This one is for liberals and lefties in England who would screw-over Scotland to get one over brexiteers. You are supporting the very nationalism you claim to despise.
I still think the nats saying "oh no, we're not getting smaller, we're going to join the EU and be an international outward looking country" is the same as the Brexiteers saying "no we're not being isolationist, we're going out into the world to be a great trading nation and do deals with the US and China."
I also wondered if you were going to do a post on the 'Scottification' of the country eg. excessive use of flags, Saltire symbols- 'Braveheart'- style culture and so on? I work in Scottish heritage and I'm sure I notice a creep towards much more of that stuff.
The only honest SNP and Indy Nationalists during Brexit are the third of SNP voters and likes of Jim Sillars and Alex Neil who voted on their own ideological grounds for Leave.
I just cannot fathom how any of rest can be against the UK and pro EU. It truly is an idiotic and ideological argument.
60% of our trade is with the rUK along with family, friends and opportunities but they want borders!
Whilst 15% of trade is with the EU and the case majority of Indy masses know nothing of Europe beyond the holiday booze up locations.
And it just proves that the brass necked SNP will use any grievance for their cause.
It is mind-blowing how they get off with this blatant propaganda and hypocrisy.
If they truly cared for Scotland they would not be trying to inflict the greatest act of self harm since Darien.
While I agree with elements of your analysis, the situation is certainly not helped by the fact that the argument for Brexit misrepresented at every level the actual ‘political’ operation of the EU so as to present it as an oppressive and dictatorial body forcing its will on the UK. You led the campaign to keep Scotland “in” the UK, on the grounds that as long as the UK remained in the EU, its voice and rights were being heard, a myth that unraveled in 2016. Where in the EU every nation has an equal voice, in Westminster that is (and under the present regime fully exposed) a blatant falsehood. Due to the Rotten Borough electoral system pertaining in the English part of the UK, “England” dominates Westminster, and to try to pretend otherwise is to ignore the imbalances. Scotland has long complained about this, and it is simply never going to be addressed. It is a major reason Mrs Thatcher refused any suggestion of any sort of federal arrangement, since it would, at a stroke, render England no more than something like a “Primus inter pares” and give Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland much more control than suits any English dominated government.
I have no skin in this fight, I’m English/Irish, though if you trace my genetic make-up, I’m “European” with a little of every nation in my genes. The politics of nationalism is always divisive, but never more so when one Nation is allowed to completely dominate all its supposed partners, and that is what has happened in the UK in the last 10 or so years. Whatever Scotland decides, I will support it, but it has to be decided in Scotland, not in Westminster.
This is really good - it says exactly the kind of things I've wanted to say to English liberal/left friends since 2014, but haven't been able to find the words. They genuinely don't seem to realise how unpleasant the political environment has become in Scotland - or that Scexit advocates use the expression 'Project Fear' in exactly the same way as Brexit advocates.
I still think the nats saying "oh no, we're not getting smaller, we're going to join the EU and be an international outward looking country" is the same as the Brexiteers saying "no we're not being isolationist, we're going out into the world to be a great trading nation and do deals with the US and China."
I also wondered if you were going to do a post on the 'Scottification' of the country eg. excessive use of flags, Saltire symbols- 'Braveheart'- style culture and so on? I work in Scottish heritage and I'm sure I notice a creep towards much more of that stuff.
The only honest SNP and Indy Nationalists during Brexit are the third of SNP voters and likes of Jim Sillars and Alex Neil who voted on their own ideological grounds for Leave.
I just cannot fathom how any of rest can be against the UK and pro EU. It truly is an idiotic and ideological argument.
60% of our trade is with the rUK along with family, friends and opportunities but they want borders!
Whilst 15% of trade is with the EU and the case majority of Indy masses know nothing of Europe beyond the holiday booze up locations.
And it just proves that the brass necked SNP will use any grievance for their cause.
It is mind-blowing how they get off with this blatant propaganda and hypocrisy.
If they truly cared for Scotland they would not be trying to inflict the greatest act of self harm since Darien.
While I agree with elements of your analysis, the situation is certainly not helped by the fact that the argument for Brexit misrepresented at every level the actual ‘political’ operation of the EU so as to present it as an oppressive and dictatorial body forcing its will on the UK. You led the campaign to keep Scotland “in” the UK, on the grounds that as long as the UK remained in the EU, its voice and rights were being heard, a myth that unraveled in 2016. Where in the EU every nation has an equal voice, in Westminster that is (and under the present regime fully exposed) a blatant falsehood. Due to the Rotten Borough electoral system pertaining in the English part of the UK, “England” dominates Westminster, and to try to pretend otherwise is to ignore the imbalances. Scotland has long complained about this, and it is simply never going to be addressed. It is a major reason Mrs Thatcher refused any suggestion of any sort of federal arrangement, since it would, at a stroke, render England no more than something like a “Primus inter pares” and give Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland much more control than suits any English dominated government.
I have no skin in this fight, I’m English/Irish, though if you trace my genetic make-up, I’m “European” with a little of every nation in my genes. The politics of nationalism is always divisive, but never more so when one Nation is allowed to completely dominate all its supposed partners, and that is what has happened in the UK in the last 10 or so years. Whatever Scotland decides, I will support it, but it has to be decided in Scotland, not in Westminster.
This is really good - it says exactly the kind of things I've wanted to say to English liberal/left friends since 2014, but haven't been able to find the words. They genuinely don't seem to realise how unpleasant the political environment has become in Scotland - or that Scexit advocates use the expression 'Project Fear' in exactly the same way as Brexit advocates.