Independence: Split offers society nothing - cleric

A SENIOR Scottish churchman has suggested independence is a matter of “national pride” offering little benefit to society.

Professor Donald Macleod, former principal of the Free Church College in Edinburgh, said: “We have problems in abundance, but it’s hard to see which of them independence can even promise to solve.

“It will make no difference to sectarianism, knife crime, gangland violence, broken homes, drug addiction, sink estates or unemployment.”

He said that if independence could not solve these issues, it would have to offer new, positive benefits to justify itself.

He added that it was “terrifying” that the next 18 months “is going to be wasted on irrelevant and sterile constitutional wrangling”.

The theologian said while he was told that Scotland could “go it alone”, he did not want to, nor did he want to develop “a psychology dominated by national pride and ancient hatreds”, adding: “I am as British as Scottish, and as European as British. I want it to stay that way, because independence offers nothing I don’t already have.”

He said of politicians: “They should leave the soul of the nation to its poets, painters and preachers. Their job is to provide national security, a stable currency and roads without pot-holes.”

Warning that the argument would take place against a backdrop of dwindling oil reserves with a life expectancy of 40 years, which Prof Macleod said could see Scotland back at the negotiating table. “Is that the life-expectancy of an independent Scotland; and shall we then have a referendum on renegotiating the Union?”

He concluded: “All this commotion, and so little to show for it in the end! Is independence anything more than a matter of national – or Scottish National – pride?”

A spokesman for Yes Scotland said: “Nobody claims that independence itself will be a cure to Scotland’s problems, but it will mean we always get a government we vote for – which is not the case under the current constitutional arrangements – and we will be responsible for shaping our own future.

“Yes Scotland will continue to make the case that independence will give us the powers to tackle some of the endemic problems to which Prof Macleod refers. With full economic powers we could reject the austerity policies being pursued by Westminster which are stifling growth and putting jobs at risk. “

A Free Church spokesman said of Prof Macleod’s comments: “These views are entirely personal and should not be taken as representative of the Free Church’s position.”