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?

MIL it's the media that calls her queen of England. Her actual title is Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Yes, the SNP played a blinder there :) There was no way people would vote for Independence if there was a Devo Max option...

Agree MyMIL that's interesting. Would likely be enough for most I reckon. I'm quite pragmatic about the whole thing but will be disappointed in a no vote as it means there will be no change from status quo. At least with a yes vote it's all up for negotiation.

Stargirl yes, church, education and legal system all separate since act of Union. NHS devolved. Amazing how many people even in Scotland are not aware though that we basically look after our own back garden as it is - why wouldn't we want to be wholly responsible for the budget too? I'm in opposite position, only No voter I know is my DSIL and I'm in the process of talking to her about it (not in an evangelical way, she genuinely wants to know why I'm voting yes - DB is On The Fence...)

EyeofNewt - it's bloody disgusting. These folk are pond life. I hope the overwhelming majority of people here have been nothing but lovely or I will be truly ashamed.

By the way - I'm not a member of the SNP or a fan of Alex Salmond, this is about more than party politics (which I have little time for anyway).

Totally agree ItsAllGoingToBeFine. Don't think Cameron realised he had been played, quite scary...

At least with a yes vote it's all up for negotiation.

This is what scares me the most! I don't understand how people want to vote for something completely unknown.

I'm not a member of the SNP or a fan of Alex Salmond, this is about more than party politics

THIS^^

So many people seem to think that a vote for independence is a vote for the SNP in perpetuity. It isn't, in the event of a Yes vote there will be a general election in 2016, and Scots can vote for whoever they want, Labour, Tory, SNP, and vote knowing that their vote actually counts and won't be made meaningless by the larger voting population down south.

Annunziata - because we would have expressed our democratic will and would be able to do so on future. At the moment we don't know how the future decisions of the current UK Government will shape Scotland either, or how a no vote would pan out! There's no scenario, even the ratios quo, where anything is certain - but in the current state there's no leverage for change. (Hadn't meant to get into this, honest!) :)

*status quo...

Just throwing it out there, but if the UK faces being radically altered, shouldn't all British citizens get a vote?

I know, it has been done to death and no one has changed their minds!

People say that it isn't voting for Alec Salmond, but I am quite sure that if it does go through it will be him standing in front of Edinburgh castle waving the Saltire, I find it very hard to think it's not about the SNP.

There was definitely an argument for that Louise and it was decided no, fairly IMO. Equally I think Scottish MPs should stop getting a vote on English matters (the SNP currently abstain I believe).

Annunziata, sure it will be. But it's not about that photo op, cringey as it might be - it's about the future of a whole country, long after Alex Salmond and the rest of us are all gone. I'm not really that romantic about it but I don't believe being in the UK is the way forward (just as many don't believe Britain staying in the EU is the way forward).

This is what scares me the most! I don't understand how people want to vote for something completely unknown

The problem is there will always be some unknowns, as DC is unwilling to "prenegotiate the breakup of the union".

Fundamentally though the most important thing is money, and it has been shown by both sides that money is not an issue. The No campaign famously said Scots would be a pound a year worse off if they voted Yes. As a worst case scenario that is not so bad.

Yes, all the small details would have to be negotiated, but in the worst case (unless someone can show otherwise) we would pretty much be where we are at the moment. The big picture is overwhelmingly positive with Independence.

In terms of detailed scenarios the Common Weal is worth a look, and I think the white paper is out at the end of this month?

A quick canvas of friends and family here showed a large majority voting no.
Too much rhetoric and empty promises and not enough hard fact and honesty for my liking.
I am English and will be voting no.

It won't happen. In the unlikely event of it happening I will be moving Hell and high water to keep my U.K passport.
This is one of the many things the SNP refuse to address. If one raises it all you get are bland assurances everyone will be eligible for a Scottish passport. Thanks, but big no thanks.

Small details like a currency?!

I've heard it all before, it just scares me to death!

OK. So let's look at currency. What's the worst that can happen?

ItsAllGoingToBeFine has said it better than me... Need my bed! I completely understand people liking certainty but why on earth do you think you have it now? The UK could hold a referendum on EU membership (which I believe polling info shows England would reject and Scotland would support). Scotland's finances are not dependent on the oil fund, but it would have been handy :)

Keen to see the white paper too. Night all :)

In my business sector I haven't come across anyone who thinks it is anything other than completely misguided. As for friends and family, a resounding NO.

I blame the BBC. A whole generation of Scots children in the 1970s used to look forward to watching a serialisation of "Robinson Crusoe" during the school summer holidays. We loved it. I still love it. Every year we would have to go back to school before the serial ended because transmission was timed to cater for the school holidays in RoUK. Summer after summer the serial was repeated and we would watch avidly, knowing that this time they would allow us to see the end, and year after year we had to go back to school without finding out what happened. I was so traumatised that I could't read the book and I still don't know what happened to Mr Crusoe or Friday. That is the generation running Scotland these days. (Of course, the sixteen and seventeen year olds who will have the vote in the 2014 referendum would get it on YouTube so they don't see the problem and will vote NO.)

Interesting blog post on the currency issue:
smatterobanter.blogspot.com/2013/11/currency-currently.html?spref=fb

Fundamentally either we have a formal currency union with the UK, or we use the pound anyway. The second option has the disadvantage that we would have no control of the currency, but that is not a massive issue.

Itsallgoingtobefine you are aware the biggest disater in UK banking was a Scottish bank?
The worst that can happen? The next time we're bailed out it's basically The Bank of England calling the shots.

I'm just waiting for Alec to announce we've cured the common cold in Scotland.

Arse. Sorry.
smatterobanter.blogspot.com/2013/11/currency-currently.html?spref=fb

I very much hope that Scotland votes to stay in the UK, but if they do decide to leave the UK it must be a complete, clean break. No cherry-picking of benefits or rights that they would prefer to keep. All or nothing.