Indyref: Bigger Than That Man Off The Telly
One thing that concerns me about general public discourse over the Scottish Independence Referendum is the repeated insistence that somehow Independence is First Minister Alex Salmond’s vanity project. It’s not difficult to find evidence of this; Seriously, try it. Go onto twitter and search for ‘Alex Salmond’. How many tweets did you find insinuating that he only wants his name in the history books, or that he is forcing his own vision upon Britain, or that it’s all going to be his fault?
The truth is, of course, that it simply doesn’t matter. Now, I’ll admit for full disclosure that I support the SNP and Salmond – I have benefited greatly from the removal of the graduate endowment, and am absolutely astounded and pleased with the free prescriptions (makes a big difference if you’re as seriously eczematic as I am). That’s not to say I don’t have my differences with them – I strongly believe in maintaining a nuclear baseload, which the SNP are opposed to. But whether or not Salmond has initiated this as some sort of vanity project (which I strongly doubt) the fact of the matter is that a massive Yes campaign has built itself around the referendum.
What does this mean? Well, for one it means that the drive for independence is more than one man, one party, one colleective. The Yes campaign is a true grassroots, cross-party alliance. Want proof? Here’s a few of the main players in Yes:
The SNP – The main heavy-hitters, the ones who started the ball rolling.
Scottish Greens – Allies in the Scottish Government, unaffiliated with the nationalists but standing beside them in the independence debate.
Scottish Labour For Independence – A breakaway faction from Scottish Labour, who are otherwise have adopted a unionist stance. Proof of the real cross-party nature of the campaign.
National Collective – The cultural arm of the campaign, and the group I identify most with. A non-political association of artists, writers, poets, journalists, and other creative types who push the case for independence through research, publications, and events.
Radical Independence – The street-level canvassers, the ones who do the groundwork and hit the pavement to bring politics to the disenfranchised, the downtrodden, those whom the system has failed. They are the hard workers, the traditional socialists, and they’re having a great impact.
Exactly ONE of those organisations is required to love Alex Salmond. Hell, the Greens and the Labs are political rivals of the SNP – If they had the mind to, they could really take this opportunity to work towards gunning him down politically.
The concept that Independence is irrevocably associated with Salmond and Salmond alone can be seen to be quite a cynical, sinister one. Whether by design (doubtful) or by subconscious effort (more likely) by limiting the Independence movement to being the fruit of one man’s crusade drastically reduces the impact of the campaign. In fact, it downright insults the freedom of thought, the hard work, the sheer political will for fairness and justice that we have put into this. Instead of being a mass of individuals all aligned towards a greater goal, by framing Independence as Salmond’s pet project we are all reduced to automatons. Mere followers of a false prophet, and easily dismissed as crazies.
And, of course, if we can easily be dismissed, we can’t possibly be a threat. Who’d want to join up with a swarm of mindless drones? Look at them, they’ve fallen for the lies hook line and sinker!
The truth is, we’re not like that at all. As much as it might be convenient for Better Together to be able to portray the Yes campaign as naive children being led away by a motley man off the telly playing the pipe, reality is so very different. Each of these autonomous organisations specialises, and analyses, and refutes the rhetoric, lies and half-truths spouted by the unionists. We are so much more than a singular mass of clones – We are a union unto ourselves, a real powerhouse of critical thought, creative debate, and genuine political belief.
We are the Yes campaign. And the sum of our parts is so much greater than one man.
M.
P.s. Presented for your enjoyment, the party political broadcasts shown this week, presented in broadcast order:
Better Together: The Woman Who Made Up Her Mind
Yes Scotland: Yes Means…
Which ad speaks to you more?
Oh, and for super double added bonus fun, go check Twitter again for #patronisingBTlady.
I had no idea cereal was that important. I shall go consume more!
Hey. I think part of the issue your describing is unfortunately due to Mr Salmonds portrayal of an independent Scotland. He is the public figure for the campaign and as such he can tag his personal/party ideas into the deal, even when they don’t really have anything to do with the question. (Such as nuclear, oil, etc).
Anyway, what I really wanted to post about was what you wrote a week ago, and maybe consider it in the context of your statement where apparently unionists are mostly capable of false rhetoric, lies and half-truths. Undoubtedly there is a fair bit of those in their campaign, probably on both sides. But unionists aren’t all in the ‘let’s just play it safe’ boat that some (but not all) Yes voters think we are.
Sorry, forgot that I owed you a responded here!
You’re right, actually, I did in that article do as I was complaining about and tar the whole No side with the same brush. I should’ve picked my words better, to reflect my observations of the public face of the campaign, the actual visible representatives. Apologies for that! As to the political issues – I don’t think things like oil and nuclear disarmament are unique to the SNP, but are reflective of the generally (generally) old-school left-wing politics of the Yes voters. Not to suggest that there are no left-wingers in No, of course.
What arguments would you like to push forth for remaining in the UK? The official campaign has focussed on the negatives of leaving. What are your positives of staying?