Written piece featured on the Bella Caledonia website, 2012 (apologies for formatting):
I awoke at 2am with my usual head-buzz about my house renovation, and the sustainability of my
lifestyle at present... but rather than nodding off amongst ever-decreasing eddies of problemsversus-
solutions lapping round my mind, something started to germinate from what my dad had
said on the phone earlier, about the question of Scotland's independence from England: If we are
such a dead weight, so unable to stand without the crutch of English political, economic, etc
support, then why (the hell) is it that England is hanging on so adamantly to our inconvenient
weight? And in their Christian good-neighbourliness, so familiar from the colonial days, and so
similar to the American consumerism of all world cultures; what are their real interests in/ on
behalf of their poor northern relatives?
So many thoughts streaming along, and I was thinking about the very interesting shift in the
discussion lately. Listening to the Jeremy Vine show this lunchtime it struck me with sudden
lucidity that the tone has changed, the light on the whole matter has altered. It was always
something laughable, the question of Scotland going it alone; why bother, and who would lead, and
where would we go? But, like our nation's character, stoic and determined, willing and intelligent,
we appear to have bided our time and quietly gone ahead and done it. Not many people are
mentioning the fact that it is already done; we already voted in a majority government whose main
drive is independence- rest is mere detail, no matter how Londoners want to dress it up.
A query which comes up so often in this particular debate; why do so many of you live abroad
then, if your country is so great, why did you leave? My answer is only clear to me now, in the
context of the heating debate: because we cannot thrive in our own country. But not for the
reason that is being put to us now by decision-makers in the English capital; that our country
cannot support us, no... Not flourishing is something which comes from the poverty psychology,
and which is prevalent in every abusive relationship; that eternal muttering of negative put-downs
about you are not strong enough, not able to survive without me: The Fear. This Fear, large and
all-consuming, contagious, viral, is one of the last ditch attempts of the raving materialism-driven
society to exert it's power over the inherently free. This is where we differ so greatly, our
northern and southern cultures: we possess vastly opposite psychologies, and we in Scotland have
been silently labouring to avoid assimilation all these years. Unlike the follow-the-flock culture of
the south, which blindly remains loyal to the collective mindset, even down to its recent selfdestructive
rioting, the Scottish are a nation of free-thinkers, adventurers, inventors, engineers,
artists, the list goes on. But the point is, our collective spirit is one of quiet tolerance, though this
has been to our own detriment, and will have to change now, this can still be viewed as a positive
trait, a strength gleaned through adversity.
This sense of tolerating something distasteful, it is a thing which has sat in my psyche and energy all
my years, and affected each and every step of my life and work, from being on the dole in a
Glasgow bedsit, to living in a high-rise in Edinburgh and campaigning for tenants' rights. It has
fuelled all the dark moments, where I have felt inherently weak and unable to step forward into
my destiny. Throughout my path there has been this intangible sense of something being glaringly
obviously wrong, but there not being words for it... only now making sense, as the debate
thickens and congeals into more substantial rhetoric. Our national conversation (like our
traditional whisky-fuelled custom of fireside philosophising which runs on through the night) is
nearing its peak; the weak dawn rays seeping in on the point in the dialogue where real truths
start to come flowing, stimulated by that profound clarity which can only come at the end of a
long night of untangling and reconstructing of ideas. I feel like that, like my mind has been pulling
and tugging in all the wrong places on this issue, but is finally seeing something whole, as the right
time comes to pass.
The question of our independence is no longer a query, it is a thing unfolding, as inevitable as the
unravelling of the consumerist tendency, and the wealth-dependent notion of happiness. The
English, alongside their special friends in the US, have the harder job in this unfolding, because they
do not have the inner resources, which we -perhaps similarly to other nations which have semiwillingly
been suppressed- have had to develop in order to survive. Strange that the English
parliament and other cynics still have this idea that Scotland, despite being the birthplace of such
genius, adventure and art, might somehow not be able to thrive, when there are so many
countries and cultures upon this fabulous planet who get along just fine with far less resources,
technologies and/ or enthusiasm. The most pressing of our challenges is not how we will bail out
our own banks, bring in businesses who do not trust our 'hasty' actions, nor the rest of these lame
distractions, but rather whether or not we can stand tall and laugh at our enemy.
