The Scottish First Minister is calling for another vote on Independence, because Brexit. Why it seems only three years ago, because it was, that the cause of Independence was rejected by the Scottish voters. The Scots dodged a bullet that time. This time I hope the English dodge a bullet, and the Scots march off playing Scotland the Brave. As in 2014, here are my reasons for supporting Scottish independence:
Well, the Scottish independence referendum is up for a vote on September 18. I suspect that if the referendum supports independence that such a move will be an economic disaster for Scotland, combined with a socialist government whose economic forecasts seem to owe just as much to Groucho, Harpo and Chico as they do Karl. Having said that I am all in favor of Scottish independence. Why?
Depriving Labour of 63 Scottish MPs would probably ensure Tory government in England for the foreseeable future and that would be good for the US both in foreign policy and trade.
Socialists are completely dominant in Scotland and probably will be until they have total power to cause the type of disasters that socialists routinely bring about when they govern unchecked.
Scotland has bred since World War II generations who believe that a socialist utopia can exist in Scotland if it were not for malevolent forces south of the border preventing the building of paradise. They view Mel Gibson’s Braveheart flick as a documentary. Time to put this myth to a test. Vote Yes for Scottish independence if you have the misfortune to currently reside in the land of some of my ancestors.
Almost exactly the same reasoning supports the desire of California to secede, and, like the Scots, I hope they do it.
The Scottish National Party is better described as ‘Peronist’ rather than socialist. Scotland’s total population, output, and key city are of dimensions adequate to the formation of a fully sovereign nation-state. Separating from the UK would likely have some frictional costs. Economic trouble would derive from bad policy, not from separation per se.
Particularist sentiment one can understand. The Scots Natoinalist variant bellyaches about Westminster but is avid about Brussels, so it has the property of being completely unserious. If my own exchanges with Scots Nationalists are representative of the breed, the whole mess is derived from a mixture of vanity and spite. The rest of the UK may at this juncture be pleased to be free of Scotland in order to substantially reduce the population of jerks in the kingdom.
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“Depriving Labour of 63 Scottish MPs”
The SNP managed that quite well on its own. After the 2015 general election, when the number of Scottish seats had been reduced to 59, the results, on the first past the post system were
Conservative & Unionist 1
Labour 1
Liberal Democrats 1
SNP 56
At the 2016 elections for the Scottish Parliament, on a system of proportional representation, the results were
Conservative & Unionist 31
Labour 24
Liberal Democrats 5
Scottish Greens 6
SNP 63
making the Conservative & Unionist party the 2nd largest party at Holyrood.
I view Scottish Labour and the SNP as virtually indistinguishable except on the key issue of Scottish Independence. If SNP seats would make the difference after a general election I think they would form a coalition government with Labour. I make no prediction as to how stable or long lived such a coalition would prove.
Donald R McClarey wrote, “I view Scottish Labour and the SNP as virtually indistinguishable…”
Oh! Please.
The cloth cap and the working class
As images are dated.
Now that Labour’s gone avant-garde
Is highly educated
By tax adjustments, they have planned
To institute the promised land.
And just show that they’re still sincere,
We sing the Red Flag once a year.
Firm principles and policies
Are open to objections,
And a streamlined party image is
The way to win elections.
So raise the neat umbrellas high,
The mobile phone and college tie.
We stand united, raise a cheer
And sing the Red Flag once a year.
Labour and SNP MPS seem to be in a competition to which can be more socialist than thou for the besotted Scottish electorate. To the extent that some of their party hacks do not believe the economic rubbish they preach, I applaud them for their sanity and condemn them for their mendacity.
We stand united, raise a cheer
And sing the Red Flag once a year.
The party membership stuck Jeremy Corbyn in the leadership chair. In more than 30 years in the House of Commons, no Labour Party leader has seen fit to entrust him with any responsibility at all. His occupation prior to entering politics was a slot on the staff of some trade union (which did not include anything challenging like handling member grievances). He’s also a slacker. Since 1935, British Labour leaders have generally not grown up in the wage-earner stratum (Neil Kinnock and James Callaghan the exceptions), but Corbyn is nearly unique for having an haut bourgeois upbrininging, a pair of brothers who are extensively educated, and no tertiary schooling himself (due to wretched examination results in late adolescence). He’s also an anti-semite of the contemporary sort. So, having unexpectedly lost an election, the Labour membership’s brilliant idea is to put their party under the direction of a red haze lunkhead who has never in his life had work with robust operational measures of competence.