The nationalists set out to divide the Union but all they’ve done is divide Scotland

By the end of this week I could be deemed a foreigner in my own country.  In fact, I’ve just been called one, in my own country, by a nationalist, because I dared stand in a street handing out leaflets for the ‘No’ campaign. This pains me more than words can describe.
I’m Scottish, born and raised in North Ayrshire. Anyone who knows me knows I am a passionate Scot. I celebrate Burns night every year.  I play the fiddle, rather than the violin. I know what gallus, dreigh, glaikit, shoogle and all our other curious words mean. I think Scottish chips are better than any other chips I’ve ever tasted.  And my heart beats a little faster every time the train pulls into Glasgow.

I love my country.  The Saltire is my flag. I proud to be a Scottish national and a British citizen.

I have never felt my passion for Scotland, my pride in my country,  compromised by the rest of the UK. I have never felt ‘oppressed’ by the rest of the UK.

I have never felt ashamed of my country.  But some of the recent actions in the referendum campaign have brought shame to my country: the ‘greeting’ my Labour colleagues received in Glasgow the other day; the repeated vandalism of ‘No’ campaigners property ; the ‘lefties’ yelling ‘traitor’ at Dennis Skinner and many others for supporting the No campaign and the verbal abuse I saw one of the Yes activists give an 86 year old Labour member in Saltcoats town centre on Saturday.  The number of people I’ve spoken to who will be voting No but are too frightened of the backlash they would experience to show their support by wearing a badge is staggering.

The repeated, nasty, very personal, insults and intimidation coming from supporters of the Yes campaign are designed to shut down debate before it happens.  We’ve just had it on the streets of Motherwell where our Indy Ref Express bus stopped to do a street stall. Within 10 minutes we were surrounded by Nationalists in an atmosphere designed to intimate.  They could have chosen to stand on the other side of the street.  Instead they stood in front of our stall shouting at our supporters and calling us traitors.
This is not the Scotland I know and love.

When I set up the youth section of Scotland Forward (the all-party, non-party campaign for the establishment of the Scottish Parliament) that campaign felt very different to this one. Then, in 1997, we achieved a broad consensus across our country. With the current referendum too close to call, and tensions running high, my country is split down the middle.  The nationalists may have set out to divide the union, all they’ve done is divide Scotland.  Whatever the result reconciliation will have to be one of our representatives top priorities after Thursday’s vote.

But that will only happen if people accept that those who hold strong views on the referendum do so because they want to see the best for our country.  We are all part of ‘Team Scotland’.  Holding a different view to Alex Salmond does not make you a traitor, or a quaisling or a Tory.

My fundamental belief is that we achieve more together than we do alone.  I’m a unionist for the same reason that I’m a socialist. Solidarity does not, and cannot, stop at the border.

Of course there are things we would change – it pains me as much as anyone that we’re currently governed by a coalition that few in Scotland voted for.  But that’s an argument for electoral reform, not separation.

The union gave me my granddad. A Polish migrant fleeing the war in Europe he found a home in Ayrshire. On 6th January 1961 he got his certificate of nationalisation.  After a life of persecution he was welcomed to the country that helped liberate his.

My home town of Saltcoats rests on the West of Scotland – a beautiful place but one that had, and still has, one of the highest levels of unemployment in Scotland and the UK.  I understand why people there feel let down by the political establishment.  I can understand why anyone offering to bring jobs to that area will get a fair hearing.  But my concern is that separation will cost jobs, not deliver them.

A mature country knows that in politics solutions are delivered by dealing with difficult truths, not easy lies.  There is no magic wand to the difficulties our country faces. Grass will not start growing greener, difficult issues will not suddenly become simple and a socialist utopia won’t suddenly materialise because people vote for nationalism.

Tomorrow our National Executive meets in Glasgow, fulfilling a longstanding request I made for the committee to visit Scotland before the referendum. I hope my colleagues will keep the meeting short and spend as much time on the doorstep as possible because, whatever the result, we need a conversation about how we support our Scottish party going forward and they need to understand the very difficult political landscape that exists here.

In the end history will be the judge. Where were you when the call came to save the union?  I’m home, in Ayshire, fighting for my country.  You can still help – call, canvass, donate – check http://www.scottishlabour.org.uk/ for details. Even if you’ve never done anything political in your life before do this. It will affect you wherever you are in the UK.

Johanna Baxter is a member of Labour’s NEC