Maybe Scotland leaving the union will be the change that England needs too.

Past election results don't quite prove that no Scotland means Tories forever in England, but it will be very difficult to get rid of them with the Labour party in its current form.*

*I actually don't mind Ed Milliband. I think his real beliefs are probably quite similar to my own; unfortunately there are still too many powerful Blairites in the party and a dominant right-wing press ready to crush any socialist ideas he might want to put into practice. 

But maybe this is what England needs to shake things up.

For years, English politics have been stuck in post-Thatcher mode: pro-greed, anti-Union, low tax and overly suspicious. Thatcher really was a massive success. I'm sure that others in the Conservative party of the late 70s and 80s share a lot of credit too but between them, they gave the country 10 new commandments:

1. Kick, punch, trample and bribe your way to the top! 
2. Keep grabbing as much as you can before someone else does! 
3. Cheating the system means you're brilliantly talented and deserve your ill-gotten gains! 
4. Unions are only there to steal from the vulnerable rich people and need to be squashed! 
5. Anyone who considers the fortunes of others before their own is a communist and will destroy us all!
6. Poor people only have themselves to blame and don't deserve anyone's help!
7. Tax is a con to help the poor; rich people shouldn't have to pay for things they don't use!
8. Tax is optional; wealth in offshore accounts or in fiendishly clever avoidance schemes doesn't count!
9. If you can pay your staff less, you're paying them too much!
10. Publicly-owned organisations are only used by the poor; these need to be harvested for private profit!

In their pursuit of power, the Blairite, Tory-lite New Labour party seemed only too happy to accept this and yet were still seen as the party of the left. Political commentators conceded that they might be 'centre-left'. But in truth, they were bang in the centre at best. New Labour weren't all bad, but they left us without a proper alternative to the City-hugging, privatising, greed-cheering, corporate lobbyist-loving Tories. And that's what really needs to change.

Of course it's difficult. The public in England seem convinced enough by most of the Thatcherite ideals even whilst cheering the news of her demise that the opposition are too scared of upsetting the status quo by being more radical. And frustratingly, the Labour party don't realise that playing around with minor changes to the Tory manifesto (scrapping the bedroom tax, reversing the privatisation of the NHS that they themselves started) is not enough. They would be far more popular if they gave voters a proper alternative.

As I've said before, given the option of choosing a temporarily poorer but fairer and more equal place to live, I would take it. I don't agree that most of the questions surrounding an independent Scotland have been answered. And I really don't like a lot of the shouty YES attitudes: many people are far too aggressive and unwilling to even listen to counter arguments. But I can't get over the feeling that although I would prefer the UK to stay the same, I think they should go for it.