Dear No

Dear No Voter

Do you see, now? After this week’s vote in the House of Commons?

No, I don’t mean one vote on Syria. I mean the pattern.

I know that you voted for the best, for Scotland, for you and for your family. You will have thought about it a lot. Mebbe you thought of it as an ego trip for Mr Salmond. Mebbe you wondered about the pound or your pension. Mebbe you listened to Better Together, saying it would never work.

But what you really did was you voted No, positively. You positively chose to stay with Westminster. You positively chose to stay, therefore, with the two threads that have run through Westminster throughout your lifetime – neoliberalism, and Empire. All of the three main parties espouse these two lines. Neoliberalism means cutting back on Government, on taxation, on support for the poor. And Empire, the idea of Great Britain’s place among the world superpowers; GB with the A-bomb, with the power to strike wherever it wishes.

By voting No you positively chose neoliberalism and Empire. 

The vote to bomb Syria is not your specific choice. Mebbe. But you chose that pattern of voting, that style of politics that Westminster has stuck to, and will stick to, throughout all of your life.

Mebbe it’s time to think again. 

To allow Scotland to walk away from the dreadful dance of Westminster. Mebbe, in hindsight, that would have been better. Bairns, not bombs.