Thursday, June 12, 2014

Reply to a Worried Chum

No worries, matey.

On the point of logic first, no, I really don't think if you concede that Scotland is a real country in which the people are sovereign, that leaves any wriggle room for devo anything...except, perhaps, if we, once independent, chose to pool sovereignty (with the EU as you say)  and resources.

As a trading nation on the same island, we would actually do that anyway - with energy, fish and whisky.  As for social solidarity, I think the biggest favour we could do Grimsby is to break Old Corruption into tiny bits...

Your pooling sovereignty question did set me back for a moment - till I recognised what a gift it was - returning to the logic that you questioned.

My answer is:  it would be possible to pool sovereignty...if we had sovereignty.  We don't have it. Any number of "powers" will they grant - in exchange for slashing the Barnett formula - as long as they keep the "power".  I want the power here.  Including the power to pool sovereignty with the other peoples of this island, Europeans, NATO etc etc.  But I want the decision made here , where we might pay some attention to what we ourselves need - and not there, where they notice us only intermittently, like a moany version of Brigadoon.

I still suspect that the real (an positive) outcome of the current stooshie, is that sovereignty will be established as a matter of practical and impractical/psychological  fact by the campaign...even in the event of a Narrow No result.

As for internet nastiness, and the worry it causes you - The Cybernat trap is a clever one, I grant you.  We have our fair share of knob-heads on social media.  What we don't have is a well financed machine to find, expose, and manufacture them as a campaign issue.  The No side actively call attention to angry idiots living in Mum's basement because it serves them to blame Salmond for nasally implanting a brain probe that sends us Nasties out to do his Voldemorty bidding.  (see FMQ later today) As for the abuse online, this is going to get dirtier, dear fellow.  Just remember whose interests an atmosphere of ugliness serves.

As for JKR herself, yeah, her text was well worked and reasonable...focussing on shared anxieties aboput Independence rather than hostility.  But everything she said was filtered through the same propaganda machine, and on the specific worries, each one of which is arguable, all of them are going to be negotiable. Once there's a Yes vote, then Independence becomes normal...and everyone will have to deal with a new normality.  The North Korea scenario doesn't really hold water if you imagine Sept 19th with any rigour.

All of these realities will be negotiable - but only after a Yes vote.  After a NO vote, we'll need to take what we're given with no arguments, no comebacks, no backsies. We will have given them permission to do whatever they want. Just think Tory majority in 2015.  Or even the Labour Party doing a Tory imitation to end up in a coalition with the LibDems...and there being NOTHING we can do to influence it.

It is possible, given our Archie Gemmelist history, that it is only after a No vote that our lack of democratic control will be properly dramatised...Unless you imagine, like JKR they'll send us prezzies when we've taken our best hand from the pack and burned it.

Last, we must always remember, that the real problems we have in Scotland are the divisions of power and privilege in Scotland.  And that these cannot be shifted till we break away from Ukania's sustaining embrace of those privileges.

The Scottish ruling class (Labour aristocracy included) are a client offshoot of real power...They own everything and what to keep their fiefdom just the way it is.  They, in a sense, are all already independent...of scrutiny from WM, which doesn't care, and from us, who don't count...

They already know how good independence is.  Too good for the rest of us.

Pip pip!

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