The SNP and their foul-mouthed , thuggish supporters took part in a sinister campaign of abuse and intimidation in the run up to last September's Scottish independence referendum, both online and on the streets, but still failed to...... persuade...... the Scottish people to vote for independence.
Now, in a UK General Election which could see Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon's SNP form part of, or prop up, a UK government despite the fact that only 9% or so of the UK's 46 million-strong electorate can vote for them, the SNP are up to their old tricks of sinister intimidation, abuse and general fascism once more....
DOMINIC LAWSON: The Scottish Nasty Party and how its growing intimidation and intolerance of dissent reeks of fascism
By Dominic Lawson for the Daily Mail
20 April 2015
Daily Mail
The windows of the Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party offices in Aberdeen have been spray-painted with the word 'scum' and the unmistakable sign of the swastika.
The front door has been similarly defaced with a giant letter Q, for Quisling: that is, traitor. Labour Party offices half a mile away were also daubed with similar abuse.
A local Conservative councillor, Ross Thomson, described this as 'the ugly face of nationalism'. This showed restraint on his part.
In his place, I might have pointed out that the political party that actually used the swastika as its emblem was the Nazi party: short for National Socialist.
Attack: The windows of the Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party offices in Aberdeen have been spray-painted with the word 'scum', a swastika and giant letter Q, for Quisling
Down south, we have not seen Alex Salmond much lately on our TV screens. But he is at least standing for Parliament in this General Election. Not so his successor as First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon (pictured together on Saturday)
Bad behaviour: Yes campaigners clash with police after the referendum result came in last year
And I would have added that supporters of the Scottish National Party — which claims to be to the left of Labour and which is undeniably Nationalist — is increasingly engaged in the kind of street-by-street intimidation of opponents that we would more normally associate with fascists.
I gained some impression of this phenomenon when I spent time in Glasgow during the referendum campaign: but it has got much worse.
SNP activists openly describe how they have been 'hunting' Labour's shadow Scottish secretary, Margaret Curran, by stalking her and then yelling abuse as she tries to talk to electors on the doorstep.
When this was put to the rival SNP candidate in the constituency, Natalie McGarry, she claimed Mrs Curran was a 'fair target for community justice'.
This sinister phrase is nothing less than a defence of the mob.
Vicious
The BBC in Scotland is wearily familiar with similar intimidation — co-ordinated action by so-called cybernats has made the job of its journalists increasingly unenviable.
Its correspondent James Cook complained of the 'vicious abuse' he received, merely for reporting the civil service leak of a memo which had suggested that SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon would prefer David Cameron to Ed Miliband as prime minister.
And many other BBC reporters have been targeted, but not complained.
The head of the BBC in Scotland, Donalda MacKinnon, described the cybernat campaign of abuse as 'completely unacceptable'.
'Our journalists are entitled to carry on their work without the threat of unwarranted personal attacks online. The safety of our staff is of paramount concern to us and we are doing everything in our power to ensure they can carry out their work helping to inform our audiences without intimidation and abuse.'
It is almost incredible how much broadcast airtime Ms Sturgeon is receiving - given she is not even standing in the General Election
The political control of broadcasters is one of the hallmarks of a dictatorship, whether fascist or communist
The SNP is not a normal political party. It is more like a cult - and intolerance is one of the chief characteristics of all cults
Yet if the SNP had its way, there would be no political independence for the BBC — or any other broadcaster north of what it wants to make a real border.
During the referendum campaign, the then SNP leader Alex Salmond declared: 'I don't think the broadcasting issue in terms of how it treats Scotland will be properly resolved till we have broadcasting under the democratic parliament of Scotland.'
The political control of broadcasters is one of the hallmarks of a dictatorship, whether fascist or communist. Salmond is neither of those: just a consummate opportunist — the hallmark of ultra-nationalist politicians throughout the past century.
Down south, we have not seen Mr Salmond much lately on our TV screens. But he is at least standing for Parliament in the General Election. Not so his successor as First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon.
It is almost incredible how much broadcast airtime she is receiving — there can be no complaint by cybernats about the BBC on that score — given that she is not even standing in the election.
No one can vote for her on May 7 and yet she has been the dominant figure, by some accounts, in the various television leaders' debates in the past fortnight.
That, at least, was the praise accorded her performance by Conservative spin doctors and ministers, after her debating encounters with Ed Miliband.
