A Nation Again E-Book

• Herausgeber: Luath Press
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Viewpoints
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 191

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

As the Scottish people prepare for their biggest ever collective decision with a proposed referendum near at hand, The Independence Book forcefully sets out the Case for Independence. The Imperative of Independence is demonstrated by varied distinguished authors, including contributions from Neil Kay, Tom Nairn and Betty Davies. Each author tackles the subject in a different way - personal, political, historical or academic - but the key denominator is clear: Independence Must Come. BACK COVER: If you believe in the Case for Independence, this book will provide you with a stirring endorsement of your view. If you are sceptical, it might well persuade you to convert to the cause. If you are downright hostile, this book could be dangeroud - it could prompt you to rethink. Suddenly Scottish Independence is within grasp. Is this a frivolous pipedream, a romantic illusion? Or is it, as the writers of this dynamic and positive collection of essays insist, an authentic political option, feasible and beneficial? As the Scottish people prepare for their biggest ever collective decision, this book forcefully sets out the Case for Independence. The distinguished authors, from a variety of different perspectives, argue the acase for the Imperative of Independence. The case is made in various styles - personal, political, academic, historical, philosophical. But the key denominator is clear - Independence Must Come: it will be good for Scotland (and England too).REVIEWS: If anyone were to ask me if there's a handy wee book which effectively argues the case for Scottish independence and, just as importantly, counters the main Unionist objections, then this is the book I'd recommend. It does what it says on the tin.

Leseprobe

PAUL HENDERSON SCOTT was born in Edinburgh and educated at the Royal High School and Edinburgh University. He was in 52nd (Lowland) and 7th Armed Divisions during the war and then joined the Diplomatic Service. He was in Berlin during the whole of the Soviet blockade and in Cuba during the Missile Crisis. In 1980 he returned to Edinburgh. Since then he has been Rector of Dundee University, President of both the Saltire Society and Scottish PEN, and Vice-President of the SNP and its Spokesman on Culture and International Affairs as well as writing more than a dozen books and editing another dozen or so. His books include: Walter Scott and Scotland, John Galt, Towards Independence, Andrew Fletcher and the Treaty of Union, Still in Bed with an Elephant, Defoe in Edinburgh and Other Papers, The Boasted Advantages, A 20th Century Life (his autobiography), Scotland Resurgent, The Union of 1707: Why and How, The Age of Liberation and The New Scotland.

HARRY REID was born in Glasgow and educated in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Oxford. He trained to be a journalist in Newcastle and then worked in the Scottish Press for 33 years, mainly on the Scotsman and the Herald, of which he was Editor. In 2001 he was awarded honorary doctorates by Edinburgh and Glasgow Universities for his services to Scottish journalism. He is a former chairman of the Scottish Editors’ Committee. He has written a bestselling study of the Church of Scotland and three other books including his recent history of the European Reformation. His wife is the travel writer Julie Davidson.

STEPHEN MAXWELL was born in Edinburgh in 1942 into a Scottish medical family. He grew up and was educated in Yorkshire before winning a scholarship to St John’s College Cambridge where he read Moral Sciences followed by three years at the London School of Economics studying International Politics. Attracted by the stirring of Scottish Nationalism in the mid ’60s he joined the London branch of the SNP in 1967. He worked as a research associate of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London and a Lecturer in International Affairs at the University of Sussex before returning to Scotland as Chatham House Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh in 1970. He was a frequent contributor to the cultural and political journals from Scottish International Review through Question to Radical Scotland which fertilised the Scottish debate from the 1970s to the 1990s. From 1973 to 1978 he was the SNP’s National Press Officer and was director of the SNP’s campaign in the 1979 Scottish Assembly Referendum. He was a SNP Councillor on Lothian Regional Council 1975–78 before serving as an SNP Vice Chair for successively Publicity, Policy and Local Government. From the mid 1980s he worked in the voluntary sector first with Scottish Education and Action for Development (SEAD), and then for the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) until he retired in 2009. He was the founding chair of a Scottish charitable company which today provides support to six hundred vulnerable people to live in the community. He has contributed to numerous collections of essays on Scotland’s future, most recently The Modern snp: from protest to power (ed Hassan, EUP 2009) and Nation in A State (ed Brown, Ten Book Press 2007). He is Treasurer of the Scottish Independence Convention.

