Project Fear versus Project Hate and Fear

When the UKs European Union Referendum was announced 4 months ago I was decidedly underwhelmed.

This referendum is largely irrelevant for Scotland at least at the moment, particularly when it was decided that we would be deciding this according to one UK citizen one vote, and not in the way the SNP proposed i.e. that the UK would not leave the EU if any one of the constituent countries in the UK voted to stay IN. This referendum was only ever about 2 things, the first being more important than the second.

1. The split between the Europhiles and the Eurosceptics within the Conservative Party and largely in the English part of that political party.
2. England with particular reference to the increasing support for UKIP who offer a populist right wing agenda of anti-immigration, English nationalism and the seemingly eternal Empire mentality which seems still to pervade the UK at Governmental levels.

This is not to say Scotland should not have a referendum on the same subject when we become independent (although it would be rather different i.e. 3 choices 1. In EU, 2. In EFTA or EEA, or 3. In neither), just like we should with the monarchy. However that is for the future when Scots actually have the confidence to decide to make their country a proper country and not the sub-country it is now.

Initially I was open minded. I accept that the EU is a far from perfect institution  and therefore was open to what Vote Leave had to say. However my natural persuasion was always to vote Remain as I have no desire to live in a Greater Little England which I believe the UK may well become if we leave the EU. I want a country that looks out to the world and not one that wants to cut itself off from its near neighbours as the UK would do by leaving the EU. I also believe there are many things that need to be dealt with at a higher level than national governments, e.g. climate change, dealing with multi-national companies, rights in the workplace to avoid a race to the bottom.

I honestly expected that we would hear lots of positives of being in the EU from the 'Stronger IN Europe' campaign, and a clear concise plan of what happens if we vote Leave from the Vote Leave campaign.

What we got however is two campaigns desperately trying to outdo themselves in negativity, fear and general hate filled and sometimes personal insults and extraordinary dearth of what happens afterwards from either camp.

We got very little positive from the Stronger In Europe campaign at all. Any positive was supplied by the SNP, the Greens and Plaid Cymru when they campaigned on their own, but a clear plan of action was not supplied mainly because they don't have the power to carry it out.

The ITV EU Referendum debate was the odd one out as I felt Nicola Sturgeon was wrong to join in the Stronger In Europe project fear campaign and appear on the same platform as a Labour and a Conservative.

However Vote Leave outdid Stronger In Europe by also promoting Project Hate against immigrants or at least economic migrants. And no clear plan had been dreamt up by that campaign at all meaning that the UK would be completely at sea with no clear direction if a Leave vote is the outcome. What does taking back control actually mean? This was never explained except in terms of keeping of all these foreigners out which is a complete anathema to me.


I was therefore left with voting Remain or not voting. However I have become increasingly in favour of IN as the time as gone on simply because the official Vote Leave campaign(s) have offered me nothing at all except distaste giving me the impetus to vote in the opposite direction.

Neither campaign enthused me with a positive vision and I can't think of a campaign more different from the Scottish Independence Referendum where the Yes Scotland campaign enthused so many that Scotland now ranks as one of the parts of the world where the electorate are very active, involved in and knowledgeable about political issues affecting them.

In my opinion the Scottish Independence Referendum did not put the Scottish independence issue back into its box was because of the perceived lies and underhand methods of campaigning used by the pro UK Better Together campaign. If voters on the Yes side had believed that the campaign had be carried out fairly by the media and the UK Government I do not believe that Scotland would still be divided so clearly into Yes and No voters almost two years later. The unionists or UK nationalists reaped what they sowed i.e. alienation from and distrust towards the UK state in a much stronger way than it had been previously in a significantly larger part of the Scottish population.

The success of the Yes Scotland campaign was to make people believe in a better future. It offered a clear plan for the future even although this was ultimately just rejected by the electorate (although this is still subject to dispute due to a variety of voting irregularities on the actual day and following long night). The opposing Better Together campaign was just all project fear and a reluctant plan of action was only offered as a sop at the last minute when many people had all ready voted by post. This broke electoral law and was only offered when it looked likely that Scotland may just vote Yes to independence much the UK elites surprise.

I don't know what the legacy of the UKs European Referendum campaign will be. Neither campaign offered any positive future with either outcome. All I can envisage is a legacy of even greater distrust in politicians, our leaders in general and the elite and yet another turn off from democracy in general in the UK, but in England in particular.

Project Fear may work, as it ultimately did with the Better Together campaign in Scotland (I can remember the fear in some people when I said I was working for a Yes vote), but at what cost? Voters feeling dragged by negative campaigning on both sides is hardly a recipe for an easy peaceful and harmonious positive outcome.

Unlike in Scotland which received a democratic boost from the Scottish Independence Referendum I really fear for England in particular after this vote. The feeling particularly inspired by the insidious demonisation of immigrants by the more vociferous campaigners on the Vote Leave side is particularly concerning.

 I didn't think I could want to be part of the UK less after the Scottish Independence Referendum. But the European Referendum campaign has managed what I thought impossible. My desire for Scottish independence has been strengthened. I just don't want to have anything to do with the UK and its politics anymore.

The European Referendum campaign has further alienated me and left me with an even greater distrust of the UK and its politicians. If this was the UK Government's intention then they have succeeded. However unfortunately I don't think they even gave the voters in general and how they would react after the vote a second thought. Short term thinking after all is the UKs ruling classes speciality or so it seems.