LETTER OF THE WEEK

Dear Sir,

SEIZE OUR CHANCE OR MISS THE TIDE

Power is a force that ebbs and flows in time. If the opportunity is missed, you will find yourself stranded in miserable shallows. Such is the case now. Restoring Scotland’s independence is a pre-requisite for economic recovery from Covid, as is restored access to the EU Single market whether via full EU membership or EEA or EFTA.

Brexit is already a clear and present danger. In the month of January 2020, the value of British State food and drink exports to the EU was £1 billion. Upon leaving the EU in January 2021, this fell by 75.51% to £256.4 million.

Scotland has particularly borne the brunt of Brexit with huge falls in exports to the EU. Data from HMRC show that since records began, Scotland is the only British State nation to consistently have exported more goods internationally than it imports. For example Scotland’s overall surplus in 2018-19 was £4.94 billion. England showed a deficit of £134.98 billion. Scotland’s exports are wide-ranging but whisky alone counted for 21% of the British State’s entire exports.

Yet Scotland’s potential is unrealised. Denmark sets the gold standard for exports but comes nowhere near Scotland’s natural wealth and broad-based assets. Even in the year of the oil crash, Scotland’s overall economy grew. With 8.4% of British State population, Scotland possesses 90% of its fresh water, 90% of hydropower, 96% of crude oil and 63% of gas (with potential for clean energy through hydrogen production), 60% of timber production, 70% of fish landings, and 25% of the entire offshore wind and tidal power of Europe. Scotland is a net exporter of power. It has the most educated people in Europe, with 47% of those aged 25-64 educated to degree level or equivalent. In 2018-19 its economy was worth £900 per head higher than the British State’s.

No wonder Westminster is determined to keep us. So why do we end up with a set of accounts showing a deficit? We don’t. The financial reports called GERS (Government Revenue and Expenditure Scotland) result in a false deficit. Scotland is charged a population ratio of British State debt. We pay, as examples, for water and sewerage renewal in the South East of England, for London underground costs, London airport expansions. We will be charged for HS2. Atrociously, we are charged for the costs but are not credited with income deriving from the construction (VAT, income tax, Corporation tax). This is credited to the Englisheconomy. Nor does Scotland gain the add-on benefits to local economies accrued from the investments. We are also charged for nuclear weapons sited in our country against our will.

Scotland has no borrowing powers so we were not responsible for accruing British State debt pre-2020 for which we pay interest. Indeed our economy was in surplus or had a smaller deficit than the rest of the other nations. Our oil revenues bank-rolled the British State for 40 years. From analysis of 39 years of GERS figures, if Scotland had been an independent country we would have zero debt. Currently for every pound paid to the British State we get a ‘grant’ of 68 pence back. We pay to put our electricity on the so-called national grid based in the South of England. Companies based there are paid to put electricity on. This undermines our ability to invest in renewables infrastructure.

So where are we now? Scotland has no powers over 39 key areas including: borrowing powers, currency, fiscal and monetary policy amounting to 70% of taxes raised, broadcasting, oil and gas, 85% of social security and benefits, immigration, pensions, product standards.  Although possessing most of the institutional infrastructure necessary for independence, we underperform in key indicators against independent countries with a similar population base and fewer resource. 

Scotland cannot continue to subsidise a disinterested British State that majors on inequality and has the worst old age pension in Europe. We don’t have the option of standing still. Brexit and Covid won’t allow this. However, post independence there is no reason why effective arrangements can’t be established with the remainder of the British State. As happened with the North of Ireland in relation to the EU and the island of Great Britain. Irrespective of bluster, RUK will be sufficiently motivated to access Scottish resources, especially water and electricity, to broker an arrangement. (As motivated as it currently is to oppose independence) 

Yet since 2014, progress towards independence has stalled. Election mandates to undertake a new referendum have been ignored. The Scottish Government has neglected to inform Scots about their country’s huge assets. Virtually no Scottish Civil Service time has been devoted to independence. It is not discussed by the SNP’s National Executive.  Meanwhile Westminster moves inexorably, removing powers and erecting obstacles to Scotland fulfilling its potential and protecting its people. 

We do not have to endure this. We can be a normal, self-determinIng country. Scotland’s nationhood was asserted by the Declaration of Arbroath. It is recognised as a country by the United Nations. Section 62 of the Convention of Vienna allows a country that has entered into an international Treaty such as the Treaty of Union to resile from that Treaty. And international law overrides any domestic law by which a ‘possessor State’ seeks to imprison the country seeking to depart. 

Through the advent of the Alba Party the people of Scotland have an opportunity to re-assert their Sovereignty by voting for a supermajority of pro-independence representatives at Holyrood. No one party has the ownership of independence. We need to come together to create a Parliament prepared to champion Scottish independence against a Tory Prime Minister who cares nothing for the people of Scotland, only for Scotland’s assets. We need to explore all routes, including but not relying upon a Section 30 agreement, to regain our self-determination.

Alba is serious about independence. Its purpose is to strengthen and deepen the movement for independence. It has a strategy to gain independence, is working on an economic policy on which the campaign will be anchored, and aims to enshrine the Sovereignty of the People in the written Constitution of an independent Scotland. This will empower any citizen to challenge actions infringing the rights of the people set out in the Constitution, as with the United States’ Constitution. 

I have two votes for the Scots Parliamentary election and can use each as I please. I shall vote Alba for my List MSP.

Yours faithfully

Joan Hutcheson