IT takes a lot to make me lost for words but when I saw the One Nation, One Britain news item I was speechless. After I had picked my jaw off the ground I decided it was time to write to our UK PM, a certain Kim Jong-Johnson, and thank him profusely for increasing support for Scottish independence.
In this “One Nation” Britain they are seeking to build, you would think they would have at least researched the fact that many Scottish schools would already be on holiday on the appointed day of the grand flag-waving and chanting ceremony. And they might also have understood that the Union flag has connotations here that are different to the rest of the UK. Notwithstanding the fact that the Union is not particularly well regarded by at least half the Scottish population!
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But leaving those details aside, what is far more troubling is the fact that Johnson has moved from being a clone of one former would-be dictator, a certain D Trump, to copying an actual dictator in the shape of the North Korean leader. Who will he copy next? Might it be Putin or Lukashenko? The activities that go with that are likely to be altogether more sinister.
What is abundantly clear is that other signs of dictatorship or indeed outright fascism are already apparent, from banning protests and controlling the media (just look at who is appointed to head the BBC, and consider that BBC Scotland is now under threat of closure), to “adjusting” the political system (for example changes to the powers of the Electoral Commission, and its apparatus of checks and balances). The recent Batley and Spen by-election sadly reminds us that murder and politics are not an unknown combination in the UK. And the case of lawyer and independence activist Willie McRae, who died in mysterious circumstances, serves as a possible indicator that what may lie ahead is nothing new.
So are state sponsored murders or Argentinian-style “disappearances” too outrageous? Stop and just think about the direction of travel on this before you reject that suggestion. Because as was stated in the days of the Red Clydesiders, “Fascism doesn’t necessarily crash loudly into the house wearing jackboots, it sometimes creeps in on tip-toe through the back door.”
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All of which should make you think that we aren’t heading for the world of the 1984 novel, we are actually in it! And let us be quite clear on this, the One Nation that English nationalist Johnson is after is not a romantically Re-united Kingdom but actually Greater England, which all has shades of Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian nationalist who took over the Republic of Yugoslavia. That obviously didn’t end well for him or Serbia, and God forbid we would ever have war on these islands, but the important point here is the clear abuse of power and the ignoring of the democratic wishes of part of the population of the country.
What Unionists in Scotland need to ask themselves is, how far do they want to see this go? The Union between Scotland and England that has been in place for more than 300 years is being inherently disregarded in this One Nation approach, as it was in the time of Margaret Thatcher. As such, Scots who favour this have to decide if they are happy with losing, sooner or later, the Scottish legal system, the Church of Scotland and Scottish television; a narrowing of the education system; no recognition of Burns Night or St Andrews Day and so on. Instead we would have to celebrate, among others, what the English call Whit. If you are like me then you are also thinking, Whit?
Now is the time for Unionists in Scotland to realise what is really happening here and support independence. Once gained, we can have the freedom to shape the forward-looking country that we are all comfortable with, and one that is at ease with itself in the world.
Rab Mungall
Dunfermline
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