Comment on Council removes almost 1,000 flags from Derby streets
Zombie@feddit.uk 1 day agoHolyrood doesn’t get additional money though. That’s my point. Barnett is a scam. Even the BBC’s ex Economics Editor, Stephanie Flanders, concluded that Scotland breaks even. That’s somebody who is staunchly against independence and had a high level position in an organisation which was proven to have had an anti-independence bias.
If that’s her analysis, with all of her biases, what do you think the reality is? What do you think the situation is now, now that we’re 12 years on from then, with advancements in renewables and Scotland’s geography being incredibly good for wind, tidal, and hydro power? With water becoming a scarcer and scarcer resource, and Loch Ness alone holding more water than England and Wales’ rivers and lakes combined?
The line has been drawn for as long as anybody who is alive has known. Scotland, England, and Wales have had well defined borders for quite some time. If the north of England wishes to join a Scottish independence movement then fair enough, but they’ve made no real manoeuvres for such a move.
What if Aberdeen declares independence? What if East Kilbride declares independence? You’re getting into silly reductionism now. Holyrood has always argued it’s a matter of self determination and has no military means with which to force any regions, so what do you think would happen? Do you think John Swinney will ride into Fraserburgh on a tank while Russell Findlay fires artillery at him? Or do you think a proportionally representative parliament would hash something out? Holyrood, being proportional, doesn’t have the issue of a tyranny of the majority.
hellothere@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
To an extent, but, it’s only silly because of where you draw the line compared to where someone else might.
Going back to the ref results, the borders in general had some of the highest No votes. Border psychology is a fascinating thing, and what you usually see in countries with adversarial relationships is an increasing level of self-identification and expressed difference, rather than less. People in Hawick not wanting to lynch every bastard from Otterburn is - internationally speaking - a rarity.
I guess my point overall is that Westminster absolutely need reform, FPTP needs to be fucked off, as do the Lords, and we need to move to a much more federalist system with substantial devolution. A Union of Equals would also mean that English regions get the same levels of devolution, and if we did that on population there would be 10 of those, plus Wales and NI.
But I think we also need to seriously pay attention to the lessons we’ve learnt from Brexit. Barriers to trade are a fucking nightmare. As are trade negotiations. The majority of Scotland’s total trade is to rUK, much like how the UK’s trade was to EU. In a dynamic where you’re the smaller market exporting to a larger market, you’re in a weaker negotiating position. Political, maybe spiteful, reasons give the other block reasons to drag their feet. Disentangling laws over 50 years take forever, 400 even more so.
I sincerely don’t believe that independence meaningfully improves Scotland’s position or abilities in the world. Let’s assume an independent Scotland is allowed to immediately rejoin the EU, by pretty much any measure it would be in the middle of the pack, around the same position as Slovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary, that sorta thing.
Have a look at EU policy, what is decided, even with a more (but still pretty bad) proportional system, where money is spent, who has the most influence, etc, and I don’t see how that would be a meaningful improvement.
But that’s just where I draw my particular line - give me a federal UK within a federal EU, and I’d be content.