"The burning of holiday cottages in Cymru/Wales, the spraying of nationalist graffiti in Mannin/Isle of Man and plans afoot to hold a demonstration in London by the Cornish; are these actions a coincidence or is this a sign that there is growing nationalist unrest ahead of next year's general elections and Alba/Scotland's planned referendum?"Or (like this and this)... a sign that bigotted hooligans right across the UK are set on continuing their targetted *political* vandalism?
It still surprises that elements of "respectable" nationalism in the UK (in this case, the Celtic League) do not seem to appreciate that the vast majority of the people they need to convince to their cause do not regard such acts* as "legitimate" forms of political expression but merely the equivalent of the far-right spraying "Pakis Out" on homes and businesses, ie pure and simple intimidation of those who either refuse to fall in line with their point of view or have the "misfortune" of being defined as "outsiders". It is up to others in mainstream nationalism, not only for moral reasons but for the sake of their own political cause, to educate them that this is not an acceptable method of persuasion in a democratic society.
*The march by Cornish nationalists in London is different from the other incidents in that it is obviously not a criminal or intimidatory action.
2 comments:
Political vandalism? North Wales police seem to have some doubts if you read on to the second paragraph of the article.
In the early hours of Saturday 7th November 2009, the fire service was called to put out a house fire near Rhosneigr on Anglesey. When fire fighters approached the burning house they found the smouldering remains of a tractor blocking the road preventing the fire engines from getting through. Shortly afterwards the fire service was called to another house fire nearby. Both homes were holiday cottages and even though North Wales Police said that there was nothing to suggest that either of the arson attacks were linked to `Welsh extremism', they said that they were keeping an `open mind' on the matter, telling holiday home owners in the area to be vigilant.
The point of the post is that the celtic league have brought this vandalism along with the occurences in the IOm and Cornwall and the perfectly legal march in London under one umbrella. To me thta is a stromg implication that they put the former three in the same category as the fourth.
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