This morning my Facebook and Twitter is vexed with the question of George Galloway's blog denouncing Scottish Nationalism and all its works. That's a rhetorical flourish there, George didn't actually use these words but I digress.
As someone who usually finds himself on the same side of every argument as George Galloway it always intrigues me that the only thing that separates us is his unionism. I nearly said "strident" unionism there but that would have been just another rhetorical flourish.
In his blog http://redmolucca.wordpress.com/2013/05/19/scotland-farage-and-me/ George raises the spectre of an independent Scotland turning on immigrants and minorities. If I believed this I would vote NO.
Where George and I will have to differ is that I believe it is the "UK" which turns on immigrants and minorities. It is the "UK" which is a threat to social harmony and justice for all.
George raises the question of sectarianism. His old party Labour knows all about playing the sectarian card.
In Scotland of old, Labour said to the Orange Order that Independence would mean rule from Rome. It is to be noted that the Orange Order are of course solidly behind the "Better Together" NO campaign.
These same Labour worthies also said to Catholic voters that independence meant Orange domination and discrimination against Catholics. Sectarianism is a blight on Scotland. I believe it is carefully fostered by elements with an axe to grind. Sometimes that axe is an electoral one.
The Orange Order are for the union for a reason of course. Their role as reactionary sectarian agents came about as a result of institutionalised discrimination which benefited the Order and its adherents.
James Connolly described them thus, "they are slaves in spirit because they were reared up among a class whose conditions of servitude were more slavish than their own".
The Order is not what it was in terms of influence. It is a hangover from the past. It is a reminder of a time when equality of opportunity was not a notion that we held dear.
The Order clings to a past of relative privilege and a sense of entitlement over their Catholic neighbours. The Order is doomed to wither away and it knows it. Their attachment to the NO campaign is as much from a sense of preserving their very existence as it is of principle.
It is of course "British" Nationalism that presents a threat to minorities, not Scottish civic nationalism. If I thought otherwise I would oppose independence for Scotland.
Independence is worth supporting because it offers a chance for the future. That chance has to be taken. It doesn't mean that all we must do is vote YES in September 2014.
There is a lot of struggling to take place before and after that. It does mean that we will finally have the opportunity to shape Scotland into the kind of country we want it to be.
It gives a chance to put an end to sectarianism which is essentially driven by British nationalism.
It gives a chance to get rid of the blight of nuclear weapons.
It gives a chance to build the kind of social justice that we believe in.
Now, there are people who oppose independence for Scotland. George Galloway is one of them.
Now, I don't call George a "traitor" or "fifth columnist". He is not my enemy. Neither are most of the people who remain to be convinced of the argument. Disagreeing with someone doesn't make them your enemy.
Between now and Independence Day there will be a lot of mudslinging and accusations of bad faith. We need to keep the heid about all this.
A noisy demonstration against Nigel Farage is not the harbinger of the end times. The world will not stop revolving on its axis because an elected politician (which Farage is) is humiliated and scorned.
It would probably do most elected members (in whatever parliament) the world of good to face an unsanitised opposition to their views from time to time. Nigel Farage in particular was guilty of believing all the adulatory prose which had been written about him in the mainstream press.
The fact that he came up against real people who think his arguments are shite is probably character building. No-one was assaulted, no-one was injured, no-one was shot or blown up. People did express disrespectful views about Farage. Good on them. Nigel Farage is not averse to being disrespectful about his opponents either.
Many things are won at the ballot box. It does not earn the victor the right to duck any kind of criticism.
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