I have done my very best to keep
out of the “debate” on whether Scotland should be an independent country or
not. However, I did watch the televised
sessions between Salmond and Darling, which then got my interest if only in despair
at the lack of properly presented and reasoned discussion. I am not naïve, if I want an answer the last
people I would speak to would be the politicians or indeed the baying hounds
that represent the scandal seeking media.
So on the eve of the vote and, as you may surmise, without any intention
to influence or inform anyone, this is my 10 pennies worth of what I would
regard as quite reasonable and thought out concerns.
First of all I am English and I
do not care whether or not the people (I say people because not all of the
eligible voters are Scots) currently living in Scotland choose to become
independent of the rest of the UK or not.
It is their right to choose and I have no truck with that. My family and many friends are Scottish and I
believe that most of those do not have a vote in this case, I have not
discussed my views with them or sought to get theirs. It is not that I am concerned about causing
divisions in relationships, I think we are far too mature and sensible to allow
that to happen, no. In fact I have
probably, like most of those in the rest of the UK, been rather complacent and
arguably arrogant about the whole thing.
I have thought, Scotland would
never vote for independence, surely?
They get such a good deal from the partnership, what possible benefit
could there be to breaking away? The
realisation has occurred, far too late and I would still not do a great deal to
attempt to influence things even if I could.
I have lived and worked in
Scotland and, for an Englishman, there is something that borders on harassment and
intimidation when engaged in so called ‘banter’, unfortunately this has rather
tainted my view and driven me to the point of exasperation at the continued
grudge that seems to be held over events from hundreds of years ago. I have got to the point where I just want the
griping and abuse to stop and shout ‘get
on with it, one way or another, just stay and shut up or go and play on your
own’. If I hear cries of ‘you don’t understand, you have never been oppressed!’
or whatever, then yes, you are right I don’t understand because I am living
in the 21st century and I would prefer to focus my energy on solving
the problems we have and not reflecting on the bad things of the past.
This might be a good point to
interject that on a family holiday to Scotland when I was very young, maybe 9
or 10 years’ old, we visited some of my Step-father’s relatives in Kirkcaldy, in
the Kingdom of Fife. There were two
girls about the same age as my brother and I and they were most ardently
anti-English and made no bones about telling us (that said they still played
games with us too). We went to pains to
explain that as soon as you cross the border you don’t get given 100 acres of
land, a pack of hunting hounds, horses and then go and chase foxes, with your
attendant surfs and slaves (foreigners of course). They did not seem to appreciate, albeit at
such a young age that there were normal people across the border, living below
the poverty line and with the same sort of trials and grumbles as they
had. In fact you would think by the way
they described things that England was some kind of utopia (the kind it would
appear an independent Scotland thinks it will become) and that we did not in
fact live under the same unpleasant and anti-social government run by that
dream lady Mrs Thatcher. I have to add
at this point that none of the political parties thrill me but I would never
describe myself as a Tory, a kind of
swear word if uttered by the Nationalist campaigners. My views have moderated over time from being
socially supportive ie we should subsidise and support UK industries to one of
compete and survive but look after those who genuinely cannot look after
themselves. Anyway I digress. The point is that in England and in fact the
rest of the UK it is not some kind of oppressive wealthy regime that kicks the
poor in the nuts and denies the rights (as ludicrously compared to apartheid)
of different sections of society. No we
have problems and these will remain challenging whatever the state of the
nation is post the vote.
Moving on to what it means to be
a Scot, I make these comments of course as an observer, it has been said that
you are not a Scot if you vote no to independence. Really?
I will put it to you that wherever you go in the globe it will not be
long before you come across a Scot and should you have the stupidity to
question their sense of identity then you will be quite rightly put back in
your place. I have never met a Scot who
has denied their belonging to Scotland.
On the contrary I have met many other nationalities who go out of their
way to exaggerate their affiliation, association or direct lineage to the
wonderful land that is Scotland. You
just have to see how often bagpipes make an appearance at a wide and varied
range of events to see this overt display of brotherhood with Scotland, you
cannot escape sometimes it really can be a pain… There are nations that are united by these
distant hereditary connections as well as other associations or forged friendships
either in battle or shared history.
Whatever happens you cannot deny these and although you may try to
re-write history, it does have a habit of getting out in the end. What I am saying is that once a Scot always a
Scot, and even if you were never a Scot I have never known anyone to be
rejected from this very friendly (usually) group of people. Of course that has been slightly called into
question by the divisive Yes campaigners but I feel it will survive this ‘blip’. As an afterthought but in no way reflecting
the importance and value of these people, the Welsh, Irish and English are
equally as welcoming in my experience (although the English tend to be a tad
more reserved about it).
