“The left-wing case for Scottish independence now stands at the heart of the referendum battle, because it is Labour’s core support that offers the only route to victory for the ‘yes’ camp. Strategically, this reliance on left-wing nationalism is both a strength and a weakness for the proponents of independence….
Scottish independence will not enable Scotland to evade Thatcherism; Thatcherism has already happened to Scotland. The question that left nationalism raises is whether the slow, difficult task of building a more social democratic Britain out of this new economy is best served by the creation of a new Scottish state – a state that would have an overwhelming incentive, like Ireland, to cut business taxation to gain a competitive advantage over its larger neighbour – or whether, as the Labour tradition suggests, collective action co-ordinated across all of the nations of the United Kingdom presents the left with the best prospects of success.” (to the full article- open access)