Australia seldom appears in the British media unless it is about cricket or a shark attack but Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s remarks on the Scottish independence debate were front page news. His comments consisted of how the world would not be helped by an independent Scotland and those in favour were not friends of justice or freedom. They were widely lampooned, not least by Australians.
If Mr Abbott had actually visited Scotland rather than follow the advice of the British PM, he would have seen that the whole debate had centred on the kind of society we wanted – not, as at present, the world’s fourth most unequal society, but one where social justice is paramount, our National Health Service is not privatised and rights are built into a written constitution.
He would have learned of the desire to remove the two hundred nuclear bombs from Faslane, twenty-five miles from Scotland’s most populated centre, the Glasgow conurbation, and to become a non-nuclear nation within NATO. He would have learned of a defence and foreign policy not allied to a shameful colonial past and participation in illegal wars but ones designed to promote peace and solidarity, especially with the world’s poor.
He would have noticed people who never voted before, especially from our more deprived areas, queuing up to register. He would have seen a vigorous but peaceful debate between many people, who, contrary to trends elsewhere, were now filling the halls throughout the towns and villages of Scotland in an amazing flowering of participatory democracy.
Of course, Tony Abbott has, in common with the ‘No’ campaign, a taste for the complete negativity we all lived through when I was resident in Australia during his time in opposition. From the Unionists, it has now gone into overdrive in an attempt to emulate Mr Abbott’s success.
If Scotland votes yes, it will be, according to the Westminster elites and their cronies, Armageddon. Lloyds Bank will move their HQ to London we were told by the BBC when, in fact, it has been based there for many years. Jobs would go from the Royal Bank of Scotland yet the CEO in a letter to staff stressed it would be a technical matter and jobs and operations would remain in Scotland. Australians will be used to this style of 'campaigning'. Tell a lie often enough, collude with the mainstream media and people might believe it. A victory based on