Debunking Separatist Myths 6: "The Decision is for Scotland alone"
Alistair McConnachie and A Force For Good's Thin Red Line stood up for the immense value of the United Kingdom in Aberdeen on 17-8-19, as the SNP-supporting march passed by.
For those of us who are pro-UK, the matter at hand is not about Scotland "becoming independent", it's about preventing Britain being broken up!
We're keeping things together, in the face of people who want to break things up and tear us apart.
We were reminded of this truth when we read a typical piece of Scottish Nationalist waffle recently. The SNP MP Tommy Sheppard was rehearsing the bunk that an independent Scotland would make Scotland more "equitable and just". (1)
But these are just words because what Mr Sheppard believes to be "equitable and just" apparently includes policies which many people would say were certainly not equitable or just.
For example, in his article, Mr Sheppard wants an independent Scotland so we can "build a new country with open borders which welcomes the world."
It is certainly evidence of the extent to which people like Sheppard live in their own mutually-reinforcing bubble. He has obviously never been confronted by the significant number of people in Scotland who do not believe that opening our borders to the world is an "equitable and just" policy!
There was also more waffle about using the "powers of an independent country to pursue progressive policies on the environment, transport, or climate".
Those policies, he will find, are policies that people in Scotland will continue to disagree upon, if we even agree with the premise of things like "climate change" in the first place – which many do not.
But what really needs to be highlighted was his claim that in a future General Election: "We should be clear that the decision for Scotland to become a politically independent country is not a matter for Westminster, but for the people who live here alone."
For people like him, "Westminster" is just a bit player, a side issue, really just an inconvenience – only there to "negotiate and agree the terms of departure."
Wrong!
We do not see this debate as just about Scotland "becoming independent".
From our point of view, it is about the United Kingdom staying together!
It's about defending the integrity of one UK.
It's about not breaking up Britain!
It's about keeping it together.
And keeping Britain together is a matter for us all, wherever we live in our United Kingdom!
So we turn Mr Sheppard's statement around...
We say: "We should be clear that the decision for the United Kingdom to stay together as a politically independent country is not a matter for Holyrood, but is foremost a matter for all the British people acting through their collective British Parliament at Westminster."
Seen this way, then it is entirely moral, democratic, legitimate and necessary for the British Parliament to avoid endangering the future of the United Kingdom through the referendum mechanism.
The British Parliament, the Prime Minister, and Government have an absolute moral and democratic responsibility and duty to stand for the integrity, stability and security of the United Kingdom.
The integrity, stability and security of the entire United Kingdom – indeed the very future of such a thing as a "United Kingdom" in the first place – should not be constantly up for debate.
The British Parliament, Prime Minister and Government have an absolute moral and democratic right to say No to a second referendum, and Yes to a united Britain.
They have a mandate to keep us all together.
There are many people in Scotland who support this position and who want to hear it being articulated loudly and proudly, and who will support anyone who stands up and says it!
Reference: (1) Tommy Sheppard, "In the coming election we must dismantle Unionist myths", Sunday National, 25-8-19, Seven Days section, p.2.
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Debunking Separatist Myths Series:
Myth 2: The SNP's "Scots are Inferior" Themes
Myth 3: The "Why can't Scotland..." Themes
Myth 4: "Westminster has No Mandate"
Myth 6: "The Decision is for Scotland alone"
