The Recurring Theme.
For the last few years the purpose of the union has been the focus of the mainstream political debate more than at any other time and what was far more amazing than the floundering lack of a clear positive case for the union was not the feeble explanations as to what it's goals and Ideals were but why it had continued for as long as it did.
It was the same theme time and again, put simply it's that there are other people in the world who are different from us and we should band together lest they get us with their "Otherness".
During the early days of the union there was Spain and France to contend with, Then the empire had restless natives threatening to "overthrow us and cast down civilization", we must never forget the Germans and those Arab types were never trustworthy so stay with us so we may fight them and any others like them.
Reading dime a dozen articles about the Union this was the common ideology for why the union existed.
Scottish independence was about what we were capable of as a people but what the British state and it's citizens were capable of was pushed aside for an argument of fear and hatred that so exemplified the better together campaign and their media outlets that I honestly never thought of the majority of No voters as belonging to the likes of Blair McDougall who exalted in his tactics of "Project Fear" to make his case for the union.
It was not really surprising, Even in platforms that hold to a veneer of respectability fell into this pattern, such as the Financial Times;
Former common rallying points have disappeared. Peace and European integration have deprived the UK of a frightening “other” to unite the public in the way that 19th century France or 20th century Germany could. The end of empire has killed the imperial vision of wealth, power and employment.
Not all articles were quite as blatant as this, often it was subtly inserted into articles that without Scotland the UK's political, economic and military might would be diminished leaving us vulnerable to the "Forces of darkness!" that so wish to destroy our truly British way of life, sometimes this rhetoric slipped as above but the same underlying tones were always there but how can we be surprised at this, after all, is this not simply the same political manoeuvring that surrounds the hysteria around Immigrants in this country?
False Britishness.
One of the major selling points the official No side ran on was to be united against those that were different, Demonizing any one who questioned their position as a power mad tyrant, crazed loons looking only to start trouble or literally Hitler because those on the opposite side of the debate had become the other to them, something different, something not entirely like them in every way and what could be more evil than that.
After all, if Scotland became independent then the Scots would become the most detestable of all things to the false brits, Foreigners.
If Independence Happens, my grandchildren will become outsiders and friends ovr decades will become foreigners. To me and many with cross- border connections that is unthinkable.
To my Scottish granddaughter: `It's time to chose whether to stay with your family, or be a foreigner'
It's an appalling opinion that has been treated as if this is what it means to be British, though it was always there it has been magnified by the realisation that the established authorities power base is threatened and just like with Immigrants the only reaction many could manage was blind irrational hatred and rage that they had to justify their power and identity to the people they represented and those they should call family.
We must ask though, if a passport changing means you can no longer call your family your own if you ever truly loved them, as it is the person that you should value not a box that gets checked in legal paperwork
We must ask though, if a passport changing means you can no longer call your family your own if you ever truly loved them, as it is the person that you should value not a box that gets checked in legal paperwork
It's a queer belief as Britain by definition contains four distinct countries, that even have differing cultural traditions each within themselves.
The other and it's related Ideology should be a political and cultural death sentence (metaphorically speaking) to any who try to use this brand of fear to advance their views but like all extreme points of view it holds a crazed logic of its own and only has to tap into enough people's fears to gain an advantage not build a majority on it's own or or reach out to those that would decide based on informed decisions and moral values.
The other and it's related Ideology should be a political and cultural death sentence (metaphorically speaking) to any who try to use this brand of fear to advance their views but like all extreme points of view it holds a crazed logic of its own and only has to tap into enough people's fears to gain an advantage not build a majority on it's own or or reach out to those that would decide based on informed decisions and moral values.
Yet this philosophy of fearing that which is different is ultimately flawed to win the loyalty of Scotland and to placate the English, we have seen the rising anti Scottish sentiment, the drive to force Scottish mp's from Westminster and the battle to restrict the advancement of meaningful devolution to Holyrood.
How can this false sense of Britishness be resolved then that demands reactionary panic to "otherness", when Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England are different counties, for a long time the belief that the Scottish are inferior to the English because they are Scottish has been inflamed by the idea that they are foreign and a biased Press and media's monstering of that group with little representation.
It has been an underlying currant to a section of the UK's populace but now the ties that were once forged in days past that did meaningfully tie us together have withered away and Westminster may have delivered the death blow.
It has been an underlying currant to a section of the UK's populace but now the ties that were once forged in days past that did meaningfully tie us together have withered away and Westminster may have delivered the death blow.
Amid Ukips rise, greater Euroscepticism and anti Foreigner sentiment the unspoken realisation that Scotland is a foreign country hangs over our heads, threatening the most awful reckoning.
That in order to be truly free of these "Others" a number of things must go.
The great Madness
It would be easy to dismiss if it wasn't for Ian Duncan Smith's cheque book euthanasia, David Cameron's sneering contempt for due legal process, accountability or any number of blatantly corrupt actions from the conservatives and amidst it all the is the same undercurrent that is at best simply racist, sexist or just generally corrupt.
The Scottish are often depicted as being fiery-tempered, alcoholic, militaristic and miserly, we all play bagpipes and are dressed in kilts, primitive and ungrateful we argue with our betters out of spite incapable of understanding our place in "Their" society.
It can be found throughout many of the major news outlets, in July 2006, MacKenzie wrote a column for the Sun newspaper referring to Scots as Tartan Tosspots, rejoicing in the fact that Scotland has a lower life expectancy than the rest of the United Kingdom, a view repeated by Kate Hopkins and by more, often this is blamed on ourselves, proof of our inferior nature.
