Will Independence from the United Kingdom be beneficial for Scotland?

The idea of Scotland becoming independent from the rest of the United Kingdom is an issue which has gotten a lot of news coverage in recent weeks both in the UK and abroad. It has become more apparent that Scotland does not benefit form the union with England, Wales and Northern Ireland and as a consequence of this many people have agree that Scotland would be better off as an independent country. Independence for Scotland means that we will have the right to make decisions about the future of our country rather than those decisions being made by politicians in London. One of the main reasons more and more people are supporting Scottish independence is the great economic benefits it would have. The parallels between Scotland and Norway; both having relatively similar populations and large oil, gas and renewable energy resources; show how Scotland would be different if it had control over its own economy. While both countries discovered oil in the North Sea at the same time, the Norwegian government has funded a pension fund with 300 billion from the money made from the North Sea while according to a 2008 BBC documentary the British government under Margret Thatcher used the money they made from oil and gas to close down coal and ship building industries during the 1970s and 80s which caused widespread unemployment and poverty in Scotland and Northern England. While independent countries were able to spend their profits from oil on creating one of the best pension systems in the world, the British government spent Scotlands oil on funding unemployment. With this knowledge it is difficult to see how anyone could support the union. Scotland already has control over its own parliament and legal system; however it still has no control over its national defence and security. Scottish soldiers have been fighting and dying in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan which many people feel are immoral and some even claim are illegal even though the Scottish government have had no say in the matter and the SNP -who formed the first majority government in the Scottish parliament despite the Scottish system being set up to prevent a party gaining a majority and the only majority government in the whole UK- have always been against the war. All of the UKs nuclear weapons are kept in Scotland even though most people in Scotland are against them; in an independent Scotland the nuclear weapons wouldnt be kept here therefore the country as a whole would be safer. Despite the evidence in to show that independence would be beneficial for Scotland some people are still unconvinced, for example many people think that Scotland being such a small nation would not be able to protect itself and couldnt afford to have a military like the British Army However if Scotland was not involved in wars in Afghanistan or Iraq it would not need a military of this size. The British government spend 33.751 billion a year on the military; Scotland pays around 2.7 billion towards this which when compared to Ireland who only spend around 800 million a year on defence shows that Scotland is already paying more than enough to defend herself.
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Opponents of Scottish independence have also claimed that Scotland can only survive with subsidies from England however Scotland generated 9.4% of the UK tax revenue even though it only makes up 8.6% of the population. Even though Scotland contributed 9.4% of the UK taxes only 9.3% of the UK public which shows that Scotland is actually contributing more than it is getting out! The Scottish parliaments budget has been stronger than the rest of the UKs ever year since 2007 however the British parliament still retains power over the UK economic policy so it is difficult for the economy of Scotland to grow, in an independent Scotland this would not be a problem. In conclusion, if you analyse the evidence it is difficult to find an argument against independence for Scotland. The union between England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales is no longer beneficial to the Scottish people. A British parliament with over 400 more English MPs than Scottish ones cannot possibly have the interests of Scottish people at heart and so Scotland is suffering economically and can only have complete control over its
destiny through independence.

Luke Oneill

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