Gavin Corbett hates kilts and doesn't vote SNP but here he explains why he's a proud member of Third Sector Yes
I’ve worked in the voluntary sector almost all my adult life. The people with whom I work are sparky, creative, full of energy, young (well, younger than me, anyway) and passionate about what they do.
They are, in other words, very like the people who are making the running with the yes campaign. I am ecumenical enough to acknowledge that the no campaign has a case to argue, but, it is tediously lifeless stuff. All the vibrancy, creativity, energy, seems to lie with the yes side.
I’d know what to expect if I walked, with my yes badge, into a golf club (although, golfers for yes please prove me wrong!) or the boardroom of an oil company or a bank. We already know that the wealthier a person is, the more caught up with possessions and the more conservative they are, the more likely they are to vote no.
In contrast, walk into a room of people involved in creative industries or those driving change at societal or community level, and the talk is much more of yes. The boardroom barons may be for the status quo, but the social entrepreneurs I speak to beg to differ.
I’m backing independence because it is about who I think is best placed to navigate through an uncertain future
So, given that profile, the voluntary sector should be awash with people lining up to vote yes, right? Well, there’s certainly lots of support but “awash” would be inaccurate as yet. Part of the reason might be allegiance to one of the political parties who have aligned themselves with no. But more significant, I think, is the extent to which the voluntary sector’s talents (and therefore successes) are drawn from across the UK and beyond.
That’s not a barrier, of course. I share a room with a Yorkshire man and Zimbabwean woman, both of whom are staunch yes backers. But I do understand why people who have chosen to come here and make Scotland a better place may still have misgivings when yes is confused with nationalism.
Well, colleagues, count me among your number. I’m Ayrshire born and bred, but my support for independence has nothing to do with nationalism. I don’t like kilts or saltires, cannot remember (and don’t care) whether the Battle of Bannockburn was in 1314 or 1413 and think Flower of Scotland is a woeful dirge. What’s more, I’ve never voted SNP.
I’m backing independence because it is about who I think is best placed to navigate through an uncertain future.
So, there are three messages from me:
- Yes, is about choices. It is not about the SNP and it is certainly not about Alex Salmond. Nor is it, therefore, about the SNP’s policy preferences on lower corporation tax, greater exploitation of oil, or retaining a hereditary monarchy. Or any number of other things with which I disagree. These are choices for elections after a yes vote. 2014 is about who gets to choose.
- Yes is what is good for Scotland’s relationship with the rest of the UK. With the steering wheel in our own hands the policy choices don’t get any easier and mistakes will be made, but they will be our mistakes. That depressing Scottish habit of blaming London or Westminster will be ditched, allowing our relationship with our friends across Britain and Ireland to mature.
- Yes is what is good for the rest of the UK too. It is only when we travel to Denmark or the Netherlands or Germany that we truly appreciate how weird and out-of-step the UK has become these last 30 years: the levels of inequality we tolerate, the extent of the dead hand of global finance, the clinging to out-of-date technologies. The re-forging of relationships within these islands is the only spur that I can see to rethink Britain in a way that turns its back on the new right experiment. If not yes, then what is that spur? A changing of the guard at Westminster?
I sometimes say to people I’m 100% yes. I’m not and I’m inclined to mistrust people who tell me that they are. Doubt is the product of thought. On balance, the misgivings I have are significantly outweighed by the opportunities I see: for my children, for the community in which I live, for Scotland – and for Scotland’s relationship with the rest of the UK.
I believe that others see these opportunities too.
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