Scottish independence referendum

[St George]

First off i am no expert on issues relating to this Scottish independance and get most info from the media.
There has been discussion here on the military "assets" being divided pro-quota, and Scootland retaining their personnel. I have seen a report where the majority of Scots soldiers a expressed a preference in staying with the Uk army. Also if all UK assets are to be shared out, then how come UKs oil as it stands is Scottish only? And seeing as the Shetlands are by all accounts favouring Uk rather than Scotland, then their 50%+ oil share is not going to Salmond.
The Scots will be able to keep the pound, but they will not be able to control it via monetary policy, and could end up like Greece and France implementing austerity to survive. Its not cut n dried that keeping the pound is a good thing unless the UK economy thrives massively. Splitting the Union is threatening that already.

Personally i have been for the Yes vote as i see it as more of a chance of the English getting their "freedom" . And if it also keeps out Liebour then alls well. But right at the moment im in the ****e as i need to transfer some sterling to baht and the pound is suffering due to all the uncertainty.

Roll on the 18th....lets get it over with.

 

[William18]

Scotland has its own parliament which already has a lot of powers. I don't see why Scottish people would want independence. In some places like Catalonia it seems that the government has tried to restrict their culture and their freedom. Some Scottish people wanted a referendum and they got one. They are also allowed to freely express their culture. I don't see why they would go independent unless there is an economic benefit.

 

[Tony Manx]

The attacks of the football "stars" reported in the Mail today (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-backing-No-vote-independence-referendum.html) is, I am afraid, not just the work of some low life trolls but a view shared by an too many Scots.

An English friend of mine worked in the insurance business and was posted to Edinburgh where he was met with an incredible amount of anti-English sentiment being, amongst other things, excluded from certain works functions and outright rudeness. I was invited to one of the pre International drinks by him at their offices and was basically shunned by the Scots.......it may have been just because it was me but two or three other English (which incidentally I am not) felt the same as we congregated together on the other side of the room like boys and girls at a dance in the school hall!!

Eventually, he found it so uncomfortable living in Scotland that he decided to leave so changed jobs and moved, with his family, away.

Being half Scottish I found this sad but without a doubt there is a big sector of the Scots where there is a real element of strident nationalism...not all but maybe enough.

The two things in favour of the pro Unity parties is that Salmond and Sturgen are a lot more greasy and untrustworthy than even Brown plus they have the sleezeball Connery backing them!!!!

On pure argument grounds, they do not have any case and Salmond has failed to say what currency will be used, how they will stay in the EU (when the EU ave said they cannot), what happens when the oil revenues diminish, what he is going to do when the large banks, insurance companies and other conglomerates leave coming up with mere platitudes!

 

[Peat]

Scotland should go and take back the water Iceland stole in the cod wars. First great naval conquest.

I can't help but feel the No campaign is being massively negative and fearmongering, and it is not working for them. Furthermore, whomever appointed Alastair Darling as the head needs to be forced out. All Darling managed in the second debate was "£££". Complete turn around from the first debate.

It's difficult. How do you argue the case of "If you do this you throw away a huge amount of benefits and take on a large degree of uncertainty" without being negative? I mean, they could have certainly done it better, but it was always going to be difficult. They could have definitely spent more time talking about the actual benefits though.

 

[LittleGuy]

Two questions....

1) Will the results be announced in the usual UK style in waiting for every single vote to be counted in a certain region(or even Scotland wide) before announcing results?

I really don't get this method, in Canadian elections results are reported as soon as invidual polls report in so I know who has won my local riding or general election if the race isn't close long before I head to bed. The 2010 UK election results in many ridings were unavailable when I went to bed with a FIVE hour time difference in large part due to this way of doing things. Is there a reason for doing things this way beyond tradition?

2) Is the UK Labour party in full panic mode yet?


Guess that sort of morphed into three questions....oh well.

 

[Tony Manx]

Two questions....

1) Will the results be announced in the usual UK style in waiting for every single vote to be counted in a certain region(or even Scotland wide) before announcing results?

I really don't get this method, in Canadian elections results are reported as soon as invidual polls report in so I know who has won my local riding or general election if the race isn't close long before I head to bed. The 2010 UK election results in many ridings were unavailable when I went to bed with a FIVE hour time difference in large part due to this way of doing things. Is there a reason for doing things this way beyond tradition?

2) Is the UK Labour party in full panic mode yet?

Guess that sort of morphed into three questions....oh well.

Results will be announced a la all TV programmes these days "The Winner is.......pause ....................................................................... ..................pause...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................longer pause............................. ........................................................... ........................................................................................even longer .......................................................................................... ......................yes/no

Labour do not have enough brains in their party to understand that a Yes vote means future Tory victories!! Cor' blimey, they are even arguing for a NO vote on the basis of "do not worry we will win the election next year so all will be ok"!!

 

[Groundhog]

Basically, the 'Yes' side are Stormcloaks and the 'Better together' side are Imperials. I think it's the best comparison out there really.

 

[Thingimubob]

Basically, the 'Yes' side are Stormcloaks and the 'Better together' side are Imperials. I think it's the best comparison out there really.

