If you live in England, Wales or NI, would you vote YES or NO to Scottish Independence?

[juneau]

Purely economically, I reckon the rest of Britain would be better off without Scotland, so my vote would be YES.

If they want to get let them however our bank will not be their lender of last resort salmon is out of his tiny mind if he thinks the English ,Irish and welsh would want to bail out peoples from a another country

They will go from being part of our family a loved ember to being the EUs bitch to small to complain and paying their dues in euros no less

we did a bail out for the republic of ireland recently and they are in europe, don't share the pound and haven't been a part of the UK for what, nearly a hundred years?

i think i kind of agree with cogito's point that the damage is done. i suppose, perhaps selfishly, that the anti london-centric, eton boy, gone to shit for the person on the street sentiment could have been just that and all of us together could have fought it rather than a nationalist scottish movement. to my mind personally nationalism is the enemy of the working classes in a way because it is yet another form of divide and rule. if all working class, non london based UK citizens worked together we could really change things. my cynical of politicians mind just thinks scotland will rid themselves of a ruling westminster eton boy wanker far too close to bankers class and replace it with the same sect but born in scotland.

we are stronger together - not the 'we' cameron talks about but the 'we' that is us normal folks who don't earn 6 figure salaries and do backhanders with big business.

the poor of glasgow have more in common for example with the poor of bradley or sunderland than they do with the wealthy political class of scotland. you're voting for being exploited by wankers in london or wankers in scotland - the energy would've been better spent overthrowing the wankers.

There are "normal folks"who are London citizens and working class as well! . Please don't lump all of us in with the politicians and city fat cats.

i know orange honestly but it's things like at least you have public transport and parks and museums still whilst the rest of us are losing all of that.

i do appreciate that but let's face it they'd happily drive you 'normal' folk out of there with extortionate housing prices, benefit caps etc.

i often joke, half heartedly, that one day they'll just put up a huge electrified fence around london and shoot anyone that approaches daring to beg for food.

i also joked the other day that i'd be happy with a yes vote if the border of scotland could be drawn to just below my middle england town, that wales could have all the way down to the south west coast and 'england' could be london and the south east (though i'd feel sorry for friends on the south east coast).

i 'get' the we don't want to be ruled by an elite in the city of london but the thing is NONE of us do! (except those who profit from it).

i just wish we could all work together to overthrow that relatively small group rather than divide ourselves up so we're easier to subjugate.

i am curious as to how it would effect our benefits bill - i may be mistaken and apologise if i am but aren't there very high numbers of unemployment and long term sickness in some areas of scotland? ideally an independent scotland could rejuvinate those areas but from a 'rest of UK' perspective would it cut our benefits bill and in an ideal world mean less trying to exterminate the sick and disabled here?

I have lived roughly half my life in Scotland, am now in England (parents still in Scotland).

I would vote 'no', I think we are all better as a team.

However, like Cogito said, the damage has already been done.
Alex Salmond should be ashamed of the damage he has wreaked on Scotland and the UK imo.

No worries Honey. As I said, bit oversensitive!
You're right about people being increasingly priced out of an ever increasing ring of London. We could not afford the house we bought 2 years ago at today's prices . I often look at the houses just in the next bracket up from ours and wonder who on earth is going to be able to afford them? And we live in the outer part of one of the outer boroughs!

I understand the wishes of the diaspora to vote in the referendum, but only citizens domiciled here will have to live with the consequences, whatever the result.

that's not true though moggiek. scots living in england will essentially become foreigners. they will cease to be able to vote either in england or scotland presumably as they're not resident in their own country and not a citizen of the country they live in.

also whether they are eu citizens living in the rest of the UK or non eu citizens has a major effect on their ability to claim benefits here for example.

i'm afraid it just isn't true to say that scottish people not living in scotland will be unaffected.

the welfare bill for scotland is higher per person than for people in england but lower than that of people in wales. that's before you look at free prescriptions and free HE. that's a hell of a lot of money that scotland will need to raise if they're not to cut benefits and introduce fees. the oil revenue is less than the welfare bill. obviously there are still taxes but enough to cover free education and prescriptions and public services and investment in deprived areas?

i just hope that enough people are really looking at the realities. the whole thing seems to be being sold on ideology and a fingers up at the eton boys (and god knows i enjoy fingers up at them but there's always that cutting off your nose analogy to consider).

according to some polls english people feel that if it's a no vote then we should cut public spending in scotland, cease to subsidise choices like free ed and prescriptions that the rest of the UK does not enjoy etc. that means that scottish people could end up genuinely worse off if the answer is a no.

yep - i think i'm with cogito - the damage is done either way. a lot of resentment and awareness of discrepancies has been raised on both sides. that doesn't just disappear easily.

