Why I'm YES: the two futures facing Scotland

I've had various, undecided (as far as the Indyref is concerned) pals ask me recently to write an article with my main reasons for wanting Scottish independence summarised.

I've tried to be a little more concise than normal with this, although not by much...


SCRAPPING TRIDENT:
I, like the majority of Scots, believe that the Trident nuclear missile system is an affront to our collective moral conscience. That we would even entertain the idea of subjecting the world to another Hiroshima in the name of 'defence' is a scandal.

In terms of defence? It's pointless, a relic from the Cold War that bears no relevance to the modern day threats (cyberwarfare and terrorism) we face. Trident is a 'first strike' weapon - something to use first, not as retaliation.

How can we possibly vote to maintain the union, to give a 'thumbs up' to Westminster's sickening plans for renewal at a cost of 100 billion pounds? The £1 billion it'll cost Scottish taxpayers to keep Trident in Scotland over the next ten years is enough to pay for 3,300 nurses or 2,700 teachers, or to build 125 primary schools or 40 high schools or community hospitals.

Based just 25 miles from Scotland's most populous area - with nuclear weapons occasionally driven through the heart of Glasgow - it's time to bin Trident.

SAVING THE NHS:
I believe in Nye Bevan’s founding principles for the NHS: to provide care free at the point of delivery, decided on clinical need and not the ability to pay.

With health being a devolved matter, the NHS has been managed much better in Scotland since devolution than in England. That does NOT mean it is safe from Westminster's mistakes.

As Westminster continue to privatise the NHS down south - putting profits, not care, first - Scotland will feel the effect. Scotland’s budget is decided as a percentage of what Westminster spend in England on public services. When English public spending is cut thanks to austerity and privatisation, Scotland's will be too.

DEMOCRACY:
In UK general elections, Scotland's votes don't matter in the wins of either party - when Labour have won power, they could have done so without Scottish votes, and when the Tories win power, it's despite Scotland categorically voting against them time after time.

No one is suggesting that Scotland is some giant voting bloc where people across the country want to vote the same way; but at least in an independent Scotland, the will of the people will be heard.

It won't be some utopia where Scottish governments are always perfect, but there will finally be accountability; the opportunity to sack any government which fails us.

NO MORE WARS:
Since devolution, we have been dragged into two illegal wars, resulting in hundreds of thousands of innocent lives lost, against the will of the Scottish people. This will happen again as long as warfare and defence remain non-devolved matters.

With thousands taking to the streets in Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scottish MPs voted against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The motion was carried by English Labour and by the Tories, who had just one MP in Scotland at the time.

Likewise, Scottish MPs voted against the renewal of Trident in 2007, and against the benefits cut and the bedroom tax in 2013, but they were imposed anyway.

MORE POWERS:
I want more powers for the Scottish parliament - devolution has clearly worked, so why would we not want control over the matters that remain outwith our control?

A 'Yes' vote guarantees more powers. Better Together claim a 'No' vote does the same, that if we vote against independence they'll sate us with more powers.

The idea that the 'Better Together campaign' can do anything to give us more powers is misleading. Alistair Darling, the head of BT, is a backbencher in a party that isn't even in government - he has no mandate to offer us more powers. David Cameron can promise us all the tea in China, but the people of Scotland have long memories - we were promised more powers by the Tories for a no vote in 1979, and what we got instead was Thatcher, industries closed down, the poll tax and the unions being dismantled.

One side of this - the Yes campaign, and the SNP - have genuinely campaigned for more powers for Scotland since the 1930s and before. The other side were, as recent as the 1990s, completely and utterly opposed to us having any powers devolved to our own parliament.

Even if they are sincere about suddenly wanting to offer us more powers - which I don't think they are - does anyone really think they'll pass these powers through the House of Commons reliant on the votes of 500+ English and Welsh MPs, when polling shows English voters are overwhelmingly in favour of Scotland being 'punished' in the event of a no vote? 

After a no vote and after any further threat of independence has been removed, I don't see what could possibly move these politicians to hand over more power to the Scots: rather, they'll look to take powers away and slash the Barnett Formula once and for all.

LEFT-WING POLITICS
I'm an unashamed leftie. Left-wing politics are drowned out in Westminster, with the Tories moving more and more to the right, and Labour following them in pursuit of middle England votes. With UKIP now on the scene, the situation can only get worse, with more anti-immigration and anti-EU politicians surely fighting their way into the House of Commons in 2015.

In an independent Scotland, the right wing will still exist with a revitalised Scottish Conserviative party. Clearly there are still people in Scotland who share UKIP's concerns: 10% of Scottish voters opted for them in the European elections. But, importantly, there will be balance. Scottish Labour can return to their roots, no longer shackled to their diametrically-opposed southern counterparts. With their founding goal achieved, the SNP might factionalise, giving Scots even more political choices, not forgetting the share of votes for the Greens and various socialist parties.

If that's not something that appeals to you more than a UK general election with choices like David Cameron, Boris Johnson, Nick Clegg, Ed Milliband and Nigel Farage, there's something wrong. And that's only in the short-term: looking at the bigger picture, we have the chance to rid ourselves of the private school elite and the unelected House of Lords once and for all. Not just swerving the awful ballot paper on offer in 2015, but every one after, with politicians cut from the same cloth as Cameron et al imposed on us again and again. 

A NEW, EXCITING, WEALTHY COUNTRY
While the UK government has squandered the golden opportunity that North Sea oil promised - using oil and gas receipts to pay for mass unemployment, tax cuts and government spending - we could follow Norway's example and set up a 'rainy day' oil fund. Theirs is currently worth around £450 billion!

The UK is on its way to being the most unequal society in the Western world. It has lost its AAA rating. Austerity measures are set to continue, with 450,000 jobs to go next year, and the pinch of benefits cuts and the bedroom tax still being felt across the nation.

This is our chance to break away from all of that. 

The Financial Times believes that an independent Scotland would be one of the wealthiest countries in the world. In fact, we would be the wealthiest country ever to become independent - no nation breaking away has ever had a better start than the chance we have on offer.

With the oil resources we're already drilling for - not forgetting massive new fields discovered off Shetland, and exploration to discover just how much oil lies off the south of Arran - Scotland has an economy on which to build a wealthy, new, independent nation. Throw in a whisky industry with exports worth £4.2 billion, a food and drink industry worth £10 billion, tourism which generates over £5 billion and 200,000 jobs, the Scottish construction industry worth around £21.4 billion annually and agricultural output worth £2.7 billion, it's clear that the Scottish economy is ripe for independence.

The OECD reckons we would be the 14th wealthiest nation in the world - ahead of close to 200 other nations - so it's beyond doubt that we would survive on our own. We would flourish.