It's hard to keep up with the thread, so I've read a lot and my thoughts might jump around quite a bit as I catch up on pages of discussion. I know things have moved on, but I think OneNight asked about the environment. I am deeply concerned about this issue which has not featured highly in the campaign, despite the way the Yes campaign uses Patrick Harvey who now defends arguments about a currency union when that was not his preferred option.
I find it strange that the SNP/Yes can't guarantee us anything about future benefits, services and taxes or anything important that we ask about because noone can predict the future and it'll be up to future Scottish governments and yet can tell us that they'll be reducing corporation tax and scrapping air passenger duty (mind you... they also haven't talked about the arrangements for our air traffic control either... so maybe there won't be any airlines to tax). They have very interesting priorities for a party that wraps itself in Scotland's love of the public services and welfare state.
Well that's one decision an independent Scotland could make for itself ie whether it wants to sign up for a currency union or not
Others have pointed out that it depends on agreement with rUK. So I'll take a different tack. Salmond has made it very clear that he will take a "Yes" vote as a mandate from the Scottish people to negotiate for a currency union. Sovereign will, I believe he said. And it appears his back up plan is Sterlingisation. So I think those supporting Independence who would prefer other options are kidding themselves that they'll be able to influence the currency question in a different direction.
The problem is that the White Paper calls for contradictory and unrealistic things. It says we'll share a central bank and currency with rUK AND we'll be in the EU. But we need our own central bank and currency to be members of the EU. He says we'll spend less on defence, not have any nuclear weapons on our soil AND be part of NATO - except that to be part of Nato we'll have to spend more on defence and be co-operative with nuclear members about where their nuclear weapons are.
I understand there are people for Yes, who would quite happily see us out of the EU, out of NATO and with a new currency and don't see these things as deal breakers. But I think it's completely underhand to convince people to vote Yes on the basis of things which are impossible or unlikely. Not to mention blooming short-sighted and dangerous.
Yes could win on 50%+1 of the vote. What if 10-15% of those only vote Yes because they believed the White Paper, Scottish Government, the claims of optimistic Yes supporters that match their own personal view of what an iScotland should be like, or (heaven help us) the Wee Blue Bath Book. You could end up with a majority of Scots unhappy with the terms eventually negotiated for separation come independence day.
I have a lot of sympathy with those unhappy with the current government in Westminster. I want to see a fairer Scotland which makes tackling poverty a priority too. I differ on two points: 1. I want those things for the whole of the UK which I see as my country 2. I not only think we can achieve those things without independence but I have good reason to believe that independence will harm those exact same people that we would want to benefit from a fairer Scotland.
It is not the geographical area that makes the decisions that needs to change. It is a change in people who make those decisions, brought about by the electorate choosing which values and policies matter to them.
The current Scottish government are so invested in the idea that Scotland is powerless that they ignore the powers they have and wash their hands of the consequences of their decision making. They want us to believe that having armed police on the streets is not a political decision but an operational one. It is not.
Something that I don't think has been discussed is the exponential increase in Stop&Search (higher than London and New York) in Scotland. Including the Stop and Search of children. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-27627154
This is not the Scotland I recognise. The referendum is a huge nationalism driven distraction from actual policies and politics that affect people's lives. Parliamentary time is spent on discussing Scotland's National Tree, or self-congratulatory "One year to the Ryder Cup" rather than all the stuff they now claim is so important (poverty, health, etc).
We've had 7 years of this nonsense (And those who said that the referendum was on the cards, maybe people guessed that, but it was barely mentioned during the last Holyrood campaign and yet it has dominated the agenda ever since) and I doubt it will go away after the referendum if there is a Yes vote, with years of wrangling over currency, borders, shares of this that and the other.