Letters / ‘Yes’ is just anti-Tory
Douglas Young’s letter (Immediate impact; SN 9/2/14) shows just what this independence campaign is about – not a better Scotland as you might expect but a slanderous, undemocratic anti-Tory campaign.
Douglas cannot get his figures right and never could as the Better Together Shetland page has 146 likes, not that Facebook is any reliable indicator of how the Scottish people will vote in September.
That is indicated in the two very recent polls below. Support for independence has remained unchanged with one in three voters wanting Scotland to leave the UK, the latest poll shows.
The YouGov survey put support for a Yes vote at 33% trailing the backing for No on 52%. A further 12% were undecided with the rest saying they would not vote in the referendum on September 18.
Support for Yes and No was unchanged from December with only a one percentage point increase for Yes since the white paper was published.
A Panelbase (much favoured by the Yes brigade) poll for The Sunday Times and Real Radio Scotland also suggests support for a Yes vote has plateaued for the time being, holding fairly steady at 43% among those who have a view, with 57% preferring to remain part of the UK.
The finding, which represents a two point fall for Yes and two point rise for No since November and the white paper.
Alex Salmond, the Yes campaign’s greatest asset, is now telling people not to listen to industry experts because apparently their opinions do not matter and their influence over industry is meaningless.
Instead, we should listen to a proven liar who has done nothing but regurgitate assertion after assertion.
Well, I think the Scottish people are better than that and we demand the answers. He needs to stop treating us like idiots.
As well as telling Scots to ignore the opinions of industry “experts” about independence he has failed to name a single major business figure who supports the Yes vote.
Labour leader Johann Lamont pressed him three times to name a chief executive of a top firm who is in favour of separation from the rest of the UK, but an Mr Angry Salmond floundered and attacked Ms Lamont for citing “the elite” instead of “the people of Scotland”.
Nicola Sturgeon said: “David Cameron, as the Tory prime minister, is the very embodiment of the democratic case for a Yes vote for an independent Scotland, and he knows it.”
Now either this was a Freudian slip or a clear cut admission that the independence case is essentially an anti-Tory exercise.
Yes, this so called positive case the separatists have been pushing really amounts to nothing more than an anti-Tory campaign. This is borne out by looking at any Yes blog or Facebook page where 99% of the posts are anti Westminster/Tory rhetoric and the remaining 1% is void of any positive argument in favour of independence.
By saying that the Prime Minister is an embodiment for the democratic case for a Yes vote fundamentally suggests that they would try and forcefully shut down centre right politics in Scotland.
Now we have already seen this through the way they treated other such politicians and academics, so it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that political autocracy would be a way of life in an independent Scotland.
They simply want to close down free speech if it means you are of a centre right persuasion. Now, tell me, is that democratic to you?
We already know why the First Minister wants to debate David Cameron, but Sturgeon has basically let the cat out of the bag. Independence is nothing to do with you or me or what is best for us; it’s about right v left, nothing more, nothing less.
But hey, if it gives the Tories a bashing then surely that will be enough to pay for all the freebies we are being promised.
So tell me where is the positive case for a Yes vote, or better still, tell me where has it been all along?
The nationalist justification for independence is probably the weakest of any country in the world. Most countries want independence due to oppression or violence towards its people, not because they don’t happen to like the present democratically elected government.
Is this really worth the massive disruption and bitterness the divorce will cause, is the UK really such an evil and wicked place to live?
To me, the Yes/SNP campaign is underpinned by historical grievance and selfish grudge. Its a lousy and weak argument that will surely be swept away on 18 September when Scots vote NO!
I am going to vote No with a hope Salmond will be forced to resign, heralding the end to his deep nationalism and socialism that saturates separatist culture and breeds anti-English, anti-Tory hostility.
Oh and just for the record I don’t vote Tory, but I do believe in democracy and free speech and I despise autocracy, which will be the by product of a Yes vote.
Gordon Harmer
Brae
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