A really interesting insight from an English friend of a friend, living in Scotland. Since Margaret Thatchers government dismantled Scotlands mines and shipyards in the 80s, creating mass unemployment, this country has hated the Tories. Alex Salmonds master stroke in this referendum campaign has been to harness antipathy to the Tories and attach it to Westminster as a whole. He has created a pantomime villain - the bullying, exploitative establishment down south. And a Braveheart hero - the fair minded, socially responsible Scot. Its an inaccurate and insulting picture but it resonates in Scotland because of the historical relationship with the Conservative party. David Cameron is on a hiding to nothing. Hes from the South East, he went to Eton and hes a Tory. So hes lost the argument before hes even opened his mouth. And the Nationalists us and them narrative has been assisted further by the fact that Ed Milliband is a middle class London intellectual and Tony Blair before him was seen as a privately educated toff and a Tory in disguise. Nick Clegg already the butt of many jokes can easily be tarred with same brush. The English are catching on to all of this rather late in the day and see the anti Westminster rhetoric as an attack on them. I was down south last week and all the talk was of whats happening in Scotland. Their reaction is an emotional one that you might expect of someone who has been told that a friend and partner doesnt like them and wants to leave. Well they can sod off then and Im never going on holiday in Scotland again were soundbites that I picked up in the pub, some even say that they will never buy Scottish goods again. Everywhere there is genuine hurt and anger building up as the English wake up to the possible reality of separation. England is Scotlands biggest market by far. So looking at it from a business viewpoint, it seems to me that we are in the process of alienating our biggest customer. This just one of the unintended consequences of Alex Salmonds war on Westminster. Ive heard several Nationalists recently saying that when all this is over they believe we will all come together and live in harmony with our friends and neighbours across the border. How is this going to be possible after the insults that have been flung? And when, in the event of a Yes vote, we would be faced with 18 months of arguing over the family silver before the split is finally made official. As one Canadian commentator said You dont improve your marriage by getting a divorce. Much of the talk is of whether Scotlands big corporations will move south or not. Very little has been said about the many thousands of small UK companies that hand out business to Scotland. Not to mention that millions of English consumers who buy Scottish goods. Ill feeling towards Scotland could very quickly translate into business lost. No doubt this thought will be dismissed by Yes voters as scaremongering but perhaps they have not witnessed the anger I have seen or indeed felt myself as an Englishman living in Scotland. If you create division you have to live with the consequences and no matter how positive Yes voters are now, when the euphoria dies down some of these realities will bite. I say its time to put away antipathy to Westminster and say if we dont like it we can change it from within. Lets not buy into Salmonds myth that everything will be better for Scotland once we are free of Westminster and Tory toffs. Thats is a manipulative argument that exploits our inner prejudices. Before you vote, consider the consequences of creating a foreign country on our small island and in doing so alienating the people we used to call our friends.
Posted on: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 17:00:07 +0000
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