Scotland and the Union: Can Britain be Rebooted?
Analysis
BBC
4.6 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 3 March 2014
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Is there any such thing as unionism, and what is the case for the union?
On September 18th, Scotland will vote in a referendum on whether to become independent. Supporters have been setting out their visions of how Scotland could be transformed. But what about those who want to keep Scotland within the United Kingdom? They've picked away at potential practical problems with independence - on sharing the pound sterling, or joining the European Union. But while the future may be unclear for an independent Scotland, the alternative of staying British may be just as unclear.
Douglas Fraser asks if there's a grand vision for those who argue Scotland should stay in the union. Is it more than just an appeal to a shared history or institutions? Is the union fit for purpose in the 21st century? These aren't just questions for Scotland. They represent a challenge to the rest of the UK - how can democratic and economic power be distributed to tackle disaffection with politics and the centralising pull of London?
The programme follows an edition Douglas presented in July 2013 on Scottish nationalism.
Producer: James Fletcher.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:18.0 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
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| 0:35.4 | Sounds. |
| 0:36.4 | Thanks for downloading Analysis from the BBC. |
| 0:39.8 | This is the second of two programs looking at the Scottish independence debate. |
| 0:44.6 | Last July, Douglas Fraser went in search of the nationalist vision for an independent Scotland. |
| 0:49.8 | But what about the pro-union side? |
| 0:52.2 | In this program, Douglas discovers that some surprising people have |
| 0:55.8 | the clearest vision of what the union means and what it could be in the 21st century. London, 2012. |
| 1:03.0 | London, 2012. London 2012, the Olympic stage, a world audience. Children's author Frank Cotrell Boyce was part of a small creative, team G.B. They had a story to tell. It was a story about Britain. |
| 1:26.0 | At the very very opening of the Olympic opening ceremony we had the shipping |
| 1:29.5 | forecast which kind of marks out the territory. |
| 1:32.1 | Time, Dogger, Fisher, German Bight, Humber, Thames Dover. |
| 1:37.0 | North or North East 4 or 5, occasionally... |
| 1:40.0 | It's almost like a charm that kind of physically describes the limits of the kingdom. |
| 1:45.0 | And we had those things at the beginning. |
| 1:46.9 | I think having that there kind of made you really think about the fact that these are islands. |
| 1:51.6 | And in fact the title for the opening ceremony was |
... |
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