Scottish independence 'hopium' addicts should ask who polices the police if we quit the UK – Jim Duffy

The power of youth is supposed to be a wonderful thing, right? Almost every week, there is a piece in the media on how we must support young people to make the world a better place.

Jim Duffy worries about oversight of Police Scotland in the event of independence (Picture: John Devlin)

Give them the support, tools and mentorship so they can create the world they want to live in. A world free from plastic pollution. A world free from wars. A world free from discrimination. A world where they generate a fairer wealth and taxation system. Blah Blah Blah. Sophistry! What a bunch of fallacious tripe as we talk the talk of youth and hope, but bridle at them at every turn.

I have no idea what it is like being at a primary or secondary school these days. I’m sure the debates and themes that were all the rage when I was boy have since petered out.

Back in the Eighties, it was all no sex before marriage, anti-nuclear weapons and get a job with a pension. And that has all played out well, eh? Now it is always sex before marriage, the nuclear struggle continues – just look at Iran and North Korea – and the era of the rock-solid work pension has been well and truly mothballed. But, we’ve still got all the young people to steer us to a brighter future, right? Wrong…

Young people – and let’s be specific here and say from 15 to 25 years – are staring down the barrel of gun. Several guns to be frank. The first is currency and taxation. For decades now, governments, central banks and policymakers have told us that inflation is a good thing.

It stimulates growth in economies. We all remember so many Bank of England governors rabbiting on about two per cent inflation targets. And all the while they ignored the Milton Friedman thesis that states, “inflation is taxation without legislation”.

And we are now at a tipping point. Certainly, this has been accelerated by the global pandemic as many governments borrow (print money) to keep economies going. However, this magic money printing spree will only stymie the power of youth, as they will have to pay for it all. But, let’s not tell them that eh?

Next up is law and order. The good old police who continually get it wrong. One minute, they are arresting women in London for attending an “illegal” gathering to mourn and celebrate the life of a young woman allegedly murdered by a serving Metropolitan Police officer. The next week, they get a kicking in Bristol as they are woefully under-prepared, with poor intelligence.

And who investigates all of this? Who makes sure the police in the UK are being fair, on the right track and maintaining the “thin blue line” with integrity and sound management? Yep, at least initially, it is the police themselves. Go figure kids.

As you all seek a fairer world, just in case you get out of hand and end up in the clink, should you wish you make a complaint, PC Plod will arrive at your door to take down the details. That’s if they arrive at all!

And as for an independent Scotland Ooft! What a great piece of marketing being foisted on the youth of today. Yes, independence will give us all we need to be great in this world. We can make our own decisions and be sovereign. Poppycock. If I was 15 to 25 years old, I’d be terrified if I only knew what could be around the corner. High taxation and a reliance on a European “union” that is bent out of shape.

Mind you, like Spain, which is financially burst and relies on bailouts from Brussels, an independent Scotland could also opt for a four-day working week. Totally laughable is it not? Why would the Spanish want to do a five-day week, when Europe will pay for a three-day weekend? Rock on!

I can see this will be a winner for the SNP too as it also gets a drip feed of never-never money from Europe, should it win the independence wars. But, once trapped in the debt cycle, the young will be handcuffed to it and all that “hopium” will be revealed to be a chimera. The sums just don’t add up.

Our freedoms, liberties and access to opportunities are being curtailed at every avenue. The financial system is on its knees folks. America is already preparing more stimulus cheques. The people want free money. They’re becoming addicted to it. And here in the UK, furlough has been extended so that the system doesn’t collapse as people lose their jobs. All this debt is mounting up and the youth will have to swallow it.

And, in the midst of all of this, Scotland is going to the polls. But is anyone really telling young people what is ahead? On the week when what I can only call a shambles of a “Salmond inquiry” – that should have been judge-led from the beginning – reported its findings, it makes we wonder about justice, policy, government, finance and much more if Scotland gains independence.

Here is the problem for all you 15 to 25-year-olds – the generation leading you now is transfixed on anachronistic ways of working that are “old school”. The future you want and deserve will not be delivered by them.

And the minute you realise this and start to protest about it all after independence – if it happens – just watch out for a Police Scotland emboldened by its new sense of identity and power. Remember there will be no officers to come in from England to investigate if it oversteps the mark and will we be truly able to rely on the Police Investigations & Review Commissioner to hold the force to account effectively?

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