The Symbols of Statehood

Convincing the Scottish people that they are worthy of independence, after 300 years of English-led, pro-British propaganda will be no easy task. The English-controlled media has conditioned Scottish people to think of themselves as little more than a region of the United Kingdom.

The simple truth is that if Scotland wants to be recognised as a distinct entity separate from England, then it needs to start portraying itself as such. Only by doing so, will Scots find that they no longer have to experience that old “here we again” moment on holiday where they find themselves having to explain that Scotland is not actually a part of England. Scotland needs to understand that the wider world knows nothing of its “wee pretendy parliament" (as Billy Connolly once called it) and, in order to gain recognition abroad, it needs to start portraying itself as being a distinct and independent entity.

There is a well known American motivational speaker called Anthony Robbins who argues, amongst other things, that people who want to become successful should act as if they already are. Robbins argues that: “Acting ‘as if’ is most effective when you put your physiology in the state you’d be in if you were already effective”. Indeed, if Scotland started to act and look more like an independent country then its people would be more accepting of the actual transition towards statehood.

Perhaps one way to do this would be to emulate the political autonomy that the Isle of Man currently enjoys. As a crown dependency, the Isle of Man’s citizens are technically British, but their passports are slightly different, stating on the cover: British Islands - Isle of Man.

The Isle of Man also has its own constitution, mints its own coins and produces its own postage stamps. Indeed the island enjoys full self-government in respect of all internal domestic matters, leaving foreign relations and defence as the responsibility of the British Crown.

Certainly, there are two areas that Scotland could emulate from the Isle of Man. One is the issue of its own postage stamps where every letter and postcard sent overseas would promote Scotland’s identity throughout the world. Secondly, Scotland could issue its own car number plates. Indeed, Manx car number plates are fairly distinctive and capitalise on the island’s Celtic heritage, promoting the country not only to its own people, but also to the other countries of the British Isles.

Of course, it could be argued that the reason the Isle of Man enjoys such autonomy is that it is not technically a part of the United Kingdom and it's constitutional status is therefore different to that of Scotland. Yet, there is already a precedent for one part of the United Kingdom itself issuing car number plates separately from the rest of the UK: Northern Ireland. Indeed, not only does Northern Ireland issue its own car registration plates, it also operates its own version of the DVLA: the DVLNI.

Scotland needs to look distinct from England. Distinctive road signs and car number plates are one way to do this. At present, a tourist on a bus who slept past the “Welcome to Scotland” sign would barely know they were no longer in England when they woke up. The cars number plates would look the same and the road signs would look the same. Bilingual English / Gaelic signs would go a long way to addressing this. Of course the Unionists, like the broken record that they are, will predictably argue about the cost issue. Yet it could be legislated that there need not be a Scotland-wide wholesale replacement of existing road signs. Rather, that every new, or replacement sign be bilingual. Exceptions could be made for Orkney and Shetland, of course, where bilingual English / Norn (Old Norse) signs may be more appropriate.

Of course any attempt to make Scotland a little more Scottish will meet with opposition from the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat Unionists who fear that it threatens their sense of British-ness. They will always complain about money being spent to promote Scottish identity. Indeed, cast your memory back to the building of the Scottish Parliament and the very same naysayers were there day-in-day-out complaining about the costs. For many at the time, even the building of a garden shed would have been deemed too expensive and unnecessary. Yet one simply has to look at the architectural magnificence of Westminster to realise that it cannot have been cheap to build. Nor, for that matter, was London’s new Wembley Stadium, or it’s Olympic stadium. 

Only statehood can renew the pride of the Scottish people and, if Scotland is serious in wanting to bring this about, then it needs to start acting like it was a state of its own already and stop begging for scraps from the table of it’s masters in England.