guff but sounds somewhat patronising.

  2. Stronger
    Ignored
    says:

    Michael Moore: 'We are much, much stronger together'
    No one listened the first time, so he's beefed it up. How many muches by next month?
    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/michael-moore-we-are-much-much-stronger-together-6289940.html



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