An Independent Scotland?

I used to be an SNP member; a staunch member with badge and all. I used to go to the meetings and shout ‘Free Scotland’ with the loudest of them. Trust Scotland to wait until I became a Canadian citizen before holding a referendum about freeing Scotland from the English yoke.

Although I’ve lived in Canada now for over 17 years, I’m still referred to as the Scotsman; the ornery, sometimes unintelligible, rolling ‘R’ Scotsman, or if the guys want to annoy me they refer to me as that Englishman – that is when I become really ornery with it. I’ve probably mentioned before that when driving from England to Scotland, you can hear all the car horns tooting as you come to the border, but oddly enough there are never any tooting horns to be heard when driving from Scotland to England.

One of the reasons for this is that the Scots have a deep inferiority complex and need to vent their feeling somehow; the English have that deep comfortable superiority complex and shake their heads at the childish Scots toots. That comfortable feeling may disappear on Thursday Sept 18^th. If Scotland votes for a free Scotland, England will be on its own, minus North Sea Oil revenue, which will cause a few furrowed brows south of the border.

Its Unlikely!

Excuse me for my cynicism, but I’m certain that the poll that showed the ‘yes’ vote above the ‘no’ vote was rigged by Westminster. And it was rigged in order to waken up the ‘no’ voters. (Good grief, I'm re-reading this in Jan 2018 and I sound like Donald Trump).

Even with all the little problems that have been attached to the referendum, like no Scot who lives in England can vote; no Scots serviceman stationed in England can vote (unless they apply for the special service form, which most of them won’t do – they are more likely to take a couple of days off ‘ill’ and travel north to vote). All the people who reside in Scotland on the day of the vote are allowed to vote, no matter whether they are Scots, English, Welsh, Irish, Canadian, Russian, etc. etc. This makes sense to me.

Some people are complaining because Scots who have immigrated aren’t allowed to vote, but I agree with whatsisname who said ‘If they have chosen to live in another country why should they be allowed to vote?’

The frightening thing about Thursday’s vote is that 16 year olds are allowed to vote….16 year olds! They will be so caught up in the excitement of being able to change the direction of their homeland that they will all vote for independence, without understanding the consequences. It will be like buying a new house without knowing how many floors it has, not knowing if there are services, not knowing when it will fall down – they will know where it’s situated and how old it is, in fact its history is probably one of the reasons why they will vote ‘Yes’.

But it isn’t Scotland’s history that voters should be thinking about; it should be Scotland’s future. Don’t be like Quebec and it’s desperation to keep the French language alive. The Scots aren’t desperate to keep Gaelic alive; they are aware that the English language is the international language, and aren’t in any hurry to go backwards in time.

The only thing the Scots should be considering as they drop that voting slip into the ballot box is whether being an independant nation will help Scotland or hinder it? That’s the only thing they should be considering.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this Hub, I used to be a fanatical SNP member. Two things made me alter my point of view…

1: I grew up.

2: The Scottish National party started shouting ‘It’s Scotland’s Oil.’ I sat back and reconsidered when that call became the SNP’s slogan. Crude oil doesn’t last for ever, and if that’s what the SNP were counting on to keep Scotland alive during the next century or two, I wasn’t playing. I still have the badge, but I can think of no way that being separate will help my homeland into the future. Being separate won’t reduce the unemployment queues; it will probably make them longer.

But then again, this referendum gives any Scot, 16 and over, the chance of a generation, if not the chance of 3 centuries. If they vote ‘Yes’ and continue living life with the same vitality as the referendum has generated, and don’t resort to the normal sullen outlook on life, Scotland will become a powerhouse. But then again, if Scotland goes its own sweet way and screws it up, they can’t blame England ever again; they can blame nobody but themselves.

The only sensible vote is 'No'.

But one writer claimed she could get a ‘Yes’ vote over all of Scotland by broadcasting ‘Braveheart’ every night.

We’ll find out on Friday morning’ if Scotland does vote for Independance and begins to steer her own course, perhaps her millions of emigrants – the emigrants that help every other nation on the planet towards their futures – will return home.

But to paraphrase a Margaret Thatcher saying as she described a Scottish referendum as ……..‘Turkeys voting for Christmas.’ Maybe the Scots want to get their necks rung.