British Union suits England not Scotland

Letter to the Editors

31/10/2006

Sir,

In a recent interview former foreign secretary Jack Straw made some revealing remarks about the British union.

Straw is quoted on the BBC website as saying: “Historically, England called the shots to achieve a union because the union was seen as a way, among others things, of amplifying England's power worldwide. And the reverse would certainly be true. A broken-up United Kingdom would not be in the interests of Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, but especially not England.

Our [England’s] voting power in the European Union would diminish. We'd slip down in the world league GDP tables. Our case for staying in the G8 would diminish and there could easily be an assault on our permanent seat in the UN.” [security council]

We should be grateful to Straw for his honesty. What he is effectively saying is that countries like Scotland and Wales and other potential independent states such as Cornwall or the Isle of Mann are expected to give up their unique voices in the international community so England can enjoy ‘amplified’ ie undeserved international status.

The case for union then is simple if, like Gordon Brown, you support England’s interests over Scotland’s then as Straw says there is an excellent case for retention of the union because it was designed to amplify England’s voice and it still does today.

If however you support Scotland’s right to have our unique voice heard then the only logical choice is independence.

If the ‘cost’ of that decision is the loss of Britain’s (as Straw points out effectively England’s anyway) seat in the UN security council, which the Blair government currently uses to back George Bush’s lunatic foreign policy, then I’m sure that is a price well worth paying for any internationally minded Scot.

Yours faithfully,

Joe Middleton

[Note: Full interview is available here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/question_time/5388078.stm]