The person giving out the abuse was a member of Alba, a fringe party run by former FM Alex Salmond, that doesn’t get above 2% of the vote and hasn’t managed to win a single representative in an election.
Yup, not even on the local council level.
Anglophobic pricks exist but these pricks aren’t representative of Scotland, Scottish people or even Scottish nationalism.
Stretching the actions of an Alba member to Scottish nationalism in general is the equivalent of saying all unionists in Scotland are like the UKIP member saying Sturgeon is a secret lesbian who should be arrested, it just isn’t the case.
You’ll also see Sturgeon denouncing this on twitter and supporting the journalist, r/Scotland in its SNP loving spotlight was also deeply critical
EDIT: Just an extract from an article from the Herald to give this some UK wide context
> Evidently, these events only happen in Scotland. It’s not as if in Manchester, the same week, protestors chanted “Tory scum” at Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss. For, you see, those Perth protestors weren’t just Yes voters. Again, not that you’d know that given the manipulation of the story. Folk there were angry about the treatment of refugees, the cost of living, pensions, climate, the NHS; others protested backing the rail strikes. The demonstration was called by Perth Against Racism, backed up by Stand Up To Racism, women’s pension campaigners, and Fridays for Future school strikers. Trade unionists spoke. A nurse denounced Conservatives threatening the right to strike.
> But none of those people were there if you read the commentators; it was all just the nationalist bogeyman, a “separatist hate mob”. Incidentally, you may not have read, as few have bothered to report it, but despite the hysteria Police Scotland made no arrests.
> There’s one school of thought, clearly, which would see this protest as rather mild. In case you’ve missed it – and again, if you get your news from most of the British right-wing press, you probably have missed it – quite a lot of people are probably going to die unnecessarily this winter as the Conservative Government does a Nero and fiddles while Britons starve and freeze, unable to pay the profiteering bills of corporations which have the UK Government in their pockets. There’s an apt visual metaphor for what’s happening right now in Britain: the seas around England filling up with raw sewage thanks to the Conservative privatisation of the water industry. You’ll forgive many, I hope, for noting that “Tories simply don’t give a s**t”.
> Of course, a failed SNP Government does little amid the cost of living crisis, even with the limited powers at its disposal. Though, Nicola Sturgeon at least calls for a discussion around nationalisation of energy. The SNP will soon find itself swept into the same basket as the Tories in London once people start to suffer in the next few months. Unless they stand with the people, all politicians will become hate figures, not just Tories up at Perth.
> The media narrative of what’s happening in Britain is deeply, mendaciously flawed. People are scared and angry. The majority of the media isn’t reflecting that fear and rage, but rather doing its regular job of defending the UK Government. The media isn’t meant to defend governments, but to hold them to account. If we wonder why there’s so much hatred of journalists in this country, that’s your answer. People tend to stereotype – and if the bulk of the media is seen as Government propagandists, then we’re all going to be tarred with that brush. How can we complain? After all, we media folk do enough stereotyping ourselves. Just ask any refugee, if you can find one before they’re all deported to Rwanda.
> “Tory scum” placards will likely seem quite quaint a few months from now. Once folk get made redundant because the company they work for can no longer keep the lights on, once that means their homes are repossessed as they can’t afford their mortgage, the word “scum” will be the least of politicians’ worries.
> If there’s ever been a time for protest, it’s now. Democracy cannot function without protest. Like democracy, protest is messy, ugly. No democracy, no protest, is ever perfect. As long as there’s no violence, no threats, then all protest is legitimate. What would we rather have? Protest, which is invariably flawed; or a supine population, obedient in the face of political abuse, Government failure and media lies?
3 comments
Nationalists gonna nationalist.
Civic nationalism my arse.
To give a bit more context to this,
The person giving out the abuse was a member of Alba, a fringe party run by former FM Alex Salmond, that doesn’t get above 2% of the vote and hasn’t managed to win a single representative in an election.
Yup, not even on the local council level.
Anglophobic pricks exist but these pricks aren’t representative of Scotland, Scottish people or even Scottish nationalism.
Stretching the actions of an Alba member to Scottish nationalism in general is the equivalent of saying all unionists in Scotland are like the UKIP member saying Sturgeon is a secret lesbian who should be arrested, it just isn’t the case.
You’ll also see Sturgeon denouncing this on twitter and supporting the journalist, r/Scotland in its SNP loving spotlight was also deeply critical
EDIT: Just an extract from an article from the Herald to give this some UK wide context
> Evidently, these events only happen in Scotland. It’s not as if in Manchester, the same week, protestors chanted “Tory scum” at Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss. For, you see, those Perth protestors weren’t just Yes voters. Again, not that you’d know that given the manipulation of the story. Folk there were angry about the treatment of refugees, the cost of living, pensions, climate, the NHS; others protested backing the rail strikes. The demonstration was called by Perth Against Racism, backed up by Stand Up To Racism, women’s pension campaigners, and Fridays for Future school strikers. Trade unionists spoke. A nurse denounced Conservatives threatening the right to strike.
> But none of those people were there if you read the commentators; it was all just the nationalist bogeyman, a “separatist hate mob”. Incidentally, you may not have read, as few have bothered to report it, but despite the hysteria Police Scotland made no arrests.
> There’s one school of thought, clearly, which would see this protest as rather mild. In case you’ve missed it – and again, if you get your news from most of the British right-wing press, you probably have missed it – quite a lot of people are probably going to die unnecessarily this winter as the Conservative Government does a Nero and fiddles while Britons starve and freeze, unable to pay the profiteering bills of corporations which have the UK Government in their pockets. There’s an apt visual metaphor for what’s happening right now in Britain: the seas around England filling up with raw sewage thanks to the Conservative privatisation of the water industry. You’ll forgive many, I hope, for noting that “Tories simply don’t give a s**t”.
> Of course, a failed SNP Government does little amid the cost of living crisis, even with the limited powers at its disposal. Though, Nicola Sturgeon at least calls for a discussion around nationalisation of energy. The SNP will soon find itself swept into the same basket as the Tories in London once people start to suffer in the next few months. Unless they stand with the people, all politicians will become hate figures, not just Tories up at Perth.
> The media narrative of what’s happening in Britain is deeply, mendaciously flawed. People are scared and angry. The majority of the media isn’t reflecting that fear and rage, but rather doing its regular job of defending the UK Government. The media isn’t meant to defend governments, but to hold them to account. If we wonder why there’s so much hatred of journalists in this country, that’s your answer. People tend to stereotype – and if the bulk of the media is seen as Government propagandists, then we’re all going to be tarred with that brush. How can we complain? After all, we media folk do enough stereotyping ourselves. Just ask any refugee, if you can find one before they’re all deported to Rwanda.
> “Tory scum” placards will likely seem quite quaint a few months from now. Once folk get made redundant because the company they work for can no longer keep the lights on, once that means their homes are repossessed as they can’t afford their mortgage, the word “scum” will be the least of politicians’ worries.
> If there’s ever been a time for protest, it’s now. Democracy cannot function without protest. Like democracy, protest is messy, ugly. No democracy, no protest, is ever perfect. As long as there’s no violence, no threats, then all protest is legitimate. What would we rather have? Protest, which is invariably flawed; or a supine population, obedient in the face of political abuse, Government failure and media lies?