Scottish Independence - what do the scots on here think?

[delet...]

Personally i'd be the sooner the better. I was surprised that george galloway was against it and when quizzed (by max keiser) he could only come up with reasons like the UK parliament would be stuck forever tory because a great deal of labour MPs come from scotland. It is a shame that this didn't happen before all the north sea oil started running out, still though, perhaps being northern european country with a more egalitarian streak, it may be shaky at first but you'll pull together and streak ahead of your cousins in the south. (yes i know that salmond is centre right or something, but didn't he do well because of his independence stance, rather than everything else. Also lol at his trump gafsaster.)

 

Anyway, my not living there so not having an understanding of the situation. What say yee watmm scots?

[Guest Ron Manager]

I'm not a Scot, but I've lived here for three years now, and I am strongly considering voting yes (edit i.e. 'should Scotland be an independent country'). In short, I see it as a unique chance to form a more equitable, fairer society, and I while I don't know that Scotland's citizens will definitely be 'better off' as an independent nation, I've seen nothing at all to suggest things will be somehow 'worse' than the status quo. The idea of living in a smaller country (of ~5 million people) is appealing to me, as is the prospect of ALL decisions for Scotland being taken in Edinburgh rather than London. It goes without say that I despise the direction in which the UK is going under the current regime, and on an international level, I am more than happy to be part of a country that plays a minimal role in international politics with minor involvement in aid, foreign intervention, etc., most of which I'm against.

 

The union has only existed for 300 years. Scotland was never conquered by the Romans, and has long retained a distinct Celtic culture. Historically, the region has close ties with Ireland, Iceland and Scandinavia, with which it formed a kind of North Sea economic area. Yet it has always been, and always will be, part of 'Britain' (Britannia) because it is part of this island, and it has been known thus from the continent since at least the time of Alexander the Great. So for me, the question of 'British' identity is not something which is necessarily predicated on the union.

[BOCfan]

I think it could be a very good thing. The major deciding factor when it comes to my vote will be the economic case; I'd love to see some completely unbiased figures on how we would fare as an independent country. Hopefully those will come as the process moves on.

 

On a side note, one thing that I think needs to be made clear to people is that if we do indeed go independent, it doesn't mean that there is going to be a perma-SNP government in control for the rest of our days. There's this idea in some circles that the SNP will never be removed from power in an independent Scotland, but that is so far away from the truth it's laughable. Though highly unlikely to happen, there could very well be a Tory government running an independent Scotland in the future.

[Guest Ron Manager]

Agreed - a lot of people I know see the SNP as a vehicle for independence, so if it happened, other political parties (and even new ones) will likely grow in support, and the SNP won't have a surefire majority.

[Guest chunky]

historically opposing armies had a lot of trouble getting to england, because of the sea and weather... say if england and scotland were at odds again, then a modern army could be built up in scotland for invading england. wwi and wwii would have played out very differently if germany had access to scotland so it could build up military presense there before the war. there's are some fun stories about that in winston churchill's history of the english speaking peoples. a well written & enjoyable history ;-)

 

ireland and the uk are both part of the EU anyway. the purpose of the EU is to become one european nation so it makes little difference if scotland and england are considered to be separate countries on the journey to becoming one european state. say if you have kids and you say that your kids have a bedroom. it's not theirs, its yours because you own the house. but you say it's theirs to give them responsibility for it. that's basically what it is! ;-D kids havent got the reasoning skills of adults so you have to offer them limited options like "do you want a red one or a blue one?". the whole of uk is being asked whether scotland wants to be independent or not, but really the whole UK becomes more and more dependant of this emerging European State.

 

another way to describe the situation is divide and rule, divide great britain in two and you can play both sides against each other to keep the whole island under control. basically the old tactics of the british empire used against britain. very funny actually!

[BCM]

you are so odd