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.

I am Scottish and live in Edinburgh. There are 26 different nationalities at the small school where I work. Loads of English living here too!
It's about as diverse a city as you could possibly get, and not once have I noticed the 'they hate the English' that someone on here mentioned.

My experience is that Scotland is less racist than England in general. Not everyone, but in general.

I find it insane that people comment when they cant even get the name of the party right.

It's not. It's called the Scottish National Party.

“There is a harmful and racist trope that Scottish people are some sort of parasites in the uk peddled by the right wing press.”

just this.

And people believe it.

No voters have nothing to worry about anyway - there will not be an independence referendum next year, despite what Sturgeon says.

There is a harmful and racist trope that Scottish people are some sort of parasites in the uk peddled by the right wing press.

Some believe Scotland is subsidising U.K. and will feel the positive economic impact if they don’t have to.

It’s hard to determine but arguments go both ways, some say a dip to start with over years but EU a factor hard to gauge

The reason the nuclear subs are in Scotland is because there are suitably deep sea lochs for them to travel through.
Should Scotland kick it out (insane move in the present war situation) it would move elsewhere to a deep sea loch. Probably out with the U.K.
Inthe present stand off with Putin I would think there would be many who would welcome it and the jobs it brings.

Population of Scotland in 1950 was 5 million, pop of U.K. was 50 million.
Pop of Scotland today 5 million, pop of U.K. is 68 million.
So that's 18 million who have chosen to move to England (ok some on Wales and NI but I doubt there's many) - no one's choosing to come here??!

Someone suggested Falmouth, which is a very deep estuary but also heavily built on, a whole new dock would need to be constructed and they certainly do not have 1000s of skilled dockers waiting to start work, so there would have to be a very large relocation of workers from Faslane.

If Scotland ever did vote for independence, the English would pay Scotland to keep it there.

This thread is weird, can’t believe I’m being accused of lying about being Scottish and living here always, both of which are true.

Guess it distracts from answering any questions on the issues.

Any new government will soon understand that to attract inward investment, they need to create somewhere that innovators want to be. If they make life too expensive for wealthy people or companies, those people or companies just go somewhere less aggressively socialist and Scotland will lose out on investment, jobs, revenue.

All their socialist principles won't change the fact that Scotland would be competing against other countries. Tourism, whisky and seafood aren't enough to run a country on. Fossil fuels don't have a long term future. Scotland has more hydro-electric/wind power capacity than England but not enough to export.

Without long term industrial/commercial planning, Scotland would be poorer without British subsidy. Is Scotland expecting Europe to subsidise them? That won't work. SNP lost last time because no-one could see where the money would come from. Has anything changed?

what your point re independence though?

You said your son was English and had faced discrimination for it but that you had lived in Scotland all your life. Clearly there is a contradiction there and both can’t be true.

Actually the opposite is the case.

Whole developments are going to buyers south of the border.

I’ve explained that, his dad is English.

Weird.

Still no answers. I see

www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-61595697.amp

your son is discriminated against for being English even though he has lived in Scotland all his life because his dad is English? It gets stranger. How do people even know his dad is English? I’m very sceptical this is true.

what are the answers you seek? How will a border between two countries that don’t exist yet “work”? Are you the poster who is worried about going to Asda in England?

Same is true in dds school. Quite a few English kids (including dd2 who has an English accent and considers herself English). Diverse class with many kids from other backgrounds. We are bame and never had issues.

The same was predicted for the UK after Brexit.

Has the wealthy left England?

Perhaps Scotland is not some sort of eternal parasite as per the racist trope and doesn’t expect anyone to “subsidize” them? And the deficit has often gone the other way in the past with Scotland subsidizing r uk. What will they do without our money?

Most of the landowners (assuming they are wealthy) in Scotland, live outwith Scotland anyway so to answer the OP’s original question, no. They won’t move away, they already are away.

So many are also owned by Trusts or companies registered offshore (British Virgin Islands for example). One of the biggest and richest landowners is Anders Polson, Danish who is actually a really good guy and is rewilding his vast estates and spending money on them.
Scottish independence won’t make any difference to this unless Scotland’s land ownership laws become even more progressive than the current ‘right to roam’ and ‘community buy out’ which would actually be a positive for the people living in some places (check out www.whoownsscotland.com).
Some landowners are good some are not so good and some are downright awful whether they live here or not.

And if you want a microcosm of how something done right can work check out reports on the Isle of Eigg community buy out and compare populations then and now. Why do people assume that only wealthy people can have a positive impact?

Another poster said The SNP will have a clear plan for devolution
I can only laugh hysterically at this, the SNP wouldn’t know a clear plan if it smacked them in the face!

They have made a mess of education, policing and the NHS, all of which they are responsible for. It terrifies me what more they can do to my country with their idiotic ideas. Who would want to invest when they see the mess they can make with a couple of ferries? The supposed super hospital for the biggest city in Scotland which has been a disaster without adding in Covid. Our once admired educational system failing children. The list is endless.

Now once again we face the division of families friends neighbours, when this vote rears it’s ugly head again.
Instead of trying to improve the economy, attracting investors, improving the lives of everyone living in Scotland money is being spent on making sure Nicola has all the power she craves, it’s terrifying.

Agreed. What has the SNP actually improved since they came into power? All of their plans have gone wrong, I can't think of one that has gone right.

I'd be for independence if they could prove they do well on their own. Improve the NHS, improve education, policing, council services, roads etc. Lower the drug problem, lower the alcohol problem. They have however made these things worse. They've done nothing good and they know it. They are now even stealing money from us and no one cares. How do you lose £600,000?

The British government aren't perfect, I'd never argue they are. But leaping into the unknown just to get away from it is so unbelievably foolish. It really is only those who are rich enough to not notice the problems or those already relying on the government who want this it seems as someone else said. Those of us in the middle don't seem as convinced. But I will just leave Scotland if it goes independent. It will only get worse if it's independent and I'm not staying to watch it happen.