Q2. "The union... has endured since 1707." Respond, with reference to 1715 and 1745 among other events.
Q.3 "... considerable benefits for all involved." Discuss to what extent the Union alone was responsible for growing prosperity. Your comments should take into account scientific and technological innovations, overseas colonialism and the defeat of Napoleon.
Q.4 If Scotland had always been a sovereign nation, what arguments could be made for subsuming it into the present British political and economic arangements?
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"Scottish independence: catalogue of errors that has brought UK to the brink"
Both sides of the independence struggle have failed to understand each other. The repercussions could affect millions
Linda Colley
The Guardian, Tuesday 16 September 2014
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The fiercer, more uncompromising, often utopian nationalism
that now grips some Scots possesses echoes in other parts of the world. In part
this is because the relentless advance of globalisation has fostered a desire
in many countries for a more distinctive and reassuring local identity. This
trend is particularly marked in Europe because it contains so many ancient,
culturally distinctive groupings – like the Catalans in Spain – who do not
possess a state of their own, and want to have one. But a growing desire to
secede from longstanding political unions so as to construct something fresh
and distinctive is evident in other parts of the world too. There is a lively
separatist movement in Texas, for instance, which only became a US state in
1845, and which is incontestably large enough and rich enough to flourish
mightily on its own.
As John Stuart Mill remarked in regard to Ireland, once
countries and regions become sufficiently enamoured of separation and
independence, political concessions on the part of their rulers lose effectiveness,
because men and women in such countries and regions will no longer settle
merely for concessions from above. They only want separation and independence.
If a majority of Scots have reached this critical stage, this will not just be
because of long-term British developments and international shifts and
pressures, but also because of more short-term and contingent events. In
particular, if Scottish secession takes place, this will largely be because all
of the main protagonists involved in this struggle have failed in recent
decades fully to understand the pull and repercussions of varieties of
nationalism.
As far as the leaders of the main Westminster groupings are
concerned, they have often seemed to exhibit a tin ear in regard to the importance
and volatility of national identities in at least two respects. At one level,
they have failed creatively and systematically to replace the old, declining
props of British unionism with new arguments and supports. At another level,
they have failed to anticipate and keep up with the challenges posed by a new
and more venturesome Scottish nationalism.
The litany of miscalculations and unforced errors is a
depressing one. Margaret Thatcher's decision to use Scotland as a testing
ground for the poll tax was arguably the most disastrous attempt at fiscal
engineering since London slapped the stamp tax on the American colonies in the
1760s. Thatcher did not understand that the union with Scotland had in practice
always been a limited one. From the outset, Scots retained their own legal,
educational, and religious systems, and were traditionally governed by way of
their own indigenous grandees and operators. It was sadly ironic that the
arch-prophetess of a limited state appeared to want to rip up this formula for
indirect rule and to impose on Scotland in radically new ways, one reason why
so many people there still detest Thatcher's memory.
For many Scots, all this is evidence that London is out of
touch and inward looking. Yet one can actually argue the reverse: that a prime
reason why many at Westminster appear inept in regard to nationalist and
identity issues is that they operate in a city that has long been
quintessentially cosmopolitan. London is not just an international financial
centre, it is also one of the most ethnically diverse places on earth. Three
hundred languages are represented within its boundaries, and – as is true of
some other English cities – more than half of London's inhabitants describe
themselves as non-white. By contrast, only 8% of Edinburgh's population is
non-white, and that is twice the average for Scotland as a whole. It is therefore
hardly surprising that some (by no means all) Scots espouse a degree of
cultural and ethnic nationalism that seems incomprehensible to many at
Westminster, or that the latter sometimes gets the former wrong.
Moreover, it is not just Westminster politicians that have
sometimes failed adequately to consider the full ramifications of national
imaginings. One of the undoubted achievements of the union is that over the
centuries it has put a brake on English national assertiveness, an important
factor as far as Scotland is concerned given that its population is now only a
tenth of that of England. Yet precisely because of the union's protracted
existence, some SNP activists – including Salmond – sometimes take continued
English complacency too much for granted. When in Scotland last month, I was
assured by one yes advocate that, post independence, the poison would be drawn,
and that Scots would be "full of love" for their southern neighbours.
Possibly so, but this is hardly the only point at issue.
The proposition that the referendum is only a matter for the
inhabitants of Scotland has become a mantra, but is of course substantially
untrue. Whatever happens on 18 September, not just Scots, but also the English,
the Welsh, and Northern Irish will be affected. Repeated polls suggest that a
clear majority of the population in these three countries badly want Scotland
to remain within the UK. If it secedes, a future division of the spoils is
likely to cost the English, Welsh, and Northern Irish money, time, influence
and face, and yet they will have had no democratic say in this outcome. It is
hard to think of a better recipe for future resentments and divisions.
It is still possible that all this may be managed: that even
if there is a yes vote, political actors in all parts of the present UK will
finally rise to the challenge of events, and work out new constructive
solutions together – perhaps a free federation of the isles. But we shouldn't
bank on it. As we commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of the first world
war, this referendum campaign may be yet another example of how easily fierce
ideologies, tribal passions, longstanding grievances, undue optimism and
political cock-ups can take hold, with consequences that go on to affect and
afflict the lives of millions.READER: PLEASE CLICK THE REACTION BELOW - THANKS!
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