The aggression shown to UKIP leader Nigel Farage in Edinburgh yesterday should concern everyone who subscribes to civilised democratic discourse.
Of course Scottish Tories have long known there is an extremely unpleasant, abusive and expectorating minority who will scream down and intimidate anyone they identify as a Conservative. And generally Tories in Scotland have learned to live with this. They are Tories, so no-one cares whether they are intimidated or not.
But isn't this what happened in Ireland?
In the 1918 general election a majority of the Irish electorate (53.1%) voted for parties that wanted to remain in the United Kingdom. That's a lot of unionists (small "u"). A decade later, after the orgiastic explosion of republican violence in the Irish civil war, there were almost no people in southern Ireland who were willing to assert they were unionists - they had all been burned out, forced to flee, or intimidated into silence.
Is Scotland going to go the same way?
Yes, Mr Farage and his UKIP can veer towards the clowny-fruitcakey side of politics.
But we owe them our support in this matter.
"For some reason the British media has never talked about the excesses of Scottish nationalism and how deeply unpleasant they can be" Mr Farage said.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-22566183
Of course Scottish Tories have long known there is an extremely unpleasant, abusive and expectorating minority who will scream down and intimidate anyone they identify as a Conservative. And generally Tories in Scotland have learned to live with this. They are Tories, so no-one cares whether they are intimidated or not.
But isn't this what happened in Ireland?
In the 1918 general election a majority of the Irish electorate (53.1%) voted for parties that wanted to remain in the United Kingdom. That's a lot of unionists (small "u"). A decade later, after the orgiastic explosion of republican violence in the Irish civil war, there were almost no people in southern Ireland who were willing to assert they were unionists - they had all been burned out, forced to flee, or intimidated into silence.
Is Scotland going to go the same way?
Yes, Mr Farage and his UKIP can veer towards the clowny-fruitcakey side of politics.
But we owe them our support in this matter.
"For some reason the British media has never talked about the excesses of Scottish nationalism and how deeply unpleasant they can be" Mr Farage said.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-22566183
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