What now Scotland?…..

Saltires being carried up Arthur's Seat
Saltires being carried up Arthur’s Seat

Last Thursday evening I set my alarm for 2am and took to bed early, the fridge was stocked with snacks and beer and a bottle of wine sat in the kitchen, champagne seemed too much like tempting fate.

I checked my phone just before 2.00 to find a message from a friend, Clackmannanshire had declared for no and it was already not looking good. My heart sank. Nevertheless I got out of bed and tuned into the BBC coverage. It was relentless and despairing, as each declaration came in the inevitable result became clearer and clearer. For some reason my mind drifted back to the awful night my father passed away, the family were together through the night by his hospital bed and looked at each other as he slowly drifted away over the course of the night and into the next morning. We were helpless and powerless and as I watched him I thought about all those memories and experiences that were about to be extinguished forever. That same feeling washed over me as I watched the dreams of so many Scots being slowly strangled by fear.

Around 7am I crept into my sons bedroom and sat beside him on the bed, he woke and sat up, looking at me through sleepy eyes, ‘I’m sorry, it’s a no’ was all I could say. He lay back down and pulled the covers over his head, I heard him struggle to hold in his emotions. Back in the living room I returned to the TV coverage but I could now hear the sobs coming from his room.

I opened my laptop and began to remove myself from numerous pro independence Facebook groups, to ‘unlike’ all those many pages that had for months tried to spread a positive message of hope. Slowly my social media feed began to return to normal.

And that was it… The dream of a better Scotland was just that, a dream and I’d woken up on a grey September morning to contemplate a bleak future. However in all of this I’d forgotten one simple and unforgettable truth…

This is Scotland and we are the Scots.

As Friday wore on my mood began to lift. As my friends across our wide social networks began to react to the result I saw each find their own way of dealing with it. Some changed their Facebook profile pure black or white in mourning. Others returned their images to how they had been before. Collectively we were going through the stages of grief.

And then it stopped.

In the end Scotland had voted against independence by 55% to 45%. That 45% represented over 1.6 Million Scots, far more people than the entire turn out for most elections. 1.6 million people had said that they would not be frightened by the scare stories in the media, that they did not believe the establishment’s promises of extra powers. 1.6 million of us chose hope over fear. And that was quite an achievement.

Around lunchtime on Friday some inventive person started up a little Facebook community, they borrowed a slogan from the ‘occupy’ movement and called it ‘we are the 45%’. What happened over the next few hours was quite incredible; within minutes several hundred had joined the community, within hours it was in the thousands, by the early evening it was tens of thousands. As I write this over 175,000 people have joined this online gathering. A beacon had been lit and the shell-shocked troops of the yes campaign had seen it and they were regrouping. Suddenly it became clear that we were not dead, this was not over, and this fight was really just beginning.

But then the news started filtering in from George Square in Glasgow and reality bit hard again. For weeks the Yes movement had more or less occupied the square, a multi cultural festival of singing and dancing and speeches had shown the world what was great about Scotland. For the next few hours we were about to see the other side, the darker side, the Janus face of Scotland. Like a scene from some zombie horror movie the square began to fill with union flag wearing bully boys, throwing flares, making nazi salutes and attacking anyone wearing a Yes badge or holding a saltire flag. Within minutes the square, which had focus of peace and hope became an ugly scene of threat and intimidation. And these were the so-called ‘winners’?

The next morning I left a grey overcast Edinburgh behind and headed up into the highlands with some old friends to climb in Glencoe. It was as spectacular a day as you could imagine, a perfect day to clear the head, blow away the blackness of the last few days. We even managed to joke about the spectacular views of ‘North Britain’ from the top of Buchaille Etive Beag. That evening we settled down for a night of drinking and entertainment in the famous Clachaig Bar; A Saturday night at the Clachaig is always a bit special and fairly rowdy but in all my years I’ve never seen it like this. The bar was packed and people sang along to the band and danced on the tables even though the low ceiling forced them to be bent near double. A divided nation? Not here it wasn’t.

glencoeOnline though the immediate aftermath of the result had some strange effects on people. In all of this it’s been very easy to ignore how those who actually voted no have reacted to the result; The vast majority have gone back to business as usual but for others the fact that the ‘45’ have refused to just go away has caused frustration and anger. I probably lost more friends in the days immediately after the vote than I lost in the weeks leading up to it. Strangely many who had been deafeningly silent for weeks found a voice and the internet was charged with negative particles mostly, unremarkably, finding Facebook and Twitter as an outlet.

But the 45 were not going to be silenced. A grass roots movement this big was never going to disappear overnight. What none of us expected however was the overwhelming reaction in the week that followed; Within a few days the membership of the SNP (Scottish National Party) more than doubled making it the third largest political party in the UK ahead of the UK wide Liberal Democrats, other ‘pro’ parties such as the Scottish Greens also saw a growth spurt so great that over the week they were actually one of the fastest growing political parties in the whole of Europe. Even the fairly modest Scottish Socialist Party were overwhelmed by applications for membership. It was clear that this huge political movement were ready to send out a message to the rest of the UK establishment. “we are still here, and we are watching”.

And just as well too, for it took less that a few hours before the promises made to us to secure a no vote were beginning to unravel. Within a few days news reports of huge oil discoveries in the North Sea magically began to surface in the media and a little over a week since the referendum we are about to go to war in the Middle East again! The last week has been nothing short of Orwellian.

We are watching, and we are no going to be quiet.

