I am English. I was born in England. I have lived in England. I like English food and I enjoy the BBC on occasion. I am also British by virtue of having grown up in the United Kingdom and European by virtue of having grown up in Europe. This amalgamation of cultural identities is perhaps why I find it so hard to understand why Scottish people aren't particularly interested in being British but just love the idea of being European.
Now I should say that I am not in anyway opposed to Scotland having held an independence referendum.
I just don't understand why it was required.
Scotland has been part of the United Kingdom for just over 300 years, and even before that it was the Scottish Monarchy of the Stuarts who inherited the English Throne. Scotland 'won' the royalty game and put their royals on our throne.
So why do they seem so intent on leaving the UK?
Well I'm no expert but for the SNP at least it seems to revolve around the idea that Westminster is draining the life out of Scotland. That the English 'take take take' all of their precious oil (which arguably belongs to the whole United Kingdom and just happens to be based off the coast of Scotland) and return to them nothing but empty promises. This isn't even a problem they attribute just to the Conservative party either. They have levied similar claims against Labour in the past.
But the flaw in this logic is very easy to see when you take Scotland out of the equation.
Let's say the oil was in Warrington, a sleepy town in the north where I happen to have been born. Warrington is part of England. The UK Government has funded the oil extraction for years and all of a sudden a new political movement sweeps the town claiming that Westminster is stealing Warringtonian's hard earned oil cash while passing laws that don't only benefit Warrington but do benefit Basingstoke. Therefore Warrington should become it's own country and avid paying all our oil money to Westminster so it can support Basingstoke. Westminster compromises by giving Warrington it's own parliament with sweeping powers to set the Warringtonian agenda. The Warrington First party comes into power and... decides to hold an independence referendum which they lose... and then keep talking about independence and how they're going to hold a second referendum and maybe a third or a fourth until they get the result they want.
... Now I don't know where Scotland's logic goes wrong (perhaps because of the historical connotations of them as a formerly independent nation) but the truth of the situation I describe is that if Warrington wanted to declare independence because it's citizen's perceived there was some unfairness with taxation from their town being used to help people in another town we would say the town was just being selfish.
Except that doesn't seem to apply to Scotland. Even though it does.
English students at Scottish Universities have to pay tuition fees. European and Scottish students don't. This in most places would be described as discrimination against English students and it is petulant and childish. Selfish even given that for years it has been the money of the United Kingdom helped to fund those Scottish Universities which English students are discriminated against by.
Scotland claims that it is their oil because it off their coast. When in fact it is off the coast of the United Kingdom and it isn't just Scottish people working on the oil rigs and it isn't just Scottish money buying the oil rigs... selfish.
Scotland's government say they dislike Nuclear weapons and want them out of Faslane... even though it is a major investment by the UK government into Scotland which provides thousands of jobs for Scottish people and millions of pounds worth of business for Scottish businesses... petulant. Selfish and ultimately self harming.
Do these examples sound fair considering that we in the United Kingdom are supposed to be working together for the benefit of everyone in the United Kingdom?
No it doesn't.
Sometimes government's need to help one area more than another. Sometimes government policies hit one harder than another. For Scotland though to demand special treatment and claim that their fruits are theirs and so are some of ours isn't just hypocritical it's childish and to do it against the backdrop of demanding more and more independence referendums is just the last straw.
Scotland needs to stop fighting the UK and embrace it because I think all of us are getting a bit tired of them twisting the knife in and I can say now, as with all petulant children, we will eventually run out of patience.
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