With just three weeks to go before the independence referendum things are definitely heating up in Scotland.
Especially since the leader of the YES side was declared the winner of last Monday's TV debate.
And polls suggest the gap between the two sides is narrowing as the momentous decision approaches.
Alistair Darling’s poor performance in Monday’s TV debate has given a huge boost to Alex Salmond’s campaign for Scottish independence, a poll revealed last night.
The proportion of Scots planning to back separation has increased from 43 per cent to 47 per cent. In the previous poll, the figures were 50.3 per cent for No, 37.2 per cent for Yes and 12.5 per cent undecided.
If the shift in support towards the Nationalists continues at the same rate until polling day on September 18, it would see Scotland vote to leave the UK, ending the 300-year-old union.
And to make matters worse for the NO side, up until now it has been able to count on the support of a slight majority of women. While men favour the YES side by a similar margin.
But that might be changing after the NO side, or Better Together campaign, released this patronizing video...
Which was greeted with a storm of protest.
An advert aimed at persuading undecided female voters to reject Scottish independence has drawn fire from across the political spectrum, with critics describing it as "sexist" and "patronising" and some even saying it has convinced them to vote yes.
Much internet hilarity...
And quick video responses from the YES side...
But then that controversial NO ad is symbolic of the way the Better Together side, also known as the Bitter Together side, has waged their entire campaign.
For it has been relentlessly negative, patronizing in the extreme, has been fixated on whether Scotland can share the pound.
And seems solely designed to make the Scottish people feel, as they say in Scotland, too wee, too poor, and too stupid to have their own country.
When in fact Scotland is a wealthy nation, and what the YES side is trying to do is make it a more progressive one, and halt the advance of the neo-liberal agenda, and the brutish policies of Britain's Con regime, at the Scottish border.
Like their ancestors halted the advance of the Roman emperor Hadrian.
And made this ancient wall Rome's final frontier...
And the Scots are quite capable of assuming their own destiny.
Just as real Scottish women are quite capable of making up their own minds...
I will not stand by and hope another unelected government of the non-representative elite will remember our hardships after September. I am imploring you, the 51% as people of Scotland to make a decision based on your own research. Register to vote, and turn up at that ballot on 18th to be counted as a person, not a stereotype.
Women, Scotland needs you.
Which is a message I support, as well as the one behind her:
SCOTLAND REJECTS ALL RACISM MISOGYNY HOMOPHOBIA and INEQUALITY.
Which just happens to be, among many other things, why I support the YES side with all my heart.
One day I hope we can make our country Con free, so we too can dream of building a kinder, gentler, more just society. And eventually a better world.
But right now all I can say is that the Scottish people are fighting for ALL of us. By trying to become the first country to drive a stake through the heart of the neo-liberal agenda.
So support them as I do.
Or just say Scotland FOREVER...
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I wish the redneck, chicken fucking people of Saskatchewan and Oilberta had access to messages like that coming from an actual woman instead of some stepford wife wannabee like leer-ene harpie. I bet you some of them can even understand some words bigger than one syllable. If I sound patronizing towards those two bastions of ignerance an' "keep the wimmens barefoor and pregnint" mentality, then you, whoever you might be, are not beyond redemption. Understanding sarcasm does require a better-than-CON I.Q. rating. No, really! It's true! Reader's Digest Condensed Version even says so.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, if the lady in the video is anywhere near indicative of Scottish mentality, I will have to see if they'll forgive me for being from a country that would actually allow something like harpie's crime cabal to steal two federal elections and allow me residency there.
Hope they have a good medical system. If not, it's probably still worth the risk. Cheers, Simon
Great Britain currently has an excellent Health Care system.
DeleteScotland will not be able to afford a similar system with the current tax system they have.
If they separate, taxes will go up, substantially.
As for the rest of your obscenity laced, anti conservative rant that has nothing to do with the Scottish separation issue at hand.
May I suggest you crawl back to the crib that you escaped from for some lessons in spelling and social skills.
hi anonymous...Scotland has many smart women like the one in the video, which was why that patronizing video was so badly received.It also has a great social democratic tradition which all the people of Britain once shared but not any longer. The fact is that while Scotland has remained faithful to those traditions, the Cameron Cons with their Liberal Democrat stooges have taken the country far to the right. This isn't an ethnic or tribal fight, it's a social and political one...
Deletehi anon....2:41...are you insane or just drunk? Where is my "obscenity laced" rant? And have you no idea what's going on in Scotland and/or Britain? Britain has indeed an excellent NHS or should I say had. Because even though it's ranked number one in the world, the Cameron gang has been dismantling, privatizing it and throwing it into chaos. That's whole the point you silly coo. Scotland wants to keep the NHS and improve it further while the Cons are destroying it. Scotland can afford to do that without England, like it can afford to do anything it wants. And as for bringing in the Cons in this country, it's only because they want to destroy our social safety net like the Cameron gang does in Britain. BTW you are aware that there are more pandas in the Edinburgh Zoo (two) than there are Con MPs in Scotland (one).
