A fair assessment of the SNP?

[Famous Mortimer]

This person sounds like an angry Labour hack. He's attacking the SNP for not magically getting everything done while in power. I doubt he would hold his own party to the same standard.

If you're the type of person who won't vote Democrat because Obama is a sell out, yes, you should be wary of the SNP.

If you're a reasonable leftist though, you should be excited by their success.

[Famous Mortimer]

I'm sympathetic to the SNP but "colonization" rhetoric is simply stupid. Scotland was not colonized. The King of Scotland became King of the Britain. There were Scottish Prime Ministers. Scots were not discriminated against. Scots could vote. They not only had the same political power as English, they probably had disproportionate clout.

Similarly, the rhetoric from the other parties about "nationalism" is laughable. All night they were trying to imply that the SNP is the National Front or that Nicola Sturgeon is Slobodan Milošević. Ethnic nationalism is not big among Scots. In fact, when the SNP campaigned on ethnic pride, they were a marginally force. It was only when they started framing things as "if Scotland were independent, it could be super left-wing" that independence caught on.

[Famous Mortimer]

Again, I don't know if the doom and gloom rhetoric about Scotland not being able to make it on its own is based on imperialism. I do think it's dumb. I think it's so dumb that people saw through it and it pushed a lot of people towards the independence side.

I always maintained that the pro-union side should have been honest. If Scotland became independent, no much would change but that's exactly why it's stupid and unnecessary. I think the comparison to state nationalism in the US is spot on. Sure, California could be a country on its own but why? What makes them so incompatible with the US?

If you talk about how Scotland is going to become a third world country, or turn into Bulgaria or something, people aren't going to take you seriously.

Regardless, I don't think anyone was making the argument that only London can bring progressive change (at least not honestly or forcefully) I think people were making the argument that London won't be able to bring progressive change without Scotland. Vote against Scottish independence, not for your own sake but for the sake of all the left-wing people living in England, who, again, are not significantly different from you.