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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To feel sad that this could be the beginning of the end for the United Kingdom?

253 replies

SamuelWestsMistress · 21/03/2013 19:40

I feel so sad this evening after hearing the news for the date for the referendum. I am really dreading the whole countdown to voting day because I really fear that the SNP will get their way. What would be really sad is if its a close count. I just desperately hope living here won't feel too different.

I love having a British identity despite being born in Scotland and will be so sad and angry if its taken away.

AIBU to be feeling rather worried and actually afraid by the entire thing? I really don't like the SNP. (Don't like the coalition it her, but I think they've managed to push things to come to this!)

OP posts:
StatisticallyChallenged · 22/03/2013 13:27

if we choose to remain in the UK-not saying we will or won't-then surely that is self determination? We will have chosen to be governed as we are now

SirChenjin · 22/03/2013 13:28

thereabouts

forgetmenots · 22/03/2013 13:36

I actually agree StatisticallyChallenged. I personally feel that's a bit like someone handing over their earnings on payday willingly for someone else to spend and considering themselves to have free choices, but yes, I will be pleased to see the Scottish people vote on this either way.

SirChenjin, no harm in an actual vote then, eh? :)

ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 22/03/2013 13:39

Yes. It is. And that is why this referendum is so important. If the answer is No then the people of Scotland have determined they want to stay part of the UK.

It will also not be asked again in our lifetime.

This is why Scots owe it to themselves to forget their preconceptions, their prejudices. To ignore their friends and family. To do their own research, follow their own references. To vote the right way for them and their families.

SirChenjin · 22/03/2013 13:42

No, bring on the vote Forgetmenots - I think it's about time that the SNP face up to reality once and for all, and learn to accept that the Scottish people don't want independence.

namechangeguy · 22/03/2013 13:46

Will the SNP still have a reason to exist if people vote overwhelmingly against a split? Or will they continue to bang their crappy little empty tartan shortcake tin over this issue?

ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 22/03/2013 13:51

I imagine their numbers would be decimated as they would have lost all credibility.

Shame really as, independence debate aside, they are making a good job of running the country.

namechangeguy · 22/03/2013 13:57

I imagine Salmond et al will find a way to justify getting beaten at the polling station, and carry on regardless.

JollyYellowGiant · 22/03/2013 14:04

Surely it makes sense for people who choose to live in Scotland to be the ones who get the say in the country's future? I can't see any other sensible way to do it. Young people will have to put up with the decision for longer than pensioners, and immigrants have (in most cases) chosen to live, work and pay taxes in Scotland.

I agree that a Yes vote is not an SNP vote. And that a Yes outcome would likely mean the end of the SNP. They are such a disparate party that there is nothing else holding them together, apart from a general left leaning. But having said that, the party is not short of 'natural Tories' either.

Saltire · 22/03/2013 14:04

If I lived in Scotland I would vote no. However even though i am a Scot I liv ein England so can't vote. What I find more alarming is the attitude of the 16/17 years I know, who have no clue what they are voting for!
What if they all have no clue?

forgetmenots · 22/03/2013 14:09

What if 27 year olds have no clue? Do they still get a vote?

Agree 100% jollyyellowgiant.

ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 22/03/2013 14:23

In Scotland you can marry at 16, of course you should be able to vote.

By engaging young people in the voting system earlier hopefully we can help to tackle voter apathy.

bangwhizz · 22/03/2013 14:57

I wish the English could vote on getting rid of Scotland!!!

ComposHat · 22/03/2013 15:00

I'm English but live in Scotland. I get a bit hacked off with English based Scots moaning that they don't have a vote in the Referendum and I do.

Tough shite - you all fucked off at 17/18 and didn't come back, you lost your say when you went chasing the dollar down south. You don't use services in Scotland, you don't support the Scottish economy, you don't live here any more and I do.

namechangeguy · 22/03/2013 15:12

I wish the English could vote on getting rid of Scotland!!!

Alex Salmond has really missed a trick there. He'd get all the independence he could wish for Grin

forgetmenots · 22/03/2013 15:43

Completely agree ComposHat. I welcome your vote however you vote.

bangwhizz, you're a charmer. I'm a yes voter but I won't be glad to see the back of England or anything like it, horrible rhetoric.

Mimishimi · 22/03/2013 15:58

I'm of Scots descent (McBurney). To be honest, I don't think we've ever got over the loss of Dalriada. Grin We've never trusted the English, they're always sending us off to one bloody war or another or waging it on us if we refuse...

ComposHat · 22/03/2013 16:08

forgetmenots

Cheers, I haven't fully decided how to vote yet, it is difficult as we are being asked to vote on an idea, rather than a fully worked out proposal for independent Scotland.

I'm a bit worried about being sent to a transit camp in Carlisle if the Yes vote win. I'll spend my time trying to attach myself to the underside of cross border trains in order to get back home.

LadyBeagleEyes · 22/03/2013 16:15

No one should vote on the fact that they hate the English or have some sort of blind Braveheart patriotism.
This is going to be the most important decision Scotland will ever have to make and we can't take it lightly.
I'm still undecided, I'm still reading the pros and the cons.
The main thing that would make me vote yes at the moment is the thought of years and years of a Tory Government.
For me that is just untenable.

babanouche · 22/03/2013 16:17

Agreed, LadyBeagle.

StatisticallyChallenged · 22/03/2013 16:24

I agree, I generally get very irritated by people who try to turn this into an anti English braveheart sentimental argument.

AuroraAlfresco · 22/03/2013 17:20

No one should vote on the fact that they hate the English or have some sort of blind Braveheart patriotism.

The only people who assert that our reasons for voting Yes include the above ... are the No camp! I don't know a single person who will be voting yes on this basis. We're not stupid Grin

(Oh, and I've never seen Braveheart ...!)

LadyBeagleEyes · 22/03/2013 17:39

Actually, you're probably right Aurora.
Apart from a couple of daft kids, most people I know are taking it seriously.
Maybe I'm just jumping in in advance before this thread goes the way that these threads inevitably do, and all the nasty anti Scots posts take over.
I've seen it way too often Grin

StatisticallyChallenged · 22/03/2013 17:47

unfortunately I have heard a fair few folk doing the whole anti English bit but to be blunt I'm not sure most of them will even be on the voter's register! Wink

Tortington · 22/03/2013 18:09

its got to impact on us the English if you are putting more in the pot ( as was said above) and you leave, we are going to suffer. The English should therefore get a vote.

I would like the perimeters of the aforementioned pot explained if at all possible. Does it include defence for instance?

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