A Guest Article from Allan Petrie of Liberate Scotland
They Said Jobs Would Go if We Voted Yes. Scotland Voted No, and the Jobs Went Anyway.
Back in 2014, the British establishment, cheered on by Labour, the Tories, Lib Dems, UKIP, Britain First and BNP ran a fear campaign known as Project Fear.
Their central message? Vote Yes and Scotland’s economy will collapse. Jobs will vanish. Businesses will flee south. Factories will shut overnight.
So Scotland voted No, we stayed in the Union, we did what they told us would protect our economy and jobs and what happened? The jobs still went. The companies still closed. The promises, every one of them, were lies.
Unionist parties said a No vote would secure:
• Scotland’s industrial base, now gone
• Retail stability, now gone
• BBC jobs, slashed
• Our energy future, offshored
• Manufacturing investment, Vanished
They claimed independence would bring uncertainty but nothing could be more uncertain than being locked inside a crumbling, post Brexit UK ruled by governments Scotland never votes for.
The reality of staying in this union was
Grangemouth Refinery Shutting Down.
• Unionist Line in 2014: “Grangemouth would be threatened under independence.”
• Reality in 2025: INEOS confirms Scotland’s last oil refinery shut, with 450+ job losses.
• So, what exactly was saved by staying in the Union?
BBC Scotland, Cut to the bone with only unionist propaganda saved.
• In 2024, the BBC cut over 50 Scottish jobs, hollowing out Scottish media coverage.
• Apparently, Westminster’s idea of protecting our culture is to axe it.
Retail Carnage
• 2024–2025: Scotland’s high streets were ravaged.
• River Island, Michael Kors, Superdry, Farmfoods, and many others closed shops across Scotland.
• The last Iceland in Inverness, Shutting July 2025.
So much for the “economic security” of the Union.
Scottish Power Outsourcing to South Africa
• 2025–26: Up to 303 Scottish jobs at Capita (working for Scottish Power) are being moved overseas.
• The UK government stays silent.
• Remember when they said Scotland couldn’t run its own power grid?
Energy Brain Drain
• Scotland is being robbed twice, our oil and gas profits were stolen for decades.
• Now we face losing up to 65% of our skilled energy workforce to other countries by 2030, due to a lack of investment and vision from Westminster.
Manufacturing & Industry
• Paper mills in Aberdeen closed.
• CS Wind in Campbeltown moved production to Vietnam in 2019.
• Home Store & More, another example, pulling out in 2025.
• Fife’s electronics jobs vanished years ago under London’s watch.
Let’s be crystal clear, Scotland didn’t lose these jobs because we voted for independence, we lost them because we didn’t.
By voting No, we handed control of our economy to a government in London that neither understands nor cares about Scotland’s needs.
• Did Scotland vote for Brexit? No
• Did Scotland vote for Tory austerity? No
• Did we vote to shut Grangemouth, outsource energy jobs, or let retail collapse? Never but we got them all.
That’s what happens when decisions about Scotland are made in Westminster, for the benefit of South East England.
The truth is this, Westminster didn’t save Scottish jobs. Westminster destroyed them.
And the parties that begged us to stay in the UK, Labour, Conservatives, and Lib Dems have been united in silence as Scotland’s industries crumbled.
Worse still, they weaponised fear to keep us in this broken Union, their economic warnings were not forecasts, they were threats.
Independence would have let us,
• Invest in renewables, not shut down refineries.
• Retain skilled workers, not drive them abroad.
• Support Scottish businesses, not watch them collapse.
• Set our own economic priorities, not be forced into London’s.
Scotland could have built a more resilient, fairer economy tailored to our people, not the profits of London financiers.
Unionist parties warned that voting Yes might cause uncertainty, they never told us the truth that a No vote would guarantee decline.
Scotland deserves better than this, we were told to stay to protect jobs but the only thing that’s been protected is Westminster’s grip over our resources,
it’s time to take back control, not as a slogan, but as a reality.
Independence is not a risk, it’s the solution.
Bravo!
Excellent overview, suitable for any activist addressing a Scottish audience!
The SNP are set to host members at a National Council, whats the National Council? The simple fact is the SNP owes us a meaningful strategy to achieve Independence, but they won’t it’ll be a white wash again. So it’ll be down to the SNP membership and we know it’ll be a case of Blankety Blank.
Someone on The National wrote “The ball john is in your court, Party before Country, that is if you are really serious about Scotland being INDEPENDENT. SNP 1, Scotland 2, do you see the score, Scotland wins 2, 1. And when Scotland wins, so does the INDEPENDENCE movement and the SNP will get the credit for the game that has been eluding us for over 318 years.”
Reply
“Country before party. SNP 1 and we should be coming together to pick an indy party for the 2nd list vote”
origanl poster reply was
“Yip, that is what I said. But if you read it Country before Party some may vote 1 for the Country, that is why I am putting it backwards so there will be no mistakes, it is a home game for the SNP, and Scotland is playing away like we have been for the last 318 years.”.
