Handing out Union Jacks is “inappropriate behaviour”
Even when it happens at a rally to honour our Olympic athletes.
So said Glasgow SNP Councillor Mhairi Hunter to me in a tweet on Saturday.
I was a bit fearful as I clicked on the link, worried that it was going to be a sorry tale of some anti independence idiots beating up a nationalist. No, it was to this Facebook page from the No to Scottish Independence and Protect the Union where they said they handed out 1000 union jacks to people who went to the Olympic and Paralympic parade in Glasgow on Friday.
Hanging around with violent revolutionaries is fine, until you’re found out
Scotland on Sunday reports that the Scottish Republican Socialist Movement had been invited to a rally for independence which takes place in Edinburgh next weekend.
A quick glance at their website finds exactly how they wish to achieve their aims:
The ruling class must be completely overthrown to achieve true Scottish Independence and freedom. Because the ruling class will not relinquish power without their use of armed force, this revolution will be a time of violence as well as liberation. Unions by their very nature cannot become vehicles for the revolutionary transformation of society.
Now that the papers have found out, the SRSM have been barred from the rally. If they had not found out, our First Minister would have been at the same event as this charming bunch.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said:
For months the SNP have been more than happy to receive support from these extreme groups with their menacing message. This just shows the ragtag company Alex Salmond is prepared to keep to split Scotland from the UK.This group wanted to violently smash up society as we know it in order to achieve independence. What other unwanted groups have the SNP attracted to their campaign?
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Reform inadvertently lose their majority
The Major Oak is dead and Phil Harding has discovered another ancient site near Stonehenge
Reform own goals
Trumps' White House thuggery appals the world including most Americans
Chloe
cim
expats
Jana
Mick Taylor
14 Comments
This is really two articles which contradict each other. The zeal of some political types that it *had* to be GB flags is a little surprising though…
Ok, first of all, it is a bit off to turn a celebration of sporting success into a pro vs anti independence feud, and given the union jacks were handed out by a political group the SNP have some grounds for complaint,.
Secondly, where’s the story? Dodgy group found to have been signed up for rally, organisers cancel their invitation. Isn’t this what you want to happen?
I’m very much a Unionist, but this is beyond ridiculous, and if it’s the best the quiet man of scottish politics can do to get in the news then he’s doomed along with his cheerleaders.
Really Caron, there must be so many things far more worthy of your attention.
The reaction of one councillor, albeit one a bit rattled by the First Minister receiving a few boos at a public event, is hardly typical of the SNP. So not “the SNP’s guide..” at all – just a singular twitter reaction from someone a little upset about the reception given to her party leader and some of the (admittedly puerile) responses to this relatively insignificant event on twitter.
As for the Scottish Republican Socialist Movement, it is an offshoot of the former Scottish Republican Socialist Party and about as politically significant to Scotland’s future as the Free Church is to its social and cultural future. No doubt like most “revolutionary” socialist “movements”, this tiny organisation (which seems to spend most of its time criticising that other irrelevant force, the People’s Front of Judea…sorry, the Scottish Socialist Party) inevitably contains various unsavoury individuals and is committed to a Marxist philosophy of revolution. Why are we surprised by this. Why is it remotely newsworthy?
If you want to discredit Yes Scotland, then I would suggest a better route is to dismantle its arguments for independence. It really is quite unbefitting of people as intelligent as Caron and Willie to create significance in a few time-warp socialists and their revolutionary ideas. I’d be surprised if the First Minister or the SNP were even aware of the existence of this bunch of Marxists, and the March for Independence is not an SNP event – however much that party clearly supports it. There will be people of all political philosophies and of none there, including Greens, socialists, Tommy Sheridan’s fan club, Labour voters for Independence and some Tories. Maybe even some Lib Dems.
As for Willie’s comments, the SNP have not received any open support from SRSM. Yes Scotland has, but I fail to be either surprised or shocked that an organisation that has believed in independence and been around in one form or another prior to the advent of the SNP wants to attend a rally in support of its principal objective. I’d also like to point out that “extreme groups” with “menacing messages” also support the objectives of Better Together and there are certainly figures within the unions, who are supporting the “no” campaign, who i’d consider equally as unsavoury as those in SRSM – but perhaps wielding a little more influence?
Certainly the experience of Slovakia has been that any politicians who campaign against independence are damaged goods after it occurs. They will never hear the end of “how can you want to lead a country you didn’t want to exist anyway”. None of the parties there have real historical continuity before the mid-nineties, but in the UK context, where there are more established political parties, this will taint the political party forever too.
Andrew, Twitter has been awash with nationalists who really can’t cope with people reporting the facts that their leader was booed at the Olympic Parade. That whole episode is a sign that the shine is coming off the SNP for all sorts of reasons – links with Murdoch, spending our hard earned taxes defying the Information Commissioner and Salmond’s constant complaints about the Olympics – even this week saying they caused Scottish unemployment to rise. The fact that Salmond was also booed at the Tattoo a few weeks ago is also symptomatic of the fall in his public standing. That is relevant and should be remarked upon.
Re flags, this wasn’t some random nationalist making a comment. It was an elected representative. of the SNP. And when you consider how the SNP behave as though they own the saltire, the comments are all the more laughable.
Yes Scotland and the SNP should have recognised the issue with the SRSM long before the papers found them out, The fact that they did not is a bit of an indictment.
