Scotland – The Case Against Independence Following the elections held on 6th May 2021, Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP), ramped-up her calls for a 2nd Scottish Referendum on whether Scotland should become an independent nation. The SNP’s ultimate goal is to achieve independence for Scotland. If they succeed it will end more than 300 years of political union. The United Kingdom of Great Britain as we know it, will cease to exist. The Acts of the Union1 which combined the Kingdom of England2 and the Kingdom of Scotland, thereby creating a new single sovereign state, will be repealed. But would a “Yes” vote in an independence referendum be a victory for Scottish patriotism and benefit Scotland as a whole, or would it be an economic disaster of enormous proportions for the whole of the United Kingdom? Historical Considerations To consider the answer to that question, it is necessary to look back at Scottish history. Prior to the Union with England in 1707, Scotland was the poorest country in Western Europe. Following the Union, Scottish merchants had access to England’s trade monopolies and overseas markets in America, Caribbean, Africa, India and the Far East whereby the Scots not only flourished but also contributed to the financial and economic success of the newly created United Kingdom. As renowned historian Simon Schama once wrote of the Union, “What began as a hostile merger, would end in a full partnership in the most powerful going concern in the world ... it was one of the most astonishing transformations in European history.” It is clear that the Union created a synergy effect whereby both Scotland and England prospered in a way that was greater than either country could have achieved if they had remained separate nation states. The Jacobite rebellions of 1715 and 1745 tried to break the Union and re-establish Scotland as an independent state, but had they succeeded, Scotland would have reverted to a feudal clan system and would once again have been plunged into economic poverty. But following 1745, Scotland continued to prosper and entered into a period which became known as the “Scottish Enlightenment”. By the latter part of the 18th Century, Scotland had achieved general literacy in its population, the first country in Europe to do so. Prominent Scots emerged to take the lead in many fields, with figures such as David Hume, regarded as modernity’s first great philosopher whose unorthodox views made him a legend in his own lifetime. Another was Adam Smith, the first great modern economist who wrote “The Wealth of Nations”. 1 The two Acts were, The Union with Scotland Act 1706 which was passed by the Parliament of England, while the Union with England Act 1707 was passed by the Parliament of Scotland. 2 In 1707, The Kingdom of England included the modern-day England and Wales.
Together with other outstanding Scottish intellectuals, they were part of a club known at the Select Society which, for a period a ten years, was the principal Edinburgh based forum of the Scottish Enlightenment period. And it should be noted that many members of the Select Society were Edinburgh volunteers who fought against the Highland armies of the Jacobite Rebellion. These prominent Scots, regarded as intellectual giants, put their lives on the line and fought to maintain the Union with England! As we move through the 19th and 20th centuries we can cite numerous examples of how Great Britain prospered, whereby the Scots, in partnership with our neighbours in the rest of the UK, worked together to achieve unprecedented levels of success. It was our combined talents, abilities and resources that created the British Empire; a complex collection of dominions, territories, colonies, military bases and assorted dependences which eventually covered 20% of the world’s land-mass and approximately 25% of the world’s population. When one examines the history of each location within the British Empire, there appears a small coterie of Scottish men and women which took a leading role and which had a major impact, but the Scots were not alone! They worked together with their English counterparts to achieve success! Cleaving the Union Tapestry After three centuries of union, England and Scotland have not only prospered together, but also have developed a rich tapestry of complex, intricate legal, political, financial and military ties. It is a foregone conclusion that those ties would have to be severed if Scotland voted for independence. But it is not as simple at taking a claymore and cutting the tapestry down the middle! It will be necessary to tease out and separate every individual thread of the tapestry, then to abandon each thread and replace it with two lesser and different strands. As many know from personal experience, a divorce between two individuals is generally messy, emotionally stressful and very expensive when lawyers come into the picture. Imagine a “divorce” on a scale which is millions of times greater than two individuals, and where the lawyers have to work out all the legal intricacies to undo 300+ years of a union. Legal costs alone may well cripple the economy of an independent Scotland! Let us consider a specific example. In 2007 a major infrastructure project was underway in Scotland to modify the north-eastern rail links from Newcastle to Edinburgh and to divert them to run under a planned development of Edinburgh Airport. The SNP gained control of the Scottish Parliament and arbitrarily cancelled the project which had been instigated by the previous Labour administration. A lucrative development project which would have provided Scotland with jobs, business opportunities and enhanced Rail and Air Travel infra-