Why you shouldn't vote SNP on Thursday
1. Scotland has no legitimate grievances against England. James VI of Scotland inherited the English throne not vice versa. Whatever nationalist legend may say the 1707 act was passed quite voluntarily by the Scots Parliament. There were more Scots fighting for Cumberland at Culloden than fought for Charles. The Wars of Independence don't count they were too long ago and the Scots have invaded England plenty of times before and after. (North Sea Oil and the Poll Tax don't count either it was the SNP who put Thatcher in power in the first place by bringing down the Callaghan government).
2. Scotland has profited disproportionately from the Union. Scots have occupied positions of political, economic and cultural power in Britain in far greater numbers than their proportion of the UK population. For example, the present UK Prime Minister and his likely successor (and present Chancellor of the Exchequer) are both Scots, as is the Home Secretary and the leader of the third largest party in Parliament and his predecessor. As part of the United Kingdom Scotland has a seat on the UN security council, is one of the big three in the EU, for more than a century was part of the most powerful state on earth and is still part of the second or third most powerful state on earth.
3. Multi-Ethnic States are a jolly good thing which teach us the difference between the nation and the state and teach us to let our hearts flutter at the sound of another people's anthem as well as our own. Ethnic nationalism and Civic nationalism are good and wholesome things but they go bad when they coincide, such states oppress their minorities and try to unify their volk by invading their neighbours (See the French and the Germans). The Poles, Ukrainians and Jews were particularly loyal to the Hapsburgs because they protected minorities from the bullying majority populations in their territories. When good old Blessed Kaiser Karl encountered a crowd celebrating the outbreak of WWI under his balcony he told them to bugger off and be ashamed of themselves.
4. When Multi-Ethnic states are destroyed the fragments tend to justify their existence by breeding hatred of each other and encouraging terrorist groups and civil wars in each other's territory (See partitions of Ireland, India and Yugoslavia and collapse of Ottoman Empire).
2. Scotland has profited disproportionately from the Union. Scots have occupied positions of political, economic and cultural power in Britain in far greater numbers than their proportion of the UK population. For example, the present UK Prime Minister and his likely successor (and present Chancellor of the Exchequer) are both Scots, as is the Home Secretary and the leader of the third largest party in Parliament and his predecessor. As part of the United Kingdom Scotland has a seat on the UN security council, is one of the big three in the EU, for more than a century was part of the most powerful state on earth and is still part of the second or third most powerful state on earth.
3. Multi-Ethnic States are a jolly good thing which teach us the difference between the nation and the state and teach us to let our hearts flutter at the sound of another people's anthem as well as our own. Ethnic nationalism and Civic nationalism are good and wholesome things but they go bad when they coincide, such states oppress their minorities and try to unify their volk by invading their neighbours (See the French and the Germans). The Poles, Ukrainians and Jews were particularly loyal to the Hapsburgs because they protected minorities from the bullying majority populations in their territories. When good old Blessed Kaiser Karl encountered a crowd celebrating the outbreak of WWI under his balcony he told them to bugger off and be ashamed of themselves.
4. When Multi-Ethnic states are destroyed the fragments tend to justify their existence by breeding hatred of each other and encouraging terrorist groups and civil wars in each other's territory (See partitions of Ireland, India and Yugoslavia and collapse of Ottoman Empire).
posted by Aelianus at 7:05 am
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