The Referendum: Opening Comment

by Vabadus (promoted from comments)

The results are in: Scotland has rejected independence. I am pleased.

As an Englishman, my concerns throughout this debate have been solely about what will be best for England after the referendum. In the event of a yes vote, the influence of the Labour Party would have been considerably attenuated in the rest of the United Kingdom. Its chances of winning a General Election would have seemed very slim indeed, and the Conservative Party would have had a guaranteed win for many years.

Under ‘normal’ circumstances, I would welcome this. But the Conservative Party no longer espouses conservatism. Without the threat of losing power to Labour, largely because UKIP has been a prickly thorn in its backside, the Conservatives would not be forced to move to the Right or adopt any euroskeptic measures, such as the crucial in/out referendum. In fact, with the Conservative Party reinvigorated after the depletion of Labour MPs following a yes vote from Scotland, UKIP itself would automatically be weakened as a political force, plus many of its former Tory Party would simply return to the fold.

So, for this reason if no other, I was hoping for a Scottish no vote — oddly, we need both the Labour Party and UKIP to be strong enough to attack and squeeze and scare the Conservative Party. Only this way, with being booted out of office by Labour as a real possibility it can smell under its nose, will it be possible to set internal party debates raging and aim for some kind of reactionary outcome, whether it be by a complete realignment of the Conservative Party or by a good split down the middle that will kill the modern-day face of the party.

I am actually rather astonished that prominent libertarians, including those here at the Libertarian Alliance, have not seen this from a pro-English perspective. Some go as far as believing it will be better for Scotland too, which is ridiculously naïve. Naturally, I have no objection to secession in principle, but this referendum was not about independence in the abstract; the Scots were voting yes or no to the Scottish National Party’s White Paper. No libertarian can find common ground with that. I do not buy the idea that all secession is a good thing, rather in the same way that Sean Gabb does not always think that all freedom, denuded of context, is propitious (he opposed the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 while being supportive of legalising gay marriage in principle — the difference between which is similar to that between the Scottish 2014 referendum and secessionism in principle). Scottish independence — yes, but not yet.

Praise where praise is due, the exciting thing about the previously unimagined strength of the yes vote is that further devolution and decentralisation, for England and Wales as much as Scotland, is now a done deal. We have reached the cusp of irrevocable constitutional change, and a devo-max solution would be much more beneficial at this stage to all constituent nations of this country.