The Scottish People are Voting Today

Today is the day of the Scottish referendum. This is what Henry has posted:

“The Scottish people are voting. Little did the British government know when they let this happen that it could change a country for ever.

Once a nation like the UK loses a leading role, and the pride and influence that comes with it, – something the US still has and which inspires its people to act collectively –  the risks of disintegration get serious. Old nation states which were once great powers face great challenges. Without that collective pride, the different tribes of a state will slip away into nativism and localism.

The leaders of this country have a plan. This country is evolving into a market state.  As I have said before, a market state operates like a large firm in the global economy. It competes with others within a framework of rules. The UK is now integrated into a European trading system.

 It needs a highly educated and well-equipped workforce. It needs a good infrastructure. It needs institutions that claim admiration like Britain’s two greatest universities. Our great institutions and industries like the City of London’s financial industry are hugely important assets. But since the financial crisis of 2009, the City means a place where people are paid huge salaries and lack any sense of community.

Many things stand in the way. In England, for the middle classes in the shires – all those retired engineers, and surveyors, and middle managers living in suburban homes and in villages like this one  – London is a place apart.

Elsewhere there are black spots where welfarism and dependence are deep-rooted. In the “schemes” of Edinburgh and Glasgow they will be voting SNP because they have been promised an end to the hated “bedroom tax”.

“Inequality” is a word we hear a lot these days. But Equality is a dangerous standard. It must be driven by increased education levels, mobility, and successful companies. It must be an output of good management, not an imposition.

All that, no one has been willing to say.

In fact, no-one has even said what the United Kingdom is for nowadays.

I predict a narrow win for the Yes campaign.”