This referendum proves that nationalism is never a means to a progressive end

There’s the Not All Argument. You’ll have heard it.

It’s not all men. Not all coppers. Not all journalists at the News of the World.

And then there’s the Small Minority Excuse. You’ve probably dismissed it before.

Every time a new UKIP councillor is exposed as a bigot, Nigel Farage will remind us that they come from a small minority within the party.

Now, it is the Scottish nationalists having their name dragged through the mud, as a biased media focusses on a small minority of Yes to independence campaigners.

It’s not all Yes campaigners who would scratch the word “coward” into the front door of a No voter. It’s not all Yes campaigners who would scrawl “traitor watch” onto a No Thanks placard. Not all would burn a No sign in the street. Not all would call a group of Scots “slaves” and “Uncle Toms”, or say that another was “ashamed to be Scottish” for having the temerity to support a No vote. Not all would turn up at street events of their opponents, up and down the country, to hurl so much vile abuse that police advise further events be cancelled. Not all would seek to intimidate journalists. Not all would shove old women and mothers with prams.

Not all would. This is true. Lots of people are attracted to vote Yes for understandable reasons. But they have been lost in the deluge of right wing nationalism.

These aren’t isolated incidents; they are happening every day. It is now far, far past the point where this can be played off as an insignificant proportion. They are orchestrated attempts to shout down and put fear into their opponents. It is now clear that there is something inherent in pro-independence campaign that encourages these individuals and these actions – and those who will revert to the Not All Argument or Small Minority Excuse are encouraging it by their failure to tackle it.

Obviously, it is now far too late for the Yes campaign to do anything about the nasty culture it has bred. Whatever happens on Thursday, this open intolerance will continue. Whatever happens, that will be the legacy of the supposedly left-wing Scottish National Party.

Since the Yes surge in the polls began a few weeks ago, the Better Together campaign has received plenty of advice for what it should have been doing. A common one has been that they have failed to make the “emotional” argument in the way Yes have. But perhaps in the future, when we look at the divisive wreackage of the Scottish nationalist movement, we will be thankful that Darling did not seek to neutralise Salmond’s “Scotland versus England” narrative with one based on British identity. If he had, this already emotionally-charged, binary option could have been worse.

For those who will still vote Yes on Thursday with hopes of building a socialist society free of the grasp of Westminster, I hope you don’t end up regretting not having done more to stop this. There is no “radical independence” on the ballot paper. It shouldn’t come to Salmond cutting corporation tax, refusing to reinstate a 50% rate for millionaires and cutting the NHS to ribbons before this is realised.

It should come as no surprise that nationalism taps into disenfranchisement and makes it poisonous. A Yes vote is now little more than an approval for right-wing ideology. There is no reason now why success for independence would do anything to reverse the trend towards intolerance, bigotry and division. You should not make it a bedfellow; it is never a means to a progressive end.

It’s not all of them. But it’s still not an excuse.