The backlash

Like many people I was disappointed that the selfish and the scared had robbed the young and the poor of a better future in Scotland's independence referendum. I honestly thought the yes campaign were going to do it but I hadn't counted on the size of the no vote from the pensioners.

One thing I had expected though was a backlash, either the backlash from England against Scotland had they voted no or a backlash from England against Wales should Scotland have voted yes. Naturally there is plenty of time for either or even both of these backlashes to happen. But I must admit the backlash that has already happened is something I never saw coming.

Scotland's new flag

My twitter and facebook time lines had been full of the five stages of grief since my alarm woke me early Friday morning. As I watched the results come in I was devastated and felt so sorry for the people voting for hope, voting for change, voting for something other than Tories of various colours.

But over the weekend something dramatic had happened. A Tory poll had shown that yes had won all the way up until the 55+ age group and even then it would still have been a yes vote. It was only the landslide no vote from the pensioners that sealed the win for the empire.

From here

'Yessers' had a spring in their step ever since the final total showed that a free Scotland wasn't just a pipe dream for a handful but was a mainstream ideology supported by 1.6 million Scots. They had lost the battle but hopeful they would win the war. The polling showed that it was only a matter of time before those who didn't use the internet died off and those who did were in the majority.

#The45 was born, the yes generation were not going anywhere, this was the backlash. Not a negative backlash based on revenge and hate but a positive backlash based of hope.

As things stand a facebook page entitled 'We are the 45%' has 170,000 likes. The SNP has, on membership figures, become the 3rd largest political party in the UK with a current total of over 50,000 members, doubling their total since the indyref. The Scottish Greens and SSP are also showing massive increases.

Members of the 45 are cancelling their newspaper subscriptions and their TV license. Lists of which businesses to boycott have been shared. There are 1.6 million people in Scotland who are not giving up the fight and want to punish those who betrayed them ahead of the next battle.

The next battle is the general election in May and regular readers will appreciate how happy this next sentence makes me. The 45% have targeted wiping Labour out in Scotland. The NO RED TORIES website has been set up in order to help coordinate a national anti-Labour voting campaign. Coupled with a 'Yes Alliance' where the pro-independence parties will work together in order to secure a majority, we could well be looking at the death of the Labour party in Scotland.

Now how do we go about convincing people in Wales that the Red Tories are the real enemy?