Circle your calendars and pencil your diaries. Now we know. The independence referendum shall take place on Thursday September 18th 2014.
This changes nothing of course and yet it changes everything, for both sides. It’s real, it’s on, be galvanised or go home.
With every passing milestone I must admit I am more and more eager for this to be a Yes victory. Long gone are the days of watching this constitutional debate unfold clothed in the comfort blanket of ambivalence.
There may be nothing like the zeal of the converted but there is simply no shaking the sense that the country I want to live in would more likely evolve from an independent Scotland than from an enduring United Kingdom.
Good luck to England, Wales and Northern Ireland, but taking our place alongside the Denmarks, the Swedens, the Irelands and the Norways has a dizzying appeal that is too exciting not to grasp.
Genuine equality, combatting poverty and the way we treat our elderly are just a few areas ripe for reappraisal, by all Scottish political parties, if we can just wipe the slate clean and put into place easily imagined Scottish solutions for Scotland’s problems.
Higher taxes in return for a higher quality of life and a more selfless society is my particular vision, I’m willing to take my chances with my Yes vote that that is what we’d get in the near future too.
It’s a narrower view than considering matters in a British context but that doesn’t make it narrow-minded. The negotiations after a Yes win won’t be pretty but that wouldn’t make them petty.
Even the debate over whether we’d be richer or poorer after the ‘divorce’ from the UK misses the point. It’s who you want to fight for, what culture you want to bring your kids up in and who you want to get out of bed and contribute your little bit of GDP to that matters.
Like so much in life, Sept 18th will no doubt come down to who wants it the most. Only 546 days to find who that will be, but I’m backing blue.
#1 by Douglas McLellan on March 21, 2013 - 3:19 pm
Apart from the default to higher taxes you propose I agree with you. I would prefer an open, transparent and much simpler tax & spend system before being able to tell if higher taxes across the board are needed.
#2 by Iain Menzies on March 21, 2013 - 5:33 pm
Are the votes gonna be counted on the thrusday night? or do we not know that yet?
#3 by Jeff on March 21, 2013 - 8:49 pm
Very good question. I don’t know.
#4 by Jeremy on March 21, 2013 - 8:34 pm
I’m afraid I just feel really depressed that it has come to this — as an Englishman who has lived in Scotland for over 30 years, loves both nations and considers Scotland his home, and as someone who also loves being a modern, multicultural (not some cartoon-imperialist) Briton, comfortable with having multiple identities and having a means of expressing those identities politically — and building for a better tomorrow across the UK. I think it is very, very important for some of the more enthusiastic cheerleaders for independence to acknowledge that there will be something valuable lost as well as (possibly) gained.
#5 by Jeff on March 21, 2013 - 8:52 pm
Fine comment Jeremy. I admit a victory would be tinged with sadness, but there are very, very few choices in life that are clear cut. Independence is, for many voting Yes, a preference that is ‘on balance’. For me, that balance isn’t close enough for it to be a tough call though.
#6 by Alex Grant on March 21, 2013 - 8:42 pm
Jeremy I think you are wrong. Nothing valuable will be lost. Everything about the ‘Union’ will be retained except the democratic deficit we have always had with Westminster and the hegemony of London’s priorities? Is that a real loss?
I don’t think so
#7 by Jeremy on March 21, 2013 - 9:18 pm
Sorry, Alex — who are “we”? Despite the frequent elisions, England isn’t just London/Westminster, you know (that’s why I’m an enthusiast for devolution, and not just in Scotland). I won’t be able to express myself politically any more in the way that I can do now. For me that is a loss; and I’m depressed about that.
#8 by J on March 22, 2013 - 8:27 am
Alex all the Scots would be doing is replacing one democratic deficit with another. Holyrood is rooted to the central belt and the focus of the policies/support/energy generally ends up there. So north of Stirling ends up with the hegemony of the Edinburgh/Glasgow based parties. The Scottish government has made many promises to those of us north of Fife but failed to deliver on them … and this deficit gets worse the further you go from Edinburgh
#9 by JPJ2 on March 22, 2013 - 5:17 pm
J
There is one major difference. Scotland uses a PR system which means that it is impossible to drown the views of minorities in the way that Westminster does.
#10 by wangi on March 22, 2013 - 10:13 pm
“north of Stirling ends up with the hegemony of the Edinburgh/Glasgow based parties” — really? You’d say the SNP are central belt?
#11 by Ben Achie on March 22, 2013 - 11:06 am
The SNP’s traditional heartland is NE Scotland, and they are, at long last, delivering the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route. The Lib-Dems had some influence in coallition at Holyrood which reflected their strength in the Northern Isles and the Borders. So I would suggest any assumptions, J, that an independent Scotland would be Central Belt dominated are misplaced given the evidence from devolution.
What does concern me a bit though is that legislation designed for the worst cases is being applied Scotland-wide, e.g. licensing requirements for remote community pubs in the Highlands and islands which may be becessary in some urban areas is totally over the top, and some aspects of the Building Regulations are hopelessly inapplicable too.
The SNP gov did remove almost all ring fencing from Holyrood, though, for councils, which always was control freakery.
It’s maybe worth bearing in mind that we will have a Holyrood election 18 months after the indyref, and if independence wins there should be a gale blowing through Holyrood, which cannot be a bad thing.
I welcome a wind of change!
#12 by Neilyn on March 22, 2013 - 2:18 pm
Can Wales come with you please?
Alba gu bràth!