THE REAL ECONOMIC PRICE OF THE UK UNION FOR SCOTS
Alf Baird
The price of Scotland’s ongoing colonial plunder is well reflected in a GDP-per-Capita level of less than half that of our best performing neighbouring countries in Western Europe, and well below virtually all the rest. In terms of GDP-per-Capita, Scotland therefore seems a distant and very weak outlier in the region, a unique and unfortunate case; made to look much like a basket-case, even.
Colonialism is of course the reason many Scots continue to live in, or close to poverty in what is a resource rich country. It is also why our infrastructure is poor, our nation is not internationally competitive, and why our public services continue to struggle to meet the needs of the people compared with most neighbouring states.
Colonialism is also the reason millions of Scots were forced to leave Scotland in the past, and why some must still seek opportunities elsewhere, leaving our population much diminished. And, it is the reason so few Scots today can afford to bring up families, with Scotland’s current birth rate the lowest on record as well as the lowest in the UK.
What Scotland’s GDP-per-Capita comparison with other nearby nations really suggests, however, is that, within the UK Union, as much as one-half of Scotland’s real wealth is plundered and hence ‘extracted’ from our people every year. This ongoing colonial exploitation of Scotland has made Scots arguably the poorest people in North-West Europe.
GDP-PER-CAPITA BY COUNTRY, 2021/22
Norway – $106,149
Ireland – $104,039
Switzerland – $92,101
Denmark – $60,345
Faroe Islands – $59,699
Greenland – $57,116
Iceland – $56,429
Sweden – $55,873
Netherlands – $50,546
Belgium – $49,843
UK – $47,923
Finland – $46,929
Scotland – $40,325
This analysis merely confirms what postcolonial theory tells us; that the price of colonialism ‘is equivalent to the value of the economic plunder of the territory’ (Fanon). So, what is that ‘price’ of economic plunder for Scots?
Given Scotland’s very extensive resources relative to other countries, and a fairly modest population size, an independent Scotland should be recording a GDP-per-Capita approaching twice the present distorted (i.e. ‘colonial’) level of $40,325. This would place an independent Scotland somewhere in between Denmark and Norway in terms of GDP-per-Capita, i.e. probably well above $70,000, close to double the current level.
This further implies that we may reasonably accurately calculate the financial cost of the UK Union to Scots and to Scotland as being equivalent to between £150-200 billion annually.
In light of these findings, perhaps the SNP Scottish Government, who claim to be fighting for our independence and liberation from oppression, might now tell the people the real £150-200 billion per annum price of Scotland remaining within the UK Union; and, that this substantial economic and social loss to our people and nation, which they have helped to obscure, is as a consequence of ongoing colonial exploitation, which can only be remedied, as all former plundered colonies know only too well, through independence/decolonization and liberation of the people.
MY COMMENTS
It is not just unionists who have to answer Alf’s charges, it’s also those “pro Indy” elected MP’s and MSP’s who fail to recognise the truth of this. In terms of natural resources Scotland would rank at the very top of the table yet we languish at the bottom of the league allowing our resources to be “pooled and shared” with our English neighbour. We are being systematically fleeced with the latest coming in the form of Freeport’s as two of the most economically active areas of Scotland are snatched into the hands of the giant corporations. It’s robbery all right but our “side” have no will to resist. It’s as if the Borg are in control.
I am, as always
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Great piece, Alf.
They do know, Iain. They just lack the backbone or are in it for the money. They care nothing about their fellow Scots. Nothing.
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No matter what anyone says, the Scottish independence movement seems to be in the Doldrums right now. Let’s hope a fair wind arises soon for our sails. Otherwise we drift on and on, rudderless at the mercy of England and its prevailing winds
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Being part of this iniquitous union has cost Scotland’s economy and society a great many TRILLIONS of Pounds and has resulted in massive depopulation.
Too many of our young people still have to leave Scotland because of a lack of decent well paid jobs here. Scotland pays for their education but doesn’t get the benefit of the taxes they pay during their working lives.
In parallel with this economic plunder, huge numbers of people come to Scotland to retire. This results in Scotland being allocated the costs of their pensions and later life public services like social care, healthcare etc, even though they paid their taxes, during their working lives, elsehwere in the UK. This is a massive accounting fiddle designed to make Scotland look like a financial basket case.
