Why UKIP's argument is as strong as the SNP's (which isn't very)

I've been getting a bit infuriated recently by Alex Salmond and his push for an independence - of which the terms are becoming increasingly unclear. With all three major political parties in the UK rejecting the idea of a Sterling Union, and the President of the European Commission stating that it would be "virtually impossible" for Scotland to rejoin the EU once leaving Britain, the SNP's programme for independence, to most English people, looks dead in the waters of Loch Ness.

But to many Scots, the last 'week from hell' has only led to nationalists becoming more determined to be set free from the chains of British rule, whatever the cost.

The recent debacle over the Pound, and the acceptance of Nick Clegg's invitation to a debate on EU membership by Nigel Farage, has led me to one conclusion: if Scotland would not be entitled to keep sterling as a currency upon independence, why should the UK be allowed to have Free Trade Agreements with the EU if we should vote to leave it?

Whilst satirical, NewsThump have made an (almost) valid point in their article likening Salmond to a keen gym-goer who refuses to pay the hefty fees but claims he should still be able to access the rowing machines. But why would this be any different for the UK when it comes to Europe and UKIP?

NEWS! Alex Salmond claims he has every right to use gym he's no longer member of http://t.co/ADYWaFIwtD
— News Thump (@newsthump) February 17, 2014

Just as the UK was the third largest economy in the EU in2012 (set to overtake Germany by 2030 as the largest), Scotland is also the UK's second largest economy. Surely we could not expect preferential treatment from our neighbours when we were unwilling to dish it out to our brothers and sisters? Karma's a bitch when it comes to politics, after all. And there are some very intelligent people in Europe who would likely make this point come any Tory-led referendum in 2017.

It is important that we keep face during this time. For me, the answer seems not that we cede to Scottish demands but that we all stick together - both as part of the UK and EU. The lingering marriage we have with the EU may go through tough times, but as with any elderly couple - we'd be lost without the other. By all means, change the house rules, but don't move out because once you've left, you can never go back.

HS2 vs Technology

Since returning to the UK 8 weeks ago, I've spent far too much time on the rail network. Having lived in France for a little over a year, I've become used to travelling by TGV. So you'd think I'd be excited  that plans for HS2, the high speed rail network to run between London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds are being cooked up. But not so. 

It takes no genius to see that, unlike Britain, France is a country with a vast geography: The distance between Paris - the capital, and Marseille - the 3rd biggest city, is 774km. In contrast, the distance between London and Birmingham, the city to benefit first from this new superfast infrastructure, is just 188km. In fact, there will be a measly 30 minute saving on journeys made by train between the two cities once HS2 is up and running. 

The cost of the new railway is being estimated at £42.6bn. For the benefit of 30 minutes on journeys, I'm sceptical that this investment will be recuperated in any reasonable period of time, if ever. The works undertaken to the countryside and the repossessions of land will change the face of the Midlands. This would be fine, if the economic benefit could outweigh the ecological cost. However, I'd like to make one proposition that would save the government several billion pounds: upgrading technology. 

One thing that France and Japan did not have when their TGV and Shinkansen were developed was mobile technology: people needed to get between cities quickly and affordably. Nowadays, people have constant access to the internet. They can work when and where they like. Except between Plymouth and London, and Sheffield and York - as recent journeys have revealed to me. The train network is suffering from a lack of investment in technology. 3G is hard to find between major hubs (I often find myself desperately downloading and replying to emails in the 5 minutes that I'm afforded in each station) and WiFi, if available at all, requires a sign-up and hefty fees that don't represent the flexibility necessary for a modern workaholic. 

If we could invest heavily in technology and lower the cost for passengers, it would enable businessmen and women to work efficiently on the train. Rather than reducing their journey time by mere minutes, their efficiency and productivity could be increased significantly between offices. The benefits to local communities close to train lines would be profound also: the Countryside Alliance has been vocal about rural mobile signals. If we enabled 4G along the rail network, rural towns and villages could stand to benefit greatly. 

I'm concerned that we've missed the train when it comes to High Speed. Perhaps forward-thinking, rather than spending money on reactionary and negligible public transport infrastructure, could see this country excel in this, the 21st Century. 

Payday Poverty

The government has a lot to answer for: cutting benefits and increasing the cost of education. The bedroom tax - which is supposed to increase the fluidity of larger properties for council and housing association tenants - has ended up inflicting poverty upon people and created a vacuum of small,  1 and 2-bedroom homes for people whose families have fled the nest. 

What it also has a lot to answer for is the increase in payday lending. It is surely no coincidence that the poorest people in society have their homes and livelihoods taken away from them and turn to a sinister, confusing, morally-void system of lending money to people. Stella Creasy MP is right; Payday loans are crippling the impoverished. And Wonga.com is offering rates of 5853% to borrow up to £400 at a time. 

This creates a dependency which is cyclical; if one month, a struggling mother needs to borrow some money to pay for food for her family (which has had its benefits drastically decreased and is being forced to fork out up to 25% of the rent they used to have covered by the state), she will likely see the allure of the payday lenders who use questionable tactics to lure their vulnerable victims into borrowing money at several hundred times the rate of a normal, high-street bank. Then the next month, faced with a £130 charge for a £400 loan, this poor single mother will be forced again to keep borrowing at several thousand percentage points. Embarrassed and desperate, she will continue this vicious cycle. 

And this may seem like a harmless way of raising money for some big-wig with his Bentley and mansion on the outskirts of London. But this is the sub-prime mortgage crisis for the working class. Debt breeds poverty, poverty breeds crime and hopelessness and crime and hopelessness are the cause of the disintegration of our communities. 

Shockingly, Wonga.com also operates in South Africa, a country with huge poverty levels and huge attributable consequences: gun crime, drugs, prostitution, HIV/AIDS. All of these are a result of the people of South Africa being exploited in a plethora of ways over a prolonged period of time. 

These companies, whether in the UK, South Africa or elsewhere are not lending a helping hand; they are lending a ticket into prolonged desperation. These are regulated loan sharks and they need to be stopped.