A friend in England who takes a keen interest in Scottish affairs, and has lived and worked in Scotland, said that I should not expect too much from independence, and that it might not be Shangri La. I replied as follows -
REPLY
Whatever an independent Scotland's future is, it will have a few certainties -
1. It won't have weapons of mass destruction based in its waters, threatening the environment and the largest population centre in Scotland.
2. It won't have to bear the cost of the irrelevant weapons system.
3. It won't have a support a proportion of the corrupt, inflated and undemocratic House of Lords.
4. It will have located in Scotland a large number of a offices, functions and services with associated jobs that we currently pay for, but are located in S.E.E.
5. It will have a defence force that is truly a defence force, not an attack force, one that is proportionate to our needs and to real threats, not the "induced paranoia threats" required to justify the armaments industry and grease the lucrative revolving doors between the MOD, private industry and government.
6. It will prioritise its spending and use of resources on the needs of the people, especially the poor, sick and vulnerable, however limited its budgets and resources are.
7. It will continue to run an NHS that is free at the point of need, and not privatised by the back door to line the pockets of politicians and their partners in private healthcare.
8. It will recognise its role in protecting the environment and the planet, not pay lip service to it while despoiling it.
9. It will maintain an education system based on ability to learn, not ability to pay.
10. And lastly, whatever it does will be done to itself, by itself, with the governments it elects - every time, not the ones chosen by rUK. In a word, it will be an independent nation.
I'll settle for that.
regards,
Peter
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