My son recently went to the Edinburgh Festival and noted there were no Edinburgh Fringe criticisms or satire of the SNP.

The worrying thing about a Stalinist regime like that of the SNP –particularly in today’s secular society- is that politics acquire religious overtones.  In a society where single issue politics has become the state religion, those who criticize or mock its single issue tenets are enemies of the state, apostates or non-persons.  The ordinary laws of satire and humour are suppressed and independence deniers –the barrier is a low one to qualify- are treated like holocaust deniers.   Humour and satire –Jonathan Swift, Parliamentary sketch writing, Splitting Image, “Yes, Minister”- are signs of a healthy society.  Scotland under the SNP has no such self-censorship because no dissenting or mocking voice is allowed.  When humour and satire start to hit home and laughter is raised against the SNP and its leaders, Scotland will be a healthy society once again.

David Fuller's view

Thanks for this observation.  I note your points and also think that SNP politics are a major setback for Scotland.  The stoking of often ancient resentments is distasteful but the SNP is not imprisoning dissidents or rearming, let alone seizing control of Trident, so I do not regard their leaders as Stalinist.   

However, they are naïve and their boastful talk of leading Miliband in an alliance to keep the Tories out of power probably did more to secure Cameron’s majority at the last election than any other single factor. 

Without that majority and a strong one-nation government, I think Jeremy Corbyn’s current lead among Labour voters would be a far greater concern.