Scottish Independence: A Reasonable Doubt

Those of you who knows my position on Scottish Independence may have noticed that I've been quiet on the subject lately. Perhaps you haven't as others have certainly filled the void with their voices, as indeed they should do. This IS the most important decision we will make in our lifetime, it deserves a little of your time to listen to and debate all of the arguments on either side. I wouldn't take your information from the mass media though!

 

The reason I have been quiet is because I've been listening to and debating with friends and strangers who hold opposing views to my own. I've been reading and looking behind all of the facts and opinions. I've been changing my mind.

 

I have held the view for most of my life that Scotland shouldn't be independent of the rest of the United Kingdom and that is something that has not changed. It shouldn't. But I think it needs to be.

 

I don’t want to break away from the UK, I am British and as proud of that as I am of being Scottish. I wish we didn’t have to go our own way but increasingly I feel like we need to. We can’t continue to be ruled by an elitist establishment whose sole aim is to keep us in our place and exploit us for their own means and that of their friends. Austerity measures in the face of a huge deficit make sense, everyone tightening their belts for a bit and pulling together to get the economy back on track makes sense. You do it yourself, when money is tight in your household you make cuts and sacrifices. But when that message is delivered by a shiny-faced Etonion sitting on a throne at a banquet, telling us that these are not temporary measures but a permanent way of life, it no longer seems sensible, it feels like abuse.

 

Westminster doesn't have our interests in mind, it has their own and that of their friends. And by friends I mean those who line their pockets; people like that don't have friends. They need a lower class so that they have fodder for their factories and shops, they need poor people to do the work and make money for the rich people. I've said for a while now that we will get the chance to vote the Tories out in 2015, if we vote for Independence there is no going back. I stand by that.

 

But. What if the Tories get back in? Can you imagine how bad that will be? If we vote No and the Tories get voted back in they will take that as a stamp of approval that they are doing the right thing and they will keep on doing it. Even if they don’t, what viable alternative do we have? There is no socialist party of any merit left to choose from, Labour are a mess and the Lib Dems? Really??! So what are our options?

 

Well we could vote for Independence and we will get the government we want. Unless of course you want a party other than the SNP because if they win the independence debate they will almost certainly be voted back into power. Unless they fuck up the negotiations with rUK of course, but they won't. They have Scotland's best interests at heart, don't they?!

 

So now we've reached the part that I have a problem with and you should too. Because Alex Salmond is not the man you want negotiating your corner, he had 12 minutes to hold the Better Together campaign to task on live national TV and he wasted it talking about aliens and driving on the other side of the road. He had the opportunity to put the whole currency debate to rest by saying "Yes I strongly believe that we will use the pound in a currency union with rUK but I'm not daft, we're not pinning all our hopes on one outcome, here are the viable alternatives that we have considered" but he did not. In any argument or negotiation you have to be able to give and take, you can't just dig your heals in and say it's my way or no way. I believe him when he said repeatedly he wants what's best for Scotland, I don't agree with his vision of what's best but he does and I believe he is genuine. What's best for Scotland is definitely to keep the pound but when it comes to negotiating do you not think the Westminster government will do what's best for the rest of the UK? If Salmond is right and it IS in the UK's best interest to enter into a currency union then they will do so under the terms that suit and protect them. They will not take Scotland's interests, values or welfare into account when negotiating terms or deciding interest rates. They will do what is right for them. They should. We left, it was our decision. We gave up our seat at the table and have no right to argue. Hell mend us.

 

But if we vote for independence we will always get the government we vote for. The people of Scotland are the best people to decide the future of Scotland. I agree. But let's not get carried away here, the First Minister whoever he may be in 2016 is not going to phone you up and ask your opinion. You won't have any more of a say in an Independent Scotland than you do now. The politicians will still be in charge, just different ones. Watching the first debate between Darling and Salmond it just seemed like a point scoring game, and that's what it was. Politics is a game and the politicians are players. Their accent doesn't change that fact. It's like saying that Westminster has England's best interests at heart because it is in England. No it doesn't. It has its own.

 

Westminster IS the problem though. The current Tory government IS the problem. Something needs to be done, something needs to change. The question is, is this the change we need? It isn't independence. We will be giving up our seat at the table but will continue to be ruled by them. They will have control over our money and that unfortunately means you have control over everything. Whoever has the money has the power.

 

So now we're really fucked! What are our options now? What is the answer? We'll I'm afraid I don't have the answer. We're not Better Together at all because we are not really together at all. THAT is what we need to change though. If we break away and form our own government then the rest of rUK will be watching, waiting to see how we get on. If we are successful then they may well change the way they are governed too, we would be responsible for creating a political revolution in the UK, we would be as innovative in the world of politics as we are elsewhere.

 

But what are we risking? Our pensions, our mortgages, our standard of life (which isn’t awful compared to some places) our financial security and that of our children. It’s a big ask to take the leap without the most basic of questions answered.

 

The SNP want independence AT ANY COST and have not prepared for it. Alex Salmond is very much a believer that “it’ll be alright on the night”. Well it wasn’t on the night of the debate! That was his big moment and he was woefully underprepared. And don’t be fooled, a vote for Independence IS a vote for Alex Salmond as he will be the man negotiating the shape of what’s the come.

 

His closing statement was “voting yes is a vote for ambition over fear, it tells the world that Scotland is an equal nation that carries itself with confidence and self-belief”. This is emotional blackmail, it says if you don’t vote yes you are a fearty, I do this with my kids all the time. “I bet Lewis won’t eat his turnip, he’s too much of a baby to try it” Oh yeah, I’ll show you. Then Lewis ends up with a mouth full of turnip and let’s be honest, turnip does taste like crap! My fear is we will all end up with a mouth full of turnip on September 19^th.

 

I have witnessed the depth of feeling that people have for Independence, I used to think that everyone who wanted Scottish Independence had a chip on their shoulder and were motivated by thoughts of Mel Gibson in woad. I was wrong. I have engaged with some of the most well-informed, intelligent people during this campaign. I have friends and family that I think the world of who take completely the opposite view on this from me and they are not stupid or naïve. They want Independence and this is the closest we have been to achieving it which I believe is blinding them to the risks. And that is where my main issue lies, each side of this debate is so convinced that they are right that they are ignoring the potential pitfalls and pushing all the potential benefits, no-one is being completely honest with us. How the hell are you supposed to make a decision like this when you don’t know who to trust? Honestly you can’t trust either side!

 

So here we are, less than a month from the referendum and I have gone from a very firm No to a wobbly Don’t Know and I am reluctantly leaning towards a Yes. Can we do this? Of course we can, I never doubted that for a second. My area of doubt has always been that we SHOULDN’T, not that we COULDN’T. But now I’m beginning to think that we MUST. I am fearful of the future either way, there is no going back but for our future and our children’s perhaps we should take this opportunity while we have it and show the world that we can and will succeed. And just maybe, we might learn to love turnip.