The rise of Scotland the terrible

www.thecommentator.com ^ | Tom Gallagher

[RoosterRedux]

It only hit home last Monday that I was living in a transformed country. It was in Musselburgh, a neat, mainly working-class town at the mouth of the river Esk, unjustly overlooked by tourists who cram into nearby Edinburgh.

I was in the crowd at a rally being addressed by Jim Murphy MP, one of the few stars on the pro-Union side. He was assailed by a local SNP councillor and abuse was hurled from passing cars. It was a mild example of the ‘systematic manipulation of hatreds’ which is how the American Henry Adams once described elections, except that the referendum campaign on Scottish independence has been going on for nearly 1,000 days since the start of 2012.

One eloquent young shop-worker confronted Murphy about ‘foodbanks and the bedroom tax’. The verbally adroit MP was unfazed. Perhaps if the heckler had mentioned Labour’s inglorious role in the assault on young girls in its Rotherham stronghold, he might have been on the defensive.

But the Scottish National Party (SNP) and its far-left allies assume that the workings of an unwieldy state can only bring good outcomes.

Suddenly this pro-independence ‘yes’ supporter shouted out: Mr Murphy, just look at this town, it’s in a terrible state’. I looked and saw tidy streets, containing some attractive small shops; a theatre, a race course and impressive civic buildings were nearby.

Musselburgh gleamed in the sunshine but for this bright alienated young man it might as well have been Calcutta or Soweto. He is one of many Scots whipped up by non-stop agitation on social media and in the streets by a formidable Yes campaign.

The referendum tumult has been far uglier across in post-industrial Glasgow and its environs.

[Moltke]

It will not be the world I grew up in during the 50s and 60s.

There is, perhaps, some consolation (but no excuse for complacency) in the dictum that one does not die in the country one was born in. Or as Heraclitus stated more broadly, panta rhei.

Keep up the good fight.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

“Or as Heraclitus stated more broadly, panta rhei.”

“Ever-newer waters flow on those who step into the same rivers.”

Agreed! I’ve always said, if you want to know how irreplaceable you are, just step in a river and pull your foot out and watch what happens to the hole...

Thanks!

[Moltke]

Agreed! I’ve always said, if you want to know how irreplaceable you are, just step in a river and pull your foot out and watch what happens to the hole...

Well, it takes the edge off the pain... ;-)

And thanks to you, too!