the idea that scotland
has a right to self-determination is of
course
absolute and i've always supported that
as one of the leading campaigners for a
scottish
parliament in the early days
but self-determination allows you to
choose whether to be part of a state
with other nations
or whether every nation has to have its
own state and i've never believed in
that
contrary to some of the guff i read on
twitter people say you support
independence
for every country in the world except
your own
except i don't support independence for
every country
in the world the catalans and the
basques
are both specific nations within spain
i don't support breaking up spain i
don't support
breaking up belgium i don't support
breaking up
italy where the northern leagues want to
be shot
of the poorer italians in the south i
don't support
breaking up any of these countries i
don't support breaking up
india i don't support breaking up at
cyprus i could go on
but it would bore you
self-determinations
allows a nation to choose whether to
coexist with other nations in a single
state and when you've done so
for 300 years and there is no pressing
need
to separate then i think it's foolish to
do so
and breaking up countries has never
actually worked out
all that successfully just ask them in
the ukraine
right now asked them in yugoslavia asked
them in czechoslovakia
where the czech people wanted the
slovaks to remain with them
the slovaks insisted on independence and
their own currency a point i'll come to
in a minute
it lasted 24 days
the slovak currency was the shortest
lived
currency in history and the imf had to
move in
and take over their economy and now the
czech republic is one of the most
happening places in the world
and slovakia is a backwater