Intimidation, violence and repression of any dissent – it sounds like some Nazi dictator. This however is the reality of the Scottish “independence” campaign. We haven’t yet got to Brown shirts roaming the street beating up anyone who disagrees with them, but as the article shows below, we are almost there. There are numerous reports of people intending to vote “no”, who are too afraid to say so in public for fear of what the yes camp will do. And there have been many accounts of violence. I cannot myself vouched for the authenticity of the story of a woman in a pub who was asked which way she would vote and when she said “No” was told “wrong answer” and punched, however the story rings true.
And yes, there is always violence – but in any other election the leaders have got together to condemn it and stopped it in the bud. But not this time. It just seems to get worse and worse and … well who knows what will happen after a “no” vote.
And you don’t just have to take my word for it. Here is a piece from the Dundee Courier, a paper which as far as I know has is not biased either way:
Anti-union campaign backers “defaced democracy” by wrecking a series of No Thanks banners in a coordinated act of vandalism, it has been claimed.
John Morgan was targeted with vitriolic jeers from passing motorists at the weekend as he photographed eight sites within a 50-mile round trip of his home in Bridge of Allan near Stirling.
The 68-year-old consultant branded it a sinister silencing of the voice of opposition.
He said: Scotland has changed and it may not fix itself for a generation.
“The sinister and sub tone fascism of the nationalist campaign has excelled itself: on a 50-mile round trip in central Scotland every single banner supporting the notion of a No vote in the referendum has been defaced or smashed.
“In that same journey not one single Yes banner had been defaced.”
Mr Morgan said the standard of debate during the referendum campaign had been dismal.
He claimed words like “traitor” and “treacherous” had become commonplace and predicted Scotland will now be a divided nation, whatever the outcome.
“Will the mindless ones who kicked nine bells out of an inanimate sign that dared express a contrary opinion be controllable if their opinion does not carry the day?”
Dundee Courier
And do I personally need to worry? Perhaps. The Nationalistic zealots have been whipped up into a fervour. If as I think looks likely, their bully boy tactics do not pay off and people say no to their kind of country, who knows what kind of retribution they will seek?
And the reason why this nasty vindictive, vitriolic atmosphere has developed lies on one person’s shoulders. That person is Alex Salmond who has consistently refused to condemn those in his own side responsible. That failure to condemn, has been taken (as it should) as an encouragement by the extremes to attack and vandalise and shout down and generally make like intolerable unless you support the Nats.
The only excuse I can possibly offer for Salmond’s appalling leadership is that because he doesn’t listen to anyone but his own supporters, he may not understand just how bad his own supporters have behaved. The result, however, is that even if people voted “yes” on Thursday the type of country he has on offer – one of hatred and vitriol where opposing views and dismissed without a hearing or shouted down – is not one most people in Scotland want.
One consequence of this intimidation is that the opinion polls will understate the “No” vote. There might by angry repercussions after a “No” vote, but people will realize that Thursday might be their last chance to voice dissent. If the Nationalists cannot accept another point of view now, when a Scottish State is established there may be outright discrimination against those who oppose the left-Nationalist consensus. When they cannot see their own faults now, what happens during a recession caused by higher taxes, higher borrowing costs and more onerous regulation than in England+? They will blame it on a Tory conspiracy and big business. This will further reduce inward investment, and will end up positively encouraging the most able to leave.
I thought the same. I bet quite a few people are thinking ‘do I really want these people in charge, with little hope of getting rid of them?’ Westminster politicians might be horrible but they’re reasonably safe to meet.
It was obvious when I was working on SCEF that the SNP just would not listen to anyone unless they already agreed with them. So, it’s all been like watching a car crash in really slow motion – knowing that they are going to crash and even if you shouted out at the top of your voice, the silly sods just will not listen.
And once they stop listening to anyone but their own supporters they pander to their extremists whilst cutting themselves off from the vast majority of decent middle of the road people who they have to convince to win.
Of course the other interpretation is that they knew their economic case sucks and were just hoping “enthusiasm” would make enough people gullible enough to vote for them.