This is the link to my column for The National today:
'Johnson intends to wear his opponents down until the rules no longer work. Scotland must not accept that.' // @RichardJMurphyhttps://t.co/fbCbyWbb85
— The National (@ScotNational) July 23, 2021
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The problem that I see is that there is no “roadmap” (horrible cliche) to independence, so that all that exists is a series of reactive soundbites.
What is required is a sequence of infrastructure and data initiatives, including your emphasis on a Central bank and currency planning. It always should centre around the three key planning questions:
Where are we?
Where do we want to be (and when)?
How are we going to get there?
Unfortunately under the current leadership the answers to your questions are:
Where we want to be. (It’s nice and cosy!)
Right here. (It’s a nice gravy train.)
We’re already there. (Please don’t rock the boat by talking about Independence!)
I still worry that there are people in the SNP who would not mind not having a national central bank because as politicians they would reap the benefits of such structural weaknesses in the event of ant economic strife.
It’ the cuckoos already in the nest who bother me and whom we should be wary of.
If Westminster really wants to divide the fervent nationalists from the more moderate devolutionists, all it needs to do is give the Scottish Executive an appointment to the BoE MPC. Oh, and devolve drug and alcohol policy and taxation.
Unlike the EU negotiation in 2015/16 which showed they had virtually nothing to offer Cameron in the way of devolving powers, Westminster has some pretty juicy presents to make available if it so wishes of course.
Admitting I have no idea what’s really happening, isn’t Johnson’s plan just the on-going UK self-preservation strategy? Assets and means were in place and at work long before Johnson was a candidate for PM. He may have the job of cryer for The Union, distractor in chief, but I think Pilgrim Slight’s cuckoos are the real threat.
Where’s the case for building back a better Scotland to suit Scotland rather than Westminster? Where’s the vision of what that better Scotland might look? How’s a Westminster that allows cronyism to run free, that punishes the calling out of liars, anything but an obstacle to that better future?
People here seem to be working towards such a vision
Yes there are, and I admire their effort, but it feels as though the work is replaced by “shushing” the higher we look in the ranks of the SNP.