INDEPENDENCE
Arguing that all folk
in Scotland should be
the only electors of
a Scots government
by Alasdair Gray
Canongate Books
Edinburgh June 2014
Published in Great Britain in 2014
by Canongate Books Ltd,
14 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1TE
This digital edition first published in 2013 by Canongate Books
Copyright © Alasdair Gray, 2014
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available on request from the British Library.
ISBN 978 1 78211 169 6
ePub ISBN 978 1 78211 173 3
Typeset in Optima by Cluny Sheeler and Canongate
FOR ALL INDEPENDENT MINDS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Author’s Prejudices Explained
1: Britain from a Waiting Room
A Relevant Contemporary Detour
A Brief History in Twelve Brisk Verses
How Lands Make People Behave
Languages, Religions, Educations
5: Crowned and Uncrowned Kings
Kings, Viceroys, Paterson and Dundas
6: Old and New Corruption, 1800–1976
A Small Stir About Settlers and Colonists
7: UK Parliament, North Sea Oil
A New Chapter in Old Corruption
A Controversial Topic
9: A Small Stir of Correspondence
More Controversial Matter
Chiefly Legal Matters
11: Letter to the Unknown Soldier
Exploiting UK Warfare, 1914–2014
What Scots Should Get that Foreigners Have
Personal Prologue
THIS BOOK IS WRITTEN FOR SCOTS, by whom I mean anyone in Scotland who will vote in the September referendum to make Scotland a more or less independent nation. This leaves out many who feel thoroughly Scottish but can only vote in England, America or elsewhere. My argument is for changing a government, so I lump these with voteless children and criminals who cannot affect the result of the referendum. My definition cheerfully includes many who think themselves English but work here as hoteliers, farmers, administrators and directors of Scottish institutions; also those who live in Scotland because they have bought a pleasanter place here than they could get for the same money further south. My definition also includes a small but important group of Scots who mainly live and work elsewhere: great landowners like the Duke of ***** and Lady ***** of *****, who have homes and property in other nations but return to their ancestral home here to hold shooting parties and vote; also the seventy-one Scottish members of parliament whose working days are spent almost wholly in London so mostly live there. You may think this definition of a Scot too liberal or too narrow, but it embraces everyone north of the Tweed who has the right to vote, have a say in how Scotland is ruled, and therefore equally belongs to it. It should not matter how recently he or she arrived. The first folk here to call themselves Scots arrived from Ireland. There will be more about them when I refer to settlers and colonists.
My wife is not my severest critic (I am) but she is often severe. Though wanting an independent Scottish government as much as I do she calls this book a waste of time. Only a few of those who agree with the argument for Scots Home Rule announced on the cover may buy it (says she), none of those who disagree will, and folk without an opinion on the matter don’t read books and don’t vote. I have told her that before the general elections of 1992 and 1997 Canongate published my pamphlets called Why Scots Should Rule Scotland, and Scotland has since been presented with its own parliament, though a dependent one. She replies that my writing did not influence that, and may be wrong. The pamphlets were part of a public discussion,