So on Saturday, 10 days after the referendum day thousands gathered at the Holyrood parliament building in Edinburgh. The event was not organised by the SNP or Yes Scotland or any other political group, it was organised instead by a mum who wanted to show the rest of Scotland that the fight was not over. Under a tree in one corner at the far end of the parliament square hundreds of shopping bags were being deposited, all donations for food banks. As I stood in wonder I watched a severely crippled man struggle over the last few yards, a Sainsbury’s bag swinging from his crooked arm, he stopped and carefully added his contribution to the sea of goodwill. And that was when the wave hit me full in the face. I could not hold back the tears and had to find a quiet spot to let it out.

Food Bank Donations
Food Bank Donations

For the next few hours the crowds of saltires grew and people listened patiently as speakers got up to say how they felt. Some were professionals such as SNP MSP Marco Biaggi but others had just found their way to the microphone to vent their anger, their frustration, their defiance and their testimony. Somehow my son who a week ago had been devastated by the result managed with his friend to get himself behind the speakers and he stood holding his end of a saltire flag aloft to provide a backdrop. I don’t think I’ve ever been so proud in all my life. Every speaker had one common message – this is not over.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rally at Holyrood, Edinburgh
Rally at Holyrood, Edinburgh

 

The fat lady is not for singing.

So what have we learned over this week? I think the overriding lesson has been that what lost the referendum was not the argument it was our lack of control of the message that was being fed to the public. The fact that many more older people voted no was almost certainly because they were the demographic that the online media was not reaching. Forced to rely on the press and TV they were never given a chance to make a balanced decision.

When the campaign begins again (and begin it will) we need to have better control of traditional media. The move to ensure that begins now; already plans are underway for the foundation of a new red top newspaper for Scotland. Plans to enter into the broadcast arena are being formed too, all coming together thanks to crowd funding. The grass roots basis of the yes campaign once again proving its resilience by ensuring that within days many of the initial crowd funding projects designed to work on simple feasibility studies had already met their targets.

And then there was Labour. Their red hand had been all over the No campaign, from its leader right down to its show of strength in the last days before the vote and Gordon Browns maniacal speeches. In less than a year we will have a general election and its already clear that this political monster that has been created will work as one unit to ensure the utter destruction of Labour in Scotland. It may be almost unrecoverable for them across the UK too, The Conservative led government have collectively taken one pace backwards and Labour in their utter idiocy have been set up.

And it’s exactly what they deserve.

Because here’s the thing. If next years general election result is a complete rout of Labour and we can assume by that same token the Conservative’s and Lib Dems will continue with their pathetic showing north of the border then the Scottish part of the UK will return a huge SNP representation, and if that is large enough it would constitutionally permit Scotland to declare UDI; a Unilateral Declaration of Independence, this was the route that led both the Republic of Ireland AND the USA to declare Independence and it might yet be our route too. No referendum, no conspiracies of recounts, no media interference. Job done.

The 2014 referendum was not the end of the fight. It was a bloody nose but that’s all and Scotland is not out. We are back off the ropes and now we know our opponents best moves we can counter the punches and fight back.

“Wha’s like us? 1.6 million and were nae deid”

Rodger Moffet

 

5 thoughts on “What Now Scotland?

  1. Robert says:

    Wonderful article! I unfortunately belong to the group that washed their hands of Scotland, believing that we voted ourselves out of existence. I know it’s a downcast view, but such was the sorrow and shame of Scotland’s Funeral on the 18th that I felt a fool to have ever believed in us!

    And yet the more I hear of the hopes of others, I can’t help but pick up a little of that optimism. Perhaps it isn’t all done and dusted. Maybe the people won’t go back inside. Perhaps those with hope will reawaken Scotland and hold the Westminster parties’ feet to the fire over their sham promises, as our First Minister imagined. I hope so. And if not, then is it too much to hope we would cast out those would bring ruin to our communities and society – Labour & co? Again, I fear to hope we could ever act sensibly again after such a mass betrayal of one’s country.

    As you can see, the sadness will linger for the likes of me but amongst the bitterness there is still a curiosity to see how others will galvanise and regroup. For Scotland’s sake I pray they do.

    Thank you for this article. I may yet provide hope to others.

  2. hu yu says:

    as it was a big NO should close down Scottish Parliament and sack all politicians associated with it then we can revert back to UK parliament in London.
    And while were at it sack 450 MPs down there as well think of the money that would be saved in salaries plus expenses also get out of Europe.
    This would lead to much better democracy and freedom, if this is not done it will lead to the fragmentation of the british island.

  3. Sandra says:

    Rodger,

    I was on your website looking for tartan when I came across your “What now Scotland” on Bletherskite. It sums it up for me. The feeling of bereavement at the time, the wee while when it was “thats it then, the baws on the slates, wur teas oot”, then the uplifting feeling when we discovered We the 45 etc. There were still others not wanting to give up. Joy! Then joining the SNP again and seeing Nicola at the Hydro. Just amazing.

    Now we are gearing up for the GE and everything you said about labour will be coming true. We will need to be prepared this time and keep every Yessers’ eyes on the media and the ballot boxes though.

    Good luck to us and thank you very much for the article (even if it did make me cry again!).

    Till the fat lady sings Scotland the Brave.

  4. Graham says:

    Rodger,

    Tear in my eye reading this 3 weeks after General Election 2015.
    The Yes campaign didn’t half stand together.
    56 MPs out of 59.
    Here’s to us.

  5. Everett Coates says:

    You stated a truth that has been repeated several times in recent history, and possibly earlier, that people were made afraid to leave England. I have read that Hermann Goering was asked, during the Nuremberg trials, how the government had made the people do what they wanted. He replied that all they had to do was make them afraid. Many of the Scottish people were made afraid of independence from mother England so they voted the way the English wanted. Free the Scottish people from English media dominance or the Scottish will remain in subjugation.

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