The “Marriage” of Scotland and England

Terms like divorce and separation often used by the tabloid media in Scotland to scare people away from the idea of independence. They are used because they are perceived to be negative conations, yet in reality they are highly misleading. Their usage implies that the Union with England equates to something akin to a marriage. Yet the concept of marriage generally implies an equal partnership, something that Scotland with a population of only 5 million could hardly boast when saddled with a neighbour ten times its size in population terms. Furthermore, whilst the percentage of Scots living in England stands at under 2% (according to the last census), the English-born population in Scotland is nearly 10% and rising. That’s a sizeable proportion of the population in Scotland who would vote against Scottish independence, regardless of any coherent argument put in its favour.