Common Hopes, Shared Values, but an Independent Stance Dot Jessiman

Born in England, resident in Scotland for 30 years as a member of a Scottish family, how do I see Tony Blair's defence of the Union? Shared values and common hopes, yes. A common people? Similar yes, common no. Indeed my support for Independence grew from my recognition and value for the differences, and the realisation they could only flourish and develop in an Independent Scotland. I may say that my openly nationalistic stance did not cause me to be cast off my family and friends in England in the dramatic fashion envisaged by New Labour. For  they grasped immediately that the argument is not about "division", "divorce" and "separation" but about the terms on which we stand together.

 Like most New Scots of English origin my base line is to see harmony and friendship between my country of birth and my country of adoption. Two inescapable facts dominate the present arrangements. The first is universal suffrage, the second a division of population between roughly 5 million Scots and 50 million in England. No partnership can be productive for that partner who can never sustain a "No and the existence of the Union makes this difficult. Devolution, far from removing these problems has only raised new ones as the English population shows little signs of accepting quietly those aspects of devolution which militate against its interests. 

The Oban debate illustrates precisely why I see independence fostering not destroying the ties between Scotland and England. Within the Union, for Scotland to have different ideas on the subjects of pensions, social security, immigration, and to prefer its wars to be legal is apparently intrinsically wrong and worthy of mockery. If Scotland stays in the Union it can take an interest in world affairs, but as an independent state we are asked to believe it would immediately turn its back on the world outside. Even Mr Blair must know that it was not "narrow" nationalists alone who converged on Glasgow for the Peace March. No-one who saw the moving spectacle of the white-shirted thousands converging on Edinburgh for the anti-Poverty rally could see this as a country which would support an independent government which ignored the world and its problems.   

Only a Prime Minister driven by fear of seeing his Scottish-based lobby fodder disappearing with Independence could fail to recognise that in fostering such concerns for our poor, our elderly, for international law and the poor of the Third World, an independent Scotland will be reaching out to the many on the other side of the Border who share these concerns with us. This is the true manifestation of the shared bonds of family and kinship and the blood spilled together in two world wars.  

If indeed we share common hopes and values, two voices in the councils of Europe, two in the UN - two even in Nato should it reinvent itself in a way acceptable to the Scottish people - can only be welcome to this common liberal congregation. A joint and constructive rethinking of existing institutions, our hopes for the future, and our relationships with each other can only be for the good. For this reason Scots nationalists welcome the stirrings in England. Constructive attitudes possible also for those English people living in Scotland   At Independence you will choose whether you want to be a Scot or not and in either case be welcome to stay and contribute to the building of a new nation. Given that a written Constitution is likely, your human rights will be better protected than under New Labour with its current record in this field.

For me, I am English. I shall be Scottish, - but I'm damned if I want to be British as defined by New Labour. Lies, manipulation and deceit to try to justify an illegal war; Gestapo raids at dawn to keep out respectable foreigners; the ultimate nasty deviousness which forbids you to torture but allows you to help your allies send their suspects somewhere where you can.  

And if that makes me a" boggle-eyed fanatic", so be it.

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