Oh dear. Over the weekend many liberal leaders heaped praise on Fidel Castro as news broke that the Cuban dictator was dead. In fact, it was Tim Farron who stood out for actually condemning Castro’s human rights abuses — while describing him as a ‘vastly significant’ leader.
So, what of the SNP? Well, today George Kerevan has penned a piece for The National claiming that there are a lot of positive lessons to be learned from Castro’s regime.
What’s more, it seems that he doesn’t just mean that time has taught us sending homosexuals to camps for re-education and banning independent newspapers aren’t the most progressive ideas. No, while Kerevan does concede that democracy is important in building a better society, he insists that positive lessons can be learned from how Castro linked ‘national identity’ with a ‘progressive, socialist project’:
‘The truth is that we can’t build a better society unless we build it on consent, which means democracy.
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