It’s also worth pointing out that the oil capital of the UK is London, not Aberdeen. London (and the Southeast) is where most of the big decisions are made, where most of the top jobs are, where the corporate headquarters are and where decisions are made to subcontract most of the infrastructure, support vessels and support services overseas. I’d be surprised if Scotland has realised even 10% of the potential economic benefits that oil and gas could have brought. The true number may be as low as 5% when lost economic multipliers are considered. The same is now happening with renewables and even our whisky industry is controlled from outside of our borders.
I could give countless more examples. Why, in its nearly 100 year history, hasn’t the SNP been able to articulate these points, and many more, to construct a compelling and persuasive case for Scottish independence? The responsibility for Scotland’s continuing colonial status lies squarely at the door of the SNP. They are either incompetent or are complicit with the British state. Extensive evidence supports the latter explanation. Actions speak louder than words.
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colingdawson says>>”Why, in its nearly 100 year history, hasn’t the SNP been able to articulate these points, and many more, to construct a compelling and persuasive case for Scottish independence?“
That’s a very good question, Alex Salmond was said to have spent most of his time as an MP in the WM Library reading, he was also said to be the most knowledgable about the Union.. He & Jim Sillars many years ago were what I called todays BRAVHEARTS.. Yes Alex gave us a referendum, but the franchise it was run on was NOT a franchise that any country anywhere, would use if serious about leaving their oppressors.
But in fairness, he ran the best Government Scotland has had since 1999.. But that was still a DEVOLVED Government..
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“The enemies within!?” ~ Urgently needing to End this so-called Union! 🏴
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Alf provides a shocking and shameful analysis of the ongoing results of our colonial status, but not shocking to those who understand the reality of this toxic union.
We need to ask why our politicians have let this go on for so long and why they have squandered so may excellent opportunities to leave this “equal and voluntary partnership”. All we are hearing from them are soundbites that we know so well we can predict which ones they will use.
James VI so loved London life when he left Scotland in 1603 promising to return every 3 years he did not return here until 1617. He knew where his personal ambitions lay and it was not in Scotland. When he was reassuring the English parliament on 31 March 1607 that he would not favour Scotland he stated, “Must they not be subjected to the Laws of England, and so, with Time, become but as Cumberland, and Northumberland, and those other remote and Northern Shires! You are to be the Husband, they the Wife; you Conquerors, they as conquered; though not by the Sword, but by the sweet and sure Bond of Love: Besides that they, as other Northern Counties, will be seldom seen and saluted by their King; and that, as it were, but in a posting or hunting Journey.’
Have our current crop of elected representatives also succumbed to the lure of London and is that where there personal ambitions lie? Are they so enamoured with life in London that they are seldom seen…..and that as it were but in a posting or hunting journey? I equate their ‘posting or hunting journey’ with their trips back to Scotland every 5 years to convince us that they are the people for the job, i.e. to end the union.
How many times must we fall for this charade and finally realise that ending the union would be a personal disaster for them. I don’t need to list the economic benefits and status that they would lose if Scotland did restore our Right to Self-determination and become at last independent of the burden that is England masquerading as the UK?
Those who read Iain’s blog, with a very few minor exceptions, know and understand Scotland’s Burden and the £trillions that we have lost, and will continue to lose to London as long as they are able to delay the inevitable.
I also agree with the accurate description by Colingdawson above, regarding the damage created and endured by our people. My position on why our politicians have been unable / unwilling to end this union is summed up when he says “The responsibility for Scotland’s continuing colonial status lies squarely at the door of the SNP. They are either incompetent or are complicit with the British state. Extensive evidence supports the latter explanation. Actions speak louder than words.” My criticism of the SNP would be transferred to any other party that had a majority and refused to either stick to their manifesto or to do what they were elected to achieve.
“They are either incompetent or complicit….”, I would say ‘incompetent and complicit” because they are both. Yet here they are yet again about to ask the people of Scotland to trust them to deliver us from the clutches of Westminster rule. I invoke the old adage “Fool me once…..”!
No more will I be complicit in participating in this 5-yearly pantomime. With only one party (The ISP) not at some point deferring to the Westminster parliament, my voting opportunities are extremely limited.
