To want to keep my UK passport if Scotland votes YES in the 2014 referendum?

[SittingBull1]

If the majority of people actually voting votes YES in the 2014 referendum, Scotland will leave the UK. As Scots living in Scotland, will my family and I lose our UK passports? Along with a very large number of NO voters, my family and I will want to retain our UK passports, and I'm sure that a huge percentage of the non-voters will also want to keep theirs. I think that the UK government should offer to allow Scots living in Scotland to retain their UK passports. Is that unreasonable?

Yup. Ive got it downloaded, but I'm watching the q and a at the Science Centre at the mo.

Does anyone know if Better Together are going to bring out a similar document?

I'll be reading the White Paper.

People should also be able to read what continued union consequences will be, the most important of which is on what basis will Scotland be funded if the Barnett formula is going to be changed/removed? What about Europe - what happens if there is a referendum about membership of the EU and the majority vote to leave even if the voters in Scotland vote to stay? Surely there is also uncertainty there?

People need to make an informed judgement of the options ahead.

Listening to Carmichael just now, I don't understand why Ireland was able to use the pound sterling for so many years after its Independence when he is so emphatic that rUK wouldn't allow Scotland to do so . What's different?

Quick glance it's another utopian wish list , no indication of how it will be paid for.
I won't be reading it in detail. Nothing it can say will change my mind. I don't bother reading the manifesto of UKIP or the BNP to know I don't want to vote for them.

And please don't get on your high horses and say the SNP is nothing like those parties, I'm merely referring to them as an example of how little Eck and the Nats engage me.

One point, for those of you who think this fairer society needs higher tax you are aware that out of a tax paying population of 2.7 million in Scotland only 226,000 are higher rate payers. Unless you actually are intending that 10% of the tax payers which are 4.5% of the population pay for everything, be careful what you wish for. There might be substantial increases in basic rates. Not that Eck will tell you that of course.

Oh, sorry, I see they are saying no rise in basic rates so presumably 226,000 people will be paying for it all.

I won't be reading it in detail. Nothing it can say will change my mind. I don't bother reading the manifesto of UKIP or the BNP to know I don't want to vote for them

Agreed. To be honest, I don't think the white paper is really aimed at you and me - it's aimed at the undecideds.

And he can shove his Scottish passport. I'd honestly prefer not to have one at all.

Oh, sorry, I see they are saying no rise in basic rates so presumably 226,000 people will be paying for it all

I get a bit fed up in Scotland by being labelled as "rich" because I'm a higher rate taxpayer, and having it insinuated and over-privileged I am somehow greedy for paying more tax than the majority.

Why is there this victim attitude in Scotland? Its always someone else's fault. Left wing socialist policies will solve all. Poverty, from the way it is described by some, still appears to be at pre-Victorian levels.

When in fact, Scotland's and the UK's policies towards unemployment, health care and benefits are far more left wing than the rest of Europe already. How much more left wing can they go? A national standard wage for all, no matter what job you do?

And he can shove his Scottish passport. I'd honestly prefer not to have one at all

From the sound of some of the comments I've been reading on FB and on here, quite a high number of Scots haven't ever left the country of their birth, so it won't be necessary!

I am usually a higher rate tax payer (not currently as between roles) and dh is also a higher rate tax payer.

Yet at the devolution vote I voted for the tax varying powers, fully expecting it only ever to mean paying more as I am happy to pay more for public services to support the vulnerable in our society.

We currently pay close to £2,700 a year in council tax - again something I accept as a consequence of the privilege of living in a "big hoos".

I will be reading the White Paper (as I did the Devolution White Paper) so that I can understand the consequences of whichever way I choose to vote.

I would love to be able to read a similar document outlining what the "extra" devolution that has been hinted at would be and/or what the (hinted at) changes to the Barnett formula will be. The block grant to Scotland will be going down anyway, even with the Barnett Formula because as elements of the NHS are privatised, that reduces the sum on which it is calculated. Similarly, HS2, which goes nowhere near Scotland, has been deemed to be "national" infrastructure, so the cost of that will be deemed to be benefitting Scotland and excluded from the calculations.

