To think that ten days later the "no voters are selfish", "no voters are stupid", "no voters betrayed Scotland", "no voters are forcing us to pay for war", comments should have abated a bit?

[ArcheryAnnie]

Seriously, am still seeing a flood of bile on my TLs against no voters - no attempts at reconciliation. I'm going to have to block or mute people I thought were reasonable, as it's just not stopping.

I totally get that people are seriously disappointed, and that's going to be expressed for a while, but it seems that nobody in the country can get a hangnail without a yes voter posting about it with a "ARE YOU HAPPY NOW, YOU STUPID, SELFISH NO VOTERS??11!!" comment.

Thing is, if there was another referendum tomorrow, is it really the best way to change people's minds by constantly calling them stupid, selfish, gullible, betratyrs of the Scottish people, unScottish, etc etc etc?

Weirdly enough, I'm not seeing anything at all from no voters on my TL - nothing either positive or negative. They've all (in my corner of the internet, at least) all gone to ground.

Brilliant article. Says everything I was trying to articulate.

I know, I wish I'd seen it sooner!

I didn't vote, as I hadn't moved back to Scotland in time. I would have voted NO, as would DH. THe rest of my family - 2 brothers, parents, 2 SILs,1 BIL and MIL and step FIL, and SIL's boyfriend all voted Yes.

In the past fortnight I have walked out of my mums house twice, because of comments directed at me, by them
I have been told that I have no right to call myself a Scot, that I am an embarrassment to my family, that I, (and all the other no voters) were responsible for the riots in George square, for the fact the RAF are helping with the bombing of Iraq (apparently this wouldn't have happened at all if we had voted yes, which I am struggling to understand as a- it would still have happened, as the RAF is governed by Westminster, and even with a Yes vote Scottish personnel and ssoctland would still be involved as we weren't going to wake up on the Friday morning with everything have been changed)

I got told by SIL (married to DB) that I (and all the No voters) had to be nice to the Yes voters as they were sad, and making comments about "moving onward and taking Scotland forward" weren't helpful.

I actually try to avoid my family for the time being and also have been temporarily deactivating my account as I cannot stand the vileness.

onenight - I agree with some of what you say about family. I, quite honestly, cannot e bothered with my mum (who would say yes/no/whatever for a quiet life) because on the two occasions I have walked out of her house due to step dad being rude, she let him say it, I cannot be bothered with my brother, who has banned the BBC from his house and the Scotsman newspaper because they are "biased" and has been wandering around wearing a black arm band (yes, honestly).
I was in tears in my own house over the result and my mums behaviour
it is quite frankly beyond a joke now

I have health issues and cannot be bothered, but I also think there are underlying issues that have come to the fore now because of this.

That's such a shame Saltire. Is it any wonder that a lot of No voters were silent No voters? Some people should be totally ashamed of their behaviour.

God, Saltire, that's horrible. I'm really sorry.

at black arm band

My sister is boycotting paying her tv license.

morris why? Who does that hurt?
Anyway, I hope the TV licence money is going to a naice social justice cause instead?

It's an organised thing. Show the BBC the strength of their disgust. I have no idea what impact it will make if any.

I know a few folk who are cancelling TV licences. Did you see that yes-Blair said yesterday that he didn't think the BBC or stv were systematically biased-poor reporting sometimes but not biased?

Black arm band? Poor you Saltire, it all sounds horrible.

I hope whoever is promoting that tv licence boycott is explaining fully what consequences it may have for the people doing it, if they carry on watching their TVs. It seems an odd thing to go to the barricades (and get a hefty fine and criminal record) over.

(There are concrete moves afoot to get non-payment of a licence no longer a criminal offence, just a civil one, but I'm pretty sure they haven't come in quite yet.)

The people promoting the boycott do give very clear, and explicit, instructions on how to do so legally. They point out that you must not watch "live" broadcasts, and recording stuff to watch later is also not on. Use of catch-up TV, iPlayers etc is fine without a licence, however. There's also a pro forma letter doing the rounds, to be sent to TV licensing, saying that you do not consent to them setting foot on your property. The purpose is to reduce funding for the BBC, whose coverage has been seen as biased.

The TV licence boycott is a bit pathetic. I do feel the tv licence needs to be reviewed though, it doesn't really work now there's catch up tv and sky tv etc. it's also ludicrous that not paying it is a criminal rather than civil offence.

The people promoting the boycott do give very clear, and explicit, instructions on how to do so legally. They point out that you must not watch "live" broadcasts, and recording stuff to watch later is also not on. Use of catch-up TV, iPlayers etc is fine without a licence, however.

I'd agree that they have been entirely clear and explicit although I am less sanguine that the people reading the blogs and so on will understand in the heat of the moment completely what was being said.

I am sorry that you have such a difficult situation Saltire. I live in the urban central belt and it is sadly not that long ago that people would ordinarily ask which foot someone kicked with or express a view that they would not use the local convenience store because they were not sure how good the stock rotation was. The actual comments would be a lot worse but it would not be helpful I think to repeat them.

In some quarters here there is almost a feeling as if such old feelings have not been destroyed or changed but have been put in a cupboard for storage and that they have been taken out now that there is an acceptable vehicle for grievance which people can use. The action of local authorities to consider fine tooth combing new electoral registers is not helpful in my view in retaining political engagement of people who might have been away from the voting register for many years and have been persuaded to rejoin.

It may be that this is just an extended post referendum period and that things will go back to how they were on a personal level. I fear that in some places it may not be however because I am hearing the words Yesser and No Voter used as terms of sly abuse although it is still fairly covert. Perhaps we should revisit the situation in several months and not several weeks.