POSH lad George Osborne headed north of the Border this week to tell the Scots how lucky they are to be ruled by Westminster.
That’s a bit like sending a Sunderland supporter into my native Newcastle to give a lecture in the hallowed grounds of St James’ Park about the finer points of the beautiful game!
Few on the south side like or trust the Chancellor of the Exchequer so I would question the motives of those who dispatched him to the North in the expectation he would receive a rousing welcome.
It’s already well known that there are more pandas in Scotland than Conservative MPs and now that the female in Edinburgh Zoo continues to show positive signs she’s pregnant it looks as though the only endangered species here are the Tories.
I say ‘here’ because this is where I made my home a couple of years ago, and as a member of the Geordie Tribe I reckon we’re close enough to hold a valid opinion on independence.
In fact I’m quite sure, following the ruthless Tory-inspired destruction of the North East’s shipyards, coal and steel industries that if the vote for independence was extended 100 miles south it would be seized upon enthusiastically with both hands.
The boss class in the south has never done any favors to northerners and I expect most Scots feel exactly the same but at least they have a chance to do something about it now.
I can’t believe anyone was taken in by the nonsense which came tumbling out of Osborne’s mouth when he said Scots would be £2,000 better off if they voted ‘no’ in next year’s referendum.
Like all of the figures coming out of Westminster they need to be scrutinized very closely. My man with the abacus says the sum of £2,000 is per household and would not be realized for a full 30 years; in other words Osborne is promising Scots the square root of nowt.
Bearing in mind the appalling state of the education system in England he might be able to blind folk on his side of the Border, but in Scotland where there’s a superior system in place and no such thing as university fees, it’s not that easy to pull the wool over the eyes of canny Scots.
Here’s a figure to consider though – it will cost £25 billion to replace the Trident nuclear system … imagine the extra burden to taxpayers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland should Scotland’s 5.3 million population opt out not to mention the mind-boggling costs of installing a new nuclear facility if the Prime Minister still wants to dine at the same table as other nuclear powers including America, Russia, France and China.
Not content with using dodgy maths, Osborne also claims that the United Kingdom could boost real incomes by as much as four per cent after 30 years … not convincing at all from a man who gets his monthly budget predictions wrong and failed to see the double dip recession coming.
Seriously, if the Westminster crew were that sincere why have they waited until now to plan a bright future for Scotland? The truth is while Northerners have often been regarded as an afterthought, Scotland hasn’t even appeared on their political scanner.
Traditionally the North and Scotland have been viewed as Labour strongholds so the Tories never really concerned themselves with our lives other than to loot, pillage and then destroy the once lucrative heavy industries, livelihoods and communities.
Eton-educated Osborne even said Scotland’s trade would collapse without the UK … the truth is Scotland would be a lot better off today if his ilk hadn’t taken an axe to the shipbuilding, mining and steel industries.
And if the Tories had worked out a way of siphoning off the oil, gas and whisky and shipping the Edinburgh Festival off to Chipping Norton they would have done it by now.
Labour has always taken the North and Scotland for granted and, since the toxic introduction of Blairism, the region has become even worse off.
It’s little wonder the Scottish National Party has done so well. The formula is simple; the SNP puts Scots first and that is something none of the London-based politicians can do, or even promise to do.
Now we are being told we are better together. Does anyone seriously believe that? I don’t see any of the dominions, colonies, protectorates or other territories which cut themselves free from British rule queuing up to return to once the largest empire in history.
If Scots do cut themselves free from the yoke of Westminster rule it will mean an end to nuclear weapons and all that it costs the Scottish taxpayer to keep the British PM dining at the table of the G7 and G8 countries.
It would mean an end to legislation designed to extract more money from the pockets of the working classes and those who can least afford pernicious inventions like the divisive bedroom tax. Cutting off the ball and chain that is the UK, Scotland would be able to continue to maintain a free education system, free medical prescriptions and guarantee the survival of the National Health Service here at least.
Having already stood up to America on several issues in recent years, Scotland has shown it is prepared to punch above its weight and will not be bullied by superpowers or cajoled into foolish military adventures demanded through so-called special relationships.
Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill stood firmly by his decision in August 2009 to release the terminally ill Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi to Libya on compassionate grounds. US president Barack Obama reacted angrily at the time as did the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, this was further exacerbated when Scottish ministers later refused a demand to attend the US Senate hearing in July 2010.
Such a refreshing attitude might open doors rather than close them as Scotland extends its trading partners and business contacts around the world. In the 1970s it used to export Hillman Hunter spare parts and kit cars to Iran … why not again?
And under the present Holyrood government there is no way the lives of Scottish soldiers would have been wasted or used as cannon fodder in Iraq or Afghanistan for imperialistic wars built on lies and deception.
The referendum is all about putting people before politics and that’s something the war-mongering, sleazy, expense-fiddling, out-of-touch cronies and posh kids in Westminster know nothing about.
Scotland’s withdrawal from the union will expose fully something many of us have known for years: one of the world’s oldest political democratic systems no longer exists. Britain is being ruled at the moment by a cabal of over-privileged rich blokes who form a coalition government not one single person voted for in the last General Election.
Come Referendum Day, my advice to the Scots is: “Get out now while you have a chance.”
Spot on! Freedom for Scotland will force the elite who run us at the moment to rethink their stupidities and finally grow up!
An excellent article, written by an Englishman of all
people, that puts some scots folk to shame and dismisses the myth that
Independence is about the Scots hating the English.
If Scotland gets its independence, I for one would welcome
our Northern English neighbours if they wanted to join us.
Read more like this at: newsnetscotland.com/
That ‘Englishman’ is an ‘Englishwoman’ there is a slight difference, I would have thought. Apart from that I am with you.
Yes there’s a difference, but generally speaking, it’s no big thing.
That’s the long and the short of it.
A well crafted, common sense article on the urgent need for independence by Ms Ridley, and that is something very rare in the output of the Union-centric political chattering class.
I’m stunned to finally read a factual account like this in the media, explaining simply and without frills, why the independence movement exists and is growing ever stronger. Yvonne you have hit the nail on the head, and I am sure that the Northeners from south of the border will be warmly welcomed in the new Scotland on Independence Day 2016!
Brilliant piece. Absolutely spot on.
Small point. Osborne was one of the few that didn’t go to Eton.
From Wiki: “Osborne is one of the old Anglo-Irish aristocracy, known in Ireland as the Ascendancy. He is the heir apparent to the Osborne baronetcy (of Ballentaylor, in County Tipperary, and Ballylemon, in County Waterford).
“He was educated at St Paul’s School, London, and Magdalen College, Oxford, before working for the Conservative Party as a researcher, special adviser, speech writer and strategist. In 2005, he ran David Cameron’s successful party-leadership campaign and was made Shadow Chancellor.”
the level of adulation on display (towards Ms Ridley) is in direct correlation to the total lack of balanced reporting on the subject of Scottish independence, as she quite rightly points out, the argument in favour of Scottish independence is so unarguable the establishment wont even talk about its prospect sensibly but revert to portents of doom for a people stupid enough to wish to leave the warm embrace of the union.
The unionists find the prospect a complete anathema and have zero concept of a Scotland in its own right making its own policies and following its own political agenda’s
A poster on a local newspaper the other day wrote in defence of the UK , and I quote
“British and international trade unionists understand the maxim
united we stand divided we fall”
and didn’t see the contradiction in what he had written.
Yes1
Utter baloney.
“Bearing in mind the appalling state of the education system in England he might be able to blind folk on his side of the Border, but in Scotland where there’s a superior system in place and no such thing as university fees, it’s not that easy to pull the wool over the eyes of canny Scots”
It’s sneering comments like this, the laughable claims of Scottish exceptionalism, the lumping of the whole of England (Wales and Northern Ireland are typically forgotten) into one homogenous mass (places like Yorkshire and Devon are apparently the same; meanwhile there is no mention of London containing some of the poorest districts in the country, like Tower Hamlets), the naïve and bigoted steering of the debate into ‘US vs. THEM’ that shows the Nationalist side for what it is.