The real victims are the majority of Scots who don't agree with them, but are increasingly intimidated into silence by the Scottish Nasty Party
I can see why Conservatives should want to describe Ms Sturgeon as the tail wagging the Labour Party dog — it fits in with their posters showing a large Ms Sturgeon dangling wires controlling the movements of a tiny Mr Miliband.
But the Tories are playing with fire — indeed, playing games with the Union itself — by making a giant out of someone who, even on the present opinion polls, speaks for barely 4 per cent of the total British electorate.
They could, instead, point out the many ways in which public services — such as education and health — under devolved SNP control in the Scottish parliament have been less successful than under the Conservative-led Government in Westminster.
But Cameron refused to make any such criticism in his one multi-party debating encounter with Ms Sturgeon, because he really wants as many SNP MPs as possible to replace Labour ones in Scotland.
What sort of MPs would they be?
On the current polls, which indicate an almost clean sweep by the SNP, the Labour election campaign co-ordinator and shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander will lose his Renfrewshire seat to a 20-year-old SNP candidate, Mhairi Black.
Ms Black seems an appropriate representative for the cybernats, at least. Among recent tweets she revealed how she fantasised about 'putting the nut' on Labour councillors and posted how she 'woke up beside half a can of Tennent's and a full pizza and more money than I came out with. I call that a success!'
Draconian
Perhaps with such candidates it is not so surprising that the SNP last month passed what has been described as a 'Stalinist' amendment to the party's standing orders.
It states: 'No Member shall, within or without Parliament, publicly criticise a Group decision, policy, or another member of the Group.'
Can you imagine what would be said if the Conservative or Labour Party imposed such a draconian code on its parliamentary candidates?
They would rightly be accused of the most outrageous constraints on the individual conscience of Members of Parliament and an assault on what it means to be a politician in a democracy.
Yet the SNP is not a normal political party. It is more like a cult — and intolerance is one of the chief characteristics of all cults.
Naturally, it is as entitled as any other party to be respected for its support among the population: and it clearly has the backing of about 45 per cent of all voting Scots — mirroring the scale of the separatist vote in the referendum campaign.
The people I feel sympathy for are not the English, who might resent the influence of a triumphalist SNP contingent at Westminster.
No, the real victims are the majority of Scots who don't agree with them, but are increasingly intimidated into silence by the Scottish Nasty Party.
The Scottish Nasty Party and how its growing intimidation and intolerance of dissent reeks of fascism | Daily Mail Online
Now, in a UK General Election which could see Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon's SNP form part of, or prop up, a UK government despite the fact that only 9% or so of the UK's 46 million-strong electorate can vote for them, the SNP are up to their old tricks of sinister intimidation, abuse and general fascism once more....
DOMINIC LAWSON: The Scottish Nasty Party and how its growing intimidation and intolerance of dissent reeks of fascism
By Dominic Lawson for the Daily Mail
20 April 2015
Daily Mail
The windows of the Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party offices in Aberdeen have been spray-painted with the word 'scum' and the unmistakable sign of the swastika.
The front door has been similarly defaced with a giant letter Q, for Quisling: that is, traitor. Labour Party offices half a mile away were also daubed with similar abuse.
A local Conservative councillor, Ross Thomson, described this as 'the ugly face of nationalism'. This showed restraint on his part.
In his place, I might have pointed out that the political party that actually used the swastika as its emblem was the Nazi party: short for National Socialist.
Attack: The windows of the Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party offices in Aberdeen have been spray-painted with the word 'scum', a swastika and giant letter Q, for Quisling
Down south, we have not seen Alex Salmond much lately on our TV screens. But he is at least standing for Parliament in this General Election. Not so his successor as First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon (pictured together on Saturday)
Bad behaviour: Yes campaigners clash with police after the referendum result came in last year
And I would have added that supporters of the Scottish National Party — which claims to be to the left of Labour and which is undeniably Nationalist — is increasingly engaged in the kind of street-by-street intimidation of opponents that we would more normally associate with fascists.
I gained some impression of this phenomenon when I spent time in Glasgow during the referendum campaign: but it has got much worse.
SNP activists openly describe how they have been 'hunting' Labour's shadow Scottish secretary, Margaret Curran, by stalking her and then yelling abuse as she tries to talk to electors on the doorstep.
When this was put to the rival SNP candidate in the constituency, Natalie McGarry, she claimed Mrs Curran was a 'fair target for community justice'.
This sinister phrase is nothing less than a defence of the mob.
Vicious
The BBC in Scotland is wearily familiar with similar intimidation — co-ordinated action by so-called cybernats has made the job of its journalists increasingly unenviable.
