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August 28, 2004
Cunningham manifesto
Roseanna Cunningham is not an enthusiastic blogger (she has only contributed seven times to her 'campaign blog' roseanna2004.blogspot.com/ since 2 July), so the only online guide to her thinking is the manifesto itself. This is an interesting and well-written, if rather inward-looking, document. It has less concrete detail on most issues than Salmond/Sturgeon, except possibly the environment, which she links with transport and land reform.
Entitled 'A Vision and Strategy for Independence', it actually gives us neither. The word independence occurs 28 times, but crucially there is no explanation by Cunningham about how she conceptualizes it in an increasingly interdependent world, influenced by global economic interests, that is moving away from a system of autonomous nation states. She also gives us no information about the processes of achieving independence, though these surely involve a lot more than just winning a Scottish parliamentary election.
She is notably sceptical on Europe:
"The European Union has changed substantially from the organisation joined by the UK in 1975. Our consideration of the potential future for Scotland as an independent member of that Union must be kept under constant scrutiny. The real test must always be: is it in the interests of Scotland or is it not? The key questions may lie in whether Britain enters into deals with Europe grossly harmful to Scotland prior to independence. In that case, I am certain a future free Scotland could not avoid revisiting the issues."
This would be fine if it were balanced by a paragraph explaining the opportunities that Scotland would enjoy in Europe - bit it isn't!
The manifesto is at:
www.roseannacunningham.net/
Posted by Simon Holledge at August 28, 2004 04:06 PM