It is long past time that the people assumed the responsibility for their own future and that is the only way we will be allowed to leave this “Equal and Voluntary union”. We have been politely asking our oppressor for their permission for us to decide our own future and that has been working so well, that the people must now take the final steps.
Let the political parties continue to play Westminster’s games, while the people get on with the real work of ending London rule by taking the route that political parties are not allowed to follow.. As a first step, consider applying for membership of the Liberation Scotland Committee that Iain has mentioned is now underway.
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why has Scotland taken so long to to react to injustice that was intolerable to others?
Why do we lack the level of leadership to assert Independence instead of begging for permission?
Other Nations did not tie themselves in knots trying to counter to propaganda of the coloniser.
America, Ireland, India, etc all followed different routes but the drive was unstoppable. Why do we lack the drive to protect future generations.
I spent my life working in Oil & Gas. I watched Norway manage THIER resource while Westminster Asset stripped. I look on as Offshore Wind farms are connected by giant pylons and multiple subsea cables to repeat the Asset stripping carries out by Oil & Gas ventures. I know that the plentiful fresh water of Scotland will be next………We can all see the constant repeat of the theft, the migration of the young, the import of retiring colonisers, the destruction of Industry, the loss of culture and language……..
What are we waiting for? Why to we let charlatans like Labour and the SNP to hold us back?
Look at History…….asking the coloniser nicely gets you nowhere.
Debating GERs, Defence , Border Trade, Currency are arguments designed to muddy the waters.
It is not only about Money. I am of the firm believe that an Independent Scotland would have a very different Foreign Policy to the current UK, We would not have WMD on our door step, We would not be America’s pet poodle…..a long list follows
https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtid=2&psid=3216
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Well Alf is right. So what do we do about it! We gather our facts and data and make the case to the decolonisation unit at the UN. It’s textbook colonisation that’s been allowed to go on too long simply because legally we are co-signatories in an international trade Treaty that led to a Union (sic) so it’s always been too easy for people, Scots as well as other UK, to deny how we are actually treated.
Starmer’s Labour plan to subsidise English bills (I believe council tax) using a windfall tax of North Sea Oil companies. I mean come on. How blatant so they need to make it!
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While the plunder of Scotland’s resources and economic crippling of our nation is iniquitous, I tend not to concern myself too much with the so-called ‘economic argument’ for independence. I consider that case both unanswerable and irrelevant. I utterly reject the notion – all but ubiquitous among Unionists – that Scotland is incapable of managing its economic affairs at least as well as the ‘administering power’ which, by it’s own account, has rendered Scotland an economic basket case, incapable of being a normal nation.
My expectation is that independent Scotland will endure precisely the same economic travails as at present. We will have our ups and we will have our downs. When we are up, the politicians will claim credit for their competence in managing the economy. When we are down, the politicians will disown responsibility claiming the ills are the consequences of forces beyond their control.
It’s not that I don’t care about Scotland’s prosperity. It’s just that I am extremely dubious about the very idea of economic control. And I am absolutely certain that to whatever extent control may be theoretically possible, I personally will have none of it. Economies are not machines. They are organisms. Organisms are notoriously resistant to being controlled.
The United Nations took due account of both the vagaries of economic management and the realities of imperialist economic exploitation when authoring the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. Paragraph 3 of General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) states –
Which is why the ‘economic case’ is irrelevant. There cannot be an ‘economic case’ AGAINST the restoration of Scotland’s independence. Therefore, there is no need of an ‘economic case’ FOR independence. It’s not me saying so. It’s the UN.
Scotland’s status as a normal independent nation or as an effective colony of England-as-Britain is entirely a constitutional issue and NOT and economic issue. You cannot answer a constitutional question with a calculator.
So, if it’s not about the economy, what is it about? I can think of no better way to offer my answer to this question than by referring to a speech I gave in Dundee in March 2014.
The constitutional issue is about the kind of people we are. It is about how we present ourselves to the world. It is about how we see ourselves. I contend that the most malign effect of the Union is not the parasitic crippling of our economy but the centuries-long pernicious undermining of our self-regard and our self-confidence and our sense of worth.
That the Union has been an economic, political, social and cultural blight on Scotland is certainly true. But it is the general diminishing of our nation and people which has done the most egregious harm. The Union has not only imposed damaging policies upon Scotland, it has inflicted serious psychological damage.
