Another Tory Rigmarole

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By Jason Michael

What’s that Mrs May, another attempt to humiliate us by insulting the woman we have elected as our First Minister? Well you just keep that up and see how that works for you up here in Scotland. You really don’t understand us, do you?

English heavy-handedness has always served the cause of independence well. When in the 1290s the Plantagenet king, Edward I, rode around Scotland “ridding himself of shit” and forcing the snivelling Scots nobles to swear allegiance to himself he ignited a popular revolt that would ensure Scotland’s independence for the next 393 years. It was the same story in the American colonies, in Ireland, and in India. When English hegemony is challenged its answer is always the same, sheer and bloody violence. Nothing has changed since 1291. It’s still exactly the same.

Brexit couldn’t be going better for Scotland right now. That is to say that it’s all going tits up for Britain and the Conservatives. They have a shower of incompetent dimwits off in Brussels trying to strong arm some of the best political and economic minds in Europe, and the Europeans are having none of it. As things continue to go downhill for Westminster the First Minister of Scotland is over there having cosy, whispered conversations with her friends on the continent and there is nothing Theresa May can do to stop her.

Our sourpussed Scottish unionists can be as bitter as they like. The reality is Nicola Sturgeon’s “day job” is doing what’s best for the people and economy of Scotland, and a Tory-DUP delivered exit from the EU and the single market is as useful to Scotland as a hole in the head. But rather than playing the game by the rules the British government has once again shifted the goalposts, banning our democratically elected First Minster from meeting the Prime Minister – no doubt in an attempt to keep Sturgeon out of the loop and humiliate her by inflicting her with David – “Fluffy” – Mundell instead. Just imagine having to sit in the same room as that bloated windbag as he pretends to be your boss. I only hope Nicola has the good sense to keep it strictly email.

Of course this is all a ploy to put our First Minister and Scottish democracy back in its box. It’s about the fundamental disrespect the English state has for our country; a show of typical and to-be-expected British bully boy tactics. In saying that Nicola Sturgeon, as the head of the devolved Scottish government, is not an “international leader” the London government is clumsily trying to kill two birds with the one stone; remind Scotland that it is not considered a nation – as “not an inter-national leader” would imply – and curtail our government’s conversations with our European friends.

Well it is tough pigeon for May and Mundell. With or without Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish National Party Scotland is moving. We are on the march and the direction we are headed is independence. This insult today wasn’t merely a cheap dig at the First Minister. It was another slap in the face for everyone in Scotland, another confirmation that we are not equal partners in this union that has only ever served the interests and bank accounts of the English establishment.

Some idiot strategist behind the scenes in London – because, let’s face it, Theresa isn’t that smart – thinks that somehow affronting us enough will force us to put down our resentments and our hopes for national autonomy and get on with the business of being good little north Britons. That’s not going to happen. We all know that if tricks like this were being pulled by the Spanish on the Basques there would be blood on the streets already. The truth is that we Scots are too damn patient with these clowns and this buffoonery. London has lost us.

Take me for example. Back in 2012 I was a socialist of the former Labour variety, forever put off the red Tories by Tony Blair and a million dead Iraqis on my conscience. Polling from then shows that I was not alone in being content with being “Scottish-not-British” in a UK where we were left in peace and shown a bit of respect. Now, five years on, after countless lies and broken promises, a brutal and manipulative BBC media war, and one insult after another, I’m back in the majority in thinking that if I die with Scotland still shackled to this hellish union my entire life will have been pointless.

We’re not going back in the box, and the sooner the warmongers in Westminster get this into their think skulls the sooner we can all get on with our lives. So let Mrs May carry on with her ragman’s roll of insults and petty jibes. She’s only making sure more Scottish people take the hump, and that suits us in the independence movement right down to the ground. The scales are tipping and they’re tipping in a direction I happen to like. It can only go so far before we finally take the bull by the horns and do what is right for our own country.

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