After leaving the UK, Scotland would be completely on her own
Marking the 12th anniversary of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum on Friday, journalism student and member of the Scottish Lib Dems Bertie Summers makes a passionate plea against another independence referendum
On 28 August 2026, the Scottish Government published its draft independence referendum bill, which set out the details of the proposed question and who would be allowed to vote. I think it’s all too clear, then, that the Scottish nationalists are still very much stuck in the past.
Friday marked 12 years since the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, on which the people of Scotland decisively, and thankfully, voted to remain part of the United Kingdom.
The voter turnout of 84.6 per cent was the highest recorded for an election or referendum in the United Kingdom since the January 1910 general election, which was held before the introduction of universal suffrage.
This means that Friday was the anniversary of Scotland’s people voting passionately and irrefutably to reject division and separation.
The fact is that the SNP has not been honest or straight with the public. They have really not come clean, in the slightest, with the public about the fact that they have no real plan, especially not if Scotland were ever to leave the United Kingdom.T
he Common Weal think tank admits that there isn’t a “properly worked-out plan” for what would happen in the event of a Yes vote. This is despite the SNP Government publishing 14 papers on the topic.
Glasgow-based Common Weal has recruited a panel of experts, including economist Professor Richard Murphy and former British ambassador Frances Guy. This think tank has launched a crowdfunder to pay for a new plan for breaking up the UK, as a senior figure admitted: “There still isn’t an implementable prospectus for independence.”
It will look at 80 different issues “that must be properly addressed”, suggesting that the 14 papers on independence that have already been produced by the Scottish Government are not considered to be serious works.
I should also point out that publishing all of these papers has already cost the public purse £200,000 in taxpayers’ money. This doesn’t even include the salaries of the civil servants in the Constitutional Futures Division who worked on them for over three years.
This dishonesty can also be clearly seen in the fact that there is a highly flawed claim often being peddled by the Scottish nationalists that I will now challenge. It is the complete myth surrounding the supposed ‘mandate’ that they apparently have for pursuing another referendum on Scottish independence.
Yes, it’s true that 73 out of 129 MSPs in the Scottish Parliament are pro-independence, and that was the exact outcome that the 2026 Scottish Parliament election results produced. However, this absolutely does not mean that the SNP and Scottish Greens somehow have a mandate to pursue another referendum on Scottish independence, and here is why.
Parties that support Scottish independence only received 40.47 per cent of the popular vote on the constituency ballot between them. This compares with parties that oppose Scottish independence receiving 58.15 per cent of all the constituency votes cast between them all.
The complete and utter lack of any pro-independence majority also plays out on the regional ballot. Whilst nationalist parties received exactly 41.16 per cent of all the regional votes cast between them, the unionist parties received exactly 53.81 per cent of all the regional votes cast between them.
This clearly shows that there is absolutely no mandate for anybody to pursue another referendum on Scottish independence that most members of the public are emphatically against being foisted upon us all.
Scots are frustrated that the First Minister is yet again taking his focus away from the things that really matter. Scots have made it clear in repeated polling that we do not want another divisive independence referendum.
Instead of sorting out our education system, supporting teachers and helping students, the SNP are banging the independence drum. They are only doing so in the hope that the people of Scotland do not notice their own dismal domestic performance.
Another very problematic misconception that is constantly made by Scottish nationalists is that while the UK is currently failing, many other European countries are thriving. Regarding the rate of unemployment and the varying levels of affordability in many different European nations alone, that is very clearly not the case, as the relevant facts and figures available online demonstrate.
While the UK had an unemployment rate of 4.9 per cent in June 2026, this figure stood at 8.2 per cent for France in June 2026, as well as 10.1 per cent in Spain during that month, according to Statista. Additionally, Sweden had an unemployment rate of 8.9 per cent in June 2026, while Finland had it at exactly 10 per cent just a few months ago, and Greece had it at exactly 8 per cent.
It should also be pointed out that across daily expenses, general goods, and services, Norway tends to be around 5 per cent to 15 per cent more expensive than the UK. The UK offers a cheaper overall cost of living, with more affordable food, clothing, and electronics.
Eating out, drinking alcohol, and entertainment are significantly pricier in Norway due to higher taxes and VAT. Everyday supermarket items and imported foods cost more in Norway, whereas basic grocery shopping is generally cheaper in the UK.
Ireland currently has the highest household electricity prices in the European Union, while Sweden records the highest natural gas prices in Europe. Ireland is ranked as having the highest costs in the EU for domestic electricity. As reported on YouTube, “Between July and December 2025, electricity prices in Ireland surpassed those of any other European Union country.”
