Scottish independence can lead the way for a resurgent Britain.
The thing with Scottish independence is that, had Scotland voted Yes in 2014 David Cameron would have refused to enact it. Primarily because of economic interests held by non Scots but also because Cameron would not have wanted to be the Prime Minister that oversaw the breakup of the Union. On the playing fields of England, to be the general turned over by the barbarous Celts just would not do. The Tories have no interest in Scotland remaining part of the Union, they don’t care about people generally, so why would they care about the Scots specifically? Scottish independence would present an awkward situation where contracts for exploiting Scotland’s public assets slip into a legal tangle.
Westminster panicked when it seemed Yes could win and, as with Brexit, there was no actual plan in Westminster for a Yes win. It was inconceivable. The writing was on the wall for the EU Referendum back in 2014 but we, the public, just didn’t read it right. What we should have realised was that our Westminster politicians are incapable of imagining an outcome that they do not want. They believe that they can steer public opinion so effectively that they do not need a plan B. We witnessed the same thing with those who plotted Jeremy Corbyn’s downfall and resignation that never happened (though they bumbled on to the tune of their millionaire’s pipe).
Theresa May is doing the same thing right now, throwing whatever dead cats they can dream up onto the table to distract from the fact that they are frantically trying to come up with a political solution to a constitutional upheaval of the scale of the Reformation and they have no answers. We have a government that placed this country into a constitutional doomsday situation with no plan B. The magnitude of that should not be underestimated. People should know that the Tories have placed this country on a war footing where the enemy is our own criminally incompetent and negligent government but they want us to think our enemy is immigrants. What they don’t want anyone to do is call out that the emperor is naked because it would not only oust the Tories from government now but for generations to come. As the Tories bumble on they do so out of self-interest, not ours.
We have had decades of neoliberal politics and it has created the greatest levels of inequality in living memory but, more than that, it has created such wealth for such a small group of people that they cannot imagine a life that does not continue to advantage and reward them. To that end, they will use their wealth to buy influence to corrupt British democracy on a scale that has perverted who our governments believe they serve. The system is rotten to the core but doesn’t have to be. We can replace our current corrupted government with one that is committed to serving the best interests of society. It’s why so many people misguidedly voted Brexit; they want a government that serves them but mistook the fact that our governments have been serving the 1% for them serving the EU. Of course, it’s as likely that the EU has been equally corrupted, so it does need reform anyway.
Scotland can be an independent country; it can reframe its unity with what remains of Britain from the position of a sovereign state. It doesn’t have to fall into the same trap that Theresa May has dropped Britain into; indulging a xenophobic racist bigoted short-sighted view of nationalism. Just as Britain can use the post Brexit victory to lead the way in redefining Britain and Britain’s relationships with our European neighbours, Scottish independence can lead by example with progressive politics and economics.
