Are you in favour of Scotland leaving the UK?

[LadyMaryCreepyCrawley]

Lucky bastards!

I think if Scotland want to be independent then they should do it. From what I've gleaned (not a huge amount I must add) on the subject, their infrastructure is unlikely to be able to sustain itself without 'british' money.

Although I would be happy to be proved wrong.

I am Scottish, in an ideal world I'd like an Independent Scotland. I think that if we concentrate on ourselves as a country we'd be better off overall.

In reality though, although we have a history of being able to fend for ourselves, with our current government/bunch of plonkers in charge I think that we'd end up worse off than Greece.

Snog, if Scotland was independent then English students would still have to pay fees here. If anything they would then qualify as 'foreign' students.

Scots are lucky to have free prescriptions/Uni ... but when you see how poor our infrastructure is, and the opportunities that are open to most then you wouldn't begrudge it.

I don't think that's right. Because NI students are applying for Irish nationality to get free tuition at Scots unis because European nations get that benefit. Is that not right?

By infrastructure do you mean roads? Or do you mean all infrastructure?

If Scotland became independent, the SNP would seek to see the removal of nuclear weapons from the Clyde. A suitable, alternative location for the nuclear deterrent would need to be found. So Scotland, and (for a while) the UK would have no nuclear deterrents. Fine by me.

The English and Welsh can also apply for an Irish passport and thousands do.

I didn't know that, bureni.

I'm Scottish and I want to stay part of the union, unless as suggested we can break away and float to the Carribean. I can't abide Alex Salmond and would like to dump him off on an oil platform far, far away..

Simple answer to the op question - NO!

Scottish here. My family are diehard Nats, but I'm veering towards voting no.

I think that voting no will be a bit like voting Tory - nobody will admit to it, so the polls will be worthless. If I do vote no, I'll allow my family to assume otherwise.

Euphemia - Ireland and Iceland are entirely different.species. Ireland are enjoying the self-flagellation in repaying their perilous debts. Iceland said fuck you, we're wiping the slate. I suspect Scotland would behave more like Iceland.

Yes Ireland's having a grand old time repaying their debts.
I highly doubt Scotland would act as Iceland did. Sorry.

JollyJackOLantern, if you have an Irish parent, grandparent or great grandparent then you can apply for an Irish passport regardless of what part of the world you are from.
genealogy.about.com/od/ireland/a/citizenship.htm

You do realise that pretty much nobody will vote SNP if Scotland gets independence? Voting yes is the best way to be rid of Salmond

Thank you, bureni

Absolutely in favour of Independence.

Why should any country be governed by another?

Thank goodness for devolution we have been protected from the Tories privatising our NHS for one.

We can do even more with Independence.

Absolutely not. Scottish through and through and no no no. I haven't heard one reasoned or non emotional argument that would convince me otherwise - in what way would it make things better for the average Scot? Too many questions that I fear will not be answered in a balanced way during the campaign as everything will be presented in either a for or against slantt.

jolly - I had an interesting conversation with a pal re this, she hadn't stopped to think that there would be other political parties. If we did go with independence, she thought it would be the SNP for ever...ye gads!

This is a really stupid question but I'm going to ask it anyway... would Labour and the Tories stay in Scotland if it did get independence?

and the Lib Dems etc

I'm very proud to be Scottish and British.
I will definitely be voting NO.

Yup, lots of people think like that.

"I'm going to vote no because I don't want to be stuck with Salmond".

The SNP is held together by the belief in Scottish independence. There are many natural labourites, a few tories, some communists, etc. I think many would start to vote other ways. But there probably would be a space in Scottish politics for another left-y party. Lab are getting too far right and SSP etc are a bit strange for the main body of the SNP.

Enough people voted for SNP and Salmond to give a majority in the Scottish parliament, obviously not that disliked eh.

I don't know what the tories would do. There was some discussion in the last leadership contest that the tories would 'rebrand' in a way that was more acceptable to more Scots. That candidate didn't win, the more traditionalist viewpoint did. So I'm not sure what their plan is.

I think Lab and the Libs would stay without too many changes. I don't know what would happen to the SNP.

Salmond got booed in Glasgow at the Olympian parade. I think that's quite telling.

I'm glad that wasn't a silly question

There are no silly questions, just wish people would ask more!