Labour's case for the union (is pretty sucky)

Woo hoo, I just got Labour’s case for the union posted thru my door. They say “We believe in an idea bigger than independence. That is the pooling and sharing of resources across the UK for the benefit of everyone in the UK” – ideas are lovely, but the reality is we have and will continue to have, without independence, a UK run disproportionatly in favour of London and South East England.

“What Scotland in the UK means for you”(you? me presumably)

“A stronger Scottish parliament with new powers over tax and welfare” – whit? Give more powers to the same shower of shite already esconsecd at Holyrood? No ta, I’d rather the structure of the Scottish polity was transformed thank you very much.

“Scottish pensions supported by tax paid by workers from across the UK” – but as net contributors to the UK exchequer we’re paying English pensions at the mo.

“ An increased minimum wage paid across the UK, not a race to the bottom on worker’s rights and pay” – Nice, but completely besides the point given the policies being discussed to make Scotland more business friendly are more to do with corporation tax than labour law.

“Scottish defence jobs supported by contracts from the UK government” – by contrast an independent Scotland could get an immediate peace dividend by right sizing its military spending into line with its actual economy. So with no change in total spending or taxes, public spending could be used to constructively create jobs by building say social housing instead of bombs.

“Our NHS, where you are treated on the basis of need not which part of the UK you come from” – Nice, but again completely beside the point given we already have NHS Scotland, which already runs according to different principles. If the argument being made here is that the NHS would be disbanded post-independence, then that’s hella dumb even by Johann Lamont standards.

“Lower mortgage and borrowing costs – we use one of the most secure and trusted currencies in the world and have the financial back-up of being part of the UK” – the currency is up for debate (though see this lovely article about it) and I’ve no idea where the lower mortgage costs spiel comes from given how closely linked the economies would be post-independence e.g. I’ll just pop to Carlisle for my mortgage thank you very much.

“Best for business – with a home market of 60 million people Scottish businesses trade twice as much with the UK than the rest of the world combined” – so we do, and? Or is the argument being made here the Rest of the UK would lock Scotland out? I don’t think so and that's not even taking EU membership into account.

So yeah, utter, utter pants based largely on bollocks scare mongering, petulance, made up tosh and the false notion that staying in the union means we’ll get to continue cadging off the Rest of the UK. Can I have some Scottish independence please!