If Not For You?

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As someone who has recently acquired the label of “Old Age Pensioner”, I am saddened by statistics and polls that show my age group as being the one least supportive of the natural aspiration of independence for Scotland. The last BMG poll for The Herald showed a whopping 67% as “No” voters. This was quickly followed by 2 others showing similar figures.

Obviously, I am not amongst those of my age sector who are against independence, but I have not always been so strongly for it.

I lost interest in politics roughly from the mid-70s until the mid-00s, but my early inclination was always towards independence. Back in the 1950s and 60s independence was very much a pipedream, but in a household in Glasgow with my Skye father and Ayrshire mother and grandmother, politics was often discussed. This made for many an amicable argument between my independence-supporting grandmother and my shop steward socialist father whose leanings were towards the union. I felt that my grandmother won the argument (although my father’s socialism has also remained with me) and so contributed to the shaping of my own views on independence. Although not educated to a high standard, she, like many of her generation, made full use of the public library and the radio and was incredibly well-read in history, politics and (Scottish) literature and was very difficult, as a result, to argue against unless you were sure of your facts. Following this, I ended up pushing leaflets through doors in Pollokshaws in 1967 for George Leslie, our local vet and SNP candidate. A good man, George was, nevertheless, beaten into third place by the winning Unionist MP and the Labour candidate.

After I attended university and subsequently left home for the north-east, my desire remained for independence, but my interest waned and – I hate to say it – I even stopped voting, as I saw no chance whatsoever of my voting for a winning SNP candidate. When I moved away from the north-east to my father’s homeland, our local MP was Lib-Dem Charles Kennedy, a charming and able man and I ended up voting for him, telling myself this was a vote for the person not the party.

(One anecdote concerning Charles Kennedy is worth relating, as it shows, in a small way, the type of person he was. During the time when I was a teacher of business education, a Young Enterprise team I was involved with had won the 1993 Young Enterprise Scotland Competition as best company. We went forward to the UK finals at London University and, as a result, spent a week in London. Whilst there I organised a few side trips for the pupils, one to the Houses of Parliament, where Charles Kennedy showed us around on the Friday afternoon. One of the pupils asked him, towards the end of our very interesting and entertaining hour-long visit, why the place was so quiet. Charles said that this was because Parliament didn’t sit on a Friday afternoon to give MPs time to travel back to their constituencies. When asked why he wasn’t doing this, he replied that it was because he wanted to stay on to show our group around. When we finished and he then headed off for the last train back to Fort William he left behind a group who were most impressed by this modest, knowledgeable and humorous man.)

In 1999, when devolution was finally won, I regained a real feeling of optimism and my enthusiasm was rekindled. With the SNP entering government in 2007, having proved to be a strong and formidable opposition, and consolidating in 2011 and 2016, my rehabilitation was complete and my old enthusiasm returned!

It will be pretty obvious that I voted “Yes” in 2014 and will vote “Yes” again “whenever”. However, whereas in 2014 I voted for “me”, next time round will be different. The vote will be the same, but the reason will not be.

When I see that the majority of those in the younger age groups than mine voted “Yes” (with the strange anomaly of the 18-24s who voted 52% “No”), and with polls since then showing the “Yes” vote in these age groups increasing, who am I, at my age, to deny the young their wishes? Why should those of us who will live fewer years under likely permanent toryism, force those who will suffer the most to do so? Now, I hope to be around for a few more years, but I would like my tiny contribution toward the future of my children, my grandchildren, their friends, their colleagues and everyone else of their generations, to be my vote for independence.

In today’s “National” (3 April) Caroline Leckie suggests that my age group may not be “worth it”, regarding spending time and effort in changing voting intentions from “No” to “Yes”. My immediate thought is that we mustn’t do this. Brexit has changed everything for my age group as much as any other. Many of the reasons for we oldies voting “No” in 2014 have melted like the proverbial snow from the dyke; those reasons and perceptions that remain can be worked on; it’s just a case of finding the right platforms to address them. (All suggestions are most welcome!)

I often joke about withdrawing the right to vote from those who are older than the national average life expectancy, with the logic that they may not suffer the consequences of their actions, but I would ask all “No” voters of my age and beyond to think very seriously again about their reasons for voting “No”. Is it for selfish reasons?  Have you considered those who come after you? I have, and so it’s “Yes Again”.

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4 thoughts on “If Not For You?”

  1. Well said Angus, as a fellow OAP, I think that the majority in our age group did indeed vote “No” for selfish reasons, I recall many saying “What about my pension?”. There is a response, it is a fact that across all current 28 members of the European Union, only Romania pays a poorer State Pension that the UK in real terms. Even pointing this out to such who expressed this concern, they seldom believed it- such is the brainwashing and closed minds of the over 60,s age group! On a lighter note their attitude reminded me of the Groucho Marks sketch when asked “What about future generations?”, his response being “Why should I care about future generations, what have they ever done for Me”!!!

    1. What further puzzles and saddens me, Ian, is that many of the over 65 age group grew up during, and in the immediate years following, WW2. Their elder siblings, parents and grandparents sacrificed much for what our age group now harvests. It was them who fought during the war, who maintained the lines of supplies and communications and who, as the “Real Labour Party” after the war, laid the foundations of the welfare state that we all benefit from.

      In a way we are a spoiled generation (certainly those aged about 72 and under). We have never had to go to war, we have not been bombed. Whilst the UK state got involved in martial conflicts these were (and still are) far from these shores and we have all been safe here.

      And how do we reward our own children and grandchildren? We think only of ourselves, our pensions, our investments, our property. We deny them the chance to define their own futures, crippling their ability to shape a future for themselves and those who come afterwards.

      We are indeed a selfish selfish lot!

  2. As a fellow pensioner I couldn’t agree more Angus. Another statistic that I find alarming is that more than 50% of Scots born voted Yes in 2014, so it was incomers like me who helped swing it to No. Many incomers choose to live in Scotland not just for economic but also lifestyle reasons. For these people to then vote against the wishes of the very people who have shaped the Scotland that they find so attractive, is in my view unconscionable.

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