THE POLITICS OF THE ECHO-CHAMBER

If the day ever dawns during my lifetime I will vote for Scotland's independence as I did in September 2014.

There is no question of it, despite all the accusations, mud-slinging and constant demonization I receive from those on the social media who think that everyone in the Yes Movement should meekly obey-the-leader and keep eating their cereal without having the temerity (how dare they?) of questioning quite what those leaders are up to in their positions of untrammeled power.

They accuse me of being consistently anti-SNP, no matter how many times I point out to them that it's that party's leaders I throw eggs at and never the membership. Apparently they don't understand the difference! That worries me. And when I suggest they check my FB Timeline before slating me they just ignore my invitations and continue with the cheap jibes.

So let me put the record straight: anyone who goes back to 2014 will see three years of consistently pro-SNP articles which could be said to be bordering on adulation. In those days I admit to having been a pretty unquestioning fan of Nicola Sturgeon and part of the Yes Movement's SNP-Right-or-Wrong bandwagon politics of the echo chamber.

With the rest of us I voted for and watched the SNP sweep the board in the 2015 General Election and accepted Sturgeon's decision not to fight that election on a plebiscite for independence. Clearly this was all part of her 'cunning plan' to achieve independence.

It was only in June 2017 that my eyes were opened when I saw that Sturgeon was going to fight a general election with the slogan 'Stronger for Scotland'. Stronger, but not on independence! So I organized a petition which subsequently was signed by over 1000 people before it was presented to Sturgeon. Basically the petition asked that she and the SNP should actively fight the 2017 GE on the issue of independence so that, on achieving a majority of seats in Scotland, she could use that electoral victory as yet more proof that the majority of the electorate supported independence.

There was nothing controversial about such a suggestion as until about 2010 that position was clearly in every SNP election manifesto. And an electoral victory founded on such a manifesto is the most powerful mandate recognizable amongst international bodies such as the UN and the Council of Europe.

Of course, that petition was ignored by the party hierarchy. In 2017 the SNP leadership were running scared having fallen for Tory Ruth Davidson's Goebbelesque 'Do the Day Job' attacks which Scotland's unionist media were only too happy to parrot. Instead of taking the Tories head-on and justifying the case for independence they ran away from the playground bully. And lost heavily as a result.

Nearly two years on SNP leaders admit they made a mistake and should have addressed themselves 'to the 45%' who they had abandoned in their rush to the lifeboats. So it took nearly two years, for them to acknowledge this elementary tactic which others could see, for them to leave aside their hubris and eat humble pie. And these are the clever politicians leading us to the promised land?!

And for daring to make such suggestions I was banned from SNP-controlled FB pages and roundly abused by a lot of the party faithful, many of whose company I would not personally choose. For me the phrase 'mob rule' took on a new meaning. I had criticized their leaders and become fair game from that very moment.

Until then I had dismissed accusations made by the unionist media that the SNP's cybernats were hounding politicians and abusing them. I simply didn't believe a word of it, knowing all too well how the UK establishment use this scare-tactic as a weapon against a party or leader they wish to defeat.

So imagine my sense of shock when in June 2017 those very same guns were pointed and fired at me by certain cybernats. Until that June I had unquestioningly followed the line that the SNP would liberate us all and that it was a traitorous thing to hold them in a negative light. Although, to be honest, while all the time playing the part of being one of Nicola's adoring fans, deep down another voice was cautioning me not to get too overly idealistic about this or any other political party's promises. Bob Marley's words 'Never trust a Politician' kept ringing inside.

But leaving politicians well aside (a place which they should mostly be relegated to!) my concern was with certain Yessers and their fury and intolerance of a fellow Yesser. Was this the kind of reaction to be expected for questioning the leadership of a political party? Well, having been brought up to treat all politicians with scepticism (both my parents used to read and comment on the papers last thing every night) I was now having to deal with people who treated them like demi-gods among humanity.

Perhaps it's old age but I swear I can remember a time when folk in the British Isles mostly all held politicians in a sceptical light and treated them with a healthy disrespect. I can remember, as well the history of two countries, Germany and the Soviet Union, where the endless adulation afforded political leaders was the norm in totalitarian societies. Never for a moment did I expect that slavishness ever to find a home in dear, brave, individualist Scotland.

And yet the truth is that it has and I and several others have experienced its sharp end. And it's not coming from a person or two but in a flood of hate and vitriol. And that, taken with the banning for no reason (a reason is never given) makes me feel that someone is coordinating many of these attacks. I understand that the SNP has had several requests to rein-in its supporters but no such thing has happened.

I can see that such an attempt to control would not be very successful. I couldn't see how it could work. Such a diktat from on high would never be received too well! But as well as that others have asked if their involvement in the witch-hunts on the social media might go deeper still. It hasn't gone amiss that it's invariably the SNP-controlled FB pages with a large readership whose admins are the most intolerant and the first to ban people for no obvious reason.

No matter how much you explain your position when they attack you, they dismiss you, you become a non-person. Very rarely do they attempt reasoned arguments, mostly what you get are assumptions and when they pretend niceness they quickly follow pretence with a condescending lecture or two. And basically behind all that is Big Brother's veiled threat that we must all toe the line.

