Friday, 1 April 2011

Ah Luv Ma Cuuntry...

I was standing with a lady nationalist at the polling station a few years ago. I knew her slightly, and we got on quite well. We agreed on almost all policy areas: housing, schools, health etc. After a while I ventured the suggestion that, as we agreed on so much, it was silly that we were on different sides of the argument, and that we should be in the same party, cooperating to deliver the solutions we both evidently wanted. To which my new nationalist friend replied: "But ah luv ma cuuntry". The implication being that anyone who is not an nationalist doesn't love his or her country, and that somehow disqualifies the rest of us, the actual majority of Scots, from any political legitimacy.

Anyone who blogs on politics in Scotland has seen, may even have suffered from, the malignancy of the cybernats, those self appointed "luvvers o' ma cuuntry" who think if you don't agree with them you're a "quisling" (quisling is one of their favourite words). It's at its most blatant online, where the cloak of annonymity allows the vitriol to flow against traitorous unionists and other scum who don't think "independence" is the ideal solution to the problems of the people of Scotland. If you don't agree with them no insult is too extreme.

But the same attitude not unknown among terrestrial nationalists, if less honestly expressed. Prominent nationalists frequently imply that only they have care and concern for "Scotland". "Scotland's Party" is a common slogan from the SNP leadership and has been used for years, on and off.

Today I got my hands on the above SNP leaflet from the current Scottish Parliamentary Election campaign, and it continues the theme: "There's only one party that cares about Scotland" it says. The implication being that all the rest are traitors and quislings.

Is there any more graphic illustration of the arrogance of the minority SNP Party. At the last election they got less than 17% of the possible vote, but that's no barrier to their arrogance. If you are not with them, you don't have "Scotland" "at your heart", you are not a real Scot and your opinion is negligble and easly dismissed.
 
Heaven help us if they ever get round to actually running the country rather than living off the Union that they pretend to hate.
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4 comments:

  1. cynicalHighlander3 April 2011 at 09:01

    The Labour party loves itself and couldn't care less about the people except at voting time.

    EXCLUSIVE: Glasgow Labour’s special council deal exposed

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  2. Braveheart3 April 2011 at 10:51

    Interesting, CH. But like most of your comments, off topic.

    Do you think that the SNP is the only party that can legitimately speak for "Scotland"?

    In which case all other parties, and members, supporters and voters for those parties, and those who support no party, are somehow illegitimate...

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  3. cynicalHighlander3 April 2011 at 21:52

    No the SSP and others but the Labour Party's Scottish branch are only interested in getting the chance to sit on the red benches.

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  4. rullko3 April 2011 at 22:33

    I agree, it's a pretty ugly slogan. I suppose the SNP are seeking to contrast themselves with other parties which, by the very fact of standing outside of Scotland, have to factor into their calculus the priorities of other electorates, which may contradict those of the Scots. The SNP only have to cater to a Scottish audience.

    But there are plenty of other parties who meet this criterion: Greens, SSP etc., so the Nats' claim is risible.

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