Political Fundamentalists

Rather complicated words for a Saturday night. And I must add a completely sober one as well, since I've been playing taxi driver to the family and await the arrival of She Who Must Be Obeyed at some point in the next four hours. Thankfully, everyone else is in bed.

My definition of a political fundamentalist is not a politician, but a political supporter who cannot accept any criticism of a politicial party, policy or personality. It can also be defined as someone who cannot accept that there may be faults with the aforementioned party, policy or personality.

Political fundamentalists represent all areas of the political spectrum. All make their presence felt in one way or another. Some are quite charismatic, others make you glad you have insured the television against a size eight boot. They are an essential part of the political game, if only to provide an amusing distraction.

As you may have already guessed, I'm going to concentrate on what the media call "cybernats". I use a better term:

The Fundamentalist Wing of the Alex Salmond Appreciation Society.

Not very nice you may think, but I refer to the Labour supporters as the Unionist Underground, based on Iain Gray's exit to Subway and the deafening silence which is heard on a regular basis when Labourites make a cockup - normally a daily event.

As for the Lib Dems and Tories, I'll come up with something that is printable later........

But back to the The Fundamentalist Wing of the Alex Salmond Appreciation Society. This is not, by the way, an attack on the SNP nor is it an attack on the numerous nationalist blogs out there, but a criticism of some of the commentators and what they write. I'm a cynical bastard, and some of my postings have been total crap, but I don't resort to a 1984-esque "Daily Hate". (mmm Europe excepted perhaps!).

The fundamentalists are no different to the supporters of Labour or the Tories. The SNP can do no wrong whatsoever, and any issues that arise are someone else's fault: the "A Big Boy Did it and Ran Away" syndrome. (Have a read through some BBC blogs and you will see that some comments by Unionist supporters are no better).

While there may be some truth behind the comments, things are blown way out of proportion and the facts are distorted by the ranting against the BBC, Westminster and occasionally the USA.

The slightest criticism of the SNP is met with outright hostility - there is no better descriptive.

The worst example was recent, where the commentator stated "anyone who is against the SNP will be remembered after independence.......".  One hopes that this individual has no official function within the SNP, nor has any government role after independence.

There is a small core who are so against the BBC it is slightly worrying. So hated is the BBC, that on one well known website, no matter what the subject of the latest article, the comments invariably turn to attack the BBC. On goes the latest article, perhaps on a science subject, and after a few relevant comments, up pops the "Sorry to be OT but........", and cue a rant about some obscure BBC news item. Why the contributors waste their time on what are some excellent pieces of work is beyond me.

The danger with such people - not only SNP supporters but other parties as well - is that they do not normally represent their parties in an official capacity. However, as has been seen in the past, sometimes they attract attention and drag their party into unexpected problems. These are the people who if canvassing on the doorstep, are more likely to lose support than gain it.