Up until now the NO vote against independence for Scotland has beem extremely negative with the beardless Darling vying for reasons to sustain the UK union. Poor old Alistair did look so much better with a beard, almost artistic. Maybe he felt self-conscious about looking too lefty for a clean-shaven Blairite government causing him to face the razor - or razor the face - is my guess.
On the BETTER TOGETHER webpage, viewers are encouraged to "Join us to ensure a stronger Scotland, a United Kingdom."
 |
| An effete Darling |
Part of the irony in this is that Great Britain is not united, Scotland having it's own parliament and devolved powers on important issues, and is not a kingdom but, to coin a neologism, a queendom: and yes, I'm a devout anti-royalist. But that's another issue which can be debated after the granting of independence.
If the facts are right, and there are no facts in the arguments surrounding the debate - only statistics, the UK is, at the moment, the fourth most unequal country in the developed world. I suppose the USA could also rank somewhere at the top of this ignoble league table. This is evident in the north/south divide, especially when we compare the run down estates in the midlands and the north, the disparities in the education system and the escape from poverty evidenced in the preference of alcohol and drugs to the grim reality of daily life without work and money.
On a much more positive note, the SNP tell us that in the tax years 2011-12, Scottish people paid £10,700 per person compared to only £9,000 in the UK. This imbalance, the pamphlet tells us, has been going on for 30-years. Also, Scotland's national accounts show that we are £12.6b healthier than the UK over the past 5-years.
I remember the play The Cheviot, the Stag, and the Black Black Oil about the theft of Scotland's oil being compared to the theft of land from the crofters during the Highland Clearances. But the oil and gas, according to the YES argument, are not the main staples of the Scottish economy; but it is calculated that even if the revenue had been 29% lower over the past 5-years we should stll have had healthier national accounts than the rest of the UK. Anyhow, the future doesn't rely entirely on fossil fuels but in renewable energy sources such as wind and water power. (Forget solar, this is Scotland and today is typically dreich and damp.)
Other persuasive arguments are brought to the fore but I think some of the strongest reasons for independence are being overlooked and too much emphasis is being put on the economics, information that's alien to the average man and woman who don't invest in shares in supermarkets and M&S. Work and a decent take-home pay is what most people want to sustain their dignity.
There seems to be a problem in the SNP aligning the YES vote to the fact that independence will benefit all parties in Scotland. Sure, there are a lot of issues to be sorted out, the major one is getting the Tories out of Scotland's politics. Without a mandate, we have to ask why the Cameron and Clegg are ruling this country on major issues when the Scots have volubally and democratically yelled NO! in the last election.
Lastly, Salmond should encourage people to make a comparison between the mature and mannerly way in which the Scottish Parliament is run and the peurile, bellowing and baying that goes on during Prime Minister's Question Time with a speaker constantly losing control of the situation. Watch carefully, too, how Cameron constantly bats the question back to the opposite bench with the accusation that the Labour Party is to blame for all the ills of the present - and he seems to thinks that screaming and shouting wins the argument. How undignified!
One sure thing is if Scotland lands with a majority NO vote in September, no one will ever know what might have been in store and that could be enough cause for regret for decades.
 OR |
