Martin Hannan: Vote yes to put Capital on map

When David Cameron and Ed Miliband get together to tell you that you are wrong, you can take it that you are right.

The Posh Twit and the Wrong Brother ganged up last week to try to bully Scots into accepting their flawed view of the future of the great referendum debate. They are perfectly entitled to promote the Union, but they are completely wrong, not to mention off their trolleys, to ignore the democratically expressed view of the Scottish people, which, unless I was on a different planet last May, was definitely for the SNP, the party of which I am a member, which campaigned openly on having a sensible referendum on independence in the latter half of the present Scottish Parliamentary session.

Democracy says the Scottish Government has the mandate for the referendum on its terms, but the coalition poltroons in Westminster can’t accept that they were beaten – no, absolutely hammered – in the Holyrood election. They got 20 seats in total, a reduction of 17 on the previous joint amount recorded by the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

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The SNP ended up with 69 seats, more than three times the coalition’s joint haul, and thus my party gained the overall majority that was never supposed to happen. No wonder Cameron and his pathetic lapdog Michael Moore are quoting “legality” to back their case, as they do not have a leg to stand on politically or democratically, so they are signalling they will run to the courts – which will be the Supreme Court, of course, bastard creation of a disgraced Labour government and a supine legal establishment that is increasingly just a succubus to political devilment. Now do you realise why Alex Salmond and Kenny McAskill were so vexed about the Supreme Court? They saw all this coming, and can see why this imposed court could well be a curse on Scotland.

There is an even more worrying development from Perfidious Albion. Over the last few days, I have heard more and more the word “decisive”, as in “the referendum must be decisive”. The Unionists are using “decisive” in the way that Labour party apparatchik and failed MP George Cunningham did when making his bizarre proposal for the 40 per cent rule prior to the 1979 referendum.

Cunningham’s move effectively brought down Jim Callaghan’s Labour government, which in turn saw Thatcher descend upon us, and ended Cunningham’s career – he ratted on Labour, joined the Social Democrats, and was rarely seen in decent society again. But he stopped devolution back then, no argument.

I have said it before and I say it again, independence is inevitable. But I fear there will be a new Cunningham who won’t understand such niceties as democracy, and will try to impose some sort of “decisive” rule about the votes, when there is only one true democratic majority finishing line – 50 per cent plus one of those who vote.

I hope independence happens in 2014 or 2015, but I pray I am alive if it doesn’t happen until 2025 or later. But happen it will. And as a good Edinburgh citizen, I await the day when we are no longer a pretendy capital but a genuine capital city.

Being a real capital of a real country will be marvellous for Edinburgh. It will not only put Edinburgh on the world’s political stage, but will bring a serious increase in revenue for this city.

Let me appeal to the citizenry’s wallet – think of all those countries which will want embassies, which in turn will mean demand for quality housing, possibly more in the New Town than elsewhere. If you’ve got a flat anywhere near the city centre you must be pro-independence – because you’ll never sell it to anyone other than a foreign government looking for billets for its embassy staff.

As a capital, we’ll need a new Scottish central bank – I should say that RBS Group and Lloyds TSB need not apply. And wouldn’t that be a good use of the former Royal High School? You could stick our gold reserves in the sentry box . . .

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We’ll need better transport, that’s for sure. Did you notice Budapest on the telly the other night? The Hungarian capital, a place I have visited and loved, is the centre of a national basket case. Hungary’s economy is in a worse state than ours, they have a serious problem with anti-semitic right-wing politicians, and they are in danger of being expelled from the EU – but hey, what a tram system!

Once we’re a capital, we can build trams everywhere. Up hill and down dale, and hang the expense. Or why not a subway? That’s what capitals really need.

We will need to have all the broadcast media headquartered here where the action will be. Nah, on second thoughts, Glasgow’s welcome to them.

And we will need new football teams, of course. Can’t have Edinburgh the capital represented by a couple of under-achieving outfits who more and more look like they are auditioning for a football snuff movie.

So much more will be needed in the new Edinburgh, the new capital of new Scotland. Or else we’ll wake up in a newly independent country, probably with a big hangover, and just get on with things. It’s what Edinburgh does, and we do it pretty well.