Scottish independence. Discuss.

[BMCC]

The thought of being free from the UK and Europe is not on the agenda though is it?

No not yet but then I have said what type of indepedence I want and I would vote yes for.

Norway is a very focused nation and they pay like 67% in tax to have their nation all clean and tidy. Is Scotland willing to go without bread for a few decades so you can have cake later on when the infrastructure is built?

Not sure about the tax rate of 67% but I'd pay more tax for the benefits that the Norwegians get. I have family in Norway so I hear how it runs in a very general sense.

I totally appreciate the sentiment of ' why not give it a try for better or worse' but will Scotland stand on its own even if it falls into chaos and economic armageddon?

Would any country? Why is Scotland any different?

will England get a knock on the door in a decade and open it to a cold and hungry scotland? or would it just become a ghost town as everyone moves south over a generation to find work and stability?

Possibly, who knows but what if the situation was reveresed?

This is what I dont understand as the media is not sharing these points of, what i would call, importance. This is why I ask the questions I have to the only Scottish people I know that live in Scotland

All the media will talk about is money in the broad you will be worse off or better off and decisions will be made on this only.

If we are going it alone we have the chance to make and mold something better something better suited to our needs. I'd like to see true root and branch reform of our political system so that we get more democracy to the people. Good knows our politics just now in the UK and the US has been corrupted by big business such that I not sure we live in a democracy in the true sense anymore.

[BMCC]

The euro is probably the only viable option.

Why other countries have there own currency: Norway etc. Why should Scotland not have their own? If it is not viable why not?

[Donald]

The euro is probably the only viable option.

Why other countries have there own currency: Norway etc. Why should Scotland not have their own? If it is not viable why not?

I only say this as I assume that the cost and work of setting up a new currency is tremendous. The euro is already established. How do you place a value on another currency vs. Every other in the world?

I don't know about Norway but if they never adopted the euro then they already had a well established currency and if they left the euro they only went back to what they had before?

As said this is an assumption, I would've thought the most sensible and viable option would be the euro, at least for starters anyway until the country is running proper.

[Merlin]

I am against independence, why? Because I honestly think nothing can be improved on, not that there isn't things to improve far from it, just that Scotland with its tiny 5 million population cant do anything about it. Our country is too big an area with too little population with nothing but poor farming land in between.

The cost of making the country independent seems silly to me. The whole thing is too big a gamble in my eyes. Once things start to go bad it is very hard to stop. We are in a comfortable place at the moment with the get out of jail free card of blaming Westminster for anything/everything.

[lewd lude lover]

did we ever live in a free world? or are we just the cattle earning the ranchers their ticket out?

fair point, you would like to see a totally free scotland and await the second chance to vote on euro. i can appreciate that.

I think norway works on about 40% but once you take into account all the extras you pay every day it come up a bit.

I would say that scotland is different in the fact that it is already stable as a part of the united kingdom. If it were to go alone and fail it would ask for euro bailout and get it. would that be fair on all the other nations in the EU? the nations that wouldn't have jumped off the ledge and then screamed for a rope afterwards?


So the media is the same. no thought to the cultural ramifications or the longterm strength of either nation, just that everyone will get a jobby load of money. I bet that just turns out to be about 300 people rather than a nations population

What is the situation with food production in scotland? can you farm to feed or would you need to buy it in? Merlin makes good points there. LOADS of land but little farmable?

Merlin and indigo are where I think I would be if it were my choice.


So what percentage of the population will actually turn out to vote do you reckon?

[4thgenphil]

what has always puzzled me is why dont the english/welsh/irish get a say in the matter? it affect us lot south of the boarder aswell and after all we are still one country!

[lewd lude lover]

fair point phil. I am happy to let Scotland go as long as its not just on a nice little holiday. we really are in this together nowadays and countries with 5million population are either stinking rich (lichtenstein etc) or really really poor. 65 million is a population you can work with.

Maybe its easy for english people to think of us as one country where as all the other nations have a different view on it.

[BMCC]

did we ever live in a free world? or are we just the cattle earning the ranchers their ticket out?

Mmmmm Cattle I think

How many would turn out to vote? Its a tough one, its a very important issue so lets hope its high. It may though depend on how the outcome is decided. The last vote in '79 required that more than 50% of the voting population had to vote for independence (and there was a whole lot of messing with voting lists i.e the dead were on the list. I remeber reading an article a few yrs ago on this very issue and it had a fairly big effect on the result. Hence the SNP want control of the list probably so they can twist it their favour) Not sure If we've ever been told what constitutes a 'yes we want to be indepedence'. Anyone?

Don't know the costs involved in setting up a currency etc but I'd imagine it would be substantial. I'd want to hear more about it though before deciding if it was viable/not viable.

[BMCC]

what has always puzzled me is why dont the english/welsh/irish get a say in the matter? it affect us lot south of the boarder aswell and after all we are still one country!

Well yes and no ,we are a union of nations. Just like any unions a divorce can be organised. Although the other sides might not be happy about it which I can understand. If any other nation wanted to vote on a get out that's fair enough. Its what happens in this type of union. It is a political union really hence it was called the 'Union of the Parliaments'.

[BMCC]

lol double post