Scotland's Independence Referendum

[MsHighwater]

Who should be entitled to vote?

Should non-Scots who live in Scotland have a vote?
What about Scots living outside Scotland?
English, Welsh, Northern Irish?

Scottish Government currently saying (I think) that any voter resident in Scotland, regardless of their country of birth, will have a vote but no-one else.

I think anyone who lives in Scotland and who has lived there for a qualifiying times, say 3 years or so, no matter where they're from. If they live in Scotland, they have a stake in its future. That's how I see it.

AFAIK, you have to be on the electoral roll so whatever qualifies you for that, if you live in Scotland, will count but nothing else will.

There are some people trying to argue that expat Scots (for example) should be able to vote.

It has to be people who live here. If you think about it, there isn't any proper definition of who would count as "Scottish" at the moment - would it be people who were born here, people with one parent born here, people who lived here for a while as children, what? And it will affect everyone who is living here now, so you couldn't exclude any of those.

I wouldn't want expats to have a vote unless they owned property here with a view to coming back, in which case they'd be on the electoral role. At the end of the day, it will affect everyone living here now (well, in 2014, but you know what I mean) and expats can then choose whether or not to come back, depending on the result.

I'm not so much bothered about who gets to vote, just hope Scotlands gets independence! Show them what you're made of!

I know lots of expats who would vote for independence.....so I think the vote should be extended to them.....but only if they are going to vote for independence....

If you are on the electoral roll then you get a vote. That's how it should be I think.

Saor Alba.

Although quite like your suggestion K999

I think it has to be electoral roll based. Otherwise you get deluded muppets like Connery making his mark from his beach-house in Malibu. The cynic in me would suggest that there will now be a mass relocation of various key facilities north of the border that will be mightily over-staffed by thousands of hand-selected english, all ready to vote 'no' when the time comes. LOL!

I am Scottish born but I live in England. I think I should have the right to vote as I am Scottish and have property in Scotland. I am on the electoral roll down here as it is our main residence - I believe that it would be illegal to be on the electoral roll in two places. I feel that as Scotland is still part of the UK that everyone in the UK should have the right to vote as it will affect us all.

Well nolembit, the position of the coalition (and Labour) is that they want Scotland to remain part of the union.

The irony is that if they opened up the referendum to the whole of the UK, from what I've read, it seems likely that more English would vote in favour of Scottish independence than the Scots. Ie. making it more likely to happen!

In the same way that if Cameron tries to force a timetable for a referendum would make more Scots vote for independence, I think lots of English are thinking "Well if you don't like it then there's the door!"

Personally I don't think the union is perfect but overall we're stronger for it than separately.