Don’t Panic!

totalcrisis

Is the No campaign losing the plot?

The cacophony of scare stories about Scotland does seem to have tipped from the bizarre to the gently unhinged. A year ago The Scotsman actually ran a headline saying that “Scots would lose the right to travel within EU”, according to an “expert” at Edinburgh University. Since then there’s been a drip feed of distressing propaganda all very reminiscent of the Tories pre-devolution messaging.

But of all the heart-warming stories that have been sent our way to enlighten the independence debate, from Skintland to Poundland, from ‘we’ll be forced to join the Euro’ to ‘we’ll be cast out from Europe’ (often, confusingly, simultaneously), to ‘they’ll take away the Pandas!’ – to that lovely story that ‘England could bomb Scottish airports’ – this Lottery one has got to be my very very favourite.

The Better Together campaign has suggested that Scotland has benefited from awards to the tune of £2.3bn in grants to good causes by the National Lottery since 1993. This, apparently  was “another reason we are better together”. All of this would be at risk if we were to do anything foolhardy.

It’s got a lovely tone to it. It’s basically a variation on the handouts idea, whether that’s the ‘handouts’ of universal social provision that Johann Lamont’s going to put a stop to or the ‘£433 m handouts’ that the English Democrats decry.

We are beggars.

But the simple reality is that – not only did the Olympics scour Scottish charities for years – ‘Lottery figures show Scots charities losing’ – but the then much promised Olympics recompense (unsurprisingly) failed to materialise. In fact it caused a 12% drop in visitors.

Even The Scotsman revealed as far back as 2007 that good causes in Scotland faced losing an extra 51million on top of the multi-million-pound contribution they will already have to make to fund the Olympics. See here.

This is all intended to promote not just fear and a state of crisis and uncertainty, but really a sense of obedience. Some – like Pandagate and Poundland – backfire. I suspect that ‘they’ll take the Lottery away’ will go into this category. But others are too obviously attractive to eave alone. Expect the jobs, military, jobs, military mantra to be repeated until October 2014. Like a drum-roll. Trident is a doozey.  Yet even the big bad ones often have surprisingly easy solutions, as Iain MacWhirter explains…

The defence secretary, Philip Hammond, warned that, after independence, Scotland would have to pay “billions” for the cost of relocating Trident. This wasn’t quite in the same league as losing the pandas, but was equally daft. I don’t recall the Ukraine being required to build bases in Russia for the nuclear weapons it returned in 1994. Scotland never asked for weapons of mass destruction in the first place. Anyway, there’s a simple enough solution: Trident nuclear warheads are moved by road convoy every year from Coulport to Aldermaston near Reading. Maybe they could just make a one-way trip in 2014. Scotland could pay for the diesel.

Comments (12)

Join the Discussion

Your email address will not be published.

  1. Aye next we will be told that the water in the lochs and rivers is theirs as well,along with the fresh air we breathe.I can only hope there is enough intellect out there to realise that all this scaremongering is only contempt for Scotland and Us Scots.Well maybe if they told the truth that is that they are just greedy and don’t want to lose all the monies they get from us via Westminster somebody might have sympathy for them LOL.

  2. Theres a real groundswell of support on the streets, cafs, bars, barbers, taxis conversations with folks, its tangible, I can feel a change. The lies have backfired, they have rattled our cages and we stir from a 300yr slumber.

    1. James Coleman says:

      VOTE YES IN 2014
      I don’t know about the other places you mention but there has definitely been a big change recently in the media’s reporting of Independence (apart from the Telegraph which doesn’t matter in Scotland). I also get a feeling that the Bitter No-men are less belligerent and are beginning to panic even though the polls show little change in YES/NO. Maybe returns from other sources are beginning to show that the ridiculous negative claims being made by the NO campaign are causing a discernible swing towards YES.
      Let’s hope it is not just wishful thinking.

      1. muttley79 says:

        I am not sure about the No campaign becoming less negative. Remember less than a week ago we were treated to the spectacle of British Nationalists going ballistic in the Commons and Lords. Sarwar calling Salmond a dictator and lashing out at the Scottish Parliament as an institution. The No campaign have got themselves into a position where they have to be negative. Despite what they and their media buddies say they are offering nothing concrete whatsoever to the Scottish electorate. They had their chance to include a second question on more powers, and they dismissed it out of hand.

    2. Doug Daniel says:

      I can feel change coming as well. I’m certainly more convinced about a Yes result than I was just a year ago. Maybe even 6 months ago.

