{"product_id":"should-auld-acquaintance-be-forgot","title":"Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Scottish nationalists seek to end the United Kingdom after 300 years of a successful union. Their drive for an independent Scotland is now nearer to success than it has ever been.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSuccess would mean a diminished Britain and a perilously insecure Scotland. The nationalists have represented the three centuries of union with England as a malign and damaging association for Scotland. The European Union is held out as an alternative and a safeguard for Scotland''s future. But the siren call of secession would lure Scotland into a state of radical instability, disrupting ties of work, commerce and kinship and impoverishing the economy. All this with no guarantee of growth in an EU now struggling with a downturn in most of its states and the increasing disaffection of many of its members.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn this incisive and controversial book, journalist John Lloyd cuts through the rhetoric to show that the economic plans of the Scottish National Party are deeply unrealistic; the loss of a subsidy of as much as £10 billion a year from the Treasury would mean large-scale cuts, much deeper than those effected by Westminster; the broadly equal provision of health, social services, education and pensions across the UK would cease, leaving Scotland with the need to recreate many of these systems on its own; and the claim that Scotland would join the most successful of the world''s small states - as Denmark, New Zealand and Norway - is no more than an aspiration with little prospect of success.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe alternative to independence is clear: a strong devolution settlement and a joint reform of the British union to modernise the UK''s age-old structures, reduce the centralisation of power and boost the ability of all Britain''s nations and regions to support and unleash their creative and productive potential. Scotland has remained a nation in union with three other nations - England, Northern Ireland and Wales. It will continue as one, more securely in a familiar companionship.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57316869800318,"sku":"NW9781509542666","price":24.95,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9781509542666.jpg?v=1778720019","url":"https:\/\/mediaplace.com\/en-eu\/products\/should-auld-acquaintance-be-forgot","provider":"MediaPlace","version":"1.0","type":"link"}