Yes monthly column no.2
by Unknown - 11:40 on 07 April 2014
The following column first appeared in The Orcadian in March 2014.
Unfinished Business
A successful local businessman once told me that you should always keep an eye on your competition, but not so much as to mean taking your eye off your own ambitions.
With that in mind, I will open with the merest mention of fellow Orcadian Cameron Stout’s case for the status quo in the UK. I cannot agree more about pride in being Orcadian, Scottish and British. At different times I have cheered on Orcadian sportsmen and women as they competed against folk from other counties and countries, and held head in hands as Scotland failed to qualify for yet another major football tournament. And what British sports fan didn’t share joy in the achievements of Mo Farah, Chris Hoy and their Team GB companions at the 2012 Olympics.
The point is that this debate is not one of ethnic nationalism but rather of civic nationalism. Indeed, given some of the positive messages that have flowed across the border following Prime Minister David Cameron’s ‘love bomb’ from the Olympic velodrome in London, I think we can safely say that a large number of UK citizens living outwith Scotland are wishing us all the best, with some even keen to join us.
Far from imploring Scots to stay in an increasingly unequal union – the 100 richest people in the UK have wealth equivalent to the poorest 30%, or 18.9 million people - many have actively encouraged our move towards self-determination and our ambition to create a fairer society, with a more representative democracy.
I write this fresh from Monday evening’s Stromness Debating Society event in Stromness Town Hall, where the question posed was ‘Should Scotland be an independent country?’. With eloquent arguments from both sides – John Aberdein for the motion and Liam McArthur against - we also had numerous constructive contributions from the floor. The whole evening proved that this debate can be carried out in a civil manner and the quality of debate is most likely much higher away from the confines of television and radio studios, or the columns of many national newspapers. For the record, the vote was 67 for Yes, 25 for No, with 12 remained undecided.
At the heart of Monday evening’s debate was a strong sense that folk are every bit as interested in the creation of a more equal and just society as they are about the nuts and bolts of the economic case that is being painted both for and against independence. Indeed, away from the head-to-head political debates at a national level, there is an appetite for stepping away from what the political parties are saying can or cannot happen with a Yes vote, and to look at what we as the wider public in Orkney would like to see happen post-referendum.
Because that is the crux of the matter, and one that tends to be forgotten if all we pay attention to is the portrayal of the debate in the mainstream media. We are voting Yes in September to create a new independent country called Scotland; nothing more, nothing less. What follows will be the debate over the shape of that new country, and Orkney has a strong bargaining position from which to secure additional powers as part of the formation of a more equal society.
The campaign for more decision-making powers for Orkney, along with Shetland and the Western Isles, is continuing apace through the award-winning Our Islands Our Future. While I fully realise that this campaign led by the island authorities is non-political, given the lack of any powers gained in the years that we have been served by Liberal Democrats since Devolution I think it is clear that only a Yes vote is going to see these ambitions fulfilled. Promises that might have even partly fulfilled the kind of power transfer mooted by the Orkney Movement have proved to be empty.
What we have is unfinished business. Where previous efforts have failed, a strong Yes vote in Orkney will signal backing for what was envisaged as far back as 1984’s Montgomery Committee report in terms of consolidating, developing and extending the powers of Island Councils in ‘a continuing process of development in the local government of the islands’.
So, far from being on the edge of the fourth most unequal developed country in the world, Orkney – with, for example, additional decision-making and revenue-raising powers, and with stronger community benefit from renewables to be spent on people throughout the islands – can be part of a fairer society that can serve as an example to our friends south of the border.
If you are interested in joining the campaign for a Yes vote in Orkney, or have any questions about the case for independence then please email [email protected] or find the Yes Orkney page on Facebook and send us a message.
Robert Leslie
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