TODAY BEGINS THE START OF the Scottish Nationalist Party’s (SNP) referendum campaign for Scottish independence which could, may, or might be held in 2014.
Alex Salmond the SNP leader will, according to Simon Johnson of the Daily Telegraph, ‘…be joined in Edinburgh this morning by celebrities and the leaders of minor left-wing parties to formally start his bid to end the 305-year-old Union between England and Scotland.’
Alex Salmond’s announcement comes however as a YouGov poll published by the former chancellor Alistair Darling, which shows that 57 per cent of Scottish voters opposes independence, compared to 33 per cent who said they would vote for.
It is not an auspicious way to herald the venture, and Mr Darling must have chosen his release to do the maximum damage to an imbecilic notion of independence at a time when all the nations of Europe are embarking upon a journey which will bring an end to the nation state. Under such a dark cloud, Scottish, English, Irish and Welsh nationalism are all meaningless - as for independence, ditto, and for the same reason.
If the poll proves correct, then the Scottish people can readily see that which Alex Salmond fails to. ‘Scottish independence’ is an oxymoron at this time in European history. No nation will remain a nation, either independent or safe.
According to Simon Johnson, Salmond will be joined by celebrities (e.g. Sir Sean Connery) as well as the leaders from ‘minor left-wing parties’. Like the minor left-wing parties, the SNP has outlived its purpose; for both socialism and notions of nationalism are now passé as far as modern history and Europe are concerned. Socialism still thrives within Europe, but it does so by going against the grain of history, resulting in the mishandling of the eurozone.
THE SCOTTISH people, unlike the parade of celebrities at today’s Edinburgh ‘event’, know on which side their bread is buttered. If Salmond was serious, he would be telling the Scottish people to vote UKIP. By doing so Scotland, as well as the other nations within the UK would be given an in/out referendum on Europe. The UKIP route is the only route that Salmond and people like him can take, if they wish to see an independent Scotland, as Scottish nationalists.
As things stand at the moment, Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Wales, are all facing canton status within a United States of Europe. Scotland can only have a credible independence from England if the people, including Alex Salmond, vote out in a referendum. Otherwise the SNP is behaving fraudulently by leading the Scottish people into believing in Scottish independence – for all they will be doing is swapping what Salmond believes to be one master (England), for another (Europe).
On the very day the UK joined the European Union, when we were told that it would only ever be a trading alliance, a United States of Europe was always meant to mark the end of the journey. It was the ambition that dare not speak its name – especially by generations of Eurosyphilis UK politicians.
I believe that we will not see a referendum for Scottish independence because, firstly, Alex Salmond will not, in the end call one because of the sane opinion of the Scottish people toward such an arrangement will remain. Lastly, he, as well as the Scottish people, will, by 2014, when such referendum may or might be held, both realise that Scottish independence will have become obsolete as far as any true meaning of the expression is concerned.
THE 305-YEAR HISTORY of Scotland’s union with England has brought many benefits to both peoples. We in England have always profited from the vital Scottish contribution to British culture. For all our put-downs of each other, we have built an empire together and been the midwives of an industrial revolution that put science in the forefront of our civilisation. We have, between us, helped rescue a European continent from Nazi barbarity and in doing so helped free the whole continent of Europe.
Scotland has seeded more than its fare share of world-wide respected scientists, novelists, economists and philosophers; as well as exported through migration many entrepreneurs who have succeeded in foreign lands. Indeed, considering its demographic paucity, Scotland has proven itself to have been a marvel in the aid to building civilisations, in whatever part of the world their citizens found themselves.
I could have written a whole piece on Scotland’s impact on world-wide civilisation. But, in terms of Scotland’s population, its contribution has been, if not superior to England’s, then equal to it. England has, however, been responsible for many bitter memories among the Scots.
What Alex Salmond wishes to resurrect is the ancient antagonisms that go far back to William Wallace in the 13th century. This is where the ancient resentment begins for a Scottish nationalist and may explain their ignorance of the world in which Salmond, as a Scottish nationalist, now lives.
Hollywood’s treatment of William Wallace, played by Mel Gibson, must have seemed like a gift from heaven to Alex Salmond. But it is a shame that he prefers Wallace’s medieval ambition for Scotland to the modern world’s dichotomy, which would either makes his nation redundant through Europeanization, or able to cling to its union with England and defend itself from such mediocrity as being a canton of Europe.
The UK must stand together as a whole against its Europeanization into becoming a mere canton that threatens all nations within the UK. It is not Scottish independence that is important; simply because it would be taken from them by Europe.
If Scottish Nationalism wishes to breath freely of its many desires for its nation’s future; then Salmond must secure Scotland’s release from Europeanization. If he fails in such an ambition then Scottish Nationalism would become a prisoner tied in far more weighty shackles than they ever felt they had under the union with England.
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