OK, agreed. I was over simplistic, but the logistics of offering the vote to those not living here would be impossible. How would it be organised? Would displaced Scots worldwide apply with a copy of their birth certificate? I'm not trying to trivialise the the desire to exercise your franchise on such an important matter. My DS1 lives in Manchester, and is hugely disappointed not to be able to do so.

no but those of us who are uk citizens and living in the uk expect to vote on uk matters. ok, only scots get to vote on this one but surely all scots in the uk should vote? they're not living abroad but in the uk, which scotland is a part of currently. they didn't know at the time of moving to work in other parts of the uk that doing so would prejudice them against taking part in a decision so integral to their lives.

obviously scots living in 'foreign' countries are in a different position having chosen to move away and lose voting rights in the uk.

Welsh, living in England. Much though I think it'll leave the rest of us up a certain creek without a paddle, I think every country deserves to be self-governed. Currently Wales and Scotland are ruled from London, which isn't right.

so YES. definitely YES.

And following that logic England should only vote on English matters. The last two PMs have been Scottish !!! So how is that being ruled by Westminster ? I listen to the vitriol against England and laugh - we are a country full of many different nationalities and London has a huge population of Scots. Are they 'to blame' too ? I hope it's a no as I think the only winners will be lawyers who will spend years arguing over who owns and owes what.

I am in Wales and I would vote Yes but I am really frustrated by some of the YES campaigning, not least the shite they have been spouting about bias.

OP - I'm with you -

English, living in Wales. I'd be a Yes.

However, I much prefer the suggestion that has been floating around that London & the SE of England get thrown out of GB, and the rest of us stick together

London and the south east has a population of over 20 million. A huge amount of these people originate from other areas of the UK and the world. I hope none of your kids ever want to work here as it's obviously so full of us foul people. Sorry, but I am sick of being told that I am the cause of ever ill in the world just cos I was born in a certain area.

mumsneedwine - I've lived and worked in several countries, not just England. If Scotland does become a separate country, that wouldn't stop residents of England & Wales living and working there, in the same way that we can go and live/work in Ireland.

Being more serious, the problem with London & the South East is that the economy is noticeably different as compared to the rest of the UK such that it's quite possible to make a good argument for a separate and different monetary and fiscal policy. So for example at the moment, there is discussion of interest rate rises in part to deal with rising house prices. Large parts of the UK certainly don't need to have a lid put on growth right now - only really London and the SE. On the whole, London/SE need an economic policy directed at the financial and service industries, whereas other parts of the country might benefit more from an economic policy focused on promoting manufacturing exports.

CatherineofMumbles - worth pointing out that the Scots didn't 'get away' with no tuition fees, in the same way that the Welsh don't 'get away' with no prescription charges. The governments voted in by their respective populations have decided to direct spending to those measures, at a cost of less spending elsewhere.

I'd probably be a Yes if I was living up there but I am in Wales and worried about where it will leave us, so I'm a No.

I have lived and worked in many countries and came home to south east to look after family. It is where I am from. I wish house prices were cheaper here as I wouldn't then have to spend a stupid amount of money for an average house. I find it ridiculous that people think we are all rich ! it costs more to live here and wages are not higher. Wish I could go to yorkshire and have better quality of life. But I can't as would mean leaving family ties. The last few weeks all I have heard is how London is evil and people are not very nice. If I said half these things about Scotland I would be called a bigot. People from here have feelings too !!! My best buds here are from Scotland, Oz, Germany and England ( Oh and as my dear old 79 yeae old mum has forgiven the Germans for bombing her I fail to understand why Salmond keeps going on about the 1700s. get over it.

I'd vote yes

I was really surprised to find out my friend in Scotland gets to vote tomorrow. She only moved there from her home country at the beginning of August and has no other connection other than having been there for a few weeks. It doesn't seem right.