Polarisation and paralysis

Ruth Davidson runs as fast as possible in the opposite direction of every gesture of compromise over Brexit from the Scottish government. Her response to Nicola Sturgeon taking IndyRef 2 off the table in the "timescale of Brexit" if a differentiated deal that preserves Scotland's membership of the Single Market is considered was to somewhat petulantly insist it is taken off the table forever.

Meanwhile the Labour Party in Scotland is being deliberately destroyed from within in what must be one of the most sustained acts of political vandalism ever witnessed. Since standing shoulder to shoulder with the tories during IndyRef 1 it has haemorrhaged most of its progressive support to the SNP and is now leaking the remaining unionists to the tories. Internally they concede there is no longer any such thing as a core Labour vote. Nevertheless they continue to indulge in contrariness and incoherence beyond the wildest imaginings of Willie Bain, as though alienation of the electorate was their sole objective.

And perhaps it is.

It seems as if the Labour Party in Scotland is being sacrificed in order to drive voters into two camps, pro- and anti-Independence, represented by the SNP and the tories respectively. At all points disagreement is manufactured, compromise derided, and consensus shunned by the unionists so that these positions can be defined and reinforced.  Party political tit-for-tat will then create the gridlock that bogs down the Movement.

All the evidence suggests that the establishment are running a polarisation and paralysis strategy in Scotland. Eliminate nuance. Eliminate mutual respect. Inflate every bubble, build every echo chamber, degrade every debate into "you would say that,  wouldn't you," instead of discussion about what was actually said.

The ermined establishment, political gangsters sitting on their red benches high above the pay grade of even the most senior office bearers in the Labour Party, have clearly decreed that if Scottish Labour must be destroyed in pursuit of this polarisation and paralysis strategy, as an establishment rearguard action against Scottish Independence, then so be it. Let Ruth's tories inherit Labour's unionist rump, as long as any basis for common cause with the nationalists is destroyed. You can't have bread and circuses without the circus, which is precisely what the unionists want to turn Holyrood into.

Watch as BBC Scotland shifts gear from its familiar uncritical regurgitation, indeed active collusion in the drafting, of every Labour press release, to fawning over the utterances of the Ruth and her fact monkeys with their half-truths. Scottish Government policy will not be reported mainly via the comments of a Labour Party spokesperson any more, as has become the custom at Pacific Quay. Instead it will be the response of the tories that forms the gist of the item, as the focus shifts to the newly anointed unionist champions.

But this is Scotland. We invented the Labour Party. There is no way we will allow it to be destroyed to preserve some unionist establishment hegemony. This is why the relaunch of Labour For Independence is so important. It is a way for the ordinary members to rescue a party being driven onto the rocks by an establishment keen to provide the wreckers with plunder from which the tories will profit.

And the polarisation and paralysis agenda promoted by the unionists is easy to defeat. Get off social media and talk to friends, family and neighbours. Don't listen to reply. Listen to learn. Find out their concerns. Respect those you disagree with and be open-minded. You won't change any minds if you're not prepared to change your own. Create the conditions for all the discussions those who are afraid of debate would shut down.

The very worst outcome from a unionist perspective is the development of a mature political culture which can encompass many points of view all of which have in common the assumption of Scottish Independence.