01 - 10 - 2019 / Your Story
PEOPLE SEE INDEPENDENCE AS SOMETHING TO BE FEARED
I am English by birth but have lived in Scotland for 30+ years - well over half my life. I voted No in 2014 broadly because at that time Scotland was part of two wider communities - the UK and the EU and independence felt isolationist from that perspective and Scotland's subsequent indefinite exclusion from the EU seemed a very real probability.
However, much has happened in the intervening handful of years to make me regret my voting decision in 2014. Faced with being forced out of the EU against our express will, the voices of our representatives in both Holyrood and Westminster being roundly ignored, and the authority of our own Parliament being removed and undermined.
I support independence regardless of the outcome of the ongoing Brexit chaos.
Many people characterise independence as something to be feared, uncharted territory, a headlong leap into the unknown - but seeing the reckless, irresponsible, selfish behaviour of the Westminster 'government' and the hands-tied, ineffectual opposition relating to Brexit - these things seem to be an inevitability anyway.
I believe an independent Scotland within the EU has nothing to fear and much to gain - and if independence does constitute a leap into the unknown, then it will be an unknown of our own choosing.
Jon from West Lothian