If you can carve out an hour-and-a-half, I'd recommend using it to watch this film from Rough Justice Films. This is what they have to say about it:
Scotland Yet is a feature length documentary that takes a radically different approach to the debate on Scottish independence.
Blissfully free of sound bites, politicians and statistics, Scotland Yet examines the sum of several personal stories from across the nation to explore the many reasons why we find ourselves at such an historic impasse.
Filled with remarkable characters and sparkling with collective imagination, vision and humour, this is the story of a society that’s beginning to see itself in a whole new light. From the old to the young, from veteran activists to bold artists, Scotland Yet delves into the past, documents the present and asks poignant questions about Scotland’s future.
This film focuses on the real referendum debate, the one taking place in the streets, homes and communities across Scotland. It documents the most important discussion we have ever had, as democracy, place, what we have here and what we lack, come to the fore.
A coming of age story about a whole society: Scotland Yet is a unique and radical cinematic journey about a country that will never be the same again.
Click the four-arrow button at the bottom right to watch it in full screen mode.
3 comments:
Okay, so it now seems pretty certain that Scotland will vote to remain within the UK. And this despite the fact that Salmond has put on a pretty good show.
Greater fiscal autonomy seems more or less certain. And surely no bad thing since the debate for independence seemed to be all about how to 'spend' rather than 'make' money.
Now, how can we bring about the same in Wales? Plaid Cymru's worst nightmare!
What seems pretty certain to you is far from certain to me, 23:13. I think the polls have underestimated (because they have nothing to go on to measure it) support from the working class in Scotland and, in particular, the group of people who think "there's no point in voting because voting never changes anything".
Normally it doesn't. But this referendum provides a real chance of changing things ... and it's the people at the bottom who most need things to change. It all depends on getting them to register (still a week to go) and then turn out and vote. Groups like Radical Independence have played and will play a vital part in this.
I'll make this prediction. If the turnout is more than 85%, Yes will win. If it's less than 80%, No will win.
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As for greater fiscal autonomy for Wales, there are two factors. The first is the principle of the Welsh Government being able to tax, the second is the way taxation could be used to stimulate the parts of the economy that would be of most benefit to Wales.
Unfortunately, we seem to have boxed ourselves into the corner of saying that we need a referendum on the principle (for the life of me, I don't understand why Plaid Cymru agreed to this in Silk). But of course we won't get one on the principle, we'll only get one when there are specific taxes in question, income tax in particular. However, in practical terms, no Welsh Government could actually use income tax alone as a way of stimulating the economy.
That is the fallacy of "greater fiscal autonomy" of the kind promised by the unionist parties for Scotland if they vote No. It makes not one scrap of difference if they have the power to vary income tax by 3p in the pound (as they have had from day one) or all but 10p in the pound (as they will get when the Scotland Act 2012 comes into force) or all of it (as some parties are now suggesting). What is in fact needed is control over a wide range of taxes. The ability to vary a range of taxes by a small amount is much more useful than the ability to vary one tax by a large amount.
Do you want an actual answer?
We probably can't bring it about in Wales any time soon, as although you claim that fiscal autonomy is a "nightmare" for Plaid Cymru, it is actually the unionist parties that insisted on a referendum being needed. The nature of the autonomy has also been limited with the so-called "lock-step", and while that could be removed, it is difficult to see a referendum being won easily. So while some kind of fiscal autonomy for Wales would work, many obstacles have been put in the way, and they haven't been put there by Plaid.
As for Scotland, I wouldn't hold your breath from a right-wing point of view on fiscal autonomy. The issue in Scotland is Barnett and namely, keeping Barnett. This always results in a relatively high level of public expenditure in Scotland which is why you get the perception of the debate being about "spending". They don't really need to debate about the "making" as much, because non-independent they've got Barnett, and independent they swap Barnett for the oil and gas revenues. The amounts are roughly similar; although unionists argue that the oil and gas revenues are more volatile.
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