es ist eine komische alte Welt!

A Nationalist MSP called Joan McAlpine made some twitter remarks about politicians who don't support the Nationalists referendum being "anti-Scottish" and then defended these remarks in the Scottish Parliament. (see here)..

Tom Harris, Scottish Labour's "twitter czar" , spoofed the events in one of the many Hitler/Downfall videos that have been popular on the internet this last year or two.

Funnily enough, it was Harris who lost his position over the spoof. McAlpine, whose "crime" is at least, IMHO, equally as egregious, stays in position.

You can judge for yourself how funny Harris's film is, but I have a rule, reinforced by Godwin's Law, to steer clear of Hitler and Nazis. No matter how bad you may think your opponent is behaving, calling him/her "Hitler" is on the road to losing the plot.

Of course, calling your opponent "anti-Scottish" is just as offensive (assuming your opponent is Scottish). It's just like calling them traitors or quislings.

In my experience, it's a trap that Nationalists fall into too often: in fact you get the impression that they don't even try to avoid it.

McAlpine's remarks are a good study in how they do it.


On twitter she wrote “Interfering in referendum is anti-Scottish as is refusal to compromise on popular desire 4 powers to Scotland.”

Then in defence of criticism of these remarks she said "..“I was criticising behaviour, I wasn’t criticising people. People from all sorts of political backgrounds can be proud Scots. The issue here is the behaviour of the anti-independence parties coming together to seek to stop Scotland having a referendum at a time of our choosing."

The first thing to note is that "interfering in the referendum" is not "anti-Scottish". If Ms McAlpine means the Prime Minister of the UK has no place in discussions about the UK constitution then she's just wrong. If she means that the referendum is sacred and no-one, not even Scottish politicians, has the right to question it, she's plain bonkers.

As for "a refusal to compromise" on devo-max!!! How can that be "anti-Scottish"?

Devo-max, or the idea of more powers for Holyrood, is a straightforward matter of policy. You might think it's a good idea, you might not. But neither position is treason. You have to conclude that the SNP MSP is conflating "Nationalist policy" with some unchallengeable Scottish interests. Needless to say, these are not the same thing and opposing the SNP is not treason. In fact it's common sense, IMO.

The "defence" is even more revealing. McAlpine says “I was criticising behaviour, I wasn’t criticising people."

How, I ask you, do you criticise behaviour without criticising the people who are behaving in the way you don't like? You can't say, "He robbed a bank. He behaved like a bank robber, but I'm not calling him a bank robber. It's just bank robberly like behaviour by his bank robbing gang..." Aye right.

It gets even more convoluted with ".... The issue here is the behaviour of the anti-independence parties coming together to seek to stop Scotland having a referendum at a time of our choosing."

So it's not people who are behaving like traitors, it''s "parties". But parties don't "behave", parties are made up of people and people behave. How can a party beghave in an "anti-Scottish" way, but none of its members?

As for "...seek to stop Scotland having a referendum at a time of our choosing.".. who pray is "Scotland"?.the SNP? Should that not be "the Scottish people"? In which case the sentence becomes "seek to stop the Scottish people having a referendum at a time of their choosing". The SNP is confusing SNP with Scottish people.

And whose is the "our" in "...a time of "our" choosing". Again what the SNP wants is being conflated with the interests of Scotland and the Scottish people.

To conclude. It is clear to me that Joan McAlpine was serious when she called her opponents "anti-Scottish". She meant it. She conflates the desires of the SNP with the interests of Scotland. From there it's no step at all to declaring opposition to SNP policy as "anti-Scottish). The idea of treachery is inherent in her rhetoric, which consists of weasel words in an attempt to conceal, but of which close analysis reveals, her real thoughts.

If you dare oppose the SNP, you are "anti-Scottish". That's the message. But still, she keeps her job and her tormentor gets the sack.

As Maggie Thatcher said, it's a funny old world!