Households there pay more than 40 cents per kilowatt-hour. Germany and Belgium are nations that follow closely behind Ireland with some of the highest nominal electricity rates in Europe. Clearly, then, the UK is definitely not performing any worse (or even as badly) in social and economic matters than our European neighbours currently are.
After 19 years of the SNP in government at Holyrood, they have really badly mismanaged a lot of things, and all they do in response is just blame Westminster for their failings. Leaving the UK will mean Scotland is completely alone. This is because it cannot join the EU until after meeting the following EU requirements, as is clearly outlined in the list of reasons below.
- The Euro would have to be the currency in Scotland. (This will increase prices in Scotland if the Pound Sterling is stronger against the Euro.)
- The deficit against GDP has to be no higher than 3 per cent (it’s currently at 10.9 per cent), which means that Scotland cannot join until it gets it to be much lower than that.
- It can take up to 10 years for newly created independent nation-states to join the EU. Scotland would be in a drift for such a long time, with no Westminster government sending us monetary payments during that period. 35 individual chapters would need to be met before Scotland would be able to join, that is, if an independent Scotland does join the EU, which it very likely won’t.
- Spain, fearing that Catalonia will strike out for its own independence if it sees an independent Scotland being fast-tracked into the EU, would do all it can to block Scotland from becoming a member. Spain can ill afford to lose Catalonia, as it is the richest region in Spain, and they need the income that comes from this region. The national unemployment among the under-25-year-olds age group is sitting at about 25 per cent in Spain.
As a people, Scotland would lose so much more as a result of leaving the UK than we would gain from achieving Scottish independence. And the people did indeed vote to remain in the UK quite emphatically, after all. This is irrespective of all its “limitless oil wealth”, which the Scottish people were told at the time that we have, but now know that we do not.
The SNP are lying through their back teeth when they say they are interested in Scotland’s future. The truth of the matter is that they are not. For instance, they know that there is no future for an independent Scotland in the European Union, and certainly not as a member of the EU, anyway.
‘I can see very clearly that the hard facts and evidence clearly demonstrate that Scotland is much better off staying in the UK, in the past, in the present, and in the future.’
Considering that the UK has now left the EU, some commentators have argued that it could undermine the case for Scottish independence, which could be one of the reasons for such a situation. This is because free trade, freedom of movement, and the absence of border controls between Scotland and England could no longer be assumed.
The nationalists won’t tell you that, though, because if they did, then their ambitions for Scottish independence would just become a complete dead duck, and never to be heard of again.
Nicola Sturgeon was strangely silent in 2019 when the Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (GERS) figures showed Scotland running a £12.6bn (7 per cent of GDP) annual budget deficit. This accounted for over half of the total UK deficit, which absolutely does not chime with her independence agenda, and it is definitely in breach of EU membership rules.
Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t the SNP previously say that the last general election in 2024 would give them a mandate for independence, then they lost most of their seats in the process, meaning that they have no mandate to talk for Scotland?
Scottish independence is the very thing that Shetlanders must never, ever vote for. If we do, we will hand over, free of charge, our key negotiating lever for anything and everything of serious substance we want to negotiate with the Scottish government and with Westminster. Certainly, Faroese-style self-governance will be thrown away forever.
Of course, every candidate is entitled to their ‘pitch’, but what I see here is the notion that if we vote for an SNP candidate, then everything we want will be granted to Shetland, and if we don’t vote SNP, then we’ll face a very different outcome. Well, where’s the democracy in that? It’s completely non-existent, that’s where it really is.
I mean, it should be completely obvious now that the SNP is not really at all interested in respecting the will of Scotland’s people. In fact, they’re just very happy to parade around it whenever it suits their political purpose.
This shows exactly why having an unbelievably arrogant “too big to fail” mindset will cause a political party to go down in flames. It turns out that the “but the Tories” deflection tactics no longer work. I can see very clearly that the hard facts and evidence clearly demonstrate that Scotland is much better off staying in the UK, in the past, in the present, and in the future.
I have fiercely opposed the break-up of the UK since I was seven years old, because I strongly believe in staying together and finding the necessary common ground to make things much better for everybody.
I really hope that the Scottish, Irish, and Welsh nationalists all move on from their unpopular and far-fetched attempts to break up the United Kingdom, for everybody’s benefit. They should just get on with the day job of improving the lives of all the people that they were elected to serve, at long last.
