AMONG the fiercest of those who opposed independence in 2014 it was possible to observe a specific strain of Labour activist. They bore (and continue so to do) a number of characteristics and behavioural traits that seemed to separate them from Scottish Tories. Curiously, they seemed far more aggressive and belligerent than their Tory fellow travellers and in this could be witnessed the chief motivating factor of their hostility to the idea of an independent Scotland.

When the Tories spoke about Scotland’s best interests being protected by the Union you sensed they actually believed this heart and soul. The word Unionist is included in the full title of their party and the historic privileges enjoyed by them and the cultural constituency they represented have all indeed flourished when Westminster’s writ has run in its four constituent parts.

This is not to say that they are anything less than fully Scottish, just that they believe Scotland’s destiny to be forever entwined with the UK. It’s merely one among many declarations of what it means to be Scottish and none the less valid for that and is characterised chiefly by an historic affection if not love for what they understand Britishness to be.

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Thus, there was an honesty and integrity about the Scottish Tories’ opposition to independence that was absent in much of the campaigning of Scottish Labour chiefs and their water-carriers on social media. This seemed to be fuelled less by any great love for the Union than by an implacable malevolence – sometimes approaching outright hatred – towards anything sponsored by the SNP. At times you formed an impression that if Scottish independence was being proposed by wee green men emerging from a spaceship they would receive a fairer hearing in some Labour circles than anyone sporting a yellow and black rosette.

The seeds of such bitterness were probably sewn in hundreds of Westminster and electoral campaigns keenly contested and with a significant degree of rancour with the SNP. On these occasions it wasn’t the Tories who were threatening their influence and privileges but the SNP, even though they may have shared largely similar social agendas. Many simply couldn’t stomach the possibility of permitting what would be the ultimate triumph of the SNP even if it meant ignoring what their instincts were telling them: that Westminster was beginning to favour options for the rich in its economic policies and to re-direct any resultant working-class bitterness in the direction of immigrants.

Even the most reactionary of Tory governments come to power on the back of working class votes. For this to occur, they must always have an assortment of familiar phantoms and usual suspects to hand and these must be leveraged by calls to national unity and security or the echoes of empire. Any notions Scottish Labour might have entertained about de-coupling from such a polity were swamped by antagonism towards the wretched SNP. They also fashioned a false narrative to conceal such narrow animosity. Thus, the lie that the referendum was nasty and divisive and that Yes supporters despised the English became the distinguishing feature of their campaign.

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It was probably this, as much as anything else, that formed the tipping point for many Labour supporters who, having signalled their rejection of such a dishonest narrative, were subsequently marginalised and made to feel like aliens in their own party. None of them have since returned to the Labour fold and this, more than anything else is why Labour in Scotland is a spent force with no immediate prospect of recovery.

Foolishly, Richard Leonard, Labour’s latest leader in Scotland, continues to oppose independence while exhibiting no shred of original thinking on policy that might make his party attractive once more to the tens of thousands of its former supporters who have abandoned it.

As Westminster takes a two-week holiday while the clock ticks towards a No-deal Brexit nothing in the behaviour of Labour’s UK leadership has done anything to inspire confidence either. In the last seven days I’ve asked several Labour supporters to describe their party’s Brexit strategy. No two answers were the same and all were marked by confusion. Any empathy they had previously felt with Jeremy Corbyn’s policies on social justice has evaporated, largely on the perception that he has been found grievously wanting on this the biggest political issue of their lives. No leadership, no consistency, no courage and no conviction are the uniform verdict of Mr Corbyn’s lamentable last two weeks at Westminster. By contrast, Theresa May, even in these her darkest days (and probably among her last as leader) has displayed all of these attributes.

The spectre of a No-deal Brexit now looms large and with it the real threat, which the UK Government has now admitted, of civil disorder. These and the exposure of Mr Corbyn’s failure of leadership will test the propaganda unit of the Better Together campaign during the second referendum on Scottish independence.

Once, it might have been a valid argument to insist that in a time of national crisis we must pull in the same direction. But if you have been ignored and treated with contempt as Scotland’s Government and Scotland’s parliament have been in their efforts to help get a decent Brexit or even to mitigate its worst effects then such appeals are rendered worthless and hollow.

In 2014 Westminster’s lurch towards reactionary and socially divisive policies tipped many of us towards an independent Scotland. Such a hard right agenda also seemed to act as an accelerant for darker elements with racist agendas. More than four years later the England that many of us loved and admired is on the verge of capitulating to these forces and it looks like UK Labour has been fighting them with a peashooter.

When it comes time to have our second referendum – and we will have it – there will be a moral dimension to consider for those who previously voted No and this will outweigh everything else. For by this time Brexit and its process will have destroyed their once cherished economic arguments and their warnings of social division.