By Rab Bruce’s Spider

Twitter: @RabBrucesSpider

Mastodon: @RabBrucesSpider1@Mastodon.Scot

While I prefer not to give too much credence to articles produced in the Unionist press, I do have an RSS app which provides newsfeeds from a number of sources. I think it is important to try to keep abreast of what both sides are saying on the political front. The downside to that is that, every so often, you come across an article that is so barking mad it leaves you shaking your head in wonder. Just such an article appeared on the City AM site recently. It was so full of inaccuracies and wild statements that I really didn’t want to share it. For the curious, you can read it in its full glory at the link below. Be warned. Your blood pressure may be affected by the craziness.

Scotland needs to abandon its dream world and realise what independence truly means (cityam.com)

It is, of course, important that we should try to see ourselves as others see us, but that piece is so bereft of facts, and so full of unfounded opinions, it really must rank as one of the most ridiculous yet. I rather hoped it was a spoof, but I fear it is genuine. Yes, some English commentators actually do believe that nonsense. Or, being charitable, they don’t believe it at all but know they must churn out that sort of drivel in order to persuade their readers that Scotland should remain shackled to Westminster in this not-so-voluntary Union of Equals.

It's hard to know where to begin countering that stream of nonsense. The unnamed writer clearly believes all the BBC propaganda about the ineptitude of the Scottish Government.

But it gets worse as it goes on. To say that Scotland acquires its wealth from England is just plain wrong. In fact, as statistics have demonstrated for years, it is England that benefits from the plundering of Scotland’s wealth and resources. Our oil, gas, electricity, whisky, salmon, farm produce, and so many other things should make us a wealthy nation, yet we allegedly remain an economic basket case after more than 3 centuries of Westminster rule. And yet, the writer of that piece seems to think that this is the best we can hope for because we would be so poor without the beneficence of our English neighbours.

This is, apparently, due to geography. England is closer to Europe and so has better trade links. This is an utterly bizarre statement when you consider that Brexit has severed those ties. It completely ignores Ireland, whose people are significantly better off than their counterparts in the UK; it ignores that Iceland seems to be managing perfectly well despite being even more remote, and it does not even consider the fact that the UK controls our exports as being in any way part of our problem. Our ports are not controlled by our Government, so creating links to other countries direct from Scotland relies largely on private business, few of whom have any great incentives to establish those links. Ireland, on the other hand, has created a fast ferry link direct to the continent in order to by-pass England when sending goods for export. An independent Scotland could, and should, do the same. Links to Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands should be a priority for us But to say that geography makes this impossible is, quite frankly, weird..

Geography may have an impact, but it is certainly not the barrier that this article seems to believe. After all, hasn’t the UK recently agreed world-beating trade deals with Australia and New Zealand? You can’t get much further away than that, and geographical distance doesn’t seem to have had any effect on the UK’s ability to agree deals which add to the damage Brexit is causing.

As I say, it’s incredible that anyone should come out with such utter nonsense, and it is baffling to me that so many people in England actually believe this sort of thing. It’s almost as if England is a foreign country.