PROJECT Fear 2.0 has got out of the blocks early in this second independence referendum campaign. We've already been warned that the SNP can't turn a UK General Election into a de facto referendum, because, reasons, and yesterday Boris Johnson insisted that Scottish independence would be "utterly tragic for the whole world".
Scottish independence would indeed be tragic, for Boris Johnson, but for the whole world, anything that's tragic for Boris Johnson has got to be a good thing. However Johnson is a supremely narcissistic individual, he genuinely believes that the entire universe revolves around him and his massive ego, so as far as he is concerned if something is tragic for him personally, it must also be tragic for the whole world. If ever you wanted an illustration of just how delusional Anglo-centric British nationalism really is, there you have it right there.
As scare stories go, telling us that Scottish independence would be a tragedy for the whole world is right up there with 2014's greatest hits, such as Scotland would be more vulnerable to an alien invasion, or the RAF might have to bomb Glasgow Airport. Johnson wants us to believe that if Scottish independence goes ahead, a farmer in the Himalayas will wake up in tears because the yaks are no longer producing milk as they are too depressed about Scottish independence.
Meanwhile, the overwhelmingly anti-independence Scottish media is dredging the scary stories barrel in order to put people off voting for independence in the vote that they are starting to realise cannot be avoided. We are being regaled with people who believe themselves to be experts on Scotland because their granny was born in Edinburgh before she moved to Oxfordshire at the age of four, and that vast expertise tells them that independence would be a disaster. Just today, we have a screaming headline warning us that Scotland 'may' be blocked from joining the EU if it removes trident on a rapid timetable.
The word 'may' is doing a lot of heavy lifting there, quickly getting rid of trident 'may' make not the slightest bit of difference to Scotland's bid for EU membership, and given that the terms of EU membership are not dependent on nukes, not making any difference 'may' be more likely. You could just as easily argue that Scotland playing host to the nuclear weapons of a non-EU state 'may' make an application for EU membership more difficult. But none of these 'may' help push an anti-independence narrative.
Most people get no further than the headline, which is of course how a lot of propaganda is effective, but when you get halfway through the article you find the admission that "If Scotland were provisionally prepared to accept longer-term (though not indefinite) Trident basing, it would have an immensely strong bargaining card." This article could just as easily have been given the headline "Trident would give an independent Scotland an immensely strong bargaining card" but that would have turned the story into a pro-independence one, and that's just not going to do for the media in Scotland.
Given the paucity of any positive offers that the Anglo-British nationalists are able to make to Scotland this time round, Sarwar's risible attempt at a Vow Mk II convinced no one, despite the best efforts of BBC Scotland to big it up, we are going to see a great deal of hysterical British nationalist scaremongering and threats in the months ahead. They have nothing else to offer. This is why they are so desperate to thwart Scottish democracy and do what they can to prevent another referendum, but in doing so they only strengthen the argument that democracy in Scotland can only be respected in an independent state.
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