Scottish
nationalists may have hoped that Scotland would be the next
independent country in Europe, but another independence movement has
recently come to prominence, threatening to beat them to it. While in
Edinburgh five thousand people turned out for a march for independence,
reports suggest that one and half million Catalans marched in
Barcelona seeking secession from Spain. It may surprise nationalists,
but this unionist has a certain amount of sympathy with the Catalans,
for the simple reason that I have always believed in the right to
self-determination.
Throughout
history there have been places where groups of people have struggled
for independence. The American colonists fought a war of independence in
order to become the United States. I don’t believe that Britain had
any right to hold onto a country, which no longer desired British rule.
Still less did Britain have the right to try to force the Americans to
remain under that rule by force of arms. But then again when the
United States faced its own secession crisis in 1861, the North had no
right to force an unwilling South to remain in the union. If a group of
people, any people, wish to leave a state, they have the right to do
so.
But
having the right to do something does not mean that I ought to do it.
In a marriage between two people, it is no doubt a good thing for both
the man and the woman that each has the right to divorce the other, but
this does not mean that they ought to divorce, or that it would be a
good thing if they did divorce. The reason that I sympathise with the
Catalans is that the government in Madrid is saying that Catalonia does
not have the right to secede from Spain, that any referendum on
independence would be illegitimate. There is even some loose and
senseless talk that Spain would fight to prevent the secession of
Catalonia. This really is an example of an abusive marriage.
Compare
and contrast the situation in Scotland. For as long as I can remember
the UK government has held the view that if a majority of Scots wish
Scotland to leave the UK, then they have the right to do so. No one
wishes to hold Scotland and the Scots against our will. This is right
and proper. I too have always supported the right of Scotland to secede,
for I support the right to self-determination. But I do not wish to
exercise that right by leaving, rather I wish to exercise the right to
self-determination by electing to stay.
I
regret that Ireland chose to secede from the UK. I think it was
historically a disastrous decision. But I fully accept that they had a
right to leave, if the majority of the people living in Ireland
considered that leaving was what they ought to do. However, I also think
that the people of Northern Ireland, were within their rights, to
exercise their right to self-determination in choosing to remain with
the UK. So long as the majority of the population in Northern Ireland
want to remain in the UK, they ought to be allowed to do so. For this
reason the IRA were always guilty of self-contradiction. They objected
to the British trying to prevent Ireland seceding from the UK, but were
willing to use force of arms to try to make Northern Ireland secede
from the UK. The reason for this is that they saw the nation of Ireland
as something that overrode the rights of its constituent parts. Irish
nationalism therefore trumped the rights of a group within Ireland to
exercise its right to self-determination. Nationalists, who frequently
see preserving the unity of the nation as being more important than the
rights of secession, often turn out to be the real opponents of the the
right to self-determination.
Just
as Spain is unwilling to take into account the rights of
Gibraltarians, just as Argentina is unwilling to take into account the
rights of Falkland Islanders, so Catalans are finding that they don’t
have the right to determine how they are ruled. It would seem that the
Spanish speaking form of nationalism is such that there is not much
choice as to whether someone will be Spanish or not. No wonder a
million and a half Catalans were on the streets of Barcelona. No wonder
likewise that only five thousand were on the streets of Edinburgh. The
fact that Scots have the right to leave the UK if we wish, means that
there are no bonds holding us. We simply have to show that we wish to
leave and we will be free to go. But the fact that we are free to go,
that we have the right to determine our future, means that we have no
need to go. The bonds that join us in the UK are gentle bonds, there is
therefore no need to struggle against them.
While
I sympathise with the Catalans and absolutely think that they have the
right to determine their own future, in the end I think their
secession from Spain would be a mistake of the same order as Ireland’s
secession from the UK. The main reason why Catalan nationalism has
sprung into life recently is the economic catastrophe, which at present
engulfs Spain. The reason for this crisis however, can be put simply
and the solution is equally simple. Spain made a huge mistake when it
chose to join the Eurozone. Membership of the Eurozone is the
fundamental cause of the meltdown of the Spanish economy and the
potential loss of Spanish sovereignty, which would be required if it
were to receive a full bailout. Catalan independence, within the
Eurozone would be no independence at all. The Catalans would exchange
rule from Madrid, for rule from Brussels. What Catalonia needs is not
so much Catalan independence as Spanish independence.
The
same can equally well be said of Scotland. Thankfully we are not in
the Eurozone, but anyone who follows EU affairs, knows that our
sovereignty is constrained by Brussels. The Scottish parliament just as
much as the parliament in Westminster frequently can not follow the
democratic wishes of the electorate, because EU law overrides all. We
have to a great extent lost our right to self-determination. Scottish
independence would not change this, we would still be part of that ever
closer union, the EU, which makes laws we cannot change, no matter
the will of the people. Scotland does not need Scottish independence.
We don’t need to be independent from the parliament in Westminster, we
need to be independent from the rulers in Brussels. What we need is a
truly independent Great Britain, offering even to welcome back our
cousins in Ireland, giving them a route out of Eurozone servility, so
that the English speaking people of the British Isles could be united
once more.