Improved prosperity may or may not ensue from the restoration of Scotland’s independence. But the greater benefit by far will be the recovery of a healthy sense of ourselves.
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You are right Peter, the process and impacts of longstanding racial/ethnic exploitation and oppression of ‘a people’ and hence the determinants of independence are many and varied, of which colonialism is but one, albeit critical element:
https://bpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/wp.towson.edu/dist/b/55/files/2022/05/The-Socio-Political-Determinants-of-Scottish-Independence.pdf
However, we might also reflect that the economic plunder of a territory remains “the main purpose of colonialism” (Memmi). It is therefore not unreasonable to seek to estimate the economic value of this plunder, notwithstanding numerous other adverse impacts.
But, as you rightly imply, the overall ‘price’ of colonialism is not only economic, but also cultural, constitutional, psychological, socio-economic under-development and more; a colonized people are effectively put ‘out of the (international) game’ and are already ‘in the process of perishing’. Ultimately, the ‘price’ of colonialism is therefore the perishing of ‘a people’, their culture and nation, should colonialism be permitted to continue.
Hence the reason we all (must) agree that ‘the most urgent priority is freeing the people’.
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Peter, one of the reasons why demand for independence is not overwhelming is because far too many people still believe the endless British propaganda that Scotland is too wee, too poor, too weak and too stupid to be a successful independent country. Demolishing the these arguments is therefore of the utmost importance in order to convert those who are not yet persuaded of the benefits of independence. This wasn’t done effectively prior to 2014 and hasn’t been done since then. Alf’s article is an important contribution to building the economic case but it needs a much wider audience. In forums like this, we are largely preaching to the converted.
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Well, Peter, if the SNP/Green coalition carry on in the way they are, they will fulfil your fourth part easily. By God, they are too stupid to breathe independently, and I say that as a (almost) life supporter of the SNP. No longer. They are a disgrace to the word ‘government’. They, and the Greens, have made us a laughing stock in the international community.
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« They, and the Greens, have made us a laughing stock in the international community. »
________
And have provided the grimmest of cautionary tales….
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Indeed, Fearghas, indeed. Hard to believe, isn’t it? Not a sausage on independence, though. What are they drawing their salaries for? Totalitarian laws and other bilge water?
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« Not a sausage on independence, though. What are they drawing their salaries for? »
_____________
We will cling to the Butcher’s apron strings
And sing of gravy till we die, till we die,
We will swing from the Butcher’s apron strings
And slurp the gravy till we die…
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If folk share we reach a much bigger audience. That is key.
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Try telling people like Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp and Richard Murphy and Dr Tim Rideout that there has been no effort at “building the economic case” since 2014. The Yes campaign for the 2014 referendum was massive. And it was almost entirely focused on making the ‘economic case’ for independence. The economic ‘debate’ dominated the campaign to the almost total exclusion of the actual constitutional issue. If that huge and intensely focused campaign was not effective – and the ongoing campaign taking the same approach no more so – that would suggest to me that there is something wrong with or missing from, that approach.
Your comment merely recites the line taken by the SNP leadership in the aftermath of the 2014 referendum. Having undertaken no analysis whatever, they placed the blame for the No vote squarely on the shoulders of activists, saying they had failed to get the message across. Having taken an approach to the campaign which self-evidently was not fully effective, they never at any time considered an alternative approach. Rather, they insisted on precisely the same ‘strategy’ saying only that activists had to work harder at getting the same message across.
It was as if they believed there was some magical arrangement of words that would prompt a mass epiphany among Scotland’s voters.
Not only did the SNP leadership fail to learn any lessons from the 2014 referendum, Sturgeon actively resisted having any of those lessons inform her ‘doctrine’. This seemed inexplicable at the time. It is only since that we have come to better understand what Sturgeon’s priorities were. And that the constitutional issue was, at best, incidental to those priorities.
The plain fact is that the strategy of trying to counter the British propaganda with relenteless positivity and a proliferation of ‘visions’ stopped being effective some months prior to the vote in September 2014. And, as the polls clearly indicate, it has had precisely zero success since. All the people who could be won over by the ‘economic case’ and the happy-clappy enthusiasm had already been captured by the Yes campaign by the time of the vote. No more have been added since, despite the efforts of those people mentioned earlier – which you appear to discount completely.
