Recession and the case for independence anno January 2012

Watching BBC News yesterday almost required medical treatment for depressions afterwards. With good reasons. We are really in a deep hole now.

Our problem is manufacturing. Or rather; the lack of it.

Or rather.....

Our problem is how we always pandered to the whims of the financial sector in London instead of the interests of the manufacturing base in the mid to north England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.

For the last three decades or so, all interest rates and all economic priorities has been set according to the needs of London. Most often to the detriment of the manufacturing sector in the rest of United Kingdom. The latest UK veto in EU was due to the whims of the financial sector and did and will hurt the manufacturing base in both the medium and long term.

It is a fact that offering incencitives to the financial sector in London is hurting the very substantial manufacturing base in the rest of the United Kingdom. Their interests is the opposites of the manufacturers and exporters. And it is manufacturing and exports that will drag us out of the hole we are now in. Even elementary school pupils understand that.

Will it ever happen ? Somewhere down the line, the government in London has to choose between London or the manufacturing base in the rest of the country. They cannot get both. I know what I would choose. I would tell the boffins in London to make their own luck and support the apprentices, the workers and the factory owners in Truro, Sunderland, Derry, Aberdeen and Swansea to really get us out of this mess.

And in the middle of this; Alex Salmond has finally put the cards on the table and offered up a get-out solution to Scotland. That on the same day as UK reached a new low.

I am by instincts and in principle dead against Scottish independence from the rest of the UK. A divorce will be messy.

But.......

If the politicians in London is still set on sticking with the boffins in London instead of throwing their weight behind the manufacturing sector, a Scottish independence will make a heck of a lot sense to me. Just to get rid of London which is now a millstone around the neck of the British econonomy. And it will probably remain so for a long time too.

The Scottish economy in itself is in fact pretty healthy. Yes, we have a huge welfare problem with people dying of alcholism, drugs and a bad lifestyle in their middle ages. We also have a large unskilled workforce currently on benefits. Our public sector is far too big too.

But that can be fixed by importing skilled hard working Eastern Europeans to get our manufacturing side working until these problems has been sorted out. The public sector workers can be retrained and re employed in the private sector. And the most crucial thing is that we do not have a millstone around our neck like for example a financial sector in Edinburgh which makes the politicians go blind. Our export industry is very big and has a lot of potential. Ditto for the tourism sector and the farming sector. The energy sector is very strong and has a lot of potential. Farming and food producing has a lot of potential. The same goes for the IT and science sector.

I am in principle dead against Scottish independence and so is the majority of the people in Scotland too. But getting rid of London makes a heck of a lot sense if the interest rates can be set by Edinburgh. If that is the case, the manufacturing sector in Scotland will manage to keep Scotland afloat while England will slip further into recession.

The referendum will be held in two and a half years time and a lot of the potential very messy divorce details has yet to be determined. But I would not bet against myself and the majority up here voting for Scottish independence in 2014.

Scary.......