Big life changes are scary. In fact
they can be very scary and the decision to vote yes for Scotland to
become independent is not one to be sniffed at. I don't live in
Scotland. However I've been following the referendum debate very
closely over the last year. Every day tuning into the debate is a bit
of a roller coaster. You never quite know what you are going to wake
up to. Yesterday we came to another milestone 100 days to go. We are
now in official count down mode, 99 days until we press the big red
button that could see us jet off on our own or falter at the starting
blocks.
I'm a yes. I'm a yes that doesn't live
in Scotland and yet sometimes when I listen to the arguments I'm amazed
by the lack of depth and insight that many No voters have. Just this
morning on the BBC comments board one person stated they wouldn't
vote for independence because an independent Scotland would keep the
Queen. Really? That's the some total of the argument? I can only
assume this comment came from a republican, who wanted to stay in the
UK, a country completely devoted to the monarchy. Is a no vote really
his the best choice? Not only that the same person said they are
voting no because they wanted full land reform and they didn't think
Scotland could deliver it. Talk about asking for the moon? These were
two very bizarre statements. Like a child smashing up his toys
because he wasn't going to get everything he wanted NOW. This person
had clearly never looked over the fence to the other nation states
of the UK, to find out there is no land reform. There is no chance of
every getting rid of the crown estates. While in Scotland we have
already passed laws protecting community land rights and are
discussing dismantling the crown estate. Yet this person still wanted
to vote no. Other conversations over the last few months have
including a guy that wanted to eliminate free higher education, so
that everyone had to pay for their own eduction and was happy to pay
higher taxes to stay in the UK, without any of the Scottish perks.
That's right this man was happy to pay higher taxes and additionally
pay for his childrens' higher education in order to stay part of the
UK. Others harp on about the referendum being a waste of money and
that the money should have been spent on child poverty, as if
Westminster austerity didn't exist. Then statements like 'nobody
cares about independence'. I'm sorry? So why is it while abroad the
first thing that almost everybody asks me about when they realise I'm
Scottish is Scottish independence?
In between all these ludicrous
arguments it's almost impossible to navigate the propaganda. The BBC
are proven to be biased pro-unionists by the University of West
Scotland. Only one Scottish newspaper has come our as
pro-independence, The Glasgow Herald. While the British media as well
as the UK's leading parties, now at a pace are beginning to engage with
Scottish issues and perspectives. Three hundred years and now they
want to get to know us better, then every so often the institutional
racism bounds free. Yet the vigorous campaigns of individual Yes
voters has been heralded as cyber-nats, suggesting that being
passionate about independence is a bad thing and that Yes voters
willing to pass comment must be one person using several hundred
separate internet identities. There is also an ongoing campaign of
retribution regarding Alec Salmond's character, smug being the word
of the moment. I'm sorry, how are we describing David Cameron and
George Osborne these days? Nobody would ever consider either of these
two individuals smug, now would they? Then the complete
misunderstanding of the Scottish National Party as a right wing
party. The SNP are a left wing party, more left wing than Labour. I
know that we can't always trust everything we read on the internet.
However if you don't believe me maybe you might just want to take a
quick read of the SNP wikipedia page. More than this Alec Salmond was
part of the group that sought to make the SNP a Socialist party rather
than a Social-Democratic party. Get that.It's not just the SNP either the Greens are behind a Yes vote too, though UKIP seem to be much higher up the Scottish polictical agenda, than the Greens contribution to our country. Was renewable energies all the SNP? I think not.
In the meantime the media continue to
slag off the Yes campaigns and have no idea what to make of the
Radical Independence Campaign, a campaign not connected to any
leading party, that chooses to engage the most vulnerable populations
in Scotland. Despite the official polls, the RIC are frequently
posting there own polls from their door to door campaigning. Over the
last few months of mass campaigning not once have the RIC posted
figures that showed No votes out numbered Yes votes. Leaving it
difficult to know who to believe. All the information leaves
Scotland's future on a knife's edge.
The media support the No campaign's
figures despite a lead professor from London School of Economics
formally dismissing Westminster figures stating that they had
entirely misrepresented his own work and research. Are we beginning
to get a the picture now? We can take this dismission of Scottish
financial future even further when we learn that prior to Alec
Salmond taking up his political career he actually worked as an Oil
Economist. I'll say that again, Alec Salmond prior to being
politician was an Oil Economist, it factors that he knows quite a bit
about Scotland's oil revenues and finances and might explain why he
still lectures at Strathclyde University.
So to the unionist, all ask of you is
to think about it? Think about it properly, consider the Union. What
it is that you like about it? And of course there is plenty about it
to like. Who doesn't like spending time in London? Who doesn't like
the feeling of being part of the beating heart of the world? Who
doesn't want to embrace the multi-culturalism and diversity that it
brings? However it's not going to change, no one is going to take
away England from you, nor Wales or Northern Ireland, they will still
only be a hop skip and a jump away. You'll still hold a British
passport, you're children will still be entitled to British
passports. Maybe you experience duality of identity and feel unable
to choose being Scottish over British or English? Maybe your
experience of life is so intermeshed with being part of the UK you
find it difficult to find the line where UK ends and Scotland begins.
Maybe you think of the regions? What makes each of them special and
Scotland thus not in a unique situation? Maybe you have family living
else wear in the UK and feel that opting to live in a independent
country from them is some kind of betrayal? Are you worried about
immigration? Are you worried we can't make it on our own? Maybe you
don't like Alec Salmond? Maybe you've never voted for the SNP? Maybe
you're all for nuclear warheads? Are you frightened for rUK without
Scotland's guiding political influence? These are not the questions
at hand. The question is 'Do you think Scotland should be an
independent country?' Just think about that and that alone. You've
got 99 days to figure it out.
