Introduction Assignment: Scottish Independent.

"At no time in history have the stars aligned so perfectly," one Labour councillor told me. He cited the Scottish National Parties (SNP) majority in 2007, a deeply unpopular Tory government in Westminster, the economic catastrophic of 2008 and the Chancellors austerity package, something that was squeezing already deprived Scottish towns, he mentioned that many of them hadn't enjoyed a resurgence since the Thatcher government closed the pits and collieries. Despite all of this he ended by saying that the 2014 referendum was a "high water mark" for the euphoric nationalism we have seen over the past months and warmed the tide would soon be on its way out. This thought oddly echoes that of other Labour MPs during the early days of the Scottish Parliament. Back in 1998 when the Blair government set out its powers as a devolved legislature many Labour supporters quipped that they had killed nationalism stone dead. The Acts of Union in 1707 ended Scottish Parliamentary discourse and its reestablishment centuries later only sought to reignite old nationalist feelings. When Alex Salmond became SNP leader in 1990 the party had just three MPs in Westminster by the time the first Holyrood elections took place in 1999 the party won 28.7% of the popular vote, 35 seats and finished second to Labour and became the official opposition to the coalition of Labour and the Liberal Democrats. 

However, things haven't always been this way. In the days of nationwide enterprise, British steel and empire the Scottish landscape was almost unrecognisable. Many decades ago the Tories enjoyed considerable support in what is now SNP stomping ground, as late as 1970 the Scottish people sent 23 Conservatives to Westminster. But with the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979 all this changed. The economic liberalisation and privatisation championed by the Thatcher government meant subsided industry like ship building would no longer be propped up by the state. 

Sermon on the Mound -

When Thatcher addressed the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland on 21 May 1988, Thatcher offered a theological justification for her positions on capitalism and the market economy. Famously she expressed her view that "Christianity is about spiritual redemption, not social reform." This subtle rebuke of trade unions, community organisers and the generally left-leaning Scottish workforce only sought to galvanise the nationalists, as Thatcher's labour opposition in the form of Jimmy Reid, Tommy Sheridan, John McAllion and others melted away and remerged in the form of firebrand nationalists determined to secure independence for their country. 

Democratic Deficit -

The perceived democratic deficit in Scotland occurs due to the dysfunctional British political system. Every time the UK political system returns a government to Westminster that doesn't reflect the decisions of the electorate in Scotland democracy is undermined. The result of this is a feeling that the ruling Conservative party has little if any political mandate in Scotland as the party currently only has one MP, David Mundell, who has held his seat since 2005. This along with the Sermon on the Mound can be seen as the Scottish peoples rejection of Thatcherism, the Westminster elite and the so-called southern toffs. The deficit arose again after the 2010 general election and the push for Scottish independence can be seen as a consequence of this inequality.

Economic Colonialism - 

North Sea oil has been a contentious issue between the Scots and the Westminster establishment ever since it was discovered. As early as the 1970s the SNP saw oil as a weapon for engineering their exit from the United Kingdom. In a post imperial Britain with declining living standards and increasing urban deprivation the SNP were quick to exploit the situation. The intention to carve a path to independence through oil was quickly marred by the Westminster establishment who were reluctant to lose lucrative oil revenues. Coal like empire had been a common enterprise, it was clear after the Suez Crisis, decolonisation and the winter of discontent that the extraction of oil would not be such a bipartisan initiative. Interestingly, the ill-fated Eden government that presided over the Suez Crisis is strangely reminiscent of the Cameron government and the dilemmas they are now facing. In the same way George III was seen as the man who lost the American colonies and Eden as the man who ended Britain's role as a superpower, David Cameron indeed risks going down in history as the man who not only presided over the breakup of the United Kingdom but did little to convince people otherwise, the lacklustre "No" or "Better Together" campaign spearheaded by Labour MP and former Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling is seen as reactionary, uninspired and is better known for their scaremongering tactics as well as their romanticism of the Union and the financial institutions they claim will rush to leave a newly independent Scotland. 

The failure of the Socialist International -

Many leftist supporters of Scottish independence like the Scottish Socialist Party, the Scottish Green Party and Solidarity and have been sharply criticised for taking a shortcut to socialism by isolating the more left-wing Scots in an independent country, old-school Marxists in particular have called for cross border solidarity and have warned that the quest for socialism will be weakened as an independent Scotland will cause movements previously united in Union to splinter.