Greenock Telegraph 17th June 2022

On the 18th of September 2014 in Inverclyde 87.4% of the electorate cast their vote in the Scottish independence referendum. That was 2.8% higher than the national figure but some local authority areas registered over 90%. When you consider that turnouts for general elections in recent years have varied between 65% and 75% and that recent council elections struggle to reach 50%, it’s proof that the Scottish electorate are engaged in the constitutional question and that they very much want their opinion to be recorded. Why wouldn’t they? Who would not want to have a say in their nation’s ability to raise and spend its own money, set its own priorities and trade deals, control its own borders and foreign policy. That’s the normal behaviour for any country, unless your Scottish, in which case we have shed ourselves of these powers and the question is do we want them back. Maybe more surprisingly is that some people don’t see independence as the normal default setting, they are happier to allow a UK Government take these decisions for us even though what’s deemed good for the rest of the United Kingdom is not what we voted for in Scotland. The most recent case in point being to leave the European Union. And those who would remain in the union felt so strongly about not having the power and responsibility that they won the referendum in 2014. Imagine feeling so strongly that your nation is too wee, too poor and too stupid to govern itself that you would actively campaign and vote to remain subordinate. We will get the opportunity to reverse that decision and after Brexit, Boris Johnson, Tory austerity and more years of disrespect and neglect of the will of the Scottish people I would hope that the electorate once again engage in large numbers and when asked, Scotland independent? This time they will ask, why not?