Well I’ve just got back from a couple of days in Glasgow, my favourite city in Scotland. An interesting thing about when we visit Scotland is that it seems to coincide with important announcements, some really important others just a PR stunt dressed up to be important. The really important announcement was the job loss at British ship building yards. The other some mammals hired out by the Chinese Government at exorbitant expense to the Scottish government for a few years.
When you drive to Scotland from England along the M6/M74 you suddenly realise just how empty both Scotland and England are. After Manchester there really isn’t any significant built up area near to the road until Glasgow. This becomes really apparent once you enter Scotland itself. You find yourself driving through empty hills and moorland with only a few other cars and hundreds of wind turbines for company. There are towns in the area but they seem to disappear into the hills. It is an empty country.
Yet like it or not it is connected to England by a sometimes contentious border but linked it is. The ship yard closures just go to prove this. The reason for the Scottish yards not closing whilst the English ones did is that they are the most efficient at producing modern warships. However, they only have one real customer the British Royal Navy and so each are stuck with each other. There has been an awful lot of huffing and puffing about these closures but they also really show just how interdependent each country is to one another.
Yes the Scottish Government like to make an awful lot of noise and pretend they are in control. This description can equally apply to the UK Government in London but neither would really work without each other. They need each other to use for political purposes, especially when there is a SNP led government in Edinburgh. What neither party seems to want to acknowledge is this interdependency. The SNP want to pretend that Scotland will be just fine and dandy on their own – they won’t. They will have massive problems which the SNP will not acknowledge. This is not an argument against Scottish independence but rather a statement of fact. The only difference is that they will be Scottish problems to solve.
One of the most interesting things about visiting Scotland is watching the local news. It is dominated by what happens in the Clyde and Forth valleys. This is only natural as this is upwards of 66% of the population. However, if I was someone from Aberdeen or Thurso I would start to feel somewhat isolated from the news. Now I’m sure that there are news services that cater for the needs of people outside of the south but I bet the people feel resentful of the goings on in far off Glasgow and Edinburgh. Scotland is not just Alex Salmond nor the SNP but I’m sure that many of the people of the country feel just as divorced from the political process in the south as Newcastle on Tyne feels towards London.
We all live on the same small island(s) and it is impossible to say that what happens in one part not effect all those others living in other parts. Scottish independence is as much an issue for the England as it is for Scotland. Whilst it is right for the Scots living within Scotland to decide their future it is also right for them to realise that there will be serious consequence should they wish to become independent of the UK.
Equally, the English need to realise that they have a significant amount riding on the Scottish vote – not least of which will be the total reorganisation of the political parties and constituencies in the rest of the UK. We already have a Tea Party it is called the conservative party MP’s who largely represent constituencies that will always be Conservative i.e. rural, mainly white and ageing – sound familiar. It is unlikely that the broad church that is the current Conservative party will be able to keep these in the fold, especially if they don’t get their Holy grail of leaving the EU. If Scotland leaves then this will lead to a realignment on the right that we have not seen for hundreds of years. If this were to happen then guess who would be a favourite scape goat? A scape goat that everyone understands? Yes that is right the Scots who will still be reliant for an awful lot of things provided by the countries to the south even if they are Independent – entry to the EU being one. It would be the ultimate irony that politicians who hate the EU would use their power of veto to prevent the Scots from being able to join the EU. A crazy notion I know but many crazy things are done in the name of self interest.
I love Scotland and I hope the Scottish people won’t vote for independence but if they do they will be opening a whole can of worms that they will not be able to easily control. Whilst it might not make any sense the British Royal Navy getting their ships built away from the Clyde you can bet they will be even if it cost billions to do so. I pray that it doesn’t come to that but Scotland, whilst being a wealthy country with a population of around 5 million, is a minnow compared to the beast to the south of the Solway and Tweed.
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