Last Thursday, amid countless cries of freedom, presumptions of English bastardy, unsolicited kilt upskirts and, in one instance, flaming bagpipes, Scotland held a referendum vote on whether they wanted to secede from the United Kingdom. In the end, those who wished to stay in the Union carried the vote, allowing me to breathe a sigh of relief.
Voting to leave the U.K. would have been a horrendous decision for both Scotland and the realms remaining in the kingdom.
In 1706 and 1707, the parliaments of both England and Scotland ratified their respective Acts of Union, creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain we know today. For the past century, Scottish monarchs had been sitting on the English throne under the Stewart dynasty. Scotland was not pressed into the union by threat of force, nor was it occupied by the English. They entered into the union willingly, much like our states did after the Revolutionary War.
Thursday’s vote came as a result of pressure put on British Prime Minister David Cameron by the Scottish National Party, formerly led by Alex Salmond. Their goal was to create a Scandinavian-style social democracy, fueled by the at-best volatile North Sea oil industry, tourism and the exploitation of foreigners’ struggles with alcoholism. I’d say they’re already there — Scotland is one of the biggest welfare queens in Europe.
Depending on the circumstances, I can see where secession can be justified. But this was not one of those cases.
Unlike England, Scotland has had its own devolved parliament since 1997 that handles all affairs that aren’t reserved for the British Parliament at Westminster — akin to the separation of powers in our federalist system. It has its own say in anything that doesn’t involve economic policy of foreign affairs, meaning Scotland is far from the oppressed Highlanders that Alex Salmond and the SNP would have us believe they are. Scotland’s parliament can even vote on matters that are fundamentally English.
Perhaps the most glaring issue was the matter of what currency an independent Scotland would use. Even before the vote, polls in England were showing a generally unfavorable attitude toward allowing the Scots to remain on the pound sterling. Even if they did, Scotland would have been a sovereign state subject to the monetary policies of a foreign bank.
It was also very unlikely that Scotland would have been accepted into the European Union to make use of the euro.
A vote for independence also would have inspired secessionist movements all across Europe, particularly in the Catalonia region in Spain. Allowing Scotland into the EU would have been rewarding behavior that could have very well spiraled into the Balkanization of the continent. Just based on the history of the region from which the term is derived, that would have been a patently bad thing.
Scotland would have probably been barred from entry into a far more important organization as well — NATO. One of the main policy positions of the SNP, which would have had a strong hold on Scotland, was to make the country nuclear-free. This presented a very serious problem for the U.K., as its only base capable of housing both the seaborne nukes that act as Britain’s only strategic deterrent and the submarines that launch them is in Faslane, Scotland.
Had the Scots voted in the affirmative and asked the Brits to remove their nukes, they would have had to store the nukes on foreign soil until new facilities were built in the remaining U.K., most likely at Kings Bay, Georgia, which isn’t exactly a stone’s throw away.
In causing such a dilemma for the Alliance, which is at its core still of a nuclear nature, it’s highly doubtful that Scotland would have been allowed entry. It would have also fueled those Catalan, Basque and Flemish dreams of secession.
The overwhelming vote “No” was the only sensible choice for both Scotland and the U.K. as a whole. If anything, England should take the advice of the U.K. Independence Party and push for its own devolved parliament. Those Scots have been oppressing them since 1997.
Ryan McGehee is a 21-year-old political science, international studies and history senior from Zachary, Louisiana. You can reach him on Twitter @JRyanMcGehee.