Union is a darker place since 2014 and six years of Tory sociopathy

Brazilian researchers have found that people who implacably refuse to be bound by official guidelines on preventing the spread of coronavirus are carrying traits often found in malevolent sociopaths. The scientists have found that these occur most often in those who seek to dismiss coronavirus concerns by failing to wear face masks, adhere to social distancing or maintain hygiene. They have identified this as the “dark triad” of personality disorders: narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy.

This would appear to explain some aspects of the US president’s conduct prior to coronavirus. During the pandemic it has come to define both him and his presidency. It can now be observed in full spate in his desperate attempts to create a state of emergency as a means of gaining four more years in the White House. And yet, in some of my darkest thoughts in recent weeks I’ve almost wished that Trump does get his second term in the White House, and for purely selfish reasons.

You might think that these past few months have been peak Trump and that the White House Pennywise couldn’t possibly become more deranged. Think again. He would view an electoral victory as an endorsement of his behaviour. Worse: knowing that he doesn’t require to be judged at a third election he’ll quite simply become unhinged and out of control. And watching our own right-wing narcissist in Downing Street prostrating himself before him in post-Brexit desperation will not be a pretty sight either. I’d guess, though, that it will move the dial a further five to 10 points in favour of Scottish independence.

Therein lies my dark fantasy of a continuing Trump administration. In reality, though, I simply don’t harbour sufficient animus towards anyone to want to leave them to the mercy of this psychopath. But you catch my drift.

I think it would be foolish for any Yes supporters to think that the current run of poll predictions indicating a growing majority in favour of independence is because more voters have become convinced of the economic case. Rather, Nicola Sturgeon, by displaying a high quality of leadership, has lent a degree of authority to the government she leads. That the Downing Street operation during this time of mortal peril has come to resemble last orders at Bonkers has helped greatly too.

No matter how sharply you strategise and how finely you crunch the numbers, if people trust you with their lives during a lethal pandemic you are in possession of politics’ golden ticket. A febrile band of Unionist commentators seem to have grasped this too and, seized by rising levels of panic, they have switched to hysterical mode in trying to defame the independence movement.

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There was even a faint hint of desperation this year as they sought to make something of their increasingly ridiculous and irrelevant festival of GERS. In a typically badly written and inelegant column in The Times yesterday, Scotland’s arch-Unionist was reduced to criticising Yes supporters for being selfish and not wishing to share Scotland’s bounty with the rest of the UK. We’ll leave aside the fact that that billions of pounds in revenue have been lost to the public purse by Westminster’s habit of looking the other way when rich people seek to hide their gains in pirate jurisdictions.

Try telling the 400,000 English residents who have made a rewarding life in Scotland that this isn’t a country which likes to share, or the many others currently enquiring about property north of the Border. It will also surprise the refugees and migrants who know that an independent Scotland gives them a better chance of being treated as human beings. Supporters of the Union know over the next few years the numbers of English migrants in Scotland will rise sharply, and mainly because they think they and their children will be safer here.

THE campaign to portray Scottish nationalism as essentially nasty and divisive was a feature of the first independence referendum and in recent weeks this message has become more insistent. It’s as if, faced by No-Deal Brexit on top of coronavirus and the prospect of becoming a deranged president’s glove puppets, Unionists know that the old economic scaremongering has been rendered meaningless. They have had to call in George Galloway, for God’s sake. An independent Scotland no longer feels like a wrench and instead looks like a haven.

In 2014 many who had begun to look kindly on independence ultimately opted for what they felt was the safe refuge of the Union. What they have seen since then, though, is six years of what can only be described as chaos, bad judgment and a procession of characters holding the great offices of state that you wouldn’t trust to run the tombola at the parish fundraiser. And this is only the beginning.

In the face of such a prolonged period of ineptitude and sociopathy the wider Yes movement doesn’t really have to do very much, save avoid making any daft mistakes. And this too: just as we resent being portrayed as ungenerous and snippy we must ourselves avoid giving vent to some tired tropes of our own.

There are many Scots who will never be persuaded by arguments for independence. They will hold their existing cultural, social, historical and family ties to England to be sacred. This does not make them anything less than fully Scottish. To suggest otherwise is simply juvenile. Unionism is an entirely reasonable and sincere position for authentically Scottish people to hold.

The country next door is not an occupying force compelling us to adhere to a suite of values alien to our own. We could have been billeted on this island with far more belligerent and unpleasant neighbours. It’s not worthy of a movement which prides itself on being enlightened and welcoming to accuse supporters of the Union in our midst of treachery. If Yes is to prevail it must rely upon a significant number of Scottish citizens for whom independence is a preference rather than a passion. They will remain well-disposed to England and all things English.

Measured against the Cummings/Johnson/Gove axis Scotland currently looks like a mature and self-confident state, comfortable in its own skin and content to disagree without rancour. It’s what Nicola Sturgeon projects, no matter your opinion of her government, and it’s driving her political enemies round the twist.