It seems obvious that something else is required. Something fresh. Something bold. Something to reinvigorate and reunify the Yes movement. Something to sieze the attention of those who long since lost interest in the endless and essentially pointless economic arguments. And those who never had any interest.
The SNP leadership very successfully stifled internal discussion of alternative campaign strategies. They allowed no space for dissenting voices, and many of their most effective activists walked as a result. Which suited Sturgeon very well as she sought to exercise total control over the party. Humza Yousaf is her successor in every sense of the term. While outwith the SNP, debate around the constitutional issue has continued and developed and brought a vastly better understanding of Scotland’s predicament, the party leadership remains locked into the stale ‘thinking’ of a decade ago.
And so, it seems, are you.
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Peter, I didn’t say “that there has been no effort at “building the economic case” since 2014”. What I said was that “This wasn’t done effectively prior to 2014 and hasn’t been done since then.” I fully stand by that comment.
In the lead up to the 2014 referendum, I was a regional organiser of Business for Scotland. We did some excellent work on certain aspects of the economic case for independence but only addressed a small percentage of the total potential benefits. Our output was nevertheless infinitely better than the official Yes campaign and the SNP, which unbelievably said that there would be little or no economic benefits. I’ve had dialogue in the past with GMK about this but the economic case for independence hasn’t been properly articulated by the SNP before or after the referendum. Alf’s article is a very useful contribution to expanding the economic case but much more detail is needed to explain how we go about doubling or trebling Scotland’s GDP post independence in order to approach, reach or surpass Norway’s level in the fullness of time.
Tim Rideout has done some very good work on currency which was then ignored by the SNP leadership, despite having been supported by conference. Scotland needs its own currency as soon as independence happens in order that we can start building currency reserves from our huge balance of payments surplus. Those currency reserves are vital for our economic wellbeing. Much more detailed work needs to be done to more objectively quantify the likely magnitude of these surpluses. Alf’s article hints at the potential but much more detail is needed.
Richard Murphy has done some high-level work on various aspects including describing GERS as “CRAp” but a much more detailed analysis is needed. I have had exchanges with him about this and he doesn’t disagree with my points. By way of example, I pointed out to him that the DWP figures for pensions and benefits costs are based upon the actual number of claimants in a geographical region multiplied by an average cost per claimant for the whole of the UK. This is patently absurd. There is no way that the average cost per claimant is the same in London as it is in deprived areas of Scotland. Figures for Scotland are thus grossly inflated and those for London grossly understated. I also pointed out that Scotland is carrying the pensions, benefits and public services costs of many people who spent their working lives in other parts of the UK. Surely the costs of their pensions, benefits, social care, healthcare etc should be re-charged back to the part of the UK where they paid their taxes during their working lives, not to the place they choose to retire to. In relation to the opposite end of the demographic scale, Scotland pays for the education and other early-life public services and benefits costs of a massive number of people who, subsequently, can’t find well paid employment here and are forced to relocate, predominantly to London and the Southeast. These regions obtain the economic benefits of their labour plus tax revenues without incurring the public costs associated with their upbringing. A fairer accounting system would be to allocate part of their taxes to the part of the country that funded their education, child benefit etc. Better still, wouldn’t it be better if Scotland was independent and could create well paid jobs so they didn’t have to leave in the first place? Richard’s contributions are very welcome but much more needs to be done by the independence movement. BTW, I have made similar points to GM-K.
During the 2014 campaign, there was a barrage of Project Fear stories about job losses that would result from Scottish independence. These were very poorly countered, if at all. Nothing whatsoever was articulated about the jobs bonanza that independence could bring about. If I’m right that 90% to 95% of the economic benefits from oil, gas and renewables have been lost by Scotland as a result of the union, it means that employment in these sectors could potentially increase by ten or twenty orders of magnitude by repatriating these jobs and then gaining the benefits of the resulting economic multiplier effects. How would we do this? Simple. Tax and incentive policies. We could do the same for renewables, whisky, broadcasting, biotech… the list is endless. We need a plan to create a jobs bonanza in an independent Scotland. We need to arrest and reverse the brain drain. We need to stop the wealth from being systematically sucked out of our economy and society.
