I've followed the Independence debate with some interest, and, it must be said, with no little trepidation. It was with some amusement that I watched our party leaders lurch into panic mode towards the end of the campaign, horrified at the prospect that they may actually, and inexplicably, lose the vote. Remarkably, even the evil Daily Mail hailed Gordon Brown as a hero.
For what it's worth, here are my observations on the sorry saga of Scottish Independence.
The democratic process
I'm not sure of the extent of Alec Salmond's negotiating powers, but they are clearly superior to those of our Prime Minister. To allow the terms of the referendum to be so skewed in favour of the nationalists was astonishing. Young people are generally regarded to be more pro-nationalist than oldies, so to allow 16 and 17 year-olds to vote was clearly to the advantage of the SNP. At the beginning of this parliament all the opinion polls showed there was a clear majority against independence, so to have a campaign that was years rather than months or weeks in duration, gave a greater opportunity for the nationalists to change hearts and minds.
Mid-campaign opinion polls are useless. Has anyone else noticed that the opinion polls taken at the beginning of any short political or electoral campaign are, almost without exception, reflective of the result at the end of the campaign? Political election campaigning doesn't actually work, people rarely change their minds in mid-campaign, and the result that is predicted at the beginning will almost always be the actual result at the end.
My own objection to the referendum was that I didn't get a vote. While it may seem absurd that I, living in Essex, should have a vote on the independence of Scotland, I'm just as affected by the result as those north of the border. The referendum was held to decide if Scotland should gain independence from the rest of the UK. It must follow that in the event of a Yes vote, England, Wales and Northern Ireland would have gained independence from Scotland. The political, cultural and economic future of my country would have changed forever, so I'm rather miffed that I was denied any say in the decision. Specifically, losing the Scottish MPs from the Westminster Parliament (all bar one being non-Tory) would probably have inflicted Conservative governments on us for many years to come.
If it ain't broke.....
We are fortunate to live in a remarkably wealthy, stable and peaceful country. There aren't many such countries in the modern world, and we are lucky to live here. To jeopardise that for the sake of nationalist fervour would be madness. It's 2014, and we live in an age of global trade, the world wide web, freedom of movement, and take inter-continental travel for granted. In this age we should be removing borders and barriers, not inventing new ones.
Why vote Yes?
The overriding reason for most Yes votes was simple - a means of freeing Scotland from Tory governments forever. It has to be said, that's really an attractive proposition. Unfortunately, and less attractively, a Yes vote would have inflicted Tory governments on the rest of us, hence my relief at the No vote.
Nationalism is nasty
I've never been comfortable with nationalism. All that flag waving and belting out our dreadful national anthem has never been my thing (I caught a glimpse of the audience at the last night at the proms the other day - "what a bunch of t******" was the thought that entered my head)
From Nationalism to racial prejudice is but a short step. This applies to any form of nationalism, not just the generally benign Scottish version. The core basis of nationalism, hidden by terms such as self-determination and self-rule, is "we don't like those people over there, they aren't the same as us, let's keep away from them, and keep them out". The basis of Scottish nationalism isn't so far from the little-Englander prejudices of the odious UKIP (how a public school educated, ex merchant banker with his nose firmly in the EU expenses trough can be seen as a "man of the people" is beyond me). The nationalists and UKIP may see them themselves at the opposite end of the political spectrum, but they aren't so far apart.
Firmly entrenched within Scottish nationalism is an anti-English prejudice, specifically those "down south" (that's me), as though the us English are the cause of all the woes of Scotland. I've spent, happily, an inordinate amount of time in Scotland over many years, but in the event of a Yes vote I would have undoubtedly felt uncomfortable about visiting that part of our country again.
So, that's it. The Scottish people decisively rejected nationalism, Alec Salmond has retired to spend more time with his jowls, David Cameron is wishing he didn't make promises he doesn't want to keep, plans for border controls at Berwick on Tweed can be scrapped, we are spared the break up of one of the most successful countries on the planet, and we can carry on living in peace and relative harmony.
Until The Peoples Republic of Cornwall gets a referendum on separation........
