PAGES 4 and 5 of Thursday’s National says it all (We can’t afford to stay in the UK, August 27).
So, why are we still in it? We’ve had the excuse that we had to wait to see what was happening with Brexit. But we’ve known for almost a year exactly what was going to happen with Brexit.
Regardless of what Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland want we will be gifted a No-Deal Brexit by Boris Johnson. So, who’s fault is this? Well, everybody blames Boris and in a way that’s true.
However, we have a devolved government at Holyrood whose main function, after taking care of the day job, is to get us independence. Why aren’t they pushing for it? The opinion polls show a majority want it, but still Holyrood falters.
Today’s GERS figures merely confirm what anybody who was active in the Yes movement back in the days of the 2014 referendum already knew. Westminster is prepared to “cook the books” against Scotland to frighten people into believing we are dependent on England for our financial survival.
The reverse is true. England is heavily subsidised by Scotland. We are being charged a share of HS2, which will travel between London and Leeds but won’t come near Scotland. We are charged a share of Trident that we don’t want. We are now also being charged for the labour involved in the construction of two aircraft carriers. In actual fact the Scottish Government should have charged Westminster the labour costs as they are their ships and not ours. Defence is not devolved.
It is estimated the tax that Norway will pay in respect of drilling for and extracting Scottish oil from Scottish waters, (The Moray Firth), will be around
£5 billion. England will take £4.2bn as their share and we will get a mere £480 million for our oil taken from off our coast – not England’s coast, our coast!
And that’s only the latest tax gains for England from Scottish oil. Norway managed to build up a €2 trillion reserve fund that it is now able to dip into to help their economy against Covid. London, with more oil coming from Scottish waters than Norway had, has managed to accumulate a
£2tn national debt and they have the cheek to charge some of it to us after taking the lion’s share of the tax from our oil! They have, in fact, squandered our money.
But then, we can’t go for independence right now because of Covid. (Good excuse! But that’s all it is, just an excuse!) Instead, we just have to sit and bear the food shortages and medicine shortages plus the damage to our economy that are all predicted as a result of Boris’s No-Deal Brexit. Do we really have a devolved government that can’t deal with more than one important issue at a time?
We have all sorts of talented people in the SNP although many of them are busy wasting their time in London. Their presence there achieves absolutely nothing for Scotland. It’s time we drew some of our big guns back from Westminster to push for a referendum before the end of this year.
Never mind if Boris consents to it. Do it anyway and then let him try to come up with a reason why he should not accept the sovereign will of the Scottish people which has already been officially recognised in the Westminster Parliament as being sacrosanct.
We have just four months before we are dragged out of the EU against our will and have to suffer the undoubted austerity, poorer food standards and removal of workers’ rights that will be the result of it.
Our government should not wait for that to happen. They’ve tried fighting it Westminster’s way and that hasn’t worked. It’s time for more drastic action, but the big question is “Does the SNP have the guts to do it on our behalf?” I sincerely hope they have.
Charlie Kerr
Glenrothes
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel