The Path to Independence?

Scotland has had a separate parliament for a few years now. It was established after a referendum in 1997 which allowed the Scottish people to vote for a parliament and determine whether it should have tax raising powers. We voted overwhelmingly yes on both counts (74.3% for devolved parliament and 63.5% for tax varying powers). It still has a very limited range of powers and things like foreign policy are still dealt with on a UK basis at Westminster. However now that the process has begun you suspect that independence is inevitable especially with an SNP government voted in who have promised a new referendum on full independence by 2010. Devolution came about because it was a manifesto commitment of the Labour Party and miraculously it was one of the promises they kept when they got into office. It had been talked about for years, centuries in fact if you consider that the Treaty of Union was enacted back in 1707 and forced through much to the horror of the Scottish people. There is no doubt that the stunning and now embarrassing success and excesses of the British Empire provided an outlet for ambitious Scots and for a time the union seemed to prosper as a mutually beneficial deal. However Scotland has a unique history and suffering under a succession of right wing governments imposed on us by the more populous South of England inevitably the United Kingdom has become less of an attractive prospect. Much of the rise in Scottish nationalism can be attributed to Thatcher and her complete disregard for the Scottish people. Like a modern day Edward she treated us like a subservient second rate nation, using us as guinea pigs for her fundamentally flawed and typically right wing poll tax. She was universally hated north of the border. Although the border is just a sign you drive past it still has some meaning for most Scots. Of course being Scotland the joyous occasion of restoring a parliament to our proud capital Edinburgh was instantly marred by the construction of the building itself. It was decided after a brief protest from Glasgow that it would be located in Edinburgh. Then it was decided that a whole new building would be constructed at Holyrood with an obscene price tag and a bizarre design by Spanish architect Enric Miralles. To give you an idea of the scale of the mess they made it was supposed to cost around £40 million but actually cost £414 million and it was 3 years late. Amazingly our politicians manage to negotiate deals with builders which allow them to up their costs and be late without penalty and the public ended up footing the bill. This process is now being repeated for the tram project in Edinburgh. Anyway they finally built the parliament and it opened in 2004. Some people love it, some don’t, I’m in between. From some angles it looks great and it certainly works from the inside but look at it the wrong way and it borders on ugly. Scotland has always been noticeably more left wing than the rest of the UK and Labour have long held power here without any real threat to their position. They got complacent, they seemed to believe they had a hereditary right to rule Scotland and after the death of respected politician Donald Dewar they put a succession of awful idiots in charge. Jack McConnell was a national embarrassment and Wendy Alexander was even worse. The slick, skilled debater Alex Salmond led the Scottish National Party to election victory by a slim margin. They may be somewhat hamstrung in terms of actions because they lack an overall majority and everyone else united against them but they have done a reasonable, if unspectacular job. In recent times with the economy falling around our ears it seems that the biggest banking idiots were our once noble Scottish institutions like the Bank of Scotland and the Royal Bank of Scotland. Despite being perfectly profitable at home they took on stupid debts and risks abroad and managed to dig a big enough hole for us all to fall in. This economic situation is sure to mark the end of this Labour government. The likelihood is that the south of England will vote the Tories back into power. Labour may have veered into center to get power, well let’s face it they went over the central reservation and right up the embankment but the Tories will still be worse and the prospect sends a chill down the spine of every Scot. With the SNP in a position to force a referendum on independence through it may come down to a choice between that and another Tory government. For me that is no choice at all. According to the polls independence does not have majority support and speculators suggest that the recent economic crisis will discourage people from voting for a complete detachment from the United Kingdom. On the other hand Salmond has a huge approval rating and with Tories in the south the idea of a separate nation starts to look a lot more desirable.