by Vivien Martin
“I don’t know about you, but I felt that Saturday was a major turning point… a feeling that there is an increasing desire for another referendum… an amazing historic day.” This was how Lynne Copeland of Over 60s for Scottish Independence summed up the wonderful AUOB march in Glasgow in May. And it really was an amazing event! I don’t think any of us imagined that so many people would take part, nor that the response from passers-by would be so positive.
Yet surveys still indicate that it’s older people, in particular women (we tend to live longer!), who show the greatest resistance to independence. Which makes groups like Over 60s for Scottish Independence and Garioch Women for Change all the more important. Garioch Women for Change came about when Lynne realised that a number of the Over 60s online group came from the Aberdeenshire area and they decided to meet up to support each other and promote political engagement among the women in their community. But why is there such resistance to the idea of an independent Scotland among older people?
I suspect fear is a key factor. Fear of change; fear of the unknown; fear of acknowledging that things aren’t working and that the people we thought we could trust to look after our best interests aren’t doing so; fear of taking responsibility into our own hands; and an understandable longing for certainty in an uncertain world. I have a friend, an otherwise intelligent woman, who voted No because she feared her pension would be paid in “funny money.”