* * Long #indyref post alert! * * Dear Scotland, as one of your sons, but for now living in England, I can now see the differences between the two countries, and why I think, regardless of the debates about currency, economy and poorer/richer arguments, there is a world of difference between the politics of Scotland and the politics of the South of England, such that I dont believe we are actually better together. Heres why: South England: Dog eat dog, every man for himself. We are pleasant to each other, but that doesnt mean we have to help each other. When a man is down on his luck, we sympathise a bit, but mostly we turn the other way and walk on by. Scotland: Were all Jock Tamsons bairns, all in it together, no man is an island. We help each other, and if a man is down on his luck we try to pull him out of it. South England Competitive. Its up to you how you get there. If you dont get there, its your own fault. If you are a success we dont care much, but if you fail were too busy with our own rat race to help much. Sorry. Scotland Supportive. Work hard and were all with you. If you fail well jump to help. But dont get ideas above your station. You need to earn respect through relationships, not wealth. South of England. If youre ill we have facilities to help you. But you might have to wait a while unless you have private insurance. Our health care is run by the state but delivered by the private sector. This is good for business. Scotland. If youre ill we have facilities to help you. But you might have to wait a while. We want to make this better but dont have the money. We dont want the rich to get treated quicker because no-one deserves it any more than anyone else just because of the size of their wallet. We dont want private involvement, because we have health professionals who know what theyre doing and we put patient health over private sector profit. South of England. Our economy is built on richness at the top, flowing from London. Our house prices keep going up and up and thats where our money is, and even though that means young people cant afford to buy a house anymore, it doesnt matter because the rich ones among us can buy all the property and rent it to them. We dont worry too much that the North of England and Scotland dont always see this flow down of wealth because itll get there one day. Thats how capitalism works. In the meantime they should work harder and stop moaning. There may be some poor people and unemployed people in our midst in the South of England, but so long as they stay in their housing estates and dont bother the rest of us we can live with it. Surely they can get a job cant they? Scotland. We have oil, which is great, but our economy doesnt hinge on it. London flow downs make no difference to us other than determining the strength of the pound and our ability to export. We dont use houses as capital investments, only as a means of making sure we have a nice enough place to live. There are a few rich guys amongst us but they are mostly canny businessmen who built up their business from a spare room rather than hanging on the coat tails of multinational companies. This we like. We dont like rich bankers so we dont care if they leave. South England We vote Tory. Anyone else might make us pay more tax. Why should we support scroungers, immigrants and fraudulent disability claimants? Also, we like private sector delivery of public services. We can make money from the shares we own in these companies, and anyway it is not for the state to be doing these things. Scotland. We vote anyone but Tory. Those bastards have ruined our economy, dont listen to anything we say, shut down our industries and make our poor poorer. And we dont want private companies making money out of public services. Were all in it together. We look after our sick, disabled, poor, young, old, unemployed, and while we expect them to do their best to get out of it, we wont punish them for being in the situation in the first place. We dont mind immigrants, so long as they work hard and be a part of us, just like the many Poles, Italians, Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis who settled here in the last century. We need these guys to keep our country growing, diverse, and paying its way. South of England. We are a world power. We must sit at the top table. We used to have a big empire and we should still be the head of a big empire. We are morally right on world issues. We need a massive defence and nuclear capability to make sure the rest of the world listens to us. We dont want immigrants taking over our country and we dont want the EU or anyone else telling us what to do. We are special and will deal with other countries on our terms only. Scotland. We dont need to be a world power. We will help other countries in their time of need if they want us to. Well work with other countries to deal with injustice, poverty and terrorism, and we dont need a massive defence force or any nuclear capability to do this. We have brilliant forces people who we know will make a difference should they be called upon, just as we have for the last 300 years. * * * * * * * * * * * * * So is this a fair assessment? Well my observations are based on 37 years born, schooled and working in Scotland, and 2 years living and working in the South of England. They dont apply to Northern England, Wales or Northern Ireland, and they dont apply to the shrinking number of working class people in the South of England who are forced to leave or struggle on because they cant afford to live there. But they do apply to the remainder of the South, which as you will see, is alien to me as someone who spent most of their life in Scotland. OK so some of you might find my observation of South England a little extreme, and I should stress that there are many I know who dont feel like this, just as there are many in Scotland who dont think the way I have portrayed above either. However, you only have to listen to the politicians here, read the media here, see how people vote here, and talk with people in the pub here, to know that this is the thinking that lies beneath the psyche of the masses of middle England voters that put the majority of MPs in Westminster. Is it right then that Scotland should be governed by a bunch of MPs who think differently to the Scottish people? Are the interests of Southern England served well by politicians who have to compromise to accommodate the Scots? Are the interests and core beliefs of Scots properly reflected in the government policies dictated by Westminster? Are we truly better together? I dont think so.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 14:33:25 +0000
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