‘The No campaign’ may have been a more obvious and honest
title but eschewing that negative connotation, “Better Together” became the
name of the campaign opposing “Yes Scotland”
Better Together must be mindful of negative arguments and
those that the Scottish people see as playing down our country’s ability to
survive on her own. Indeed, on the Better Together website, their article ‘The
+ve case’ starts by declaring “We love Scotland,” then getting to the crux of
their argument: “Our case is not that Scotland could not survive as a separate
country - it is that there's a better choice for our future.”
This is an incredibly interesting argument. A look at the
history of sovereign states around the world would therefore say: Scotland and
the UK are wholly unique in being “Better Together”
Over the last century or so, the vast majority* of people who
have held independence referenda have voted ‘Yes’. Countries including Norway,
Iceland, Ukraine and Croatia have decided that they would be better governed in
an independent state.
Looking at nations who have won their independence, it seems
impossible to find one who has later reverted to their previous union.
Countries who have made this decision have universally gone on to better
governance. These countries have not regretted voting ‘Yes’.
How unique our Union would prove to be if we decided that we
are the exception. Alex Salmond once famously said “The fundamental reason for
being independent is that Scotland is a nation and nations are better when they
govern themselves.”
Voters in countries around the world have shared this belief
in taking action to win their independence. In deciding that Scotland would be
better off governed not by ourselves but by a government in a foreign country,
we would be a lone voice in the crowd of world politics. What confidence we
would need to have in the UK; what little faith in Scotland.
There is no doubt that this decision is monumental, the most
important that Scottish voters will ever be asked to make at the polls.
Collectively, we must make sure that we make the right choice so that as a
nation, we are not left with regret.
Of course, the argument that Scotland will be “Better
Together” should surely be backed by a look at our history together.
Unfortunately for the Better Together campaign, there are many examples
throughout the lifetime of Scottish voters where our country would have fared
better governed by our own parliament.
In the 1970s, oil was discovered in the North Sea. While the
money generated from this benefits the UK as a whole, as much as 90% is thought
to be Scotland’s.
Norway has built a ‘rainy day’ fund with their oil revenue,
a model that has allowed them to ride out the worst of the financial crisis. The
fund began in 1996 with an initial investment of around $300 million, but
reports in August placed its value at $600 billion. It now owns one percent of
all equities across the globe. Experts now believe the fund could last a
century or more.
According to the Guardian Economics article, ‘Britain has squandered golden opportunity North Sea oil promised’, “The UK has used its oil
and gas receipts to pay for mass unemployment, tax cuts and current government
spending.”
An independent Scotland could have followed Norway’s lead in
placing its oil and gas riches in a huge pension fund, which it in turn invests
in international stocks and bonds. Instead, the money has been squandered by a
UK government who lead us into a recession. Thatcher’s deregulation of the
banks and later, Gordon Brown’s decision to hand supervision of individual banks to the Financial Services Authority,
lead us into an economic crisis.
One beneficiary of North Sea oil thrives; the other suffers
a massive recession.
Scotland would have been better apart.
Tomorrow (Sunday 7th October) marks eleven years
of the war in Afghanistan. During this time, 430 Britons have lost their lives
amid a total allied loss exceeding 3,000.
The UK’s expenditure is heading towards £20 billion; the
same amount that the government is planning to cut from the country's National
Health Service, one of just 10 good reasons to end the war which are laid out
in Stop War’s article.
During this time, we have also invaded Iraq. In 2003, a
rebel amendment was tabled against the war in Iraq by figures including the SNP
defence spokesman, Angus Robertson. At the time, the Conservatives had only 1
seat in Scotland. Almost all of their 166 MPs voted to support Tony Blair.
By contrast, only 34 out of the 72 Scottish MPs voted to
support the Government’s position.
What little say we had in the decision to
invade Iraq. The war resulted in the deaths of 179 UK soldiers, 15 of whom were
from Scotland.
Scotland would have been better apart.
The most baffling thing I find in the debate on independence
is the huge number of people who see devolution as a massive success, but are unsure
about voting ‘Yes’. Devolution has been a success precisely because nations work
best when governed by their own people.
Consider this: since 1997, what are the main political
decisions that have hurt the people of Scotland most? The decision to enter
Iraq, entering Afghanistan and the decisions that lead to the recession were
all catastrophic errors. Where Holyrood has made decisions we have generally fared
well; warfare, the economy, things Westminster control, these are the decisions
made for Scotland in the last fifteen years that have gone horribly wrong.
It makes sense that we have a university system the envy of
many when we control education, or an NHS regarded stronger than elsewhere in
the UK when health is another devolved matter. Decisions are made in Holyrood
by MPs representing all of Scotland. Where in Westminster our views only make
up a tiny 10% of the vote on any issue, why should we ever expect to be heard
but on the few issues where Scotland and the rest of the UK have similar needs
and views?
To me, that does not sound like a Union of nations who are
better together. Agreeing with the success of devolution but choosing to
leave Westminster in charge of such massive decisions makes no sense
whatosever.
If you think devolution has worked, vote ‘Yes’ to take full
control over decisions made for Scotland.
Devolution works because Scotland would
not be Better Together, but better apart.
*Only the people of Quebec (by an incredibly narrow margin),
Bermuda and Puerto Rico have voted no. Successful independence referenda are listed below:
1905 Norway
1944 Iceland
1958 Guinea
1990 Slovenia
1991 Croatia
1991 Macedonia
1991 Ukraine
1991 Georgia
1991 Transnistrian
1992 Bosnia and Herzegovina
1992 South Ossetia
1993 Eritrea
1994 Moldova
1999 East Timor
2006 Montenegro
2006 South Ossetia (retention of independence)
2006 Transnistria
2011 Southern Sudan
