What We've Won
Posted on February 19th, 2024
by Rab Bruce’s Spider
Mastodon: @RabBrucesSpider1@Mastodon.Scot
X / Twitter: @RabBrucesSpider
Living in Scotland nearly a decade after the IndyRef is a bit like being a losing contestant on the old darts/quiz game show, Bullseye. Or perhaps it is like that but in reverse. Instead of being shown, "Here’s what you could have won!", we are instead very much seeing what we have won, and it isn’t a very inspiring list. Instead of being a normal, self-governing country, with all the benefits and problems that go with that status, we are instead left with a huge list of problems and very few discernible benefits as part of the dysfunctional UK. So, in the spirit of sharing my grim mood, here’s a list of just some of the things being shackled to the UK in a so-called voluntary union have left us with. I know some of them could have happened if we had been a normal country, but being stuck in the UK has made even those bad things a lot worse.
Longer queues at borders as a result of Brexit;
Higher food prices;
Higher energy bills;
Lower exports;
Union flags emblazoned on Scottish food produce;
The proliferation and normalisation of food banks;
A Right Wing Government which is clamping down on our right to protest and which wants to remove our Human Rights;
The return of Victorian illnesses such as scabies, scurvy and rickets;
Falling life expectancy;
A rising pension age, with one of the worst pensions in the OECD;
Failing infrastructure due to lack of investment;
A Government which blames pretty much everything on immigrants and which is enacting horrific policies against refugees;
An economy in recession, with higher inflation than most OECD countries;
A Government riddled with corruption which sees Tory donors rewarded with peerages or enormous Government contracts;
Increasing levels of poverty, particularly among children;
One of the very worst rates of wealth inequality in the world;
And, to top it off, we have a media which is almost exclusively hostile to Scotland and which, in spite of all the things mentioned above, insists that we are better off as part of the UK. When you appreciate that bias, you’ll maybe start to see that the media is not serving your best interests.
I came up with that list in just five minutes. No doubt I have missed some other issues. Feel free to join in the chat on social media.