‘Skintland’? Aye right

I laughed so much I nearly cried. Well in fact, naw I didnae laugh at all. Instead I just felt sad and a wee tad frustrated that such an image of Scotland is still portrayed, and its sentiments actually believed by some to be true.

What is it I am rambling on about? A map, a map which I think I first remember clapping eyes on around 2014 entitled ‘Skintland’.

Upon the news of the result of the historic vote in Scotland’s parliament yesterday, ratifying the will of the Scottish people to seek to ensure that Scotland is allowed the privilege of being the 29th country which gets to decide its future relationship with the European Union, and also the small matter of its own destiny, some wag decided to send me this map, presumably to highlight the error of my ways.

We’ve all seen it. You know the one with place names like ‘Aberdown’ ‘Obankrupt’, ‘Edinborrow, ‘Glasgone’ etc. it would be hilarious, naw actually it wouldn’t, if it wasn’t a clear example of the huge Scottish inferiority complex perpetuated by those with a vested interest in maintaining control of Scotland’s assets and resources, known as the ‘ Scottish cringe’.

It is frustration for me, as I’m sure it is for many, that some of our countryfolk, and I’m not talking about the staunch un-convinceable Proudscotbuts here, do not seem to understand, or want to understand, the reality of the position their country is currently in,and has been for a while, why that is the case, and what can be done to change it for the better.

Instead they choose to hide under the duvet. It’s all too hard. Scotland is shite, we’re shyter than shite, we’ll never amount to much without Big Brother. ‘ We’re too poor ……… etc’. What a sad attitude.

If that’s how you think have you considered how your country got into that state?

Are you aware at all that it was governments from London, many of which you didn’t vote for, who used your country for many years, and would still do if we let them, like a laboratory beagle? Have you heard of the original Poll Tax?

These are the London governments who ripped the heart and soul out of your industry and manufacturing heartland, governments whose deliberate underinvestment softened the place up for them to then turn the country into a shrine of retail parks, with low paid, low skilled, low value, low job satisfaction, zero hours, low job security, and huge profit for London markets and foreign investors. Huge amounts of money has left and is leaving Scotland never to return, enriching the few and keeping you having to claim benefits even though you are working.

Are you aware of the huge tax incentives those London governments have given big business so that they can continue to feed the financial nirvana of the City, and looking after themselves whilst you are shopping at Poundstretcher?

Are you aware that you live in the only country in the world to get decidedly poorer upon the discovery of massive fields of a lucrative natural resource in its waters, during the control of governments from London? Did you ever wonder why that is?

Are you aware that even when the much publicised slump arrived in the world price of this natural resource the UK was the only country out of the 24 in the world who currently do extraction business with one of the biggest oil companies, who gave that company a tax rebate, of £80m?

The other 23 countries, Norway being an example, charged the oil companies for the privilege of extracting from their land mass or waters (Norway charged £2.7 billion) and therefore still made profits, money to plough into public services.

Meanwhile the people of Scotland are continually told that their natural resource is a curse. However investors in this company, abroad and in the financial City of London, and other large oil companies receiving similar deals from the London government, received tidy dividends.

Does that make you question how your country has been governed for all of these years when 1 in 5 Scottish children, 1 in 3 in some areas, are living in poverty?

We could all reel off a hundred more stats which highlight the long-term neglect of an incompetent, self serving distant government, in a system designed to channel money from the many to the few, which sees Scotland as simply a valuable resource rich region to be fleeced, without making it too obvious or alerting the local peasantry.

I tell you what, examine the map at the top of this article, and have a think about it, please, have a serious think about it. It doesn’t look like the BBC weather map that suggests by its perspective that Aberdeen is a ten minute drive from Falkirk.

Do a bit of research on your own. Don’t believe the propaganda, you live in a country which has massive advantages over other small successful independent countries. There is absolutely no reason why Scotland can’t be equally or more, successful.

Scotland will be so much better once it becomes an independent country. First Minister please do what is required to make it so.