Scottish Hero or Tinpot Dictator? Scotland’s Rush for Independence with Alex Salmond
MICHAEL J BLAIR
Perthshire, Scotland
(This is the third article in a series about Scotland’s independence; see Blair’s Doomed or Idyllic: Scotland Independence Debate Caught Between Rabid Utterings of Opposing Camps and Will Independence Mean Positive Change for Scotland? Not a Chance!)
The referendum circus is still keeping us amused and appalled at the same time. Idiocy abounds. Major gaffes by people who should really know better and nothing new to get the ever more bored voting public excited!
I find the fact that Alistair Darling, Mr Dull, is now being sidelined by the Better Together or No campaign, fairly funny. That it took this long for them to figure out he wasn’t dynamic and sharp, is laughable! Their problem is, who can be brought in to replace him?
Out of the three parties in unholy alliance against the Salmondites, I can’t see a big enough personality to trouble the Nationalists. The leadership of each of these parties, Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrats, is weak and not really taken seriously.
The Conservative party is led by a lady with all the charisma of a soggy lettuce. Sincere but no match in a debate with Mr Salmond.
Labour is led by a lady who said she wasn’t into glamour, then lost 50lbs and had a professional make over. Again, full of righteous sincerity but, by no means, a heavyweight character.
The Liberal Democrats are led by a man called Willie. I think that says it all.
This makes Mr Salmond look like a colossus in comparison with these political pygmies.
The Better Together campaign really needs to focus on attacking the weakest part of the Scottish National Party (SNP), which is Mr Salmond himself. He has always had a very high opinion of himself. I suppose if people continue to call him “the best politician in Britain” he would be entitled to preen!
But as you know, when someone begins to believe all the praise heaped upon them, this usually leads to decision making of the worst kind. We have seen this numerous times when people believe in their own publicity. The blinkers go on and common sense gets left behind.
Mr Salmond has shown recently that this has begun to happen. His frankly ludicrous remarks about Vladimir Putin show his sense of perspective is flawed. Mr Salmond seems to indicate that Putin’s vicious treatment of any kind of protest is perfectly acceptable. He sees any kind of Nationalism as a good thing. He is actively encouraging a rise in the most unpleasant type of “Wee Scottishness”. This is where he wants to place himself, the hero of the Scottish Nation!
His is not a true love of Scotland. It is a cynical use of a blinkered support who cannot see reality, to gain power. When he saw the SNP support increase under the leadership of John Swinney, he was ruthless in undermining Swinney and taking over as leader. He and he alone wanted to be the man who delivered independence to Scotland.
He is in a win-win position and he knows it. If he becomes the first Prime Minister of an independent Scotland, he will go down in history as a true Scottish hero. If the results go against him, he can and will claim that he was thwarted by the establishment and cheated out of victory by an ungrateful electorate.
A glorious failure is always well received by Scotland. “Well, we tried our best but the big boys ganged up against us!”
Nationalism is all very well if it’s in a sporting context, but naked nationalism for political uses is a very dangerous road to go down. Young people are very impressionable and tend to get carried away with the idea. No argument against the Salmondist vision will be tolerated, no matter the rationality of the argument.
There appears to be a very strong link from Mr Salmond and the arch enemy of any socialist, Rupert Murdoch. Many meetings have taken place between the two men. The Salmondist idyll needs the backing of Mr Murdoch’s best selling daily newspaper, The Sun, or at least the Scottish version of this cesspit of distortion, to give him the public boost to propel him to victory in the referendum.
I’m astounded that the rabid wing of the Salmondists have tolerated what seems to be a blatant arse licking by Salmond on Murdoch. It shows, I think, just how far from their core principles they are prepared to go for independence.
There are no dissenting voices from the massed ranks of the Salmondists regardless of his actions. In fact the support for him from the Yes campaign gets more vociferous if anyone dares to criticise the great man!
He recently was depicted in a cartoon in the Sunday Post, a primarily Scottish Sunday newspaper, as being in the dock of a court being cross examined by Alistair Darling about his policies for an independent Scotland. A letter was sent to the editor of the newspaper, threatening him and the D C Thomson group with legal action, as it made the great man look bad.
It would appear that it’s perfectly alright for the Salmondists to attack the UK government and the Better Together campaign, but they are ultra sensitive to any criticism of the great man or his policies. If he said to us that it might be a difficult road to go down and if we all pulled together, we could create a great small independent country, we would be much more likely to vote for independence. All we want is honesty.
Is this the democratic paradise we are constantly being told will come about by voting yes in the referendum? A leader so used to praise, he can’t get his head round a cartoon? If so, he is trying to lead the wrong country.
He preaches tolerance but shows none. He doesn’t try to rein in his most unpleasant “supporters” when they shout down any views which don’t chime with their own.
This behaviour is not that of a man who has aspirations to be the leader of an independent, forward thinking, small but vibrant country, but the behaviour of a tinpot dictator, who will not have any dissent to the grand vision. If he is reliant on the backing of Rupert Murdoch and his media group to gain power then he is no better than David Cameron, Nick Clegg, and Ed Miliband.
This was to be about new fresh thinking and a new strong Scotland. Sucking up to huge multinational corporations and behaving like a petulant child is not going to win any votes other than the blinkered neo-nationalists who can’t see past the great leader.
There is no sign of the SNP leadership reining in the so called “cybernats” from their vicious attacks on any form of criticism. This is also a tactic borrowed from totalitarian states. We hear “freedom of speech” used as an excuse for the outrageous slurs used against rational questioning of SNP policies but “freedom of speech” doesn’t appear to apply to critical remarks about Mr Salmond and his acolytes. This is outrageous, in what Mr Salmond keeps telling people is one of the most forward thinking and enlightened countries in the world!
I tried to make this piece lighthearted and amusing but the more I see of the tactics used by the Yes campaign, the less I find funny!
I expect to be attacked for this article as it will be seen as heresy instead of a measured critique of what is seen by more and more people as despotic behaviour.
Hold the front page!
Tonight it was revealed that over two hundred police officers will routinely patrol with firearms. These are armed response officers who were only used for emergency situations. Now we find that for months now, these officers have been on the streets and on patrol.
No parliamentary discussions were held in connection with this outrageous action. The Chief Constable says that they have had no complaints from the public but as the public didn’t know of this, how the hell could they complain?
Now maybe the true intentions of the SNP will be laid bare for all to see. This is just the beginning of the descent into a totalitarian state. Any government which can pull off a stunt like this without any kind of consultation, is a government which cannot be trusted to run an independent Scotland.
ALSO BY MJ BLAIR
Doomed or Idyllic: Scottish independence debate caught between rabid utterings from opposite camps
State spying in the name of terrorism
Surveillance society: one nation under CCTV
Michael J Blair contributes to DDA from time to time, and he can be reached at: michaelblair43@googlemail.com. His Twitter handle is: @mmjblair
[Top photo of Alex Salmond ‘Choosing Scotland’s Future’ photo by Barryob; Rupert Murdoch photo from World Economic Forum]
Excellent article, Mr. Blair ! You have very clearly stated with conviction, that Felix Salmond is not to be trusted as the possible future PM of an independent Scotland. Anyone who does not criticize V. Putin, an authoritarian, with total disgust, is definitely not suitable to lead.