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| More Loonylympics! |
Even those who have grown accustomed to Ian Smart's increasingly eccentric ways will be wondering what the hell is all this stuff about Trafalgar Day and the "English yoke" in his latest offering (Heads of Oak)? This is not the language of Scotland's civic nationalism. It is certainly not the language of reasoned commentary. It is the language of rabid British nationalism and an obsessive hatred whose corrosive effects on the intellect are all too apparent in Ian Smart's increasingly demented ravings.
At the core of this there is, of course, his own personal conspiracy theory. A fixation which he cossets like Gollum with his "Precious", jealously guarding the inane notion of a Salmondian plot to abandon the referendum from the terrifying onslaughts of a reality with which he now has only most tenuous of relationships.
It is in the nature of such conspiracy theories that they tend to spawn subsidiary delusions formed of the same defective DNA as their parent. So we get this latest offshoot of Smart's central thesis. It now seems that the arch-super-villain of the comic-book world that Smart inhabits, Alex Salmond, is intent upon delaying important announcements about the referendum because he fears the Kryptonite-like effects of something called "Trafalgar Day" - which falls on 21 October.
At the core of this there is, of course, his own personal conspiracy theory. A fixation which he cossets like Gollum with his "Precious", jealously guarding the inane notion of a Salmondian plot to abandon the referendum from the terrifying onslaughts of a reality with which he now has only most tenuous of relationships.
It is in the nature of such conspiracy theories that they tend to spawn subsidiary delusions formed of the same defective DNA as their parent. So we get this latest offshoot of Smart's central thesis. It now seems that the arch-super-villain of the comic-book world that Smart inhabits, Alex Salmond, is intent upon delaying important announcements about the referendum because he fears the Kryptonite-like effects of something called "Trafalgar Day" - which falls on 21 October.
Apparently this is a portentous date in the British nationalist calendar, but nonetheless an occasion which has probably escaped the notice of most of the rest of us who are more focused on the future of Scotland than the mythologised past of the imperialist British state.
And what prompted Ian Smart to concluded that yet more foul play was afoot in service of Salmonds purpose to forsake the referendum for which he has fought like few others? Only the mention by the First Minister that the Scottish Government's response to the referendum consultation would be published "next month", ie October. The fact that "next month" includes the 21st, along with thirty other days, is an inconvenient fact which fails to accord with the conspiracy theory and so is discarded in the name of dissonance reduction.
As is the fact - acknowledged by Smart - that the SNP Conference in Perth would be the ideal occasion for a statement on the details of the forthcoming referendum. A most opportune moment that the supremely pragmatic political operator Salmond is, according to the ironically named Smart, nonetheless willing to forego simply to avoid a clash with a certain alignment of celestial bodies or a religious feast-day or because Ian saw a funny-shaped cloud or... whatever fits the delusion.
For all that this article is total crap, it is thought-provoking in its way. It gives one pause to wonder whether we should still be pointing and laughing at Ian Smart as a figure of fun. Or whether we should be discreetly and politely averting our gaze from a very troubled individual.
And what prompted Ian Smart to concluded that yet more foul play was afoot in service of Salmonds purpose to forsake the referendum for which he has fought like few others? Only the mention by the First Minister that the Scottish Government's response to the referendum consultation would be published "next month", ie October. The fact that "next month" includes the 21st, along with thirty other days, is an inconvenient fact which fails to accord with the conspiracy theory and so is discarded in the name of dissonance reduction.
As is the fact - acknowledged by Smart - that the SNP Conference in Perth would be the ideal occasion for a statement on the details of the forthcoming referendum. A most opportune moment that the supremely pragmatic political operator Salmond is, according to the ironically named Smart, nonetheless willing to forego simply to avoid a clash with a certain alignment of celestial bodies or a religious feast-day or because Ian saw a funny-shaped cloud or... whatever fits the delusion.
For all that this article is total crap, it is thought-provoking in its way. It gives one pause to wonder whether we should still be pointing and laughing at Ian Smart as a figure of fun. Or whether we should be discreetly and politely averting our gaze from a very troubled individual.
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