On the opening day of the SNP virtual conference I have a question to ask of our opponents and it is as yet a question to which they have never given a satisfactory answer. Namely why do they attempt to portray independence and the SNP as being the personal project of whoever is party leader at any particular time.
This has to me and I suspect many others been a source of bewilderment not to mention irritation. It is however a question to which I think I know the answer and that is that these people have through a combination of arrogance, delusion and entitlement have been conditioned to believe that they are somehow some form of elite or if you prefer to use a calvinist term elect so they naturally have a very genuine fear of anyone who challenges them.
It therefore stands to reason that In the bizzare world of unionists, all SNP leaders must have a cult of personality and all members be its willing slaves. This to anyone who is even remotely sane is an extremely disturbing train of thought but in their eyes there is an almost bibical truth in it, as if it were handed down from Mount Sanai by no less than Moses himself. After all it is in their opinion almost ungodly to oppose their precious union.
To these people who live so far in the past that even Doctor Who couldn’t locate them and he or she or they in the event of non binary timelord had the advantage of time travel. The SNP and the independence movement represents a threat to their very way of life and therefore must be stopped and what better way to do it than demonising them by making outlandish claims and hoping that by the fact many tend not to be politically aware that they just might work .
In the eyes of unionist Scotland or what I refer to as Shortbread Colonial North Britain the cult of personality is an extremely effective weapon to be used to undermine Scotland at every possible chance. This is, always has been, and always will be a key tactic of unionists in their attempt to frame the SNP and the independence movement is a small obsessed minority when in fact it is a mass organisation comprising hundreds of thousands of active supporters and almost two million voters. Though I now think it’s significantly higher ready to vote for it when and it will be when a referendum is eventually called
In the eyes of these true believers
Alex Salmond the man led the party to victory and broke the unionists stranglehold on Scotland and our body politic had the cult of personality. Now his successor Nicola Sturgeon who has carried on our success has cult of personality, and I guarantee you if we replace Nicola with A N Other and within six months A N Other will have, yes you’ve guessed it, the cult of personality. Personally I think the greatest exponents of this I’ml UK politics in my lifetime have been in no particular order Margaret Thatcher Conservative And Unionist Party. Tony Blair The Labour Party , Gordon Brown The Labour Party, Ruth Davidson Conservative And Unionist Party, Boris Johnson Conservative And Unionist Party, and the late member for North Antrim, The Reverend Ian Paisley Democratic Unionist Party. Now I don’t know if you’ve noticed but there isn’t a single SNP member on that list, yet still our opponents persist with that line and it getting more tiresome by the day.
Now I think I may have sussed the reasons for this oft repeated detribe
and I believe it is almost entirely due to the fact that having the anger issues they do, unionists can’t cope with more than one opponent or as they see it naughty child at a time. This is a ridiculous and to be perfectly honest unsustainable position and deep down I think they know it. However in case they need reminding this is not how you win friends and influence potential voters. Insulting the democratically elected government of Scotland and those voted for it is not the way to bring voters back to the union and if anything will drive even more to our cause. In saying this I am minded never to interupt my opponents when they are in the middle of making a mistake and believe me this is a mistake of potentially gargantuan proportions.
To me and many others this offensive and to be quite frank ludicrous attitude is exactly why we vote for the SNP and indeed any party who supports the restoration of Scotland’s independence. This haughty high handed behaviour reeks with the stench of colonialism and I think the time has come to remind them that Scotland is a nation within a unitary state. We are whether they like it or not , a country which has our own culture, language, and traditions. We are not and have never been a colony nor will we ever be.
Our reluctance to accept this attempt at colonialism seems to have upset our unionist friends and I can’t for life of me figure out why. Oh wait I can actually, it’s because some people have privilege which has gone on for so long they now take it for granted they don’t like to be reminded to check it by those they say publicly are equals but privately view as subordinates. It is I think time to inform them that this is not the 1850’s and we’re no longer afraid of big bad Britainia. In fact and let’s be honest we along with the rest of the world are having a really good laugh at them and their outdated colonial attitudes and realise the time has come to consign such attitudes to the history books.
You see this accusation of the SNP being cult like is total and absolute drivel and believe me the unionists know it. After all they never threw such scurrilous comments at our former leader Gordon Wilson and there is a very good reason for that. The reaon is of course that in the days of Gordon’s leadership the SNP were not a serious threat to the union and therefore no threat to the entitled self serving unionist political class. This meant we could be tolerated at least to some extent though we would never be fully accepted by them
Alex Salmond though was a very different political opperator to Gordon Wilson. This was a man who was both charismatic and flawed but trying to label him and the SNP a one man band is absolutely ludicrous. The fact is that on his election to lead the first ever devolved SNP government Alex surrounded himself with potential rivals such as Nicola Sturgeon who would become his eventual successor Mike Russell, and Kenny McAskill. This is hardly the behaviour of someone with a personality cult. Truth be told he didn’t have one and neither does Nicola Sturgeon.
What they both possesed and Nicola’s case still possesses is something that unionists fear even more than death and that is the ability to win the hearts and minds of Scotland’s voters. This is something which fills our opponents with panic and will in due course led to the restoration of our country’s independence. You see it isn’t the messengers that really concerm unionists, it is the message and the fact it is resonating with more voters than ever before and there is nothing they can do to stop it from prevailing.
Till next time
Gayle
Tartantights Blog 