Two years ago, I decided to quit my country (again), and head for the sun, the positivity, the
relative freedom of southern Europe, where people are not bound by this sense of something
pressing down on them, stopping them from growing. Yes- the warmth, the good food, the familyoriented
culture, and affordability of comfort, these are things which come from being closer to
the sun, simple as that... but there is something essential to this bountiful freedom; an inherent
need which is lacking in my own country's psyche: confidence. If you ever read that book 'Rich
Dad, Poor Dad' you will know what I am describing; that entrepreneurial enthusiasm which one
rides like a tight ship, when you are on course for your goals, when you know that you will
achieve them all, if you set your mind and gain the resources that you need, and make the
necessary efforts in the right direction... This is the psychology our world is evolving; one of
cooperative self-evolution, where we set our minds to our vision, then we go out and make it
happen. It is the modern language of business start-up, social entrepreneurship, new politics, deep
ecology, which is rich with this kind of thinking, with positivity and 'we can do it' intention. Funny
that this is applied to every other situation in our eccentric little island of not-so-united kingdoms,
but that when it comes to Scotland, suddenly it is all 'exaggerated intake of breath, (imagine the
cliché of the builder/ plumber/ mechanic telling the naïve customer) oh nooooo, you don't want to
go and do that!' Though we have our genius and our prodigies, we need very much to develop a
collective sense of direction and self-assuredness, which will remain unaffected by such
undermining run-downs as the above.
It is so tangible when I have visited other countries, particularly where I am now in Italy; the
absolute surety of all people, even from a very young age; the stance, mannerism and words, all
shining with this standing-tall self-confidence. This is all that we could do with more of in our
young Scotland! I, like many other of the Scottish diaspora, cannot stand to be around this vacuum
of sureness: it is a draining, down-ward spiralling energy, which leads eventually to self-abuse and
self-destruction. It is the bane of our inheritance, and yet it is the code to unlock our own
transformation. When it comes to it, there will be no shortage of enthusiasm, abundance, energy
or resources in our liberated existence. We already have all that is necessary for our collective
evolution, whether it is on our own doorstep, or spread out around the planet, like its dynamic
ever-migrating, ever-returning population (who, whilst we're on the subject, bring a wealth of
ideas, resources, and energy back with them to Scotland, in a constant, self-initiated and selfsustaining
cultural enrichment programme). Remember that our small nation is loved worldwide,
not just liked, nor tolerated, but adored and welcomed throughout the lands. This is reason
enough to want to be independent of our southern neighbours, who are derided on so many
levels, for so many just reasons, and in so many countries.
Any major shift in power will necessitate a huge, balancing taking up of responsibility, and this will
mean looking at our own social structures, problems, dynamics. But likening our situation in
Scotland to the welfare state, this mutually-binding 'agreement' (if we can call it that) has served its
purpose, but outlived its use; it is no longer a functioning or sustainable system. The dole culture
now contains third (and probably fourth) generation folks who have never worked, and now,
frankly, never intend to. This has little to do with posts being available, or money being there to be
earned; rather it's a life choice, and this dynamic is mighty similar to our arrangement with the
London-based political structure, in which a large sector is kept docile and dis-empowered. In
time, we will all see the sense in a more appropriate (more local) rule, where the people who are
making decisions about life in crofts, villages, glens and islands, have actually been to a croft, village,
glen or island, and understand something of the biodiversity of our unique land. Hopefully, before
too long, we will start to see the logic of capturing the imaginations of the dis-empowered,
loosening their reins, giving them the responsibility to fend for themselves...
Obviously this independence malarkey will be neither all hunky-dory nor The Good Life, but
Scotland will grow in its own spirited way, into its own vision, under the steam of its own
inimitable, indomitable spirit. This spirit cannot be roused when it is being tied like Gulliver in
Lilliput by a million small strands of bureaucratic restriction from a vastly different culture, nor e.g.
when the flow of economics is so atrophied by home and business owners from the south buying
up land and property (and a better way of life), and pricing the Scots out of their own market. But
these issues are just part of the binds which we are already cutting away; Scotland will find its own
solutions in its own good time.
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