I make no bones about the fact that I have lived and worked in London for 23 years. My partner, son and his family including 2 of my grand-kids and many, many friends and colleagues live in London and the rest of England.
I am a great fan of England and I want the very best for all of England. My allegiance with the YES campaign does not contradict any of my ambitions because I believe Scotland can be a better neighbour and ally to England as an equal partner than the current asymmetrical relationship.
Out canvassing in my immediate neighbourhood last night was ‘interesting’ to say the least. I like a good debate and I respect people with a different view because I believe much can be learned from opening up our minds to other’s views.
So, last night in Helensburgh was no different. I stood at the door with one of my colleagues chatting to a determined NO voter for about 45 minutes. He was English, his wife was Scottish and he worked at the base on the nuclear programme. He was especially concerned for the future of his family in the event of a YES vote especially as he had lived and worked here for more than 10 years. I could not challenge his genuine concern and I made that clear. However, we talked about everything else under the sun. When we left we agreed that while we had differing political ambitions, but we were in accord with just about everything else. I know that if I saw him or his wife in the town we would exchange genuine pleasantries.
This pattern was repeated at a number of doors with NO voters and the many Undecided.
However, there was one aspect of the evening that I found extremely worrying and yes, it made me quite angry.
We encountered a number of English people who had moved to the area and declared themselves to be NO voters. We were genuinely interested in to understand how they had come to this decision. The response was so typical of the main NO campaign. We’re better together, we don’t think it’s a good idea, why would we want to split away from the rest of the UK? In other words they had no idea why they were voting NO even when pressed. Perhaps they did have an idea but were not prepared to express it.
I believe a lot of people have come up from England to live and enjoy the Scottish culture. However, they were still very definitely English and they put their nationality before the rights of their hosts to determine the running of their own country. They were immovable in their belief and this was their passion. They are saying, ‘we don’t respect your democratic right to determine the running of your own country because we are English and we want to stay that way’.
Common decency prevented me from pointing them in the direction of the M74 and telling them to p#ss off home to where their allegiance lies. I think it is great that English people visit and live in Scotland and like all Scots I welcome and value their contribution to our society. However, when they come to Scotland and deny Scots their democratic rights then for me that is a step way too far.
This is the mentality that built the British Empire and sustained it. These are the cuckoos in the nest. They enjoy that good old Scottish hospitality and they want to take the best of our society but do they really want to integrate into the community? .. I say absolutely not. After 23 years in London I see a society where it is all to common to live in a community, impose your own culture and values and never integrate into the community. To me this is DIVISIVE and I don’t want that for Scotland.
After a YES vote, if and when England have a referendum on the EU, we now know that four and a half a million English residents voted with UKIP to leave the EU. How would the English feel if the Scots residents voted to stay in the EU without good reason and swung the vote to stay in the EU against the wishes of the majority of English. They would be very, very pissed off and so would I.
And that is why I resent certain English coming to Scotland and imposing their prejudice for England on the Scots without good reason. That’s all folks!
Footnote: we have encountered large numbers of English people living in Scotland who will be voting YES and we respect English people living in Scotland who have a logical reason for voting NO.