Culture

We Need A Scotland-Style National Debate In Australia

However the independence vote goes, we can learn a lot from Scotland's revived sense of national identity.

by Simon Copland  17 September 2014

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On Thursday voters in Scotland will head to the polls to decide whether they should separate from the United Kingdom and break up the 307-year-old union. After years of debate it looks like the vote will come down to the wire; the last couple of weeks have seen late surge by the ‘Yes’ camp (those who are pro-independence), with polls tightening significantly. The vote will come down to whether Scots think they have wherewithal to go it alone, or if, as the pro-unionists argue, they are ‘better together‘ with the rest of the UK and vote ‘No’.

The vote, whilst historic, seems extremely distant from Australian shores. Despite Tony Abbott’s feeble and embarrassing intervention on the side of the union on his recent trip to the UK, where he claimed ‘‘the people who would like to see the break-up of the United Kingdom are not the friends of freedom,” whichever way Scotland votes is unlikely to have any real impact for us.

Still, there’s a lot Australia could — and should — take from what is happening in Scotland. Regardless of the eventual outcome, the vote has opened up a vast and imaginative debate about the future of Scotland — the sort of debate we are desperately lacking in Australia, and which we should be doing more to try and have.

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An Intoxicating Debate

Watching the debate unfold since the referendum was announced I can’t help but feel envious; the independence referendum has triggered an expansive and mature debate about the future of the nation. Scots have spent years having passionate and difficult discussions about the shape of its democracy, the provision of welfare and public services, the protection of the environment, the shape of its economy and the role of a Scottish nation in the broader world.

Just have a look at the discussion around the future of Scottish democracy; the referendum has required Scotland to think about how they would shape their potential democratic institutions, especially how they would write their new constitution. One idea that is gaining prominence is for the constitution to be ‘crowdsourced’, bringing in not just business groups, organisations and politicians, but thousands of Scottish citizens to work together to draft the country’s founding document. This is a potentially inspiring approach to direct democracy — giving people genuine, significant control to shape the future of the nation.

The same can be said about the economy; new and imaginative ideas are starting to be talked about where none were before. Activist group Common Weal have actively advocated for a significant rethink in the way the Scottish economy operates; a reduction in working hours, a minimum income for all, an expansion of welfare state and significant changes to the Scottish taxation system. Describing their goal as helping Scots to “see that there is a different way to run your politics”, Common Weal have gained support from much of the Scottish political establishment.

Of course, the debate hasn’t been without its flaws; some leading economists have accused the ‘No’ campaign of fear-mongering around the impacts of a ‘Yes’ vote on the Scottish economy, with many predicting absolute disaster if Scotland goes independent. The campaign has seen breakouts of violence as campaigners take to the streets, and ugly instances of overt racism and Islamophobia.

But overall, it has been highly mature and thoughtful debate – one that is “intoxicating the people of Scotland”.

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Our Not-So-Exciting Alternative

Compare this to Australia and we can only feel deeply disappointed; rather than being a forum to argue about big ideas and the country’s future, Australian politics has become a bleak game that benefits no one.

We’ve become obsessed with constant leadership speculation, whether it be the fight between Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd or the rising speculation on the strength of Tony Abbott’s Prime Ministership. For years our politicians have found convenient scapegoats like asylum seekers as a distraction from dealing with the serious issues we face. Political and policy apparatus are used to attack the government’s enemies, like Tony Abbott’s Royal Commission into unions. Add in a dash of corruption (hello ICAC) and a huge amount of influence in our system from elites like the mining industry and it’s no wonder people are feeling disillusioned.

While it’s easy to blame the actions of a few politicians for this malaise, the problem goes much deeper than that; this is fundamentally a symptom of our entire political culture, which is designed to limit the very debates we can have in the first place. We live in a world where the market reigns supreme, and by consequence, in a political system that dictates that markets are the only solution to our economic, environmental and social problems. In accepting the primacy of the market as a given, instead of one alternative among many, our political culture actively shuts out those who want to tackle the big problems with big and expansive solutions. Everything must be seen within the lens of the market, and if it isn’t, it’s ignored.

Maybe this is best highlighted by the endless articles where columnists bemoan that “complaint has become the national default position” in Australia, using economic indicators like GDP and unemployment rates to argue that “we don’t realise how lucky we are”. The market is going well we are told, so why aren’t we all shutting up and being happy? It’s as if the broader issues — economic justice, the environment, welfare, health and education, and the health of our democracy — simply don’t matter so long as the market keeps humming along.

But there are reasons people are complaining. Our politics has become extremely disconnected from the lives of real people. Inequality is on the rise, mental health issues are running rampant, people are depressed about the future and our environment continues to be trashed. Whether it is (amongst many other examples) the illegal donations exposed through ICAC or the influence of the pokie or mining industry, influence and corruption are rampant in our political system, leaving power in the hands of the political and business elite, whilst ignoring the rest of our community.

Our political debate refuses to let us deal with these issues. With no room to move away from market solutions we have become obsessed with personal politics, ignoring the big questions because our culture leaves us without the capacity to answer them.

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Time To Take A Leaf From The Scottish Book

Scotland certainly hasn’t solved all of this; the market fundamentalism that underpins all Western democracies has still dominated much of the debate around the referendum, and the limiting political culture it inspires has yet to be fully challenged. But simply through asking themselves a very big question, the Scots have shown us the possibilities of what a real debate about the future of our world could look like. No wonder turnout at the referendum looks like it will be extremely high — when there is a debate of importance to people’s lives, people switch on. The Scottish vote has unleashed a potential wave of hope in the community.

It is about time Australia took some cues from Scotland’s example. Our world is about a lot more than basic economic indicators, and politics is far more important than the personal debates that dominate our headlines. We have huge issues to face — climate change, the strength of our welfare system, future education and health needs in an ageing population, and the sustainability of our democracy in an age where corruption and influence seems to be endemic.

We don’t need an independence referendum to stand up to these challenges. All we need is the ability to think bigger than we currently are. That means breaking with our dominant political culture to one that is more expansive than just the market.

This is what a real debate about our future could look like. It’s not been too radical, but it has been real.

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Simon Copland is a freelance writer and climate campaigner. He writes on issues covering politics, the environment and sex, gender and sexuality. In his spare time he plays rugby union and is a David Bowie fanatic. He blogs here and tweets at@SimonCopland.

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Feature image via Yes Scotland/Twitter.