TOM NAIRN, after serving time on the hulk of HMS Britain, escaped to teaching ‘Nationalism Studies’ at Edinburgh University, then to researching ‘Globalisation and Nationalism’ at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Victoria, Australia. His book The Break-up of Britain appeared in 1977 (Verso Books, most recent edition Common Ground Publishing, Melbourne, 2003). Faces of Nationalism (Verso) appeared in 1997 and Global Matrix (Pluto Press, with Paul James) in 2005.

NEIL KAY has Bachelors and Doctorate degrees from Stirling and is Professor (Emeritus) Economics Dept., University of Strathclyde; Special Professor in the Business School, University of Nottingham; and was Visiting Professor Economics Department, University of Queensland, Australia, 2005, 2006 and 2007. He has also held two Visiting Associate Professorships in the University of California and a part-time Professorship in the Economics Department in the EC’s official university in Florence. He is author of six books and numerous articles on industrial economics and the economics of corporate strategies. He lives in Cowal, Argyll with his wife Lorna and two children, Katerina and Kieran.

BETTY DAVIES was born in Nottinghamshire. She graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in the ’60s and worked for a short time in television and the theatre. In 1993, together with the late Douglas Henderson, one of the driving forces for Scottish independence and SNP MP for East Aberdeenshire, she founded the successful design and management organisation Scottish Fashion International, branding the major Scottish banks and financial service sector with distinctive tartans and classic outfits. Her dramatic hallmark for ceremonial dress now adds gravitas and colour to many of Scotland’s important academic and state occasions. Active in the public and private sector, she has continued to work in England and Scotland where she has served as a Magistrate, a public member of the Press Council, and a Member of Court of Nottingham University. A former Governor of Edinburgh College of Art, in 2004 she was made an Honorary Fellow for her contribution to the visual and performing arts. From her lofty studio in the Old Town of Edinburgh her work in the field of art and communication continues. During most her lifetime Betty Davies has remained mute on her political allegiance. This contribution to A National Again celebrates the life of the late Douglas Henderson and the legacy of a courageous and proud people.

Viewpoints is an occasional series exploring issues of current and future relevance.

Luath Press is an independently owned and managed book publishing company based in Scotland, and is not aligned to any political party or grouping.

A Nation Again

Why Independence will be good for Scotland (and England too)

Edited by

PAUL HENDERSON SCOTT

With contrinutions by the Editor and

HARRY REID, STEPHEN MAXWELL, TOM NAIRN, NEIL KAY and BETTY DAVIES

LuathPress Limited

EDINBURGH

www.luath.co.uk

First published 2008

(as The Independence Book)

Reprinted 2008

Reprinted 2009

Revised and extended edition 2011

New Edition 2012

Reprinted 2013

eBook 2013

ISBN (print): 978-1-908373-25-0

ISBN (eBook): 978-1-909912-62-5

© the contributors

Contents

Foreword by Alex Salmond, First Minister of Scotland

Reekie, 2000

Introduction

CHAPTER 1 Independence is the Answer

PAUL HENDERSON SCOTT

CHAPTER 2 Make a Noble Dream Come True

HARRY REID

CHAPTER 3 Scotland’s Economic Options in the Global Crisis

STEPHEN MAXWELL

CHAPTER 4 Timed Out: Great Britain to Little England?

TOM NAIRN

CHAPTER 5 The Fish, The Ferry, and The Black Crude Reality

NEIL KAY

CHAPTER 6 An English Voice in Scotland

BETTY DAVIES

Postscript Questions and Answers

Democratic Deficit: Scotland and the UK

Foreword

by Alex Salmond, First Minister of Scotland

I AM DELIGHTED to write a Foreword for the new edition of this book which is an important contribution to the debate about the future of Scotland.

