Scottish people are so funny

After my recent end of the United Kingdom hysteria it's nice to have everything put in some perspective. I have Mr. Eugenides to thank for that perspective with the comparison between the recent Norwegian removal of VAT on stripping and Edinburgh council's move in the opposite direction:

New rules that will ban Edinburgh's lapdancers from baring all have been passed by council chiefs, despite protests from club bosses and sex workers' unions.

A code of conduct, expected to be introduced next year, will mean dancers will be told to go no further than topless, while private one-on-one dances will also be forbidden. Clubs will be told to install CCTV cameras and be subject to checks by council inspectors.

"Best small country in the world" my arse. Miserable killjoy bastards.

Even a very Christian friend of mine described this as a "ridiculous rule".

I still think that my reasons to lament the demise of the United Kingdom are persuasive but I think they have to be eclipsed, at least for the Scots themselves, by the knowledge of what a miserable little country Scotland would be shorn of its part in the United Kingdom.

It would have the worst of a lot of the UK's serious problems like ill health, the deep fried Mars Bar is the funny side of a serious problem, just like it does now. However, the option to spread the cost of the healthcare this requires across the United Kingdom would no longer be available.

It would have one of the most nannying states in the world, ahead of the curve in banning public smoking, smacking and now stripping. This political culture is already doing its stifling work killing any ethic of tolerance and personal responsibility which might once have inhabited Scotland.

Finally, Scotland would probably impart to its people the poverty of ambition that accompanies any small state without the wit and verve to write its name on the world stage. At the moment a Scot can aspire to the highest office in what is still a country with a mighty military and a globally significant economy and which, regardless of temporal power, will hopefully always have the history and sense of its own importance that engenders a grand ambition. Those with the will to do great and important things but are born in an independent Scotland will be forced to emigrate leaving a nation behind them with a sadly smaller mind. Those who are too loyal to leave will be constrained to the narrow, provincial, concerns that are, with a certain irony, the lot of a nation independent because it could not stand to be a province.