Its correspondent James Cook complained of the 'vicious abuse' he received, merely for reporting the civil service leak of a memo which had suggested that SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon would prefer David Cameron to Ed Miliband as prime minister.
And many other BBC reporters have been targeted, but not complained.
The head of the BBC in Scotland, Donalda MacKinnon, described the cybernat campaign of abuse as 'completely unacceptable'.
'Our journalists are entitled to carry on their work without the threat of unwarranted personal attacks online. The safety of our staff is of paramount concern to us and we are doing everything in our power to ensure they can carry out their work helping to inform our audiences without intimidation and abuse.'
It is almost incredible how much broadcast airtime Ms Sturgeon is receiving - given she is not even standing in the General Election
The political control of broadcasters is one of the hallmarks of a dictatorship, whether fascist or communist
The SNP is not a normal political party. It is more like a cult - and intolerance is one of the chief characteristics of all cults
Yet if the SNP had its way, there would be no political independence for the BBC — or any other broadcaster north of what it wants to make a real border.
During the referendum campaign, the then SNP leader Alex Salmond declared: 'I don't think the broadcasting issue in terms of how it treats Scotland will be properly resolved till we have broadcasting under the democratic parliament of Scotland.'
The political control of broadcasters is one of the hallmarks of a dictatorship, whether fascist or communist. Salmond is neither of those: just a consummate opportunist — the hallmark of ultra-nationalist politicians throughout the past century.
Down south, we have not seen Mr Salmond much lately on our TV screens. But he is at least standing for Parliament in the General Election. Not so his successor as First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon.
It is almost incredible how much broadcast airtime she is receiving — there can be no complaint by cybernats about the BBC on that score — given that she is not even standing in the election.
No one can vote for her on May 7 and yet she has been the dominant figure, by some accounts, in the various television leaders' debates in the past fortnight.
That, at least, was the praise accorded her performance by Conservative spin doctors and ministers, after her debating encounters with Ed Miliband.
The real victims are the majority of Scots who don't agree with them, but are increasingly intimidated into silence by the Scottish Nasty Party
I can see why Conservatives should want to describe Ms Sturgeon as the tail wagging the Labour Party dog — it fits in with their posters showing a large Ms Sturgeon dangling wires controlling the movements of a tiny Mr Miliband.
But the Tories are playing with fire — indeed, playing games with the Union itself — by making a giant out of someone who, even on the present opinion polls, speaks for barely 4 per cent of the total British electorate.
They could, instead, point out the many ways in which public services — such as education and health — under devolved SNP control in the Scottish parliament have been less successful than under the Conservative-led Government in Westminster.
But Cameron refused to make any such criticism in his one multi-party debating encounter with Ms Sturgeon, because he really wants as many SNP MPs as possible to replace Labour ones in Scotland.
What sort of MPs would they be?
On the current polls, which indicate an almost clean sweep by the SNP, the Labour election campaign co-ordinator and shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander will lose his Renfrewshire seat to a 20-year-old SNP candidate, Mhairi Black.
Ms Black seems an appropriate representative for the cybernats, at least. Among recent tweets she revealed how she fantasised about 'putting the nut' on Labour councillors and posted how she 'woke up beside half a can of Tennent's and a full pizza and more money than I came out with. I call that a success!'
Draconian
Perhaps with such candidates it is not so surprising that the SNP last month passed what has been described as a 'Stalinist' amendment to the party's standing orders.
It states: 'No Member shall, within or without Parliament, publicly criticise a Group decision, policy, or another member of the Group.'
Can you imagine what would be said if the Conservative or Labour Party imposed such a draconian code on its parliamentary candidates?
They would rightly be accused of the most outrageous constraints on the individual conscience of Members of Parliament and an assault on what it means to be a politician in a democracy.
Yet the SNP is not a normal political party. It is more like a cult — and intolerance is one of the chief characteristics of all cults.
Naturally, it is as entitled as any other party to be respected for its support among the population: and it clearly has the backing of about 45 per cent of all voting Scots — mirroring the scale of the separatist vote in the referendum campaign.
The people I feel sympathy for are not the English, who might resent the influence of a triumphalist SNP contingent at Westminster.
No, the real victims are the majority of Scots who don't agree with them, but are increasingly intimidated into silence by the Scottish Nasty Party.
The Scottish Nasty Party and how its growing intimidation and intolerance of dissent reeks of fascism | Daily Mail Online
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