Scottish Independence - classic or dud

Xp What's the point of making that example though if It's nonsense. I don't understand the point you are making with regard to the trident dichotomy. Nor the other one either. Nor do I understand that you are praising actions of the SNP in affecting certain policies - the key thing Is that their influence is extremely limited in Westminster - the times where scots can make a prioity of solidarity with friends in england are long gone in the face of where we are now and where we will end up, which will be much worse. it makes no sense to call the Anglo Scottish border "arbitrary" - the thing about borders is that they are aren't arbitrary (unless they're running though deserts and connecting two contested points and the EU referendum polling result %s around that border to see that the line is anything but arbitrary.

Show that that line is*

I mean, the fact that every single area north of that line voted to remain belies your claim that the border is an arbitrary line.

Well, I didn't think it was controversial. What's important to the SNP is Scotland's will, and that Scotland's will is being overruled. The content of that will isn't important.

It's hard to see how a left wing SNP would function in a right wing Scotland.

the fact that every single area north of that line voted to remain belies your claim that the border is an arbitrary line.

I don't follow that - borders have an effect, they don't just exist. the drawing and redrawing of every one of them is arbitrary but having been drawn of course they can seem to make some sort of sense and become self-reinforcing.

If the SNP were committed to a resolve against nuclear weaponry then they could do more than say "not on our doorstep." They can reap the benefits of the populist move but it doesn't translate into their pro-NATO membership stance which has been in place since 2012. Similarly, if the SNP were serious about raising people out of poverty then they would be offering free school meals to the most disadvantaged. Free school meals to everyone is a vote-winner, but it doesn't actually redress the imbalance caused by the root issue.

the times where scots can make a prioity of solidarity with friends in england are long gone in the face of where we are now and where we will end up, which will be much worse

I don't believe this is a one way direction, or at least I don't believe it has to be. We may have a limited voice in Westminster but we can do more by being there and speaking out as a voice for 60 million than we do speaking out for 6 million. I can understand and appreciate that self-interest is a good reason to support independence but I don't feel comfortable with the moral stance that we do more by turning our backs on our neighbours rather than helping them. The response to that is obvious - they voted for it so they can deal with the consequence - but it's not like the people who need the support (eg the disabled people being told they aren't too sick to work) are actively voting for the policies that ruin their lives and I'd rather be able to work towards helping those people than insulating our own culture.

We managed to elect a UKIP representative despite the complete lack of party presence here. I wouldn't be confident saying we're as different as we seem.

(my own political awakening was embarassingly late so if someone could explain how the SNP managed to shake off the Tartan Tories label in the Salmond era that would be interesting)

it's been a while I think tartan tories was before thatcher the poll tax tory toxicity in scotland thus the imperative of rhetorical distance then devolution new labour providing them with a ready-made space to fill and their taking the opportunity

Nobody under 50 says tartan tories

I don't follow that - borders have an effect, they don't just exist. the drawing and redrawing of every one of them is arbitrary but having been drawn of course they can seem to make some sort of sense and become self-reinforcing.

― conrad, Sunday, 16 October 2016 17:10 (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

An excellent point which I take it on board but I'm not sure we're saying different things merely that I expressed myself inadequately. I do contest that these drawn lines are arbitrary- they very rarely are - but yes, you are right that borders can reinforce and exacerbate divisions but this hostility is less sharp in the borders and in fact the hostility between unionists and independents, while still mild on the whole, is probably sharper in areas far from the border in for e.g. Aberdeenshire or even Shetland. Or even in Glasgow with the idiotic and depressing Catholic and Protestant hostilities.

I was actually a potential no voter until two months or so prior to the referendum and my switch to Yes was quite extreme (and remains so) which may say more about my mental state and less about political logistics.

Re: My friend, boxedjoy's stance that it needn't be a one way street, that the situation may change, that we can do more as 50 voting voices for 55 million than we can for 6 million is something that, at this point, I simply do not and cannot accept. I think this is breaking point. We all exist in these social media fuelled bubbles and obviously I feel more solidarity politically with NV or Matt DC, among others, than with many of my neighbours but Westminster feels fucking toxic rn and I don't think that is a two-way street that will change or become better for scots at any time in the future. Scotland really does feel like another country now. It's done.

Or even in Glasgow with the idiotic and depressing Catholic and Protestant hostilities.

Yeah, let's pin that one on Glasgow.

Sturgy is a big beast on Twitter.

yes for me too it doesn't feel like a "two-way street" in any productive or meaningful way and it's frustration with that and my feeling about the general direction of the uk (I feel like it isn't good, that it's bad) that makes me a scexiteer

(SNIFFING AND INDISTINCT SOBBING) do you imagine that anyone thinks glasgow invented catholic and protestant hostilities? or do you think that catholic and protestant hostilities don't exist or aren't significant in glasgow?

... and elsewhere.

Anyway I don't think of it in terms of "Catholic and Protestant hostilities" so much as anti-Catholic bigotry. Which is about as Scottish as you can get.

at this point in time i wouldn't ask anybody in Scotland to remain shackled to the hateful dying mammoth that is Englishness tbh

i really just feel a great sadness about a divorce that can probably no longer be stopped: irreconcileable differences etc

i live in hackney, pockets of gentrification and hipsters notwithstanding, a still-poor london borough that has voted reliably left since time immemorial*, is one of the most multicultural urban areas in europe and was one of the biggest remain voters blah blah yay hackney

losing the scottish left bloc leaves the poor and the non-white in london even more exposed, and the reliable inner city left vulnerable to the ethic and social cleansing that is already happening -- i don't blame scotland for looking to itself! but i would resent any hint of "fuck hackney" that i heard (i can't really imagine it here obviously, but, well, there are definitely twitter cybernats capable of this kind of yell…)

my observations re the snp are
a) there is a definitely political divide between its support (esp.recently) and its institutions
b) nicola sturgeon is probably the most gifted UK politican active today, not least because so far this divide has not really manifested in any kind of public tension, and much of this is down to her leadership
c) is the divide as great as that between labour party members and the PLP? hard to say, because of said non-manifestation
d) wee banker eck is the very picture of a neoliberal (embarrassingly close to both RBS and murdoch) -- of course he is no longer in charge (and this is significant) but it is the party he built and at some level still partially reflects that
e) in a decade's government at holyrood the snp was by no means as obviously left as (i) its rhetoric then and now and (ii) its supporters consider themselves (probably correctly: my closest non-ilx friend who is a convert to independence after a liftetime's scorn is a enthusiastic castroite communist
f) so the divide -- currently masked by the situation, which sturgeon is playing well and others not so well -- probably IS nearly as big as labour's, tho not of course exacerbated by decades of mutual proximity and hostility
g) the snp is a small party in parliamentary terms, with impressively tight discipline -- this will probably take them in and through the indie vote very effectively; afterwards is quite another matter… but by then hackney will no longer be able to help out, really :(

*ie since a time when calling the snp tartan tories was just the truth -- the snp is where the scottish tory vote went in the 60s and 70s

i think i used to see religious conflict (and yes, generally in the form of anti-catholic bigotry) in the west of scotland as some kind of self-explanatory toxic given, but now when i return and encounter it i feel completely at a loss when it comes to having any understanding of it. the obvious element of people with no particular religious commitment and no particular political commitment suddenly having vast reserves of both when it comes to e.g. the question of unionism is absurd but explicable in the typical prejudicial othering manner, but when in most aspects of everyday life catholics and protestants are seamlessly integrated it seems to come down to some baffling inchoate bigotry towards friends, family members, husbands and wives, which i just cannot get my head around.