Many people, unhappy with the politics in the UK, see independence for Scotland as some kind of new beginning that will be full of community spirit, socialism and prosperity. A place full of noble values, great energy and social justice.
This kind of idealism is very quaint, but unrealistic. And voting for independence because you don’t like Tories is daft. The issue is the fundamental constitution of the country that will affect generations to come and it cannot be voted out of office like politicans who have run out of ideas. You are stuck with it.
Independence will be cold comfort indeed if Scotland has the sort of experience that Ireland had. Not being able to blame everything on Westminster means that you have to blame yourself. That won’t be a pretty.
However, the carrot of a well funded socialist utopia in compelling and I daresay there will be a lot of people south of the border entranced by this prospect. Who knows maybe there will be a great migration of community minded, Tory hating radicals heading north. So, the Scots will at least have someone to blame when they find that there is not quite as much money to go around as they need and it descends into acrimony.
I have nothing but apprehension for what might come if this vote passes. It will fundamentally disturb all the nations in these islands for little benefit to Scotland or anywhere else in the UK. It is monumental folly to abandon the UK. Scotland will always be a little country living next to a much larger one. Just as it is for Ireland and Wales. There is no getting away from that fact and the Union is greater than the sum of its parts.
If the vote is Yes, Scotland will have to negotiate a different relationship with the UK. When it goes looking for grand alliances and treaties on the international stage, the most important one will be with the country it shares a land border with. A much larger economy with whom it does the most trade. To give up influence at the highest level within the UK to struggle as an small nation with no special right to tap into the scale and reach of of the UK economy is a great folly.
London had its Olympic moment when the people decided the celebration belonged to them. But that was a party and when it was over everyone got back to work. If the same spirit of communitas is pervading Scotland at the moment, there is one big difference. Once the independence party is over things will not be the same again. It will be a decade of divorce and argument. A disaster and it would all have been quite uneccessary.
If the Scots vote to leave, it will be the closing of a great many doors. The UK will still draw the cream of talent away from Scotland and it will get little back in return. It will be owed no favours because it will no-longer be a political partner, it will be just another country, with whom the UK will do business.
In politics fashions change from time to time. The fashion for the EU seems to give small nations an ego trip. But the reality is that size matters and Scotland is a wee country. No amount of wrapping yourself in flags and becoming intoxicated on national fervour is going to alter that fact.
9 days to go.
