As Scotland’s referendum draws nearer, the divisions in the Better Together campaign are becoming increasingly clear.
Buried away on Sunday morning, Nick Clegg delivered his keynote speech to the Liberal Democrats Spring Conference in York. Within it he urged Scots to stay in the union whilst outlining the reasons he loves Britain. However the most compelling part was the Deputy Prime Minister’s vision of what awaits Scotland if we vote No. Whether we have Labour or Tory government in the UK, Nick’s vision of where we’re headed is grim.
“Left to their own devices what are they [Labour and Conservatives] offering the British people?
Profligacy. Economic incompetence. A bloated and cumbersome state. Politicians who think that all they need to do to prove themselves is posture against business. A leadership desperate but unable to break free from the grip of its Union paymasters. A party that cannot be relied upon to keep the economy safe; that wants us to put them back behind the wheel even though they still won’t admit how badly they got it wrong.
Or how about widening inequality. A remorseless shrinking of our public services. A party that claims we’re all in it together and yet refuses to ask the wealthy to pay even a penny more in tax towards the on-going fiscal effort. A party which will instead single out one group – the working age poor – for especially tough sacrifices. £12bn worth of especially tough sacrifices, from people who are trying to work their way out of poverty and who we should be helping stand on their own two feet.
A weak economy. An unfair society. If it all sounds depressingly familiar it’s because most of us have lived through it all before. Two parties encumbered by the same old prejudices; straitjacketed by the same old ideologies. And whichever way you look at it, left or right, if either of them get into government on their own, they will drag Britain in the same direction: backwards.”
I agree with Nick.
He doesn’t think we’re ‘Better Together’, why should you?
Ross Aitchison
@aitchisonross
National Collective
Image from Lewishamdreamer