And as Billy Bragg said…..”There is Power in a Union”

I am a huge supporter of the Union of the home nations. 

I am also a proud Englishman. I am not Nationalistic, except when it comes to sport. 

History tells us that Nationalism doesn’t usually end well so I choose the Union every time, as I did EU membership. 

But above all though, I am a fan of democracy. 

Recent US history tells us that overly Nationalistic tendencies, combined with a failure to believe in democracy, is a heady mix. 

I voted to Remain, I couldn’t see the logic of any other decision, but that wasn’t to be the case. So I wasn’t a Remoaner and was angry at the “let’s just keep having Referendums until we get a different result” brigade. Because that’s not democracy. 

The EU’s behaviour was regularly appalling. They couldn’t understand why the UK voted that way and assumed it was a mistake. That’s not democracy either. 

Trump couldn’t understand that he lost, and with 74M votes that’s understandable, but he did lose. His subsequent behaviour shows us all that we need to know about the nature of the bloke. A shame, as he achieved so much in a short time. Another “leader” who doesn’t understand democracy.

So what on earth to make of the Scottish situation? There are easy parallels with the Brexit & the US situation.

Lots of people have really struggled with this over the last decade, so this new Sunday Times survey is very interesting, see attached article.

The SNP fought and lost a referendum only recently. 86% of the population voted. The SNP didn’t like the result of the referendum, so ever since, have asked for another one. 

Of course they can trot out their (reasonable) arguments for a re-run all day long, which they will continue to do, but what if the last vote had gone the other way? Would they be happy with Unionists calling for another vote, just in case enough people had changed their mind to stay within the Union? 

You could point out, for instance, that without central government support, since the Covid crisis began, they would be in even worse financial turmoil than they currently are. Remind them that last time around they had clearly misjudged the EU’s desire to do anything other than have them join the back of the queue for EU membership and hadn’t thought through their new currency, assuming wrongly that they would just continue with Sterling. Consider whether the navy will keep the nuclear subs at Faslane (a foreign country) or move them South? Ask what would happen in the future if a Scottish bank hit the self destruct button, as in 2009. 

Scottish people are very intelligent, you only need to see how well they have always been represented in senior Westminster political roles. They are responsible for so many leading 19th/20th inventions and cultural works. Alexander Graham Bell, John Logie Baird, Alexander Fleming, Robert Louis Stevenson, JM Barrie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. And of course Doddie Weir! 

And from this Times survey it seems clear that the majority do understand the repercussions, particularly just how financially weak they will be as an independent nation. Before they go for this, the majority will hopefully understand that without such enormous Westminster subsidy, the First Minister’s immediate priority will be to raise taxes (significantly) and review some super perks, like free Uni tuition fees. 

And nevertheless they want independence. So if that’s the case and the majority do reject Westminster comprehensively in May, then why not let them have another referendum and presumably let them sail off into the sunset as an independent nation. That would be democracy, regardless of the nostalgic history of our Union.

If that’s the democratic will, to potentially commit economic suicide in the interests of some alternative nostalgic view of history, just as the UK (and especially Wales) did in voting for Brexit, why deny that democratic opportunity?

 So I would let them declare UDI. Personally I think it’s going to be hilarious.