I have been involved in politics for 65 years and I have always had a policy of telling people not what they wanted to hear, or what they would like to hear, but what they need to hear. So, perhaps, the applause I have received now will not be repeated when I sit down.
There are two things that underpin what I am going to say: the concept of state interests & strategy.
State Interests
This nation is seeking to restore statehood, and it is essential in that context to understand and adopt a policy of state interests. Lord Palmerston, the great English statesman, put it bluntly: “We have no friends, only interests.” A policy based on state interests is different from that of claiming victimhood, such as Ian Blackford’s consistent claim, in the House of Commons, that we are being shafted.
In victimhood the answer is to get Away from the UK/England. Whereas with state interests as the guide, it is Escape. The former is based on complaint. Escape is based on analysis of advantage and disadvantage of remaining in a union, with ending the relationship the logical conclusion.
Strategy
At present there are a number of organisations within the movement all doing their own thing, much of it of value. We are, however, split and splintered. We are all agreed on the strategic objective – win independence, but that is not enough because as well as winning back sovereignty, we need to make a success of it.
This is where 55% of rock solid vote support comes in. When we win, we have to win decisively, in a way that those who lose accept the result, because if we are to have a successful independent Scotland we will need the talent and effort of everyone. But getting unionists to accept the vote means this side of the decision, treating them with respect, winning them over with debate not insults.
There is also the issue of how we are to gain independence – the activities and deployment of political power that bring our efforts to a success. Power lies at the centre of any strategy for success. Westminster has power, defensive power, meaning it doesn’t have to do anything at present. That is because, despite all of us doing something of value, we have no concentration of power on our side. We are engaged in a power battle, but split and splintered, and have not built and consolidated a power base.
There are within the movement different opinions on exactly how we achieve independence, but without power, unquestionable power, translated into electoral power, we will not succeed. Building and consolidating the vote at 55% and beyond if we can make it so, establishing the power base, is our present priority.
How we do that is where state interests comes in. We have to get our people to look at our relationship with UK/England on the basis of whether it is in our Scottish interest to remain in partnership, and come to the conclusion that union is no longer in our interest. We have to persuade our people to look at the state of our neighbour, and see that a continued relationship politically and economically, means going down the tubes along with them, or escaping and using our abundant energy and other natural resources to build a prosperity not within the union.
We are looking at a reversal of the arguments of 2014, when Scots were told we had to shelter under the umbrella of the great economically powerful UK. That unionist case is no longer valid. To quote The Daily Telegraph: “The UK is a poor country pretending to be rich.” That truth is being told in England: “Britain is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy . No one dares admit it” is another headline in that High Tory unionist paper, while another recognises “national decline.” The state of UK/England is no passing phase. Ever since 1945 those in charge have engaged in managed decline, but two major shocks – the financial crisis, and the mishandling of the pandemic when the economy was trashed by repeated lock-downs, has precipitated the decline. There will be no comeback.
Poor pretending to be rich, is proven by the facts. Look at the debt. The Office of Budget Responsibility’s first forecast of UK borrowing for 2024-25 was £87bn. Its second forecast after the Reeves 2024 budget £127bn, revised upwards to £137bn. The actual amount the UK government needed to borrow was £148bn. It spent £148bn more than it took in taxation.
The Debt Management Office, responsible for selling government bonds (debt) is planning to issue £299.2bn in 2025-26 . The national debt is heading for £3trn, and if you include off-the-books liabilities like PFI and unfunded public sector pensions, it is really on the £4.3trn mark. The UK spends more on debt interest, almost double, what it spends on defence. Economists are describing the UK as being in a “Debt nightmare.”
There is a human cost to the debt nightmare: 9.3m people are hungry every day, among them 3.1m children. In Scotland around 25% of our children live in poverty, and among them 85,000 are in abject poverty. Who would argue now, as the unionist did in2014, that we are Better Together?
Scotland in the union is locked into a broken, nothing works, food bank society. The answer now is Better Apart.
I will tell you why I want Scotland to be independent. It has nothing to do with flying the Saltire. I am working class, a class all the days of my life that has had to live with insecurity of job and income; and I want that to end, and believe it can only end when our people are in full charge of this country. I am also concerned for the middle class, those who in the past had secure careers and salaries in the professions, but are now threatened by the onset of AI.
Securing a future for all of our people as the new technological revolution unfolds requires us to have a full sovereign state and a government responsible for and to the people. In the great winds of technological change that are now blowing through and destroying past economic structures, if we Scots don’t have power, we are rendered impotent – subject to the will of others. With power, we will be in control.
In 1707 as the Scottish Parliament closed, Chancellor Seafield noted ‘Now there’s an end of ane auld sang.’ We need to write a new verse to that auld sang.
For independence - 23rd August, Eric Liddell Centre, Edinburgh
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