Independence for Scotland

[CogitoErgoSometimes]

Cameron says 'get on with it'. Salmond is biding his time. Presumably both of them think an early referendum would earn a 'no' result. In an era where countries are banding together to weather the storms of international economics I'm not sure I quite understand why a very small nation would want to go it alone. Then again, is it a given that anyone that voted SNP automatically wants independence as they are suggesting? Or is it, same as in England, that they got in because they 'weren't Labour'...?

As K999 said. There's some many misrepresentations and mistakes in a lot of the posts here - and that's the whole point about having the referendum in 2014. There has to be time for questions to be asked and the electorate to fully understand the implications of their vote. All the issues about the EU, currency, defence etc will be explored in this time.
Please also remember that the SNP would have held the referendum in the last term of government, but it was blocked by the unionist parties at Holyrood. So the argument that we're stalling it now due to opinion polls doesn't hold up. We said at the time of the election that it would be in the latter part of this parliament - and we have stuck to what we said we'd do.

BTW, do people out there know that SNP membership has gone up by 500 since Monday? Personally I hope that Dave and co keep up their efforts

I find it funny that a party, who so far, have stuck to pretty much all of their current (and past) manifesto commitments get a hard time for one (ie the referendun) which they haven't even broken yet!

I think it would take a lot more than that for folk to say no to independence!!

Not hardly, of all the 'fuck you' reasons to vote independence, I dont think denying anyone an education is up there.

Funny people are so riled about not getting a free education in Scotland, but not so bothered about not getting a free one in England? This is a situation Westminster created, if MPs were as concerned about young people in their own country as MSPs were, then there would be no need to look North for a free education. You should be angry about young people being denied opportunity anywhere, and ashamed of youself for using it to create a 'them and us' argument.

Yes, silly me. Cos of course Scottish people don't pay taxes.....

Well Juicy, you must be dying for Scots to get independence then....

Nobody in Scotland is gloating because underprivileged kids can no longer go to university in England. It's disgusting, and you as constituents should be lobbying and using your political rights to change it, not getting angry at another country's government for looking after their own.

Well said Jenny

I personally have about £3.60, my PhD educated DP cant get a job because of Tory cuts.

I am in Scotland, yes. I don't think the SNP do a bad job. But that wasn't what you meant, was it? Were we talking about thinly veiled xenophobic gloating a minute ago? Isn't that ironic.

I'm in Scotland, I'll vote No.

There's just no way Scotland can afford to set up new institutions on top of the heavy cost of the current public sector. And, yes, Scotland will have to sign straight up for Europe with substantially less say than they currently have at Westminster. Not at all 'Independence' more like 'Instructions from Brussels not London'. Those who think Independence will mean making the rules are naive and economically unsound.

There will be a fast flight of business. It would be dreadful for us. But for about 10 minutes it might feel like Braveheart - yay!

Jenny, the cuts were inevitable no matter which party took power. So yes it's Tory cuts because they (well the coalition) are in power but let's not pretend that if Labour were in power we wouldn't have had cuts eh?

Yes, but you must know that people in Scotland resent the Tory cuts more because we didnt vote for them. The democratic deficit is one of the biggest reasons i would vote Yes.

I voted SNP because I want independence.

I guess this view is pretty typical and fair enough. But then I assume that you must believe that independence would be better for Scotland in the long run. In which case, may I ask how you think things would be better?

You see for me it would seem you'd be a new country, the size of a small Eastern European country. You'd have little clout in the EU which you'd have to get into in order to maintain trade advantages. It's far from clear you'd even get automatic entry into the EU. That's just an assumption.

We all know North Sea oil won't last much longer and like I mentioned earlier, I doubt you'd get to keep all the revenue anyway.

I just see way more disadvantages for Scotland than advantages.

I suspect Cameron is playing dirty -trying to wind the Scottish up and encourage them to vote 'yes'. Putting Gideon in charge, FFS! He wants independence because it would mean Tory rule in England, with the loss of all those Labour seats.

If there was a vote in England, it might well be pro-separation - I gather this actually happened in Canada when the Quebecois voted to stay in and the rest of Canada said 'sod off'. Shut the independence for Quebec lobby up, I hear. (Although await correction from Canadian MNers who know far more about it.)