Wot I think on the referendum – Yes. I have always felt Scottish, British (and European), and while I always romantically enjoyed the idea of an independent Scotland, I always felt that Britain, due to its dysfunctional merging of four nations, held great value. However in the last two years, quite simply, the Yes campaign has made its case, strongly so, and the no campaign simply has not. I don’t buy into the idea that an independent Scotland will be the Switzerland of the North, nor another Scandinavian wunderland, though I do expect that Scotland will be a nation that will be about as wealthy as it is now, maybe some things will be better, maybe somethings will be worse. But. But what strikes me about No campaign is that they have almost solely focused on the risks of independence, and there are most certainly risks, but, to me, it is the risk of saying No that is higher. The United Kingdom is a broken country. It has been a broken country for a long time. We are the second least equal country in the EU (after Portugal) and the third least equal country in the developed world (after USA and Portugal), and, having among the lowest social mobility in the developed world, we are getting worse every year. We are a country who has a massive democratic deficit, where a party with 35% of the popular vote is able to rule with a safe majority. We are a country whose upper parliamentary house is completely unelected, of which 15% of its members either inherited their position or are there because they are bishops. Successive governments have failed to address these issues at all, with many policies of both Labour and Tories acting as hindrance to social mobility and helping the massive stratification of wealth in our country. Successive Labour and Tory governments have also failed to address the systematic constitutional problems in our country, after all why should they – it is what keeps them in power. Therefore the risk of saying No, is not that things will change, it is not that the change might be the wrong one. No. The risk of saying No is that things will NOT change, that things will stay the same. With a Yes vote, things will have to change, by the simple act of having to make a new country. I’m not saying that Scottish people are fundamentally different, or better, than English (or Welsh, or Irish) people, or that we will make better decisions. In fact I am fairly certain on the fact that, for the most part, the people of the British isles are pretty damned similar. But what I have seen, admittedly from afar, is that this referendum has engaged everyone in the country. 97% of people have registered to vote, the turnout is expected to be greater than 80%. The people of this country WANT to care, they want their vote to matter, but we are stuck with a system than does not reward caring, we live in a country where only the votes of a minority matter. Independence will force things to change. There is a risk that those changes will be the wrong ones, that those changes will go the wrong way. But it is certain that if we are already going the wrong way, at least with change there is a chance of going a better way. The only way to guarantee change is to vote Yes. But, regardless of how you feel, of whether you agree with me or not. Please, for those of us who do not get a vote on Thursday: go out there and make history.
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 19:51:54 +0000
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