to wonder how Scotland's decision will affect england?

[LEMmingaround]

Just that really? If they do go their ownway how will it affect england?

Also will it open a can of worms with wales and northern Ireland?

Phaedra the problem is that some people think pointing out the economic arguments and the impact on people (god forbid, on yourself or your family) is selfish and money-obsessed. For myself, unless you get the economy right, I don't think you can do all the other things. I hear a lot about making a better, fairer society - but I haven't seen a decent argument for the economics that would fund it.

No the point is that stereotypes and pejorative language were used.

I keep hearing folk are going to sell their houses and move if Scotland gets Independence. Go where? Take kids out of school? Leave your jobs? Really?

Wasn't there a huge amount of companies going to leave Scotland if we got our own Parliament. Did that happen?

Veins an awful lot of the people saying that are saying it because they believe it is likely that their jobs will no longer exist.

I'd probably be one of them, I work in a quite niche financial services role. There are only a handful of employers in Scotland as it is - if a few of them shifted their operations, even partially, it would likely mean moving south for me. I'm far from the only one.

I know there was some stories like that around the parliament but to me parliament vs independence are two incredibly different concepts.

Most of my savings and investments, and my pension scheme, is managed in the UK by UK companies, which is sensible, because I live in the UK. As it happens, they are mostly in Edinburgh and Dundee.

Obviously I prefer not to have it controlled in a foreign country. Obviously if the part of the UK where I have put my savings, investments and pensions becomes a foreign country, I will wish to repatriate them to the UK and to use UK companies.

Does anybody think I am wrong? Or alone?

DH's job will go to London and we'll go with it. We aren't joking.

I don't think you will be alone in that PigletJohn, and I think (along with all the potentially huge regulatory and currency issues) it's part of the reason some companies will look to move some of their roles south of the border especially head offices.

I see Milliband has now said an absolute no to the potential currency union and that it will be included as a Labour manifesto pledge

I think the difference between a devolved parliament and independence is financial services legislation requiring the head office to be seated in the country where the main customer base is. Hence, as a few of the Scottish FS workers have pointed out, this would have to be in rUK should the vote be yes.
I wondered why it would be London/SE though, could it be moved to Berwick (or similar border town) so that Scottish FS specialists in Edinburgh could commute? This may be a naive question.

The Herald is reporting that the Lib Dems and Tories will too, Stats.

The Berwick question is interesting. I think there's probably a bit of snobby ness in moving to London rather than a poky wee town. It'll also depend what happens with the EU. If we can't opt out of Schengen in order to join the CTA, there would have to be a full border.

I think it's also because a lot of the companies have operations in the south/London already. I doubt they'd want to completely start again. Standard Life is possibly more likely to choose somewhere northern as they don't have as much down south but I'd still reckon SE is most likely. Lloyds have a big presence in London, Bristol, Halifax and Leeds (and others) and I'd expect them to choose those. Prudential I think have a lot in London too. RBS, likewise.

Edinburgh works because it's a big centre and they're all here so it attracts the staff too. I think unless they somehow en-masse agreed on a random town, it would probably be London.

Veins I keep hearing folk are going to sell their houses and move if Scotland gets Independence. Go where? Take kids out of school? Leave your jobs? Really?

Absolutely. Why not? Scots are known for living and working all over the world. Many people have lived abroad or in different parts of the UK in their lives. Living in a tiny country on the edge of North Western Europe isn't something I signed up for, and there are plenty of other nice places to live in in both the UK and the rest of the world, so for reasons I've bored people with mentioning before, we've already planned to move. Can always come back in the unlikely event its a success or we feel homesick but I doubt it.

Considering how many threads there are across Mumsnet about people relocating their families because of job moves, I don't see why it is such a strange concept.

As for the Scots not getting the government they voted for, its rather misleading. A quick look at the last General Election results tells you that, rather than no or a negligible number of Conservative voters, 16.7% of votes cast were for the Conservatives. That gave them only 1 seat compared to 11 for the Lib Dems with 18.9% of the votes cast and 6 for the SNP with 19.9%. Labour got 41 seats with 42% of the vote. That distribution of seats was exactly the same as in the previous General Election when Labour got into power.

