Yes monthly column no.1
by Yes Orkney - 16:28 on 22 March 2014
The following article first appeared in The Orcadian on the 6th of February 2014.
Fiona MacInnes opens a series of monthly columns from Yes Orkney that will appear in the run-up to the independence referendum in September
What a fantastic chance this year’s referendum is for Orkney! We’ve become so used to being disadvantaged that we think it’s our normal lot. Our geography as a peripheral island, where water defines us, enhances but also disadvantages us.
Why should that be, especially when we are in a European common market that is supposed to eliminate disadvantage? Yet our farmers have the lowest single farm payment in Europe; our Orkney and Scottish fish stocks were long ago traded away to buy entry to the EU. We can do nothing about what was enshrined in those treaties of the distant past by the UK, but if Scotland votes Yes to become independent again and embarks on a rewriting of our relationship with Europe, Orkney and its distinct needs can be taken account of and enshrined into a document of rights for islanders, not just in terms of how we are treated by the EU but also how we are treated by the government of whatever shade in Edinburgh. And that government could be Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat or Green, because this referendum is not about the SNP or Alex Salmond, it is for and about every one of us.
Decentralisation of democracy and power is what Orkney can demand in a reformed constitutional agreement with those bodies, and not just the words and promises of politicians looking four years ahead but enshrined in law for all time through a written constitution – the rules of the country. In this way we can ensure that the transport and freight links to our isles are secured in fixed operating agreements which contractors and government will have to honour, and that we islanders have designed instead of the inadequate current set up.
Orkney stands to benefit from independence, but we have to articulate what we want to see, and benefit is a qualitative judgement. The current political argument is about whether individual benefit or collective benefit should prevail. The line from the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition Westminster government is strongly that supporting the needy is not on the agenda - even that the poor and disabled should be hounded to pay for the crash that was the result of the actions of bankers and the very rich. Who would ever have thought that Orkney would need a foodbank?
The example of the Nordic countries points to greater trust in services that are collectively paid for through fair taxation and then available to all without the desperate dash to get to the head of the queue and opt for private medicine or schools. Think about what you truly value as benefit? A warm dry house, relief from stress about what might become of you or your loved ones if they are ill or old; knowing your child will not become disillusioned and fall into disengagement or addiction because they have real chances; a real future and a fulfilling place in their community. Or is benefit simply a case of hoarding as much as you can for yourself irrespective of how unequal your society becomes?
We have, for this short period of eight months, an opportunity to imagine Orkney and Scotland as they might be. Some people ridicule dreamers, but without them there would have been no invention, no votes for ordinary people, no opposition to slavery or nuclear weapons. Imagining a new future is just the start, no one doubts that there will be a huge amount of work to do, detailed and difficult negotiations and obstacles to overcome, but we believe in the abilities of our people, our friends and neighbours, people like you to play a part whatever that may be. Because nothing for ordinary people has ever been won easily - it took the commitment of many to gain social advances, like the NHS and now we are watching these disappear, sometimes in a matter of months.
We all have a chance over this period to lift the shutters on the thinking of the past that denies us things and tells us we can’t do things – we can open the shutters a little and make shift our thinking to what is possible. No-one here voted to privatise the Royal Mail or bring in tuition fees for students yet that is what we got. The isles are often only noticed when they are of use to the UK machine, for uranium, nuclear dumping, energy production, and the sad thing is that when the UK entered the EU in the 70s no-one much bothered about the needs of isles communities. Jean Didier Hache, from the Islands Commission of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions, confirmed at the Our Islands Our Future conference that 80% of Europe’s islands have some form of autonomy that recognises their different needs like fixed links, a level playing field for freight, or representation in important political committees all of which can be part of a new member county’s relationship with Europe. It could have happened in the 70s but it didn’t, and now it’s too late under the current UK treaties.
People say this referendum is a distraction but in truth we are all part of history in a very special ‘constitutional moment’, where politics moves beyond its everyday business because there is the potential for a shift to something new – a progression. This progression is about taking control back to the people of Scotland because it is they who will decide, not the politicians, nor the pundits in news studios and not the media. All we need to do is make a cross in a box.
Once we have established our right to choose the government of our own country we will get the first ever real choice of electing a government that reflects the views of the people that live here. That is why we need a Yes vote first, because we will have to wait till 2016 to make the important political choice of where our country’s priorities lie. Be part of the excitement!
Fiona MacInnes
History shows that promises will be broken and further devolved powers will arrive slowly and in piecemeal fashion, if they arrive at all. No UK party is offering anything significant. Westminster might equally decide to withdraw powers from the Scottish Parliament. Indeed it already is (see renewable energy news). It has the power to close down the Scottish Parliament altogether if it so desires.
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If that is more or less what it is about then we are better staying part of the Union with devolved power extended.