      I dunno about others, but I’ve spent most of my life trying not to bring attention to the fact I’m pro-independence. It’s something that has been instantly been met with ridicule, because people just read the headlines and have no idea how viable an independent Scotland is. When the SNP came into power, it suddenly became more acceptable to be an SNP supporter, although independence itself was still a bit of a taboo. However, these past few months, I’ve heard people speaking about independence that I’ve never heard speak about it before. I’ve heard that my cousin – who once slagged me off for going to the SNP conference – is going to join the rest of us in voting “yes”.

      Independence is coming out of the woodwork and people are starting to take a more serious look at it. As the campaign goes on, people who have never given it a second thought will feel compelled to actually find out what it’s about. The more people say “I’m voting Yes”, the more others will think “hmmm, there must be something in this – I thought it was only weirdy beardies that wanted independence, but perhaps not.”

      Pandora’s Box has been opened, and once people see the truth about Scotland’s position in the UK, they set foot on the one-way road to independence and never look back.

  3. zedeeyen says:

    I have a feeling we can convince rUK to cover any nuke relocation costs.

    “Hi Dave, it’s Alec. We’ll give you a week to collect your nukes then we’re calling in the UN to help us decommission them. Kthxbai.”

  4. I’m genuinely concerned about the fear-campaign and its effect on some voters – after all, why feel you have any stake in the democratic process if you are constantly belittled and told, not only that we’d be weaker apart, but that you are incapable of independent decision-making and need the patriarchy of the British State to curb your immature hopes and aspirations. I remember telling family I wanted to give up my job to go to college many years ago and being told – what’s wrong with what you’re doing now? And…”You’re throwing good money down the drain…” I can’t help but feel the same when I’m told we are the children of British history, in need of paternal authority to curb our childish enthusiasm. In the event of a NO vote the fear campaign will be happy to have created a docile switched-off electorate who feel that political change is not possible. If you are a Labour supporter are you really content to tell people their only hope is to wait until voters in England vote Labour back in – that, other than these interludes, we have to endure Tory governments? It’s the same with the Lib Dem argument for Federalism – we can’t impose it on England, so effectively we’re handing responsibility to them and waiting for Westminster, for the parent-state to make the decision for us and then tell us how it will be. No wonder people don’t vote.

  5. Bill Melvin says:

    If you recall there was a prediction that the world would end on 21st December – and as you might expect there was much hilarity in the MSM. Make no mistake, the world has moved into a cycle of renewal and spiritual enlightenment for man in which natural law will become more evident and important to more people. In essence people will generally become more receptive to new or radical change based on the natural laws of right and wrong, fairness, cause and effect etc. Where there is darkness light will prevail, peace will overcome conflict and justice will be restored to mankind. What this doesn’t mean – is we just wait and it happens – no, people seek the light and rise up to claim their sovereign human right. I don’t suggest this from any religious belief or position but from my belief that we can discover a higher level of consciousness which naturally promotes helping each other, appreciating our differences and making our community, country, continent and the planet a better place for us all!
    We get a chance to light an early beacon on the road to peace and prosperity – Vote YES and make the world a better place for all!

  6. john king says:

    I found myself talking to an old friend the other day outside Morrisons the other day and the conversation gor round to keeping yourself active in your retirement, and I mentioned I had rejoined the SNP and caught myself making this remark sotto voce and felt immediately ashamed by that inability to voice my allegiance proudly, depends where you you live, central Fife appears to be caught in a time warp and still thinks that Labour controls the strings.

    1. Good on ye mister.
      I met a friend at a post-Hogmanay party, he’s been working away for more than a year. We’ve never talked politics beyond the usual celebrity/scandal-related rubbish, but I know the guy’s a nationalist and he knows I’m involved with the SSP. When the subject of the referendum was raised by a third-party (we were outside having a fly smoke) the friend expressed astonishment that the thing is being discussed so openly and seriously – not having accessed ‘normal’ UK MSM for over a year, and not being familiar with sites like this, he was truly shocked, but delighted that ‘ordinary’ punters are starting to get their heads around this.
      It really is happening.
      And if it’s good for nothing else, discussing the possibility of your country getting off its knees makes for much more interesting sessions in the local, outside the supermarket, or wherever else – doesn’t take long to discover that everyone has an opinion on this, that many of us are a lot more clued-up than we give each other credit for, and that there’s much more uniting than dividing us.

Help keep our journalism independent

We don’t take any advertising, we don’t hide behind a pay wall and we don’t keep harassing you for crowd-funding. We’re entirely dependent on our readers to support us.

Subscribe to regular bella in your inbox

Don’t miss a single article. Enter your email address on our subscribe page by clicking the button below. It is completely free and you can easily unsubscribe at any time.