Ireland an example of what Scotland could be

In a recent article in Foreign Policy Magazine, Amy MacKinnon and Colm Quinn lauded Ireland as a “country that punches well above its weight”.

As part of an investigation into United States President-elect Joe Biden’s Irish connections, the writers noted that the Emerald Isle had “a good claim to be the world’s most diplomatically powerful country” on a per capita basis.

“Ireland has an embassy in every European Union country…in June Ireland beat Canada to secure a seat on the United Nations Security Council. In July, Ireland’s Finance Minister, Paschal Donohoe, clinched the leadership of the Eurogroup, a club of Eurozone Ministers of Finance,” the journalists wrote.  

This, they said, was good going for a country of five million population.

Does that figure look familiar?  Well at the last census Scotland had a population of not quite 5.5 million.

Ireland’s example gives the lie to voices at Westminster who claim an independent Scotland would flounder and sink without big brother England to take care of it.

Of course Scotland charting its own course would not be a great power, but there is nothing to bar it from being an international voice of influence and a force for good.

Freed from the shackles of the disastrous Brexit experiment it would be free to create its own relationships, which could be its membership of the European Union (which the majority of Scots appear to want).

For the moment it appears the Nationalist cause north of the border is going to have to bide its time.  

The pro-Brexit Tories at Westminster have a healthy majority and Prime Minister Boris Johnson is refusing to give Scots a voice, clinging to the fiction that the matter was settled by the 2014 referendum which resulted in a majority in favour of continuing the union.

However Johnson, who loves to frame history in terms of what suits him, conveniently forgets that at the time the then Prime Minister, David Cameron, promised Scots their best hope of retaining EU membership was as a continuing member of the United Kingdom.

Cameron did not deliberately lie, and was probably as shocked as anyone with the 2016 Brexit referendum and its narrow result in favour of leaving.

The significant majority in Scotland (and in Northern Ireland) in favour of retaining EU membership was overwhelmed by the English majority. Scotland is being forced out of the EU against its will and deserves another vote on this significantly changed situation.

First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon wants that vote to take place next year, and will use May’s General Election in Scotland as a mandate for that to take place.

Of course the final decision will come from London, but five months into Brexit Johnson may have enough to worry about than having to put up with simmering discontent north of the border.

It is just possible he might decide to remove that one thorn from his side, so he can better deal with all the others.

In which case, Scotland will have its best chance in centuries to take a place, with Ireland, among the small but influential voices in the family of nations.