Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Are the Tories the SNP of England?

The little England tendency in the Tory party originally appeared with the advent of Margaret Thatcher, and it's got more and more pronounced with time. Note how Tory supporters caricature the Scots (they are all on benefits, they are subsidised by the English) as part of affirming their English identity, in a similar way that the SNP caricatures the English (oppressors of the Scots, thieves who've stolen Scottish oil) to affirm Scottish identity - i.e. both define themselves against their ancient opponents.

Then add to it that the seats the SNP hold in Scotland are former Tory seats of old ; Angus, Perth, North Perthshire, Moray, Banff, Galloway and Upper Nithsdale - wealthy, centre-right places. Both the SNP and the Tories appeal to the nationalists in their respective communities in Scotland and England.

The add to it Alan Duncan's chauvinistic comments saying "I'm beginning to think it is almost impossible now to have a Scottish prime minister" - i.e. Scots are second-class citizens of the UK, who should be barred from the top job - confirming the prejudices of the SNP have about the English - and you have two perfect mirror-images.

The question is, now that the Tories have conceded that they can never win in Scotland and Wales (and perhaps subconciously do not want to win there because they despise these people), are they going to continue to bother to field candidates for the Scottish and Welsh assemblies, and for Scottish and Welsh MP's to Westminster?

2 comments:

The Fatalist said...

Bottom line is the Scots hate the English so much they deserve to be branded 'second class citizens'!
Cameron's no mug....ditch the sweaties, and have an English constituency only parliament & hey presto, you've got a tory government again!

snowflake5 said...

Not all the Scots hate the English - just the SNP Scots. They are a sort of mirror to the Scottish-hating Tories!

Re Englosh constituency parliament - Labour have a majority in England