With just four more days until the people of Scotland take to the polling stations to make the biggest political decisions that they are ever likely to make, trying to capture the essence of this referendum is a daunting task. This campaign on whether to choose self-determination or stick with the same old horseshit has been a long and arduous one, spanning back at least two years, officially, and has taken many twists and turns along the road as the citizens of this country have wrestled with the issues in their heads, hearts and guts.
From the onset of the referendum, I was intrinsically aware that the British Establishment wouldn’t give up Scotland easily – the rich elites who run CorporationUK™ have way too much at stake. What has taken me by surprise is the extreme lengths to which they have gone to and the underhand methods they have employed as the establishment has come to the realisation that the Union is slipping from their clammy little hands like the spouse of a wife-beater who has finally decided to leave her abuser for good.
This analogy, I think, is a good one. For most of my life I feel I have been part of a nation of losers and underdogs. As a teenager growing up through the miner’s strike of 84/85, the repercussions of Thatcher being able to defeat the miners meant that the backbone of the working classes had finally been broken and that through the years and generations that followed, a complacency was systematically bred into our culture that disconnected and disillusioned the poor with the entire political process. During the introduction of the Poll Tax (which in 1989 was unfairly put on trial in Scotland first), many of those who opposed it and refused to pay took themselves off the electoral register in an effort to get out of the loop and avoid local council retribution.
The British Establishment thought they had us by the balls.
Then in 2007, something incredible happened and the SNP won the Scottish General Election by a ‘bawhair’. The tide had turned as the people of Scotland began to realise that the policies of New Labour seemed more akin to those of Old Tory. The days of ‘choose-your-favourite-primary-colour’ politics were over in Scotland and the people realised, once again, that their voice and vote counted for something that was real. With the SNP gaining an overall majority in the 2011 Scottish General Election, it was clear that the political affairs of Scotland were best decided by those who could benefit the most from them: the people of Scotland themselves.
Regardless of whether or not you like Alex Salmond and the SNP, it is difficult to argue that the Scottish Government has not looked after Scotland’s affairs in Scotland’s best interest. Free education, the abolition of Prescription Fees and mitigation against the negative impact of Westminter’s unpopular Bedroom Tax proved to many of the Scottish people that the political process at Holyrood was working well and working in their favour.
But all this comes at a cost. Despite the ridiculous constant rhetoric from Westminster that Scotland are a nation of “subsidy junkies”, the truth of the matter is in fact quite the opposite with Scotland subsidising the UK by billions of pounds each year. Westminster politicians don’t like to admit this, but they have come clean on a number of rare occasions when bound by Parliamentary rules. William Waldegrave, former Chief Secretary to the Treasury, was forced in 1997 to concede figures in Commons questioning that showed that over an 18-year period, the net flow in favour of the Treasury from north of the Border ran between £27bn and £31bn. The result of putting more spondoolicks into the pot than we get back therefore has a serious knock-on effect, as Westminster introduce further austerity measures on the UK as a whole. Without independence, how long the Scottish Government can alleviate us from the Bedroom Tax, or provide free prescriptions, or protect the National Health Service from privatisation, is a matter that makes for depressing debate. The logical and only viable option is for Scotland to become an independent country where we can control all of our revenue, all of our resources, and subsequently all of our spending. And therein lies the real reason why the British Establishment do not want to give us up so easily. If we really were “subsidy junkies” then why on earth would they want to hold onto us?
THESE THREE GOONS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE IN OPPOSITION TO
EACH OTHER, INSTEAD THEY OPPOSE SCOTLAND’S FUTURE
But their attempts to do so could almost be considered comical if the implications of remaining in the Union weren’t so catastrophic. Westminster in this referendum has pulled out all the stops and the result has been an incredible eye-opener, even to me. The most astonishing revelation to come from this debate is how virtually every faction of the mainstream media has been utilised by the establishment to argue a pro-Unionist case. This blatant bias in reporting would be bad enough if the media were merely hoodwinking the general public from the truth; but it is much worse than that as the mediums of television, radio and daily newspapers have rallied round to blatantly lie on the establishment’s behalf. Organisations like the BBC, who have long been considered national institutions of fairness in reporting and stalwarts of impartiality, have revealed their true colours. The manipulation of public perception is often subtle, but it is clearly there to anyone with a trained eye.
Professor John Robertson from the University of the West of Scotland published a report that outlined the key tactics used by the media to manipulate public perception through their coverage of this referendum. His findings revealed several key areas of media bias:
• Imbalance – the tendency to report more on the bad news than good news for independence.
• Sequence – the structuring of a story to create an overall impression through subtle repetition.
• Sources – the selection of an information provider for a story.
• Demonisation – the negative portrayal of an individual for political gain.
Professor John Robertson has, I think, missed one other important key area in his findings however:
• Semantics.
From my own perspective, the use of language and the reinforcement of negative terms has been a major player of media bias in this referendum. Over the last two years we have heard Independence being referred to as “Separatism”, political discourse being described as “anti-English”, and Yes campaigners being portrayed as “Nationalists” - which is almost laughable given the vast amount of grass-roots organisations that have no association with the Nationalist viewpoint whatsoever. To describe Labour For Yes, or Greens For Yes, or English Scots For Yes as Nationalists is not only quite possibly insulting to members of those organisations, but most likely one of the biggest mistakes the Better Together campaign could make and a complete underestimation of the true fringe-like nature of the Yes movement as a whole.
But this is the 21st century and the public are clearly more astute than the establishment gives them credit. Social media has proven to be a great asset to those weighing up the pros and cons of #IndyRef. Within mere seconds of a biased news story appearing on television, social media becomes awash with the counter-argument. It would seem that not only was Twitter a useful tool in determining the outcome of the Arab Spring, but it is proving to be an essential means of disseminating the truth and dispelling the lies around the Scottish Independence Referendum. It appears the public have taken the immortal words of Jello Biafra to heart when he said: “Don’t Hate The Media, Become The Media.”
It sure as hell is an exciting time to be alive. Never in my lifetime have I experienced anything quite like this. There’s almost a carnival-like nature to the Yes campaign in Scotland right now which is only serving to drive the momentum further and make the movement stronger. For once this nation of losers and underdogs seems hopeful, passionate and energetic.
In pubs, work places and community centres up and down the country, people are engaging in discussion and coming to conclusions about the future of the type of country they want to live in. The incredible vastness and diversity of this Yes movement is nothing other than inspiring and the creativity pushing it forward only serves as a stark contrast between the depressingly bleak negativity of Better Together and their miserable band of apocalyptic soothsayers.
Against all the odds, against the media manipulation, against all the smear campaigns and negative reinforcements, this diverse nation of people are rising up and awakening from their slumber to be counted and have their voices heard.
Yes isn’t just about Scotland, Yes is becoming a force of nature that is set to sweep the planet when we vote for Independence on September 18th. Ordinary people all over the world are watching us closely and movements like Catalans For Yes, who have been so incredibly supportive of this democratic process, only serve to support that this is indeed an incredible force for positive change.
Yes is not about Nationalism, or Separatism, or floating off into the Atlantic to go it alone; it’s about making politics more localised as we become more globalised as a species. It’s about looking after your own back garden and making sure your neighbours don’t dump anything untoward in it.
For me, the fear and loathing of this campaign has subsided to be replaced with hope and optimism. Scotland will vote Yes on Thursday because, despite everything, there’s now an incredible momentum that cannot be stopped.
George T. Mortimer is the writer and editor for media-underground.net and author of Bothy Culture – an exploration of the rich subculture that can often be found at some of Scotland’s remotest locations.
Twitter: @mediasubway
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