It got me thinking about my poor electricity, the lights keep flickering on and off.
Thank god we have liberate Scotland, I’m going to sign up but haven’t made up my mind if I’m going to stand I did originally stand for the Alba Party.
When you decide mail me at roddy@indy4indy.scot
In a word, Allan, BRILLIANT..
Thereafter, how do we get the SNP hierarchy to NOT only read those words – but take them to heart, run with them, DO SOMETHING POSITIVE AS TO THE FEELINGS AND EMOTIONS WHICH UNDERPIN THEM.. ? In short, how do WE get THEM off their rear ends – and into ‘engage’ mode..? Therein lies the conundrum..
Awrabest, bud.. G.
An excellent article and I really wish it would get the same circulation to anyone hesitant or undecided as Gorden Brown’s ‘Vow’ because anyone who decided to vote no on the basis of that list of lies and give the union another chance would surely have to look at that the lies are more than just ink on a shitty newspaper…they have had dire consequences from job losses, shredded social services, hire prices, poverty and misery not to mention the damage to our national pride and morale. In 2026 we have another chance to NOT give another chance to a union that doesn’t work for the interests of the people of Scotland…never has and never will. Time to walk away leaving only a bill for reparations for damage done on the bedside cabinet. ‘Fool me once…shame on you…fool me twice…shame on me!!’ as they say! 🏴❤️🏴
Great stuff, Allan. So true. Same thing happened after first referendum (the 40%-er). You would almost think they wanted to punish us for our temerity.
I believe fundamentally in independence, but, if we can’t make the mark, we should be (and should have been for a very long time) demanding that England devolve, too, like the rest of us. Not regional devolution, which would be up to England subsequently, but devolution of England as a country, with the task of balancing its books and managing on a per capita allocation from general funding like the rest of us. No Barnett Formula.
Each country allocated its per capita funding, and all four parts in agreement as to capital projects which only ever appear to benefit England at present. The capital projects could be diffused throughout the UK where appropriate, although many will have to be in England, of course, where the infrastructure is. Again, infrastructure should be diffused throughout the UK, creating hubs of enterprise from which would flow infrastructure and other subsidiary projects, in each part, utilising its own natural resources for its own benefit first before contributing to a ‘pot’ (of energy, for example), to be used by the other parts.
For example, Scotland should not only have been the site of Grangemouth (and/or a new/reconstituted energy hub) but it should have been the site of many other off-shore projects connected to energy production, with supply being negotiated between the four parts as to need and surplus, with monies and taxes being allocated appropriately on a fair basis. It is natural for companies to want to reallocate to areas where they will be both productive and profitable. That can benefit Scotland only when Scotland has access to its own funding, energy sources, capital projects and infrastructure to support new enterprise.
At the moment, we have one central control hub, which is England, or southern England, with all monies going there to be allocated as the Treasury sees fit. We have been putting up with this ridiculous situation for far, far too long, and, even if we never see independence, this needs to change because what is happening, where foreign interests are not concerned. and even where they are, everything that will determine our future/Wales’s future/NI’s future is being consolidated in England, so that, eventually, the rest of us will not be able to stand on our own two feet in any aspect of our lives, albeit much of the natural resources are vested in us and utilised by England and mostly for its benefit. What we have in the UK at present is a central hub (England) and three satellites whose resources are siphoned off to the central hub with all the damage to their economies that that brings.
Since England-as-the-UK is never going to change to accommodate anyone else, independence is the only realistic answer.
To change the focus a little I suspect our attention, is going to be changed with the news that the USA has entered the Israel – Iran war by mounting a coordinated bombing of Iranian nuclear establishments.
Trump has announced that the attacks were a spectacular military success but also added there a plenty more Iranian targets left.
I am no military analyst but it looks very much like American troops will be back in action in what seems to be in another Iraq, But this is no Iraq, Iran is a different kettle of fish and one cannot but help think that this will be the USA’s Vietnam but worse. Iraq and Afghanistan were but small beer but this I suspect will play out to test America’s stomach for war.
No doubt huge military planning has been in place for many a year but at the end of the day this does seem as pure politics getting behind Israel. Not sure either how well Israel is going to fare as they fight with not just with the
As for the world economy, with Russia and Ukraine still going at it, the middle east now aflame, the threats against China, and of course US and other western nation action against Russia, it is not difficult to see the big reset coming.
No wonder the UK is advertising for ex military personnel to enlist in a veteran support force whilst ramping up munition production with if reports are correct, six new munition shell factories being commissioned .But war is an economy destroyer that kills many and destroys communities.
And so the big question as we go to war is do we think anyone has a plan as to how this will all end. Marshall Plan Mark 2 perchance?
USA is too indebted to afford a Marshall Plan II.
The wealth has moved east and why would Russia or China be interested in assisting US and Europe?
Any plan would involve these two super powers assisting the global south abd leaving Europe USA and Australasia as the impoverished locations.