With the Scottish independence campaigns drawing to an end and both sides having run really not terribly inspiring campigns (to be generous) I thought a quick contrast of negative techniques was in order.
| FUD | Lies | Bribes | Intimidation | violence |
|---|
| Better together | • | • | • | |
|
|---|
| Yes Scotland | • | • | • | • | • |
|---|
On the FUD* front, Better Together have been “scaremongering” about businesses leaving, currency collapse and the rest of it, meanwhile Yes Scotland have been talking about the NHS being destroyed and the imperial English tory boot crushing Scottish freedom. I think I’ll just skip the lies as really there are so many to choose from and even more statistical slights of hand. Bribe wise we have Better Together promising increased spending, more autonomy and I think the moon on a stick, Yes Scotland have also promised more spending, more free stuff, a political Scotland that will be a utopia of your imagining bearing no resemblance to how it is today and I think a free unicorn for everyone (I may be wrong about the last bit for both campaigns). Then things get interesting and the last two tactics seem by all reports to be only employed by “Yes Scotland”. If the reports are true then it should probably be referred to “Yes for else Scotland”.
News drifting south report of Better Together signs and other property being vandalized, campaigners mobbed and harassed and of course senior Yes Scotland campaigners (amongst others) promising “a day of reckoning” for those that support the No vote. This could be dismissed as just a few hot heads, if we ignore the senior figure, but Mr Salmond didn’t exactly deny it. Now in a modern democracy how anyone campaigns or votes really shouldn’t invoke any sort of threat, but instead of saying that such threats had no place in campaigning or in a new revived Scotland he said there wouldn’t be a day of reckoning because they’d be “magnanimous”. Now it could be me but talk of magnanimity rather implies that repercussion for loosing are indeed reasonable but are only not happening because of your generosity, that you’d be quite entitled to inflict retribution on those that held a different point of view but are only refraining from doing so because you’re in a good mood. This isn’t exactly the kind of behavior expected in developed countries, and really can’t help anyone to have an open and honest debate. Finally there are also reports of Yes Scotland supporters planning marches to the polling stations with banners and flags. This is the sort of behavior we’re more used to seeing in less democratic regions were people are encouraged how to vote by the presence of large mobs of supporters of the ruling party hanging around polling stations to make sure people vote the “right way”. Historically the west has viewed such activity as not allowing for free votes and have sent observers along to prevent such actions.
If the vote for independent Scotland carries the day then it would seem more than likely that people who believe that violence and intimidation have a part to play in the ballot will be the ones building the foundations of the newly independent Scotland. This really doesn’t bode well for the ability of Scotland to build a new country that responds to the demands of all it’s people.
* Fear uncertainty and doubt – just in case you didn’t know
“Friday will not be the end of this poisonous atmosphere.”
– A worryingly true comment made elsewhere.
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