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What about this Scottish independence malarkey eh? Which way
is the vote likely to fall and what are the expected consequences?
If I had Scottish blood coursing through my veins instead of
the part Irish blend I have in reality, then I know I’d be sorely tempted to go
for the misty glories of independence. For my heart at least it would be no contest.
However...
Delightful though it would be to deliver a sword-thrust into the stinking bowels of Westminster, I’d have to convince
myself that Scotland actually wants and is prepared to grasp a new spirit of
adventure. To my mind, the value of independence lies in making a distinctively Scottish future from the distinctively Scottish virtues of the past.
I’d need to be sure that a reborn and independent
Scotland would rid itself of the soul-rotting government-sponsored illusions of
everlasting welfare. It would have to decide once and for all that there is no
magic money tree fed and watered by bureaucrats.
So how likely is that? How does the leadership of Alex
Salmond infuse the Scottish people with a sense of personal responsibility in
this adventure? Because it could be a fine adventure, but not if somebody else
is always supposed to do the adventuring.
How does Alex Salmond attract able people who have left
Scotland simply because they are able people – because they need something more
than an endless tangle of small surrenders - to borrow Chesterton’s telling
phrase.
It’s the chance of a lifetime – literally. He isn't the only player in this drama, but is Alex
Salmond capable of delivering the fruits of a vote for independence? To me he
comes across as a very accomplished political huckster, a charlatan’s charlatan.
As ever it comes down to people, so although I’m not Scottish I’ll watch the
vote with interest.
If the vote goes for independence, and whatever my concerns I hope it does, then it will be seen as a huge vote of dissatisfaction with Westminster politics. Whether that dissatisfaction amounts to something different and vibrantly inspiring - that's another matter. The people of today
are not the people of yesterday.
4 comments:
Can't see it, AKH. As Wolfie says at my place - it's a stitch up. Sense will prevail at that point of putting the mark in the box.
Statistically, there will be Scots in the family history somewhere somehow. It is just that they have not been found or lurk in parts where the trace has been lost. Any Irish proportion has a good chance of a Scots element somewhere, again the trace of which is lost. I write as someone Proud To Be Nesbitt (18th Century). A lot of Nesbitt's turn up in Ireland. You could well have one of them yourself.
James - I think it will prevail too, but I think a yen for independence will hang in the air for many years.
Demetrius - my father did the family history work and couldn't get further than the nineteenth century. He always intended to go over and do more work, but never did.
1851 St Peters Parish Sheffield there is a Hugh Haart aged 32, a Cordwainer born in Scotland.
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