Friday 17th February

As usual, in this complicated world, things are not always as they seem.  What appears straightforward is often a blind alley, or a false trail, to deceive us from the real objective.  And I believe that Alex Salmond is doing just that with his famous devolution referendum.  Scotland has been part of a United Kingdom for four hundred years, more or less, and that while I would agree that for the most part this was a conquest in all but name, things are so equal now as to make no difference.  The argument that decisions are taken in London is the same for people in Cornwall as in Kirkcaldy, or even Essex or Hertfordshire come to that; in fact the Scots with their own parliament have far more control over their own destinies than people living in Hull or Newcastle say.  And apart from a very small percentage there is no great sentiment for independence amongst the Scottish people. And on the surface if Alec Salmond campaigns for a yes vote which is rejected he will be in a difficult place politically, after all the Scottish Nationalists whole raison d’etre is for Scotland to be independent, or is it?  If Scotland were a completely separate country who would the ScotNats (and all the other parties come to that) be able to blame for any perceived or real failure of Scotland, compared to England say.  Isn’t the fact that Westminster decides all the really big questions actually very convenient for any Scottish politician?

Apart from all the questions of ownership of infrastructure, armed forces, or resources like the National Grid, the big question would be over the currency.  Surely Scotland would have to have its own currency, and not just those pretty banknotes so distrusted south of the border, but a fully fledged separate currency.  Because if they were independent they would be in charge of fiscal policy, and can you imagine the opportunities for crooked businessmen, let alone smugglers large and small if there were different VAT rates.  And who would rescue Scotland. If like Iceland, it came unstuck.  I don’t really think that Mr. Salmond wants to be completely independent; what he really wants is Devo-Max, that is; the most power that can possibly be exercised in Edinburgh without severing the vital ties of Sovereignty and overall wealth that being a part of the UK brings with it.

Anyway, we will see: the ScotNats are quite uncharacteristically delaying the vote for some time.  If they do succeed in having a third option on the ballot paper it would be very unlikely for any of the three to gain more than 50% of any vote, so again it would only be an opinion poll, and hardly legally binding.  Come to that why should not everyone in the United Kingdom be voting, surely we in England deserve a say in whether we actually want Scotland to be part of us.  Of course, that won’t happen, as there would be a strong possibility of us saying, “Okay, if that’s what you want – Goodbye.”