This is a collective book by six people with a wide range of experience. The editor, Paul Henderson Scott, was born and educated in Edinburgh, and has a wide experience of other countries as a diplomat. Since he returned to Edinburgh in 1980 he has been active in many aspects of Scottish life. He has been Rector of Dundee University, President of the Saltire Society and of Scottish PEN, Vice-President of the SNP and a Spokesman on culture and international affairs. He has written 17 books, mostly about Scottish history, politics and literature and has edited or contributed to many others.

In this book there are papers by the editor and others by five distinguished contributors. Harry Reid has worked for Scottish newspapers, including the editorship of The Herald, for 33 years. He has written several books, of which the latest is a study of the Reformation which ranges widely over European history. Stephen Maxwell, who was National Press Officer of the SNP from 1973 to 1978, is a frequent contributor to cultural and political journals and to books of collected essays on Scotland’s future. Tom Nairn has been a major stimulator of thought and debate about the constitutional future of Scotland to which many people were introduced by his brilliant book, The Break-Up of Britain. Neil Kay has been a professor of economics in England, Australia, the USA and Italy. Betty Davies has had a highly successful career in Scotland as a fashion designer and producer. She was a partner for many years of the late Douglas Henderson who was an SNP MP. Her long experience of life in Scotland has convinced her that Scottish independence would be of great benefit to both Scotland and England.

The significance of this book is that these highly informed and intelligent people with very diverse experience have all reached that same conclusion. We have a great past as a nation which has made a valuable contribution to the world. At a time when many other smaller European countries have flourished since they recovered independence, we urgently need to follow their example. We need full responsibility for the control of our own affairs and of our relationship with the rest of the world.

Alex Salmond,

First Minister of Scotland

Reekie, 2000

Paul Henderson Scott

For Dunbar it was the mirry toun.

Fergusson cried it a canty hole

And like a keek o glore and heaven forby

Here Hume transformed human thocht

And gave bien denners tae his freens.

Clerk Maxwell as a bairn at schule

Scrievit a paper for the Royal Society.

For thae that hae the lugs tae hear

Thae splores, high jinks, high thochts

Sill echo roon closes, wynds,

Howfs and new toun drawing rooms.

In oor ain time Garioch and Smith

Were guy sib to Fergusson himsel.

The sheer beauty o the place still lifts the hert,

A beauty which some hae done their best tae hash

For there’s muckle to gar ye grue

In Auld Reikie and in aw Scotland thae days:

Puirtith, ignorance and hopelessness,

Shoddy bigins, ill health, early daith,

Amang the warst in Europe tae oor shame.

Cheek by jowl wi commercial greed,

Affluence, mobile phones and jaunts tae Bangkok,

Efter three hunner year o nae government or misgovernment.

But noo there’s a glisk o hope.

At last we hae oor Parliament back,

Reined yet by Westminster,

But sune we’ll ding thae traces doon.

Ower lang oor caws for equality and social justice

Hae fallen on deif and distant lugs.

Sune we shall bigg a new and fairer Scotland

Wi Reikie a real capital aince mair.

Introduction

THE PREVIOUS EDITION of this book was published shortly before the Scottish Election in May 2011. As I said towards the end of my chapter, Independence is the Answer, it was already clear that the SNP were establishing a lead over the other parties. In fact the lead was so pronounced that they achieved an overall majority in the Parliament, a result which the voting system had been designed to prevent. The SNP Government, with Alex Salmond as the First Minister, was therefore free to go ahead with preparations for a Referendum on Scottish Independence. As we go to press with this new edition, the UK and Scottish Governments are engaged in a series of discussions about the timing, content and control of this Referendum. London has already agreed to Salmond’s proposal to hold it in the Autumn of 2014 and he has accepted supervision by the Electoral Commission, but reporting to Edinburgh, not to London. Questions so far undecided are Salmond’s proposals to include voters of 16 and 17 years old, and to consider the idea of having a second question on the so-called ‘Devo-Max’, which would mean the Scottish Parliament having control over everything except Foreign Affairs and Defence.

