In the 2014 referendum, Tory and Labour Westminster politicians said “every Scot will be £1,400 better off every year” if there was a ‘No’ vote. Reports now say that UK workers are missing out on over £10,000 a year, with UK living standards falling behind other G7 nations, as well as Australia and the Netherlands. The cost-of-living crisis has exposed how the Westminster promises of 2014 were empty. And this is no joke; the same Westminster politicians seriously argued that this £1,400 meant people could “scoff 280 hotdogs” or drink ’636 cappuccinos’. Instead, food banks have risen year on year.

Since then, it’s been revealed that compared to neighbouring countries in north-west Europe, the UK in the 21st century has had the least wealth per person, the most poverty, and the greatest gap between rich and poor; and countries similar in size or smaller than Scotland are wealthier and more equal than the north-west European average. With a huge offshore energy potential, a food and drink sector worth around £15 billion – over £2,700 per person – and one of the best-educated populations in Europe, why is Scotland in the UK trailing its neighbours so badly?

Because those countries don’t have government from Westminster frequently run by a Tory party, they haven’t voted for in nearly seven decades. They get governments they voted for with policies they want, and the results can be seen in how they are wealthier, fairer and happier than the UK.

Despite their 2014 claims, Westminster isn’t working for Scotland on the cost-of-living crisis, but independence is works for those countries. So why shouldn’t work for Scotland too?

 

 

An equal partnership

In 2014, Westminster politicians promised Scotland would be an equal partner in a UK that was in the EU. They scoffed at warnings Boris Johnson could become Prime Minister.

But we did get Boris Johnson as PM … and Liz Truss and now Rishi Sunak. The Tories have taken Scotland out of the EU against its democratic wishes and imposed Westminster controls on the Scottish Parliament despite promising there would be more powers with Brexit. Other Brexit promises haven’t been delivered. Despite promises to farmers and fishermen, food exports to the EU have been more than decimated. Then there’s the threat to Scotland’s NHS. With Brexit the Westminster government has scrapped laws that would protect the NHS from being opened up to US-style health corporations.

Does that feel to you like the equal partnership promised in 2014?

The only way Scotland can now have a genuine equal partnership with the rest of the UK is through independence. Equal partnerships work. Just look at the Nordic countries. Their people move freely, work, and live in each other’s countries, but they all remain independent of each other, making economic decisions that suit their particular countries—decisions that make them some of the wealthiest, fairest, and happiest countries in the world.

Independence with real equal partnership works for them. It can work for Scotland, too.

Westminster isn’t working for Scotland, and the only way to get rid of the Tories for good at the next election is a vote for the SNP