Independence… from the country that wants independence?
Historically, independence has always been a drive to bring (more) decision-making powers to the people. Those who have a basic understanding of history will, at the very least, know that independence movements have been around since the dawn of man.
We are all aware of the Scottish Nationalist (oops) Party and their aims to split our country (would this be easy?), but one thing they may not have seen coming is the recent vote by the Councillors of the Shetland Islands. Angered by the centralisation of power within the Scottish Government, Councillors on the Shetland Islands voted by a 90% majority to explore options for breaking away from Scotland. One of those options is even to become a crown dependency of the UK.
It seems that Sturgeon and her trusty SNP crew have failed to spin the power grabs of her Government to the people of the Shetland Islands…
Decentralisation is a good thing, but this doesn’t just mean taking power away from the UK Parliament to give it to another; rather, these powers should be given to local councils so they can adopt plans as they see fit. It is surprising to see the likes of Ian Blackford moaning about the centralisation of power towards Westminster, while simultaneously attempting to obfuscate the constant centralisation of the Scottish Government’s own powers since the dawn of devolution two decades ago.
It’s a given that Scotland would suffer incredibly in the medium term with a vote to break from the most successful union in history, but what is becoming apparent is that the next thing to happen would be independence *from* an independent Scotland. There’s a reason why the SNP does not discuss it – it does not suit their narrative.
Here’s a tip for the SNP: if you want to truly make Scotland a stronger country economically and politically, then decentralise your powers and drop the independence narrative.
