The days of the preamble and positioning are drawing to a close now, and we are nearing decision time on whether we, as a nation should stand alone in the big bad world. Or at least it is time we made a decision on what decision we should be deciding on. Does the very fact that we are finding it so difficult to even decide on what question to ask, tell us that we are not ready to climb out of our baby walker, break free of our reigns and put our mittens in the drawer for good? Well maybe we will keep the mittens regardless; we will after all still be in Scotland.
An often offered argument for autonomy is the one that, if we fail, at least we will only have ourselves to blame. If we fall flat on our faces, it will be our big fat, red nosed faces we land on. This is the very same case which is put forward in a much more important area of life. The question of man marking against the zonal defending of corners in football raises this conundrum on a weekly basis. At least if it's man marking, and someone gets away from a defender and scores, we know who to blame. That is the main line of reasoning put forward by its backers, but what about actually looking at the system which will prevent the loss of goals better than the other. Isn't it more important to apply a system based on how successful it will be, rather than its ability to allow apportioning of blame?
I'm not going to make a case for or against an independent Scotland here, I'm merely questioning whether we are doing it for the correct reasons.
And what would be the correct reasons? I'm not sure that the general public are really up to deciding an issue as important as this. I'm all for democracy, but should a population that voted Little Mix winners of The X factor really be trusted with a decision this big? Will enough voters bother to look into the fiscal, business and employment pro's and con's of an independent Scotland, or will we just make our decisions on the basis that we are fed up being the poorest oil bearing country in the world.
Backing of the SNP received its biggest boost on the back of the success of Braveheart in the 90's. God only knows how big a surge they will get from the release of The Iron Lady, a film portraying the times of Margaret Thatcher. Cameron better hope that Hollywood don't make a film of Robert The Bruce, starring Billy Connelly, with a musical score of Rod Stewart songs at any time in the near future or he will be as well throwing in the tartan tea towel.
If we do end up with an independent Scotland, then I'm sure we, as a nation will get behind ourselves. We do after all love an underdog, but let's hope we don't do too well on our own, because there is nothing we hate more than a wee man that gets above his station.