Thursday 11 September 2014

Scots Missed?

A front-page headline in the Metro this week declared:
“A royal baby to the rescue"
And the tagline asked:
"Duchess is expecting…and could that swing Scottish independence vote?”

Whoever wrote that should have their hands chopped off.

If anybody read it and took it seriously, they should be educated to within an inch of their lives, as a matter of some urgency.

The dismal journalistic standards of Metro notwithstanding, it's been interesting to observe the debate about Scottish independence from Down South, particularly coming from a Scottish family.

The classic paternalism of the dominant party tastes like old chewing gum, stale and unpleasantly familiar. Equally, the folksy nationalism of the “greatest wee country in the world” seems quaint to the English ear.

Living in England, it's easy to side with the Yes campaign, because it sounds hopeful positive and progressive, and it seems we know little about it (and it's got support like this).  The No campaign, on the other hand, is fronted by Alistair Darling.  And supported by the people who brought us old-fashioned austerity combined with new-fashioned surveillance.

Aye, have a dream: and those arseholes won't be in it.

The spectacle of Westminster politicians threatening, bargaining and pleading Scots to vote No is desperate, disgusting and wholly unedifying. Cameron, Milliband and the other one all head to Scotland today (if they can find it) as they remember that a) Scotland exists, b) it suddenly matters and c) if it goes independent, they’ll need to dump nuclear waste and deeply unpopular nuclear bases elsewhere, a costly and most inconvenient turn of events.
It also seems a bit embarrassing, the public figures who have now come out to publicly declare their love for the UK, and their implied liking for Scotland.  How exactly they've been loving the union previously is to remain a mystery.

The whole debate seems like an unprecedented experiment in participatory democracy, which is great news for the parliamentarians, who love democracy wholeheartedly....when the vote goes their way. When voters don't return the approved answer, democracy suddenly becomes less attractive (for example when Palestinians voted in 2006 and the powerful didn't like the result so they starved the naughty electorate for nearly ten years and bombed them periodically to teach them a lesson).

How will the Westminster democracy fans react if Scots decide, with a huge turnout after an open,lively debate, that 300 years of "partnership" is plenty....?

The No campaign keep saying that the nationalists have no plan, inviting a question they cannot answer: what’s yours? The No’s also wonder aloud what the future will bring, as if they’ve got any fucking clue. At a time when one of the richest countries in the world is unable and/or unwilling to feed its citizens, maybe the onus is on those who favour the status quo to explain what would be so good about that….
Just in case it doesn’t go without saying, I’d relish the opportunity to kick Cameron, Milliband and the other one into touch, with or without a historical imbalance to redress.

“I’ve been dreaming of a time when the English
Are sick to death of Labour and Tories…”
Well, quite.

"Burn all the flags, hang up your brightest colours...."
Well, yes.
And yet...

And yet.
And yet, a small country with a population tired of being dominated by a powerful neighbour, with a population considerably more civilised than the interests that currently run it, might just have a chance at some genuine democracy, some fairness, some relief from the swill of "politics" that comes from the south.....

And yet.....what are the rest of us supposed to do if they bugger off and leave us with all this shit?

A famous nationalist who beat the British empire (so the story goes) once said:
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
The Scottish nationalists are hoping they can prove Gandhi right.

My only stake in this is a wish to not tell anyone what to do: Dae whit yeez wa'ant.
All The Best to my Scottish family and friends, whatever happens in the vote and beyond, we’ll still be that, whether or not I need a passport to come and visit.

Clayton Blizzard

No comments:

Post a Comment