Thrive by Lesley Riddoch sampler
Why won’t Scots simmer down? Why batter on about independence when folk voted No a decade back? After all. Scotland’s not as populated as Yorkshire, nor as wealthy as London. But it’s also not as Conservative, as keen on Brexit, or as willing to flog public assets to Tory party pals. So does Nicola Sturgeon’s departure terminally damage the case for independence? The answer, with all respect to her legacy, is no. Scotland has bigger fish to fry. In this book, Lesley Riddoch makes an impassioned call to action, weaving academic evidence with story, international comparison and anecdote to explain why Scotland is ready to step forward as the world’s newest state.
Why won’t Scots simmer down?
Why batter on about independence when folk voted No a decade back?
After all. Scotland’s not as populated as Yorkshire, nor as wealthy as London. But it’s also not as Conservative, as keen on Brexit, or as willing to flog public assets to Tory party pals.
So does Nicola Sturgeon’s departure terminally damage the case for independence?
The answer, with all respect to her legacy, is no.
Scotland has bigger fish to fry.
In this book, Lesley Riddoch makes an impassioned call to action, weaving academic evidence with story, international comparison and anecdote to explain why Scotland is ready to step forward as the world’s newest state.
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11<br />
Preface<br />
Independence.<br />
For those who crave it, for those who dread it and for those<br />
utterly bored <strong>by</strong> the whole debate – we are living together<br />
through deeply frustrating times.<br />
In late 2022, the Supreme Court dismayed the half of<br />
Scotland that favours independence <strong>by</strong> announcing ‘the world’s<br />
most powerfully devolved parliament’ cannot consult its own<br />
people in a lawful referendum. But the half of Scotland against<br />
independence was dealt an equally forceful blow – Yessers<br />
showed no signs of giving up, even though their democratic<br />
path was blocked. So it’s deadlock, Groundhog Day and – if<br />
you chuck in the sudden departure of Nicola Sturgeon and<br />
the fractious contest to replace her – the winter of 2022/23<br />
has produced the perfect, political storm. And a big departure<br />
from Scotland’s own status quo.<br />
Most Scots under the age of 30 can’t recall a Scottish<br />
Parliament without one of Britain’s two most formidable<br />
politicians at the helm – Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon.<br />
He saw an ‘Executive’ become a ‘Government’, pioneered<br />
a massive expansion of wind energy using only devolved<br />
planning powers, ‘broke’ the proportional voting system to<br />
win an absolute majority in 2011, extracted the Edinburgh<br />
Agreement from David Cameron and nearly won the 2014<br />
indyref. She saw a divided country through the indyref’s<br />
aftermath, developed Scotland’s own welfare state to mitigate<br />
cruel Whitehall benefit sanctions, reached out to Europeans<br />
after the sudden shock of Brexit and reassured people with<br />
well-researched, empathetically delivered, daily briefings<br />
during the Covid pandemic – in stark contrast to the largely
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