Martin Hannan: Embrace the 'F' word to dictate our future

Published on Tuesday 8 December 2009 08:52

POLITICIANS and their hangers-on in parts of the media would reduce the debate about Scotland's future to mere money in your pocket and some vague appeal to a defunct loyalty to the Union.

This conscienceless mob cannot be trusted with the greatest decision this nation will face. It is for the people to decide on the ultimate moral question about Scotland, to which I believe there can be only one answer.

Let me state my personal case: a Labour-supporting trade unionist as a youngster, I long ago came to the conclusion that only if Scotland is independent can this nation achieve its full promise. Only the SNP works and campaigns for independence, and independence is coming – not because it will make people richer, but because it is right. That's why I joined the party.

My belief is that from Stromness to Stranraer, from the Brig O'Dee to Bridgeton, and all across this nation, a new generation is rising which wants no truck with half-hearted democracy.

Forget the polls which try to make the case for the Union's popularity. This generation knows that the right thing is to choose independence. For only with independence comes true freedom.

I know some people who believe in independence shudder when they hear the "F" word, because it usually appears to have the accent of Mel Gibson in Braveheart. But if independence means anything, it means freedom.

Ask yourselves this: how free are you when your leaders have to go cap in hand to London for this country's public income? How free are you when your neighbour thinks it subsidises you? If that is indeed the case, is it right that we should be subsidised?

How free are you when young Scots are sent to fight and die in dubious conflicts that no Scottish Parliament of any hue would ever have sanctioned? How free are you when megatons of nuclear explosives that your immediate leaders do not control are lodged on the Gare Loch not 30 miles from Glasgow? How free are you when your media are almost all controlled from elsewhere? How free are you as a Scot in a Union where you will always be a second-class nation?

It's about freedom, yes, but about something deeper. It's about your very heart and soul, about what makes a person Scottish. It's really rather easy to define Scottishness – you only have to ask yourself how you feel about Scotland.

If you care for Scotland, love it, want to see it grow, are prepared to work for its future, and believe in the varied community of Scotland, then you are a Scot.

Conversely, if you see the future of this nation as an issue of whether you'll be personally better off or not, then get out of the debate – you're not really Scottish. You're too wee in spirit.

The point is this – unless a majority of Scots want independence for morally correct reasons, then it is a non-starter. We have to want it, be prepared to struggle for it, know that, yes, there may be a hefty price to pay for the freedom to make the choices for our own future.

I want a free Scotland for Scots to be free to become the people they can be. I want native talent to flourish, for our young people to have hope of a better nation. I want a modern, vibrant, wealthier, fairer, inclusive Scotland, and I want it now.

Yet we need politicians to deliver this moral imperative. I have been fortunate to meet and to talk with Alex Salmond, Nicola Sturgeon, Kenny MacAskill, Fiona Hyslop, Mike Russell and others in the government, and I believe them to be the most honest and committed set of politicians this country has produced in decades, just as I know decent members of the Labour, Lib Dem, Conservative, and other parties who would be similarly committed to their respective causes in an independent Scotland.

Sadly, the SNP is hamstrung by pusillanimous cowards who will attempt to halt the referendum. The gutlessness of these Unionist curs will not stop but merely delay the inevitable plebiscite, and then I hope you will ask yourself this fundamental question: who am I and what kind of Scotland do I want?

All I ask is that you then set aside small-mindedness and wallet concerns, and consider this: deep down, are you prepared to stand up for all that being a Scot means? Are you prepared to do the morally right thing and take the only decision that makes sense? Or are you the wee-souled people?

I hope, I believe, that when the question is put, the majority of people in this nation will answer, once and for all, that they are Scottish, and that they want a better country free to make its own decisions, to negotiate new relationships with its neighbours, to prosper and take its rightful place in the community of nations.

The people will choose hope over fear, and independence will then arrive, as bright blessed day follows dead dark night. And it will be right, morally correct, and a most wondrous thing.

Set aside wee things, and soon we can all be giants.