9 key reasons why Scots should vote Yes for an Independent Scotland

A referendum on whether Scotland should be independent from the UK will take place on Thursday 18 September 2014 . There are many locally and globally important reasons for Scots to vote Yes for Independence and reject the No advice from a plethora of UK Mainstream media, politician and academic presstitutes and from bloody warmongers, war criminals and state terrorists like Barack Obama and Tony Blair who have urged Scots to remain as subjects of the historically and internationally brutal, bloody and exploitative English Establishment.

Back in 2007 when he was President of the prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the present senior advisor to President Barack Obama on science and technology issues, Professor John Holdren, identified nuclear weapons, poverty and climate change as 3 key threats to humanity [1, 2]. These 3 matters head a list of 9 key arguments for Yes for Independence for Scotland that are summarized below [1].

1. An Independent Scotland would ban Nuclear Weapons and cease being a nuclear target .

A nuclear exchange would wipe out most of Humanity (current population about 7 billion) , successively through the initial instantaneous destruction of cities, subsequent deaths from burns and radiation sickness from radioactive fallout, and finally through a “Nuclear Winter” decimating agriculture, photosynthesis and photosynthate-based life in general. An Independent Scotland would add a further sane country to the 47 states that , so far, in clear, succinct statements back a Nuclear Weapons Ban, namely Afghanistan, Argentina, Austria, Burundi, Chile, Colombia, Comoros, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Fiji, Ghana, Guatemala, Holy See, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malawi, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Palau, Palestine, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Samoa, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Vanuatu, and Zambia [2, 3].

2. A demilitarized Independent Scotland would have freed up resources to alleviate Poverty both at home and abroad.

UN Population Division data indicate that about 17 million people already die avoidably each year from deprivation in Developing Countries (minus China ) on a Spaceship Earth with Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist (NAZI)-perverted One Percenters substantially in charge of the flight deck [4]. As discussed in (4) below 11,000 Scots die avoidably each year and this can be linked to poverty, deprivation and lack of resources for health by a highly militarized UK.

3. Scotland aims for 100% renewable energy by 2020 (via wind, tide and wave power) and an Independent Scotland would be a a major example for Climate Change Action.

Basically we understand the damaging and threatening consequences of man-made greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution and how to solve it (stop and reverse GHG pollution). Fundamentally, as enunciated by 300.org, we need to urgently reduce atmospheric CO2 concentration from the current dangerous and damaging 400 ppm CO2 to about 300 ppm for a safe planet for all peoples and all species, this involving a rapid switch to the best non-carbon and renewable energy (solar, wind, geothermal, wave, tide and hydro options that are currently roughly the same market price as coal burning-based power) and to energy efficiency, public transport, needs-based production, re-afforestation and return of carbon as biochar to soils or bicarbonate to oceans coupled with correspondingly rapid cessation of fossil fuel burning, deforestation, methanogenic livestock production and population growth [5 -17]. Scotland aims for 100% renewable energy by 2020 via wind, tide and wave power [10].

4. An Independent Scotland would dissociate itself from British state terrorism, US state terrorism, US Alliance state terrorism and British Imperialism .

The US has invaded 70 countries since 1776 , the UK has invaded about 172 countries and France has invaded 80 [18-20]. 1950-2005 avoidable deaths in countries occupied by France, the UK and the US (the FUKUS Alliance) in the post-1945 era total 142 million, 727 million and 82 million, respectively. The British Empire was associated with genocide on all inhabited contents. Avoidable deaths from British imposed deprivation in the 2 century British Raj in India totalled 1.8 billion [21]. The post-1990 Muslim Genocide has been associated with 12 million Muslim deaths from violence or violently-imposed deprivation (and half being children) [4, 22].

5. An Independent Scotland with a pro-peace, pro-health and pro-equity agenda could eliminate 11,000 preventable deaths in Scotland each year.

The UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) found that 23% of deaths in England and Wales could have been prevented through better care, more effective treatment and healthier living [23]. UN Population Division data indicate 585, 000 deaths in the UK each year, and assuming the same mortality and preventable mortality rates in England-Wales, Scotland (population 5.3 million) and the UK (population 63 million) one can estimate 0.23 x 585,900 x 5.3/63.0 = 11,337 preventable deaths each year in Scotland. This estimate is consonant with that of Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer Dr Harry Burns who stated (2008): “Coronary heart disease, stroke and cancer are the biggest causes of death in Scotland. Deaths from alcohol-related liver disease in Scotland are rising faster than almost anywhere else in the world. Tragically, thousands of Scots are dying from these conditions years earlier than they should. I estimate around 5,000 lives could be saved in Scotland each year if we followed simple steps to avoid known risk factors. What may surprise people is that a significant proportion of these avoidable deaths are from cancer. Many of the thousands of lives lost to or blighted by cancer in Scotland each year could be saved by simple steps to prevent or detect early" [24].

