A Fifer Talks Sense

Ian Rankin in an interview in the Edinburgh Evening News on Friday said. "I'm not convinced. I've not been persuaded by the economic argument, and philosophically I'm not sure if Scotland's quite ready for it. We are a chippy wee country and I don't think independence would make us any less chippy - it would make us more chippy....But the problem at the moment is that we're focused entirely on oil money and that is blurring the issue as it's not going to be around in 20 years. We need to be thinking beyond that - new technologies, tourism. You can read the article in full HERE

I think that Ian makes some great points. I don't feel the SNP, Labour, the Conservatives and certainly the Lib Dems are totally honest about the economic arguments and the shame is that the independence argument is blurring the whole Holyrood election debate. Of course the SNP have pushed it hard - I would to if I were them. However, the quality of the MSPs leaves me, and most people I talk to, stone cold.

I like the idea of government being closer to the where the action is but with the transferable vote system that is coming in for local council elections it seems to me that the whole process between local and National (Scottish) is going to become increasingly fuzzy. I fear that the civil service and the local council administrations will become even more powerful and the elected representatives will be more and more impotent.