We can't be allowed our own country, we would be destroyed by self determination, they say we are Subsidy Junkies as if we couldn't or don't raise enough taxes to support our country, we can't be trusted with greater devolution or we'll ban abortions and become Hitler, Stalin, kim jong Il and date rapists.
These views have been repeated again and again as to why Britain must survive.
It's nothing new, these views didn't come from nowhere but have been around for a long time.
On my best day, I cannot do Scottish people. I don't even believe that's a real accent, to be honest with you. I think they probably sound like us when they're in the house. It's how they keep people away from them. - Russell Peters
The BBC also made an article on the same subject under the title "Have you experienced Racism for Being a Scot?" as if the very idea was preposterous.
It's not like Scots are attacked for being Scottish, except when they are beaten for having an accent, Or if they have anything else that shows them to be Scottish, or attacked because "Kill The Jocks" or just because their better than the jocks.
"The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees, is the high road that leads to England." - Samuel Johnson
Nor is it that those who claim to work in our best interests or claim to represent us in the press work to undermine our efforts or flatly state they resent our attempts to do so ourselves.
One of the very, very exciting things I have found here in L.A. is that no one talks to you about being Scottish. Whereas, if you are in London and you are trying to put films together and be a film-maker, there is a kind of unspoken sense that, if you are Scottish, you have something to overcome or else you cannot really do that project. - Peter Capaldi
I often have scripts sent to me with allegedly Scottish characters where I end up telling them, 'You're going to have to rethink this whole thing!' - Robert Carlyle
Amidst all this hate there are so many Unionist, irrelevant of country, that just can't fathom why we aren't United as one people, why we would do everything within our abilities to create a new country, even with all the benefits but the risks that could happen too, over putting these same efforts into building a better union.
Louder and Louder
Keep this mind, this is the atmosphere that has been present in the UK for a long time and has only been magnified by the referendum, there's actually a poem that best explains the problem.
While Boris Johnson was shadow minister of culture he was also working as editor at the spectator he published this Poem by James Michie who he described as a "Gentle Genius".
Friendly Fire
by James Michie
The Scotch - what a verminous race!
Canny, pushy, chippy, they're all over the place.
Battening off us with false bonhomie;
Polluting our stock, undermining our economy.
Down with sandy hair and knobbly knees!
Suppress the tartan dwarves and the Wee Frees!
Ban the kilt, the skean-dhu and the sporran
As provocatively, offensively foreign!
It's time Hadrian's Wall was refortified
To pen them in a ghetto on the other side.
I would go further. The nation
Deserves not merely isolation
But comprehensive extermination.
We must not flinch from a solution.
Satire.
You can do allot with it, expose the irrationality of others, It can challenge ideas and force others to confront and reflect on themselves yet there is also an issue where when you create a thing but instead of simply making fun of an idea, it is simply another example of that idea having not actually criticised it's subject.
Because in all seriousness, What's the difference between this and the unfettered hatred that's been directed against the pro independence side and Scots in general over the last few years?
When you exceed your own parody, It's time to ask hard questions about what's happening because honestly I read that poem and I know what it's supposed to be but I look at it and see so much of what has been said about us and it is the best mirror of this climates undertones.
The biggest problem with this tactic of pandering to the crowd that hold these beliefs of course is simple and readily apparent to all, It's really not the majority opinion, Just the loudest one that quickly gets attention.
It'd be easy to dismiss the no side and Unionists in general as bigots or irrational as the image on top does but such claims are nonsense, consider the Highest group of No voters, the 65+ age bracket.
These people were around when the UK was really pulling together, the struggle and victory over the Nazi's had created a strong bond between the differing countries it is true but what made it more binding was following it up with massive reform to help those in need, creating the NHS and the Welfare state, these were noble goals and if Better Together had managed to reclaim this philosophy they wouldn't have needed project fear.
Pulling together only works when two parties are willing to do so yet It is the Westminster establishment that have left the country to itself focusing on the betterment of London and only the few surrounding areas as an after thought, the answer to the question what could unite the British people together is not fear and hatred of an external enemy, it is simply US, we could do it.
We don't need a bogey man, there are many problems in our country and we could come together to fight against poverty, illness, Ignorance and crime because these are the enemy we all have in common and it is just to fight against them.
The bonds this could create would be far greater than a tangible enemy, perhaps we could never stamp them out completely but we would be standing side by side working in our own interests and in each others that would truly recapture the post war spirit that is the true meaning of being British.
It will never be the message though, Labour, The Conservatives, Ukip and the lib dems are not the same organisations that built the modern institutions that served and protected us as a people, the country that No voters sided with is a dream, beautiful to be to certain but for forty years we have seen that country being hollowed out and disparaged.
Can we be blamed for trying to build a better country?
Can we be blamed for trying to recapture the British Spirit?
Of course we can, because they're not trying to do this any more, we were always here ready to do it but we waited so long that we can no longer believe in the dream and decided "why did we have to wait for others to build it for us?" why not simply endeavour to change the world ourselves.
And for this we were met with scorn and the question of why we were so determined to leave.
We never left Britain or it's ideals to build a better world, it was Westminster that left us, we just tried to fill the empty space that was left.
Sincerely
Ethan Blair
Further Articles
Reposted From facebook Notes in the wake of EVEL progress.
https://www.facebook.com/notes/ethan-blair-writes/that-which-unites-us-apparantly/290567364475449
