I’ve explained in prior columns that the groups opposing Scotland reclaiming its independence have been feverishly switching from threats to bribes as the polls on the likely vote on independence became a toss-up. My favorite proposed bribe was suggested by “Lord Prescott” – a Labor “Peer.”
“Lord Prescott also suggested a combined England and Scotland football team.
‘Perhaps if England and Scotland together had one team, we could at last beat the Germans – who knows?’ he said.”
Politicians are under huge pressure, particularly when things are going horribly wrong as they seem to be with England’s efforts to convince the Scots to spurn independence, to say something profound. They rarely become politicians because they are capable of profound thinking however, so in every nation their efforts at being thoughtful often turn out tragicomic. The vote “No” effort is so desperate that it has recruited former Prime Ministers Gordon Brown and John Major, the UK’s most unpopular, failed leaders. They have made it their mission, very late in the contest, to try to convince Scots not to recover their independence. The “No” leaders relied primarily on threats to punish the Scots should they dare to vote for independence. This turned a referendum they were almost sure to win by a wide margin into a PR disaster. Now, with the polls showing that the “No” forces could succeed in snatching defeat from what should have been a decisive victory, they are casting about desperately for some positive reason that will resonate with the average Scot to make her or him want to be a Brit. The anti-independence politicians have tried over a dozen variants of this latest strategy in the last two days (along with a switching from extortion to last minute promises of greater autonomy).
The “no” campaign against independence has reached the stage of endgame panic that leads to desperately throwing charges and publicity stunts at what the polls indicate are increasing support for independence among Scots. Over the last several days we have seen a new anti-independence troika emerge – Gordon Brown, Mick Jagger, and Paul Krugman. I have written previously about the unintended self-parody of making a “rogue” like Brown the “spearhead” of the joint effort by the Tories, Labor, and the (vanishing Lib-Dems) to convince the Scots not to reclaim their independence. (Note to the “better together” opponents of independence – “spear” metaphors aimed at the Scots are best avoided, particularly when wielded by the kind of Scottish “rogues” that Burns denounced in his famous poem about the corrupt and treasonous origins of Scotland’s “union” with Great Britain.)
I just wrote a column noting that the business interests trying to panic the Scots against voting to restore their independence were so clueless that they were citing RBS – the bank that epitomized the fraud epidemics that drove the UK economic collapse. As I have explained in prior columns, the City of London “won” the race to the bottom with Wall Street and became the most shameful and destructive fraud vector in the world.
In the day since I wrote my column three developments reflect the increasing desperation. First, a poll showed (for the first time) the “yes” campaign with a small lead. Second, the UK began to try to entice, rather than threaten, Scotland with vague promises of increased autonomy should the Scots vote against independence. Third, the “no” campaign has wheeled out Gordon Brown to write a column in the New York Times opposing independence.
I do not know whether the Scots should vote for independence. I assume that the odds are they will vote against it. I do know that the reasons advanced for voting against independence by business interest are false. Indeed, the opposite of what they claim is far more likely to be true. What I find a joy to behold, however, is the suggestion by the banksters that the Scots should get their economic advice about independence from a group of failed and often fraudulent parasites and that they should avoid any action that creates “uncertainty” or would cause them to act as a Nation rather than a U.K. province. There is a serious effort to make independence from the Brits sound like the path of economic madness.
Family tradition says my relatives came from Ireland, Scotland, Germany, and Denmark – so I’m probably a typical American mutt. As an Irish-American I learned early about London’s disgraceful treatment of its first colony, Ireland. Indeed, but for London’s malign neglect my Irish relatives would likely never have emigrated and I would not exist. I cannot, therefore, claim objectivity when it comes to the subject of independence for Scotland. While I have no right to tell Scots how they should vote I would personally vote for independence.
My focus is on how the Tories are seeking to intimidate Scots to vote against independence. The point is made in the title of a recent New York Times article: “Scots Are Divided Over Independence, and Its Economic Costs.”
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