Thoughts from Ian Carse
by Yes Orkney - 15:58 on 04 July 2014
While out campaigning with Yes Orkney many people have asked why I have chosen to vote Yes and I answer that I want us all to live in a fairer, more just and more prosperous country than we have in the UK at present. But I know that is not enough as people want detail and so I express my thoughts along these lines.
David Cameron, Alistair Darling, our own local politicians in Orkney as well as No supporters in Orkney all agree that Scotland could be a prosperous country in its own right. Indeed Lord Lawson (Nigella’s dad) and at one time Chancellor of the Exchequer in Mrs Thatcher’s Conservative Government has said that “Scotland is perfectly capable of being an independent nation. There are many independent countries in the world who have a lot less going for them.”
That is why in February 2014 The Financial Times confirmed that “An independent Scotland can expect to start with healthier state finances than the rest of the UK”
A fair and just society would have no need for food banks and, while I admire and respect the work done by the food bank volunteers, I am saddened to see that in a wealthy country such as this a food bank in Kirkwall and in all other parts of the UK is necessary and this, in my opinion, is not indicative of a country that cares for all of its people.
We are told that this austerity is all necessary because of the financial crash and yet bankers bonuses are still being given out, big companies who earn large profits in the UK are not paying the tax they are due to the UK Treasury, we are about to waste billions of pounds on the replacement of a nuclear weapon that we don’t want or need and a huge percentage of the UK’s wealth is in the hands of a very small percentage of our population.
According to a briefing drawn up by Oxfam the five richest families in the UK are now wealthier than the bottom 20 per cent of the entire population and that means just five households have more money than 12.6 million people put together – almost the same as the number of people living below the poverty line.
However all of the unionist parties agree that austerity measures must continue after the next general election and for the foreseeable future despite poverty action groups saying that these measures will push a further 100,000 children in Scotland alone into poverty.
A majority of Scots MPs opposed the bedroom tax and welfare reforms that are partly to blame for this scenario.
Scots MPs also voted against the privatisation of the Royal Mail.
Many Scots are concerned that the current privatisation of the NHS in England may be introduced into Scotland after the next general election – and I was dismayed to learn that our own Orkney & Shetland MP, Alistair Carmichael, Secretary of State for Scotland, helped to steer this Health & Social Care Act through Westminster.
I therefore believe that there has to be a better way than the continuation of a Union to address the needs of the people of Scotland.
Also I look at the 193 countries of the world in the United Nations and note that 90 of them are either the same size or smaller than Scotland in population terms and most have come into being as independent countries since World War II. In the European Union half of the countries have a population the same size or smaller than Scotland.
All of these small countries are making their own decisions based of the needs of their populations and they participate in global matters through the UN and the economic and political organisations in their part of the world, such as the European Union (EU) as valued members of the global community.
Three of these countries are no bigger than Orkney and six are no bigger than Orkney and Shetland put together.
Size is not the issue, as we know in many walks of life, it is what you do with what you’ve got that can make the difference. At present the Scottish Parliament only has very limited powers and budget (approximately 7% of the taxes raised in Scotland) to use for its population and yet it has delivered so much – free prescriptions, no tuition fees, free personal care, land reform etc – and delivered balanced budgets when it was being told that it could not afford these initiatives. As people invite us to vote No I ask myself, and others, that if the unionists are serious about giving the Scottish Parliament more powers, as they are now all saying they will, then why did they all vote against having Devo Max on the ballot paper when given the chance by the Yes supporters to include it?
I am old enough to have campaigned in 1979 to get a Scottish Parliament established and I remember that the unionists who opposed this idea said “Vote No and we will give you something better”. In spite of the majority of Scotland’s population voting in favour of this it was 20 years later before the Scottish Parliament came into being.
The same thing is about to happen if we vote No on the 18th of September 2014 because none of the Unionist parties in Scotland can guarantee their colleagues elsewhere in the UK will go along with their ideas of more powers for Scotland.
Bear in mind that we are being asked on the 18th of September 2014 to vote Yes for an independent Scotland. We are not being asked to vote Yes for the current Scottish Government, the SNP or Alex Salmond.
When we vote Yes in 2014 that will start the process of setting up Scotland as an independent country once again and the first time we will vote for a fully independent Scottish Government will be in 2016. By then a few things will have changed in Scottish politics and new ideas will have emerged as we are all going to be invited to write the Scottish Constitution and develop a new way of working so that all of the people living in this Scotland can feel they are playing an active part in the development of a fairer, more just and more prosperous nation which plays its part in world affairs.
Ian Carse
2014
It's going well up here Billy, probably because we have a great group of people working for Yes Orkney but a lot of folk in Orkney are not prepared to declare in public how they will vote so nobody can be sure what the final outcome will be. That said I am constantly amazed and find it very encouraging at the range of folk locally who have declared for Yes and I am interested at the number of our tourists who are (a) interested in what is going on and (b)encouraging a Yes vote.
How is it looking where you are?
Many thanks for your kind comments.
It's good to hear it is going to be shared with other folk as I wasn't sure if it was any good.
Look out for a Yestival in your area.
Best wishes,
Ian
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