Lessons for Unionists

O'Neill has an interesting five-point bullet list on what Unionists can learn from the Glasgow East by-election, it's worth a read.

Brown is a dead-man walking, at the minute our biggest liability. A complete incompetent as a leader, Salmond and the forces of Scottish separatism cannot be defeated with him at the helm. He’s got to go, although I don’t think we’ll have to wait too long on that one to be honest.

Even the most adent Labourite would find little to disagree with there. However, it's not just the man that's the problem, it's his unionist philosophy. Brown's philosophy of Britishness is England as Britain, with the other nations of the UK as semi-autominous satellites of an absolutely sovereign Greater England. This pisses off the English who resent being ruled as British as opposed to English, but also the Scots and the Welsh (and to a lesser extent the Northern Irish) who resent the financial and political restrictions imposed upon them by a UK Government that is dominated by the English (albeit with despicable Unionist Scots in charge, for now).

For the life of me I can't understand why unionists like O'Neill see this as a sustainable position. Not only is it unfair on the English who have no distinctly English institutions, it's also a handicap to the smaller nations that English politics is not separated from British politics. It's patronising and divisive, and it will inevitably lead to greater resentment. Whatever your opinion of Salmond at least his nationalist philosophy is logical. Brown's Unionist philosophy is anything but. Having diminished Britishness as a polity through devolution he has now set about diminishing it as a cultural identity with his universal values and his attempt to appropriate Englishness to plug the vacuum vacated by Britishness.

O'Neill sure made me chuckle with this bit:

The Conservatives are now a truly UK party with enormous financial, PR and intellectual resources- the Scottish Tories are (or at least should be) an integral part of that organisation- an unceasing, unwavering campaign should now be waged against the nationalists on all fronts- no more passengers and no more collaboration in any form with any party whose ultimate target is the destruction of our nation.

You might be right about the Tories PR, but they are certainly not a truly UK Party with enormous financial and intellectual resources.