For eighteen months the Scottish people have been able to ponder
the referendum question, “Should Scotland be an independent country?”. The
people voted to stay part of the UK on 18 September 2014 with the No vote
winning by 55% to 45%. Whoever heard of a country voting to be governed by
another?
The Yes side was gaining on the No side and could indeed have
overtaken them by the date of the vote. On the weekend before the referendum
the lates poll showed the Yes side ahead for the first time. Panic ensued and
Prime Minister David Cameron, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and leader of
the Labour Party Ed Milliband rushed up to Scotland offering new powers for a
No vote, in what they called “The Vow”. Lots of us could see that offer for
what it was, a disingenuous knee-jerk reaction and political game playing of
the highest order.
Move
forward to the day after the referendum and David Cameron makes a speech that
links more powers to Scotland to reform of powers in England, a shifting of the
goal posts that already has the Yes voters saying, “I told you so”. This only
goes to harden my belief that politicians are shameless liars.
Yet
I need to move on from this otherwise I am consigning myself to cynicism and
nihilism and I don’t want that for my children or for my yet as unborn grandchildren. I have never been a
member of a political party, in part because my experience of politicians and
political parties is that they are self-seeking. However such is my
astonishment at the vote that I have decided to overcome this and join the
Scottish National Party (SNP).
I know I am not alone here and I hope that with the support of
many other like minded people we can build a better Scotland from within.
