Quantcast
Channel: For Argyll » 22 august 2013
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 4

Political excursions of the week

0
0

In the past week both the pro and anti independence campaigns have taken to desperate measures.

Better Together has tried to make Scotland anticipate being the national equivalent of a stateless person.

Alex Salmond, driver of the independence wagon, has used it to deliver the case for the Union.

Better Together triggers the bird-scarer again

On Tuesday 20th August it was reported that an independent Scotland might not be admitted to the Commonwealth.

Commonwealth Secretary General, Kamalesh Sharma, said that Scotland’s membership ‘may not‘ be automatic.He went on to say that the membership would ‘likely’ be decided by the Commonwealth’s 54 members.

The emphases above on ‘may not’ and on ‘likely‘ are ours, underlining the ‘half-empty glass’ ambivalence going on here. ‘May not’ introduces the equal probability of ‘may’; and ‘likely’ is as likely as ‘likely not’.

Mr Sharma developed his position a little in saying: ‘… speculatively, if and when, were this situation to arise then my anticipation is that a question like this won’t have automaticity. It would be referred. The heads would have to take a view of it.’

Nothing the Secretary General said is of any substance whatever. Who would put money on the security of assurances of  ‘may not’ and ‘likely’?

This was the best Better Together could get but they did their best to morph it in to a doomsday scenario.

The Commonwealth has admitted states like Rwanda and Mozambique – controversially so, since they lacked a historical constitutional link with Great Britain.

There is absolutely no question that Scotland would not be a welcome member of the Commonwealth; or that its membership would be as close to continuous as is procedurally possible.

Better Together is trying to make Scots imagine that an independent Scotland would make them citizens of a sort of Billy-no-mates state.

This is absurd, a blatant frightener with no credibility. It is also strategically stupid in focusing attention on the insubstantial and away from the key issue at the heart of the debate – how the cost-benefit equation would stack up for an independent Scotland.

What we need to hear of course, is how a refocused and reinvigorated United Kingdom might strategically stack up growth across the territory.

Ironically, devolution is one of the obstructions to the formation of a UK-wide economic development strategy.

Salmond off course, making the case for the Union

Two days after this Better Together sally, on Thursday 22nd August, Scotland’s First Minister and SNP Leader, Alex Salmond was reported as making a disoriented run for his own line in the former rugby stronghold of Hawick in the Scottish Borders.

He spoke of Scotland’s traditional two-way cross border markets for products, services and employment; and of the common interests jointly pursued by the areas on either side of the border. The loss of these shared markets and this collegiality would, of course, hit hard on both sides of the border.

The first Minister’s theme was therefore to exchange ‘independence’ for ‘interdependence’, swinging round and heading at speed to score against his own side.

Me Salmond’s argument was that independence would enable Scotland to achieve interdependence with northern England, which would be of great benefit to both.

Somehow it had slipped the First Minister’s mind that this is the way things already are.

Mr Salmond is looking increasingly desperate as time goes on, progressively stealing the clothes of the Union.

This move, however, was a try between his own posts because it underlined the interdependence that is the traditional strength of  the United Kingdom, that already exists and that would be weakened overall for Scotland and for all concerned were this country to leave the United Kingdom.

In short, Mr Salmond succinctly made the case for the Union.

There are those who persist in imagining that ‘the old Alex’ will magically reappear sometime in the coming year,  pulling a flock of fast-breeder rabbits from his sleeve to save the cause.

This is the ‘myth of the golden age’ in action.

And so…

Neither camp won respect this week. Better Together has been lazy, content with trying to score cheap and unrealistic fright-points. The First Minister has been astray and not for the first time.

A factual development has been the Scottish Government changing the date for the publication of its White Paper on the independence prospectus from ‘November 2013′ to ‘Autumn 2013′ – which may amount to the same thing anyway.

Far more important than the when is the what – the calibre and robustness of the document when it appears.

The independence cause has been damaged by the big lie on having legal advice on EU membership; by a raft of major and minor propositions that signal a general lack of grip on the realities; and by a series of undeliverable promises – as on pensions – made in desperation.

The White Paper must produce a convincing strategic proposition for an independent nation, with realistic operational detail and an achievable balance sheet.

If the White Paper is more ethereal than substantial – or is a bit of both with a rhetorical mist cloaking key spaces where there are  no answers, the game’s over.

But if it is good enough to step into the searchlight, to stand up to and emerge intact from the testing scrutiny it will and must receive, then the independence campaign will have refuelled what has seemed like draining tanks.


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 4

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images