To wonder how you're voting in the Scottish Referendum and why?

[deeedeee]

a month away from the vote thought it would be interesting to ask

( no bunfighting , derision or soundbites please. just yes or no and why. feel free to post more than once with different reasons. No links unless independent fact or opinion, nothing from the official campaigns)

I'm a YES

because Westminster's failed to protect the vunerable and the UK's me first politics have taken us down a particularly nasty path. An independent Scotland leans towards to left and can potentially choose a better route. And if a change happens in scotland then I think that that could inspire a change in the direction of politics in the rest of the UK.

I'm voting yes because I'm a narrow minded, English hating, bag pipe loving ignoramus.

OR

I'm voting yes because I believe the only way to end the democratic deficit is to become an independent state, with the responsibilities and burdens which that brings.

Not using someone else's currency, using out own currency.

It's not 'our own' currency. It's the British currency.

Most of the dollar using countries aren't ones who you would aspire to replicate economically...It's not an impossible option but it is a severely flawed one.

I'm a yes.

I don't think Scotland (or the north of England for that matter) are best served by a government largely voted for and run for the benefit of the south of England.

It's not an anti-England vote or a vote against the current government - I just want a government that is able to deal with the issues that are affecting where I live instead of somewhere else and I think Scotland would be an area more able to do that.

Well, I'll be voting against my economic status then

I too am not Scottish, not young (older than expat), not an expert on economics (which just means I don't believe either side), well-education etc and like I said my opinion on the subject does fluctuate.

I just cannot see myself NOT taking this historic leap of faith. It riles me that a successful NO vote with by extension support Westminster and the ruling orders of the South East.

There is no reason, I understand, why an independent Scotland should not use the pound. Unless it was prevented to do so as a 'punishment'. Which would then also have adverse knock-on effects on English trade. So, provided everybody involved can find it in themselves to act as responsible adults I don't see the currency question as an unsurpassable obstacle.

Wrt to oil: how much oil there is and how accessible it is seems to depend on who you ask (and what their agenda is) . So, who knows?

Finally, Trident employs a lot of Scottish people and is an important part of the local economy.

www.nuclearinfo.org/article/uk-trident-operational-berths/ministry-defence-reveals-just-520-faslane-jobs-depend-trident

Panama is often mentioned in currency discussions. That would be the fast-growing country which recently discovered oil - in Darien, of all places!

Ladycordelia how utterly patronising, and the very essence of the Better Together voters that I've encountered described upthread, that basically it's the ignorant thickies that are voting yes.
I'm no teenager either and am highly educated and paid, thanks very much. I'd like to think I'm voting yes based on a lot of sound self-research rather than the product of gazing out at the heather-covered hills and hoping to see Mel Gibson painted blue riding over the horizon

Lady, I am disgusted that you think that because it will take years to improve things, it's not worth doing. That's my children's future written off then

I am a yes. I think that better decisions will be taken for Scotland by more locally-based and locally-accountable politicians.
I also think that Scottish people are enterprising and intelligent, and am thoroughly sick of the patronising attitudes of the Better Together campaigners. Smaller countries than Scotland are doing a good job of governing themsleves; so can we.

This thread is fulfilling all the stereotypes of sneering unionists :(

...hoping to see Mel Gibson painted blue riding over the horizon

That would deffo put me in the NO camp and scar me for life.

Darling always mentions Panama when Sterlingisation is brought up - average annual growth of 8.5%... Obviously a struggling economy...
www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/survey/so/2013/car032713a.htm

Adam Smith Institute suggests "that an independent Scotland could have a more stable economy than the rest of the UK if adopted a policy of, what it calls, ‘adaptive sterlingization’, which combines unilateral use of the pound with financial reforms to remove government protection of established banks."
www.adamsmith.org/news/asi-report-quids-in-is-featured-in-bbc-news-and-stv-articles/

There is no reason, I understand, why an independent Scotland should not use the pound. Unless it was prevented to do so as a 'punishment'. Which would then also have adverse knock-on effects on English trade. So, provided everybody involved can find it in themselves to act as responsible adults I don't see the currency question as an unsurpassable obstacle.

An independent country must be able to control its currency, through levers like the interest rate. Using the pound means that Westminster either does this for Scotland through a currency union, or that we just hope it works out well if we do not have a CU. As the SNP keep telling us, Scotland have a different economy and they have different economic aspirations, so the two economies would diverge yet the interest rates etc would stay the same.

English trade would survive. Scotland really relies on the rUK, but hardly anything comes up here.

If you've got the time, this is a somewhat dry academic analysis of the claims of both sides, which was funded by the Tom Hunter Foundation.

Scotland's decision: 16 questions to think about for the referendum on 18 September

An independent country must be able to control its currency, through levers like the interest rate.

Not necessarily. Again, see Panama above. If the UK did use the £ outside the currency union this means the Government/Banks would have less see way to make risky decisions - this is not necessarily a bad thing.

That's a great link Prettybird thanks

From a work related discussion I was at with the treasury they have said that (ignoring the current political stance on currency union) any currency union would require incredibly tight restrictions on Scotland - they've learned from the Euro debacles.

Our financial services industry will almost certainly be decimated - in Edinburgh it's something like 15% of employed people are in FS directly, plus all those who depend on it indirectly.

I genuinely don't see the benefits. I don't think scottish politicians are any better than british. I don't think we'll have this wonderful, fairer society - I think the reality would be a sizeable recession followed by a major economic readjustment. Would we be ok in the very long run? Probably. Would it be worth the pain? For me, no. I don't believe it would be.

My mind was changed by all of the negativity from the better together campaign.

The more I look at the NHS and education system in England the more I want away from it.

The Treasury are hardly neutral, they have their own "No" agenda.