The ‘positive’ case for the Union has been revealed

Tuesday, 27 August 2013 23:02

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  By G.A.Ponsonby
 
It took a while but the No campaign has finally revealed the positive case for remaining in the Union – war.
 
Yesterday David Cameron and his loyal sidekick William Hague were like excited puppy dogs as they looked forward to launching cruise missiles at some Johnny Foreigner types.  Syria is the latest Middle East crisis needing some Western cleansing and the Conservatives, Labour and the Lib Dems are readying themselves.

Listening to the radio yesterday I was struck by the number of crisp public school accents telling us just how important it was that we intervene.  One so called ‘military expert’, on hearing concerns about the indiscriminate nature of cruise missiles, sought to reassure listeners by telling them that we could hit a target to within one metre – of course, he added, anyone in the vicinity would be killed.

So that’s alright then.

Westminster politicians crave the days of empire when they had real military influence, and any opportunity to relive the glorious days of the past are seized on.  Only the other week Spain was apparently being threatened and a destroyer was sent to Gibraltar.

Conflict is in the blood of the Unionist as the rhetoric demonstrates with repeated references to ‘punching above our weight’.  Look at the arguments currently being put forward against independence and war runs through them like a cancer.

Warships will no longer be built on the Clyde, thousands of jobs rely on Trident and NATO will expel an independent Scotland.

Meanwhile, UK Armed Forces Day is to be held in Stirling next year at the same time as commemorations are being held as part of the 700th anniversary of Bannockburn event.  Jets will scream overhead and troops will march through the city as fundamental Unionism bares its teeth. 

Amid a spectacle of fun and themed medieval battles, staged to entertain Scots and tourists alike, will be a demonstration of ‘Union Power’ as UK Defence Minister Philip Hammond called it.  It’s a symbolic invasion.

Added to the jingoistic nonsense is the sickening ‘Olympic Style’ cultural celebrations planned by London to coincide with the anniversary of the start of World War One.  The ultimate irony is that it was this war that witnessed the development of chemical weapons and the industrialised slaughter of the working classes, far too many of them Scots.

Who knows, perhaps if they hurry then we can commemorate the first anniversary of the flattening of Syria at the same time … just before the independence referendum.

How many Syrians are about to die?  How many Iraqis died when they were ‘saved’?  Who cares, just so long as the glorious Union continues to ‘punch above its weight’.

Vote No and vote war.  Better Together indeed.

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