6. An Independent Scotland could recover sovereignty, social equity and genuine democracy by a wealth tax.

An annual wealth tax as suggested by French economist Professor Thomas Piketty would enable significant wealth transfer in Scotland enabling a move to restoration of genuine sovereignty and genuine democracy. This would set a good example for the world as a whole. Thus an annual global wealth tax of about 4% would yield US$16 trillion annually and enable raising all countries to annual per capita incomes equivalent to the $6,000 per person per year of China and Cuba, countries for which annual avoidable mortality is zero (0) [4, 25, 26]. As revealed in the “No” campaign, the UK like other Western democracies is a Murdochracy, Lobbyocracy and Corporatocracy in which Big Money owns half the wealth and purchases people, politicians , parties, policies, public perception of reality and political power [27-37].

7. An Independent Scotland would have rejected the “No” advice of serial invaders, serial war criminals and genocidal mass murderers like Barack Obama and Tony Blair.

If a majority of Scots vote “Yes” for Independence, an Independent Scotland would have rejected the advice of war criminal and genocidal mass murderers like Barack Obama and Tony Blair and their pathetic Antipodean lackey Australian PM Tony Abbott who all have a bloody penchant for knowing what’s good for other countries and backing that up with war criminal invasions and devastations of other states. Thus the post-1990 Zionist -backed US War on Muslims has been associated with 12 million Muslim deaths from violence or violently-imposed deprivation (with about half being children), an Anglo-American Muslim Holocaust and Muslim Genocide according to Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention [4, 22].

8. An Independent Scotland would resume a rational and healthy national life after a millennium of hegemony, exploitation, ethnic cleansing and lying by the genocidal English Establishment.

As outlined above, an Independent Scotland would be able to make rational decisions in the interests of Scotland and indeed of Humanity. Rational risk management that is crucial for societal safety successively involves (a) getting accurate data, (b) scientific analysis (science involving the critical testing of potentially falsifiable hypotheses) and (c) systemic change, changing systems so that when Nature or fallible humans inevitably cause a dangerous situation the system is better able to minimize risk. Unfortunately all too prevalent “spin” and “politicized” responses in society pervert rational risk management by (a) lies, slies (spin-based untruths), censorship, intimidation, self-censorship, and white-washing, (b) anti-science spin involving the use of selected asserted “facts” to support a partisan position, and (c) “blame and shame”, picking convenient culprits for public punishment, thereby inhibiting reportage (with war being the ultimate expression of this perverted approach) [38]. For a millennium Scotland has been dealing with threats, hegemony, invasion, occupation, exploitation, ethnic cleansing, lying and spin by the genocidal English Establishment. Now an Independent Scotland has the opportunity to throw off the shackles of an exploitative and mendacious English Establishment.

9. A pro-peace, pro-equity, demilitarized Independent Scotland would provide an example for all other countries and peoples in the world.

We live in a world in which the top One Percenters own about 50% of the wealth and the bottom 50% own about 1% of the wealth. In the Anglosphere countries the share of annual income of the Top One Percenters and top Ten Percenters is steadily increasing [25, 26] . This disproportionality endangers economies, human rights and democracy. Indeed this outrageous corporatist distortion has given rise to the nuclear, poverty and climate change threats that acutely threaten Humanity. An Independent Scotland would be more able to adopt rational, science-informed, pro-peace, pro-Humanity policies and thus provide a powerful example to all nations and all peoples, not least the long-suffering ordinary people of England.

Final comments.

According to independent accounts from Canada and Victoria, my earliest known British ancestor was my great great great grandfather Guigan MacDonald who fled to Ireland as a proscribed MacDonald after the Battle of Culloden (1746), in which he participated, and later returned to his home in the Western Highlands as Donald McGuigan. 2 of our crofters cottage homes still survive just north of the Mull of Kintyre, one without a roof and the other with a roof used as a barn for sheep-shearing. Donald McGuigan’s descendants were pushed off their land by English-backed clan chiefs and other Anglo-Scottish landlords after English conquest in the 18th century and the subsequent ethnic cleansing of Scotland called the “Highland Clearances” [39]. My impoverished Scots forebears fled to North America or Australasia.

The Scots have made huge contributions to Humanity in literature, science, technology, philosophy and other scholarship. The downside has been Scots serving as agents of British Imperialism that brought devastation and genocide to all inhabited continents [4, 21]. Now is the opportunity for Scots to declare Independence from England and provide an example of rational, science-informed, pro-peace, pro-equity, pro-Humanity governance for the whole world. Canny and humane Scots will vote Yes for Independence.

