Talk not walk, facts not flags - Making the "unremittingly" and "unrelentingly positive" case for the union

Scottish unionists campaigning for a "No" vote won't be waving the Union flag, (because it's associated with extremists) but will be bigging up the Union and Great Britain by looking at the economic and social facts and figures. 

If only our ever-so brutish, sorry I mean British, disLoyalists would take one second to look at the actual facts and the actual figures, the actual census data, poll data, the back of our currency and they would soon see that the Union is stronger than ever. No-one is chipping away at their British identity but those who say their is a "holy war" and a nazi-style assault against "the protestant-unionist-loyalist people".

David Cameron has frequently said that the Union will be won by making the "unremittingly positive" case. In an interview with BBC News, the Prime Minister David Cameron said:

"That’s my whole argument, which is go back to the big picture, and I think this family of nations is better off together. Not just is better off in the United Kingdom, but we in the rest of the United Kingdom think we’re better off with Scotland that we want you to stay. That argument is one that is unremittingly positive about the success of this family of nations and how we should keep this family together. 

I choose to make a positive argument just as I choose to make a positive argument about the defence jobs in Scotland, and financial services jobs here in Scotland, about jobs in oil and gas. We’re better off, Scotland’s better off, we’re all better off if we have the backing of the United Kingdom, a top-ten economy, behind these great industries."

He has even used the term, "unrelentingly positive". Henry McDonald wrote:

"The last thing the No/pro-Union campaign needs in Scotland is for unionist politicians, Orangemen and Union flag-waving loyalists crossing the Irish Sea to oppose Alex Salmond's plans for an independent Scotland. 

Unlike the Ulster variety, Scottish unionism doesn't need, or indeed want, to fly the Union flag 365 days per year, or even on 18 designated days. 

As the Union flag has come to be associated with Rangers supporters and the Ulster loyalist cause in Scotland's central belt, pro-Union forces, ranging from the much-weakened Scottish Tories to Labour, the Liberal Democrats and various pressure groups, won't be waving the red, white and blue during their campaign to save the Union. Instead, their arguments will be rational, rather than emotional. 

The pro-Union/No camp say Scotland and Britain are "better together", because of the UK-wide universal health service, the welfare state, a common currency that isn't in the crisis-stricken eurozone, a united foreign policy and a sense of economic certainty compared to the unchartered waters of a smaller, separatist state. 

Their 'unionism' has more to do with the Queen on the back of a £1 coin than whether or not a flag can fly atop a council building every single day of the year. 

Talking to the pro-Union Better Together campaign, you get the distinct impression that the last thing they want is for the Orange Order to be marching en masse through the streets of Glasgow, or Edinburgh, this year, headed up by the likes of Peter Robinson, or Mike Nesbitt, in support of a No vote. 

Scottish unionists do not wish to have the pro-Union cause associated with one particular religion, or ethnic grouping, albeit that Protestantism is still the dominant faith throughout Scotland. 

Moreover, in the central belt, there is a substantial Catholic population of Irish extraction, who have been, until recently, traditionally supportive of Scotland's main pro-Union party, Scottish Labour. 

Although in recent years the Scottish Nationalists have eaten into the pro-Labour Catholic vote in Scotland's urban heartland, the No camp are convinced this constituency will balk at backing an independence vote this autumn. 

They do not want to alienate Scotland's Catholics by having their pro-Union argument coloured by red, white and blue and shouted out by cries of "No Surrender".
Although the plebiscite in September is probably going to be closer than the polls suggest, all the public surveys so far point to a No vote. 

Therefore, if Alastair Darling and his campaigners do triumph, there will surely be lessons to be learnt for pro-Union politicians on this side of the Irish Sea. The arguments from the No side have been fought on the basis of economic reasoning and hard-nosed fiscal logic. 

As someone who lives in the Republic, with its ailing, expensive, barely semi-public health service and an unemployment rate still double that of the UK, there are obvious fronts on which a pro-Union case can be made in Northern Ireland."

The Pro-Union Better Together group has since distanced itself from Orange Order, insisting it'd "never" be part of its campaign. They said:

"This organisation isn't part of our campaign and never will be. The best way for people who believe that we are stronger and better together as part of the UK to get involved is by speaking to undecided voters, not marching in the streets."

In fact the Better Together organisation banned the Orange Order from taking part in its official campaign when set up in 2012. Loyalist murderer, Sam 'Skelly' McCrory said:

"The last thing the ‘no’ camp needs is the sight of hundreds or even thousands of Ulster loyalists marching behind flute bands, waving Orange banners and union jacks on the streets of Scotland. The case for the union over here is economic not emotional; it’s about jobs, it’s about the currency, it’s not really about flying flags. Loyalists from Northern Ireland should leave Ulster’s politics out of this."

Alex Kane made a simple point: 

"A substantial body of evidence suggests that a comfortable majority of people within Northern Ireland are reasonably content to remain within the UK."

Yet:

"The number of people choosing to vote for pro-Union parties continues to fall."

Here’s the problem, as he points out:

"Increasing numbers of people do not trust the present unionist parties to champion the sort of unionism that matters to them… while they will be prepared to vote yes in any border poll which asks them if they wish to remain in the United Kingdom, they will not be prepared to vote for any of the unionist parties offering their wares at council, Assembly and general elections."

Ian Knox said:

"The big truth which unionism doesn't seem to want to talk about, let alone face up to, is the fact that when a border poll does come, it's going to be Catholic votes that decide on the constitutional position. Not Protestant ones. We know which way the prods are going to vote. But if the prods want a substantial number of, nationalists stroke Catholics, to vote to stay as part of Britain, they have to be nice to them; they're not going to do it by shoving flags down their throats."

Captain Terence O'Neill said in his December 9 1968 address, Ulster at Cross Roads:

"The bully boy tactics we saw... Invite for us the contempt of Britain and the world - and such contempt is the greatest threat to Ulster. I could not see how an Ulster divided against itself could hope to stand."

He said also in his address:

"These people are not merely extremists. They are lunatics who would set a course along a road which could only lead at the end into an All-Ireland Republic. They are not loyalists, but Disloyalists: disloyal to Britain, disloyal to the Constitution, disloyal to the Crown, disloyal - if they are in public life - to the solemn lathers they have sworn to Her Majesty the Queen."

Moderate, open and conciliatory unionism strengthens the Union. As O'Neill said:

"The adoption of such reforms will not I believe lose a single seat at Stormont for those who support the Unionist cause and indeed some may be gained."

Against the Ulster Worker's Council strike, Harold Wilson said, May 25 1974:

"Yet people who benefit from all this now viciously defy Westminster, purporting to act as though they were an elected government; people who spend their lives sponging on Westminster and British democracy and then systematically assault democratic methods. Who do these people think they are?"

Theresa Villiers made a similar and obvious criticism at the 2013 Conservative Conference in Manchester:

"The idea that British identity can be defended by wrapping yourself in a union flag and attacking police is grotesque."

She said in December 2012:

"There is nothing remotely British about what they are doing. They discredit the cause that they claim to support."

On Nigel Farage, David Cameron said:

"I just hope people will recognise that we are an open, tolerant, compassionate country.”

My blog, 'Plus loyaliste que la loi' is here. My blog post, 'Loyalist violence weakens the Union' here and here.