Brexit and Scotland
Once upon a time, there was a nightclub. It was called Club Europa. In order to be a member of the nightclub, you had to agree to host the members of the club at your house if they needed somewhere to stay. In return for this, you could enjoy staying at other member’s houses, exchange information and buy and sell to the other members of the club.
Unfortunately Club Europa’s management was distant and difficult to talk to, meaning that none of the members that wanted to do things other than having visitors or buying and selling to each other were particularly happy. Club Europa also had an extensive list of terms and conditions, and if you got things wrong, you were subject to penalties and additional fees.
On the plus side, Club Europa was fun, and if you were a member you would get to know all the other members, meaning that you were viewed as being more significant than a non member. In addition, you were sort of insured against running out of money completely, since lots of lovely banks and giant companies provided favourable terms and conditions on the basis that Club Europa would cover your debts.
Several members overspent because of this, and the richer members of the club objected, even though they admitted that the overspenders had spent on their goods.
One couple, Scotia and Albion, were members for forty odd years. They had benefitted in some ways, but over time Albion got fed up providing beds for all the visitors, objected to the giant list of terms and conditions, and wanted to see what life was like without the club. Unfortunately, Albion could not afford the rent without Scotia, and Scotia was not only tired of him, but extremely enthusiastic about Club Europa.
Albion’s answer to this was very simple. If he kept telling the lovely Scotia that she was ugly, poor and could not cope without him, she would simply do as she was told and he could leave the Club. With Scotia all to himself, he reasoned, she would settle down and they could live a more impoverished, and yet freeer life without the interference of the club.
Scotia did not agree with this. Aware that Albion could not pay the rent, she felt sorry for him, but she loved all the visiting members of the club, loved going to parties and loved the recognition of being a member of Club Europa.
Albion was very cross. He gathered his closest friends and told them all to tell Scotia how utterly awful she was. Surely she would become depressed enough to keep paying his rent? He hesitated over cancelling his membership, in the meantime, as he simply did not know what to do?
Have we got this straight yet? Scottish Independence is nothing to do with Brexit. Two separate issues. Scottish Independence is also nothing to do with hating England. Scotland would be better off independent. If England had oil, we would hear all about it, ad infinitum. Every day would bring more insults and accusations than we already tolerate.
Independence is also nothing to do with oil. Scotland would be doing OK without oil. The oil is a bonus. It is a question of wanting the government you actually vote for to carry out your business, instead of constantly having to tolerate the policies of a government which not only pumps out a lot of misinformation about you, but takes advantage of your resources in order to do it.
Independence, for me at least, is not a class war. I, for one, fully appreciate private money paying for wilderness in Scotland and would not seek to build new towns all over it, unlike some other SNP members. The fact that many objectors seem to miss, is that independence would create an entirely new political landscape which we would be free to shape ourselves.
Brexit is not about racism. In some cases it is certainly about English nationalism, and the most aggressive Brexiteers seem to think that England owns the other three nations. How inconvenient that people live in those nations, and have a vastly different culture and outlook.
I have written previous posts on Brexit showing an alternative view of why people would vote. To put it in very simple terms:
The existing UK is better off outside Europe. Europe is likely to split over the next twenty to thirty years, over issues such as bee death due to chemicals and GMO (Germany) Debt (Portugal, Spain, Greece) Immigration (Poland, Hungary, Eastern bloc, France) Paying in too much (Germany, Belgium, France)
Regulation is for the benefit of very large companies. eg. Codex Alimentarius prevents poorer nations participating in the trade of certain goods. It does not benefit small enterprises or individuals at all and suppresses innovation and growth. This, in turn, suppresses the UK, wherever you are.
Scotland would prefer to be in the EU for the purposes of safety and recognition. Ideally this should be achieved before England exits, to make the process of retrieving our resources with the aid of the European courts easier and safer.
TTIP will create the largest single market in the world. It is a bad idea, but the Brexit question is a question of how much control you want to have over who signs it. Do you trust the EU or Westminster? Scotland’s past experience with England indicates that the EU is the better bet. England gets the government they vote for, so naturally they prefer Westminster.
The deal made with Europe, killing our coastal economy, madness for a giant island, is not likely to change without significant renegotiation. Whether we stay or go, Brexit was a good result for discussing this with the EU.
Scotland does not belong to England, and the Union was not supposed to create English dominion. It is not OK that we fought alongside England for centuries, and Tony Blair stole our sea and disbanded our regiments. Fatal error.
In terms of the future, endless merging with other political economies is shaping up to be an extremely bad idea. To refer back to the example of GMO, chemical accidents and patenting of seeds – either Germany or the USA are going to be in control of food production if people are stupid enough to sign up to an agricultural plan which involves killing 80 percent of bees, paying for patented seeds which you can be sued for if you adjoin a user, buying chemicals which are destined to increase in complexity as time goes on. GMO will ultimately produce the same result as antibiotics. Superweeds and Superbugs already exist.
Got that? Scottish nationalists are not racists. Brexiteers are not all racists. There are plenty of alternative reasons for either or both decisions. To recap:
Scotland better off without England
UK better off without Europe but can’t afford it without Scotland.