Eradicate the dinosaurs

Last night I was at a YES rally featuring Jean Urquhart and John Finnie, both Independent MSP’s, both defectors from the SNP.

The evening began with this:

An amusing little piece, but a somewhat vacuous contribution to the indy debate.  The connotation is that only news in London is news and somehow independence will rid us of this imbalance.  I’m an avid reader of the Northern Times, well maybe 10% of it – the rest is all about what’s happening in Golspie and Brora – of very little interest to me.  It was the first of many cheap shots.

After another video describing the implosion of the NHS in England Jean made her opening address.  She began by describing the lack of democracy at the time of the Act of Union, and riots on the streets of Edinburgh.  She said that Scotland was once great, and that the genetic inventiveness of the Scots is still around, if only we were independent.

John Finnie gave us a discourse on the evils of Westminster and English public schools and trumpeted the tolerance of the Scots to in-migration.  Apparently Poles, people from the Indian sub-continent, Africans, Europeans  - they’ve all been welcomed.  He failed to mention one of the biggest in-migrations to Scotland over the last few decades – the English.  I wondered why.  He bemoaned the London economy sucking the life out of the rest of the UK. 

Between his nationalistic ramblings he gave an interesting analysis of the decline of conservatism, the labour party and latterly the liberals in Scotland and pointed out that independence was the only way Scotland could get the Government it wanted.  But much of his incogent presentation erred into the party political – cheap shots at other parties and their policies, and vague promises of something for everyone after independence.

For me the evening epitomised what is wrong with the YES campaign.  In my little social media bubble I’ve been drawn to the more radical vision of Independence, of an inclusive society underscored by a written constitution empowering and resourcing local decision-making.  A chance to be rid of the establishment dinosaurs centred around Westminster and to bring power to the people.

These MSPs presented the oh-so-nearly anti-English Scottish nationalism that I’ve spent much of my 30 years in Scotland banging my head against.  Last night was almost enough to drive me back into the NO camp.

But it didn’t.  If we get a YES vote the work begins on September 19^th – and a priority is to get to grips with that constitution, and rid ourselves of those dinosaurs: - including John Finnie and Jean Urquhart and others of their ilk who who think that Scottish people are somehow better than others.  They are not, but they do deserve to control who governs them, and have a direct say in what happens.