Just a reminder why we Need Independence

Editorial from the Inverclyde Independent.

By Jim Riddell

When I was young, I used to go to the cinema to watch second feature westerns. Filmed in black and white, the issues were black and white too, and you could always tell the good guys who had white hats from the 'baddies' who wore black.

In those days too, Britain and America were considered to be the good guys, fighting fascism in the second world war. That image has now been shattered by Bush and Blair.

In America, international law and international opinion no longer matter. The Geneva Convention is ignored, people are held without trial for years, suspects are being tortured throughout the world on America's behalf, and an illegal war is mounted so that the US can get their hands on Iraqi oil. I could go on and on.

Britain, too, has much to be ashamed of. We have a government which allows US torture flights to refuel at our airfields, and
we took part in Bush's illegal war, despite massive opposition from
the population. We have a government that is quite prepared to lie to the people - and refuse to resign when they are found out.

We are sleep-walking into a police state. The government wanted
to hold suspected terrorists without charge for 90 days, senior police-men are pressing for all police to be armed, despite 30 people being shot dead by police since 1993 without a single police officer being convicted. Blair wants to introduce ID cards - and to charge us for them!

They even want to control what we think. Dr Goebbels couldn't do better. So what can we do about it?

We could vote for independence and remove ourselves from an increasingly right wing, anti-foreigner, racist, and greed-ridden country, in danger of becoming a dictatorship.

A small country like Scotland could not put the world to rights, but with independence we could at least avoid being part of the problem.