To think wealthy people will leave Scotland?

[Juniperberries25]

..if the YES side win a referendum? Surely a lot of successful businesses and people who are wealthy/ comfortable/ have paid into a pension will not want to risk all their assets becoming worthless? Or am I missing something? Higher taxes, unknown currency, economic uncertainty, hard border, national security concerns etc

It would cost BILLIONS to set up new Government bodies (eg DVLA, Passport office, MI5, MI6, Amy Navy, RAF to name a few) so surely taxes will be much, much higher than rest of the UK?

Just to clarify I am NOT a fan of Boris but surely he will be long gone by the time Scotland actually became independent after YES vote (probably at least 10 years, just look at the BREXIT timeline).

Please don't flame me, I am just wondering what people think as I genuinely don't get how the benefits outweigh the risks.

Do you not think the grand a year more is worth your children (if you have them) not paying tuitions fees, you and your family not paying prescription charges, and you not having to pay for care when you are older (to name a few benefits)?

If having a grand extra in your pocket is more important than the above please don't feel you need to wait for independence to move. Go now, and enjoy that £83.33 a month.

This shows a total lack of understanding of Scotland or is cherry picking. Glasgow is a very disadvantaged city with high levels of poverty. Election results are always low in deprived areas. This is actually a decent turnout for such a deprived City. In parts of England turnouts at elections have gone as low as just over 30%.

I know plenty of people on here with £100k plus salaries are doing fine.

in Scotland? “Plenty” really?

Antelopevalley, the person I know who owns multiple Airbnb flats in Edinburgh and several holiday lets in Perthshire is Scottish, not an English baddie buying up all the property.

There's always a sense on these threads that Scots are on some way 'better' than everyone else, especially the English, which is obviously bollocks. We're no better, no worse than everyone else.

@WouldBeGood If there's one thing I've learnt from that effing little guy in Russia and from COVID is that we're stronger together. It takes a village to raise a child but why stick to a village when you can have many villages put together to help? Have you asked the Germans what they think about the EU?
The world's gone global and I think we as a society's are moving towards having and wanting to have more choice of everything (knowlege, education, health, products, etc). why would anyone want to limit their choices just because they want to hold on to their car plates.

You are being disingenous. The rest of my comment made it clear I was talking about English people on MN.

We pay more tax here as you say, and our council tax bills keep going up. So how do all of our services keep declining? Our schools are no longer simply buildings, many classes are now in outbuildings similar to portacabins. The kids are taught by multiple teachers a week, so their learning is disrupted. Our health services decline every year. Our transport services have recently declined too.

Why when we pay more in tax, do we get less? It's not like Sweden here, it's awful.

The same issue seems to exist with the reality of the situation

The familiar it will be so much better but technicalities such as moving goods and border control get swept aside for chasing the dream

I am sure there will continue to be lots of scaremongering and even lies like last time. But I also think there will be a lot of people like me who voted no last time who will now vote yes.
Last time we were voting for the status quo versus unknown independence and a major reason for me voting no was concern about leaving the EU. I knew that would be an economic disaster.
This time I will be voting for things continuing to get worse in the UK versus a chance to do things a new way.
Up to people obviously how they vote. But I do not understand anyone who will vote for both the economy and ordinary people's lives to continue to get worse. We will soon in the UK be in a deep recession.

Huh? You didn’t even say that. It was @Oceanus

@MarshaBradyo I thought you supported Brexit?

Uni fees don't affect me and even paying for eye tests and prescriptions isn't going to cost me a 4 figure sum of money! I've already considered moving, I'm not even sure I can bear to endure the campaigns again. "once in a lifetime vote" it was sold as last time......🙄

Oh sorry it was you

@Ohthatsexciting Apologies, I wrongly thought you were quoting my comment.

I voted no the first time and I'll vote no probably this time too.

I've had enough change/unpredictability and don't fancy embarking on a new 'unknown'.

I am also considering moving. I think Scotland is quite divided now and it makes me sad, we're starting to resemble NI in parts :(

At least the Tories believe in free speech, and those who wanted to speak out against Boris were able to do so.
Any political party, ie SNP, which doesn’t allow its members to speak out against its leaders is on seriously dodgy ground. It’s anti democratic.
And where is that £600000, not to mention much of the extra covid funding from Westminster which has disappeared? It’s a bit like watching the Trotter family- wheeling and dealing, ducking and diving…

We will be leaving if it’s a yes vote. We’ve worked too hard and are too near retirement to throw it away.
It’s very sad to see how bad things have become.

All these “free” things will go though, if there’s independence.

They have to be paid for somehow. No free prescriptions or uni then.

Absolutely @Oceanus

Is that so?

More than one third of SNP voters voted for Brexit, so that ruins your mythical narrative that there aren't any pro-independence voters in favour of Brexit.

EU membership is one of the SNPs internal divisions, you know.

And somehow I don't think you want pro-Scottish independence voters to leave on account of that....

A hell of a lot of Remainers will also vote against Scottish independence.

Your argument falls flat.

Nope I voted remain and was very firmly against the being sold what was on offer around Brexit, I’m in London and many of us were remainers

This seems similar, but can you say about movement of goods and border set up?

I think if people had asked practical questions rather than DC striking gold with emotive campaigning we might be in a different place

I always love these “debates” on Scottish Independence.

Whenever I discuss it with anyone I ask them one simple question. If Scotland is such a drain on Westminster (London) resources…why oh why, did the UK Government campaign so hard to keep us? Why are they still trying to keep us? It’s not because they’re oh so generous that they want to be charitable to their poor, uneducated, drug addict neighbours is it?

This is a government that refuses to feed poor hungry children, used Covid as a driver to make their rich pals even richer and is currently trying to deport people who have lived here all their lives and contributed to the country. Doesn’t sound like a charitable neighbour to me!

The issue is that England being 10 times as populous as Scotland (and 15-50 times than Wales or N.I.) meaning that every democratic decision is more or less decided by England and England alone. Add to this England retains exclusive use of the UK government's powers and the general dislike/apathy from English people towards Scotland then you've got a union about as equal as Tyson Fury v my grandad.

The economic reality of an independent Scotland is unknown. Might it tank? Yes, but equally it might thrive. No other nation as rich in resource and industry as Scotland has collapsed and and it's not as if the actual economic reality of being in the Union is particularly great. What's our current deficit running at? Around 15.5%? Coupled with over £2 trillion in debt, which is still rising.

I'm less worried about how this will affect Scotland than how it will affect London and the South East. After independence will anyone coming to England from Scotland be subject to a "hostile environment" and put on the first plane to Rwanda?

(No, these are not my real views. This is an attitude I've adopted for the purposes of satire.)

Didn’t the SNP and greens just vote against free school meals in Scotland?