Following the referendum, and having never previously taken an active role in political parties, I joined the SNP in the hope that I could help develop a more compelling economic case for independence. As a recently semi-retired former senior commercial manager for a multinational company, with vast experience of drafting and negotiating multi billion dollar bespoke contracts, I thought that I had a skill set and perspective that the party might useful. In late 2014 and early 2015, along with other enthusiastic volunteers, we offered our services to SNP HQ for free in order to help build a better business and economic case for independence. We were basically told to go away and never come back. It became clear to me that there was a cabal controlling the SNP and that they didn’t want anyone to get in the way of whatever objectives that they had. Given what has transpired over the past ten years, and arguably much longer… Readers can draw their own conclusions.
When Scotland votes for independence, there will need to be a divorce settlement with rUK. The position proposed by the SNP and Yes campaign in 2014 was frankly inept and it has gotten no better. Scotland has been fleeced for centuries. The idea that we should take a share of the UK’s debts, continue to use the Pound, not get a share of the assets that we funded in rUK and overseas, not get a share of the value of the UK’s overseas assets etc etc is absurd. When settlement is reached, it should be rUK that owes Scotland money, not the other way around, and rUK will continue to be liable to pay the UK state pensions of pensioners in Scotland. I wouldn’t trust the SNP to organise a piss-up in a brewery, far less negotiate Scotland’s divorce from the rUK.
I could provide countless more examples of how the economic case for independence has not been effectively made either before or after 2014. I welcome the inputs from the three people you cite. Their contributions are valuable but are only part of the story. I think Alf is getting much closer to quantifying the true costs of the union and the potential benefits of independence but considerably more detail is needed.
I think it was Bill Clinton’s campaign that coined the phrase “it’s the economy, stupid”. The British state and the complicit mainstream media have been blasting out the “too wee, too poor, too weak, too stupid” propaganda for so long that far too many people in Scotland unquestioningly believe it. We need to be honest with ourselves. We must produce a much better economic prospectus if we are to convert undecideds to support our cause.
This can happen in parallel with your preferred approach towards converting undecideds. It doesn’t need to be an either / or. We each have our own strengths and weaknesses. You can focus on your areas of interest. Let others focus on theirs.
I’ll let others form their own judgements about your statement accusing me of remaining “locked into the stale ‘thinking’ of a decade ago”, but I will point out that you argued vociferously against using the last Scottish Parliament elections to obtain a mandate for independence until it was too late to do so. You also trusted the SNP to advance the independence cause for much longer than most other independence activists did. That said, I really welcome your interventions into the debate. If we all thought the same thing we might never properly test arguments and reach a position where we have persuasive arguments, not just to promote our cause but also to counter our opponents’. Debate is good. Just remember. We’re supposed to be on the same side.
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Very good post. Thank you.
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That’s very helpful Colin, and Peter. There is clearly much work that could and should have been done. The SNP cabal has not done this and won’t do it. There are many like you who have offered their international business expertise FOC and been rejected, myself included. The SNP political elites clearly don’t have the expertise to deliver independence or ability to take control over the economy to give Scotland a new direction and rebuild.
One example is my own research area which (as well as postcolonial theory) is global shipping and trade. One of the first priorities for any decolonized territory is to re-orient its trade away from continued interception and dominance by the ‘mother country’ (as Ireland and other ex colonies have done). The latter has been intercepting our trade cheap, and selling goods and services back to us at high cost for a long time period. Our ports on Clyde and Forth have been starved of investment such that our trade is now dominated by one country, England. This needs to be reversed, but the SNP don’t even understand the basics of decolonizing and still don’t appreciate that our national under-development and low GDP/capita is due to colonialism; thus, the only way to grow the economy is to decolonize but our infrastructure across the board needs renewed and upgraded which means we need to bring about control over the entire economy including a refocus of international supply chains and to prevent further interception of economic rents by external actors.
Maritime/trade policy doc I submitted to ScotGov here: Alfred_Baird.pdf (parliament.scot)
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Great article Alf, as usual.
Not a mention of Indy from that shower who claim to be our Government.
Peter is right our indy doesn’t mean instant riches for all, it’s more important than that. It’s putting Scotland back on the world stage, and being a country again.
The latest mess our Government are trying to get us into are SEZs Special Economic Zones. A complete nightmare for Scotland, and not a bit of noise from the possible closing of our only refinery. Which just happens to be in the middle of one such zone. They shout, lets make Scotland a tory free zone, and get back in to the EEC. When you have these SEZs you won’t get into the EEC… They are treating us as fools. We must get rid of them soon.