Willie Rennie and Mike Moore have spent a considerable amount of time trying to nail the independence jelly to the wall. Salmond expects people to just take his word for the fact that things would be fine post independence on matters like the EU. As he obfuscates and prevaricates, so does people’s confidence in him falter.
Salmond has been quite clever in appointing Nicola Sturgeon as the Government’s lead on independence, but the careless behaviour of some elements of the nationalist community are not helpful to her cause.
Well Caron, it’s interesting that you attach so much significance to a view on one elected representative (a mere councillor). I’m afraid, following that logic, I should never have joined the Liberal Democrats. I mean, to think that the Scottish director of homophobic group CARE, Gordon Macdonald was for several years a Lib Dem councillor and therefore, by your deduction, a spokesperson for the party… His views were never typical of the wider party and they’re still not. But I look beyond them.
The public booing politicians is not particularly remarkable. Always has happened, always will. I wouldn’t make any more of it that the fact that Thatcher’s former sports minister was cheered on the same platform. Scotland hasn’t suddenly gone pro-Tory! More of a story is yet another political group seeking to make mileage from the success of Olympians, making their points by distributing free union jacks…OK, not the biggest story in the world but speaking as someone who has tired of opportunistic political types using the games to their own advantage, I find more significance in that than a few boos. The SNP would have a right to complain, although it would seem petty and I’d hardly think they’d get as worked up about it as Mhairi Hunter. I mean, is that the best they can do? 1,000 flags? The girl guides can outdo that!
Identifying causes with their least savoury adherents helps no-one. After all, I don’t feel the need to identify myself with Gordon Macdonald! Both “sides” have unpleasant supporters, e.g. Brian Souter and Iain Davidson. The point being made is, as g says, “beyond ludicrous”.
Embarrassing stuff from Caron here, but entirely in keeping with much of the pro-Union campaigning so far, when random loons on the internet are taken as official SNP spokesmen. I’m a bit more concerned with Willie’s latest flight of fantasy, though:
“For months the SNP have been more than happy to receive support from these extreme groups with their menacing message.”
What does that actually mean? When did the SNP “receive support” from these groups (plural, apparently), and in what way did they demonstrate their “happiness” with it?
That’s not a rhetorical question – I’d quite like someone to actually answer it. Caron, you appear to have a hotline to the leader – what on Earth does it actually *mean*? Is it, as I suspect, a case of “approval by omission”, ie because Salmond hasn’t been condemning the SRSM in every interview he must be in favour of them, even if the reason was that like most people in Scotland he’d never heard of them until this weekend? If so, the pair of you are humiliating our party and I’d really rather you didn’t.
STV chiefs may face jail after ‘Boogate’ complaints.
SNP MP Pete Wishart responded later with the following tweet: “Catching up on all the #boogate nonsense. Odd that Jim’s tweet was sent almost 5 minutes before the booing took place”.
@Richard Swales
“Certainly the experience of Slovakia has been that any politicians who campaign against independence are damaged goods after it occurs. They will never hear the end of “how can you want to lead a country you didn’t want to exist anyway”. ”
Not how it worked in Ireland, where for at least half a century after 1921, both parts were ruled by parties who had opposed the form their states took.
Fast forward on 90 years: The DUP was at one time opposed to the existence of devolved government in Northern Ireland – they preferred direct rule and opposed Catholics/Irish Nationalists in government at Stormont for 30 years. Sinn Fein fought for an all-Ireland Republic with no British or other foreign involvement. Now there is a DUP Chief Minister and a Sinn Fein Deputy….
Scotland is a bit closer to Ireland, I think. (Less than 20 km, and often in clear sight.)
Unionists (and that does include most of the remaining LibDems in Scotland) are clutching at straws. I distinctly remember Salmond being subjected to boos at a major Scotland football international match at Hampden a few years ago.
It did not mean that his popularity had ceased to be much greater than any other politician in Scotland, and it did not prevent his massive win in 2011.
Alan, Mhairi Hunter isn’t a “random loon” – she’s an SNP councillor in Glasgow, someone who speaks for the party. And the answer to your question is simple. This lot were going to the march and were only thrown out when the papers found out. The supporters of independence (and indeed those who oppose it) have to be very careful not to associate themselves with people who advocate violence to achieve their ends.
” And the answer to your question is simple. This lot were going to the march and were only thrown out when the papers found out. ”
That isn’t an answer to my question at all. My question was “When did the SNP “receive support” from these groups (plural, apparently), and in what way did they demonstrate their “happiness” with it?”, and your response entirely fails to address it. The SRSM was attending an independence rally, not an SNP one, and the SNP to the best of my knowledge made no reference of any sort to them at any point.
And of course, the “random loons” referred to the SRSM, not Mhairi Hunter, who didn’t say anything offensive or outrageous, merely questioned the politicisation of the Olympic celebration by pro-Union activists.
@Ian, I am not an expert on Irish politics, but my understanding is that Fianna Fail wanted to go even further, and have all of Ireland in one country – so their patriotic credentials to run the compromise free state are not in question – and neither are the DUP’s credentials as a “proper” Ulster party (Paisley Snr had to be forcifully removed from Stormont by police after it was closed in the 70s) regardless of whether they approved of the constitutional arrangements. A more equivalent example would be to look at how well former unionists did in the south after 1922 (and I have no idea but I can’t imagine it was very well even with STV).