A huge thank you to James Stuart who submitted this Artcile to Unity News Network (UNN) on the 29th October 2019, approved for publication by Carl D. Pearson, Editor-in-Chief of UNN on the same day.
Please NOTE: This is an opinion piece and not the opinion of the editorial team at Unity News Network (UNN). We are a forum for free speech and ideas and are always open to publishing different ways of thinking from others.
A change in the wind…
Scotland is a country which evokes strong opinions and equally potent cultural stereotypes. Yet there is a strong sense of working-class comradeship, which in the course of my work as a fundraiser for Shelter Scotland I have been lucky to witness. When one approaches a door in Glasgow, a sense of reticence and excitement permeates within me. Glasgow, the city of Scotland which I am the most familiar has behind its closed doors a sense of moral outrage, and more crucially, a fundamentally European attitude towards strangers.
I am a man who fundraises on the streets of Scotland with a strong, some would say posh, English accent. Though I am neither posh nor English, one would think that the reception such a voice might have in Scotland’s greatest metropolis would be at best, mixed. I am continually delighted by how wrong that presumption is. I have long conversations with Scottish working-class folk, pleasantly taken aback by the knowledge and care Scots take in their politics and the impact policies have on their lives.
To these people, the Brexit circus seems not to intrude on their lives much. Austerity, and trying to feed their families are the issues which many in Scotland worry about the most. In the course of my work, I have also detected a shift. Many working-class Scottish folks voted against independence because quite justifiably I might dd, they were frightened of the prolonged period of uncertainty.
There is real change in the wind now. Young people and workers have found themselves in the position of beginning to feel more European than British. If offered the choice between remaining in a Union run by far-right Brexiteers or leaving a Union and finding themselves welcomed by the European family of nations, the answer would be Brussels, not London. Austerity, and the subsequent damage to the social fabric of the working classes, has made the British Union untenable in the minds of many.
Walking the streets of Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee and communicating the urgency of the need for funds by Shelter, one is continually struck by the desperation and willpower of the Scottish people. An immediate reverse of punitive and failed policies such as Universal Credit would also not alleviate the damage and hurt that many Scots feel towards Westminster. Undoubtedly, the answer to the Scottish question will be decided by Westminster once again. Yet I urge the Scottish people be given the choice to decide their own fate, instead of once again finding themselves at the mercy of Tory Britain.
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