What Side Are You On?

One of the post truly depressing twitter threads I've seen recently contained this image -

Fairly clear isn't it? There's the Yes multitude on the right with a gorgeous woman hoist aloft, facing the neo-nazi thuggery of the No campaign.
Let us step back - I remember a few decades back when those of us on this side of the North Channel used to look across at Northern Ireland and say thank God that our working class wasn't divided by religion or sectarianism. The economic interests of the working class were the same whatever your creed. You were a wage slave, and your only hope was in solidarity. Whether that was housing, National Health or Education; it didn't matter.
But here we have a movement delighting in division. Triumphantly calling it out.
Well, surprise, surprise, there are Loyalist forces within the working class. And the Orange Order is a big part of Scotland. And that's the point - the people above are all Scots. But what force has come and divided them? The politics of identity driven by our National Party.
I know what side I'm on. No to division, hatred and intolerance. And that's called Nationalism.

Kevin's postcode nationalism

May I be so stupid as to comment on a throw away piece by Kevin (kerrr-chhing!!! 400 words, where's ma cheque) McKenna in The Observer, on Sunday 21 December 2014? A reasonable piece in many ways, though this commentator isn't quite sure why a piece that praises Glasgow Council should end up naming the villains of the piece as the Lab-Con alliance, whatever that is.
What I want to comment on is this part -

This is the most lovely convenient tosh. And it illustrates beautifully the foolish mindset of the Nationalist. Because Nationalism of course can only exist if we can partition people and their ideas with boundaries. So - there's a line across this island where the, morally bankrupt values of neoliberalism hold sway. Now Kevin knows that he can't draw this lovely line along the border as much of Northern England doesn't cleave to morally bankrupt neoliberalism either (but supposedly the majority of the English (booo hiss!!) do, of course). So, Kevin, loudmouth genius has constructed a line. The McKenna line. Like Sykes-Picot - certainly drawn with as much thought.

But.... errr.... south of the line there are plenty radical areas (Brighton and Bristol to name but two) and North of line plenty morally bankrupt neoliberalist areas (Milngavie and Morningside anyone?). In fact, people with totally distinct and opposing views can live in neighbouring houses! And their views can change over time! I'm a bit lost here.

Don't worry Kevin with details, please. He has a Nationalist Project to put his shoulder to. Leave your intelligence at the door.    

Contradiction and Incoherence - same old SNP

"SNP welcomes record level of female employment and record low in youth umemployment"

Leaving aside the unfortunate typo, one must wonder why exactly the SNP are trumpeting this. They lost the referendum; we wouldn't have our hand on the famous 'levers' to deliver change and 'grow the economy'. In fact - quite the opposite - Westminster (yes, those evil bastards once again) were going to crush 'us' with their austerity drive. What's going on?

A difficult one, maybe - but surely not beyond Ms Joan McAlpine. She simply has to say that it's all the Scottish Government's doing! And if we had more of the doings of the Scottish Government, we'd have even more bigger better news! 

Joan - always close to Salmond

Commenting, Joan McAlpine MSP said:

“Today’s record employment figures are very encouraging indeed. With the limited powers it has, the Scottish Government is making progress on tackling unemployment across all groups – in the face of the UK Government’s ongoing austerity agenda (amazing how the Scottish government with its limited powers has done this. Can anyone explain it? And how long can we continue this?)  
“Female employment is now at a record high of 1,288,000 – and this is welcome evidence of the Scottish Government’s on-going work to tackle inequality (yes! welcome evidence! on-going work! Let's keep this as vague as possible.)
“Only a strong team of SNP MPs will ensure that Scotland’s voice is heard at Westminster so we can deliver the best possible deal for Scotland with more powers to create more jobs, grow the economy and allow us to build a more prosperous and fairer country.”

So, more powers will create more jobs and grow the economy. Interesting. Let's hear what these powers are. Presumably every sovereign independent country in Europe has these powers. Only poor old Scotland is lacking them. Spain, for example, must have them. Jeesus, I wonder why half their youth are unemployed? Presumably none of their political parties are campaigning for more powers as they have them, so maybe they don't know how to use them, the clowns. Johnny Bloody foreigner. Let's send McAlpine over there to teach them how to use those powers properly. 

The Vow

It rumbles on. First the yessirs were alleging that the time scale was going to slip. Having delivered the Smith Commission report timeously, the allegation moved on and is now that the vow hasn't been met - as devo-max (whatever the eff that might be) it ain't.
Let us remind ourselves what was promised: extensive new powers for the Parliament will be delivered. Now, is that clear and woolly enough? Hard for that not to be delivered!

Zzzzzzz

Of course we all recall that ex-premier Salmond (sheds tear) was going to haud wir feet to the fire for this vow, which sits somewhat uneasily with his response to the pledge before the referendum, which was to call it, "a last minute desperate offer of nothing."

Let us not forget that this Vow was the Unionist trick by which the referendum was stolen from the 45. That's the narrative. Has anyone actually been found who switched from Yes to No because of the vow? I think not.

But let's move on - for if there is something which totally overshadows the ridiculous assertion that the Vow tricked people into voting NO, Let us consider the monumental trick by which people were tricked into voting YES.

That's right. This pile of taxpayer funded nonsense. We'll use the pound! Our research institutions will still receive UK wide funding, and we'll still receive the BBC. Oh yes and we'll just seamlessly become an independent member of the EU. As Brian Wilson says, this was white paper, funded by taxpayers and written by supposedly neutral civil servants, rather than a party tract. Yet it has been clear from the day it was published, and is even clearer now, that this crucial statement on which so much depended – jobs, schools, hospitals – was a complete and utter fabrication, concocted for purely political purposes.