No thanks, lets stay together. With the referendum approaching I thought I would take a minute to briefly share my views on the matter. I do not intend to get into any prolonged facebook debates on the subject, but feel strongly enough that I wish to be heard. Of course what follows is just my own personal opinion, which I am entitled to. Firstly, since I haven’t lived in Scotland for over a year I cannot vote myself. I’m not too happy about this but rules are rules. However, I encourage any apathetic Scottish residents to vote `no’ in my stead if they feel sufficiently moved by my message. Secondly, here are the reasons I support the `no campaign’: 1) I am Scottish, I am proud to be Scottish, and I love Scotland and what it stands for. This means I want what’s best for my beloved country. Furthermore, we already have our national identity and a heritage to be proud of, so why do we need more? 2) The `white paper’, along with most `yes’ arguments, is the greatest work of fiction since Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. We would not get a deal anything like this. Wake up. 3) Salmond’s legacy will be, irrespective of the result, the fact that he got Scotland the vote. He, nor his government, will actually run the country in the event of separation and I’m not convinced they even care if it is possible or not. 4) In a time of difficult financial climates and fragile economics, this is one of the worst moments in the last 60 years to attempt this. One just needs to look around Europe to see some of the financial situations we could find ourselves in very quickly if we vote yes. 5) The English aren’t so bad, are they? Having been to University in St Andrews and subsequently lived in Warwickshire and now Manchester I have encountered my fair share of Englishmen. Yes, they often pretend not to understand my accent, yes we tease each other about the various stereotypes attached to our nationalities, but this is just part of a friendly and long standing strong relationship. I am honoured to say that some of my best friends are English. I also know some absolute bell ends though, for example John Matthew Clark, Tim Brown and Will Cotton but you win some you lose some. 6) As the slogan goes, we are genuinely better together. We need to help each other, we need to pool our markets and economies, and we need to avoid creating boundaries and divisions where they need not be. 7) Please don’t fall for lies and propaganda. I saw one particularly disturbing advert for `yes’, which I will now describe. The poster depicted a child in ragged clothes and the caption simply read `1/3 children born in to poverty. Vote yes.’ This kind of bullshit makes my blood boil. It is playing on the emotions of the uninformed public and stoops as low as to use the image of an impoverished child to make these gains. Why should an independent Scotland have fewer children in poverty? I believe the opposite to be true actually, but refrain from making such bold claims outright just to further my own agenda. David Kellock, John Clark and I witnessed a particularly scary incident in a pub in Glasgow when a girl regurgitated this statistic as part of her three pronged argument for `yes’. Her argument had no substance and for the record the other two prongs can be summaraised as `look at Sweden, they’re ok’ and `we should have just left the English alone to deal with the Nazis’. 8) What will happen if we vote `yes’? I have no idea, and I don’t believe anybody really does. The only certainty is that a statue of Salmond the hut will be erected somewhere, and the man himself will be found on a beach in Tahiti. What do I think will happen? There would be a wave of enthusiasm and pro-Scottish sentiment. Sooner or later some stats would appear showing how well we’re doing, but as the months and years roll by, many many things which we just take for granted would slowly start to disappear. Perhaps, the health service? Perhaps public transport? Perhaps the ability for any able student to attend University? Your guess is as good as mine. The rest of the UK would be damaged, relations with Scotland would suffer, and more globally speaking, we would have set a dangerous precedent for separation, division, and overzealous nationalism. 9) Can anyone even guess how much the admin alone would cost to separate the countries?!
Posted on: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 11:02:08 +0000
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