If you were Scottish....

We were discussing this at work last week - a lot of jobs have been moved up to the Highlands with the Scottish government paying the first £10k of wages (according to the rumours). However, these jobs are based on UK-only contracts and would have to move back if Scotland voted "yes" (Scotland would not be in the UK, neither would it be in the EU for at least several years).

The consensus that we came up with was it would be best all around if Scotland voted "yes" and left the UK and leave them to it. If there is a "No" vote, it will come back again in a few years costing another £x million until they get the "yes". If it all goes wrong, which it might take 30 years (until the oil runs out) then they would probably have to come back begging.

BTW Alex Salmond appears to be in it to make a name for himself like a modern day William Wallace.

 

Both debates were a sorry spectacle.

Salmond in the first going on about aliens and driving on the right.

Darling in the second ignoring the fact that Salmond had answered him about the currency question and having no plan B of his own.

The inability of either to think on their feet led me to conclude that the population are being short changed (heartbreaking for a Scot) by their mouthpieces, and that nobody really knows what will happen if they go for independence.

Like when it struck 2000, probably nowt'll happen much at all. We down south WILL get more Tory influenced. But as someone has said somewhere on this thread, they're all the same anyway

Having just been to Islay, I wanna go back. It'll still be there, producing the grandest water of life, whatever happens.

 

Hello Ian, Didn't realise your were Scottish, I imagined Arabian. Just for the record, I'd vote yes as well. If the vote is yes, will Salmond be hailed as the new Wallace?

 

he will till the oil runs out

then as they go down the pan, like Eire did, they will come crawling back with the begging bowl out.... and that's when they get telled to **** off.

Let them eat Haggis I say.

 

Ha ha Arabian. I wish. And have my own oil well. That would be nice.
Tbh I'm not a great fan of Alec salmond prefer to think that Tommy Sheridan could turn out to be the new William Wallace.

I voted labour all my life until Blair and new labour ruined everything. Moving the party far too much to the right for my liking.

 

Re: he will till the oil runs out

I like haggis.

 

As long as they accept the terms of interest rate and fiscal routines set by the Bank of England Scotland can use the pound all day long, independence hey!

 

If I were Scottish I'd vote yes but then again I'd vote the same if we had the chance in Yorkshire.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

The Westminster bubble and the City sharks have a lot to answer for the state the UK is in and the feeling of people not belonging to a union.The Tories and to a lesser but contributory extent New Labour and the Lib Dems have ridden rough shod over great swaithes of the union.The Tories by not giving a damn and the others by appeasement with Benefits etc.

The Tories have an agenda and social justice paid for by taxes etc is being diverted to hedge funds to pay for mainly big city traders pensions at the expense of the people north of London.

The fact that the Scots have a vote to stop the complacency of the London based rulers is a great advantage and one that I am very jealous of .
If they do vote yes I would be very sorry to see them go not least because of all their Socially minded MPs but at least they won't have the spectre of another City Bankers Ho!ocaust hanging over them especially as they are now poised for another grabbing spell which Osborne is conveniently overlooking.

 

I'd like them to vote no. As a Yorkshireman I feel more affinity with the Scottish than I do the south of England. We need them with us to prevent tory domination for years to come, the thought of which fills me with dread.

 

The Scots can have any currency they want as an independent country - they can use the euro, the British pound, they can use the dollar - as many have said. But they won't be allowed to print the euro or the pound or the dollar. They can call their currency anything they like, the Scottish Pound, the Scottish Ruben, the Tartan Frank - but it will have to have an established exchange rate which will fluctuate and they will have to buy dollars or pounds or euros. Serious potential for hyper inflation there.

North Sea gas and oil isn't going to last forever, which is why we are all in the trouble that we are with Russia and the Middle East. Everyone is striving for renewable low carbon energy because for two pins nobody wants anything more to do with oil particularly.

So a Scottish economy with no defined currency, which the Chancellor of the Exchequer is determined to prevent from having joint ownership of the pound, based on finite fossil fuels, and promises of not having to pay into nuclear deterrent (but without any doubt wanting to hide behind the one that the rest of us have to continue paying for) - and having no official trading status in Europe (and presumably then not eligible for funding, or tax free trading within the euro zone, or freedom of movement etc). Sorry this is the illusion of an option of independence. Which is being advertised as having your cake and eating it. Mostly to people who wish that Brave Heart was factually correct.

Don't get me wrong - i don't like Scotland - i think it's a horrible wet boring place laced with bitterness and sectarian anger in places - but if I thought for one minute that any reason that any region of the union could make good for itself and break away from the rotten apple of Westminster, and those dreadful tory *******s - i would urge them to run and get away. Seriously I would.

