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I don't think I have.
They're not a small-minded nationalist party? How on earth can you say that!?!
Farage wants to split the UK off from Europe, the SNP want to go one step further and take Scotland out of the union. Their policies are left of centre yes - anything else in Scotland would fail - but that's not the point.
They want what is the best for Scotland at the expense of everyone else. In a way, who can blame them, but here's what Orwell said about nationalism:
A nationalist is one who thinks solely, or mainly, in terms of competitive prestige. He may be a positive or a negative nationalist—that is, he may use his mental energy either in boosting or in denigrating—but at any rate his thoughts always turn on victories, defeats, triumphs and humiliations. He sees history, especially contemporary history, as the endless rise and decline of great power units and every event that happens seems to him a demonstration that his own side is on the upgrade and some hated rival is on the downgrade.
Nationalism ultimately begets conflict and jingoism: Hitler, Stalin, Karadžić, the list is endless. Albert Einstein said that "Nationalism is an infantile disease. ... It is the measles of mankind."
If there was an 'English National Party' which wanted to split England off from the union they'd be widely decried as racist, bigoted and so on, including by you. Why is it any different if they're Scottish?
Add to this that SNP supporters refuse to have a proper debate about anything, and somehow feel they were robbed in the referendum (even though the majority of their country voted in favour of the union). I found this out on here in the referendum thread where SNP supporters just got shouty and failed to address my points or engage, and I've found the same in real life with my boyfriend's family who are exactly the same.
They've even started talking to each other via facebook in gaelic, having never shown any interest in the language previously. How does that make any sense? Why are they doing it?
The SNP, like many nationalist movements, is cult-like. This result supports that.
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Why is it any different if they're Scottish?
Maybe because a different group of people (identity, race, nation, whatever you want to call it - they exist and to deny that is burying your head in the sand when it comes to human history) are making decisions about them that are detrimental to them. I'd be pissed off if someone from England wanted to put a nuclear missle base down the road from me.
They've even started talking to each other via facebook in gaelic, having never shown any interest in the language previously. How does that make any sense? Why are they doing it?
This attitude towards UK minority 'nations' from English-centric or even London-centric commentators and politicos is exactly what kicked off the long Irish independence campaign. You're seeing things through a very narrow prism. Your response to them speaking in their own language is pretty childish - and actually nationalistic ("why can't they just speak English?") despite your own views about it. Maybe they just want to? Maybe they're interested in the history and sound and feeling of it - before another country came along and wiped it out.
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From someone who claims to be familiar with Scottish politics your posts-as with the referendum-leave me bewildered.
The ineptitude of Labour-symbolised by forcing a universally loathed blairite Jim Murphy on the Scottish Labour Party (and a man ineligible to even speak in the national parliament his party is supposed to be representing)-put the headstone on their Scottish franchised vote-farm.
An unprecedented 35% swing to the SNP isn't 'cult-like'-it's a rejection of a corrupt, failing, Westminster system that does no good for anyone but the rich, and your deliberate misreading of anything that comes out of Scotland suggests that-like Labour-you're simply not up to the task of opening your ears and listening to what people up here are saying.
Pro-union supporting friends in London are blaming SNP voters for returning a Tory government. Since when is it one-constituent nation's job to act as the social conscience of the whole Union and get taken for granted as a result? You'd do better ask yourself why so many people in England still think Tory rule is such a good idea after 5 years of self-centered idiocy than accuse a whole nation of succumbing to a 'cult'.
dubkev
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I think you've completely misunderstood why the SNP has been successful in Scotland.
They are not a small minded nationalist party.