Murray Ritchie - The truth about independence

From: www.scottishindependenceconvention.com

Well, we told you so. Some months back we predicted in this website that Labour would resort, as ever, to lying as the independence cause continued to make progress. The big lies, we suggested, would be the following:

Scotland is too poor to afford independence

There would be border patrols at Berwick

We would make foreigners of our families

We would need passports to go from Dumfries to Carlisle

Scotland would have a crippling deficit if we became independent

Scotland will be a haven for terrorists and illegal immigrants under independence
Scotland would need a new and separate currency

And so on. It was all the usual venal propaganda that we have heard a millions times before. And we will hear it all again. What those shameless Labour so-called heavyweights did not explain was why the independence cause is soaring to new heights of popularity in Scotland – and now in England. Or why the polls are showing support for the Union collapsing in both England and Scotland as we approach the 300th anniversary of the Treaty.

So, as a service to any few remaining doubters who might still be worried by this Unionist tosh, we offer this response based on facts, not fantasy. In place of disinformation designed to scare off the independence vote next May, here are a few basic truths.

1 - The legacy of the Union is that Scotland has had the lowest average economic growth of any west European country for a generation. That is an astonishing and shameful record. There is an uncomplicated reason for it: we are denied – by the Union – control over our own economy. No country can have economic prosperity when it has no fiscal power.

2 – Scotland has all the economic resources for a modern prosperous independent state – but only if the Scots are given control of these resources. But we are denied that power because Unionists like Gordon Brown and Tony Blair are determined that economic and fiscal policy must be decided in the best interests of the most populous area of the British state – and that means the south east of England. (Remember Eddie George, erstwhile governor of the Bank of England, who said unemployment in the “north” was the price of prosperity in the south.)

3 – There will be no border patrols at Berwick, or Gretna or anywhere else when Scotland becomes independent – unless, of course, an independent English government decides to put them there. Anyone who has travelled in Europe in the past decade knows that internal EU borders are coming down, not going up. You can travel across most of the EU without showing a passport – except in cases where security is an issue. The EU is all about removing internal borders and the need for passports. The only people who ask for passports inside the UK these days are airlines!

4 – We will not make “foreigners” of our families. When Ireland left the British state its citizens continued to have free access to the UK, and vice versa. The Irish could still vote in British elections for many years after Ireland became a republic. On the night that Scotland becomes independent everyone in it can choose to be a Scot – or not. This choice would unite families, not split them.

Families living in different countries would see no change. Scots in New Zealand are no more foreigners to their families now than he they would be after Scottish or English independence. Do we really see the Irish as “foreigners” when we criss-cross the Irish Sea?
Besides, dozens of small countries have become independent in recent times and the nationality issue has never been an issue.

5 – Scotland might or might not have a fiscal deficit after independence. The big lie is that our deficit, if it existed, would be crippling because we are so poor and dependent on the British state. It is curious, is it not, that Scotland is apparently in such a hopelessly impoverished mess after almost a decade of the best chancellor since sliced bread, that we must remain dependent.

How can this happen when the Union is so wonderful? Or is it just another Labour lie?) The truth - as even the Scottish Tory Unionists now freely admit – is that Scotland’s deficit or surplus will be decided by the independent government of the day and its running of the economy. The UK deficit now is running at just over £35 billion. If it is acceptable for the best chancellor ever to run a deficit of that order why can’t Scotland do the same proportionally? To misquote Jack McConnell, but only slightly, Scotland could happily run the best wee deficit in the world. Labour’s argument is nonsense and they know it.

6 – The argument that independence will make Scotland a haven for terrorists is pathetic. At present the UK is a terrorist target because of the illegal war in Iraq, a war based on more Labour deceit. If Scotland becomes independent there will be no Scottish armed forces in Iraq unless a Scottish government sends them there – which would be highly unlikely. Scotland is against Trident – a real cause of terror, and against the shame of rendition flights. But we have Trident and rendition and Iraq forced on us because we are part of the Union. As for immigration, Scotland needs immigrants. Our economic slide means population decline and a loss of skills. But we are not allowed our own immigration policy – because of the Union.

7 – As for the currency, well, we would probably just remain in the single currency with England in the immediate aftermath of independence. The Irish shadowed sterling for years after their independence until they joined the euro, and Scotland could do the same if the people so decided. It would be relatively painless. We have little to lose. After all, we lost our central bank centuries ago, because of the Union.

So the next time the Labour, Tory and LibDem Unionists start their scare stories – remember the truth. The Union has had its day. It is time for a fresh start with independence. It would do so very much for Scotland.

[Excellent! JOE]