If Scotland has any chance of being independent then it’s about time we all put on our adult pants and start looking at the reality of the world our nation will be rebirthed into.
Sure we all have ideals, that in a perfect world there would be no hunger, mega corporations would pay their taxes, renewables would negate the demand for oil and an ageing demographic wasn’t an economic consideration.
However, these are the realities that an independent Scotland would face in its first 20 years. And there will be many more. As such are we really sure that we want to build our independence case on well meaning moral high ground arguments. Or should we use this pre independence period to look at the world and offer the people of Scotland, a vision of a nation that can punch above its weight on the world stage?
There is no problem that Scotland suffers from now that can’t be fixed, or at the very least improved by having the will, along with the political and economic powers. Even the best countries in the world suffer from challenges. The point is they have the powers to address and tackle any challenge that arises. As such most of the challenges suffered in the UK are down to ideological choices made by a right wing government that’s being held hostage to the City of London and corporate donors.
At times I feel that the independence movement is like an eager car salesman. A customer comes in and he is looking for a comfortable, reliable, economical safe car that will provide years of reliable driving pleasure and he likes blue! The car salesman driven by the eagerness of a sale and to meet his end of the month % target decides that the client should buy a new, untested electric vehicle which in theory ticks all the boxes but only comes in red! The salesman thinks the colour is inconsequential, as on paper the red car is superior. Sure it’s new, but the technology hasn’t stood the challenges of real life. The customer can’t afford to buy a vehicle that he needs to get to work in hail, rain and snow only to find that it spends half its time in the garage. And to rub salt back in the wound, the courtesy car they are given is the car he was interested in buying in the first place!
Independence isn’t going to be won on equality, nuclear disarmament and green energy. While these are important topics in their own rights, most likely of these are ideals that require international co-operation. These are not what we should be using to spearhead our independence campaign but be part of the aspirational desires for an independent Scotland.
What we really need, and it is of upmost importance, is a vision for Scotland that will create a state which brings the tools and international standing to tackle these issues in the future. For that to work we need a state built on solid foundations.
In the upcoming fight for independence we are going to face all the might of the unionist establishment and media, who will tell us that we can’t afford or do X, Y & Z. To counter this we need to offer up a solid vision for Scotland that takes a very pragmatic view of our place in the world.
We should be ambitious in our dreams, but be willing to compromise for real achievements. We must realise that day one of independence won’t bring us utopia, but it will be a step closer.
We have all heard that Scotlands population is old (not helped by decades of brain drain and a flood of retirees from rUK) and that it poses a problem for the future of public services. We should be pro actively putting in place a plan to see our population grow. While there is a good chance that independence will see many progressive people from rUK what to move to a Scotland inside the EU, we should be also setting targets to attract people from the EU to make their homes here. Given that Scotland has suffered a drastic suppression of its population inside the Union, a policy to see our population grow by a million people in the first 10 years of independence would be a positive statement in the ambition of our nation . In addition anyone with half a brain cell would see that such a policy kills dead the unionist argument about our nationalism. It’s only the bad type of nationalism is anti immigration and the UK has that in spades.
We also need to be pragmatic when it comes to defence. We will not be able to get rid of trident overnight, it’s impossible. As a responsible nation we know that for rUK to build a secure alternative site will take years. Instead we should agree to a lease of Faslane for 5 years and the money should be used to offset the costs of setting up our own defence tailored to our defence needs. Based on the current political climate we are going to be threatened by unionists of attacks from Russia. We should point out that the biggest threat comes from conventional missile and aircraft attacks and as such our priority should be a missile air defence system. Wasting a limited budget on some end of the world mega weapon actually degrades the budgets of other branches of the armed services. There is no reason why we can’t also make a mutual defence agreement with rUK and Ireland where we participate in the joint defence planning but are not required to take part in any military adventures the rUK often like to embark on.
Then there’s Scotlands curse. O I L! We have it, we haven’t really benefited from it, as we have been distracted ridiculed and robbed. However it isn’t going away, it’s the one resource that wars are still being fought over and we are not talking about wars for instant realisation. We are taking about 20-30 years of reserves still to be developed. So why are we not putting a plan in place to offer the EU priority access to this resource? They are going to need it from somewhere and Germany will buy it from any another country to reduce its reliance on Russia. Why shouldn’t Scotland profit? We should be offering to build a pipeline from the Western Atlantic and North Sea to the coast of Germany as soon as we are independent.
Independence can only happen if the Scots vote for it and to do that we need to present them with a vision of Scotland that they feel comfortable with, one where they can see the opportunities and not fear the risks. The independence argument will be won on economic and job security. To days that we need to take a pragmatic and sober look at the world we want to join.
Noises Fae The Heid 