Independence - The Yes/No Interlude

I recently wrote and recorded a song called "Country of the Blind".  It comes as near as I will ever come to writing an anthem in favour of Scots Independence. I have put it on Reverbnation, You Tube  and Facebook and played it live more than once and, while response has been favourable, it hasn't prompted any comment about the subject matter or any argument and, given the current state of play in the media and the slugfest about voting Yes or No in the coming referendum, that surprised me.  One possible reason that suggests itself to me is that people don't know that's what it is about.  I have never subscribed to the "War is Stupid" or "Give Ireland back to the Irish" style of songwriting. For me the direct approach works well in speech but not in poetry and song.  Anyway, here is the lyric in full and you can judge for yourself whether it is clear or obscure, after which I will make a few observations on why I have come to this political position.

The Country of The Blind

Sun is hot and the day is golden,

Dublin Street is all aglow.

Eyes are closed on the crowded pavement,

Cause no-one wants to know.

Nothing moves in the townhouse windows,

Not one flicker of the blinds,

Mindless cars jam up this city,

In the country of the blind.

Moon shines cold in the frosty evening

Stars are burning in the sky. 

Empty street and boarded shopfronts,

Disappointment in your eyes.

You grew up with a chance of living,

One day it would be your time,

Those who ruled would not prove faithless,

In the country of the blind.

We are here with a glimpse of freedom,

Or we can turn and walk away,

But if you're weak or sick or hungry,

You know they'll make you pay.

Raised to feel like second-best,

Taught that thinking was a crime,

Worked to subsidise the rich,

In the country of the blind.

I grew up with the same illusions,

Just like everybody else.

Waved the flag and I took my medicine,

And learned to hate myself.

Now I've seen the simple truth

I will no longer walk that line,

Hoping that it's not too late,

In the country of the blind.

First of all, I have never in my life voted for the Scottish National Party.   In the last verse of my song I am 9 years old and waving a wee Union Jack at the Queen and Philip as they drive through Kinglassie. (I can only wonder at what they made of the raggedy-arsed crowd cheering them as they passed.)  For most of my life I have written "British" on forms asking for my nationality and I have always found lyrics like "Caledonia's been everything I ever had" embarrassing. I do not walk around thinking I am from "Caledonia" and it's been "everything I ever had".  So why would I say it in a song?

So what has brought me to the decision I have made - and why is it important to me? There is no way that I can put my reasons in an order of importance - it is more complicated than that so please bear with me.  First of all, the Labour Party, which has had my vote for most of my life, no longer exists as a left-wing party. It is not worth constructing an argument in defence of this statement as it is self-evident. When the leader of the Labour Party in Scotland describes free prescriptions and universal child benefit as "something for nothing", unconsciously, or perhaps consciously, echoing Mrs Thatcher; when the Parliamentary Labour Party abstains on the Workfare Bill (slavery by another name) and Miliband and the shadow cabinet are desperately espousing austerity and accepting the rhetoric that describes anyone on benefits as a scrounger; when no-one in mainstream British politics is prepared to challenge the assertion that immigrants are to blame for our economic problems, it is time to accept that there is no real opposition.  Yet there is only one Conservative MP in Scotland and no such consensus here - so who speaks for me? Not the Labour Party.

Secondly, the real contempt that has been shown for Scotland and ordinary Scottish people by the "Better Together" campaign beggars belief.  Despite a fairly high profile and many assertions in the media, they have only two strategies: 

Appeal to Selfishness - Independence will cause you to lose influence/importance/a say in world affairs/we (English People) won't like you any more/we (English People) will stop subsidising you.  When it is Scottish people who are  delivering the message they couch it in more acceptable terms but the message is the same - you will be out of the club.

Fear - and this is the big one - Your pension might come from another country and maybe they won't give it to you any more (those bad untrustworthy foreigners).  The oil might dry up - then where will you be? What if there is another Recession? How will you cope without England to protect you?  We won't let you use the pound as we were only pretending that it was a shared currency - it was really English all along!  You won't get into the EU! You might have to stay in the EU! Your bank account/mortgage/credit card might be from a foreign country (their words, not mine) maybe that will cause problems for you...

I could go on, as there are lots of stupid scare stories going the rounds, but most of them are so genuinely fatuous that it's not really worth it.  Losing influence is one of the most ironic threats of all. We couldn't have less influence on anything than we have right now.  When England decides whether the EU is a good/bad thing in Cameron's referendum, make no mistake, England will decide - not Scotland/ Wales/ Northern Ireland.  Recently in the ridiculous currency debacle, one of the threats made was that Scotland would not have  as much influence over economic matters if they used the pound (which, after all is England's property). What will we do after losing all that influence that we never had anyway? And all the foreign country nonsense? At the moment my mortgage is with Santander (the clue is in the name) and most people don't know geographically where their credit comes from - but here is a clue. It's probably already a "foreign country".  In a way I am quite annoyed that I am spending time on such plainly spurious nonsense - but people are susceptible to scare stories and the media (in my view a national disgrace) know that.

The other dimension to the Fear argument is uncertainty and here I am going to quote an online source as he has put the point very succinctly. This is from a Facebook page called The Point:

Aided by a gullible and sympathetic media it’s easy to get results. Simply challenge the SNP, or Yes Scotland, to come up with ‘detail’ on how an independent Scotland would work on a range of issues; in relation to Europe, currency, borders, international treaties and so on. Even when a perfectly reasonable position is laid out by Yes campaigners, they then claim ‘uncertainty’ or that ‘the SNP have no answers’. This is an utterly dishonest position because they know damn fine that the ‘detail’ of all of those things would have to be worked out in a process of negotiation between all parties concerned after a pro-independence vote. Calls from academics, independent groups, and think tanks for the UK government and the Scottish government to come together and thrash out a programme for transition to an independent state have fallen on deaf ears as far as the unionist side are concerned. The UK government say they will not pre-negotiate independence. From their point of view that would remove the very ‘uncertainty’ they are trying to create to frighten voters.

Uncertainty is the natural position of human beings, countries and political parties.  If there is a Yes vote, there will be decisions, changes and elections. If there is a No vote these things will still happen but you and I will not really be involved.  We will be in or out of the EU depending on how many people in Middle England are reading the Mail. The British Government cannot tell you whether you will better or worse off in the Union three years from now. No-one can. They can tell you what their plans are (and they make my blood run cold as it is) but they don't know how it will pan out.  The rhetoric also manages to imply that, if there is a Yes vote, the oil will run out but, if there is a No vote, it will last forever. How is that for arrogance?  What have they done with the oil money so far? They didn't spend it in Cowdenbeath or Kinglasssie or Shotts or Lerwick or Tullibody or Motherwell - I know that.  Oil, as a resource ,  is a big one and Westminster don't want to lose it.  That is why Osborne could even be bothered to come up here and try to intimidate voters with the rubbish he spouted (with no authority) about the pound.

Finally, I stated near the beginning that I have never voted SNP.  I am not easily roused to political writing and I have never been given to singing anthems and romanticising William Wallace but, as a Scottish born adult, my intelligence has been insulted, my friends and countrymen abused and my patience exhausted by the tirade of idiocy that politicians and the tabloid press have heaped on us.  Right now I feel that I am being ruled by the Daily Mail and that there is no desire for a real debate on this subject - just more condescension and threats that lack substance.

An Independent Scotland will not be perfect but it will be better, much better ,  than this.  I am not , as I said before, a nationalist by inclination but I pray that I do not have to spend the rest of my life being patronised by people like Cameron, Clegg and Miliband.  We are better than that.