SAVING MY COUNTRY
His Better Together campaign has been condemned for being too negative, but here, in a passionate and deeply personal missive, Alistair Darling emerges f ighting for the UK, the nation he loves
IWAS i n Washington this week, invited to speak at the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund. It was set up at the end of the Second World War when it was accepted that countries can achieve much more together than they ever can apart.
What I found fascinating, in the midst of these talks, was how often people asked me about Scotland, especially the Americans. It was clear that there is a great deal of respect and admiration for us.
The interest is no surprise. In the last US census, seven million Americans identified themselves as being of Scots origin. That is more than the population of Scotland today.
The founding fathers of the US were influenced by the Scottish Enlightenment of the 18th century. Great Scots thinkers such as Adam Smith are recognised as playing an enormous part in creating the modern world. We helped to shape the world – some of the greatest inventions in history were made by Scots whose vision was outward.
Many people asked me the same question, summed up by one young man: ‘What are you guys up to? Why would you want to separate? It doesn’t make sense. You should be removing borders, not building new ones.’
He is right. We Scots are a nation of change-makers and influence. It is in our DNA – in our history and in our future. We are a country with more to achieve. And we can achieve so much more, both for Scotland and beyond, by working together in the United Kingdom.
We are so much more than the sum of our parts. We are part of a social union, underpinned by an economic and political union. All parts mesh together. Friends and families share ties that bind.
After centuries of common endeavour, we should value those ties and celebrate the diversity that exists around us. It is artificial to create separate states within our small island. We have achieved so much together in times of peace and war.
WE built the welfare state together. The BBC and the Bank of England were founded by Scots. The NHS was founded by a Welshman. The welfare state was founded by an Englishman. We would not have achieved half as much if we had not been a United Kingdom working together.
It is those connections, that link between Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom, which will enable us to fulfil our aspirations for our children and the generations to come.
In just over five months’ time we will be asked if we want to end a 300-year- old Union and take a leap into the unknown. The vote will be crucial. If we decide to make the break, there will be no going back.
Although the polls show a majority against separation, they also show that a large number of people have yet to decide how to vote. There is a hunger for facts. And the war of words – and, sadly, so often it does sound like a war – does not help this critical debate.
There is a very strong positive case for Scotland to stay in the United Kingdom. It is Scotland’s links and connections with the rest of the UK that will make it far easier for us to deal with future challenges in an i ncreasingly complex and uncertain world.
Both sides in this debate do want to make Scotland a better place in which to live. Where we disagree i s on how best to do that.
Everyone wants to see as many people in work as possible. We want to raise living standards. We need to provide for an ageing population, as well as giving the opportunities which our children and future generations will need.
Is it best done by seizing the opportunities and taking advantage of the strength of being part of something bigger? Or do we take the risk of going it alone?
To me, erecting barriers where none exists, cutting ourselves off from our close neighbours, is too much of a risk. I want to build on the connections that exist to enable us to build a better and stronger Scotland.
Cutting these connections would be like buying a one-way ticket to a deeply uncertain destination.
The biggest challenge for most countries is how to safeguard and create jobs, now and in the future. At the IMF this week, the conclusion was clear: break down barriers to trade, don’t erect them where none exists today.
Most Scottish firms benefit from being able to sell their goods and services to the rest of the UK – mostly, because of its size, to England. Today, we benefit from being in a strong currency union – the pound.
LEAvE the UK and we lose the pound. More and more experts are clear – a successful currency union needs the economic and political union we have now, as they have in the United States. The eurozone has no such union, and we see the trouble it’s got into.
Take the financial services industry, which employs almost 200,000 people in Scotland. Most of its business is done south of the Border. Standard Lif e , which has been in Scotland for 180 years, sells almost 90 per cent of i ts products – mostly pensions – south of the Border.
Today there is no problem if Standard Life is in Edinburgh and its customers are in Leeds or London. Because we are all in the UK, the tax regime and financial regulations are identical. But if Scotland were to be a separate country, the European Union would insist on a separate regulatory system. Independence i nevitably would mean different accounting rules, and almost certainly different levels of taxation.
That would mean additional costs incurred by Scottish pension providers, leaving them wide open to being undercut by their English competitors.
