Stephen Daisley on the SNP's latest call for another referendum
Things I have learned today:
Stephen Daisley has written a superb article here called
"There’s more than one way to be a proud Scot,"
which responds to the latest round of calls by the First Minister of Scorland for a debate leading to another referendum on independence.
I happen to believe that you should only put something to a referendum if you are prepared to accept the result. The site which I hoped would win in the Scottish Indepenednce referendum did so: the side I voted for in the EU membership referendum lost.
As a democrat I think it is essential that both those results are respected and implemented and failure to do so will cause all kinds of damage to Britain's democracy.
Those who refuse to accept either or both results do not seem to be aware of how their intransigence appears to those whose democratic decisions they want to overthrow.
In nobody is the cognitive dissonance between shouting to protect one's own democratic rights while seeking to overturn those of others than the Scottish first minister, who last week promised to try to frustrate the vote by 17.4 million Britsih people to secede from the EU while seeking another referendum for the Scottish people to seek to seceded from Britain.
Does anyone doubt that if Scotland voted by 52% to 48% or even more narrowly for Independence, Nicola Sturgeon would react with extreme fury against anyone who sought to prevent that vote from being implemented? Yet she does not appear to have any comprehension that this is exactly how her attitude to those on the winning side in both the 2014 and 2016 Scottish Independence and EU referenda comes over.
Stephen Daisley writes in his article:
"Nationalists believe the only way to be Scottish is to not be British and they have allowed this disdain for the dual nationality of Scottish-British to animate their offensive against the Union.
The Scottish identity used to be broad and malleable enough to accommodate Scottish-Britishness but thanks to the SNP Scottishness grows narrower and more rigid by the day. That anyone could be a patriot of not one but two countries might perplex them but it is who we are and they want to take it away from us.
What neither they nor most of their Unionist parliamentary rivals fully appreciate is the backlash phenomenom they have inspired."
It's a good article and I strongly recommend it: I wish every SNP member would read it.
- A Survation opinion poll last month in Scotland found that 35% of those who responded never want Britain or Scotland to hold any another referendum. Ever.
Stephen Daisley has written a superb article here called
"There’s more than one way to be a proud Scot,"
which responds to the latest round of calls by the First Minister of Scorland for a debate leading to another referendum on independence.
I happen to believe that you should only put something to a referendum if you are prepared to accept the result. The site which I hoped would win in the Scottish Indepenednce referendum did so: the side I voted for in the EU membership referendum lost.
As a democrat I think it is essential that both those results are respected and implemented and failure to do so will cause all kinds of damage to Britain's democracy.
Those who refuse to accept either or both results do not seem to be aware of how their intransigence appears to those whose democratic decisions they want to overthrow.
In nobody is the cognitive dissonance between shouting to protect one's own democratic rights while seeking to overturn those of others than the Scottish first minister, who last week promised to try to frustrate the vote by 17.4 million Britsih people to secede from the EU while seeking another referendum for the Scottish people to seek to seceded from Britain.
Does anyone doubt that if Scotland voted by 52% to 48% or even more narrowly for Independence, Nicola Sturgeon would react with extreme fury against anyone who sought to prevent that vote from being implemented? Yet she does not appear to have any comprehension that this is exactly how her attitude to those on the winning side in both the 2014 and 2016 Scottish Independence and EU referenda comes over.
Stephen Daisley writes in his article:
"Nationalists believe the only way to be Scottish is to not be British and they have allowed this disdain for the dual nationality of Scottish-British to animate their offensive against the Union.
The Scottish identity used to be broad and malleable enough to accommodate Scottish-Britishness but thanks to the SNP Scottishness grows narrower and more rigid by the day. That anyone could be a patriot of not one but two countries might perplex them but it is who we are and they want to take it away from us.
What neither they nor most of their Unionist parliamentary rivals fully appreciate is the backlash phenomenom they have inspired."
It's a good article and I strongly recommend it: I wish every SNP member would read it.
Comments
That kind of nationalism is equally silly whether it is made by the kind of Scottish nationalist who does not see that you can love Scotland without rejecting the rest of Britain or by the kind of British nationalist who does not understand that you can love Britain without rejecting Europe.
And even within the 52% there are plenty of people who neither hate Europe or define themselves against Europe, they just don't want to have to obey "one size fits all" policies designed for a whole continent which do not always meet the needs of every country.
Scotland does not want to be free of England. A large minority, but definitely a minority nonetheless, does wants to leave the UK.
The majority voted not to do so and the SNP have never won a majority of the votes of the people of Scotland at any election.