Project Fear was the name coined by "Better Together" to describe their campaign tactic of scaring us into voting NO in the Independence Referendum in September.
And a constant source of amusement it has been. This tactic has been rolled out to us to terrify us into thinking that we won't be able to watch the BBC, to the thought that "they" won't let "us" use "their" currency. We will all be "foreigners" and we know what nasty folk they are don't we? It really is the gift that keeps on giving for YES. The more idiocy that NO comes out with the more likely it is that sensible people will vote YES.
The YES campaign in all its variants, from the SNP through Women for Independence to Radical Independence Campaign and the Green Party has been almost unfailingly positive in their arguments for a pro-indy vote.
It is an argument which has many facets. My particular spin on this is that Independence gives us the raw materials for a better Scotland. A more equal and just Scotland. A Scotland where no-one relies on food banks. A Scotland where the rich pay their share. In short a Scotland where life is better.
Now a YES vote alone will never guarantee this. It is simply a pre-condition for a struggle to commence. A YES vote on the 18th of September is simply the starting pistol for a race to the future. It marks the start of a period of negotiation. Nothing is assured with a YES vote. No-one can tell the future. The only way to do that is to make the future happen.
Anyone who tries to tell you what the future holds is simply deluding themselves or seeking to delude you. So when Alastair Darling and "Lord" Robertson utter their pompous edicts about "uncertainty" for post-indy Scotland they are absolutely correct.
The apocalyptic consequences they then go on to splutter over ad infinitum ad nauseam are simply wishful thinking on their part. They WANT an indy Scotland to fail. They have a vested interest in it.
What they do not do of course is to extend their fortune-telling to the consequences of a NO vote. What will happen in the event of a NO vote is what terrifies me.
Forget all this crap about more powers that ALL the Unionist Partes now offer. These are the very people who fought to keep that option of the ballot in September. Eighteen months ago, they thought they would ace an indy vote.
Now the same people who thought it was a bad idea then are falling over themselves to offer all sorts of powers (except the ones we really need to make a difference).
Why would we believe them? Those of us who are old enough to remember the Devolution vote in 1979 remember that the Tories offered us a "real assembly with real powers" if we voted against. We "lost" that vote because of a deeply anti-democratic Labour amendment requiring a YES vote from 40% of the electorate. We're still waiting on more powers though. What we got was 17 years of Tory rule that we didn't vote for.
That's what Alastair Darling and Johann Lamont call "democracy" of course.
No, the safe bet is that in the event of a NO vote we will not get any extra powers for the Scottish Parliament.
Come the 2015 westminster General Election things get very interesting. Who can rule out the possibility of a Tory/UKIP coalition? Now it is me who is "scaremongering". I don't have a crystal ball of course but I certainly can't rule it out.
It is a certainty of course that the first election in a post-indy Scotland in 2016 will NOT produce a Tory government (and even if it did, it would mean that we would have voted for it). Balance of probabilities etc, to me it seems that the risk is all on the NO side. Because a vote for NO is not a vote for the Status Quo.
Our current parliament is a creature of Westminster. They set it up and they can take it away. Indeed, taking it away might just be the price that UKIP exacts for participation in a coalition with the Tories (or even Labour).
So this future Westminster Government takes back control of the NHS in order to privatise it north as well as south of the border. Next time you go for a prescription just think that it would cost you £8.05 in England and Wales.
This future Westminster Government removes even the most basic powers to alleviate the impact of "welfare reform" (which now the Labour Party has signed up to).
"It'll never happen" is what I hear on all sides. I hope that's true. The only way to GUARANTEE that it will not is to vote YES.
And a constant source of amusement it has been. This tactic has been rolled out to us to terrify us into thinking that we won't be able to watch the BBC, to the thought that "they" won't let "us" use "their" currency. We will all be "foreigners" and we know what nasty folk they are don't we? It really is the gift that keeps on giving for YES. The more idiocy that NO comes out with the more likely it is that sensible people will vote YES.
The YES campaign in all its variants, from the SNP through Women for Independence to Radical Independence Campaign and the Green Party has been almost unfailingly positive in their arguments for a pro-indy vote.
It is an argument which has many facets. My particular spin on this is that Independence gives us the raw materials for a better Scotland. A more equal and just Scotland. A Scotland where no-one relies on food banks. A Scotland where the rich pay their share. In short a Scotland where life is better.
Now a YES vote alone will never guarantee this. It is simply a pre-condition for a struggle to commence. A YES vote on the 18th of September is simply the starting pistol for a race to the future. It marks the start of a period of negotiation. Nothing is assured with a YES vote. No-one can tell the future. The only way to do that is to make the future happen.
Anyone who tries to tell you what the future holds is simply deluding themselves or seeking to delude you. So when Alastair Darling and "Lord" Robertson utter their pompous edicts about "uncertainty" for post-indy Scotland they are absolutely correct.
The apocalyptic consequences they then go on to splutter over ad infinitum ad nauseam are simply wishful thinking on their part. They WANT an indy Scotland to fail. They have a vested interest in it.
What they do not do of course is to extend their fortune-telling to the consequences of a NO vote. What will happen in the event of a NO vote is what terrifies me.
Forget all this crap about more powers that ALL the Unionist Partes now offer. These are the very people who fought to keep that option of the ballot in September. Eighteen months ago, they thought they would ace an indy vote.
Now the same people who thought it was a bad idea then are falling over themselves to offer all sorts of powers (except the ones we really need to make a difference).
Why would we believe them? Those of us who are old enough to remember the Devolution vote in 1979 remember that the Tories offered us a "real assembly with real powers" if we voted against. We "lost" that vote because of a deeply anti-democratic Labour amendment requiring a YES vote from 40% of the electorate. We're still waiting on more powers though. What we got was 17 years of Tory rule that we didn't vote for.
That's what Alastair Darling and Johann Lamont call "democracy" of course.
No, the safe bet is that in the event of a NO vote we will not get any extra powers for the Scottish Parliament.
Come the 2015 westminster General Election things get very interesting. Who can rule out the possibility of a Tory/UKIP coalition? Now it is me who is "scaremongering". I don't have a crystal ball of course but I certainly can't rule it out.
It is a certainty of course that the first election in a post-indy Scotland in 2016 will NOT produce a Tory government (and even if it did, it would mean that we would have voted for it). Balance of probabilities etc, to me it seems that the risk is all on the NO side. Because a vote for NO is not a vote for the Status Quo.
Our current parliament is a creature of Westminster. They set it up and they can take it away. Indeed, taking it away might just be the price that UKIP exacts for participation in a coalition with the Tories (or even Labour).
So this future Westminster Government takes back control of the NHS in order to privatise it north as well as south of the border. Next time you go for a prescription just think that it would cost you £8.05 in England and Wales.
This future Westminster Government removes even the most basic powers to alleviate the impact of "welfare reform" (which now the Labour Party has signed up to).
"It'll never happen" is what I hear on all sides. I hope that's true. The only way to GUARANTEE that it will not is to vote YES.
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