Work in progress

I HAVE renewed my British passport recently. Its mandate to other nations to “allow us to pass freely without let or hindrance” and to afford us assistance and protection is followed by the page naming the four 
nations in their languages which enjoy this privilege.

From my southern England home, I hear the distant clamour from the Yes campaign that we have no shared values, no shared heritage, no common purpose and that all will be different (better?) when Scotland votes Yes.

At least, if we (that is the rest of us) dislike the result of an election, we can try to vote out the party that has let us down, and persuade our children that there is something they can engage in to determine their futures.

Once Scotland is gone it’s gone, and rather near or maybe more than one half of the Scottish electorate, never mind disenfranchised future generations, will be deeply unhappy at that outcome. What then for a disunited Scotland with a one-party government?

It has taken rather more than 600 years to build a parliamentary democracy in these islands, and with less than 100 years having elapsed since universal suffrage it can be considered “work in progress”, with much to be done to engage and educate future generations to strive for what they believe in, and to bring about much needed change.

It is no longer the Union of 300 years ago; it is the Union of the 21st and subsequent centuries.

Vanessa Collier Watson

Lower High Street

Wadhurst, East Sussex