Scottish independence: Yes, the ‘Badge of Shame’, Yes campaigners disgrace themselves in Glasgow and elsewhere, angry Yesser gets in my face and demands “Tell me one positive thing about the UK”, my reply “Access to 200 Embassies in 160 countries through-out the world”.

Dear All

Yesterday evening, I was passing through the City Centre in Glasgow, only to stumble into the Nigel Farage Show.

Before I got to that ‘jolly’ I noticed the Better Together Crowd at the Central Station, so I got off the bus and wandered over.

I picked up a bunch of BT leaflets and started handing them out people. Some Yes guys was talking to the BT organiser but it appears one was very upset for some reason; he was wearing a Yes badge, which is now a ‘badge of shame’.

Anyway, he comes over to me and gets in my face.

He starts off by saying that, “I have just been talking to your pal” loudly, presumably he thought I was deaf.

At that point, I felt compelled to stop him and inform him the BT organiser wasn’t ‘my pal’, although not an independence related fact, I don’t like people making assumptions about me.

Next up he says to me; 

“Tell me one positive thing about the UK”.

I said immediately:

“Access to 200 Embassies in 160 countries through-out the world”!

He didn’t like that ‘positive’ answer so stomped off calling me a liar.

This just goes to show, you can’t please some people, the Yes Crowd were also at Central Station handing out leaflets, although they looked slightly lost and out of their depth. Presumably they could have benefit from some sort of leadership, again not my problem.

As to the Farage ‘show’, as you would expect the Yes protestors were also out in force there as was some kind of anti racism demonstration. At one point, a lead protestor called on the Scottish MEP David Coburn to explain his homophobic views.

As I understand it he is a homosexual, patently someone should do their research. While I was there I saw some of the Yes ‘mob’ who Labour MP Jim Murphy had to face on his travels. One of the good things about the Yes Crowd filming each other is that they capture their own faces on camera.

A well known cybernat turned up later but he saw me and then disappeared down the street, only to come back later and see me still standing there. He had a look of man who had been arrested and charged by Police Scotland awaiting his Criminal trial.  This guy is known to unpopular Nicola Sturgeon, SNP Candidate Chris Stephens, SNP Candidate Natalie McGarry, SNP MSP Humza Yousaf’s employee Shona McAlpine and SNP Candidate Jonathan Mackie.

Police Scotland made an arrest at the scene of a man later on who they quickly handcuffed and lead away with a press pack in tow snapping and filming away. The mood was very ugly despite the chanting and singing of the protestors. The Police numbered about 20 uniformed with some odd people who rather stood out which I put down to be security, whether they were Special Branch, Police Scotland or Farage’s rent a mob I wasn’t sure.

So, what was Nigel Farage up to do?

The jist or excuse is that he is campaigning to ‘save the union’, but the reality is that Ukip were using the Scottish independence referendum as a backdrop to campaign for the Westminster 2015 election.

Some of the people who attended his meeting, I recognised from attending election counts as formerly associated with the BNP. I would definitely say it was an unpleasant atmosphere in St Enoch Square verging on feral.

At one stage a guy was trying to incite the crowd because of another incident which happened in the City previously regarding an alleged assault on a Yes supporter. I informed the Police of this because it represented a threat to public safety; they said they would keep an eye on him. 

Ukip despite its faults is not what I would call a racist party; however that doesn’t mean like all parties it hasn’t got racists within its ranks. Nigel Farage’s party lacks proper policy; direction and I would have to say professionalism. That isn’t my concern, just my observations of how their MEPs including David Coburn act.

Another interesting development of late which caught my eye was former SNP deputy leader Jim Sillars claiming there will be a “day of reckoning” for major Scottish employers such as Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Life after a Yes vote.

At present major employers are speaking out in favour of a No vote, whatever their reasons are their reasons, but free speech entitles them to say what they wish, whether people chose to listen is their own affair. And incidentally most people tend to arrive at their own views without help from ‘celeb’ style endorsements.  

Sillars says that some employers are “subverting Scotland’s democratic process” and went on to vow that oil giant BP would be nationalised in an independent Scotland. A serious threat, we are to have a “day of reckoning” if the Scottish National Party wins independence. As well as targeting BP, other companies such as John Lewis are said to be getting singled out for special treatment.

You may remember that I said that there was something seriously had gone wrong with Nationalism in Scotland, well, it is clear that the proof of it is being spoken openly by people like Jim Sillars. Banks to be split up, their crime, it appears disloyalty to Alex Salmond and unpopular Nicola Sturgeon.

In a sinister tone, Jim Sillars said:

“This referendum is about power, and when we get a Yes majority, we will use that power for a day of reckoning with BP and the banks”.

  

He added:

“BP, in an independent Scotland, will need to learn the meaning of nationalisation, in part or in whole, as it has in other countries who have not been as soft as we have forced to be. We will be the masters of the oil fields, not BP or any other of the majors.”

‘Meaning of nationalisation’?

In the Scottish National Party as I understood it that is greed and cronyism under Alex Salmond and unpopular Nicola Sturgeon’s leadership.

Jim Sillars says he will stay in politics if it is a Yes vote, lucky for the people of Scotland that it will be a No vote. No responsible Government can involve themselves in vendetta and vengeance but apparently Sillars says that is what the SNP is signed up to.  

Another ditto I did yesterday was on Matt Landsburgh who did an incredibly offensive tweet about Gordon Brown’s late daughter, Landsburgh was a parliamentary intern for Shona Robison SNP MSP; she is married to Stewart Hosie MP.

Earlier on prior to journeying into town, I read that SNP Councillor David MacDiarmid was charged and fined for abusive behaviour to Better Together Activists, their ‘crime’, they were putting up posters in Fife.

Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser said:

“It is very disappointed to read that an elected SNP Councillor has been charged by the police as a result of abusive behaviour”.    

At present there are too many uneducated idiots running about the place, causing allsorts of trouble, I have previously wrote about the problem of having an ignorant activist base in politics. Post Salmond indy defeat, there will be a massive political vacuum in Scottish politics, because the Scottish National Party cannot deliver an independent Scotland, that is plain to see.

But more than that, Scotland needs a new centre right political party which is based on fairness, equality and social justice.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University