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More inclined to heed Tariq Ali tbh
theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/13/scots-undo-union-of-rogues-independence-1707-honour
"The notion that an independent Scotland will be parochial is risible. The "internationalism" of New Labour and its coalition lookalikes essentially means subordinating the entire British state to the interests of the US. They have made Britain a vassal state: on Iraq, on Afghanistan, on the gathering of intelligence. An independent Scotland could be far more internationalist and would benefit a great deal from links to both Scandinavia and states in other continents"
I do not see why a) Scotland could not be internationalist now and develop links with Scandinavia regardless of the state of the union, and b) why Ali finds it 'risible' that an independent Scotland would be parochial. Presumably relations with England are going to fall under the remit of foreign policy, and the founding act of that foreign policy will be to tell England, Wales and Northern Ireland "fuck off, we're going to cosy up to our far northern neighbours instead." That's pretty parochial.
Also, while we are on the subject. Given that New Labour was architected by two Scots, so I'm not really sure how bringing up their foreign policy backs up the argument that independent Scottish foreign policy would be different. But whatever. Ali may be right; he's just bad at arguing.
bq-
Presumably relations with England are going to fall under the remit of foreign policy, and the founding act of that foreign policy will be to tell England, Wales and Northern Ireland "fuck off, we're going to cosy up to our far northern neighbours instead." That's pretty parochial.
Your assumptions display your prejudice quite clearly.
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Given that New Labour was architected by two Scots, so I'm not really sure how bringing up their foreign policy backs up the argument that independent Scottish foreign policy would be different. But whatever. Ali may be right; he's just bad at arguing.
Also, over and above your wonderful predictions of future Scottish foreign 'policy' (if you can call telling your traditional trading partners and closest neighbours to fuck off a sensible policy) calling Tony Blair a Scot is like calling Chris Froome English. But whatever, the whole country should be held accountable to two Westminster-based career politicians (with a huge majority of the vote across the UK, which again, removing Scotland's seats from the equation wouldn't have influence the overall election result) just because you seem to think that they 'architected' New Labour.
Obviously, I defer to your wonderfully unbiased and erudite arguing powers over Tariq Ali's miserable attempts to look at historical facts from a post-colonial Indian viewpoint and apply them to the Scottish referendum.
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More inclined to heed Tariq Ali tbh
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/13/scots-undo-union-of-rogues-independence-1707-honour
"The notion that an independent Scotland will be parochial is risible. The "internationalism" of New Labour and its coalition lookalikes essentially means subordinating the entire British state to the interests of the US. They have made Britain a vassal state: on Iraq, on Afghanistan, on the gathering of intelligence. An independent Scotland could be far more internationalist and would benefit a great deal from links to both Scandinavia and states in other continents"