Scotland’s referendum – an important new tack on Bitter Together

Since launching my blog I have been pleased to see the readership grow and I get great feedback mainly through Twitter.  However, as I am learning and growing I have to face a horrible truth.

Up until now I have courted opinion from like minded Scots and I am pleased with my progress and feedback. Nevertheless, my passion and that of many Scots is not to find reassurance for my views but to secure a Yes vote.

This can only be achieved by reaching out to the No voters and especially to the Don’t Knows and the Don’t Cares. Of course I will continue to challenge and take the p*ss out of the No campaigners but I, and we, must sell our arguments to the NosandDonts.

The most basic argument is on outcome.  Scotland’s referendum has 4 possible outcomes.

1.  There is a Yes vote of 51% of the electorate or above.  This means Scotland becomes an independent country representing the majority of the electorate.

2.  There is a Yes vote with 50% or less of the electorate.  This means that Scotland becomes an independent country without the majority of the electorate.  This includes the No voters and the ‘don’t care’ non voters.  This means that the No voters and the ‘don’t care’ lot are either divided or in the majority with no representation.

3.  There is a No vote of 51% of the electorate or above.  This means Scotland remains a part of the UK which is the view held by the majority of the electorate.

4.  There is a No vote with 50% or less of the electorate.  This means that Scotland remains a part of the UK without a majority of the electorate.  Effectively, the Yes voters and the ‘don’t care’ lot are either divided or in the majority but with no representation.

I would love option 1 but option 2 would be acceptable.

I would accept option 3 but option 4 would be an absolute disgrace and a shame on Scotland for our lifetime and that of our children and their children. The rest of the world would see Scotland as a country where the majority of people either wanted to be ruled by those they did not vote for or basically couldn’t care less.

Think about the numbers.  Scotland simply does not have enough MPs in Westminster to have any affect whatsoever – and we never have had!

If Westminster returns a Tory government or a coalition that involves the Liberals we will not only be ruled by people we didn’t vote for – we would be ruled by people we vehemently oppose!

The Westminster parties are trying to sway us with promises of more powers, more money … more jam, tomorrow.  Is there any incentive for them to deliver.  Could they even deliver?

For example, we have a Liberal Scottish Secretary, Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Business Secretary.  They have made promises for a Scotland that rejects Independence.  Are we ever going to see the Liberals in power in the UK again?  They couldn’t even deliver on their promise to students let alone a nation?  They are politically finished.  Even their leader, Nick Clegg, got humiliatingly demolished by Nigel Farage, the UKIP leader.  If there was another coalition in the UK it is more likely to involve UKIP than Liberals.

How about the Tories?  After a No vote of any sort, we have just given them a mandate to continue to suck our resources dry and use us as a dumping ground or test bed for their bizarre social policies.  Why would any party anywhere in the world look out for a people who reject them?  If Scotland was a 3rd world country we would probably get ethnic cleansed – don’t laugh! we already had the ‘highland clearances’.

And, if the Tories are returned and the English referendum on the EU (because the rest of us are statistically insignificant) pulls us out of Europe then the Tories, our Lords and Masters just become bigger fish in an even smaller pond – that’s what a No vote gets us!

How about Labour?  We now know that the Scottish vote has not influenced any UK election since 1945 – including the Blair, Brown years.  We can see already from the attitude of Scottish Labour that they all aspire to Westminster.  Has a single Labour politician come forward and said anything about a Labour party within an Independent Scotland.  NO, NO, NO.  They have not because this New Labour are not in any way interested in Scotland other than as a springboard for their Westminster career aspirations.

Consider this about Labour in Scotland.  Various polls have suggested that Yes is trailing behind but gaining week on week and may now be neck and neck with 5 months still to go.  Nobody can doubt that this will be close and that a Yes vote is a real and serious possibility. In business, whether you are a one man band or a global corporation you must plan ahead for possible future events.  A Yes vote is well within the scope of a future possible event.  Labour in Scotland have done absolutely NOTHING to address this possibility.  At best this is stupid but it is also totally disrespectful of the people they represent and arrogant in the extreme.  They are, most certainly, in total denial of the possibility of a Yes vote and they don’t even wish to consider it as a possibility.  Scotland will not forgive them for their arrogance.

This is my dilemma.  The SNP as part of the Yes campaign have produced their white paper.  This is their argument and you can agree or disagree.

The Better Together campaign have made numerous claims that a Yes vote will backfire horribly on Scotland.  Their opinion is being reinforced by numerous scare mongerers.  Some of these opinions are alarming and at best questionable.  For example, to say that Scotland, as an independent country with our own currency would be paying exorbitant interest rates. This is contradicted by Standard and Poors’ claim that we would be AAA rated??  Already their shared currency claim is beginning to fall apart.  Would we really be outside the EU waiting to get in?  Really? … when at the moment and for at least a very long time we have Trident, could the EU really afford to let one of their main nuclear defense hubs go?  Barossa, clearly has a hidden agenda with Catalan.  Is he really prepared to wipe out his country’s fishing industry in the North Sea because he is having a ‘stropp’?  come on, do we really believe that?  Both Barossa and the Spanish Congress are try to prevent Catalan from even holding an independence referendum – don’t you think that may have influenced his comments on Scotland just a tiny wee bit??

The point is, the Better Together campaign are simply giving opinions and saying Not-Yes.  That is not an argument.  Scotland needs the Better Together campaign to bring arguments to the table, not just opinions.

To date, the Bitter Together campaign has paraded a bunch of ‘ex’s’ or soon to be ‘ex’s’.  The latest being George Robertson with his ‘reserved’ opinion that a Yes vote would be CATACLYSMIC for the western civilised society.  As an ex secretary of NATO did you hear his opinion on Crimea, Ukraine, Russian expansionism, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq …  NO.  In fact with people like George Robertson at the helm NATO is nothing more than a pub quiz question?  What does it stand for anyway?  No Action To Offer?

So here’s the thing.  The people of Afghanistan expected an election without interference or anyone telling them what to do or think.  SCOTLAND EXPECTS NOTHING LESS FOR THEIR REFERENDUM – SO ROBERTSON, SHUT UP!