The Act of Union. 1707 tae noo - three hunner years o it. Tricentenary? I’ll tricencentary ye
Well get the flags out, fetch the war time bunting. Let’s celebrate the 300th anniversary of The Act of Union. What? No parade? No parties? No well, really nothing past the odd, and I do mean odd, quasi documentary about it on the telly. Only a newly minted coin, ironic since the AoU was largely brought about over finances. Ho hum. Anything to celebrate? After three hundred years of a marriage of convenience who can blame us for the apathetic weariness about our aged, coupled bones?
Disclosure: every election I’ve ever been eligible for bar one tactical vote that pained me has had me vote for various parties/individuals that support a platform of Independence for Scotland. It’s the only issue I cast my vote for. I truly don’t believe Scotland can ever really flourish properly without sole control over its affairs. I wish we could take a tip from all the wee countries in Eastern Europe that in the last few decades have rediscovered their own sense of identity and culture and entrepreneurialism after their liberation from rule by remote powers. Might take a while and Christ knows there’d be pain to go through but it is possible to throw off the shackles and stand on our own two feet.
I happen to think devolution is great and for its time is a highly pragmatic and sensible measure, I’m not actually critical of that, I think there’s a great deal been achieved with this arrangement, just a pity that the populace has long since stopped trusting politicians to the extent that even good things pass without generating much appreciation. And so much is woefully under reported or shunted on to minority media channels unseen/unheard. Main bulletins tend to only latch on to Executive and First minister stuff but true democracy in action has actually materialised more through the committee system in the Parliament rather than just the floor of the debating chamber. When people are ‘bored’ by politics we need to start ringing alarm bells before we sound death knells for democracy. Wake up! It’s a pity the controversy over the fabric of the building of the Scottish Parliament has been of more public concern than what’s been happening inside. The petitions committee in particular, quietly gets on with letting individuals and organisations have a direct line into the legislative process. You can see how appeals and ‘taking evidence’ from civic society has lead to redrafting of bills in ways that just fit better with the existing infrastructure. These ‘tweaks’ don’t get much press though. Under devolution there’s been time to really look at what kind of legislation our country needs and deal with our different local authority structure. Do folk really need to be reminded of how little legislative time for Scotland there was pre-devolution? It used to be a Bill for UK then if we were lucky a few pages tacked on the end as an after-thought even when the whole of the concept of law in progress was wrong. Poll tax anyone? A country with significant challenges of geography does not always have the same needs as our flatter, more urban cousins south of the border. How much more could we do with full fiscal autonomy?
My main want for independence would be for us to remove the obscene presence of a nuclear ‘deterrent’ hosted less than an hour away from where I live. Hollow laughter from me I’m afraid when Bush/Blair tried the scare tactics during the pre-amble to Iraq II of “Oh, he’s (the bad man Saddam) got a bomb…a weapon of mass destruction”. Yeah well so do we…on our fucking doorstep and we pay taxes for this affront to humanity. Why doesn’t George Bush carpet bomb us then? The amount of money spent on weapons whose sole aim is to kill people (defence ma erse) is something truly disgusting. What could our country do if such hateful vanity was disposed of and we concentrated on putting the lives of human beings first.
Try and have a listen to a wonderful session from the Edinburgh University “A Puzzle from the Past: Why the Scottish Enlightenment Happened ” with the brilliant Professor Tom Devine and including the ever-articulate Joyce McMillian (herself a member of the panel that blueprinted the structure of how the parliament would be structured and what procedures would be used). How could such a wee country like ourselves have such a disproportionate effect on economics and politics all those years ago. Why have we lost our self-confidence through the years? Where’s the collective intelligence to think for ourselves gone?
If Scots want independence we’ll get it, it’s as simple as that. England is not the enemy. Apathy and indifference is.
Technorati Tags: Act of Union, UK, Scotland, politics, 1707, independence, Scottish Parliament, Joyce McMillian, Tom Devine
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