Brexit, Racism and the attack on Scotland

Racism and Xenophobia played no part in the result of the EU referendum vote. Leave voters were totally uninfluenced by the mass media campaign to demonise immigrants and none of them were bigoted racists. We know this because it’s what leave voters tell us. Leave voters did actually do their own research on what leaving the EU would mean - the day after the vote.

The ignorant consider religion true, the wise consider it false, the rulers consider it useful

- Seneca the Younger

Religion was a powerful tool once but is of ever decreasing value in the West, where it seems the only people who are influenced by Religion are the Muslims the Brexiteers wanted to portray as EU Immigrants and there are not enough Polish Muslims to fit this role. In the West Rulers need other tools. Cue xenophobia and racism disguised as concern about the effects of immigration: powerful tools that also protect the rulers.

Brexit voters deny being racist bigots though upper and middle class Brexi- teers, Tories mainly, do seem to be racist bigots and descendants of immigrants. Working class Brexiteers, facing competition from immigrants for low paid low skill zero hour contract jobs might seem to have the basis for rational xenopho- bia but Brexit will not affect the non-EU majority of immigrants who, being

cheaper will be welcomed in order to displace native born workers. Once again the working class have been conned by the CONservatives

People naturally distrust ”foreigners” i.e those not like themselves. Not many years ago villagers in England ( and doubtless other nationalities) regarded someone from the village five miles away as a foreigner. This naturally extends to immigrants and immigrant groups have been the target of suspicion, abuse and intermittent violence for centuries.

”Modern” arguments against immigrants date from the birth of the Tory party in the 18th Century and have been trotted out, usually without cerebral inter- vention, ever since. Perhaps significantly these arguments seem to have orig- inated around the time newspapers were becoming a powerful establishment and employer propaganda tool and the slave trade was in full swing, racism and slavery being hopelessly entangled and supporting each other, though Slavery was only incidentally racist, plantation owners, like modern corporations were willing to use any ethnicity that can be exploited.

The Brexit campaign used these ancient arguments to demonise Immigrants, resulting in an increase, in England, in racially based hate crimes after the referendum. Obviously this was not carried out by Brexiteers who insist they are not racist bigots. Perhaps Scottish Independence supporters sneaked down from North Britain and staged these incidents in order to discredit the Brexit campaign. Never mind the truth, SNP bad is always a good mantra. Perhaps we will see Unionists marching down the street dressed in Orange robes and chanting ”SNP BAD” to the sound of music.

Racism is nominally unacceptable but there is anecdotal evidence of a dispro- portionate rise in anti-Scottish racism down in South Britain and, if the rantings of people like Katie Hopkins are a guide, racist remarks can be made, in the media about Scots that would be unacceptable if made about any other ethnic group especially the English.

When the current wave of anti immigrant hysteria subsides immigration from Europe may reduce slightly but the number of immigrants the elite’s business paymasters want - brown and black skinned people willing to work for 50p a week, a bowl of rice a day and a camp bed in the office/warehouse - will continue

to increase. Having run out of other targets the next group demonise will be the Scots: as trouble makers, separatists, subsidy junkies, benefit scroungers etc. This will let the ruling elite dismiss calls for independence and justify measures to punish Scotland, possibly abolishing the Scottish Parliament and Government.

Eventually this should boost the demand for Scottish Independence and may even lead to UDI or the expulsion of Scotland from the United Kingdom for in the end even the minority who benefit from the Union of 1707 will suffer as a direct result of Westminster actions. Scotland will either leave or become such a problem that the elite, for all their spouted devotion to the union, will consider Scotland more trouble than the Union is worth. Those who want independence should research ways to (legally) make Scotland an intolerable burden, or at least be seen as a horde of unswattable midges inflicting countless painful, and ideally expensive, bites on the English posterior and other sensitive regions.

Independence is not guaranteed however, no matter how badly Westminster treats Scotland. The recent drive to brand Scottish products, including Whisky as British by draping them in Union Jack trade dress and the branding of Scottish Olympic medallists as British can be seen as attempts to eliminate Scottish culture and traditions and portray Scotland as merely a region. Despite all this there will be some who will work to further Westminster’s interests just as during WW II some Jews collaborated with the Nazis, and in every country some willingly worked with the invaders. Some will do so out of conviction, some out of fear, some out of greed and ambition.

Perhaps the best hope is Brexit - if Article 50 is ever triggered, though there are increasing doubts this will ever happen. England’s unpopularity and increasing lack of interest will make acceptance of an Independent Scotland, even via UDI rather than a referendum much more likely. However there are many who voted YES in 214 would vote NO in a second referendum since they feel it more important to be out of the EU than out of the Union. These people need convincing that Independence should come first followed by debate on Scottish membership of the EU.

Having found racism a powerful tool in the Brexit campaign the Establishment will use it against Scotland to try and prevent independence. This may boost

support for independence enough to win a second post-Article 50 referendum but the split between pro and anti-EU YES voters makes this less likely than many would wish. Add to that the unionist collaborators with Westminster and a YES vote in a second referendum could hang on a knife edge. A lot of work is needed to increase support for independence, since a YES vote is never guaranteed. Opinion polls cannot be trusted and perhaps the independence movement needs its own Project Fear based on Pensions ( which the Tories want to abolish), Human Rights (which they also want to abolish), Free Education (Guess what they want to do with that), Free Prescriptions and Free bus travel for the over 60s, all of which Westminster want to abolish. Plus a positive case that by becoming independent we will be able to travel to Europe without having to go online and pay for a visa, and, if Scotland joins Schengen, travel anywhere in Europe without having to show a passport. The Tories would welcome the British having to pay for a visa to visit Paris or Dublin as it would mean fewer of the Great Unwashed could visit Europe and come back demanding such evil communistic things as weekends, paid holidays, human rights, workers rights and pensions. We could also pick up the London end of the finance industry as it is by no means certain British Banks would keep their financial passport rights though these banks could be a poisoned chalice if not handled correctly from the start.

BUREAUCRATS: HOW TO ANNOY THEM: R T FISHALL 1982 ( actually Patrick Moore)

Bloody Foreigners: The story of Immigration to Britain: Robert Winder, Abacus 2013