to want to divorce the Scots

[palanca]

Honestly, I have 3 BFs who are Scottish and I love the place but I am heartily sick of being threatened with another independence referendum - clearly this is just going to be repeated ad infinitum

It seems pretty clear that most Scots do not want to remain in the UK so I wish that they would just go rather than holding the sword of Damocles over the heads of everyone else in the UK. If there were a UK wide referendum on Scotland remaining in the UK, whilst ideally I'd love them to stay, I am afraid I would certainly vote for Spexit and let them get on with it rather than having to listen to the constant whinging ....

You're three friends represent a nation of millions?

Ooh everyone seems to know what the majority of Scots want.

Fabulous.

Majority want in. Majority want out. And most are sick of the threat of another referendum.

Such experts! Maybe you should all sign up as political advisors if you all know what most want.

As far as I'm concerned, Scotland had a referendum and made the choice to stay. Now it should accept the consequences of that choice, which means living with whatever it is that the majority of the UK votes for.
Bit fed up of some people thinking they can ignore democracy and keep asking the same question over and over again until they get the result they prefer.

The other thing that occurs to me is that Sturgeon should be careful of promising the world to Scotland - she might one day be called upon to deliver it. Look how well that worked out for Boris!

The minority is just under half the country, and yes, we are bloody vocal because we haven't been listened to.

If the situation was reversed you would be making yourself heard too.
(Hopefully you will find yourself in the minority soon and then you can also enjoy the feeling of being led down the garden path by a bunch of liars)

Most Scots don't support independence or they would be independent given we've not long had a referendum! The ruling party support independence, that is there reason for being, not everyone in the country supports SNP. You are ridiculous

Ootsit

Cameron was in no position to promise Sturgeon anything. She should have known that. It's not like the EU referendum was a surprise to Scotland - they knew it was coming.

Aderyn, that's irrelevant. The result wasn't known. The political climate has changed significantly since the independence referendum. So nobody knows what most scots want now. Despite so many in this thread thinking that they do.

SetPhasersTaeMalkie
If we get a divorce you can keep Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage.

Bugger that! You're getting custody of the wankers.

We'll visit them every alternate weekend and take them for a Big Mac once a month, and mebbe bowling or the pictures afterwards. And don't come whinging to us every five minutes that they need new trainers . . . unless it's the type that come prepared with a chair and a whip!

yabu to let the sound and fury of the scottish nationalists influence your decision, there are other voices. Listening to the one shouting loudest is never good policy. Do what I do when the SNP come on the news, swear at the TV/Radio/Internet page and turnover. Whoopsit might be more appropriate for the consequences of all these referenda.

(btw phasers - I love your username)

Your 3 friends ARENT pro-independance, you dont talk about it with them yet you are moaning about the referendum and seem to 'know' that most Scots want out of uk? How does that work?
That doesnt even make sense!

Nichola Sturgeon wants another referendum but she has her own agenda, she wants to be the politician who goes down in history... she is p'd off that SNP didnt get the 'yes' vote last time. its got nothing to do with anything else but herself. The country voted and they said "NO" that should be the end of it. You dont get to redo something just cos the majority of people disagreed with you.

the comments on this thread just rather prove the point though - no, not all Scots want independence but the ones that do are rather "shouty" ....! I have idea whether the majority want it or not. My point is that as a non Scot I am fed up of being metaphorically "shouted" at by Scots demanding their independence. At an emotional level it just makes me want to say adios ....!

Yabu most Scots do not want to leave the UK as reflected in the referendum result. We voted to remain part of the UK and the UK voted to leave the EU so that's what should happen regardless of what Nicola independence at any price Sturgeon thinks. I voted to remain in the EU btw

Running
you can also enjoy the feeling of being led down the garden path by a bunch of liars

It's already hideously familiar to us, believe you me.

The only politician who was ever worth a light in my lifetime was the late John Smith. Intelligence and integrity in one honest package. Often wonder how our nation would have progressed if he had survived to lead the Labour Party, instead of that sly, greedy self-serving twat

It's not irrelevant Bewty. Scotland voted knowing that the EU referendum was coming. Therefore a vote to remain in the union is a vote to accept the choices made by the union as a whole, is it not? If Scotland wanted a future based solely on what the majority of its population alone voted for, then really it should have voted to leave the union. But it didn't.

It's just that the minority which does want to leave are more vocal and shouty.

^ this x 100

Scotland is a long way from where I live. It does not worry me whether they choose independence or not. I have nothing against the scots or Scotland. I hope that we can maintain freedom of movement, of people and services within all the British Isles including England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland and territories like the Channel Islands and Gilbralter.

I feel that a refusal to recongise national identity within the uk has caused problems. We need a devolved parliament for England. Perhaps the United Kingdom needs to be federation of English speaking nations rather than one country. I don't know if the eu would allow a country to belong to two trading blocks.

"My point is that as a non Scot I am fed up of being metaphorically "shouted" at by Scots demanding their independence."

Really? Do you suffer a lot of it then? How strange! Maybe you should try locking your front door?

I had an interesting conversation with a Scottish friend that lived in England for a few years until very recently.

She said that the English perception is Scottish nationalism is that it is akin to the nationalism found in England from the likes of Britain First and UKIP, whereas Scottish Nationalism is about doing the best for the entire country rather than the best for the Scottish people to the exclusion of everyone else.

I have some sympathy for your position OP. I found all the negative, angry posturing around the last independence referendum pretty tedious. However, I did come to realise that I didn't actually care which way it went. I'm going to really try hard to avoid the coverage of round two. What will be will be.

running I'm in the majority - just over half the country.
And we are not being listened to -we didn't want independence, it was a once in a generation vote...
I think we (the majority) are more entitled to be pissed off than you are..the SNP are like toddlers - how many times do we need to say NO before they listen ....

The finances didn't add up then - they really don't now ...
People worry about Brexit and the economy for the UK as a whole -talking about recessions and austerity - Scottish independence (even before the oil prices tanked) would make the worst Brexit outcome look like a picnic in the park....
I have just filled in the SNP questionnaire about another referendum - I am really hoping they drop it for a good 10 yrs now
(Although I guess they are reluctant to do that worried that by then the Labour or similar will have got their act together and have an alternative to vote for and also people will have realised how crap the SNP are at governing ...so they probably won't have a majority in the Scottish Parliament to get a referendum vote through...)

Aderyn, but the Scottish were told unequivocally that the only way they could guarantee to remain in the eu was to vote against independence.

It was one of the major arguments that the unionists used.

I was surprised when Scotland voted to stay in the EU. We had been away in our caravan , going up the east coast and down the west of Scotland immediately before the referendum, and all of the signs we saw (many of them home-made, hanging out of windows, on garden fences, stuck to car doors etc said "VOTE OUT!"

As someone else has commented - you can't just go on ad infinitum having referenda on topic after topic until you get the result you want. You just have to accept what the majority vote for. That's what democracy is about, and although it is in many ways a crap system, it is better than any of the alternatives.

Suits me OP! You can have Faslane, Boris, Theresa & Nigel. See you's efter as we would say
Also worth saying that as a pro-indy Scot living in a v pro-indy city, I hear almost no "shouting" about it, metaphorical or otherwise, I wonder where you're hearing it??
Also Bewty absolutely agree with your friend, nationalism is very different here for the most part. I think a big part of the negative perception of independence is the connotations of the word "nationalism".