Last night I happened to be in Holyrood when the Refugee Week reception was on. I spent a year working for the Scottish Refugee Council when the Scottish Parliament was first established, and it’s been an issue I’ve felt strongly about ever since. So I took a glass of wine and listened to Christina McKelvie give the welcome speech.
The section addressed to those visitors to Holyrood who were refugees, asylum seekers or immigrants was basically perfect. Just as I’ve always felt, she told them she was so proud when people choose to make Scotland their home, and proud when we’re able to provide a haven for someone whose own country isn’t safe for them any more.
The theme was heritage, an issue where I often find the tone used by SNP politicians jarring. But not last night. Once you’ve chosen to be here, she said, as time passes you become part of Scotland’s heritage too. You become a strand in our tartan. It’s a splendidly inclusive message for people who’ve arrived here.
But not everyone who comes here gets a warm welcome, she said. Cue puzzled looks. Just a few weeks ago one man got a proper heckling on the High Street. It was made very clear to him that he wasn’t welcome. He claimed it was anti-English sentiment, which came as news to one of the Cambridge-born organisers.
It wasn’t anti-Englishness, she said. It was anti-fascism. And we clapped.
There’s been a lot of pontificating about free speech from Tom Harris and the like after Farage’s visit. Incidentally, Tom thinks #disparagetheFarage was a “mob of nationalists and trots“, but he was unable to say which of these categories he thought covered Labour activist Duncan Hothersall, inventor of the excellent hashtag and one of us who encouraged folk to doorstep Farage. He’s also reluctant in that piece to accept that Patrick Harvie has a proper job title, and he thinks the objections to Farage are because UKIP want us to leave the EU. Not at all: that’s a perfectly respectable aim, even if Farage’s reasons for being anti-European are diametrically opposed to the issues that make me sometimes wonder how I’d vote on the EU. It’s his racism people primarily object to. But “free speech” is how Tom attacks the protest, as others on the right did.
There are many things wrong with that argument. Does Tom think the antifa shouldn’t turn out a counter-protest when the EDL are on the streets? Also, anyone who thinks Farage was “silenced” or doesn’t have freedom of speech clearly hasn’t seen a telly this year, and yes, he’s free to come here just as we’re free to protest his abhorrent views – but the final implication of Christina’s speech is probably the key reason I’m so proud of the people who disparaged him.
It’s this: you have to choose. If you make Nigel Farage welcome in Scotland, then Scotland will inevitably feel a less welcoming place to every refugee, every asylum seeker, every Polish or Romanian expat who’s chosen to live here, just as much of England already does. If a peaceful protest sends him packing with his tail between his legs, it tells all those people that we’re on their side, that we value their role in our communities and in our economy.
The women in glorious West African garb in the Garden Lobby last night who beamed in delight as Christina McKelvie told them they were going to be part of Scotland’s heritage one day: they will indeed be threads in Scotland’s tartan. And that simple fact means we can’t make room in the weave for UKIP’s colours.
#1 by Indy on June 20, 2013 - 10:53 am
I have found all this Farage/free speech stuff quite weird. It just seems like utter nonsense to me. Sooner or later most politcians – even if they are benign middle of the road social democrat types – will find themselves surrounded by pointy-fingered angry people shouting at them.
That happens if you are on the Left, it happens if you are on the Right. From reading the press coverage you would think that only left wing people protest and only right wing politicians are targeted. That’s just nonsense as anyone who has witnessed pro-hunt or anti-windfarm protests can testify.
It doesn’t even need to be about an overarching issue. We’ve all seen people getting enraged about the closure of their local school or community centre or various local things. What do they do? They go and shout at their councillors or their MSP or a government minister. They yell Shame! And other nasty things. It can get very heated.
What exactly is unique about Nigel Farage that he should be immune from this? I just don’t get it. It is not an indy issue – as you point out Duncan Hothersall is not pro-indy. A lot of the people at the demo in Edinburgh were not pro-indy. the fact is that Farage’s views are obnoxious and offensive on a whole range of levels which is why people want to shout at him.
It is a clumsy and amateurish political ploy on his part to pretend this means Scotland has a problem with democracy. We would only have a problem with democracy if people couldn’t tell their politicians what they think of them.
No idea why some journalists appear to be encouraging this. Some of them appear to want UKIP to do well in the Donside by-election, so that it becomes more of a story I suppose. That’s pretty irresponsible in my view.
#2 by Grahamski on June 20, 2013 - 10:55 am
UKIP are racist/homophobic scum who deserve to be treated with contempt and their xenophobic reactionary policies deserve to be rejected by all right-minded people throughout the UK.
That said the rent a mob in Edinburgh telling the leader of UKIP to ‘**** off back to England’ are no better than the racist scum they think they decry.
Furthermore, the pathetic attempts of both Angus Robertson and Lesley Riddoch to suggest that UKIP and Respect have no right to appear on a UK tv show because it happens to be made in Scotland is as breathtaking a piece of parochial curmudgeonliness as I’ve ever seen…
#3 by Keir Hardly on June 20, 2013 - 5:12 pm
“That said the rent a mob in Edinburgh telling the leader of UKIP to ‘**** off back to England’ are no better than the racist scum they think they decry.”
