Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Vote SNP for freedom?

The nationalist parties in Scotland and Wales are campaigning hard. They want "freedom" from England, but they seem unsound on liberty in general. They are Statist parties - they just want new States.

No libertarian candidate has a chance in Scotland - a fully Socialist country. Perhaps English libertarians should support the Scottish National Party? Scottish independence would remove from the Westminster Parliament many of the most hardline anti-libertarians; the true believers in "the State knows best" - men like Gordon Brown, for example. There's a man who never saw a freedom he liked, or a tax he didn't.

Scotland and Wales have provided more than their fair share of cabinet members and Prime Ministers. Partly that is because they have more than their fair share of Parliamentary seats, but it is more to do with the attractiveness of a political career to those more interested in "redistributing" the wealth of others than in the generation of wealth itself.

The "Celtic Fringe" has set the course of British politics for centuries. Public spending per head is higher in both countries than in England. Many English people would be amused to see the Scots and Welsh fund Socialism from their own resources, without English wealth to "redistribute".

It's a thought. But let's not forget that the main architects of the police state in Britain are Blunkett, Clarke and Blair. The first two are English, and Blair's Scottish roots are not particularly evident.

Prehistoric ethnic differences are of no interest to me. I am Welsh as it happens but I decline to hate my English mother because her ancestors arrived in the British Isles with a different set of primitive tribes to mine. It's just daft. But if the Scots and Welsh want to make something of it, maybe there is an opportunity here for English liberty?

4 comments:

Gareth said...

Well said!

Serf said...

I have often thouhgt that such a split could be the saving of all of us. Take away England's money and the Scots and the Welsh might just become capitalists.

Take away Celtic Socialism and England might just get to breathe again.

Tom Paine said...

My tongue was slightly in my cheek. The people of these islands are so close in terms of language, culture etc., that it makes no sense at all for them to be separatists. A lots of Scots and Welsh people are fed up with it. These "grievances" are hundreds of years old. It's ridiculous, tribal, primitive.

I personally would love to see a United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, but the sad fact is the Celts won't let it drop and English amused irritation is - thanks to Blair's devolution nonsense and the "Scottish Raj" in general - turning into genuine anger.

Gareth said...

I don't advocate a split, that's not what the CEP is about. There is a clear and logical case for making the nations of the UK constitutional equals and restoring fair representative democracy to the people. That can only be acheived by extending to the English, Welsh and Northern Irish the same powers that have been devolved to Scotland.

The way we are now is increasing hostility in relations between the home nations.