Tuesday, September 17, 2013

The morning after ...


* Friday 19th September 2014? *

A year to go until the referendum.

I've a shocking acknowledgement to make - I don't think the sky will fall in, if Scotland votes yes next year ...

... even more shocking - I don't think the sky will fall in, if Scotland votes no next year either.

Life will go on; the earth will continue to turn; the sun will rise.

Of course, the actual result will have a profound political impact on the country we live in.

But neither possible result - and I only wish more politicians would honestly admit this - will be a panacea for all of Scottish society's ills.

Now, it won't shock anyone to hear that I'll be voting no.

Just type 'devolution' in the top-left, blogger search-box; and scan through the results, and you'll quickly realise that I'm a (relatively) unusual - but hopefully consistent - unreformed, Labour Party (con)Federalist.

If I was to pick out one post, to illustrate my thinking, I guess I'd choose this one (and the links therein); but there are many more if you're inclined to undertake the suggested search ;-)

I have thought (rather sadly!) about these issues over several decades now, and basically remain fully committed to the cause of a Federal UK.

I completely accept that others, have arrived at a different decision - many of them may have settled on supporting Scottish Independence via a similar, constitutional (and political) trajectory to my own ... that's fine by me; I respect their view; and hope they respect mine.

366-days from now, regardless of the result, we'll wake up and the sky won't have fallen in; the earth will still be turning; and the sun will have risen ... and we'll need to collectively get on with attempting to make our country a better place to live in, for as many of its inhabitants as possible.

The vast majority of the people I know, on both sides of the referendum debate, are working to do just that today ... they'll be doing just that tomorrow; in a months time; and in years time.

Wouldn't the next 12-months be a little more interesting, and engaging, if we could all just keep that in mind as we move towards the morning of Friday 19th September 2014?

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