What an idiotic comparison that is. UKIP and the like want people to leave the place they’ve made their home. Nigel Farage hasn’t made his home in Scotland. He’s an unwelcome daytripper, and telling him to “go back to England” isn’t on any level whatsoever the same thing as UKIP’s hatred of people who want to live here.
#4 by Allan on June 20, 2013 - 11:33 pm
“UKIP are racist/homophobic scum who deserve to be treated with contempt and their xenophobic reactionary policies deserve to be rejected by all right-minded people throughout the UK.”
Maybe they are, maybe they are not. What is true is that they are gaining votes by cleverely tapping into peoples concerns about the EU and by filling a void that none of the main parties really represent. I suppose thats a consequence of the dash fot the middle ground.
Mind you, you are spot on about the mob in Edinburgh. Deeply embarasing…
#5 by Indy on June 22, 2013 - 2:24 pm
They actually aren’t. Polling shows that only about a third of UKIP voters think the EU is a priority issue. 92pc of them think that immigration is the key issue. UKIP know what their electoral appeal is fine well, which is why they specialise in dog whistle politics. I am not arguing that racist parties should not be allowed incidentally. But let’s be aware that is what they are.
#6 by Duncan Hothersall on June 20, 2013 - 11:08 am
Good stuff.
I think there’s probably more common ground with “Tom Harris and the like” than you perhaps suggest though, James. Tom defended Farage’s right to speak, which I hope we all would. And he didn’t condemn peaceful protest.
This has been a topic of conversation among Labour folk of my acquaintance, and I’ve been interested to find myself in a minority when dismissing the “baying mob” and “threats of violence” arguments being trotted out. Perhaps some people at the Canon’s Gait did get a bit out of hand – but such is the nature of protest. If anyone tried to turn a peaceful demonstration into a more violent one, they should rightly be condemned. But the vast majority of folk there merely protested peacefully against a man whose politics is divisive, vicious, deceptive and damaging.
But the situation in Aberdeen I think gives away the real issue here. Farage claimed he was met with “violent” threats on Tuesday. He categorically was not. He talked up what appeared to be a failure of his people to confirm a booking as another piece of oppression. He was not oppressed. He took every opportunity to paint himself and his party as being unfairly treated. They were not.
We must not play into his hands on this. He is the one promoting xenophobia, in a party populated by facile homophobes and sexists. People are right to be angry about that. They are right to protest.
Let’s continue to ensure he is met with peaceful opposition whenever he tries to spread his hate. It’s the decent thing to do.
#7 by Richard Lucas on June 20, 2013 - 12:43 pm
Hard to differ with a word that’s been said here. Mr Farage must understand that everyone here has a right of free speech – including the vast majority of us who hate his pandering to racism, homophobia and his Imperialist mindset. He has no constituency here, and that is why he is drowned. Go home and think again, Nigel.
#8 by Allan on June 20, 2013 - 11:39 pm
Tom Harris pontificating about free speech given the record of accidentally deleted comments on “Labour Hame”, hmmmm…
The best thing to do is to make Nigel Farage welcome to come to Scotland… so that we can show up his arguments for what they are. The best way to defeat this sort of right wing nonsense is to put a light on it and dismantle it intelectually – not to resort to mob rule and the tactics of the brown-shirts.
#9 by Manny on June 21, 2013 - 12:12 pm
Type your comment here
The point they were trying to make was one about fair and balanced debate. The shows main theme was billed as a debate on Scottish independence with a balanced audience 50/50 yes/no. However the panel was not balanced, it was 4 no’s versus 2 yes’s. In addition to this, the Scottish Greens and the Liberal Democrats who both have elected MSP’s and councilors in Scotland were not invited to take part, instead the invitations were extended to Galloway and Farage, neither of whom’s parties have any elected representatives in Scotland.
Had the Scottish Greens and the Lib Dems been represented instead of Respect and UKIP, the balance of the panel would have been an equal 3 yes’s and 3 no’s. This would have presented a balanced debate and also represented all the parties with representatives in Holyrood.
If nothing else, surely we can all agree that the independence debate should be fair and balanced?
#10 by Grahamski on June 22, 2013 - 11:10 am
Manny
“The shows main theme was billed as a debate on Scottish independence..”
It absolutely was not.
The audience was selected on the back of some 16 and 17 year olds being allowed a vote in the separation ballot next year.
The audience, however, was split 50/50 on support for separation which exaggerates the support for separation dramatically. The panel on the other hand reflected the current levels of support for separation in Scotland just now quite accurately.
The thing to remember is that this was a UK TV programme made for all the UK.
The fact that it happened to be filmed in Scotland meant that Angus Robertson – whose party has less support than UKIP across the UK – was given a platform. A platform that most parties with under 2% support in the UK would not normally enjoy.
#11 by Juteman on June 22, 2013 - 4:09 pm
Grahamski.
A 50/50 split doesn’t exaggerate the support for independence, it is about right at this moment. All polls seem to show around a 3rd for independence, and a 3rd against. The other 3rd being undecided.
Good try though.
#12 by David Rickard on June 23, 2013 - 8:24 am
How do you make out that Farage is racist? Evidence?
#13 by James on June 23, 2013 - 10:31 am
He would discriminate against Romanians and Bulgarians vis-a-vis the kind of foreigners he is prepared to tolerate. His immigration policy is entirely racist. And here are some other more unguarded moments from his colleagues.
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