Yesterday saw the UKIP leader Nigel Farage run out of Edinburgh by an angry mob. I was delighted to see him on the receiving end of some mob rule. Even more so did I enjoy the petulant interview he had with BBC Scotland which culminated in him hanging up the phone in high dudgeon.
As the saying goes, you don't stop being a racist just because you put on a suit. So farewell Nigel and don't trouble yourself to come back. A party with only two policies; opposition to immigration and rejecting the European Union has little to offer Scotland. Simply put; Farage is a would-be populist appealing to the basest instincts that the Daily Mail can whip up.
Scotland needs immigrants, even from England (and I'm sure we'll get many refugees from there when we declare independence). We're getting older and need more working folk to pay for our pensions and care homes.
Why is Farage and his shower of numpties so popular doon south? They took more than one in four votes in the recent council elections in England. No doubt there are lots of reasons why this is so, The only one we can do something about is to make sure that at every turn racist and xenophobic arguments are countered and challenged.
Oh, the irony of it all, Farage accusing the mob who swarmed him out of Edinburgh of "Anti-English racism". Don't make me laugh Guv!!
Campaigning for a YES vote for Scottish independence is not anti-english racism. Calling for an end to immigration almost certainly is. Personally, I am opposed to all immigration controls. By definition they are racist.
The notion that "immigrants" come here to live off off the munificence of our welfare system is a belief that only the terminally feeble-minded and Daily Mail readers can countenance.
The facts of the matter (in so much as they are discernable) are that immigrants, far from relying on welfare benefits are more likely to be economically active. When you consider how difficult it is to get welfare benefits when English is your first language, it is little wonder that speakers of other languages are under-represented.
But of course the eejits of UKIP want to have it both ways. "Immigrants" are sponging off welfare AND they are "stealing" jobs. Which is it Nigel?
Never mind Nigel and UKIP, how about the heroes of the "UK" Border Agency? Here in the north-east of Scotland these brave men and women are busy keeping the country safe and secure from threats.
Principally this seems to consist of protecting us from waiters in Asian restaurants and takeaways. "Swooping" on restaurants is all they seem to do as well as looking surly and scowling as they process our passports when we arrive back in from abroad.
That's what it is all about of course. Looking hard. Anywhere else one goes in Europe, passport control consists of a glance at the picture and "welcome" and on you go.
Not in this state of course. I know that when I return to Edinburgh Airport next week from a trip to Amsterdam I will be forced to queue up for ages so that some hostile unsmiling drone from the Borders Agency can scan my (non-biometric) passport and glower at me.
Hovering in the wings will be cops trying to look tough. This certainly gives visitors a taste of what a warm welcome should be. Not.
Frankly I'm sick of it all. it's yet another reason to vote YES. For a sensible immigration system which doesn't exist to keep out people that we need. And yes, takeaways and restaurants DO need workers.
Scotland has few enemies to be protected from. Scotland doesn't really have a history of invading folk (apart from England). By and large I'd say most people in the world would not see an independent Scotland as a threat to them. I don't think there is much appetite for illegal wars like Iraq of Afghanistan, despite what Tony Blair or the "noble" Lord Reid might say.
Tony Blair and John Reid are war criminals of course and rightly belong in jail in any sensibly run society. We'll wait a while for that I guess.
If an independent Scotland has any enemies I guess they are to be found in UKIP and their ilk. Defence strategy in an independent Scotland should be defiantly neutral. There is a bit of me that says repatriating Trident to the rump UK would be an irresponsible step. Imagine gifting nuclear weapons to a government run by the likes of Farage?
No, faced with that possibility the responsible thing to do is retain the Trident submarine fleet here and decommission them in place.
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