How Far Will Independence for Scotland Bring Benefits to the Scottish People and to the Citizens of the Uk

I believe that independence for Scotland will have negative impacts upon the people of Scotland and to the citizens of the UK. I believe in a “better together” stance with regards to the situation in Scotland as this will benefit everyone economically and socially in the long run as the people of Scotland are guaranteed economic stability while within union with the UK whereas without it, its future is uncertain and unsafe.

Scotland and the UK have been in Union since 1707 when the Act of Union of 1707 was signed by both the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England and Wales. This act joined together the parliaments of Scotland and England, which included economic unity and a tax free border. England used to consider Scotland as a “rouge nation” before 1707 with Scotland’s imports exceeding their exports on an extremely high magnitude, creating economic instability within Scotland. The Scottish Independence referendum of 2014, came about due to the SNP’s (Scottish National Party) manifesto pledge in 2007 to hold an independence referendum by 2010 in Scotland, after winning this election the SNP published a white paper titles “Choosing Scotlands future,” this was heavily attacked by opposition parties in Scotland and was also criticised heavily by Gordon Brown the prime minister at the time. As the SNP was a minority Government it was declared that no referendum would be held until after the 2011 elections, this led to an overall majority for the SNP in 2011, which led to them applying pressure upon David Cameron the new British prime minister, on the 15th of November 2013 the Scottish Government published a 670 page white paper on the argument for independence and how it would be carried out, this led to David Cameron allowing there to be an Independence referendum in 2014 and if the vote was a “no” vote the Scottish parliament would gain devolution of more powers.

Currently the Scottish Parliament has power devolved on the following matters: health, education and training, local government and its management, law, prosecution system, social work, housing, tourism, economic development, certain aspects of transport, agriculture, forestry, fishing, sports and arts and finally miscellaneous matters, since the last devolution of powers.

Scottish Independence would have a negative impact upon the Scottish economy as it would cause instability and create more debt if it parted with the UK. This can be backed up by a study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), which is an impartial body, that stated that the people of Scotland would be £2000 worse off per person if Scottish Independence started on the 24th of March 2016. This was based upon the fact the Scotland would be £10.6 billion worse off if it left the UK as a result of lost business and custom taxes on the English-Scottish border. This would also be combined with the fact that more than 1 in 10 of Scottish people could lose UK public sector jobs to England. Currently 57,000 people are employed by Westminster in Scotland and 545,200 Scottish people are employed by the state making up 21% of Scotland’s labour market. These statistics show that Scotland are too economically dependant upon the UK to be able to have a safe and stable economic breakaway. The fact that 57,000 people are employed by Westminster shows that the two nations are so economically inter-dependant that Scotland breaking away form the UK would create a labour shortage for these skilled jobs in Westminster services such as the BBC, an issue for the UK, but the Scottish people employed by the British government would lose their jobs as they would be part of a different country. There is also the prospect that Scotland would’ve had to of reapply to the EU if it became an independent country and at the time of the referendum the Scottish people were not willing to risk not being in the EU for independence, although the situation is different now it was a valid economic reason for Scotland to remain at the time of the campaign. The last issue Scotland would have to tackle os the share of UK nation debt Scotland would have to take on, if the debt was done on GDP proportion to debt, Scotland would have to take on about £80bn of the UK’s debt, which would’ve caused mass instability and possibly recession, this debt would also have to be financed by bonds and with Scotland having no credit history, the bond market wouldn’t look upon Scotland kindly. Overall Scottish independence would have a negative impact upon the Scottish economy due to the fact that Scotland and the UK are too economically inter-dependant and that leaving would cause instability, especially over the issue of what currency would be used. Scotland leaving would have negative impacts on both sides, which is why a “better together" stance should be taken with regard to Scottish independence.

Also Scottish Independence will have negative social impacts for Scotland and the UK, it will create an international border and a cultural barrier between the 2 countries, a border that is free moving. The negative impacts that independence would have on the two nations is seen by David Cameron’s “No going back speech”where he says “yes would mean: The armed forces which we have built up together will be split, our pension funds sliced up at some cost, the borders we cross will become international, half of Scottish mortgages will be provided by foreign banks, interest rates in Scotland are no longer set by the Bank of England – with the stability and security that promises, for any banks that remain in Scotland – if they ever got in trouble it would be Scottish taxpayers and Scottish taxpayers alone that would bear the costs, that we no longer pool resources across the whole of the UK to pay for institutions like the NHS or our welfare system.” This speech by Cameron shows the divide caused by what will happen if Scotland voted yes to independence, Cameron speaks for the people of the UK and how it should be unified not “ripped” apart by Independence, he also states ”There’s no going back from this. No re-run. This is a once-and-for-all decision.” These words emphasise the divide that will be created as a result of independence. This can also be backed up that £10,536 is spent on each person north of the border on average this is about £1,460 more than what is spent on the rest of the UK; a figure form the treasury. This shows that Scotland benefits hugely from Westminster’s spending in comparison to the rest of the UK. Scotland, a country which claims to be marginalised by the Westminster parliament, clearly benefits from British welfare and its spending and a loss of this spending will have repercussions socially as people will not receive the same amounts of money from the Scottish government, clearly showing that there will be social issues when leaving