Gordon Brown Defends Britain

I finally tracked down a transcript of the already famous speech that former British minister Gordon Brown gave last week on the eve of the independence vote in Scotland. Excerpts:

The vote tomorrow, the vote tomorrow, is not about whether Scotland is a nation; we are, yesterday, today, and tomorrow. It’s not about whether there is a Scottish Parliament; we have it, after a referendum ten years ago. It’s not about whether there are increased powers; we are all agreed to increase the powers.

The vote tomorrow is whether you want to break and sever every link and I say let’s keep our UK pension, let’s keep our UK pound, let’s keep our UK passport, let’s keep our UK welfare state.

And let us, and let us tell the undecided, the waverers, those not sure how to vote, let us tell them what we have achieved together. We fought two world wars together. And there is not a cemetery in Europe that does not have Scots, English, Welsh, and Irish lying side-by-side. And when young men were injured in these wars, they didn’t look to each other and ask whether you were Scots or English, they came to each other’s aid because we were part of a common cause.

And we not, and we not only, we not only won these wars together, we built the peace together, we built the health service together, we built the welfare state together, we will build the future together.

And what we have built together by sacrificing and sharing, let no narrow nationalism split asunder ever.

And let us tell, and let us tell also those people who have been told unfairly by the nationalists that, if you vote No, you're a less than patriotic Scot. Tell them this is our Scotland. Tell them that Scotland does not belong to the SNP. Scotland does not belong to the Yes campaign. Scotland does not belong to any politician – Mr Salmon, Mr Swinney, me, or any other politician – Scotland belongs to all of us.

And let us, let us, let us tell the nationalists this is not their flag, their country, their culture, their streets. This is everyone’s flag, everyone’s country, everyone's culture and everyone’s street.

And let us tell, and let us tell the people of Scotland that we who vote No, love Scotland and love our country.

The Scotland of the Enlightenment and the Scottish inventors. The Scotland that was the author of the right to work here in Glasgow and the right to free healthcare. The Scotland that helped build the economic laws of this country, the welfare state of this country and contributed to the development of international aid.

And do you know, all these achievements and all the more achievements I can mention, these happened not outside the Union but inside the Union. They happen not in spite of the Union but because of the Union.

And none of us is any less a Scot as a result of it. . . .

And do you know, what sort of message would we in Scotland send out to the rest of the world, we the people who found a way of co-operation across borders, we who pioneered a partnership between nations, we who have stood as a beacon for solidarity and sharing? What kind of message does Scotland send to the world if tomorrow we said we’re going to give up on sharing, we’re going to smash our partnership, we’re going to abandon co-operation and conflict and we’re going to throw the idea of solidarity into the dust? This is not the Scotland I know and recognise and we must make sure it is not the Scotland we become.