WELL there’s a surprise, he said in the tone of a person who is resolutely unsurprised because we’ve all seen it a thousand times before. The UK media managed to ignore the biggest pro-independence march ever held in Scotland. It was reported in the anti-independence Scottish media, although it was relegated to the inside pages in most of the papers.
Instead we were told about far more important things. Like stories about Meghan Markle’s father, or the latest drama from the BBC’s Apprentice show.
But even that was better than the UK-wide media. There was scarcely any interest. On Sky News there was not a mention at all that I could see. In the rest of the UK-wide media, there was at best a grudging mention in passing, news of the blink and you’ll miss it variety. It was the minor news where we are, but not the news where we are not. At least not in the rest of the UK. It certainly made the news elsewhere in Europe, with reports in the French, German, and the Spanish and Catalan media. They’re more interested in the impending break up of the UK than the rest of the UK is.
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This tells us something important. It tells us that most of the media in Scotland is desperate to downplay the true level of support for independence. It tells us that the media in the rest of the UK cares as much about what is happening in Scotland as the British Government does. Which is not a lot at all.
It tells us that the British Government and media are lost in a British nationalist fantasy of a Brexit deal and a UK that is able to force its will on the rest of Europe. Then they belatedly discover that Scotland hasn’t swallowed their Empire loyalist hallucinogen and we want an independence referendum and a majority of us are going to vote Yes. They simultaneously try to deny it’s happening at all while sending us the London metrocommentariat to explain our own country to us. Apparently you get a better view of Scotland from London than you do from living here.
Despite the lack of UK media interest, there can be no doubt at all that Saturday’s pro-independence march and rally in Edinburgh signalled something significant. Even the police and the cooncil baulked at the idea of providing an estimate for the turnout, a tacit recognition that it was mahoosive. One Unionist insists that he only counted 11,000 marchers, but then if you’re going to listen to a right-wing extremist who was expelled from Ukip for denying the historical reality of the Holocaust and who insists that the precious Union is 5000 years old then you’ve already gone beyond the far edges of crazy.
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Plausible estimates for the number in attendance range from 100,000 to 200,000 or more. Even if we accept the lower plausible estimate for turn out at this march and say that there were 100,000 people in attendance, given that the population of Scotland is just over 5.4 million whereas the population of the UK is 66m, that would be the equivalent of over 1.2m taking to the streets of London. Even on this lower estimate, the demonstration was proportionately larger than the estimated 1m who took to the streets of London recently to demand another EU referendum, an event which dominated the news schedules that day.
On the larger estimate of 200,000 people attending yesterday’s march in Edinburgh, it’s the equivalent of over 2.4m on the streets of London. In terms of the proportion of the population who got up and went out on a wet and dreich day to march for something that they think is hugely important for their country’s future, yesterday’s pro-independence march was up there with the largest and most important demonstrations ever seen in the UK. It was without a doubt the largest ever in Scotland.
That’s significant. That’s huge. You can tell it’s massively significant because of the number of trolls in the comments sections of Scottish newspapers insisting that it’s not significant at all. However the sheer presence of so many people marching for independence tells you that a statistically significant percentage of the Scottish population is prepared to get up off their arses and take to the streets of the capital on a cold and wet day to march for the end of the UK.
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It’s one level of commitment to go on a march when the sun is shining and the weather is glorious, it’s quite another when you’re soaked to the skin, freezing cold, and your destination is a sea of mud that used to be a park.
Those many many tens of thousands are people who are committed enough to the idea of independence that they’re not merely going to vote Yes, they’re going to actively campaign for a Yes vote when there’s a referendum.
Opponents of independence don’t have anything remotely comparable. They’ve only got a few accounts that make snide remarks in the comments sections of newspapers under multiple names. No wonder they’re worried.
They’re also worried because they couldn’t dare organise a pro-UK march and rally. Saturday’s event in Edinburgh was entirely peaceful. There were no arrests despite the huge numbers. The day was inclusive and tolerant. It was a celebration of a Scotland that looks out to the world and welcomes the world in return. The Scottish Saltires were accompanied by Catalan Esteladas, EU flags, English flags, and flags from all over Europe and further afield.
A pro-UK march and rally would be indistinguishable from a far-right demonstration. It would be an event which was characterised by the presence of sectarian bigots, racists, and xenophobes. Hardly an attractive advertisement for the UK they want us to remain a part of.
Saturday’s march tells us that the Scottish independence movement is a force to be reckoned with. For every person who got up and marched on a day with atrocious weather, there will be many many more who will be prepared to vote for Scottish independence. That should be news across the entire UK, because this was a march that heralded the funeral of the British state. This is what their Brexit brings them. But the UK media sticks their fingers in their ears and says, “Now here’s a vox pop from people in an area that voted to leave.”
On Saturday, there were 200,000 vox pops from people who said loudly and clearly that Scotland will choose its own path, and that path will be one of tolerance, of accommodation, of acceptance. It will be a Scottish path that leads to Europe and the world. The British media might not want to hear us, but we will not be silenced.
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