The Union of 1707

Nationalism is the greatest fact in the world.
It is the foundation of all governments.
Without it, they crumble and fall.

One wonders what Winston Churchill, whose observation that was, would think today of Scotland’s political leaders’ attempts to tear the heart out of the national interests of Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the countries which form the United Kingdom.

Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond, former colleagues now turned bitter enemies, both claim to know and hold the heart of Scotland. The reality, one suspects, is much more about self-interest than the national interest, whether it be Scotland’s or the United Kingdom’s.

What will ultimately defeat Sturgeon will be revelations from within about the SNP’s methods and Machiavellian mindset. Allegations include corruption and lies.

People are sick of Sturgeon’s independence talk when we have a global pandemic and a perilous economic situation to contend with. Her Independence desires are largely irrelevant to voters. The public want to get back to work and go on holiday again and her draconian measures are preventing both.

A police state has been created with her own people inserted into all the top positions to suppress dissent. Business leaders are terrified of speaking out for fear of costly reprisals.

The dictatorship should be exposed as well as her interference in the legal process and supposedly independent civil service.

Salmond, with his new Alba party, has damaged the SNP’s credibility and he will not go away. He is doing a fair job of splitting his old party wide open, and is the best bet to get people to speak out.

As that happens, the overall feeling of discontent and mistrust in both leaders’ ability to produce a prosperous, fair and well-run independent nation will undermine them both. Their ultimate goal is to rejoin the European Union, where Scotland’s voice will be lost.

The prospects will not look so rosy when Scotland finds itself without a currency, neither the pound nor the euro, facing a ten-year wait to rejoin the Brussels’ empire, which will mean a hard border between Scotland and the English, who buy three times more from them than do all the 27 EU countries.

Sturgeon’s record must be vigorously questioned. There are plenty of completely devolved areas where they have failed event to maintain standards, never mind improve them. The Scottish education system was first class, but is no longer. The health service has failed to meet its targets repeatedly. Drug deaths are the highest in Europe and poverty is still rife in many areas. It would take only ten per cent of those whose opinions can be swayed by truths like these to sweep these disastrous people out of office.

Scots should also be asking where their share went from the £113 billion committed by Westminster to protect the UK’s public services as Covid support. It wasn’t distributed to the businesses as intended and Sturgeon is now using it to go on a spending spree to buy votes.

Is independence compatible with being a member of the EU? We know that it is not and thousands of EU citizens are currently losing their lives due to the inability of their own governments to act independently to help them with Covid vaccines. It is a disgrace.

An independent Scotland would never have had the finances to provide the level of support provided by Westminster. Nor to buy vaccines, as the UK ensured by investing £84billion in their development. In total, Westminster has spent £280billion on its response to Covid.

Interestingly on a BALPA (pilots’ union) webinar on March 31, discussing the travel sector’s recovery they stated: Forget flying in Scotland, she [Sturgeon] won’t allow it. If the travel industry isn’t allowed to operate for at least part of this summer it will collapse or require tens of billions in government support.

All the SNP’s assumptions at the referendum have been proven false and idiotic.

The North Sea gas and oil industry has basically closed down with the workers being forced abroad or into other occupations.The lack of industry is blamed on former UK premier Margaret Thatcher. The truth is it was the Labour-supporting unions that spelled the death knell of heavy industry.

Far-sighted people who embrace the future and adapt to change are the ones whose enterprises innovate, survive, and create new jobs. Talk to anyone who worked in a Scottish shipyard and they will tell you of the difficulties they faced, with 27 unions operating a one-out-all out-policy where any innovation was blocked for fear of job losses. They all lost their jobs in the end and the work moved to countries which could produce ships faster and cheaper and without constant strikes.

Sadly, people in Scotland largely have a fixed mindset and any attempt at persuading them is futile. A large proportion will never vote Tory. Labour has been so disappointing many were almost forced to vote SNP for lack of an alternative.

That does not mean they all want independence. They want a viable opposition that isn’t blue in colour.

All this poses the question: Where does the true national interest of both Scotland and the United Kingdom lie? Would either be better served by separation? Or both ruined? The practical implications of disbanding the Union would be huge.

In a later article, I will examine just what the Union of Scotland with England delivered, after 1707, not just for the Scots, but for the English too. The historical record is likely to surprise, even astonish, many.

By Don Briggs
Published Sun 11 Apr 2021