No free speech in Scotland

An anti-English racist group linked to Scotland’s Yes campaign is behind some of the organised intimidation which drove a prominent No supporter off the streets.

Siol nan Gaidheal, or “Seed of the Gaels,” coordinated abuse and attacks during at least four street-corner meetings held by Jim Murphy, Labour’s former Scottish secretary, immediately before the growing threats forced him to suspend the events.

The group describes itself as an “ultra-nationalist organisation” and attacks English people in Scotland as “white settlers” imposing the “Lebensraum of rapacious Anglo-Saxonry” on “colonised” Scots. It says that “Scottish ethnicity” should “form the basis for Scottish citizenship”.

The Telegraph has established that Siol nan Gaidheal has links to the Yes campaign. It provided stewarding and first aid at the last major Yes independence march and rally last year, according to its website.

Bruce Ogilvie, one of Siol nan Gaidheal’s leading activists, stated in online postings last week that “we have been following Murphy” for “in-your-face confrontations”, adding: “They hurt us, we hurt them. This is turning bad. We have had Yes supporters’ cars and property damaged. The gloves are now off. We will fight fire with fire.”

Wearing an SnG top, he was filmed at Mr Murphy’s meeting on August 27 in Montrose shouting abuse at the politician and members of the audience, one of whom he called a “conceited Tory cow”.

Mr Ogilvie, a self-confessed racist, is the former leader of the now-defunct “Settler Watch” group which attacked English-owned property in Scotland and made death threats to English residents in the 1990s.

Siol nan Gaidheal was officially expelled from the Scottish National Party in 1982, and described as “proto-fascist” by the party’s then leader, Gordon Wilson.

However, Mr Ogilvie appears to have been involved in the SNP until much later. He was active in its Bannockburn branch in 2005 and was pictured with Alex Salmond, the First Minister, and local SNP election candidates in 2009.

Mr Murphy said that his speaking tour, involving impromptu open-air meetings in 100 Scottish towns and cities, had suffered no major difficulties until the victory by Alistair Darling, leader of the Better Together campaign, over Mr Salmond in the first televised debate last month.

After that, many of his meetings were disrupted by abusive mobs, often waving Yes placards, trying to shout him down and intimidate his supporters. Typical chants included: “Go back to London, go back to your nest of paedophiles.”

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