Scotland the Brave If there ever was a basis for the Scottish people to have earned this title, then they have undoubtedly earned it in the last couple of years, let me explain After over 300 years as the work horse and cannon fodder of the British Empire it was hardly surprising that the British Establishment were relatively confident that they would be able to deal with the Scots common people, without much difficulty, in the Independence Referendum. After all they seemed to have all the ‘tools’ for the task in their hands. They had complete control of the media output both the press and broadcasting, and the BBC, in complete disregard for its own charter was used quite blatantly to advocate the UK establishment’s opposition to independence. They also had the compliance of nearly 100% of the paid politicians from the ‘mainstream’ political parties and they had the ‘neutral’ civil service on hand. They had kept ‘secret’ from the Scottish people any substantial facts about oil and other economic advantages Scotland had while using objective ‘experts’ to present a UK bias on almost every historical, social, economic or political issue which might figure in the run up to the referendum. The financial system, with all its real problems, they heavily camouflaged in obscure terminology and presented as a sound effective system, which although mysterious, was entirely reliable, but for UK use only. That meant, they were sure, that the ordinary Scottish person when confronted by the challenge to vote for an independent Scotland would find this a difficult decision, after all most had been led to believe that Scotland was a poor country, that it could not survive without subsidies from Westminster. In addition the long term propaganda of their imperial past had installed in people the acceptance that all authority had to come from the higher echelons to the lower and not the other way round and this made them lacking in self confidence. Who were we indeed, to think we could make decisions for ourselves? Who did we think we were? So in 2011 when the SNP, against all the predictions of the opinion polls, won an outright majority in the Scottish parliament; the UK establishment were confronted by the certainty that there would be a decision in the Scottish Parliament to hold an Independence Referendum in Scotland. They did not want this of course, but they were not unduly concerned. Alex Salmond had a dichotomy as they saw it. He could either go for a quick referendum taking advantage of his present electoral support; or he could put this off until the later part of his term of office. When the SNP Government chose the second of these, all the unionist political pundits were convinced they had made a mistake. Westminster political acumen held the view that ‘all’ Governments become less popular the longer they are in Government, so if you have a policy which requires that you have strong public support then you should do it early while you are at your most popular, because that is the best chance you’ll get. When the SNP did not do this many unionist politicians were convinced that Alex Salmond had lost his best chance to win a referendum and that he had blown it. They were content to sneer at Salmond and develop secretly their ‘project fear’ on an inter-party basis. Which they then intended to employ in the long campaign. The SNP however did not play the game according to Westminster rules. In spite of the fact that they were faced with a severe recession and a significant reduction in Scotland’s grant income, they refused to follow Westminster’s austerity programme ‘off the shelf’ as it were and started to determine their own distinct priorities for protection and to challenge Westminster on it’s different priorities. After a great deal of staged objections from the unionist parties that the Scottish Government was opposing Westminster ‘for opposition’s sake’ and not for practical reasons; it became clear that the Scottish people by and large supported the SNP Government’s approach. This of course changed the whole dynamic, because instead of the SNP Government becoming less popular every year and the opposition becoming more popular the opposite was in fact happening and the referendum was approaching. Still the Unionist UK establishment were not concerned, they still had all their big guns in place and lots of financial and ‘other’ support available to fully develop their planned ‘project fear’ which would work well they were sure on the mass of ill-informed people who would in the end determine the outcome of this referendum. They had lost much time, and a lot of respect, in the early part of the campaign when they were trying to make the SNP Government unpopular and this had now failed, but the opinion polls confirmed that they had a substantial lead and they still had all their big guns intact so they were confident. So what went wrong with the plan? Two things really destroyed their plans and have now put the Yes campaign, against all the odds, in a clear road to victory. Both of these came from the commitment and the courage of the ordinary Scottish people, not the political professionals but voluntary support and actions by ordinary Scots who have decided to invite themselves into this battle in large numbers and; secondly the involvement and engagement of the ordinary voters, many voting for the first time, who have got into this campaign and who will shake the opinion poll predictions to their very foundations. Future generations of our children will have these people to thank for changing a very difficult struggle into one which can now be achieved, against the most staggering odds. Without the active involvement and participation of thousands of young workers, students, artists, musicians, writers, professionals you name it, who have got involved and who have challenged the ‘official’ media and torn apart the lies and misrepresentations ‘project fear’ and its workforce in the media and civil service and professional politicians would have had free reign to mislead and distort the issues to favour the union. This work has been vital and has changed completely the battleground. It is not ordinary Scots voters who are confused and lost in a fog unable to see their objective, ordinary people are seeing the vision clearly and the battle-lines. The confusing now lies in the leadership of the establishment camp who look like they are in danger of firing on their own lines. These people have changed our stale ‘representative’ democracy to real ‘participative’ democracy, and this has given confidence and courage to thousands of voters to take this struggle forward and finish the job. The hope of many of us must be that after a yes victory in a few days time this commitment and participation in the democratic process will not fade away on the basis that the job is done. The price of democracy, it is said, is constant vigilance, so let us keep our participative democracy to help build the new and better Scotland which we are voting for. Andy Anderson Labour for Independence
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 10:17:06 +0000
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