Red, White and Blue

Here's an intelligent contribution to the referendum debate by Mary Dejevsky writing in The Independent - intelligent because it doesn't portray independence as a magic bullet or a solution for every problem, but as an opportunity for people to be at ease with themselves and in control of their own affairs. 

Although I also like the anecdote about the Red Arrows - isn't is mazing how small minded and petty politicians can be.

History shows that if Scotland gains its independence it won't look back with regret

When I visit the Baltic States today I find countries and people that are quite strikingly happier for the chance they took to be themselves

By MARY DEJEVSKY - The Independent

Standing in the throng outside Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall last Saturday, as a flag-waving “flash mob” gave several spirited renditions of “Caledonia”, I was reminded of nothing so much as the scenes I witnessed in the Baltic States almost 25 years ago. There were the happy shining faces, the flags and the singing. But there was also the sense of solidarity and determination; the youth-led hope for a better future, and the nostalgia that resounded in the chorus about “coming home”.

All right, so the parallels are not exact. The people of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia were states that had been occupied and repressed by a vast country that was far poorer and clumsier than they were. Not even the most ardent Scottish nationalist could reasonably argue that the English treated their northern neighbour as the Soviet suzerains treated their subject nations.

But when the Baltic States became the first Soviet republics Union to press their claim to sovereignty – and drove the first visible cracks into that doomed empire – their protests were not just about liberation and about righting great historical wrongs. They were also about people reclaiming their national heritage and determining their own future. If anyone had tried to deter them with warnings that their currency might not be viable, or that the Western clubs where they sought shelter might not welcome them, they would have carried on regardless.

Such arguments about accounting and belonging may gain greater traction in Scotland, where independence could bring losses as well as gains, but they are not the clinchers that Westminster politicians – and City bankers and big business – apparently believed them to be. The whole point of asserting your sovereignty and establishing yourself as an independent state is to be able not just to command your own destiny, but to take the responsibility for it. Your economy, your politics, your welfare state, will be what you make it. If there are hard choices to be made, then you will make them. And if there is suffering to be borne, you will bear it, but it will be in aid of your own future, not someone else’s.

Separation, whether sought, or reluctantly embraced – as it was by several of the Central Asian republics after the Soviet Union collapsed – is not always a success. The division of Sudan three years ago has been murderous, but then united Sudan was hardly a haven of peace and prosperity before. Not all former colonies improve their fortunes the moment they celebrate their independence. And some countries use their freedom not to separate, but to reunite, as Germany did – and the Koreas may one day do.

For the most part, though, those countries that have gained or regained their independence – starting with the United States more than two centuries ago to the post-Soviet states 25 years ago – are more than content with their lot. No one, of course, can say what would otherwise have been. But when I visit the Baltic States today, or the Czech Republic, or Slovakia, or even – dare I say – Ukraine, I find countries and people that are quite strikingly happier for the chance they took to be themselves.

There have been hardships and poor management, Scotland might note. Latvia, in particular, endured a period of austerity harsher by far than anything most “old” EU countries suffered, in order to preserve its currency’s peg to the euro. The country looks and feels poorer because of that; almost 20 per cent of its young people have left to find work elsewhere. But they have a home to return to that is distinctive and is making its own future. It may be a less vibrant place than in the first flush of independence and EU membership, but the contrast with the occupied country of the Soviet years could not be greater.

The Czechs and Slovaks feel better about themselves, tangibly so, for their “velvet” divorce. There is competition, even a little envy between them – the Czechs can hardly believe that the Slovaks joined the euro first and made a success of it, and they would like a more resonant name than the Czech Republic (Bohemia, perhaps). The Slovaks see the mass of tourists who flock to Prague and would like some of that income. But I have met no one who would return to a shared country.

Yes, nationalism harbours dangers, as Europe knows all too well. But the sense of new nationhood is largely benign and its allure should never be underestimated. The panic in Westminster reflects the profound failure of most leading UK politicians to understand this. It is a failure that is perhaps forgivable in a country that has enjoyed such stability for so long, but it is still a failure – tinged with assumed superiority and the condescension that breeds.

To those who deny that London patronised Scotland’s aspirations, I offer this. Yesterday, as I walked down Whitehall, the St Andrew’s flag was flying from Downing Street, from the Cabinet office and the Ministry of Defence – a gesture, as we know, to the Scots from David Cameron to say, please, we really want you to stay. In July, though, a small detail sent another message.

I remarked in this space then, almost in passing, that it seemed a pity that the Red Arrows had trailed red, white and blue smoke as they flew over Glasgow for the Commonwealth Games. It is known now that the initial plan had been for blue and white only, but that this was overruled by the (new) defence secretary, Michael Fallon, on the grounds that the Red Arrows belong to the whole of the UK. That might have been a mistake.