The BIG topic... for me, that is. Apologies for a serious post but deal with it.
My friends and colleagues in the country in which I live will no doubt largely not understand or give a damn about next month's vote. I find it increasingly frustrating that I don't get a vote (but I can think of friends who're much more entitles to feel that way than myself!) when it is THAT important. Why? It's not that I hate England. My kids are, after all, half-English and I've lived here for decades. It just feels like an abusive relationship between Westminster and the rest of Britain and (if I must keep to the analogy) Scotland, a previously independent entity, could break out and be just like the rest of its European neighbours. Sorry we'd have to leave the rest of you to deal with it as best you can, but maybe the London/SE bubble might burst or maybe Westminster will still blame it on immigrants or whatever...
So, here's the question:
Imagine for a moment that we currently lived in a small, reasonably well-off independent Scotland. Not the world's most prosperous place, but reasonably well run, reasonably humane, pretty dull all round. And a referendum was held to ask if you wanted to join with the country next door.
One that had a habit of getting involved in unpleasant wars in foreigh countries. One where they still had people in parliament because they were high-ranking members of the state religion, or because they'd inherited the right. One which had recently turned down the chance for voting reform. One which held trials where the defendants (and their lawyers) were not allowed to see the evidence against them. One which had the third-longest working hours in the OECD, the fourth-poorest pensioners in Europe, spends three times more on childcare than the European average, and is in the top 25% of unequal countries in Europe.
Would you be leaping at the chance to join this country? Or would you be rather happy to be independent?
Take the time to read this from http://bellacaledonia.org.uk/
The social attitudes of Scots, and the policies of the Scottish Parliament, are pretty much standard for a European country. Scotland isn’t the exception, it’s the rule. The thing that’s weird isn’t even England. Most English people are against privatisation, and though there is a small difference in attitudes towards social security, it’s nothing that won’t change over the years.
No, the thing that’s an outlier is Britain. As the Radical Independence Campaign has pointed out, it’s Britain that is the fourth most unequal developed country on earth, in which pay has in recent years fallen faster than in all but three EU countries, in which people work the third longest hours in Europe for the second lowest wages in the OECD despite having Europe’s third highest housing costs, highest train fares and the second worst levels of fuel poverty.
It’s Britain which has the least happy children in the developed world, the highest infant mortality rate in Western Europe and some of the worst child poverty in the industrialised world. It’s British elderly people who are the fourth poorest pensioners in the EU. It’s Britain which has the eighth biggest gender pay gap in Europe and child care costs much higher than most European countries.
It’s Britain which has a wealth gap twice as wide as any other EU country, Europe’s greatest regional inequality, productivity 16% behind the average for advanced economies and the worst record on industrial production of the rich world. It’s Britain whose elite has a radical ideology: 40% of the total value of all privatisations in the Western world between 1980 and 1996 happened in the UK; and it’s Britain’s parliament which is uniquely undemocratic, with its noxious combination of first past the post and an unelected second chamber, yet holds more centralised power than almost any other legislature in the developed world. With all that, it should be no surprise that Britain has the lowest level of trust in our politicians.
Most people in the South East of England never seem to understand this. Caught in the headlights of post imperial UK nationalism, the idea that “Britain is Great” pervades. We (I live in the South East at the moment) cling with white fisted knuckles to the notion that Britannia rules, unwilling to let go of our imperial past for fear that we might find we are just another European country. It’s a myth which works much more in England, and which helps explain differences in the tendency to believe immigrant scapegoating North and South of the border “if Britain is uniquely great” people infer “it can’t be the system that’s to blame, it must be outsiders”.
So, here's the question:
Imagine for a moment that we currently lived in a small, reasonably well-off independent Scotland. Not the world's most prosperous place, but reasonably well run, reasonably humane, pretty dull all round. And a referendum was held to ask if you wanted to join with the country next door.
One that had a habit of getting involved in unpleasant wars in foreigh countries. One where they still had people in parliament because they were high-ranking members of the state religion, or because they'd inherited the right. One which had recently turned down the chance for voting reform. One which held trials where the defendants (and their lawyers) were not allowed to see the evidence against them. One which had the third-longest working hours in the OECD, the fourth-poorest pensioners in Europe, spends three times more on childcare than the European average, and is in the top 25% of unequal countries in Europe.
Would you be leaping at the chance to join this country? Or would you be rather happy to be independent?
Take the time to read this from http://bellacaledonia.org.uk/
The social attitudes of Scots, and the policies of the Scottish Parliament, are pretty much standard for a European country. Scotland isn’t the exception, it’s the rule. The thing that’s weird isn’t even England. Most English people are against privatisation, and though there is a small difference in attitudes towards social security, it’s nothing that won’t change over the years.
No, the thing that’s an outlier is Britain. As the Radical Independence Campaign has pointed out, it’s Britain that is the fourth most unequal developed country on earth, in which pay has in recent years fallen faster than in all but three EU countries, in which people work the third longest hours in Europe for the second lowest wages in the OECD despite having Europe’s third highest housing costs, highest train fares and the second worst levels of fuel poverty.
It’s Britain which has the least happy children in the developed world, the highest infant mortality rate in Western Europe and some of the worst child poverty in the industrialised world. It’s British elderly people who are the fourth poorest pensioners in the EU. It’s Britain which has the eighth biggest gender pay gap in Europe and child care costs much higher than most European countries.
It’s Britain which has a wealth gap twice as wide as any other EU country, Europe’s greatest regional inequality, productivity 16% behind the average for advanced economies and the worst record on industrial production of the rich world. It’s Britain whose elite has a radical ideology: 40% of the total value of all privatisations in the Western world between 1980 and 1996 happened in the UK; and it’s Britain’s parliament which is uniquely undemocratic, with its noxious combination of first past the post and an unelected second chamber, yet holds more centralised power than almost any other legislature in the developed world. With all that, it should be no surprise that Britain has the lowest level of trust in our politicians.
Most people in the South East of England never seem to understand this. Caught in the headlights of post imperial UK nationalism, the idea that “Britain is Great” pervades. We (I live in the South East at the moment) cling with white fisted knuckles to the notion that Britannia rules, unwilling to let go of our imperial past for fear that we might find we are just another European country. It’s a myth which works much more in England, and which helps explain differences in the tendency to believe immigrant scapegoating North and South of the border “if Britain is uniquely great” people infer “it can’t be the system that’s to blame, it must be outsiders”.