FionaK |
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| @ Silverytay
Also well said. To me this is quite simple. The case for independence is a good one, and most people who are able to access good information will see that it is good. That is what I have seen, anyway. Like you,I see many who were initially opposed ( and I was one of them years ago) change their minds when they meet the arguments. The rise in support for independence over the course of the campaign shows this. It is true we did not clear the bar, but anyone who thought that it would be easy, in face of hostile media and 300 years of propaganda, was kidding themselves. Independence is never won quickly or easily, and the direction of travel is clear. Sure there are some people who vote No for reasons other than the evidence and arguments: but that is true on any issue and in any vote. They will not be convinced, but it is my honest belief that they are few in the scheme of things.
Disenfranchising groups is stereotyping pure and simple. Only individuals can vote, and you cannot predict the actions of an individual on the basis of group characteristics: that is always and everywhere wrong. It is lazy and it is irrational
We will win the arguments and we will win the vote: but to do so by exclusion will result in enshrining the very characteristics which a progressive nation should reject. I do not wish to win at any price: I wish to gain independence through confidence in the values which lead me to wish for it in the first place. And confidence that my fellow citizens share those fundamental principles. Ethnic nationalism is not one of them; ageism is not one of them; sexism is not one of them either, though I understand that women too, were less likely to vote yes than were men: dont hear folk saying they should be disenfranchised, though, thankfully. I wonder why not, and I fear it is because how you choose to slice the demographic only reflects your own prejudice. That is what we should recognise, for the essence of progressive politics is to recognise that we are all "us", and what you do to another group can be done to you as well, if those who happen to see you as "other" gain power in circumstances where you have enabled that kind of stereotyping. Never forget that there are tories who would disenfranchise the poor or the propertyless: they were at the Putney debates and they are in think tanks today.
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