The point here is that many Scots voted for her. The Tories could count on hundreds of thousands of Scots to vote for them until the Poll Tax. Many of the changes that happened under Thatcher happened with tacit Scottish approval. The Scottish Left has been adept at turning dismay at the Poll Tax (which affected everyone, not just Scots, notwithstanding the fact Scots had it for a year longer than anyone else) into a general movement that derides anything done by Thatcher, turning it into an alien philosophy imposed from outside. And now this creed has found it’s apotheosis in Salmond, to the great dismay of Scottish Labour. It is a deception and a lie that should not be allowed to stand. Scots and Scottish voters have been fully involved in everything that has happened to their putative nation since the Union was first formed. If Scots do not like the country they are living in, it is not because this free country has been coerced into erecting an undesired system. Many Scots voted for Thatcherism, but now disavow and deny it ever happened, it was only ever an ‘English’ thing, no compassionate Scot would ever have voted for such an evil philosophy. Thus a perverse world view has been allowed to flourish, one where Scots involved themselves deeply in the processes of Thatcherism, but its consequences were nothing to do with them. This is a prerogative that can only be maintained whilst Scotland is part of the Union. Once the Union is gone, Scotland will no longer be able to indulge this particular pathology and the author does not believe they are ready for it. For what will happen when the mooted spending cuts/increases happen, as they eventually will, when only Scottish politicians reputations are at stake? When Scotland discovers that it cannot magic Utopia out of nothing, that Independent Scotland must take the track that has been laid out for them by others, not least the now discarded English, implementing policies in accordance with International markets and regulations beyond the reach of MSP’s? It will be a cold dose of reality. Shock and disappointment leads to disillusion. And when disillusionment comes, as it will once patriotic rhetoric is shown to be empty, what will Scotland fall back on? Do Scottish voters know? Perhaps, but it will not be the world Scots think it is. There will have to be compromises on issues like austerity. Perhaps outright betrayals on fundamentals such as a free NHS. And for the first time it will upright, Scottish social moralism that is completely in control. The author does not revel in this negativity. Scots may think this is unfairly biased towards a downside, that Scots will rally and pull together and bring about a great change. To which the author replies, with what? Good will? Community and Equity? Moral purpose? To which end other than the short term goal of Independence, to what degree, with what consequence for which party? No-one in Scotland knows. No-one can know because no-one in the Yes campaign takes it seriously. The future is only there for the taking. Negativity is Westminster and England, Scotland is positive! It takes the political mantra of Hope and Change to the farthest and least credible margins of fantasy land precisely because there is absolutely no certainty about any of it. So uncertainty itself must be the enemy; to say No is to admit you are uncertain, to be uncertain is to be a believer in the Tory influenced Westminster cult. Salmond is a brilliant politician, he has framed this so well that his solution to you being such a negative neo-Tory is to convince you he can free you from such energy sapping spirits, from such a delusional fundamentalism, to help you find your inner tartan heart as you were born to do and breath the air of a free Scotsman or woman once again. Brilliant and insidious, pernicious, mendacious; and many other words ending in -ous of which the most important is ridiculous.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 14:30:55 +0000
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