Pondering a Vote I Don't Have

[steepholm]

My father told me once that this poster (or its accompanying slogan) was one of the things - along with a general sense that he was missing out on history - that made him stop being a CO and join the army in 1942. The context for the remark was my rather priggish teenage disapproval of his relenting. "I never expected the criticism to come from that direction," he said, or words that effect.

I've made a slight change to the classic poster, to reflect the increasingly successful strain of mood music being played by the Yes campaign in Scotland. There'll only be one chance to think of your children, to do what's right for Scotland, etc. (The No campaign's rendition of the same tune has been rightly mocked.) In the end, it's much easier to envisage today's children berating their parents in future years for bequeathing them a lifetime of austerity rule from an indifferent city hundreds of miles away than for giving them an independent country which is slightly less prosperous than it might otherwise have been - which appears to be the scariest prospect the No campaign can muster. And you'd have to be a fool to give much credence to the Westminster parties' last-minute floundering to give Scotland "Something (but we don't know what) some time (but we don't know when)". At this rate I half expect David Cameron to announce free neeps for all under-5s.

Ah, if only they'd listened to me in June they wouldn't be in this mess, but I fear that's destined to go down as one of history's great missed opportunities, along with Jim Callaghan's autumn 1978 election, and Byrhtnoth's defence of the causeway at the Battle of Maldon.

Comments

[gillo]

Byrhtnoth wuz robbed. I always say it and stand by it now.

I'm depressed. I don't want to lose Scotland as part of the UK, but it's their choice. It will make for a huge and excessive dominance by the English of what's left.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

If Westminster is offering a pig in a poke, so is the Independence campaign. They can't say what their currency will be; they can't even say if they'll get to stay in the EU. My opinion would be, "The pie sounds tasty, but please put it back in the oven until it's actually done." (A metaphor for "Get Thine Act Together.") But how does one express that in a "Yes" or "No" vote?

Regarding the "What did you do in the war, daddy?" meme. I'm reminded of the comment made by Roy Jenkins at the time of the vote to join the EU. Labour imposed a No whip on this (bizarrely, as in office the party had favored joining), and keepers of the peace implored the Jenkinsites to abstain rather than defy the whip. But for Jenkins this was the political cause of a lifetime, and he said (approx.) "When I'm asked, 'What did you do in the great division?' I'm damned if the answer is going to be 'I abstained.'"