Should the North of England become part of Scotland?
Of course, it’s a crazy idea – but tens of thousands apparently support the bizarre notion as you can see here. I have relatives in Scotland, I was brought up in Manchester, and I live in London. I want to see a United Kingdom.
Around the world, people think that redrawing boundaries solves political and economic problems. It rarely does. Instead of changing boundaries, we need to change attitudes as I have argued in this essay.
May 16th, 2015 at 2:59 pm
I enjoyed your 2008 write-up on nationhood. For me, the question of national belongingness became active in 1992 once the Soviet Union collapsed and even more important in 1998 when I moved to Switzerland. After a long hesitation, I decided for German citizenship last year. Why? Social values. I am neither Protestant, nor Catholic, nor will German ever be my first language. However, I came to understand and treasure the values and structure of German society, which allowed me to commit myself and, potentially, my offsprings to this country.
I have been long thinking about the similarities between a democratic state and a public corporation. In essence, there is no difference between a parliamentary election and a shareholder vote for a board of directors. However, for historical reasons, which you covered very well, the entrance fee into a nation is much higher than a price of a certain stock. And often assumes exclusivity.
In my opinion, at some point states should become virtual (crazy, huh?). The same way as you can pick your religion or political party, you should be able to pick a social system that you contribute your taxes to. Maybe it should be done on a communal level (each village/town deciding, which nation to join) or maybe communal/infrastructure issues should be separated from the bigger politics.
I would be curious to hear your thoughts on this.
May 16th, 2015 at 3:25 pm
Would the Scots want the north of England…?
May 16th, 2015 at 4:53 pm
Hi, Alexei.
Your suggestion of virtual states – which you yourself describe as “crazy” – is the end stage of the approach that I resist, namely the redrawing of geographical boundaries to solve problems. It is interesting that you compare states to corporations because the largest corporations have now become kind of virtual in that they can effectively chose which country to be based in depending on the legal and taxation regimes that they prefer. Not a good model.
Instead of redrawing boundaries, I favour reshaping attitudes: accepting that, whatever nationality we have, we can have multiple identities which should be respected. So you can be ethnically Russian but a citizen of Germany; someone else can be a patriotic American and Muslim; someone can be Arab but Israeli; someone can be Scottish and British.
What I seek is tolerance and acceptance, so that we can be true to our multiple identities wherever we live.
As for Nick’s comment, although it is made in jest, it illustrates one of the major problems in redrawing national boundaries. Who decides? If the North of England were to be considered a candidate for a new state made up mainly of Scotland, who would decide this? People in the North of England? The citizens of Scotland? The population of the UK as a whole? Better not to go there, but consider devolved power in a unitary state.
May 16th, 2015 at 7:19 pm
Roger, regarding corporate tax/tax residence: I attended some management meetings where our CEO was going crazy about Obama not letting us repatriate profits from tax havens into the US. As a consequence, the company was creating jobs in India, Poland and the UAE, but not in the US. To me it’s a clear example how different nations compete for investment.
One interesting suggestion on tax policy was made by my Kellogg accounting professor. He argued that all taxes could be abolished in favor of one sales tax paid by consumers. In his opinion, all other taxes, and corporate tax in particular only create inefficiencies and limit availability of investment like in my example before.
May 16th, 2015 at 7:21 pm
As a social democrat and consumer advocate, I prefer direct taxes, such as those on income and wealth, to indirect taxes, such as those on sales, because I believe that they are fairer. A single sales tax would be terribly regressive.