Women for Independence
Why we support Independence
Isobel Lindsay, Biggar
More men support independence than women but it should be the other way round. I think my priorities are similar to most women. We want good public services, we don’t want extremes of wealth and poverty, we don’t want lives wasted by unemployment, we want a good environment, we want a welfare system that will provide real security and we do not want to be embroiled in constant wars or to have 200 nuclear bombs on the Clyde that could kill millions of people indiscriminately. To get democratic control over these things, we need the powers of independence. If not, it will be people like Thatcher, Blair, Cameron, Osborne who will make these decisions for us.
Having a Scottish Parliament has given us a big advantage in relation to the powers it has. We have taken better decisions here on the health service, education, university fees, personal care but to do the things we want, we need power over taxation, pensions and social security, trade and industry policy, defence and foreign affairs. We have a much better opportunity to influence the people we elect in Scotland than those at Westminster.
Independence would give us the chance to make the Scotland we want but it wouldn’t guarantee it that would be up to us. What we can be sure about is that being run by Westminster will not give us the Scotland we want.
Isobel Lindsay is a retired university teacher. She is widowed with three children and a granddaughter. She lives in Biggar.
