So tomorrow's the big day and the smell of fear is in the air. They've tried threatening us, they've tried frightening us, they've belatedly tried bribing us and now they're even begging us. Strange, isn't it, the way they're desperate to hang onto 6 million 'benefit junkies'?
The most striking thing, for me, about this whole campaign is the way that the arguments have switched round. Even ten years ago I would never have dreamed of voting for an independent Scotland. The whole argument in favour seemed to be based on the past, while the case against was about the modern world. Now things have somehow revolved 180 degrees. All the 'Better Together' arguments have been about winning past wars, the Empire etc, while the independence side has been the one looking to the future. Perhaps that's what helped change my mind and that of others.
My main reason for voting YES is based on what I actually want our society to be like. I am utterly ashamed to be part of a country that spends billions on weapons while millions of our fellow citizens live below the poverty line. I'm ashamed to live in a country that cares nothing about the elderly, the sick and the disabled; a country that actually points the finger of blame at the disadvantaged. I'm ashamed to live in a country that puts profit above everything else, to the detriment of many of its own people. It's time for change.
I think it was Cameron that likened Scottish independence to a divorce and it's a perfect analogy. People get married, have children, buy a house together, work to bring their children up but sometimes they drift apart. There are many cases where the man (or the woman, for that matter) hardly ever sees his children, working all the hours God sends to get more and more material things. Perhaps the husband is out buying new cars, and booking holidays to exotic places when all his children want is to have time spent with them. 'But the fancy cars, expensive holidays, huge house etc will benefit the kids as well,' the husband argues. Finally, after one of the children takes ill and his father is never there for him, the wife takes the kids and moves out to start again.
It's the same with the Union; it worked well enough but now we want different things. The Westminster Government is all about promoting wealth for the privileged few, which, they argue, will filter down to everybody else. Instead of caring for its citizens it thinks that big businesses making lots of cash is the way to go; after all, everybody will benefit in the long run. We here in Scotland see things differently; we want the vulnerable in our society taken care of properly; not waiting for crumbs from the rich man's table. And, just like the wife in the scenario I outlined, it's time to take the weans, leave and start again. And we're not demanding child support either!
Those in Scotland that have been espousing a NO vote seem to have made their minds up first and then sought reasons afterwards. If you look at their arguments on newspaper forums all they do is regurgitate the shit that's been fed to them by a compliant media. They question nothing but just parrot anything and everything they've been told, desperate to look for rationalisations for the fact that they're only voting NO because they're in the Orange Lodge or because they support a particular football team.
This campaign has shown, if nothing else, the power of the media to propagate lies and have them believed as facts. I have no doubt that there are those among the YES campaigners who have done their best to shout down any debate but there have been just as many on the other side, although we never hear about them. YES campaigners have been subjected to violence, with some ending up in hospital; but our media has said absolutely nothing about it. Instead we've been fed the myth of the 'Cybernat' and been told constantly that the YES campaign has been one of intimidation.
4,000 people marching to demonstrate against BBC bias has been called intimidation, while 15,000 Northern-Irish Orangemen coming over to march down the Royal Mile is a 'celebration of the Union'. So is this the new word that is going to be used to describe protests - 'intimidation'? The most disgusting aspect is that it's a Labour politician that has come up with this slur. So the marches against the Poll Tax were 'intimidation', the mass rallies against the bedroom tax were 'intimidation' and even the famous Jarrow March was nothing more than troublemakers trying to intimidate politicians? You'd expect this kind of thing from the Telegraph or the Daily Mail; not a Labour politician. And we're supposed to trust these people?
And the Daily Record is still at it. George Galloway has received death threats addressed to the House of Commons. It's nothing new to Gorgeous George as he's received numerous such threats on many occasions; not least from The Peeppul. It has been said in other newspapers that Galloway received the death threat from somebody angry at his anti-Israel stance. The Daily Record, however, decides to leave this little fact out of its reporting of the story. They report that Galloway has been speaking on behalf of the NO campaign as part of the story about the death threat. The implication is obvious and it shows the depths that the NO campaign has actually plumbed.
The DR also trots out another list of rich folk that we should listen to and obey, including Paul McCartney, Bob Geldof and JK Rowling. They also, unfathomably, have Winston Churchill on their list. Winston Churchill? The man that sent the troops into Dundee to attack strikers? Well, I suppose those strikers were trying to intimidate their employers, eh?
McMurdo also has to resort to lies and distortion to try to persuade any of The Peeppul with a mind of their own (there must be one somewhere) to vote NO. He's trying the 'intimidation' myth as well, spouting the lie that the YES campaign has been overwhelmingly anti-English. I must have missed that somewhere. All I've heard are arguments about what's best for the Scottish people; there's not been one anti-English comment as far as I can recall. But, then, when did McMurdo ever let the truth get in the way?
He also conjures up the ghost of Darien, saying that's how an indpendent Scotland will turn out. Now, that's a rather unfortunate piece of history to bring up. The English Government at the time went out of its way to ensure that the Darien venture would fail, even blockading the area so there was no help for the people dying there. Effectively the English were looking to bankrupt Scotland so they could bribe the Scottish nobility into joining the Union. Unfortunately for the Scottish folk actually on the Darien isthmus, religious bigotry prevented them from using the well-known cure for malaria: quinine. At that time quinine was known as 'Jesuit's Bark' as it was they that had discovered it. Scottish people would not take it; believing that it was a popish plot to poison everybody! So the real Darien disaster was caused by English hostility and the intransigence of The Peeppul. Somehow I don't think that is what McMurdo had in mind.
Finally, I noticed the other day that the Daily Record finally came up with a positive, valid reason for staying in the Union. Apparently Simon Cowell and his X-Factor crew will be coming to Scotland to do auditions for the next series. No doubt this won't happen if Scotland votes for independence. I don't know about you but I'm swithering now...
Aye right!
Vote YES
It's the positive choice!
Brilliant as ever
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