Why not liberate Scotland and then run with a conservative majority?

[Earthstar]

Since Scotland is so mad for independence and is not homogenous with England why not set them free and then the Conservatives will have their majority?

Actually, do you think we could just make Scotland independent from the Central Belt southwards. And keep north Scotland as part of the UK?

Of course Scottish people pay taxes - no-one's disputing that.

But net net, Scotland gets more money than it pays in taxes.

And people in Scotland get more money spent on them than people in England.

see here

Not that I want the Scots to go independent. I posted my original thread about the money to try to get a poster wanting independence to think twice.

I do like to think where anyone would put Trident (or its obscene replacement) if it didn't have Holy Loch on the Clyde to do it.

I was totally torn between SNP and LibDem in Scotland - voted SNP cos they are anti-nuclear in the end.

I would relish an English Parliament - great idea!!! They should have had one at the same time as the Welsh/Scottish/NI assemblies. What makes England so special that they don't need one?

It's all the ridiculous England=Britain opinion you get that feeds this kind of thing.

Britain is not just England !!!!!

What's wrong with the central belt?

while you're at it, could you cut inner London free as well?

obviously we'll let you keep Putney, Kensington and Westminster

Quattrocento, if we cost the UK so much, why don't you want us to be independent? Would that not free up some cash so you lot can get free lunches or whatever it is these types are always whining about?

The problem is that the Central Belt is a conurbation which is massively overrepresented politically in terms of its small geographical area. It may have the largest share of the population, but the concentration of seats completely fails to provide fair representation for the varied population of the rest of the country. I would have exactly the same problem being lumped with the Liverpool/Manchester conurbation in the north west.

Why no to independence? Well think Scotland would struggle economically alone and England would be weaker alone.

And besides that, you all seem quite nice really. The funny accents are impossible - can't use the phone in Scotland because I can't understand what anyone is saying. But face to face, nodding and smiling seems to get the job done. Lovely countryside, lots of wildlife etc.

Why no to independence? Well think Scotland would struggle economically alone and England would be weaker alone.

And besides that, you all seem quite nice really. The funny accents are impossible - can't use the phone in Scotland because I can't understand what anyone is saying. But face to face, nodding and smiling seems to get the job done. Lovely countryside, lots of wildlife etc.

So you want to keep us because of our nice wildlife?

How incredibly patronising

If they continue to make the Highlands the wind farm capital of the world there ain't going to be much nice wildlife (or landscape) left!

weegiemum, they won't allow us our own parliament because it would stir up feelings of nationalism in us and we would then start demanding independence. We are too big to be set free. We haven't got our own anthem like your great Flower of Scotland.

The fact is that Scotland is way too politically naive to be independent. And it is 20 years behind England in its thinking on so so many things. Independence would be a complete disaster.

Why on earth was my post deleted?

Ohexpletive the question is why don't you want full independence since you value Scotland making it's own choices?

I would be happy to rehome trident in England - if Scotland do not want nuclear weapons and England does this would not be a problem if there was independence.

Erm, why is it patronising to like your wildlife?

I don't remember saying I don't want full independence.

As an English person living in Scotland, I find it sad that so many Scots are negative about their ability to run their own country.

Why couldn't it be independent?

Other small countries manage- Ireland, Norway, Iceland. It isn't perfect, but they are managing.

Why not be independent? What is so brilliant about the union ( thinking of the extreme poverty in Glasgow)

So do you or not?

We would struggle without the UK to prop us up, plus we have nice wildlife - is the essence of your reasoning behind keeping us as part of the Union. It's just patronising, all of it. How does me having a deer in my back yard benefit you? I think many people in Scotland want greater independence because they are fed up of being patted on the head, told we wouldn't manage on our own and described as naive. It does irk a little.

The terms of the OP are nonsense though - can't believe many English people would object to scotland being independent if the Scots so wanted. Liberation isn't in point...

It might be obvious that I'm not a Scot (I didn't vote Labour or SNP for a start). You only have to look at the Scottish Parliament and the embarrassment of the SNP government to see why Scotland should never be let loose on its own. The only reason the SNP can afford their populist policies is because we are subsidised from south of the border.

I've always been impressed by Salmond. As he says Ireland boomed in the EU before this financial crisis. There is no reason that Scotland couldn't do better. There is a lot of talking independence down, by people who would prefer to keep Scotland in the Union.

But I understood that if you took into account stamp duty, oil revenue, other duties etc instead of just income tax, Scotland actually pays its way.