Why the Scots MUST vote for independence! It'll save the rest of us a fortune, says a very provocative Simon Heffer

By Simon Heffer 18 September 2013

Over the next 12 months, it will be distressingly hard to avoid Scottish voices on TV and radio droning on about whether or not Scotland should vote in a referendum to leave the United Kingdom next year.  To make matters worse, it is increasingly a debate from which the English, who as taxpayers send a hefty subsidy to Scotland each year to keep that country afloat, are wilfully excluded.

In a true democracy we, too, would be allowed our say, with a vote of our own next September, since there are two of us in this particular marriage.  Since the mid-Nineties I have been convinced that England and Scotland would benefit from a divorce, or at least from a trial separation. Many Scots don’t much like the English and appear ungrateful for everything that England does for them in showering them with money.  Thus my friendly advice to our Scottish cousins as they contemplate this great constitutional moment is this: vote ‘yes’, for independence.

It would be the equivalent of turning on a very, very cold shower, and would wake Scotland up to reality. The truth is that those nationalists who argue that Scottish prosperity is retarded by their ‘English oppressors’ are in living in cloud-cuckoo land.  Furthermore, I believe that an independent Scotland would soon find itself unequal to the struggle of self-government, because the English money tap would be turned off. Its people would have to work, or starve.  To Read More......

My Take – For my readers who haven’t discovered that treasure trove of articles you will never see on other web sites, please allow me to make you aware of  RealClearWorld. 

This is a site that has every possible take on every country and every issue in the world at some point. Don’t make the mistake of believing they have a view, either conservative, traditional, radical, leftists, etc. They let all the sides spout their views, and that’s what I like about it. It gives me the opportunity to sharpen my arguments, but I have to warn you; you must make yourself aware of the history of the world to get the full appreciation of what is being talked about. Some of it is loony and some of it is brilliant, but it’s all thought provoking.

Now - as for this Scottish issue! I distinctly remember when Quebec, Canada voted on seceding from the rest of Canada, the polls were way over the top...publically everyone wanted out.  In 1967, speaking in Montreal, Charles de Gaulle shouted "Vive le Québec libre!" (Long live free Quebec!) This moment is “still a significant milestone of Quebec's history to the eyes of most French Canadians.”  Now it takes real arrogance for a national leader to come to someone else’s country and encourage secession, but, that was Le Grand Charles.... crusty arrogance! But in spite of all that hype.....the vote was different. The nationalists suffered a serious defeat. That may be the case with Scotland.

However, since my wife is of Scottish descent, and has visited Scotland....and loved it.....it disappoints me to find Scotland is in such a moral morass. They seem to be addicted to welfare, alcohol and drugs to the point they are the worst in Europe. It doesn’t matter how much infrastructure the government invests in if the problem is the crumbling moral foundation of their society.

It appears to me they face the consequences of the same malady that Greece faces; the consequences of socialism. Socialism offers godless utopia, but always delivers godless dystopia because socialism has no moral foundation except the need to dominate eveyone's life.