Left Foot Hopping.

The Blog Left Foot Foward, shows that once again that if you cut a British Socialist you will find the same Unionist blood as any True Blue Tory.

A Pity because most of what it publishes is very good . Though it does reflect that Labour only seem to be Left when in Opposition .

It's latest Unionist rant is entitled "Do the SNP see England as a Foreign country already/"

This is because Blair Jenkins who was last week appointed Chief Executive of “Yes Scotland” argued: that neither they nor the pro-union camp should accept donations of more than £500 from outside of Scotland. 

He argued...

“There is evidence to suggest that most people in Scotland do feel quite strongly that the referendum campaign should be determined by the people who live in Scotland and who are going to make this decision.

“So what we said was we will not accept donations above £500 from anyone who was not a voter, who is not on the electoral register in Scotland, and I think that is a very important thing in terms of making sure that it is the people who are taking the decision in Scotland who are contributing to the campaign.
“I hope the No campaign will be as transparent about their funding, and who is backing them, as we intend to be.”

The response from Labours Richard Baker, a Director of the Better Together campaign, was....

“We will not accept foreign donations but we do not regard the rest of the UK as foreign donations. We are fighting to keep the UK together and 800,000 Scots live and work in the rest of the UK.”

So it was Labours Baker who referred  to Foreigners. Where Jenkins had spoken only of those who are not on the electoral register..

Left Foot Forward then make an attempt to bring in Leanne Wood's highly sensible contribution to the "Britishness" debate to back thier argument. 

For the record Leanne said 

“The truth is that the current political union has passed its expiry date. It’s time for a 21st century redraft, as the SNP has argued, a new social union that marks a new era where differences are respected but collaboration can flourish on the basis of equality and partnership.
“Scotland and Wales, Celtic nations both, border a single country, a millennium and a half of interaction which has shaped our respective cultures like no other. England is not just a neighbour to us. She is our sister nation too.
“Feeling Welsh or Scottish has never been dependent on the existence of a Welsh or of a Scottish state. In precisely the same way, people’s sense of Britishness does not need a British state to sustain it.

“The concept of Britain has proven itself to be as adaptable in the past as it should be in the future. With independence, a new Britain can begin to emerge.
“My nation’s journey on the constitutional path may not immediately mirror the Scottish experience, but within these islands, different countries enjoying differing forms of self-government are not unusual.
“The British-Irish Council – our version of the Nordic countries’ collaborative forum – is already acting as a laboratory of innovation, from plastic-bag taxes to minimum alcohol pricing. In a new age of equality, this co-operation can be extended to more issues, from climate change to broadcasting.

“Instead of clinging to the straitjacket of the single state, it’s time we embraced this future Britain, a neighbourhood of nations, sovereign, democratic and free.”

A number of commentatir like Siôn Jones  pointed out that there no connection between "  meditations of a new view of Britishness contradicting anything Blair Jenkins said."

So it Labour who use the term foreign and this looks like another Unionist attempt to snaear the Yes campaign by portraying it as Anti-English.

But the Yes campaign are arguing about the No campaign being funded from outside Scotland by people who have no connection with it.

What would Left Food Forward response be if it was revealed that in a referendum on Britain in the EU that the pro campaign was being funded from Germany or the Anti campaign from the USA?

A pathetic attempt from a Blog which is progressive up to a point but when it comes to the Union is indistinguishable  from Conservative  Head Quarters.