This is a United Kingdom we didn’t see coming back in 2014

MANY lies were told during the referendum. The sanctity of our place in the EU, the strength of the pound and the security of the broad shoulders of the UK. All, of course, have proven to be patently false.

The economic challenges that would come and the dangers of UK foreign policy were known to the Yes movement and rightly feared. What was arguably not considered or even ever doubted was that Britain would remain, if not a bastion of liberalism, then certainly a reasonably liberal and tolerant land.

For sure, Boris Johnson was on the horizon and the far-right had appeared, whether as the BNP or Ukip. But what was not contemplated was the idea of a UK government lurching towards repression and countenancing policies beyond the pale.

But no longer, as repression dawns and a harsh and unforgiving land looms for migrants and refugees.

It’s yet another reason why the push for independence has to be now.

However, the idea that a UK Government treating its own ever more harshly and migrants ever more brutally will listen to polite pleas for a new independence is simply absurd.

Our nation is dependent on the whims of others and culpable in the actions they take or the wrongs they fail to act against.

Last week marked six months since Keir Starmer pledged £200 million for Grangemouth, with the refinery’s closure then looming. None of it, though, has been seen around the town or in the wider Forth Valley community

All that’s visible is an increasing number of for sale signs as folk seek to bail out and a growing desperation displayed in the ugly scenes at a hotel hosting migrants.

The far-right is forgetting that Falkirk Bairns are also Jock Tamson’s, no matter when they came or where they arrived from. But that’s the price we’re paying for being British.

Meanwhile, the UK stands idly by as the Israeli genocide continues unabated in Gaza. The BBC in its inimical style admitted a famine had been declared, when in reality its enforced starvation.

This hasn’t come about due to climate change and it isn’t even just collateral damage, as the euphemism now goes for the casualties of war. Instead, it’s the result of the deliberate policy of Israel. Colluding, complicit and culpable, the sins of omission and commission are indelibly marked on our blue Brexit UK passport. Another price of being British.

But it’s the growing illiberality of Britain which we also have to fear and it’s yet another reason for departing.

The proscription of Palestine Action, the huckling by the polis, even of a lad with a T-shirt bearing the words “Plasticine Action”, are signs of an increasing harshness of policies towards those protesting, and the treatment of migrants and asylum seekers is becoming even more severe. It’s a far cry from the days of Dixon of Dock Green or the liberality of the 1960s.

Of course, some of Britain’s supposed liberality was always mythological but there were many aspects of truth underlying it.

Karl Marx and other revolutionaries did find a home here, as past refugees such as the Huguenot French had. Britain was never as grim or severe as many European lands with despotic leaders and draconian laws, though it cannot be forgotten that the franchise for working class males didn’t come about until after the end of the Great War and severe laws both existed and were used against workers and trade unions.

Emergency measures were brought in whether during “the Troubles” in Northern Ireland or with terrorism, but aside from some catastrophic errors such as internment, rights were largely preserved. Similarly, notwithstanding the miners’ strike, policing largely remained by consent.

On migrants and asylum seekers, laws have tightened over recent years and there were shameful rejections of refugees fleeing fascist Spain and Nazi Germany. Deportation to Rwanda was largely a gimmick though enforced destitution for asylum seekers was a stain.

All that aside, in many ways the UK could still hold its head above many others. But as much of the Western world lurches right, so does Britain.

This is happening under is a Labour Government and what’s coming down the line whether through Reform or Tory and Reform is even more frightening.

Protest is not terror and conflating the two is wrong but it’s done deliberately to suppress opposition to the genocide. Where the Labour Government is heading on housing asylum seekers, who knows, but it won’t be benign or how people should be treated.

What could follow under a new government could be barbaric but look at the US for the trajectory. Alligator Alcatraz is simply disgusting.

As the far-right ramps up and as London Labour bow in the face of Reform, the UK’s becoming an increasingly illiberal place.

A politicised police force enforcing intolerant and even unjust laws. The care for those fleeing other lands worsening by the day, and often as the UK collaborates in the cause of the distress in their homeland.

The age of illiberal Britain is arriving and it’s why it’s time for Scotland to exit.

[This article was first published in The National on 25.08.25]