Back to the debate I
suppose. I would like the United Kingdom
to stay together, even if it does mean more unrelenting moaning from those who
seem unable to move on. That said the
whole situation is a no win situation either way it is bad. Whether we like it or not the world is
watching and wondering why the hell this small island group would want to break
up what is otherwise an extremely successful and productive relationship. We have and will continue to lose credibility
as a nation whether we are together or apart, the reputation has been damaged
and continues to suffer damage. If we ‘divorce’
it will be expensive, distracting, painful and arguably will knock the UK
further down the world order in terms of influence and respect. It is going to be an absolutely mammoth task
to split institutions, invest in new facilities and quite frankly duplicate unnecessarily
a huge range of structures. No
disrespect, but just look at the state of governance in Belgium and you might
get an idea of the kind of duplication and waste that could occur. I have probably offended and alienated my
Belgian family and friends with that statement but I am sure they will forgive
me…hopefully.
If on the other hand the vote is
a no, then it merely deters the debate for a period of time but then presents
the politicians with the issue of implementing Devo Max, whatever that turns
out to be. It has been a bit of a
mistake not to have defined this, but then no more than the lack of detail that
the Yes campaign has thus far provided.
My concern is what about England and the considerable number of Scottish
MPs that vote on purely English (and occasionally Welsh) matters. My view is
that Scotland has been chomping on the cake and are about to get more cake at
the expense of the rest of the country, I feel slightly aggrieved at this. Of course we will lose because in all likelihood
we will set up another bureaucratic sponging government to look after English affairs,
this is why we all lose whatever the outcome.
Now, I thought I might end with
some ‘observations’ in the event of a Yes victory announced on Friday
morning. I have thought about this and I
was wondering, will all non-Scottish people in Scotland get dual nationality? By that I mean if I was living in Scotland as
an Englishman would I have both Scottish and British nationality and what would
that mean vis a vis employment, EU etc?
If you are a Scot (anywhere in the world) would you again be
granted/confirmed British nationality or have the option to obtain Scottish
nationality (which if I were a Scot then I am damn sure I would want)? Moving on from those inconvenient aspects,
what about the status of EU nationals, for example students, they would no
longer be studying in an EU country.
What would their status be? What
would the status of a British student be?
Surely they would be EU as far as fees are concerned? Either the EU students would lose their funding
and status or the British will be allowed to claim free education? I am not holding my breath on that one…
We know that the EU has ruled out
membership without having established a banking system and currency and the UK
has ruled out a currency union (in so far as such commitments can be
made). An independent Scotland will find
itself outside the EU and NATO, are they going to welcome in the Russians like
the Ukraine? Okay that is a step too far
but quite frankly I would not be surprised if some novel relationships were
established with other nations in a bid to move forwards.
It is maybe important, no
crucial, to mention that Scotland and indeed any group seeking autonomy can and
will set themselves up. I have no doubt
that an independent Scotland will be able to successfully survive and progress
as would any new or reborn nation. The
main issue here is that some believe it is a giant leap backwards in order to
obtain power and others seem to think that once the leash is off then utopia is
just round the corner. The reality will
be a mix but harsh decisions will have to be made and reality faced up to make
no mistake. It is not a threat, it is what
is inevitable and there may be blame games afterwards but that is the pain of
divorce.
The last thing before I wrap
up. What happens to all of the Scots in
key positions across the rest of the UK?
To put this into perspective and regardless of trust and loyalty, quite
frankly we will have ‘foreigners’ operating at high level in key areas of our
organisations. In some cases this is
simply unacceptable. For example, access
to intelligence and nuclear assets is, surprisingly, restricted. Overnight there would be foreign nationals
(not in NATO or the EU) that have access and control over quite a bit of our
infrastructure and sensitive information.
I hasten to add that I am sure it will not be an issue in terms of
sorting it out but it is a novel and unusual situation to resolve especially
given that most of them have not had a vote and would feel aggrieved that they
have been stuffed by the Yes campaign.
Talk about rubbing your face in it!
I want to finish simply by saying
that I think we are better off together but, if we split then we will just have
to get on with things and make the best of it.
Maybe there will be a ‘special relationship’ or maybe Scotland will be
the despised ex who we visit every now and again to ‘see the kids’. I feel sad and disappointed that it has come
to this and that the divisions created may have a lasting and destructive
effect on those that have to put up with them.
