You’ll not hear these words often so please mark them well . 

“I’m worried about Jackson Carlaw ”

He seems to have lost the plot . 

Assuming there was a plot, I guess that his personal plot is the promotion of the Union yet his actions over the weekend seem to have got very confused. 

At the point at which both the Conservative Government down South and the SNP  have agreed to work collaboratively on COVID, when the SNP has formally suspended the push for independence because of the crisis;  he spent all weekend talking about nothing else.  

Other than the fact that this seems bad manners, it also seems a bit counterproductive to his cause . 

To explain that I need to go back bit . Around 2000 years to when it is suggested Adam and Eve were wandering around the Garden of Eden . 

To those who are unfamiliar with the Garden of Eden, think being locked down in your own garden  but with less bad words.  And no clothes .   

You will find in the third chapter of the Book of Genesis probably the best example of why negative marketing doesn’t work in the long term .  

Here is a product. :- Fruit of the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil .

Here is  the Market :- Adam and Eve.

Here  is the message:- “ whatever you do , you mustn’t eat that Fruit.” 

Time and again the message is repeated until finally, well , we all know what happens. The temptation is just too much . Fruit munching takes place and clothes become the norm until the days of Free Love in the 1960s. 

So at the weekend we have Jackson telling us that the worst thing  for Scotland would be that the SNP start positively marketing the forbidden fruit of Independence again post Covid.  

No-one else is talking about that right now Jackson,  just you.

If you haven’t read the Bible perhaps you forgot the bit about human behaviour where it becomes very obvious that the more often you forbid something,  the more likely it will happen? 

It strikes me a bit like promoting vegetarianism to someone who has never eaten meat by showing them a roast beef dinner and lots of people enjoying a night out in a steakhouse. 

Would that it stopped there . The next thing to be read is that Carlaw  is telling Sturgeon to be wary because ” Churchill won the war but the people turned to Attlee.” Shades of Basil Fawlty there for me. Jackson whatever you do , “don’t mention the Second  World  War . “ 

I could be wrong but  I really doubt Nicola Sturgeon wakes up in the morning wanting to be  more like Churchill. Your words might also just be worrying Boris? 

And there is more. No, really there is ! 

The next article I see and Jackson is talking about the problem that young people have not lived through a period where the Union was shown at its finest. 

To quote the Express “ the history of the United Kingdom is less relevant to young people in Scotland. Mr Carlaw said a new argument for the union needs to be articulated that demonstrates to the younger demographic that Scotland will be more successful as part of the United Kingdom over the next thirty to fifty years. “   

So far so good . I might not agree with you, but I get that argument Jackson  , I really do and it seems like you are about to do some positive marketing of the Union. But then:-  

“They are less engaged than older people are by the history, the sentimental history.   “The fact that together as a nation we stood and fought to defeat Hitler in the Second World War.”

Oh dear! Shades of Basil Fawlty again !

Have young people ever responded well by being told they need to behave more like their  Great Grandparents? For some reason, possibly because they have one, they are more interested in the future . 

Please don’t get me wrong. As a supporter of Scottish Independence, long may Jackson continue in that vein. 

It is always better when someone is marketing a product for you and you don’t have to do anything . 

God Forbidding Adam and Eve to Eat of the Tree of Knowledge by Antonio Tempesta Los Angeles County Museum of Art