I'm liking the bit about social investment - that makes a lot of sense an idea.

'Listening to Carmichael just now, I don't understand why Ireland was able to use the pound sterling for so many years after its Independence when he is so emphatic that rUK wouldn't allow Scotland to do so confused. What's different?'

I keep reading this everywhere and it's just wrong.

Ireland kept the pound from 1921 until 1928 when the Saorstát pound came into being. In 1938 saw the arrival of the Punt (the Irish pound) which was linked in value to Sterling until Ireland joined the Euro in 2002.

Ireland did not keep sterling.

Hmm. White paper says that Scotland would continue to charge English students to study here (university). Can they do that? (I thought there was some sort of EU thingy?)

Just listened to Nicola Sturgeon going on and on about nursery education, roads etc and felt really annoyed .This decision shouldn't be about the short term policy objectives of the SNP Scotland is not a one party state.This decision isn't about this year or next year or the next decade even , it's about forever or at least the next century it should be ,my mum is Scottish and we spent lots of summers there and I would be sad to see the end of the Union but that's beside the point, it just annoys me that the SNP seem to equate scottish independence with an SNP Government.

If course they do - they are the SNP. Watching the launch this morning ( and reading the white paper) it was made very clear there were two distinct parts to this. What the Scottish Government would do in the period between a Yes and independence, and what the SNP would do if they were reelected.

I would love to see similarly detailed policies from other political parties, regarding what they would dinfor Scotland in the event of a no/yes vote.

I think the SNP need to tread a careful line when declaring for example that an independent Scotland will be a changed world for women with regards to childcare, surely some people will think ‘well why haven’t you tried to implement any of these plans since you’ve been in government?’. Dangling carrots are all well and good but don’t try and hold people to ransom as in you can only have this if you give us that.

Problem is, although the Scottish government could implement the childcare proposals now, they couldn't afford them. They need access to both sides of the equation to do that.

Not white paper then. More of a white book.

I suppose as it's written by the SNP any published imagining of an independent Scotland will be one with an SNP government. I'm looking forward to reading a condensed version, not sure I'd be able for the 670 pages.

Squoosh - you're right sort of I am remembering that I was able to use pounds sterling when I visited Ireland because they were accepted on a one-to-one basis everywhere so I didn't need to change any money - nor did the company I worked for at the time differentiate.

So the principle remains. Also, didn't Ireland start off using the pound sterling before establishing the punt a number of years into their independence process?

From 1921 to 1928 sterling was used, after that it was the Saorstát pound and then the punt.

I don't think the principle does remain. Some people may have been allowed use sterling during the Punt years but it doesn't mean sterling was the currency.

Problem is, although the Scottish government could implement the childcare proposals now, they couldn't afford them. They need access to both sides of the equation to do that

However the funding for that isn't going to come from nowhere. You need more tax than at present to pay for it. And the point of providing free or heavily subsidised childcare is that mothers can return to work after having children.

I'm not sure all Scottish women want that.

I would also disagree on thr principle still existing; I don't think the economy of 1940s Ireland is at all relevant to today's Scotland.

I haven't seen the paper yet, but I'd like a hard copy, I find e-reading hard. I'm also worried about the social accessibility- will the average man/ woman really read it?

The principle is that the two currencies did maintain parity - and that business could do cross border business.

Scottish banks currently issue their own bank notes for which they lodge security with the Bank of England (which is actually a misnomer as it is the Bank of the whole of the UK as Mark Carney reminded us a few weeks ago).

I'm not that old - I wasn't born in the 40s . My recollection is of the 70s and early 80s. Also of having Irish coins that I could use interchangeably!

I've just remembered something I say when I was en route to or from NZ in the mid 70s: we saw a currency exchange board that differentiated £ sterling and £Scottish - and the Scottish one was worth ever so slightly more! . We did debate at the time whether you could do a currency scam