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.

Exactly

the term “wealthy” and “ascot” is not a natural pairing

How long is it going to take to hit the bottom of the impact of Brexit? Food prices are predicted to increase by 15% over the summer.
Do you think nothing should be done to try and improve things because it might take time?

Ha the irony of that typo!!

i meant “Scot” and not “ascot”!!!

Ych a fi

Don't mention the football team! Then we'll ALL have our head in our hands. That's something to bond us 🤣. The tartan army still have the best time, though, as evidenced by DB in Dublin last weekend!

It will be the Scots that will vote. Not wealthy middle-class MN English people who do not want to lose Scotland as part of the UK. So the majority of you will have no say anyway.

I am a middle class English mumsnetter
and like the vast majority of us
we really don’t give a toss whether Scotland stays or goes

It’s like Brexit again project fear etc
People thinking it will improve the situation, but it’ll go the other way

You don't know that.

There are plenty of economists who believe Scotland can make a success of independence.

Most people can now see the damage Brexit/Tories has and will do to this country, economically, culturally, scientifically and diplomatically.... too many lly's in there!

...So why would Scotland want to be part of all that?

Half Scottish and live near the border.

Independence would be an unmitigated disaster and dwarf the shitshow that is Brexit. Some nationalists are absolutely clueless as to what it would mean in reality.

People up here cross the border multiple times daily. I can't even imagine how badly this will unravel.

Full disclosure I'm not British nor do I live in the UK anymore so I meant it as a light-hearted joke but I've always thought people are loyal to Scotland, not to the UK. They see Scotland as the motherland. Tbh not long ago I contemplated buying a second home up there as I think it's beautiful and I love the people but I decided against it because I think Boris isn't reliable and what I read in the news (US, Spain, Italy, etc) is very very different from what comes out from the British media and I think the UK's going to implode at some point because 400 quid a month for electricity alone isn't viable in the long run.

That’s great and really I’m not personally affected if a hard border exists but I just watch the arguments and think blimey people are voting for dreams

good luck I guess

You do know people in Ireland cross the border multiple times a day?

How would this even work? What would be in place with this border

Has the SNP said what would be in place

Can you answer my questions?

@Oceanus It is wealthy English people buying second homes in parts of Scotland that are killing communities.

I just see no hope for the economic future of the UK except for the rich. I know plenty of people on here with £100k plus salaries are doing fine. But the ordinary person is not and so many towns and cities have dying high streets and failing local businesses. We are supposed to be a service economy. But how when the ordinary person is getting poorer and will continue to do so for the next few years at least. There are very hard economic times ahead with a recession inevitable.

I much prefer to vote for an option that has a chance of making life better, rather than rolling over and accepting my fate of life continuing to get worse all the time. What is the point if you do not at least try and make your life and where you live better for you and your children?

Voting yes offers hope for the future. A new way of doing things and trying to improve Scottish communities and the economy.

I also think people will move into Scotland as a result.

I wouldn't worry too much about it. Sturgeon has been bleating on about independence since 2018. She's still done nothing about it. It's a smoke screen to distract people from how bad her government is doing. Healthcare, education and many other services have all declined since snp came into power. They have full power over these, they can blame no one but themselves. They've 'lost' a lot of money from the government and certain councils. Our council tax continues to rise while they cut services more and more. Train services have been cut once again, despite her going on about wanting to reduce cars on the road.

I see more people angry at sturgeon these days than liking her. More are becoming vocal about it. Only the snp followers still say how amazing she is, with very few examples on how. If an independence campaign does happen, I don't think she will win and she knows this. I think she'd lose worse than salmond did and she'd be forced to resign. So of course she will talk about it, to keep her loyal followers happy. But will she actually do it? Not likely.

If she does, and somehow wins, I will be leaving. I'm not staying nor will my family. We will all move down south into england, we have family there. We can get jobs. I'm not staying in a country that will just get worse than it already is. They have no plans. They are currently making everything worse than it was. Being independent will not change any of this. It will only increase the rate at which it will happen. And who will they blame then?

What could an independent Scotland do to stop food prices going up?

@shrodingersvaccine you make a good point that UK passports are outsourced to a private firm anyway. I am sure a simple contract negotiation could mean this firm continues to issue Scottish passports.
The outsourcing embraced by the UK government actually makes the transfer of infrastructure remarkably easy.

Oh God it's quite frightening how naive some in this thread are about how much will need to be set up in Scotland if there's a yes vote. 🙈 I guess some of you think as we have Scottish printed banknotes we can just continue to use them afterwards too? 🙈

@MorrisZapp An independent Scotland can not stop grain prices from going up because of Ukraine. They can look at the Brexit rules that have meant soaring food prices. As Martin Lewis says the narrative that rising food prices are all about Ukraine is a lie. A lot of it is about government policies.
And there are other trade alliances Scotland could join that the UK has been rejected from.

Well I'm wealthy, am English-born now living in Scotland, and I'm increasingly swayed by the independence argument (although I don't think NS's timing is great) and am seriously considering voting yes if there's another ref.

I already pay a bit more tax living here than I did in England. LBTT will be higher when we buy. But I don't mind. And I don't mind paying a bit more again, if it means a more Scandinavian/Northern European approach to public services.

It's a very telling English attitude, that of immediately starting to consider moving house based on the possibility of tax rises. Besides, surely part of the deal is an independent Scotland gets the opportunity to design a tax system from the ground up that doesn't have the inherent and historical inefficiencies of the English system baked into it.

One of the frustrating things about England, especially outside of London, is there's a huge sense of public money just vanishing and public services for those who need them most (i.e. not me) being stretched and stretched and stretched. I paid a lot of tax when I lived in both Manchester and Brighton too, and the roads, hospitals, schools etc were still crumbling due to underfunding and disrepair. The homeless centres and pre-school support and screening centres etc etc were being closed down left, right and centre.

However these threads/debates are always so pointless because between the keyboard-bashing on both sides it's impossible to have any kind of nuanced discussion about differing viewpoints without being called names by one side or the other (or both at once).

@rainb I remember when Boris Johnson had not even realised Scotland had its own legal system. I think there is a naivety about how much infrastructure already exists.