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These SEZ’s and Freeports are also TORY policies. Yet… they’re telling us to not vote in a way that lets tories in??? Seems a huge contradiction to me.
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Bang on Alf, Scotland has been getting robbed of its assets for a long time, under the guise of being in a union.
A union enforced by countless House Jocks over the centuries and all of it lies.
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If Scotland was costing as much as England never tires of telling us we do, we would’ve been independent many years ago. It’s an old and enduring lie, of course, one of the many self-serving lies told by our coloniser down-the-years, whilst being aided and abetted by a home-grown, totally bought-off bourgeoisie and their English ‘plantation’ bosses. With Ireland listed second after Norway re: GDP per capita, shouldn’t our politicians have been back home years ago?
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colingdawson: few countries, if any, in the West, in the past century, and which have not plunged into war, or have come through a war, around their independence, have not made a better economic stab than previously. I agree that very much more requires to be done, but I take Peter’s argument, too, that independence needs to stand alone. That should, not, however, preclude detailed work on what our existing and future assets ands resources could garner for us as an independent state. People are persuaded by economics because they want to feel that they will be better off, or their children will be better off, and it will all have been worth it.
The West has long since freed itself of the religious constraints to realizing their own potential, and, at least some extent, we have managed to contain other belief systems that would constrain us (albeit we need to keep climate change and green issues to the fore these days and complete unsustainable exploitations are now out of the question). Belief systems in other parts of the world have constrained countries and reduced them to almost Stone Age status in relation to economic advantages. Neither in dependence on its own nor dwindling economic decision-making within the Union will ever work for us. We must marry both, and marry them to constitutional rights and freedoms. The three are inseparable, I believe.
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Alf, their inexpertise is, perhaps, understandable and even forgivable, but their refusal to listen to anyone outside their own coterie is neither. What they have done to Scotland is neither understandable nor forgivable. I still cannot get my head round the Hate Crime Act, the GRRB, the hounding of Alec Salmond and all the other duds they have come up with, and I can only think that they have done all this quite deliberately. Did they mean to sabotage Scotland and independence? It seems like it. Some things you can put down to mistakes or stupidity – we are all human – but to make those same mistakes over and over again, hide things from the people, lie to the people, conspire behind the people’s backs? No, that is sheer cupidity and wickedness. They and the Greens are now in real danger of causing an uprising in Scotland. That is the inevitable result when governments or their institutions push the people too far. You know something else: England isn’t too far off that either; Wales is seething in discontent, and Eire, whom everyone holds up as the shining beacon for NI, is a basket case. All of it down to ‘woke’ policies that not one of our populations asked for. The fallout might yet destroy the Union, so we will need to be ready.
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Agreed that cupidity and stupidity (though rife) are not the terminal afflictions of Scotland. Premeditated controlled malignity is at work. An advanced assassination of a nation. Yet it seems impossible to “push the people too far”. An “uprising in Scotland”? What would that look like? And against whom? Some kind of national punch-yourself-in-the-face “Fight Club” psychosis comes to mind…
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The glue of post-imperialist sentimentality is a potent adhesive. Those who would free us from it seem unaware of its potency. We need a solvent currently unavailable to the Scottish public.
An ‘uprising in Scotland’ would start as a low-key affair. To paraphrase Leonard Cohen : First we take Coalsnaughton, then we take Carfin.
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I like to use Austria as a comparison. GDP per Capita $52131. Austria has no natural resources. (Do not even look at the Isle of Man or Ireland!)
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Fearghas: I have said before, and I will say it again, that it will be women who will bring this Union to its knees. They will kick-start the uprising. It is coming. Not just in Scotland, but throughout the UK and Eire. This ‘woke’ malignancy will be stopped only by tearing it out at the roots, and that is what will happen. People were warned over and over where this would lead, just as the foresighted warned in the early 1930s where Nazism would lead. It always takes the slower-witted, the perennially fearful and the wilfully stupid longer to get there – usually when it starts to affect them adversely – and WW II was no exception. From little acorns great oaks grow and from tiny malignancies rot sets in and spreads. That malignancy must be stopped, and soon or lack of independence will be the very least of our worries.
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