Cameron Buchanan is Conservative Lothians MSP who succeeded the late David McLetchie only very recently.
Today I made my first speech to the Scottish Parliament since becoming MSP for the Lothians, and it is perhaps fitting that it should be on Scotland’s future. After all, next year’s referendum is the biggest decision we will have to make in a generation.
For me it is about our relationship with the other nations in the UK, not about independence. And it is a stark choice; do we abandon that 300 year old link, a link that has served us so well? Or do we strengthen and improve it, so that it serves Scotland better?
I don’t deny there is room for improvement and that is why I believe we should look at the relationship between Scotland the rest of the UK, between our two Parliaments and ask questions about how power is shared between them and whether some decisions presently taken at Westminster would better to be taken at Holyrood.
However to abandon the link completely is extreme and jeopardises so many of the benefits that being part of the UK brings us. Scotland is the UK’s biggest financial hub outside of London; Edinburgh alone is the base of Tesco Bank, Virgin Finance and the global headquarters of the RBS Group. In this context it is interesting to bear in mind that of the £69.4 billion worth of goods and services which Scotland exported in 2011, an estimated £45.5 billion of that was exports to the rest of the UK. 84% of all mortgages, 67% of all ISAs and 70% of all pensions sold by Scottish firms are sold to households elsewhere in the UK. Considering that, why would we want to risk our access to that shared market?
This debate won’t only affect our relationship with the UK either. My background is in the textile industry and for years I have been buying and selling in European countries such as Spain and Belgium (to name just a few) who are keeping a close eye on what is happening in Scotland because of their own constitutional debates. Indeed all European countries are nervous about Scottish independence to a degree due to what it may signify for them, and the precedent it will set in terms of regional sovereignty. Accordingly if we were to become independent, accession to the EU would by no means be straightforward and there would be real uncertainty over the terms of our membership. That kind of uncertainty is no good for business and no good for Scotland.
So there we have it, do we work to improve those links that have served us so well for so long, or do we throw it all away and gamble it on some vague promise of a brighter future. I don’t think we should be gambling with Scotland’s future and that is why we should reject separation next year.
Submitted by Cameron Buchanan
Cameron Buchanan is Conservative Lothians MSP and you may contact him here.
