Scotland unites to turn our backs on the politics of hate in Britain - Vladimir McTavish
Stand Up To Racism Scotland are organising a rally in Glasgow city centre today to give the clear message that refugees are welcome in this country.
It is a counter-demonstration to a racist event planned for the same day. It is important that the public turn up in large numbers to show their disgust for the politics of hate. Support for the far right in Scotland is thankfully still small, as it is in England too, despite events in London last weekend.
While it was chilling to see 100,000 people turning out for a right-wing demonstration in Britain, it is important to put those numbers into perspective. It is roughly the same size of crowd you would see at Wembley for an England football game. And including quite a lot of the same people.
Reading some of the social media posts in the days afterwards, it appears that some people viewed the whole thing as a bit of a jolly, a day out in town waving flags. Some participants seemed to be treating it all like some grown-up Sunday school picnic. It wasn’t. This was more Nuremberg rally than Last Night of the Proms.
It was a platform for some of the most hate-fuelled morons in our society. The likes of Tommy Robinson and Lauence Fox have no interest in unity, they preach the politics of division. And then there was Elon Musk, who is not even a citizen of the Kingdom or of this planet. He live-streamed a plea for British unity all the way from the USA, the most divided country on Earth.
The most ridiculous aspect of the whole day was the title “Unite the Kingdom”. The last time I checked, there were four countries in the “kingdom” these clowns want to “unite”. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The UK itself is a multicultural melting pot and has been for centuries.
Yet looking at the press images and live footage from last weekend, among the sea of St George’s crosses and union jacks, I saw one solitary Welsh flag. There was not even one single saltire nor Irish flag to be seen, and not one black face in the crowd either. Uniting the Kingdom, my a**e.