If you leave out the whole Ulfric having links with the d*ckhead Thalmor stuff... The main reason I always side with the Imperials

 

[Groundhog]

If you leave out the whole Ulfric having links with the d*ckhead Thalmor stuff... The main reason I always side with the Imperials

My ancestors are smiling at me Thingimubob, can you say the same?

 

[Peat]

One day I'm going to do a Stormcloak campaign as a Dunmer. Yeah, owe you precious province to us, you racist pricks.

Saddened me it did.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

What's the craic with Scotland having to rejoin the EU?
Obviously they will apply, but I've seen a lot of people say that Spain will be looking to block it, anyone know why? Is it because they don't want to encourage break away states (I.e. Catalonia)?

Also Scotland are/will be way way under the minimum requirements for NATO membership, but apparently they don't wanna be in nato so that doesn't really matter.

 

[Tony Manx]

What's the craic with Scotland having to rejoin the EU?
Obviously they will apply, but I've seen a lot of people say that Spain will be looking to block it, anyone know why? Is it because they don't want to encourage break away states (I.e. Catalonia)?

Also Scotland are/will be way way under the minimum requirements for NATO membership, but apparently they don't wanna be in nato so that doesn't really matter.

The EU President has said they would not get in automatically and they would have to wait to be assessed to see if they would ever get in....France and most of the ex East European countries would be wary of allowing them on the same basis as Spain (Catalonia and Basque country)!!

 

[gaston le gaff]

Would be nice to see Scotland win something for a change, whether its YES or NO!!!!!!!!!!

 

[LittleGuy]

What's the craic with Scotland having to rejoin the EU?
Obviously they will apply, but I've seen a lot of people say that Spain will be looking to block it, anyone know why? Is it because they don't want to encourage break away states (I.e. Catalonia)?

Also Scotland are/will be way way under the minimum requirements for NATO membership, but apparently they don't wanna be in nato so that doesn't really matter.

Yep that's exactly the reason.

Would Nato really shoot down Scottish membership if they wanted to join? I mean Luxembourg is a member so I would think it difficult to shoot down Scottish application.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Yep that's exactly the reason.

Would Nato really shoot down Scottish membership if they wanted to join? I mean Luxembourg is a member so I would think it difficult to shoot down Scottish application.

Luxembourg were one of the founding countries, I think? It's not unusual for a body to demand all new applicants meet their minimum standards while ignoring whether or not their existing members do.

 

[Feicarsinn]

Would Scotland want into NATO? I don't particularly understand the need for small nations like Scotland to have large militaries. It's a huge drain on a small economy when you're not going to be a global power in any case.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

I like how farage is going up there, to put his 2 cents in he is ever popular with the scots.

His attempt to finish of Labour.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Would Scotland want into NATO? I don't particularly understand the need for small nations like Scotland to have large militaries. It's a huge drain on a small economy when you're not going to be a global power in any case.

From what I gather Salmond said they're not going to apply.
I imagine the added security of being teamed up with the likes of the UK/USA/French militaries is nice, but as you said: a small country doesn't really need it as they're not going to be in a war, would have the backing of most if they were, and don't really want to be spending 2% of all their money on their military (which is the nato minimum, I think).

 

[LittleGuy]

Would Scotland want into NATO? I don't particularly understand the need for small nations like Scotland to have large militaries. It's a huge drain on a small economy when you're not going to be a global power in any case.

Lot's of NATO countries don't have large militaries, Iceland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Spain all spend less than 1% of their GDP's on defence, all but five countries spend less than 2%, it's arguable you can get away with having a smaller armed forces with NATO membership as well, as it entitles you to free load off of the United States military spending(they account for 75% of all NATO defence spending)......something Canada would never do is free load off the U.S.A. military

Luxembourg were one of the founding countries, I think? It's not unusual for a body to demand all new applicants meet their minimum standards while ignoring whether or not their existing members do.

That's very true, though NATO has accepted some fairly low level countries in recent years(Albania and Croatia in 2009 for example), and with increasing Russian tensions they might not be averse to having access to the North Sea, it's all kind of a moot point if the Scots don't want to join I suppose.

 

[Peat]

Thing is, NATO want to increase defence spending, because a Europe that cannot do a thing to Russia in conventional military terms has a problem as we have just witnessed. Which means tiny defence budgets and freeloaders are likely to be looked on less kindly in future. So Scotland have a choice; pay up and join NATO, or don't.

To be honest, in a lot of ways they could get away with just not doing so to a point. Any threat to them is pretty much de facto a threat to several other NATO countries so they'd be forced to act anyway. But in there's two issues here. The first is that Salmond did say Scotland would join NATO; saying he wouldn't (has he?) might cost him votes at this stage. More to the point, I think that in terms of political clout and negotiations, telling the rest of Europe "Hi, can we join and get all the benefits, by the way we'll be opting out of pulling our weight on shared defensive capabilities" has all the viability of the lead balloon. I feel like that's an approach that would lead to a lot of heel dragging on EU membership; a market of 5m odd people isn't so important that it can't be excluded until you bullied what you want out of it.