A ROW has broken out after one pro-independence group encouraged supporters to burn copies of the Act of Union on Bonfire Night.
The campaign group Salvo organised “Bonfires of the Vanities” across Scotland on November 5, with one activist writing on Twitter that they would “symbolically burn the Acts of Union”.
In a video posted to social media from one of the events, one Salvo member says there are “nine other things across Scotland which are going to be doing the same thing”.
“We’re going to be following in the footsteps of our forefathers and burning effigies of the treaty of the Union,” they say.
Salvo’s Sara Salyers shared an image from an event in Fife, writing on Twitter: “Bonfire of the Vanities on a Fife beach. Getting ready to burn the (Treaty of) Union and all the symbols trappings of colonial oppression in Scotland. They go up at midnight – November the 5th.”
Bonfire of the Vanities on a Fife beach. Getting ready to burn the (Treaty of) Union and all the symbols trappings of colonial oppression in Scotland. They go up at midnight - November the 5th. pic.twitter.com/XinyEQCk8f
— Sara Salyers (@SSalyers2) November 4, 2022
The Cupar-based Crossgate Centre tweeted in support, saying it was a “much better Scottish tradition than burning effigies of people – burn the instrument of England's political annexation of Scotland”.
The centre separately reshared a post from August which said: “On 20th November 1706, 300 armed men rode into Dumfries, built a bonfire beside the Midsteeple and ceremonially burnt the Articles of Union for the then proposed 'Union' with England.
“This contemporary notice, now in Dumfries Museum, explained their reasons.”
It shared a document in which the acts of the Union are criticised, saying that the Scottish negotiators of the deal must have been “simple, ignorant, or treacherous, if not all three”.
According to the Scottish History Society, there was a similar burning of the articles of the Union in Stirling on December 4, 1706.
Salvo’s burning of copies of the Act of Union was criticised by SNP MP Pete Wishart, who said “mad and crazy stunts like that turn people off [the independence movement] in droves”.
Wishart told the Courier: “I have never seen anything like it. It is sinister and there is no democratic debate for burning anything like that. It is incredibly irresponsible.
“This was done in the name of colonial oppression and the people of Scotland don’t believe they are colonised, they would think you are mad or just laugh at that.”
The SNP MP added: “People are observing the language and the activity we use and when they see stuff like that they think the whole independence movement is nuts and doesn’t talk to their experience.”
Responding to critics on Twitter, Salyers shared an article from 2014 about an English town burning an effigy of Alex Salmond. She wrote: “Right. Burning a copy of the hated treaty of Union on Nov 5th somehow brings Salvo into disrepute. But this was just ‘fun’?”
Responding to Wishart, Salyers told The National: "I’d suggest he does two things. First compare the burning of a copy of a treaty that no indy MP pretends has done anything but incalculable damage to the people of Scotland with the yearly burning of Guy Fawkes, a human being, in effigy.
"Second, learn about the history of burning symbols of oppression both internationally and specifically in Scotland.
"Finally, is it not extraordinary that people who are elected by independence-seeking voters are outraged by a symbolic act of burning the very thing that led to the independence movement in the first place. An act without the violence of burning a ‘Guy’, conducted without a call of any kind to violence, but reflective of the rejection of a real and measurable oppression without which there would be no SNP and no need for independence."
