Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot

<p><b>The Scottish nationalists seek to end the United Kingdom after 300 years of a successful union. Their drive for an independent Scotland is now nearer to success than it has ever been.</b></p> <p>Success would mean a diminished Britain and a perilously insecure Scotland. The nationalists have represented the three centuries of union with England as a malign and damaging association for Scotland. The European Union is held out as an alternative and a safeguard for Scotland’s future. But the siren call of secession would lure Scotland into a state of radical instability, disrupting ties of work, commerce and kinship and impoverishing the economy. All this with no guarantee of growth in an EU now struggling with a downturn in most of its states and the increasing disaffection of many of its members.</p> <p>In this incisive and controversial book, journalist John Lloyd cuts through the rhetoric to show that the economic plans of the Scottish National Party are deeply unrealistic; the loss of a subsidy of as much as &pound;10 billion a year from the Treasury would mean large-scale cuts, much deeper than those effected by Westminster; the broadly equal provision of health, social services, education and pensions across the UK would cease, leaving Scotland with the need to recreate many of these systems on its own; and the claim that Scotland would&nbsp;join the most successful of the world’s small states – as Denmark, New Zealand and Norway – is no more than an aspiration with little prospect of success.</p> <p>The alternative to independence is clear: a strong devolution settlement and a joint reform of the British union to modernise the UK’s age-old structures, reduce the centralisation of power and boost the ability of all Britain’s nations and regions to support and unleash their creative and productive potential. Scotland has remained a nation in union with three other nations – England, Northern Ireland and Wales. It will continue as one, more securely in a familiar companionship.</p>