Due to my professional life, my business trips, raising a family etc., I didn’t think much about Scottish independence though. Until the 2014 referendum and the various promises and wishes made to us – in particular to stay in the European Union – and broken immediately after the no.

Poor little, stupid Scotland

One of the main criticisms of the idea of ​​Scottish independence is that Scotland is “too small, too poor and too stupid” to stand on its own feet and therefore needs the broad shoulders of the country. Union to survive. Consider these notions.

Too small

Are we “too small”? Here is a selection of countries that gained independence recently, with their GDP growth rate (in 2018) in parentheses (all except the last one joined the European Union):

• Estonia (3.9%)
• Latvia (4.8%)
• Lithuania (3.5%)
• Slovakia (3.7%)
• Azerbaijan (4.7%).

Compare these figures with Scotland’s 1.4% in the Union.

In fact, there is another benefit to being “peed”. That is, the speed with which decisions can be made. I have personally experienced this in two (small) countries where I lived: Norway and the Netherlands.

Here in Scotland, it shows in the fact that we introduced the ban on smoking in public places two years before England. And of course, we have established minimum alcohol price regulations that England has yet to pass. Both have shown significant improvements in public health.

Too poor

Depending on the numbers you read – such as the discredited GERS statistics or Barnett’s formula – we can look mediocre.

However, according to the Office for National Statistics, Scotland (with 8.4% of the UK’s population) has 34% of the UK’s natural wealth, 26% of renewable energy production and 90% of the UK’s natural wealth. % of hydropower.

We also have 90% of its fresh water, which will become increasingly important in the years to come with global warming. Of all the countries, an independent Scotland would be one of the richest in natural resources.

Too dumb

Scotland, with four of the top 200 universities in the world, has one of the most educated populations in Europe.

Complementing this was our previous membership, now canceled by the Conservative government, of the Erasmus program which allowed students to broaden their life experience outside of the purely academic setting. This level of education fuels our many achievements in science and technology.

Why leave?

So why should Scotland leave the Union? After all, according to the Unionist parties (there is little difference these days between the Tories, Labor and also-rans), we are so poor that we are weighing heavily on the British treasury and England still supports us ( without ever saying “Thank you”).

However, they love us so much that they are so desperate to hold on to us for our own good.

Oh good? A Conservative Party so loving that it has cut the UK’s contribution to global aid, allowing more Third World children to starve to death? Is it so loving that he fought Scotland’s attempts to bring children’s rights to our country in court? Is it so loving that it stole our legitimate revenues from oil and gas production when hydrocarbons in exploitable quantities were discovered under our offshore waters in the 1970s?

Is it so affectionate that he used the Scottish people as mere guinea pigs to experiment for their hated voting tax? Is it so loving that Scotland hasn’t elected them to government for 60 years? It’s so affectionate that it forced us to leave the European Union, even though we voted overwhelmingly to stay?

No, it is sheer greed that keeps the Conservatives hanging on to us – greed for our oil revenues, greed for our land resources, greed for our production of almost green electricity and, soon, greed for our natural resources. water There are, I think, three additional and overwhelming reasons. The first is that they need our deep waters to park their unusable, accident-prone and indeed illegal nuclear weapons in Faslane, near our largest city, Glasgow. As nation after nation signed the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the Conservatives actually voted to increase the number of these extremely dangerous, unnecessary and unusable nuclear warheads parked in our waters.

The second compelling reason is the Conservatives’ likely approach to address the looming global warming “tipping point” crisis. They of course organized the COP26 in Glasgow in November. And what do you think happened? Boris Johnson dared to come to Glasgow, waved his arms and proved to be an embarrassment to his country and to Scotland. Then he left, returned to his cave in Westminster to do nothing … precisely.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Greens will hopefully continue to push the SNP in the right direction to try to avoid this climate crisis. And after independence, they will have enough power to effect effective change by reducing Scotland’s remaining negative impact on our environment.

THE third reason is that England, under the Tories, is clearly moving to the far right. Consider their xenophobic, inhuman and in some ways illegal treatment of refugees in their hostile environment, introduced by the callous former Home Office chief (Theresa May) and her current inhabitant, the evil witch Patel. Next, consider the various attempts by the Conservatives to destroy democracy: attempts to prorogue Parliament, attempts to reduce the powers of the courts and the electoral commission, interference with the freedom of information law, the obligation of voters to present a document. photo ID during the election, asking school children to sing a ridiculous song on One Britain One Nation. (I thought this song should have ended with a “Heil Boris” coda!)

Brexit

The mammoth in the room is, of course, Brexit. I gave up trying to figure out why the English voted (just) for the UK to leave the European Union, which – aside from its economic benefits to us – has largely kept the peace on the continent after its precedents. centuries torn by war.

On the other hand, voters such as the Scottish fishermen may have thought there was good reason to do so, to increase the size of their fishing grounds. They fell into Johnson’s lie trap and were quickly dumped when the ink of his Brexit ‘deal’ barely dried.

And now our Scottish farmers will struggle and fail because of the trade deal to import beef and lamb to the other side of the planet while increasing ocean pollution and contributing to global warming.

Some Scottish readers of this may be among those who voted to leave Europe. However, if Scotland holds a referendum on the matter, I hope they will accept the voters’ choice – a choice we were denied by the Tories.

Fear of change

Of course, it is natural to be afraid of changes in life – getting married, having children, leaving home – because such changes are not without risk. Almost always, however, such changes are beneficial. So you might think there is a much higher risk associated with the departure of Scotland’s ‘mother’, Great Britain. However, since the last world war some 34 new nations have left the entity they were previously linked to (many from the british empire) and NONE regretted it and tried to return.

ALSO, if you are young – let’s say in your twenties – what is the purpose of UK and Westminster, especially if your life has been mostly spent while the Scottish Parliament exists.

If you are considerably older, you may still be attached to the idea of ​​’Britain’ and have memories of wartime Britain, its battle, Dunkirk and D-Day – memories which are played over and over again by the conservatives in an attempt to maintain the Union. together (instead of better ideas).

But, in the words of the song, “It was yesterday. And yesterday is gone.” A modern, progressive country like Scotland should look to the future, not the past. Personally, I already feel that I live in a country other than England I just don’t understand why English voters could vote for Brexit and a conspicuous clown like Boris Johnson and his Tory government.

Sadly, now that the Labor Party is largely gone, they will have to live with the consequences for decades to come. There was a time in the distant past when I felt proud to be both Scottish and British. Now I’m twice as proud to be Scottish and disgusted to be British.

Scotland must regain – not gain – our independence. And very soon. Being linked to a Tory government made up of squalid little men (and the Home Office wicked witch), which sucks our resources away from us, which has not only mismanaged the current pandemic, but used it to filling the back pockets and those of his cronies with taxpayer money is just not good enough for me or for Scotland. Is this good enough for you? Your children? Your grandchildren?

I do not think so.

Conclusion

Between 1947 and 1948, George Orwell wrote his masterpiece “1984” in Scotland. I can’t stop thinking about one of the novel’s most striking phrases if Scotland fails to gain independence soon. To paraphrase: “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a conservative boot hitting a Scottish face – forever”.

If we vote ‘No’ in the next referendum, Scotland will stay small and get poorer. And we will have proved that we are really stupid.

The statistics used in this essay are taken from Scotland the Brief by Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp. Copies are available at www.businessforscotland.com/shop