DeleteGood, because soon there will be even viewer. Con time is over in Scotland and in Canada and we are going to clean house. Now crawl back to your crib or your cave, stick a pacifier in your mouth, and STFU...
Wow. Such an eloquent rebuttal. About what I expected from the delusional ravings of a misinformed child.
DeleteI would truly like to continue this "Battle of Wits" but I feel guilty fighting an unarmed child since its obvious you have the intellectual capability of a syphlitic flea.
Lets pretend England has rid itself of the delusional , whiny scots and its a hundred years later.. THIS is the conversation one will hear in a huge Scottish mansion (spoken with a Brit accent of course)
"Ta ta Im off to the fox hound hunt then home for tea and those poor scottish serfs better have my boots shined and my newspaper pressed or its off to bed without any gruel. After I've ravaged that Wallace wench an front of the entire village...... Bloody hell being an English Lord in this backwater is bloody fun eh wot?" Now piss off God Im funny
Well, after watching the video I am confused. The woman makes note of several pertinant issues.
ReplyDeleteThe shared currency?
The revenues from the offshore oil fields...will it last forever?
What's best for my children? ".... because "there's no going back......."
I didnt see any sexist, rascist, mysoginyst, homophobic or any other anti diatribe.
But then again, I'm not bending the truth to get what I want at any cost ...........unlike the Yes vote.
Fools and their short sightedness.
"Bitter together" undoubtedly a phrase coined by the yes vote when they were down 15 points in the polls.
Enjoy your "freedom".
Just be prepared to pay for it.
All .........by ........yourselves. :).
P.S. "Montreal " Simon doesnt have to worry about the economic ramifications of a disasterous separation vote.......... he lives safely in Toronto Canada......where even a successful Quebec seperation referendum ( like THAT will ever happen) wont affect his alternate lifestyle.........
hi anon...I'm referring to the sign behind the woman in the last video. Secondly, Bitter Together couldn't be a better description of the NO's campaign of fear. Thirdly I'm from there, and my whole family lives in the Moray, and even if I wasn't the Scottish diaspora, which was born in suffering, has every right to make its position known at this crucial time in Scotland's long history.
DeleteMany decisions in life are to resolve conflicts between *practicalities* and *principles*. As an interested but outside observer, the best "Yes" arguments seem to be the principled ones around the desire to build the country that reflects how Scots see themselves and wish to be seen. The best "No" arguments are practical ones for stability and certainty. If I had a vote, I'd say my principles come first. If it's Yes, that's a society and a country I'd be proud to help build.
ReplyDeleteIt can be tempting to pick and choose among specific statistics to make a general assertion. A few minutes checking revealed that, yes, Glasgow was reported to have topped the stabbing stats several years ago... but... it has made substantial progress since then, also widely reported. Other stats, also easy to find, rank Glasgow high in job growth, per capita productivity, tourism and other positive factors.
DeleteDisproportionate poverty in the city remains as a legacy of 30+ year old policy making at the national level - shutdown of manufacturing in an area where that activity was highly concentrated. How successful has the national government been at doing something about it? How motivated are they? How focused on it?
Self-interest is a powerful motivator. With independence, and nowhere else to turn, and no one else to blame, we will see what the Scots are made of. Do you really think it will be economic collapse and violent anarchy?
hi kaibeezy...well said. The Scottish people are known for being practical, but that doesn't stop them from dreaming of a better society than Cameron and his ghastly Cons are trying to impose on them. They are taking on the neo-liberal agenda that is causing so much pain and suffering, and are in that regard and example to other countries...
DeleteGreetings, Simon.
DeleteFYI, I stumbled by here looking for more info on the "patronizing" BT lady. I was initially surprised there weren't more sites talking about it, until I realized I should have searched on "patroniSing" :/
Anyway, this works for me. May I ask you to elaborate on "neo-liberal agenda that is causing so much pain and suffering". I don't consume much current media and get lost in memeland sometimes.
Easy enough to look up, of course, although there appears to have been a shifting definition over many years. The applicable part as I am guessing you are using it is below. Do I have the correct sense of that?
Delete[T]he term neoliberalism is nowadays mainly used by critics as a pejorative term ... refers to economic reform policies such as "eliminating price controls, deregulating capital markets, lowering trade barriers", and reducing state influence on the economy especially by privatization and fiscal austerity.... [A]s an ideology the term is used to denote a conception of freedom as an overarching social value associated with reducing state functions to those of a minimal state.
hi anon 2:58pm....Will you ever stop trying to put down the Scottish people? Don't you understand that's why the YES side is making such progress as the vote gets closer ? As kaibeezy points out Glasgow did have a big knife problem a few years ago, but has made huge progress, and I was in Glasgow during the Commonwealth Games and I've rarely been in a city so welcoming and so proud. It was truly a marvellous atmosphere. Try to remember that the Scots are a proud nation, and that by putting them down you are only hurting your own side....
ReplyDelete