Scottish Discussions.
Jan. 21st, 2012 12:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
f4f3I'll probably be talking quite a bit here about Scottish Independence. I'll warn you off with an appropriate subject line. This should be an interesting couple of years, politics wise, and despite my best intentions the Scottish Independence campaign is probably the issue that will concern me most.
I say despite my best intentions because I've always seen Independence as a bit of a side issue. A nice to have. My primary concern has always been that we have a society that attempts to serve its members in the fairest way possible. I'm much more concerned about the equitable division of resources than what box those resources come out of.
That's meant that I've always thought Scotland should stay in the UK, and help make the whole of that political unit the best place it can be. You can imagine how that felt between 1979 and 1997, when Scotlan consistently voted for social democracy, and got Tory governments.
However, there's a window of a couple of years now when the game can be changed. So this, for me, is a time for tactics, the tactics of Independence, as part of the strategy for a fairer society. I'll write, later, about what I'd imagine the Scottish political landscape would be post-Independence, but for now I'll be writing about the immediate tactics of setting up a referendum which isn't controlled by Westminster.
I'm not sure how interested any of you will be in this. I've been struck, though, by how a lot of arguments I've considered settled are being raised in the English media (I use English here in a narrow sense, and with apologies to Welsh, Irish and indeed Scottish friends). I'd forgotten that a lot of issues we debated intensively in Scotland leading up to the Scottish Government election last year are new to a wider audience, so I'll be recapping some of that here.
I'll use my Brave Cow icon (thanks Keef, thanks Frankie) for these posts.
I say despite my best intentions because I've always seen Independence as a bit of a side issue. A nice to have. My primary concern has always been that we have a society that attempts to serve its members in the fairest way possible. I'm much more concerned about the equitable division of resources than what box those resources come out of.
That's meant that I've always thought Scotland should stay in the UK, and help make the whole of that political unit the best place it can be. You can imagine how that felt between 1979 and 1997, when Scotlan consistently voted for social democracy, and got Tory governments.
However, there's a window of a couple of years now when the game can be changed. So this, for me, is a time for tactics, the tactics of Independence, as part of the strategy for a fairer society. I'll write, later, about what I'd imagine the Scottish political landscape would be post-Independence, but for now I'll be writing about the immediate tactics of setting up a referendum which isn't controlled by Westminster.
I'm not sure how interested any of you will be in this. I've been struck, though, by how a lot of arguments I've considered settled are being raised in the English media (I use English here in a narrow sense, and with apologies to Welsh, Irish and indeed Scottish friends). I'd forgotten that a lot of issues we debated intensively in Scotland leading up to the Scottish Government election last year are new to a wider audience, so I'll be recapping some of that here.
I'll use my Brave Cow icon (thanks Keef, thanks Frankie) for these posts.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-21 12:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-21 12:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-25 02:19 pm (UTC)An important factor is the business creation rate, which is pretty low in Scotland compared to England and the Scandinavian countries we may want to emulate.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-25 02:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-25 04:50 pm (UTC)Issues of tax incidence suggest that CT rates probably affect established multi-nationals with diversified shareholders. I think the Irish example shows that many companies with global operations "re-located" to Ireland rather than many indiginous businesses starting up.
The reasons for people starting a business are many and complex and often not primarily to do with short term money making (which is where CT would have an impact).