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They started it! Well, they did...
Much tartan-tinged indignation has emerged among SNP ranks in the last few days. They claim, with that hurt, innocent look they've cultivated over the years, that they just can't understand why all these big Unionist bullies are being so horrid to them. Why try to make political politics out of the Olympics, guys? Let's just all celebrate the triumphs of Team GB, yeah? Peace and love, man...
Or something similar.
If only the likes of Pete Wishart, the Perthshire SNP MP, could have foreseen the enthusiasm with which even Scots have embraced the games. Perhaps then he and his colleagues wouldn't have embarked on their nine-year sneer back in 2003 when Tony Blair announced the government would back a London bid to bring the games here in 2012. When the whole country - yes, including Scotland - celebrated the success of the bid on 6 July 2005, Pete and his pals were grumpily describing London's winning bid as a triumph for the English capital only. Scotland, claimed Pete, would gain precisely "zilch" from the Olympics and would even end up subsidising the event (no doubt using "Scotland's oil"...).
To understand the SNP modus operandi, you really have to sit near them in the chamber of the House of Commons. Whenever any major debate is taking place, the SNP group leader, Angus Robertson, will sit and murmur loudly, not quite heckling, but not quite speaking either. No-one listens to him, but we all hear him, chuntering away, no doubt rehearsing all his newly acquired grievances alongside his more beloved long term ones. Or maybe he's just repeating bits of dialogue from the weekend omnibus of "River City". It's difficult to tell and no-one really cares. But that constant drip, drip of sneering negativity has been well employed in the SNP's campaign against British Olympic pride.
It went up a few gears when the First Minister himself, at the start of the Olympics, wished the best of luck to every member of Team GB... every member who was Scottish, that is. Never mind that many Scottish athletes would depend on their non-Scottish team mates to win a medal; what's the point of wishing one member in a four-person relay team luck? Alex could not bring himself to wish luck to the whole of the British team, only to those he christened (and I cringe even to write this) "Scolympians". Yes, I know.
This was a political error that was uncharacteristic. Salmond would normally be too astute to do something so clumsy and ungracious. What did he have to lose by being magnanimous and wishing the whole of Team GB the best of luck? This is, after all, a man who saw some political advantage in claiming (erroneously, it turned out) to be an "anglophile".
The gaffe is even more unusual when you consider that Salmond's desperation to see a bounce in the polls for independence has forced him to reassure Unionist voters that "Great Britain" will still be around even after we split from the rest of the country. We'll still have the Queen, the pound, Nato, Trident, the BBC... We're all waiting for him to say that only by voting for independence can the Union be saved.
So when the whole of Scotland was cheering on Jessica Ennis, Greg Rutherford and Mo Farah, Salmond was, presumably, regarding their medal-winning achievements as no more notable than those of "other" "foreign" teams.
Cue Unionist (ie, my) criticism. And suddenly the more enlightened (always a subjective term when discussing nationalism) members of the SNP were using every opportunity to wish the whole of Team GB well, and castigating us for daring to criticise the First Minister and trying to turn the Olympics into a political football, etc. They obviously realised that Salmond had erred and are frantically trying to shore up their claim to be progressive and modern.
It's all good fun for those of us who miss politics when sport takes over the airwaves. Will the games have any affect on support for the SNP or independence? In the short term, maybe, but not significantly. In the long term, not at all. And that's at least partly because the SNP being ungracious, sneering and negative is hardly news to Scots, even to those who vote for them.
Tom Harris is Labour's MP for Glasgow South and Shadow Environment Minister.
Follow Tom Harris on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TomHarrisMP
Whatever. How about commenting on Labour's philosophy, as stated by Willie Bain MP,never to vote on SNP proposals REGARDLESS OF WHAT THEY ARE? If that doesn't count for a sneer, don't know what it is! And if only that were one individual or only nine years- an entire party's ONGOING practise!
Your entire piece is just one long diatribe of wishful thinking summed up as; “Because Scots are enjoying the Olympics, they must love the Union.” Really? Prove it.
If this were true, does that mean the Commonwealth Games in Scotland in 2014 will push us to independence? Of course not.
How on earth can you accuse the SNP of being petty, when your entire blog takes such pettiness to new depths?
I’m still waiting for a pro unionist to present a cogent argument for remaining in the UK. I read your blog with that in mind but was let down by your first line; “They started it! Well, they did...”
Scottish Independence is not about Salmond or the SNP; it’s about a future where Scotland is free of London centric politicians such as yourself.
I too have enjoyed the Olympics, but let’s keep it in perspective. Most medals go to the richest nations that can afford facilities for their athletes. And don’t forget the vast majority of British Gold Medal winners went to private schools.
You’re a politician, so tell me, what’s wrong with that picture?
The Olympic Games are primarily for rich people from rich nations, all feeding greedy corporations.