If Independence failed to win a majority vote Devo-Max would compensate the SNP Government by greatly increasing its powers, over all internal matters in fact. As the more moderate proposal, it is quite likely to attract a larger vote. Its inclusion would therefore almost guarantee that the SNP would have a substantial, if incomplete, success. This may tempt the SNP to press for its inclusion; but for the same reason the UK Government will not agree.

Many people may well think that internal policy is more important than Foreign Affairs and Defence, but it is precisely in these matters that there is an important divergence between English and Scottish attitudes, as many opinion polls have demonstrated. England, and especially the Conservatives, seem to want to cling to the belief that they are still a Great Power. David Cameron, for instance, has said in more than one speech that he is anxious to keep the permanent seat in the Security Council of the United Nations which is intended to be a recognition of that status. Of course Britain was once the greatest power in the world, but these days are long gone. Even so, it is presumably for this reason that they want to maintain nuclear weapons at Faslane, on the Clyde near our major centre of population. They attempt to act as an ally, but in effect become a puppet, of the United States as in the invasion of Iraq. Opinion polls have shown that most Scots are of the opposite tendency in disapproving of both nuclear weapons and the invasion of Iraq. I think, therefore, it would be better for us to have the Referendum confined to the main question, Independence, and to argue against the nuclear submarines and the dangerous international policy which depends on them. An independent Scotland would, of course, be committed to friendly relations with our nearest neighbour across the border. At the same time we should not hesitate to pursue our own policies.

On 25 January 2012 the Scottish Government published ‘Your Scotland, Your Referendum, A Consultation Document’. This set out in detail the arrangements which they propose for the Referendum which they intend to hold in the autumn of 2014. It incorporates some points which they have already agreed with the UK Government, such as supervision by the Electoral Commission (but reporting to the Scottish rather than the UK Government) and the date. Others, such as the possibility of including the second question on ‘Devo-Max’ and extending the vote to the 16 and 17 years age groups, have not yet been agreed.

The document has a Foreword by Alex Salmond which, like the whole paper, is written in moderate tones. He says that ‘Scotland is not oppressed and we have no need to be liberated’, but ‘Independence matters because we do not have the powers to reach our potential… Under Independence, Scotland would take its place as a responsible member of the international community while continuing as a friend and good neighbour to the other nations of these islands.’ The whole paper is written in a similar tone, rational, moderate, co-operative and not aggressive. It is typical of this attitude that it proposes that all the political parties participating in the Referendum would be limited to an expenditure of £250,000. In other words, the SNP would not take advantage of their strong financial position.

This referendum has been described as the most important decision which the Scottish people have had to make in 300 years. If it continues in the spirit which it has been launched, it will also be one of the most civilised and most rational. On the same day that he launched the Consultation Document, Alex Salmond held a crowded press conference in the Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle. It was attended by journalists from some forty countries. The eyes of the world are now on us and we must be worthy of it.

Paul Henderson Scott

CHAPTER 1

Independence is the Answer

PAUL HENDERSON SCOTT

IN HIS CELEBRATED BOOK, Small is Beautiful, E. F. Schumacher challenged the theory in which he had been brought up. That was the belief that ‘in order to be prosperous a country had to be big – the bigger the better’. On the contrary he found that ‘if we make a list of all the most prosperous countries in the world, we find that most of them are very small; whereas a list of the biggest countries in the world shows most of them to be very poor indeed… In the actual world there is a tremendous longing and striving to profit, if at all possible, from the convenience, humanity and manageability of smallness’1.

Schumacher’s point is confirmed by the latest available statistics for the countries of the European Union. They show that the six most prosperous are small:-

They are followed by the UK with a GDP per head of 27,600 and a population of 60.4 million; but Luxembourg the smallest is also by far the most prosperous2.

Long before Schumacher, others had reached the same conclusion, including two of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment. David Hume in his essay, Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth said: ‘A small commonwealth is the happiest government in the world, within itself, because everything lies under the eye of the rulers’3. Adam Ferguson in An Essay on the History of Civil Society of 1767, wrote of the advantages of living in society and added:

We need not enlarge our communities in order to enjoy these advantages. We frequently obtain them the most remarkable degree, where nations remain independent, and are of small extent4.

