LAST Saturday I woke up as normal, carried on with my normal Saturday morning routine, but one thing had changed: I’d become comparable to a racist. I never made any racist comment nor had I committed any racist act but, according to the Mayor of London, I, along with anyone else who supports Scottish Independence, was similar to a racist.

Sadiq Khan, the Labour Mayor of London was on a day trip to Scotland to pop into the empty hall of the Labour branch office in Scotland spring conference. He was invited up to be a key speaker to the ever-diminishing crowd, to show them that London Labour was actually interested in what their branch office was doing in Scotland.

His speech was trailed across the media with the comment that ‘there is no real difference between voting for a separate Scotland and “trying to divide us on the basis of background, race or religion”. He continued: “With the world becoming an increasingly divided place. Brexit. President Trump. And the rise of populist and narrow nationalist parties around the world. Now’s not the time to play on people’s fears. Or to pit one part of our country – or one section of our society – against each other.”

This was not an off-the-cuff remark made in the heat of the moment. It was a deliberate, thought out statement, trailed in the press beforehand to maximise its impact. It may have been a badly judged, ill-conceived comment but it was certainly deliberate.

Khan was obviously badly briefed by Labour politicians who do nothing but put Scotland down. We see and hear them every day on the TV and radio, their only focus is on promoting “SNP bad” stories and they don’t care if such a message insults their former supporters. Labour are on a one-way ride to oblivion, following what can only be described as electoral burnt earth policy – they’ve given up trying to get former supporters back and are focussing on an ever-shrinking voter base.

Highlighting a party in its death-throes, the British Labour in Scotland conference showed a party this is out of touch with Scotland and out of touch with what Scotland’s people want.

This was highlighted by almost every speaker but especially so by their current leader’s comments regarding another independence referendum. She’s not having it. According to her, Scotland’s ills won’t be solved by our parliament having greater control over our resources or policies that could help everyone. No, according to Kezia Dugdale we’re better to hang on in there as another Tory Government uses austerity to rip families and communities apart. We’re better to hang on in the vain hope that somehow, by some electoral miracle, a Labour Government will suddenly appear on the horizon and eventually win a UK General Election. She puts Labour, London Labour, first. Scotland has to adapt to what London wants in Dugdale’s Labour Party.

However, it wasn’t just Khan who delivered a poor speech to the Labour conference. His party leader – for the time being – Jeremy Corbyn again highlighted his complete lack of understanding of Scottish politics when he claimed that people who love their country don’t try to divide it.

That statement from Jeremy shows the complete hypocrisy of the Labour Party’s stance on Scotland right now. They chastise, criticise and label independence supporters as divisive, blind nationalist, seeking to divide people on the basis of nationality. But let’s not forget the fact that the Labour Party are the ones who have signed a blank cheque for a right-wing hard Brexit, driven by an ever increasing closed-minded, shallow and ‘patriotic’ Tory Government. It was Westminster who wouldn’t allow EU nationals a vote in the EU referendum!

I want Scotland to be a normal, independent country using all its powers and resources for the benefit of everyone who lives here, regardless of where they are from. It infuriates me that the logical, democratic, inclusive and sensible arguments for an independent Scotland are branded as emotional and meaningless by a party obsessed with giving blind loyalty to this broken and defunct Union based purely on emotion, regardless of who gets hurt by perpetual Conservative Policy. And regardless of how it destroys their party – surely that is the true blind, divisive nationalism.

These speeches from Labour’s conference highlight that Scotland simply doesn’t exist to London centric politicians – they are the most parochial of all politicians.

A stunning example of this was the UK Transport Minister telling the UK Parliament that both the Tay and Forth road bridges were closed due to the SNP Scottish Government removing tolls from these bridges. This must have come as a great surprise to the thousands of Scots motorists who use these bridges on a daily basis! You have to wonder about the abilities of the UK civil service if they could get something like this so obviously wrong.

How much longer can we afford to let such incompetence have any say over Scotland? Why should anyone in Scotland be worried about independence if it brings us the benefit of leaving such poorly informed civil servants and politicians.

However, Khan’s comments – and Corbyn’s – have to be seen for what they really are. They are part of the narrative of Project Fear Part 2, a desperate attempt to rewrite history; to make the Independence Referendum of 2014 seem like everyone was at one another’s throats.

They want us to forget the positive atmosphere of the campaign – especially on the Yes side. Project Fear wants us to forget about the mass canvassing of politically long forgotten housing schemes; the humour of the guy in a trike blaring out Star Wars Imperial March to Labour MPs up on a day trip to deny Scotland democracy; and to make us forget about the Margo mobile and the hope that people had for a better future.

We should be wary of the scaremongering and the outrageous statements made by people who should know better. They are looking for a negative reaction so that they can point to so-called Cybernats to underline their negative narrative.

Whenever someone like Sadiq Khan equates Scottish civic nationalism with racism let’s think of the words of the late SNP MSP Bashir Ahmad who said: “It isn’t important where you come from, what matters is where we are going together as a nation.”