The Saltire Strikes Back II

Two years ago, I tried to launch a campaign to have the Saltire displayed in every window across Scotland on a specified day. I did this in the name of the Facebook group White Rose Rising, which was my attempt to create an organisation entirely focused on the constitutional issue. On of many such attempts, all of which have failed. Today, I see in The National that a similar effort is being made to have everybody signal their support for Scotland’s cause by displaying a Saltire in their windows on Saturday 6 May, to coincide with the AUOB March & Rally in Glasgow on that day. I called the campaign ‘The Saltire Strikes Back’. Here, with dates etc. altered appropriately, is how I explained the campaign back then.

Saturday 6 May 2023 is the day The Saltire Strikes Back! In order to counter the coronation of a new British monarch and the attendant smothering of Scotland in Union flags and other emblems of British Nationalism, White Rose Rising is asking everyone who calls Scotland home to put a Saltire in their window. Let the world see Scotland as a proud, assertive nation not content to be the annexed territory of England-as-Britain. Let the world glimpse the Scotland we aspire to rather than the Scotland that has been made less than it might be by three centuries of anti-democratic political union with England.

The Saltire Strikes Back campaign was conceived as an action which could gain mass participation and be highly visible. Unlike marches and rallies it requires negligible investment of effort, time or money. All we ask it that from the Saturday of the AUOB event in Glasgow and possibly on other days, every independence supporter publicly displays a Saltire. The coronation will be an attempt to brand Scotland with the emblem of British nationalism – the Union flag. The Saltire Strikes Back aims to thwart that effort by flooding the nation with Saltires.

The Saltire Strikes Back is also a revolt against the ‘unionjackery’ in supermarkets where goods are being plastered with Union flags. It is a revolt against Britification in general – attempts to eradicate Scotland’s distinctive political culture and national identity.

Everybody can participate. White Rose Rising recognises no factions and acknowledges no tribes. To be part of The Saltire Strikes Back action is to proclaim support for nothing other than Scotland’s cause – the end of the Union and restoration of independence.

It is hoped that this action will bring the Yes movement together in a show of strength which will give politicians pause for thought.