Hello.
mops brow after finishing reading thread 9.
Santana - the (very nice, highly principled) yes campaigner I spoke to on Wednesday hadn't heard about the contract awarded to Weight Watchers to advise NHS patients on dietary issues. Very glad you have mentioned it. Would it be whiny to say that I mentioned it on a previous indy thread, but nobody commented? 
I admire those voters who are voting yes in the hope of creating a fairer and more progressive society for Scotland. But they are ultimately using the referendum as a protest vote. Which is a drastic thing to do. Although the hope is for a morally commendable end, it's still a from of protest vote - the current government isn't delivering the policies they'd like (I don't like a lot of them either) and they don't think the next government will be any better either so they vote to opt out. I don't see how giving up on rUK can be a positive reason for wanting to be independent.
Yes voters. Be more ambitious, more hopeful. Build on the political debate generated by the inde ref to improve things for all of the UK. There's nothing to lose by staying in the UK and everything to lose by leaving: the goodwill of the rUK, a strong economy, established regulatory bodies, national agencies and administrations; these will be replaced by years of squabbling over who gets what and power-hungry Scottish politicians desperate to make changes and set up new bodies just for the sake of it at great expense and effort. Instead of working to improve the structure we already have to improve we will be wasting our energies on the details of what new logos etc we will have for the newly created Scottish structures. Take the Scottish parliament building - we could have built something else with that money and effort, something for the ordinary people of Scotland, not just for the politicians of Scotland.
The ordinary people of Scotland have found their voice now and the rUK is hearing it - not just the voice of the SNP.