Are you in favour of Scotland leaving the UK?

[LadyMaryCreepyCrawley]

Lucky bastards!

The SNP are pointing out that they would like to increase capital spend to boost the economy but the UK govt have cut the capital funds they have available.

Prescriptions are also free in N.I.

mayisout - without even looking at your profile I bet you are from the DumGall area of Scotland? Your comment abut it being ignored makes me think that

Well that's James been kicked off British bake off! Fuck the English, let's TAKE THE POWER BACK.

prettybird But, for example, the Scottish Government has been trying to encourage students to come here and stay on (as part of the "knowledge economy") - but is stymied by Westminster policies.

I'm originally a EEA student (so even someone who called me a racist expressed a stupid comment because I should be a racist against myself) and I can tell you that loads of my "fellow" students came here, got free tuition fees and then used the degree to work somewhere else, because they just didn't like Scotland, period. You can't force people you like to migrate. You get what you get, not to choose people you'd like to migrate.

Then, honestly... English people pay 3 times more than the usual tuition fees and EEA students don't? (although they've to show they've been resident for a certain amount of time) Sorry but that isn't fair anyway.

I find it depressing to hear some of the viewpoints on threads like this. The memories of the economic hell that Scots endured after the last referendum in 1979 must have bypassed a lot of folk.

Back then, Scots were promised political and social nirvana by the Conservatives if they rejected independence, and whilst they voted Yes to going it alone, the turnout rules which applied at the time meant the vote was void and the status quo remained.

I need not start on what happened next with Thatcher, the 80's, Poll Tax, Shipbuilding, social and moral decline.

Now, David Cameron is winding back the years and promising the same all over again. More powers here, better this, better that, and polls for whether folk vote for or against Independence are in the balance.

Even just today this hits the news.... www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-19955309

Scots would, on defence costs alone, save thousands of pounds per person. And still folk still say 'Och no, I love the Union'.

Post the next General Election, the real Central Government budget squeezes hit. You think our services have had a hard time the last two years, with some services seeing double digit cuts. You've seen nothing yet..

..and still folk say 'Och no, I love the Union'.

As a nation rich in natural resources, and likely to be a much wanted friend in Europe if not worldwide will work wonders for infrastructure, investment and trade, securing jobs for generations to come once it has control over its future...

..and still folk say 'Och no, I love the Union'.

Scots who pay more in tax to London than is received back have been robbed of almost £30 BILLION since the mid 70's....

..and still folk say 'Och no, I love the Union'.

I hold my head in my hands.

They say you get the Government you deserve.

A vote for 'No' in 2014 will get just that.

A Tory, or Labour Government, it wont matter who post-2015, will make life intolerable North of the border, and as always, its those who need a strong Scottish Government, led by the will of the Scottish people, who will feel the wrath of Westminster.

Merlinscot, surely the English students should take the cost of their education up with the Westminster government who are charging them the fees. If Scotland manages its money better its hardly a Scottish problem fair or otherwise.

Mayisout I think you're right about this I think we would all bicker among ourselves. The image that we are all united couldn't be further from the truth. EG Glaswegians whingeing about Edinburgh, you still hear the 'we're so much friendlier here' stuff, Aberdeen is a law unto itself prob second most wealthy place in uk, the western isles appears to be full of migrated english, the highlands well, hardly anyone there anyway.

Anyway it's not true that there's hardly anyone up here, we actually would like to secede and create the Orkney / Sutherland / Caithness / Shetland state, given the Viking influence. And we also get the oil because it's ours.
Ha, it's in our part of sea.

I'm off, I leave you to bicker among yourselves about the toad, his party and their crazy ideas.....

My father came to this country to study medicine. He had to pay fees as an overseas student and obviously got no grant. He brought his family with him (actually, technically my mum brought the family with her, as she was the one who could easily claim a UK passport, having, by chance, been born here) and chose to stay.

Yes, some people leave after studying. Some would like to stay but aren't allowed to. But even when people go home/elsewhere, there are usually links that have been made that in future years have the potential to be converted into business.

Charlie1972, just wanted to say this.. Where do you see a nation rich in natural resources?? We don't live in Brazil.

likely to be a much wanted friend in Europe if not worldwide will work wonders for infrastructure, investment and trade, securing jobs for generations to come once it has control over its future...

At this day they exchange Scottish for British abroad, unless you're travelling while wearing your kilt, so what you're saying is pointless.

it's true we will be punished badly for our cheek in asking for this referendum, should it fail.

prettybird, what you could say could be true but as far as I know I've been meeting few potential partners (foreigners) for a venture I had in mind some time ago. When they discovered where they should invest their money, they said no. People move their companies to China and India because labour is so much cheaper there. They wouldn't invest in Scotland anyway, whether it's independent or not.

Merlin.

Oil. Black Gold. (...and gas) 100 years of the stuff still to extract at current estimates. Not to mention a quarter of the wind energy resources of Europe puts Scotland in the best energy providing position of anyone in the EU.

Aitch, it's right to have the referendum, not questioning that. At least, once done they'll shut up with the independence talks, one way or another.

Charlie, if you're hinting to the windfarms, you touched a sensible spot for someone living besieged by windfarms all the time.
That's one of the reasons Upper Highlanders dislike Salmond.

I've to tell you that we're sick of windfarms already and we're trying to stop all the companies to put more. We're petitioning against them. Because honestly we don't want the windfarms to get over the landscape anymore while Scottish Hidro keeps rising the electricity prices.

So if you want more, petition to have them installed in the Borders, thanks!!

Gas? I don't think we have any.

While I would prefer Scotland to stay in the UK, I can see the attraction to the Scots of independence. But I think the truth of the matter is that both countries need each other more than they would care to admit.

charlie you forgot water ;-)

Personally, i'd rather the Scottish Government take the ballsy option and flick the finger at London and just declare UDI.

We don't need no 'referedum', we had one. It was called an election. The SNP won in a system deliberately gerrymandered never to allow it to happen. But it did.

I'm a Labour voter through and through, but i'd like to see it done, party politics aside. It'd have my approval.

sorry...forgot the water ;-)

Well, we'll have to agree to disagree, as my experience is so much at odds with yours. Dh also used to work in Inward Investment with significant successes (although he stopped working directly in the field a few years ago) and using the Scottish networks was a real boon.

But we don't deserve investment just because we're Scotland - we have to prove the benefits of locating and/or investing here. It can (and has) been done.

(that was to MerlinScot)

Gas fields...same as the oil fields. One and same. Enormous potential worth around £1.5 TN currently

Yes, i do want to be independant. I live in Scotland and as long as we can afford it, then absolutely! Cant stand the tory goverment voted in by the English and has NO relevance whatsoever to Scotland.

I agree that the Scots are fed up with Tory party polics. They think anything would be better than another Tory government, which doesn't represent them at all.

What representation would the Welsh Labour voters get from the Tory government in Westminster if Scotland left the Union?

We can't just abandon them to their fate ...

i know, that is a worry... but the same could be said of the north of england. it's really the south that rules us all.