Anti-Scottish loathing and the Nazi Gauleiters

I remember, in the 1970s, it was quite common in the right wing press for cartoonists to portray Prime Minister Harold Wilson as some sort of fascist in a black uniform, jackboots peaked cap, arm band, horsewhip, sash etc. It passed almost unremarked.

Times have changed. Nowadays the mention of Hitler or the Nazis is enough to stop an internet conversation in its tracks. Godwin's Law states that, if you have to quote the Nazis back at your opponent, the argument is getting closed down, and you are on a loser.

Is it different if your opponent brings up the Nazis first?

Alex Salmond has compared a BBC political adviser to a "Gauleiter", a Nazi local organiser.  He also called the BBC "a tinpot dictatorship" after an invitation to comment on the Scotland-England rugby match was withdrawn.

I don't know if Eck has a case. No doubt there will be investigations and enquiries and press statement wars in the next few days until it all blows over.

But I do know that the SNP has form in name-calling anyone that doesn't cooperate with their views 100%.

Joan McAlpine, Alex Salmond's chosen chronicler, claimed that it was anti-Scottish to interfere with their referendum and to oppose a devo max question on their referendum. Mike Russell called opposition parties anti-Scottish during last week's Education debate at Holyrood.  There have been other examples, in fact it used to be quite common for words like traitor and quisling to get thrown around quite freely by Nationalists.

It's interesting to ask why these examples are all happening now. For the past few years the Nationalists have been on their best behaviour: not a lot of anti-English spleen, or accusatory bile has been evident. I presume it has been the proximity to power and the justified fear that such nastiness turns off the voters. So the word has gone out to "Tone it down lads, keep a lid on the insults and more extreme rhetoric. Just for the time being. Later. Well...". Even the cybernats have been almost nice.

 Now the veneer has cracked and we see the old opinions expressed anew. If you don't agree with them you're "anti-Scottish", a "gauleiter" even in one case you must "loathe the very concept of Scotland". Maybe they just got complacent, thinking their Holyrood majority makes "independence" inevitable. In which case why rein in your real opinions? Or maybe it just became too much to hold in and hide the truth: they really do believe that, if you don't agree with them, then you are not fit to inhabit their new Utopia. You (i.e. the majority of Scots) are just not Scottish enough.

Which is one very good reason not to vote for them or support their "independence" referendum or their bogus "devo max" fallback plan.