The truth is we are supposed to believe that we are governed by those who we elect - but actually we are run by international financial markets, huge heavy weight financial investors fattened by modern global capitalism, newspaper barons, and Russian and Arab oligarchs. Deals done in private rooms and verified and validated in Parliament - much to the illness of the majority of this country. If the Scottish think that they can vote and walk away from these people - write off their debts and sail into the sunset on North Sea oil money - pardon me while I laugh myself dry.

The truth is that real substantial political change - for the whole of the UK - can only be achieved in United solidarity and a collective determination to move the political agenda back towards the left, towards a genuine NHS and a fairer system of society which protects all of us.

Scottish independence will mean that the rest of the UK will be dominated more easily by the Tory brothels of Eaton and Harrow and Scotland will eventually be brought to it's knees by the international markets (sorry Scotland, you'll have to do business with someone and with something).

So I'd urge Scotland to vote no.

 

so do I

I also like Traffic lights

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpYW1zr-XDA

 

My take on it ..... The Scots have been shouting 'Freedom' since Mel Gibson was a lad... they've spit and fought the English.. They pulled down the crossbar at Wembley. William Wallace, Robert the Bruce (later) and and all the other freckled patriots.... Christ! if they vote against independence cos it is too expensive? fook me... why isn't it a no-brainer.... grab it now and sort out the tough stuff later...

Arabian Ian..... I hope you get what you want, mate...

 

If I'm totally honest with you Michael this vote is possibly one of the biggest events I've been involved in.
I'm not one of those Scotland Forever and I hate England and everything English guys. I really do not hold that attitude but what I do possess is a will to try and get a better deal for my children and grandchildren. Who wouldn't want that for their own?

Have I got that ATM? That is arguable. Will Independence provide a better deal? Well no one knows that. So I've listened to as many arguments as possible, even taking the anti Scots on BBS views onboard.

My conclusion is as you all know is Independence is best. I doubt home rule can be any worse than consigning my family to the horror show the Tories and a weak willed we'd like to be torries Labour party.

Now I could be very very wrong but we won't know until we have tried. The fact that many on this board are jealous of my opportunity to live in a Cameron/Osbourne/IDS free land makes me believe that voting YES is the right way to go.

 

If you take away the Conservative bias that you get from the Telegraph....

...There is an interesting analysis on the 'content' of the claims made by Salmond particularly around the question of the currency. Ignore all the right wing paranoia about a rigged partisan Yes audience.
Note to 'Arabian Ian' (if you read this) Typing "FACT" in upper case at the end of a sentence does not necessarily make it true. For example : Why is it FACT that an independent Scotland will use the Pound in a currency union?

 

Re: If you take away the Conservative bias that you get from the Telegraph....

I said FACT to the statement that Scotland would use the pound.
I actually drink with Stewart Hossie SNP MP and took it upon myself to ask him face to face as to what currency an Independent Scotland would use as there was so much debate about it.
His answer was The Pound and he was in absolutely no doubt about it. Unless he wanted to show himself up a complete fraud and someone not to be trusted I don't think he'd have been so positive and possibly avoided answering my question.

Anyway mate my vote is still a YES.

 

Bridge painting not actually true now...

...gone all high tec so the thing about "It's like painting the Forth Road bridge" is out of date The new coating last for many years (the downside is a load of unemployed painters)

 

Re: Bridge painting not actually true now...

Is that a FACT?

 

Re: Bridge painting not actually true now...

Good luck to the Scots if they vote yes, they'll need it because it won't be too many years down the line that The Borders will want autonomy from the Highlanders and the Islanders will want to go into a union with the Faroes. in fact the whole premise of Scottish Independence is based on a misconception that Scotland is one nation ,it isn't and never will be.

 

Re: If you take away the Conservative bias that you get from the Telegraph....

You trust a politician?? He would surely be towing the party line at this sensitive stage.
I have no axe to grind although for Scotland as much as the union I hope it is a 'No' . Great grand-dad on my dad's side was Scottish and my grand-dad only moved to Durham to get work in the mining industry +I have my Scottish surname. I still suggest you DO read the analysis in the Conservative rag mentioned, as, having studied Economics, I have to say the arguments put forward are, sadly for Yes people like your goodself, incontrovertible even if the rest of the article is an attempt to rubbish the Yes vote. You could go for plan B in whatever form but I fear for Scotland if you do (and I like Scotland). Salmond is an opportunist who is being (like politicians on all sides) dishonest. I can fully understand the desire to break free of Westminster (most of England North of Watford probably feel the same) but, in this case I think the SNP is using the historical differences between England and Scotland to drum up nationalistic fervour to mask the Economic shortcomings in the argument for independence. Why does he over inflate future tax revenue from Oil which every independent assessor states is over optimistic?