THE FUTURE FOR SCOTLAND IS OUT OF BROKEN BRITAIN WE NEED TO ESCAPE ASAP

The State to which we are attached is in decline on all fronts.

The United Kingdom is a fiction. From 1707 onwards the British state has been England with a Scottish appendage. There is nothing to be gained by complaining. It could not be otherwise given England’s population size. If from 1707 Scotland had been the giant and England the small junior partner, our national interests would have dominated.

It is in England’s state interests to keep Scotland in the Union. The reason is our energy resources, which can be exploited to serve SE England in particular. The proposal for Zonal energy costs would see low cost in Scotland, from where the energy is produced, with high costs in the South East. But that would not be in England’s state interests, so will not happen while Scotland remains trapped in the UK.

The balance of the case for in or out of the union has shifted decisively to independence. It is now in Scotland’s state interests to exit the union.

The State to which we are attached is in decline on all fronts. Its institutions are crumbling; its business base is shrinking; its financial clout disappearing -over 700 companies have left the London Stock Exchange for Wall Street; some others thinking of leaving describe the UK as an “economic backwater”; it spends £120bn more than it takes in tax; it borrows £285,000 every minute because it cannot pay its way; the national debt is £2.8trn heading for £3trn; the debt interest is £111.2bn a year and rising. It spends more on debt interest than on defence (£54.2bn); the Office for Budget Responsibility has given a stark warning that the country is living beyond its means. One OBR target is the state pension, despite it being one of the lowest in Europe.

Better Together? Better Apart for Scots from this weak and weakening economic failure. Leaving the union is an immediate Scottish state interest. That means thinking with the head. We 5.4 m Scots cannot save England’s 58m. We can only save ourselves.

Some may think this is a hard way to put it after over 300 years of being together. But the choice cannot be dodged. England is in decline and that decline will not be reversed. Go down the tubes along with it, or escape and build a Scottish state in which our young people can stay and prosper, and our old folk are given dignity and security? Answering that question is one you, a citizen of Scotland, cannot avoid making a decision on.