Both Hume and Ferguson were, of course, writing only a few decades after Scotland had lost her independence in the Union of 1707.

In recent years, particularly since the end of World War II, there has been a rapid increase in the number of small states. The present is the Age of Liberation (the title of my recent book) in which nearly all of the multi-national states and the empires have dissolved into their component parts. When Schumacher published Small is Beautiful in 1947 he said ‘The United Nations Organisation started some 25 years ago with some 60 members; now there are more than twice as many, and the number is still growing’5. Following the recent successful referendum on independence in Southern Sudan, the number of member states will soon reach 193.

As it happens, I have been able to witness the progress which has been achieved by two of these new states since they became independent. I have been lecturing on cruises to the Baltic and have visited Estonia several times. Slovenian PEN holds an annual conference of writers which is so interesting, welcoming and friendly that participation each year has become an addiction. The change in both of these countries since they became independent has been dramatic. Not only have they become rapidly much more prosperous, but also unmistakably more self-confident, optimistic and quite simply happier.

The Scottish Enlightenment invented the idea, which was later adopted in the American Declaration of Independence, that the object of government is the pursuit of happiness. Estonia and Slovenia have demonstrated it in practice. In my years as a diplomat I visited many countries and I have always had the impression that small countries were happier than the large. It is probably because the smaller are more homogeneous and their governments are closer to the people and have an easier task in meeting their wishes and needs. Norway is a small country which became independent from Sweden just over a century ago and is now one of the most prosperous and contented in the world. A Norwegian professor at the University of Oslo, Johan P. Olsen, has said the following of the advantages of the small states:

Many smaller European states have a good historical record when it comes to democratic development, peaceful co-existence, prosperity, welfare, equality between social classes, districts and gender, life expectancy, cultural development and ecological consciousness. A democratic argument has been that the political community has to be small in order for citizens to have insight, participation, influence and a feeling of belonging and trust.

He adds that in this globalised world small states have more experience than the larger of coping with events over which they have no control and are therefore better in responding to them6.

In his contribution to this book Tom Nairn also discusses the advantages which small nations have in responding to the challenges of a globalised world. They also benefit from the increased role of international organisations such as the United Nations and the European Union. Their effect is to curb the power of the large countries and increase the influence of the small. Several heads of government of the smaller members of the European Union have made this point. For instance Poul Schlüter, when he was Prime Minister of Denmark, said:

I feel a lot more powerful than a Danish Prime Minister would have felt years ago. Why? Because under all circumstances this is a rather small neighbouring country to Germany and the strong economy. In the old days, we just had to accept any steps taken in the German economy, and its consequences on us. Nowadays, my ministers and I take part in the Council of Ministers meetings in Europe. We have influence, and a lot more influence than is fair, considering that we are such a small nation7.

Garret Fitzgerald, a former Prime Minister of Ireland, in a speech in 1989:

Over a period of many years, I have come to the paradoxical conclusion that it is in the process of merging its sovereignty with other Member States in the Community that Ireland has found the clearest ‘ex post facto’ justification for its long struggle to achieve independence from the United Kingdom8.

Mary Robinson, when she was President of Ireland, said in a speech when she was on a visit to Scotland in June 1992:

There has been a great sense of liberation. We have become more sure of our own Irish identity in the context of being equal partners in Europe. It meant that we no longer simply define ourselves in terms of our relationship with Britain.

We are Irish but we are also European… Ireland and Scotland have much in common yet there are very few institutional links that recognise this. We must build them up9.

The Disadvantages of the Union

The historian, Hume Brown said of the Union of the Crowns of 1603, when James VI of Scotland became also James I of England:

The Union of the crowns brought many disadvantages to Scotland, but the result of it that most vitally affected her was her severance from the nations at a period when new principles and new ideas were guiding their policy.

Throughout the entire century Scotland was a severed and withered branch, and her people knew it10.