Saturday 20 September 2014

What have we done?

What country voluntarily votes to hand over its own independence? Mine did. Yesterday I felt completely empty and devastated by what happened in Scotland. It was a moment when you suddenly realise how easily the chance for something really special can be obscured by the fear of losing what we already have.

Lots of folk have tried to point out positives in what has happened, and I admire them for that. They’ve said it’s got the Scots engaged in politics and that it’s a wake up call for the UK political system. I’m normally first to look for a positive way to look at things, but in this case I think we have to face up to the size and uniqueness of the opportunity we’ve just wasted. Sure, we got engaged in politics. But despite all the discussion, people somehow didn’t see that this movement towards independence wasn’t about nationalism, wasn’t about isolation of ourselves. Despite all the discussion, people still focused on the character of individuals like Alex Salmond, they thought that big corporates warning us that prices would go up was them speaking for our best interests, not theirs.

And what about that wake up call for the UK’s political system? I don’t think I can bear to watch as month by month, they slowly hit the snooze button and roll over. Just as they have done for the climate change wake up call, the banking crisis wake up call, The ever increasing mountain of debt, the food industry that is making us fat and ill, the slow failure of antibiotics and all these other problems that don’t win votes to address.

For a few weeks, I almost dared to feel that just once in my lifetime, a country could be smart and courageous enough to see past all this, and that country would be my country. It was too good to be true. I tried all day to digest it and in the end, wandered outside into a warm night, sat down in the grass and cried. Not for my own selfish interests, but for what this means for us as people all across the world.

Of course I respect the decision even though I thought it was an awful one. I certainly don’t blame some people for feeling that we don’t need independence. This may turn out to be true, in a way. Sure, we can settle for what we have right now. We are one of the luckiest countries in the world already. However, this only deepens the irony that we should pass up the opportunity for life in the country to have become much more meaningful, exciting and rewarding.


I have to admit that there is not a lot I can take from this experience to improve my own life and contribution. I will remember it for my remaining years as among the most hopeless days of my life. What I will take, is the biggest reminder I think I’ll ever have that our human minds are far too full of fear. Rather than changing for the better, it seems like modern life is making this even worse. So my lesson from this is that life is too short and shit not to be utterly fearless in grabbing the good opportunities that do come your way. 

15 comments:

  1. As that old Scouse Soul band the Christians once sang...'.fear is the key...that's closing all the doors' . Another succinct post Dave.

    John Appleby

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  2. Yep, with you all the way. I'm totally gutted, are we really Scotland the spineless ?

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  3. The victory on D-Day would never have come about without the defeat at Dieppe. Keep the faith.

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    1. D-Day was possible because of the Italian Campaign. my father was attached to the 51st Highland Division with Indians Gurkas NZ Auz and Yanks, and fought at Salerno Monte Cassino through mud floods rain snow and was likened to WW1 (this was after Dunkirk and Nth Africa). They were christened the D-Day dodgers by Lady Astor This was their reply:- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4hny_XRaw4 They were part of the British 8th Army with the American 7th and 12 other allied nations. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Campaign_(World_War_II)

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  4. You're right Dave. Today we get to feel the emptiness, the disappointment that fear won the day again. Tomorrow you have to pick yourself up and go at life again the same way you have with every route you've fallen off, every project you've overcome through determination to get past that fear. Today I took 2 novice climbers up Tower Ridge. They asked me to point out Echo Wall and we talked about what it takes to commit so much to such a route. They were inspired. They are the future, not their fearful elders. The referendum is already all our pasts and you take the right lesson from it, carpe diem.

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  5. To make a convincing political argument, there needs to be an emotional appeal and a pragmatic argument why this can be delivered. The yes campaign had a fantastic emotional appeal as this post demonstrates but utterly failed to convince voters that they could deliver this. No-one on the 'yes' campaign ever addressed the real issue of EU membership and the condition that new members must adopt the euro; no-one ever said 'if there is less oil, then this is how we can cope'; no-one explained how the lot of our disadvantaged citizens could be improved. The people who voted 'no' should not be blamed - the blame rests entirely with Alex Salmond who believed that the force of his personality would carry the day.

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    1. Sorry Ian, but you are wrong there. Those points were answered time and time again but we weren't allowed to listen to them in the mainstream media. By blaming it all on Salmond you are showing you swallowed the media story hook, line and sinker. The information was out there if you wanted to look for it. But you are right, it is not the fault of the No voters who believed the scare stories and false promises from the politicians. Many of them have been duped and, I believe, come to see that in due course. I just hope the price Scotland's people have to pay in the meantime is not too high.

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  6. Great post again Dave - I think you've stated how many people, myself included, feel - you just have to take heart that 45% is a sizeable minority who will not go away & hopefully grow in number.

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  7. Thanks Dave for writing in words all this rollercoaster I have felt ... still grieving, I cried all day... I felt as if somebody died... indeed.. we did...

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  8. Yes, the idea of Scotland as a nation died. Me first politics won the day and proved once and for all that Scotland doesn't have a more keenly developed sense of social justice than the rest of Britain. All that remains is the shortbread tin lid Scotland and what is in the history books. The majority voted to remain a minor region in North Britain, and that is about as sad as it can get.
    I went into the woods and cried.

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  9. Take some solace in 1,617,989 people, plus one at least in exile in Malta that did want to grasp that chance. I'm heartbroken at the result and was heartbroken to be kept from participating in what I considered to be one of the most important moments in my life. I was set to return home to Glasgow at the beginning of the summer but the prohibitive UK immigration policy made it impossible for my wife and daughter to join me from Ukraine. I was forced to look elsewhere in the EU to find a better environment for my family. I can only hope this chance will come around again, maybe sooner than we think. Certainly, if the devolution bone is not forthcoming or, in fact, turns out to be a wee devo-biscuit for the well-behaved, a huge portion of the Scottish population won't stand for it. Take care, and take heart.

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  10. I wish we could have challenged our fears and been Scotland The Brave just for one day.

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  11. Good blog Dave - I had similar feelings. Really quite sad.

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  12. I was devastated. On the Sunday I was explaining to my father on the phone that we (my partner and I) hadn't minded about any short to medium term hardship that might occur if it meant a fairer society for our daughter. I burst into tears.

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