Rowling: I'll be 'just fine', but if it all goes badly wrong, other people will pay

The author explains her donation to Better Together as other cultural figures declare their allegiance to 'Yes'

Voters in the referendum are "being asked to play a game before they know the rules", JK Rowling has said, as she elaborated on why she gave a £1m donation to the campaign against independence.

Writing on Twitter, Rowling said she didn't donate the money "out of self-interest, but because I care very deeply about the people who still [are] where I once was. They are being asked to play a game before they're told the rules. And if it goes badly wrong, they will pay."

Rowling told her 3.65 million followers: "I'm voting 'no' then supporting anyone who'll give us Devo Max", even though she believes that she would be "just fine" in an independent Scotland.

"I don't rely on one of the big employers talking about leaving the country. I don't rely on benefits any more. If our economy tanks because the oil's running out, my family will be OK," she wrote. "That's not true for everyone who's being sold the idea that we'll be a fabulous hybrid between Norway and Saudi Arabia … a socialist utopia where the oil will flow forever."

In response to criticism from one tweeter, that "she's a rich children's book writer, not an economist, what do you expect?" Rowling responded: "The SNP are far more tax friendly to the rich than Labour. If oil revenue goes down billions, as it did 2012-13, I'll be OK."

"Lottery winners and Brian Souter can afford – literally – to dabble [in] independence as an interesting experiment," she wrote. "If we have a bad oil year, nobody's going to tide us over any more. It'll be borrow, cut or tax. I don't rely on benefits, I'm not employed by a big financial institution, I'll take the tax hike. Who's going to suffer? Most of the big earners will say 'shove your supertax, I'm off South' – or, if Labour are down there, Monaco. Who'll be hurting, paying increased tax/losing public services/paying off the deficit? Not me."

The yes voters she knows, said the Harry Potter author, fall into three camps on the economy. "First lot genuinely believe the experts are wrong that oil's running out and that we'll blackmail Westminster into monetary union. Hope they're right if it's a 'yes' vote!" she tweeted. "2nd lot are the zealots – don't care if the economy implodes, this is a holy crusade. 3rd lot are turned off by economic talk. If the money in their purse looks the same, nothing's changed."

On Sunday more than 1,300 cultural figures declared their support for Scotland's independence. "We believe that Scotland can and should be an independent country," wrote names including Scotland's Makar, Liz Lochhead, and the authors Irvine Welsh, Kathleen Jamie and Alan Warner, in a letter released on Sunday by the National Collective. "We believe that Scottish culture will flourish come what may, but that political independence will give the people of Scotland the opportunity to build a better country, both socially and politically."

Contributor

Alison Flood

The GuardianTramp

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