The political risks of the UK are massive, for all the reasons you already know – increasingly right-wing, increasingly committed to the madness of austerity, increasingly corrupt and with vested financial interests. The first past the post voting system means that there is no real choice at election time and subsequently party policies have narrowed to the extent that the opposition is basically the same policies dressed up in different coloured ties. We don’t know what Scottish government we’ll get in an independent Scotland, but three things are for sure: 1) it’ll be the government we voted for 2) there will be a spectrum of parties representing the proportional percentage of votes cast, and 3) there’s real choice in policy from a robust Green party with new momentum in its sails, an SNP that would have to redefine itself without its home-rule agenda, many independents from the grassroots movements, and newly invigorated and refocused Labour, Tory and LD parties. You choose the policies, but guaranteed, it’ll be a renaissance of politics and a true choice of vision. It shouldn’t need to be said anymore, but this decision and this risk assessment is not about (the many) nationalism(s), and it’s not about identity, it’s about democracy. The Westminster-run campaign has underestimated us. It belittled our individual capacity for leadership when it failed to inspire us with its lack of a positive vision for the UK, and it belittled our intelligence when it failed to engage with our questions and failed to provide a compelling economic case. It’s underestimated the extent to which it can convincingly ‘spin’ data, when it is now faced with a population armed with tiny devices capable of finding the source of every piece of raw data, and the ability to film and capture the reality on the ground and distribute this very quickly. Sousveillance. We are Watching Them. We’ve all become generalists. They bring out the ‘specialists’, get the ‘Good Will Hunting’ guy to do the sums that tell us that we’re better together or that the world will fall into a deep recession. But the one thing we all know is that those nerdy types don’t really know much about how things work beyond their narrow field of study. They’re don’t have an overview of the big picture – they are not generalists. It is not just about affinity. The Yes campaign is not naively optimistic. It’s pragmatically optimistic because the only way you can create something different is to use your imagination. Imagination is the most powerful tool we have. Imagination is serious stuff – it is the human capacity of ‘play’ that allows us to learn and evolve complex strategies. It is play and imagination that have ensured our survival and the thriving of humanity. Art is an inherently political act, it’s the space of creation. So the fact that the the Yes campaign has focused on a collective imagining of a new future is not a failure of intellect. Instead, I would argue, it makes it the most important project of our times. We simply cannot go on as things are. We risk the ruin of the entire future for our entire nation. All scientists are now equivocally agreed that we shuttling towards climate change. If you look at the UK balance statement you will see that for at least 30 years we have been shuttling towards economic ruin and the UK has no plan to avert economic disaster. I’m not making this up. You can read it here in the Economic Review from Office of National Statistics 2014.
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 16:12:44 +0000
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