With the countdown to September 2014, the stories we tell will have an enormous influence in the political action we express. Britain, and how it is understood, our loyalties and feelings about it are under close inspection.
Within the same week as the extension of the franchise to 16 and 17 years olds for the Scottish referendum, the top YouTube video doing the rounds is one entitled ‘we didn’t own an ipad’. This version of Billy Joel’s anthemic apology for the baby boomer generation compares playstations and board games (amongst other things) to strike a contrast between growing up now and growing up in the late 70s and 80s. It’s well worth a chuckle; however, with regard to the Referendum debate, this division is misleading. The contrast is not between equally E-savvy 30 year olds and 16 year olds who broadly consume the same reality; the real generational line in the sand is somewhere nearer 1979. The ideas, visions and collective story of Britain on offer to each either side of the line are strikingly different.
The 18-35 year olds voting in 1979 would have been the first crop of baby boomers, born in the shadow of the post-War consensus. Their parent’s had lived through war, depression and European fascism. This was the New Jerusalem: the Britain of collective taxation, comprehensive Welfare and Universal provision of health. They worked in a Scottish economy that was often the closest to the British mean in terms of employment and infrastructure.[1] This was a Scotland that shared the same political vision of the UK electorate as a whole, sending MPs to London to play pivotal roles in directing the course of the economy and reshaping Britain’s image as it attempted to shed its leopard skin of Empire. With the exception of the minor irregularities in the 1959 and 1970 General Elections, the majority of Scotland’s MPs were of the same political party as the majority of the UK’s. [2] The future is always fraught with risk; until 1979 the baby boomer generation in Scotland found security in the New Britain. The Spirit of ’45 was still strong.
Cue the 18th September 2014.
The 16-35 year olds voting in next year’s referendum have experienced not just a different Britain, but a different world. Change is the one certainty. Since 1945 the number of nation-states has quadrupled in a global community that has grown dramatically more affluent.[3] The post-79 generation are painfully self-conscious of Britain’s image: at best a cringe-worthy Dad awkwardly trying to fit in, at worst a bully-boy in the world’s 21st century playground. Through their eyes, the credibility of Britain’s imperial might as a force for good has disappeared. They’ve witnessed Britain’s military involvement since 1979 with more cynicism and scrutiny. Korea, Suez and Borneo have a different feel to The Falklands, Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan. With the world’s fourth largest defence budget and the fifth largest global exporter of arms, is difficult to feel proud of the UK’s recent military record. Watching that pride being expressed with fervour in the Last Night of the Proms or Royal pageantry events is, for this generation, increasingly like watching a London orientated Disney parade: removed and remote to any meaning in their lives. Particularly true in a Scotland where many don’t feel they are stakeholders in the British establishment of privilege and corruption. Nothing is British sacred; the instruments of state have shown themselves to be fallible and defunct, unravelling the consensus through MPs expenses, illegal wars and class warfare. Project Britain is over, giving way to elitist politics and democratic failure for many: 23 out of 36 years in Scotland from 1979 until the next general election in 2015. This isn’t just a statistical anomaly, a blip in voting differences between Scotland the rest of the UK; this is a fundamental divergence in our values and the types of society we want to live in. Westminster democracy from 1979 until 2015 has resulted in a 64 % failure rate for Scotland, hardly an endorsement for a common vision or shared story. Politicians can no longer rely on the Dunkirk spirit to appeal to a generation that don’t even know where Dunkirk is. The proclaimed ‘Miracle of 1940’ is starting to join the Charge of the Light Brigade or the Battle of Rorke’s Drift– remote events, historically distant and increasingly irrelevant to our identity in the 21st century. The UK cannot rely on the shared experience of war as a social gel- the ‘Iraq Spirit’ only reflects a divided society, people cynically aware of their politicians and distrustful of their political system.
So what is the story we adhere to now, what grand narratives are going to influence young voters in the referendum next year? Commentator Gerry Hassan highlights the need for Scottish society to extend itself beyond the limitations of the British legacy:
‘ a new language and philosophy is required for 21st century Scotland, one which addresses our own unique experience and which also contributes to the wider global debate about the challenges we face. This has to draw from past futures we have created, their limitations and possibilities….and always open to being made and remade’.[4]
Scottish independence is an opportunity for this generation, the post-79 generation, to build their own hopes, dreams and visions of the future. Of course, the dour realism of our climate may hamper some of these utopia ideals, some may gang aft a-gley. However, there is a growing realisation that we have to aspire. It is every generation’s responsibility to offer new hope, clearer direction and fresh belief. This constitutional debate isn’t just another issue amongst a plethora of others; it is a debate about how we do the basics of decision making in our future reality. Voting for independence gives us that option- to create a new narrative that isn’t based on the managed decline of Empire. We can build a story of our own; a young nation ready to face the globally challenges of the 21st century steeped in the labour tradition but not strangle by it. This generation have little to lose from independence, either culturally or to their sense of identity. The status quo, stagnant stuffy Britain ready to extinguish our progressive values, isn’t a viable option.
Yet there are some who claim we need to sacrifice our appetite for self-determination for the perceived safety of London’s womb, that security trumps liberty. Perhaps our story can be inspired words of courage uttered by a nation that faced the same dilemma nearly 250 years ago and has yet to look back. Benjamin Franklin, the leading intellect in the infant American nation remarked –They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.[5] Truly the way we can face the future is by believing in ourselves, our own actions and responsibilities. Everyone has to grow up. It seems the younger generation are more willing to grow up and create their own destiny: a Scotland proud of its British heritage, but not defined or constrained by it. In the creation of a new story, our actions next September will leave a legacy of faith, hope and self-belief as together we take the exciting initial step into independence. It is this generation that have the voice to determine and shape the Spirit of 2014.
andrewkdraffen
Nicky Patterson
Gail Patterson
jptonner
martinpatterson
MrMcLaughlan
scottconfused
staggerlees
EchoCollective 