No hate here!

If anybody still doubts that the anti-independence campaign is anti-Scottish then they need only read the article by Simon Heffer in today's Daily (Hate)Mail to have their illusions instantly dispelled. Riddled with lies, the entire piece clearly has no ambition to inform but seeks only to incite the kind of antipathy towards Scotland that is reflected in the comments. It is nothing more or less than blatant hate-mongering.

Those who aspire to be the respectable face of British nationalism - or, at least, the face less contorted by rabid fanaticism - will seek to distance themselves from this kind of hate-fuelled ranting. But what we see in Simon Heffer's bilious diatribe is but the shittiest end of a very shitty stick. Nobody who peruses the British press can be in any doubt that there is an ongoing and increasingly shrill campaign of shamelessly distorted and dishonest denigration that cannot reasonably be characterised as anything other than anti-Scottish propaganda.

For every shameless attempt to whip up anti-Scottish resentment such as is presented in Heffer's nasty little rant, there are scores of less blatant but more insidious articles seeking to give the impression of Scotland as already a "failed state". From pieces which falsely portray Scotland as an economic basket case, to stories spun to give the impression of a country whose infrastructure is collapsing and our democratic institutions corrupt, it is all intended to undermine the confidence of the people of Scotland ahead of the referendum in a year's time.

While the agents of Project Fear whine pathetically about the occasional injudicious comment from some obscure and anonymous independence supporter, the massed machinery of the British media is being mobilised in an effort to preserve the British state, not by making a positive case for the union, but by belittling and defaming Scotland, its institutions and its people on a daily basis.

This vile campaign of disparagement and calumny is not only an offence against Scotland and its people, it is a gross disservice to the democratic process by which Scotland will decide its own constitutional status and an insult to the vast majority of people in England who wish Scotland no ill and who would be appalled at the thought of being associated with the repellent attitudes evinced by Simon Heffer and other such rancid mouthpieces of the British state.

Scotland's civic nationalist movement is not and never has been characterised by any anti-English sentiment. We must hope that its commitment to inclusiveness can withstand the provocations of those who strive to stoke the fires of resentment and hatred between our two nations. Let us all, Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish, reserve our detestation and our anger for people like Simon Heffer and the British establishment that he represents.