UNIONISTS waste no time in criticising the Yes movement for "manufacturing grievances", so their latest offering is quite something.
Scotland In Union's Pamela Nash, writing in The Scotsman, has a really, really important St Andrew's Day message to send: "Unionists must stop nationalists hijacking Saltire."
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Her piece rails against those vile activists who want Scotland to be independent for trying to take ownership of the Scottish flag.
Yes, this is genuinely how desperate the Unionists have become.
Nash writes: "Over recent years, the SNP and its fellow nationalists have tried to appropriate everything that is Scottish, using biased versions of our history, our culture and our symbols to their own ends. This is most prominent in their use of our Saltire.
"This is why Scotland in Union has been running the #EveryonesFlag campaign, as a reminder that no political party or movement has a monopoly on our culture and heritage."
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We want Scotland to be an independent country, so we carry the flag of Scotland on marches. This, to Scotland In Union, seems to represent some nefarious attempt to deny anyone else use of the Saltire.
Nobody is denying them the use of the Saltire – other than, perhaps, themselves. They do have a fondness for the Union Jack, particularly on food products, don't they?
Nash goes on to question a survey question by the Scottish Independence Convention, which asked how strongly people agree or disagree with this statement: "People recognise that the Saltire is aligned with the independence movement.”
She adds: "It’s clear that the Scottish Independence Convention is seeking a positive response to this so that it can continue the campaign to make Scotland’s national flag a political symbol.
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"Instead, we need stop creating divisions, celebrate together and remember that we have more in common than divides us."
The Yes movement want independence so we can free ourself from Westminster-imposed policies such as Brexit and the hostile environment. Scotland In Union is the group campaigning to stop us from being able to scrap these divisive UK policies.
And here they are, saying pro-indy campaigners are "creating divisions" by using the Saltire. We know the chaos the UK is in isn't doing much for Unionist arguments, but is this really the best distraction they can attempt?
Though if the Scottish Independence Convention find that the Saltire is aligned with independence, we suspect a Twitter avatar campaign on their behalf won't do much to change perceptions.
In which case, we definitely welcome their decision to promote its use everywhere! They'll have to forgive us for not wanting ownership of the Union flag, though.
The UK-negotiated Brexit is set to devastate Scotland. Theresa May visits Scotland with David Mundell and they break the ministerial code, notifying the wrong Renfrewshire MP. She also shuts out a newspaper from her press events because she doesn't like its politics.
Those are all just stories from the past few days. And what are Scotland In Union complaining about? The Yes movement using a Saltire.
Is it any wonder so few people take them seriously?
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