I don't think its very democratic to say that there are no Conservative voters in Scotland, or that they don't count because there are only 412,855 of them. After all, there were only 491,386 SNP voters, 465,471 Lib Dem voters and Labour voters at 1,035,528 were only a bit more than double the number of Conservative voters.

Looking at those statistics, its unsurprising that the Yes campaign isn't really doing that well. Although they will no doubt argue that the Scottish Elections are more important anyway. Maybe someone else could look up the statistics for that and prove there are no Conservative voters in Scotland worth considering.

YY, Chelsy. 12.35% of Scots voted for Conservatives in 2011.

It's valid for the Yes campaign to moan that Scotland doesn't get the government it votes for. Scotland has 8.3% of the UK population. So it's really unfair for the 12.35% of Scottish Conservative voters to be so dismissed!

Results for last Scottish Parliament election were:

Chelsy coming back in the event of it being a success seems wrong somehow - you're not involved in any of the work of change but you'd happily reap the benefits!

Iggi I doubt I'd want to come back, but since I was born here, and most countries other than those under dictators like Zimbabwe allow citizens of other countries to settle there, with or without visas, that's a real nice attitude you have there. But to be honest, with the whole of the rest of Europe to live in, why would many people want to come back to a country like Scotland once you've made a move for political reasons anyway? Once they've driven out all the political opposition. Doesn't sound like a very safe or tolerant place if you have slightly different views from the narrow range considered "acceptable".

But realistically, other than to some of the fevent Yes supporters, who seem never to have lived further than 10 miles from their birthplace and to whom the concept is unimaginable, people do tend to move around Europe and the world, for jobs, marriage, lifestyle, etc all the time, so why it should cause some Scots to get the vapours, I don't know! In fact, since the Scots are comprised of a high percentage of Norse invaders, Irish Celts, Angles and Saxons and goodness what else, they wouldn't exist if people in the past hadn't done the very same thing!

Didn't say you shouldn't or wouldn't be allowed to come back! Of course it sounds a bit off to say "I'll leave because I think it will go badly, but if it's a roaring success I'll be back". Lots of people in both Scotland and rest of UK have never moved far from their birthplace. I've moved country once, and happy to put down permanent roots having done so.

I know many people who've lived elsewhere (either been born abroad or have worked abroad) who are going to vote Yes. I also know some people who moved up from England because of the vote.

My Dad, for example, is South African born and came here to study to be a doctor (escaping apartheid, paying his own way). We also emigrated to NZ in my teens and came back because we missed Scotland and didn't like the politics in NZ. I know other South Africans who are voting Yes.

I don't think it is possible to make a blanket statement that those voting Yes are untravelled and insular and those that are voting No are better travelled People move/emigrate for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes they come back, sometimes they don't.

I don't think it is possible to make a blanket statement that those voting Yes are untravelled and insular and those that are voting No are better travelled hmm People move/emigrate for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes they come back, sometimes they don't.

it is completely false, that assumption, I agree. :) Not a boast, but as an example: I have lived, studied and worked abroad, speak 4 languages fluently (partly as a result of this) and have always been a Yes voter.

I don't think anyone is making that assumption on here, but I've certainly heard plenty of people say it on other forums. As if its somehow a form of disloyalty to live somewhere else than Scotland. Almost as if its something that a few people can barely conceive!

Personally, I don't care that much what country I will live in. Neither of my parents are Scottish, as long as I have a good standard of living and a well paid job and the country is pleasant and well run, I could be happy to live in most places.

I see Milliband has now said an absolute no to the potential currency union and that it will be included as a Labour manifesto pledge

It's a shame that they have absolutely no way of stopping it. Also nice to see how quickly rUK turns on Scotland the minute we start 'acting up'.

I don't think it's disloyal to live elsewhere Chelsy, I haven't heard anyone say so but it's not a valid point to make, I agree.

How is saying no to currency union "turning on" Scotland? Genuine question - I don't understand that train of thought. I can't see that it would be beneficial to me (English) to have currency union with an independent Scotland. I would expect a UK govt to act in the interests of the UK, not other countries.