Sunday, 15 February 2009

The Cyclical Nature of Scaremongering.

A few years ago, Unionist hysterics were happy to advise us that an independent Scotland would erect border posts between an independent Scotland and England - a bad thing.

Now, thanks to the Sunday Times we are fed the latest Labour line that, come 2014, an independent UK government would evidently do the same to an independent Scotland.

That's right, the English government of the time would erect border posts between England and Scotland.
Evidently this is no longer something to condemn, as it would have been if initiated by the SNP, but simply a threat which will be imposed should Scotland vote for independence.
In short, a naked and cynical piece of scaremongering.

This is the latest piece of nonsensical puff to emanate from Paranoia Central, aka Labour Party HQ.
Apparently, this policy would result from "the open doors policy that the SNP would have for asylum seekers".

John Curtice, who should know better than to get involved in this tripe, states that “Just as in the case of Ireland, it seems we can no longer presume that the government in London would be willing to dispense with passport controls. The stakes in the independence debate have been significantly raised".
I wonder what he means.
I have travelled between Northern Ireland and the Republic many times, and have never been stopped for passport checks once, possibly because there are no passport controls.

This garbage is just another re-hash of the old, vacuous scare story we've been fed over the past three decades, but this time, it's London which is threatening to impose border guards.

If London is going to impose passport controls, does it not say everything about the narrow and petty parochialism which they would espouse, rather than the open frontiers policy which an independent Scotland, as part of the EU would follow.

4 comments:

Will said...

What's the betting that, despite telling us that our grannies won't be able to visit friends over the border, they'll still insist that Osama bin Laden will be able to enter Scotland and cross the frontier at will?

They don't seem to get that if Scotland is be an imprenetrable, granny-proof fortress, it can't be an easy point of access for terrorist hordes to overrun Western Europe with fire and the sword, or vice versa.

That's why Labour scaremongering is such fun: the hyperbole is wearing, but the side order of absurdity that comes with it is fantastic.

Luke said...

"does it not say everything about the narrow and petty parochialism which they would espouse"


Does that statement not sum up everything that the SNP is about?

Stick to the 'Scotsman' threads Andrew!

Anonymous said...

I can go from France to Belguim and then to the Netherlands without actually knowing where the border is depending where you are. Lot of Labour nonscence. They are getting desperate.

Justified Spinner said...

Luke, I think you're confused.
The Scotsman threads?
I prefer blogging, myself.

As for parochialism. Well, I think that the UK government's threat to stick up border posts is indeed inward looking, and, yes, reflective of a parochial view.
However, all this is to assume that this proposed action by Labour is indeed going to happen.
Doubtful.
It's just a regurgitated threat, and has no value.
That was the point of the post.