TOWARDS INDEPENDENCE Towards independence?
Dr Nicola McEwen, Associate Director of the ESRC Scottish Centre on Constitutional Change, analyses the Scottish Government’s White Paper Scotland’s Future, which builds the case for an independent Scotland around the themes of democracy, fairness, and economic prosperity
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HE SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT’S vision of independence, set out in its White Paper Scotland’s Future published in November, incorporates a nuanced understanding of how a small European nation- state might exercise its sovereignty when navigating its way in an inter-dependent world. The case for independence is built around
three inter-linked themes: democracy, fairness, and economic prosperity. Underlying all of these is the belief – undisputed by any side in the debate – that Scotland is a distinctive nation with a right to determine its own future. At the heart of the democratic case is the belief
that, with independence, Scots would be assured of being served by a government they chose to elect. The White Paper notes that, for 34 of the 68 years since 1945, Westminster governments
Surveys consistently suggest
jobs and the economy are a primary concern of the electorate
have been elected without majority representation in Scotland, such that ‘policies are imposed on Scotland even when they have been opposed by our elected Westminster MPs’ (p41). That the same could be said of other nations and regions of the UK is neither here nor there from a nationalist perspective. The SNP’s principal goal is that
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The Scottish Government’s White Paper presents an embedded form of independence, with a variety of proposals for close co-operation with the rest of the UK
Scotland’s right to determine its own affairs be recognised, and that right, it is claimed, cannot be guaranteed within the Union. This democratic case clearly seeks to make political capital out of the fact that the current UK coalition government is led by a party with only one MP in Scotland. The democratic case is supported by, and reinforces, the social case for independence. The UK government’s welfare reform agenda has brought issues of social justice and the future of the welfare state centre-stage in the referendum campaign, creating an opportunity to contrast a neo-liberal future within the UK with the promise of a more equal, socially progressive independent Scotland. Using the welfare state in pursuit of territorial goals is not unique to this referendum. The territorial politics of welfare is a common feature of nationalist claims across advanced democratic nations and states. It was a feature of the Scottish home rule movement in the 1980s and early 1990s, against the backdrop of the social and economic policies of the Thatcher/Major governments, when a Scottish Parliament was presented by its advocates as necessary to protect public services and to develop ‘Scottish solutions to Scottish problems’. In the current context, such claims are met by a counter-narrative which both appeals to solidarity across Britain and questions the affordability of the SNP’s social democratic vision without being able to pool risks across a larger population. The third strand of the case for independence is an economic one. Since the key economic levers under the control of government remain with Westminster, independence is presented as essential to enable the Scottish economy to prosper. Surveys consistently suggest jobs and the economy are a primary concern of the electorate when considering how to vote in the referendum. The White Paper dedicates over 20 pages to outlining Scotland’s current public finances to emphasise the Scottish government’s view that there is no question of Scotland being able to afford to be independent, and few would dispute this basic affordability claim. Moreover, the assumption that an independent Scotland would own around 90 per cent of North Sea oil and gas deposits is barely questioned. What is disputed is whether the finances would be sufficient – given the level of inherited debt and Scotland’s revenue-raising capacity both at home and in
22 SOCIETY NOW SPRING 2014
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