I like the idea of independence. It's kind of brave, almost romantic.
At the time of the referendum on leaving the EU I had similar thoughts about the UK going it alone. Why shouldn't we go it alone? We are the seventh largest economy in the world. We could be more agile, more like our selves...... Why do we need others telling us what to do and how to do it?
I was never overly convinced either way and it still seems that as a nation we are not overly convinced and the vote was most definitely not a consensus. I'm still not convinced either way.
Once again we are involved in a discussion over Scotland breaking away on its own.
It does seem that we're determined not to heed the lessons that history, both ancient and recent has given us. If we have another vote there is one steadfast guarantee, it'll be pretty close. Why? Because, currently none of the arguments for it are conclusive.
If it was the right thing to do, there would be a consensus. If we are going to be independent we should be led in to it willingly, knowingly, and because the vast majority of it see it as the right thing to do. If it was the right thing to do others outside of the dispute and independent of the arguments would also be supporting/backing the idea. We don't hear advocates for the idea outside of the SNP support.
I've spent most of my life working in international business. These are inprecedented times. The world economy is on shaky grounds. Geopolitics are so very fragile, (take a moment to read up on the doomsday clock). Debt is completely out of control. Oh and there is this ongoing pandemic ....
There could not be a worse time to consider breaking away from such a longstanding union.
I keep hearing that the English only want Scotland to stay because it is filling the Westminster coffers. It must be, otherwise why are thy so intent on us not leaving.
I'm quite convinced that the only reason that England (Wales and N.Ireland) are happy for us to stay is that the majority of us voted to remain part of the union. And they respect that. Scotland might be paying its way but I've seen nothing that says either that it is a massive drain nor a golden goose for the other countries in the union.
It does seem that the main reason given for independence is that we would be better governing ourselves. Well we've had devolution for a long time and it is difficult to see that we've achieved very much with that. And at the same time we've maintained our 'influence' in Westminster but we've not really done anything veery proactive there either.
Saying 'NO' to everything is the tactic of an adolescent asked to participate in a family gathering. It's not really promoting what might be best for Scotland.
So if 'our' politicians are not unquestionably more able than the others in Westminster it does seem that the rationale for wanting to rely on them is really motivated by that underlying and ever lingering predjudice against the English. We should be better than that.
I see a Yes vote at 51-55% as a catastrophic mess. We would be taking a deeply divided nation along a path that it is ill prepared for. And we would have driven a massive wedge between ourselves and our biggest and longest standing allies (it is not just the English). We should be looking at the current mess created by the Uk leaving the EU and shuddering. We should be watching and realising that this is a lesson that we need to heed.
The borders within the Union have almost no affect on our daily lifes. And currently their main use seems to be to fuel a political argument. It is difficult to see where and how we benefit from a division based on a historical line drawn on the back of a fuedal system thankfully long gone.
After several hundred years, tearing apart the union would be far, far more difficult than what we see between the UK and the EU. Being difficult is not a reason for not doing something, but it might be more prudent to have everyone onboard before considering it.
Wallace arguably lost the battle of Falkirk as the country was not yet united. Bruce won at Bannockburn because we were united.
We need to listen and we need a leadership who's primary concern is to unify us.