That's what I'm sensing and hearing in all this from the party faithful. And I ask myself what kind of a New Scotland will it be if we are prepared to accept such levels of bigotry and intolerance? Where even fellow Yessers can be disposed of and made into non-persons for speaking their truth? Other countries have descended into one or another form of totalitarianism: Germany, the Soviet Union, and now England. Like many I pray that a New Scotland might provide a beacon of light in the surrounding darkness. I still do, despite these ominous experiences. I still believe in this country's values of inclusivity and basic decency.

And despite all I remain an optimist that goodness will prevail.

AUSTERITY & NUKES: THE PRICE WE WILL PAY FOR INDEPENDENCE?

'The party leadership plans to adopt vast majority of Growth Commissions recommendations.'

Do people realise what that will mean? It means that they will be adopting the plans for a neoliberal economy, no different to the neoliberal economies causing so much misery and strife the world-over. That and the SNP leadership's sworn allegiance to the Atlantic Alliance with a possible change of policy over nukes means that there will be little or no change after their post-independence plans.

I'm willing to bet serious money that one of the major concessions that will follow will be to allow the UK to keep its nuclear weapons indefinitely on Scottish soil. Similarly they will be forced to make concessions about the UK's continued access to North Sea oil.

The price Eire had to pay for her independence was to give away the six counties to the Brits. No doubt they will demand a similar sacrifice from Scotland over oil and nukes.

JUST MORE CARROT-DANGLING?

Sturgeon and the SNP have had almost five years to prepare for a second referendum.

They've done sweet FA in all that time. Now they're calling for citizen's assemblies! What are they playing at? What are they afraid of? When support for indy is at least 50% of the population why do they continue to behave in this feart fashion?

Are they feart of the public or of WM, or both?? How far do the polls have to move before she'll do anything? And why, unlike Alex Salmond, is she not out in the streets drumming up support? Is she serious about indy or is it all just another carrot-dangling exercise?

FACEBOOK'S VENAL NATURE

I'm told that Mark Zuckerberg's great grandfather is Lord Rothschild. Whether true or not this man's greed and venal nature has no limits.

Not satisfied with banning a perfectly democratic blog for supposedly being abusive (!) I have now received this from their administration. Meanwhile all my appeals to FB to review their ludicrous ban remain ignored.

For the Yes Family to continue with this FB dictatorship is like turkeys voting for Christmas. We really must find an alternative platform and soon.

BACK TO ANIMAL FARM

Oh the irony!

The very same people in the Yes Movement who quite rightly rail 24/7 against the tyranny of  British unionism are now turning on any individual on Facebook's Yes pages. We are being banned from Yes pages and now even our private blogs are being blocked from being posted.

Since the summer of 2017 I have become increasingly outspoken about the manner in which the SNP's leadership have mismanaged the movement for Scotland's independence. It was that summer that my eyes were opened to their defeatism and consistent refusal to fight a general election on the indy ticket. Well, once one's eyes have been opened it's very difficult to close them again and the revelation was accompanied by a constant stream of abuse that it was my pleasure to receive on Facebook pages.

That's when I was shocked into asking myself the question, what is wrong with these people that they cannot stand the slightest bit of criticism or dissent? Why are they so intolerant of others who do not share the exact same views as they do? And just who are they who enjoy spending their time screaming at each other?

I believe there are at least two groups: firstly those who really are no different to sectarian football fans who treat independence and the SNP as a football club where everyone else is there to be abused and shat upon; and secondly a silent group of privileged, well-educated people with some degree of vested interest in promoting the SNP and keeping it in permanent power.

It is that second group which concerns me because I believe that they do not work alone and that they coordinate campaigns to isolate, marginalize and eliminate anyone who dares to criticize the party on the social media. It is this second group which I believe is responsible for the treatment that is being meted out to those who dissent.

The latest episode started with my being banned from a Yes group called Uncensored for Scotland. No reason or notification was given for the ban but as this was the second time it had happened on this page it was pretty clear that the reason for their ban was that, in their eyes, my posts were having a 'divisive' effect on other members! Quite how I was causing division was, of course, never divulged!

Following that I decided to revive my old blog, Chimes of Freedom, which had been lying dormant for several years. Yet, no sooner had I done that and posted blog articles to FB, I was again banned, this time not for my FB posts but for those from my own private blog! The reason given by FB was that I was 'spamming'!

That's when the penny dropped. Someone was reporting my posts as spam and FB was acting on their complaints. Every ban has been challenged and I await FB's decision. You will understand why I'm not holding my breath!

Now, while all this might strike you to be a rather childish game I believe it is rather more serious than that. Are this second group, the more well-heeled ones, acting alone? Or are they part of a coordinated informal campaign which can be traced back to the New SNP's headquarters? My intuition tells me that's more than likely and that this is the way the New SNP apparat seeks to control opinion on the social media.

That apparat knows only too well how to turn to their advantage the algorithms of the FB polis by firing off a volley of spam reports against anyone whose posts they don't like and who they wish to silence. That is exactly what happened to me.

Now I am all too aware that this claim will be immediately denounced by their vigilantes to be nothing more than a crazy conspiracy theory. But I've heard that accusation made only too often by people with something to hide. So all I request from those who read this is simply to keep in mind what I say, even if you don't buy the whole story.

I am just as keen as these zealots to see the day dawn when Scotland will be free again. But where they and I part company is that I would like our freedom to be real, to mean something in our everyday lives and not just to become another means to keep a political party packed with privileged technocrats in charge of the Animal Farm.