Tuesday 9 September 2014

Why I'm voting no

I have written here before that I'm going to vote in this referendum, unlike some friends of mine who say that that's a matter for the Scots. What I didn't say was in what I was voting... Well, the title is very obvious.
There are many reasons why I'm voting no: some economic, some political, some even sociological... No, I don't think it will be the end of Scotland if it becomes independent, it will just be worse for the Scottish and the other British, but that doesn't really matter because the main reason why I vote no is an ideological one. I believe in a more cosmopolitan world instead of an increasingly divided one by ethnic, national or religious divides. And, as foreigner living in this country, I look at the United Kingdom with joy because it represents the very model of state I want to see all over the world.
The United Kingdom is a multi-national state that has been developing to become:
- a Democracy where all of its citizens, be them Scottish, English, Welsh or Northern Irish, have the same participatory rights, civil liberties and access to political positions (the ex-PM was Scottish, for example);
- a state under the rule of law with the same fundamental laws to all its composing entities but that still respects different legal traditions;
- a state that promotes the cultural and religious rights of its different nations and encourages its diversity.
Basically, a state where it doesn't really matter which of its components you come from. And this is what a cosmopolitan state should look like. Just compare it to what happens south of the channel. There you have a state that has been promoting a single French republican identity since the bloody French Revolution and where there is no space for regional and cultural differences.
A yes vote will tell the French they are right. It will tell them that the uniform citizen from Brest to Nice is a good thing. That if you allow your different nations to develop their differences, they'll end up splitting the state (with all the economic and political costs attached to it).
Well, I say "non" to the French republican ideal of a uniform citizen and I say "no" to the SNP's plan to destroy this United (diverse) Kingdom. I say yes to cosmopolitanism, therefore I vote no.

No comments:

Post a Comment