Independence referenda
Sep. 10th, 2019 10:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mtbcI have mentioned how I wish the Scottish National Party would take more responsibility for the state of Scotland. They have often complained that problems are the fault of the UK government when it seemed to me that they were not yet fully wielding relevant devolved powers that they already had in hand, that blame was being transferred upward a little too eagerly.
I have separately written about the UK's relationship with the EU where, though I agree that the EU has serious flaws, it does attract rather a lot of blame given how little many British people even know about it. Indeed, perhaps it is given too little credit; I felt that even the Remain campaign insufficiently acknowledged much good that the EU does. I have often been glad of EU law being imposed because I thought it to be good law that I believe would not have independently originated from a Conservative government of recent mold.
Admittedly rather late, I notice a possible connection between the two independence campaigns. The UK government has much power over Scotland but many people don't know the details. The same is true of the EU's power over the UK. In both cases this may make for a convenient scapegoat when people are unhappy and casting about for an outside force that is plausibly the culprit. My unclear Aristotle wonders if that pattern might be the formal cause of the referenda, the efficient cause being the years of austerity following the financial crisis.
I have separately written about the UK's relationship with the EU where, though I agree that the EU has serious flaws, it does attract rather a lot of blame given how little many British people even know about it. Indeed, perhaps it is given too little credit; I felt that even the Remain campaign insufficiently acknowledged much good that the EU does. I have often been glad of EU law being imposed because I thought it to be good law that I believe would not have independently originated from a Conservative government of recent mold.
Admittedly rather late, I notice a possible connection between the two independence campaigns. The UK government has much power over Scotland but many people don't know the details. The same is true of the EU's power over the UK. In both cases this may make for a convenient scapegoat when people are unhappy and casting about for an outside force that is plausibly the culprit. My unclear Aristotle wonders if that pattern might be the formal cause of the referenda, the efficient cause being the years of austerity following the financial crisis.