References.

[1]. (see Gideon Polya, “Nuclear Weapons Ban & Boycotts, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS)
To Save World From Nuclear, Poverty & Climate Threats”, Countercurrents, 11 August, 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya110814.htm .

[2]. “Nuclear weapons ban , end poverty & reverse climate change”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/nuclear-weapons-ban .

[3]. ICAN compilation in Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, “Government statements in favour of a nuclear weapons ban by International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons”: http://www.wagingpeace.org/government-statements-in-favor-of-a-nuclear-weapons-ban/ ).

[4]. Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, that includes an avoidable mortality-related a history of every country since Neolithic times and is now available for free perusal on the web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ .

[5]. “2011 climate change course”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course .

[6]. 300.org: . https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/300-org .

[7]. “300.org – return atmosphere CO2 to 300 ppm”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/300-org---return-atmosphere-co2-to-300-ppm .

[8]. “Carbon Debt Carbon Credit”: https://sites.google.com/site/carbondebtcarboncredit/ .

[9]. “Cut carbon emissions 80% by 2020”: https://sites.google.com/site/cutcarbonemissions80by2020/ .

[10]. “100% renewable energy by 2020”: https://sites.google.com/site/100renewableenergyby2020/ .

[11]. “Gas is not clean energy”: https://sites.google.com/site/gasisnotcleanenergy/ .

[12]. “Climate Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/climategenocide/ .

[13]. “Biofuel Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/biofuelgenocide/ .

[14]. “Divest from fossil fuels”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/divest-from-fossil-fuels .

[15]. “Climate Justice & Intergenerational Equity”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/climate-justice .

[16]. “Stop climate crime”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/stop-climate-crime .

[17]. “Are we doomed?”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/are-we-doomed .

[18]. Jasper Copping, “British have invaded nine out of ten countries – so look out Luxembourg . Britain has invaded all but 22 countries in the world in its long and colourful history, new research has found”, Telegraph, 4 November 2012: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/9653497/British-have-invaded-nine-out-of-ten-countries-so-look-out-Luxembourg.html (for a map see: http://i.imgur.com/yKK2yrc.gif ).

[19]. Gideon Polya, “US has invaded 70 nations Since 1776 – make 4 July Independence From America Day”, Countercurrents, 5 July 2013: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya050713.htm .

[20]. Gideon Polya, “President Hollande And French Invasion Of Privacy Versus French Invasion Of 80 Countries Since 800 AD”, Countercurrents, 15 January 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya150114.htm .

[21]. Gideon Polya, “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History. Colonial rapacity, holocaust denial and the crisis in biological sustainability”, now available for free perusal on the Web: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com.au/ .

[22]. "Muslim Holocaust Muslim Genocide" https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ .

[23]. “ONS suggests one in four deaths are “avoidable’”, NHS choices, 8 May 2014: http://www.nhs.uk/news/2014/05may/pages/ons-suggests-that-one-in-four-deaths-are-avoidable.aspx .

[24]. The Scottish Government, Riaghaltas na h-Alba, “Health in Scotland”, 12 December 2008: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2008/12/02083254 .

[25]. Gideon Polya, “ 4 % Annual Global Wealth Tax to stop the 17 million deaths annually ”, Countercurrents, 27 June 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya270614.htm .

[26]. Gideon Polya, “Key Book Review: “Capital In The Twenty-First Century” By Thomas Piketty”, Countercurrents, 1 July, 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya010714.htm .

[27]. “Boycott Murdoch media”: https://sites.google.com/site/boycottmurdochmedia/ .

[28]. “Censorship by the BBC”: https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbythebbc/ .

[29]. “Censorship by The Conversation”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by .

[30]. “Mainstream media censorship”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/home .

[31]. “Mainstream media lying”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammedialying/ .

[32]. “Censorship by The Age”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by-the-age .

[33]. “Censorship by ABC Late Night Live”: https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/ .

[34]. "Censorship by ABC Saturday Extra": https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/censorship-by-abc-sat .

[35]. “ABC fact-checking unit & incorrect reportage by the ABC (Australia’s BBC)”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/abc-fact-checking-unit .

[36]. "Censorship by The Guardian UK": https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by-the-guardian-uk .

[37]. "Censorship by The Guardian Australia": https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/home/censorship-by-the-guardian-a .

[38]. Gideon Polya, “Rational risk management, science & denial”: http://rationalriskmanagement.blogspot.com.au/2008/02/risk-management-science-denial.html .

[39]. John Prebble, “The Highland Clearances”: http://www.amazon.com/The-Highland-Clearances-John-Prebble/dp/0140028374 .