NUCLEAR and other waste is dumped in Scottish seas. Scotland has to put up with 50-year-old trains and ancient mobile phone networks – as even with all our wealth and resources, we are handed down the UK cast-offs. What is surprising is that so many Scots are okay with this.
Scots can’t watch their national team’s international games on free-to-view live TV – while English and Welsh fans can. How is this fair, especially as Scotland presently has rugby and football squads with world-class players and world-beating teams to be proud of? Why are so many Scots okay with this injustice, as they huddle around a radio to hear the game?
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Scots for decades were treated as second-class citizens in their own country. In school, not so long ago, Scottish children were beaten for using the Scots language. They were not taught the histories and stories of their own Scottish culture, but the stories of a distant capital (London). Scottish crofters were pushed off the land they had farmed for generations – cleared for sheep and grouse shooting in the name of capitalist progress, and with enforced emigration to Canada or the urban slums.
Now in 2023, Scots have had Tory governments imposed on us since 1955. How is this all okay, or good enough? Our Tory overlord Alister Jack, Scottish Secretary of State, even tells Scots to “suck it up”.
Some Scots think, “oh well, we’re only a small nation” – but that doesn’t mean we don’t have equal rights. And small compared to who? Scotland is small compared to over-crowded England or Germany – BUT it’s not small compared to Ireland, Denmark or Iceland – all thriving economies. Small is not only successful but normal these days – inside a larger trading block.
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In America, small states like Rhode Island and huge states like California have the same rights and send two members to the House of Congress. The EU recognises it’s important that all regions are supported. So why should Scots continue to suck it up? We’ve now voted eight mandates for our independence, but are ignored over our democratic will and rights – over Brexit, over immigration, and over nuclear weapons imposed on us. I don’t understand why Scotland needs people in offices in London making our decisions for us.
Scots don’t want to float off into the North Sea, we want to be good trading neighbours. All we’re asking for are the same rights as other citizens in the developed world. The right to self-determination. Lesley Riddoch asks in her book Thrive, “are Scots too complacent or too feart?”
Aberdeen doesn’t even have decent road or rail connections after all its oil wealth. Some Scots really need to ask – is all this good enough? I always remember someone writing back in 2014 that if Scots voted No to independence they would be punished for it (and not rewarded). That’s exactly what’s happened. Less devolution and less fairness and more austerity from the Eton elites. I remember, too, chatting with a Norwegian filmmaker at the impressive Signet Library in Edinburgh, when he asked me what had happened to Scotland’s oil wealth? It’s embarrassingly negative, surely.
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I’m not sure what No voters hoped for – more harmony, more unity, a fairer, more just society, a richer country? How is this working out so far? None of this has come to pass. Is it all about economics – that we need rich London protecting us? After Brexit, even London is shrinking. If Ireland only needs 5% of its trade with the UK and is flourishing with far less resources, we must question why can’t Scotland too? We must ask, what does the Union do for Scotland today?
I am very worried that young Scots feel disenfranchised, disempowered and angry at the years of Tory austerity and extremely disillusioned. Even those with professional careers. Unless you have a wealthy Bank of Mum and Dad behind you, iIt’s practically impossible for young people with these 5% mortgage rates to buy into the housing market. Many feel we are regressing rather than moving forward. The secret for the future is investing in your young people! The younger generations will surely rise up and keep those flames of democratic rights, home rule and self-determination burning.
P Keightley
Glasgow
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