It’s not just the financial services industry. Recently, I visited a successful, small engineering firm in Inverclyde. Most of its customers live outside Scotland. The parts the firm needs to build compressors come, for the most part, from England.
As the owner said, different business rules and, critically, loss of the pound would ruin him. The firm is successful, he said, because we are part of the UK.
Scotland sells a great deal of food and drink to the rest of the UK. The tourism i ndustry depends strongly on visitors from down South. There is no border or barrier to get in their way. And there is no need to change currency to visit.
Today, Royal Navy ships are built on the Clyde and at
Rosyth. If we leave the UK, the Navy would either build its ships in England or put them out to tender throughout the European Union. At present we have 30 years of work on these ships coming to Scotland. Why give up on that?
The threat of separation is making more firms think hard about where they do business. But it doesn’t have to be like t hat. Let’s build on t he connections that exist.
We all want t o see our children have the best possible start in life. Today, we benefit from the certainty of funding through the Barnett Formula, and spending is higher here than in England.
By contrast, a separate Scotland would depend to a large extent on the tax take from North Sea oil, which is notoriously volatile. In the last year alone, oil revenues have fallen by about £4billion. That is roughly what we spend on schools in Scotland.
Our universities are vital to our nation’s future. If we don’t turn out the very best educated young people, it will be hard to compete for top-level jobs and the development of products and industries. Scotland’s universities benefit f rom UK research council funding for their excellence. Why risk that?
And what about the cost of living? Let’s look at two exam- ples where we benefit from being part of something bigger.
We all want to see greener energy, but we also want to keep bills down – and today the cost of providing that green energy is spread across all UK bill-payers, not just those of us living in Scotland. Wind and wave energy depends upon a UK subsidy – and that would not be available if Scotland were not in the UK.
ThEN let’s take the weekly shop. By being part of the UK, we benefit. When we go to the supermarket, in Linlithgow or Leeds, the bill is roughly the same because supermarkets have the same pricing policy across the UK.
If Scotland were to leave the UK, that would change. It costs more to send a can of beans to Tesco in Stornoway than it does to Swindon. Today, supermarkets sell their products in Scotland at UK prices, not foreign country prices.
But the strength and security that comes from being part of the UK is also important. here are two examples.
Five years ago, the collapse of two Scottish banks threatened to bring down the world’s financial system. I remember being telephoned by the then chairman of RBS, then the biggest bank in the world. What he told me sent a shiver down my spine. he said that if I, as Chancellor, did not step in, his bank would run out of money that afternoon. It would go bust, bringing down the rest of the banks with it.
I was able to stop that, because of the strength of the UK. The Irish and Icelandic finance ministers were not so fortunate. Their banks brought down their countries’ economi e s , with disastrous consequences.
Or take a massive challenge that is still with us. Scotland’s population i s ageing more quickly than in England. Surely it makes sense to benefit by spreading the cost of supporting our elderly across the shoulders of 63million people in the UK, not just we five million in Scotland.
On the subject of pensions, we know the whole of the UK stands behind t he State pension, but what happens with separation? Nobody knows – certainly not the Scottish Government.
These are just some instances where it is clear that our connections and links to the rest of the UK benefit Scotland. We have the benefit of the best of both worlds. The Scottish parliament has complete control and responsibility for health and education. We can make decisions tailored to Scotland’s needs on these and other key issues, such as transport.
It is easy to take for granted what we have today. I see it as a foundation on which to build, for there are many things that need to be improved in Scotland today. But we can do that more easily and effectively by using the strength and opportunities that come from being part of something bigger, and at the same time enjoying the strength it provides.
It is the economic issues that will sway many undecided voters. But there is a powerful emotional case for staying together. Passion does not belong to the nationalists alone. To be Scottish and British, a partner in the United Kingdom; to feel the historic values of the Scottish Enlightenment and the industrial revolution, of wars against fascism fought and won, of a health service bred by the people for the people, these are the roots of modern Scotland. And the majority of people know it.
There are more opportunities for Scotland in staying within the UK than separation can deliver. Whatever way you look at it, the arguments of the heart or the head, we in Scotland are better and stronger together in the United Kingdom.