Fetch Independence Or Union: Scotlands Past And Scotlands Present Designed By T.M. Devine Presented As Manuscript

overview of the history of the union by Scotland's premier historian, Showing how the mismanagement of the Union's ability to combine collective progress by the four nations with a keen sense of Scottish patriotism led to the demise of the Scottish Unionists.
Then the centralising bias of Labour led them to neglect the Scottish people, probably no more than other heartlands in South Wales and the North of England but neglect all the same, in favour of internal division and the politics of noble gesture.


The SNP have filled this space as they evolved from protest group to a party of government, As Scots look for the ability to run their own affairs as they did in the Victorian era, can the Conservatives and the civil service unwind their lust to control everything from Westminster and save the Union or will the SNP persuade Scots that independence in Europe is practicable

Margaret Thatcher's strident Southern English nationalism and disdain for the politics that made the Union work still lies at the heart of the debate over the survival of the three centuries of partnership.
How would I rate T M Devine at anything other than five Apparently hes been knighted for services to Scottish history, but when writing about him here it seems more appropriate just to call him T M Devine, or Tom Devine.
He is so vastly above me in terms of knowledge and ability that he might as well inhabit another world, but there is absolutely no pretension about his writing, so that I had the bold feeling that if he were beside me we could chat freely.
There is a recognition of the importance of individual thinking in his book that would have made him one of the foremost of the Enlightenment writers there is a respect for different opinions that makes him someone we need to read, right now, with open minds and daring to remove ourselves from political hype, from the acquisition of power by manipulation, from all that stinks of corruption and bigotry in the circles of power as we know them.
Without any descent into didacticism he requires us to stand up and be counted, now, when it counts for our nation, the nation of Scotland.

I felt from the opening of this book that his own view was towards what is called “devomax” devolution maximus, or full fiscal autonomy, but, if it had to be independence or union, which was the case, then he would be tempted towards independence.
Ive just looked up online whether he actually stated his own view anywhere I told you Im ignorant and he decided in the fortnight before the Scottish Independence

Referendum that he would vote “Yes”.
He came to regard “devomax” as “a stickingplaster”, In his book, of course, he is not partial but is a consummate historian in every sense, He begins with “The Context of Union”:
“The Union of England and Scotland inwas a marriage of convenience founded on pragmatism, expediency, competing national patriotisms and realpolitik.
Love and friendship for the other were entirely notable by their absence during the negotiations”,
By and large this appears to have been the situation ever since, Ive always been aware of this, having grown up in the Highlands, but Tom Devine helped me see the bigger picture.
I would have assumed, for instance, that handing over the entire administration of Scotland in the eighteenth century to the Earl of Islay, a Campbell, a clan which was notorious at the time due to the part it played in the Jacobite Rebellion of, would have been A Bad Thing, especially as Islays mission to “deliver political stability in Scotland”.
relied upon “ the lions share of patronage and the authority to govern north of the border, ” In fact Scotland benefitted enormously from this arrangement economically and administratively, and “Scotlands semiindependent status was assured”,
This was only the precursor to longstanding economic advantages delivered to Scotland in the context of Union, Tom Devine demonstrates that in the Independence Referendum inmuch of the victorious “No” vote came from older voters who were concerned about the future economy of an independent Scotland, anxieties which the Scottish National Party had failed to allay as they could not provide answers.
With hindsight, the SNP muffed their chance, The author points out that the Labour party, in enabling a Scottish Assembly in, committed political suicide in Scotland by paving the way for the SNPs rise.
He is careful, however, to analyse the kind of support given to the SNP, which was not all about independence but was partly about voting for a party that would keep Scotlands interests high on the agenda of the Westminster Government and govern Scotland to the tune of a Scottish, not an English, voice.
I found the chapter on “Britishness” quite moving, Having been brought up in Wales as a child and Scotland from the age of twelve, I feel half Welsh, halfScots, and I was educated during a period when there was a strong sense of national pride in having come through two world wars and defeated the evil of Hitler.
The chapter ends:
“Thes was a decade of considerable material satisfaction for the majority and a time of dominant Britishness that Scots seemed able to comfortably combine with their own sense of national identity.
”
Towards the end of the book the author makes a strong case for this no longer being true, which appears to be linked to the demise of the Labour Party in Scotland.

“The transformation of old Labour to New Labour in thes did not appeal to the partys traditional supporters in Scotland.
. . Similar evidence covering the periodtodemonstrated declining support for the proposition that New Labour supported class and trade union interests, but rising agreement for the view that that it primarily looked after business interests” and so on.
Jack McConnell, then First Minister, fatally failed to separate Scottish Labour's voice from the policies of the New Labour leadership in London, which did not appeal to Scottish voters.

The last chapter analyses the attitude of David Cameron, then Prime Minister, immediately following the referendum, As far as my personal opinion goes postEurope referendum Cameron messed up bigtime in more ways than one and should have attempted to make amends rather than abandoning the UK to its fate and writing his memoirs.
However, thats all now, and this was preEurope Referendum, TM Devine simply quotes a journalist who, in the wake of the Independence Referendum, points out that Camerons “English Votes for English Laws” initiative EVEL was “taking refuge, for shortterm party political gain, in crude and petty nationalism.
” He also quotes the former leader of the Liberal Democrats, Paddy Ashdown, who accused David Cameron of “making one of the most irresponsible speeches ever made by a Prime Minister.
” I have just discovered that he allegedly tried to enlist the Queens support for the Union by asking her to “raise an eyebrow”.
Yet even this pales compared to what Tom Devine quotes from our current Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, then Mayor of London, who joked merrily about “Jockalypse” if Labour were ever to enter government with nationalist support.
No wonder theyve been keeping him in the cupboard during this current election campaign,
Thanks, Tom, I voted No last time but will vote Yes next time, Your book did it for me, A very well written and detailed account of the ScottishUK relationship throughout the years, It covers the union from its beginning into the tail end of, not long after the independence referendum.


I would recommend this to anyone interested I the future of the union, It provides an excellent background to the search for Scottish independence, Wellwritten and lusciously detailed analysis of the ScotlandUK relationship over the lastyears, Marred only by its publication date: it was written in the tailend ofand, therefore, wants somewhat for an analysis of recent developments Brexit and the second independence referendum.
Excellent story of Scotland's history before and after the Act of Union including its contemporary politics, I learned a lot about the country's success in theth and earlyth century, I didn't learn anything new about the root cause of Scotland failure to create new and competitive industries after the two world wars.
The country's shortage of competitive and productive companies is at the heart of its current destructive populist politics, .