FIGHTING on the beaches they sparked the greatest moral panic of their day.
The battles between the Mods and Rockers in 1964 also gave rise to a new sociological phenomena, the folk devil.
Despite no serious physical injuries and only some minor property damage, these new teenage subcultures quickly became an oversimplified but easily recognisable villain, a focal point for fears about the state of a nation in flux.
If you want to see a very contemporary Scottish version there’s a case study in the local elections. The emergence of Tories in pockets of the post-industrial central belt and declaration by the Orange Order that six of its members now hold town hall office has ignited hyperbolic claims that Scotland is in the throes of an extreme right counter-revolution.
Ulster-style Loyalism has again become a shorthand for elements of the Yes movement to denigrate opponents. What value Davidson or Dugdale if their politics is propped up by adherents to violent, hateful and fanatical extremist ideologies.
That very Belfast expression ‘fleg’ in reference to the Union Jack (the subject of absurd claims that new SNP administrations had removed them from council chambers) has become a dog whistle. Simply scratch the surface of a Tory or Labour councillor and there’s a brutish Loyalist lurking underneath.
With the re-emergence of the ‘Ulsterisation’ as a byword for constitutional polarisation, independence supporters are rightly frustrated their cause is compared with violent Irish Republicanism. Why then do so many ascribe the values of ‘The Sash’ to their opponent? The very use such terms is to totally misunderstand, wilfully or otherwise, unionism in Scotland, ‘Ulsterising’ an issue with nothing to do with the north of Ireland.
In this column earlier in the year I dismissed the organisational power of the Orange Order in contemporary Scotland but said members of a mass organisation heavily concentrated in certain areas could have a localised electoral impact. Nothing has happened to change that view.
Last Thursday Scotland elected 1227 councillors. A half a dozen are members of the Orange Order. Some have held office before it is just that no-one bothered checking. They are also elected as members of mainstream parties which attract support of all faiths and none, not on a Protestant fraternity ticket.
The unionist vote, has hardened, determined to ‘stop the Nats’, but the results are more a strategic use of a second vote or Labour voters jumping ship than an edict from the Lodge
Similarly Tory gains in areas with an Orange tradition can be counted on one hand. Most of their real successes were in places like Moray, Aberdeenshire, Perthshire, areas with no meaningful Orange presence. English-born or with military links, there are a multitude of reasons for a robust sense of Britishness.
Like most overheated Scottish political narratives social media is a factor here. Eager to stake a claim on electoral success and inflate their importance the Order was quick to publicly declare its successes. Would anyone have noticed if they hadn’t?
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