Scottish Referendum debate - watch with Mumsnet

[KatieMumsnet]

So tonight sees the first TV debate of the Scottish Referendum with First Minister and key advocate of the pro- yes campaign, Alex Salmond and Alistair Darling, leader of the pro-UK Better Together campaign coming together for a head to head debate for the first time.

You can watch live from 8pm on STV and if you're south of the border can tune in via the STV player.

Fancy watching along with us? What are you hoping to see from tonight's debate? What are your thoughts on the campaigns so far?

If you've decided which way to vote, why? And if not, what will help you decide?

Do feel free to share these, and any more thoughts you have

I completely disagree. It is most certainly a big deal.

But why?

Scotland has plenty of cash, plenty of assets, plenty of sources of income. Can easily set up own central bank.

I think it would be a very big deal for me. But not my decision. I suppose as long as voters realise that there will not be CU, and understand the implications of that, then it's up to them to decide whether it matters or not.

I still suspect there would be a CU BTW, I just don't see it being a deal breaker if not.

Scotland already prints its own money, all notes backed in reserves in BOE. Can't see there would be much difference

I still suspect there would be a CU BTW

But why? why do you think this?

"Scotland already prints its own money"

Aye you mean 'foreign' money. If you dare attempt to pay for something in England with Scottish currency, you are looked upon as some sort of criminal, with counterfit notes.

Try spending NI notes in Scotland, most shops refuse them.

No CU means no significant financial institutions headquartered in Scotland, hence jobs and tax take move South, blowing a hole in spending plans - even 10% less financial activity is a 1% fall in iScotland GDP.

There has already been talk of standard life moving south if there is a yes vote. That's something like 9000 jobs.

I think there would be a CU initially because it is the simplest thing for all and to borrow a PPs phrase it would avoid blowing a hole in rUKs balance of payments.

I am absolutely sure that if Scotland votes yes there will be job losses, and some companies will leave.

I am also sure that in an iScotland we would create more jobs in different sectors.

There seems to be this assumption that Scotland somehow only manages to exist because rUK looks after it. Scotland is perfectly capable of standing on its own.

So the rUK government will change its mind on everything its said so far regarding CU, and during a general election campaign go for CU even though a large majority of the rUK population are against it? Right.

Anyway that answers my question, there nothing of any substance that says a CU has to take place. Phew.

Aye you mean 'foreign' money. If you dare attempt to pay for something in England with Scottish currency, you are looked upon as some sort of criminal, with counterfit notes.

Not this again. Yes, in some (getting much rarer in my experience) shops there is a problem. I imagine because Scotland has three banks that produce notes, and smaller shops are unused to seeing them and less aware of whether they may be counterfeit or not. When I used to work in a shop I remember getting a manager to check a Northern Ireland note - not because I assumed the person was a criminal, simply because I had never seen one before.

Clydesdale notes are the ones I find most likely to be looked at twice or potentially refused. I don't assume people think I am dodgy, I assume they rarely see them and are unsure how to check them.

I find Scottish ones accepted okay, Northern Irish ones much trickier (in Scotland/England/Wales). I always try to spend all northern Irish notes on the boat. I'm not too worried if I end up with a Scottish one - most shops accept them ime.

The last time I had anything approaching a problem was in a charity shop in a small town in Kent, just before closing time. I could see them looking slightly confused, and replaced it with an English one which made them look relieved whilst at the same time saying 'I'm sure it would have been fine dear'.

The only place I've struggled recently with Scottish notes was the Isle of Man. Who funnily enough produce their own too.

Itsallgoing I'm sure in the long run we could create more jobs in new industries but that is not going to happen overnight. It will take a very long time to replace the volume of jobs mentioned upthread.

Currency union is very different to just using a currency. Whilst it may be true that Scotland doesn't directly have a say in boe decisions at the moment I don't believe it is reasonable to say we are not considered. Our figures contribute to the overall picture, plus I would expect that any decision taken will take account of the big industries. Like oil. Which is, what, about 90% Scottish? With no cu they would not have to consider us at all. A decision could be made which is hideously bad for us. At the moment that's less likely because whilst we have control over elements of spending, our economy is also tied to the rest of the UK. With total independence our decision making wouldn't be -obviously there are linkages between countries the world over, but the link between iscotland and rUK would not be the same as now and given all the chat about how different the priorities in iscotland would be it's not unreasonable to assume that they would diverge more than they do currently. Especially in the period after independence you could easily have rUK doing well, house prices climbing etc -possibly due to immigration from Scotland amongst other things -whilst Scotland teeters on recession and house prices slide. What would the outcome be if the boe raised rates? Pretty dire potentially. There are variations between different parts of the UK just now as there will always be regional variations but I am talking about a larger scale than that.

Creating our own currency is probably better but we would struggle to support the banks. Which just increases the probability of them going, along with a lot of jobs.

Aye you mean 'foreign' money. If you dare attempt to pay for something in England with Scottish currency, you are looked upon as some sort of criminal, with counterfit notes.

I haven't had this recently so couldn't comment in general terms, but I had a BoS £20 note refused in London. It was a big clothes chain (won't name it on here) so I thought they would know it was fine. The sales asst. was quite rude and vocal about it so my friend ended up giving him a BoE note and I used mine later. I think it depends on where you go, maybe.

Wanted to add, related to employment, that iScotland will need its own Government offices, thus creating many jobs. I think there will be tourism boom, too. Plus it won't come into effect straight away, so people won't have to relocate/lose their jobs, if necessary, without a lot of warning. I genuinely don't know if my job would be safe, I would hazard a guess at 'yes', but who knows. In the end, I want independence so I can look for another if needs be. Will have to do so anyway if there's a No vote, so I'm not fussed.

I posted in the other thread that I'm taking a break from MN so probably won't be on for the next few weeks at least, just got quite a lot coming up in RL. But I hope everyone continues to look into things, and makes the right decision for them, whatever that may be, on Sept. 18th. :)

Why would there be a tourism boom? Where from?? Genuine question - I like Scotland because I like wild bleak places, but the majority of people want sun ime.

Tourists are coming for the wild and bleak places. I doubt they still will be coming in the same numbers if there is a windfarm on every hill and even more fish farms in every loch and that seems to be the plan to make use of resources that Scotland has
I live in a very touristy place and it would be a big problem if tourist numbers drop.

I was on the other thread so came back here for one more post. :) I don't think Scotland is bleak at all.

Well already, in Edinburgh, you can't move for tourists every day of the week. Glasgow has more than its fair share too. Many other places, too. At the moment, the shops, castles, tourists attractions (Edinburgh Dungeons, Deep Sea World, Camera Obscura, that kind of thing...), places of historical interest, islands, distillieries and so forth garner a lot of interest. Walking down the street in the blazing sun on Saturday wasn't a wild or bleak experience.

I think that people will want to come to Scotland after the Yes vote. They'll want to join in the celebrations immediately after no doubt, and it is an event of historical interest. Visits to Holyrood will no doubt increase, for a start. It will create more interest, for sure.

Numanoid the tourists in Edinburgh don't benefit us here on the West coast much. The people who are coming over here want to see wild and unspoilt places.
Celebrate indepence. really? I'm not sure. I read the comments on Spiegel-online following an article about the referendum and they were a lot more about how it would effect British power and influence in the EU (hoping it would limit it) rather then what it would do to Scotland. I really don't think continental Europe cares one way or the other.

I was saying bleak as something positive - that's what Scotland has that's different to other bits of the UK. If I was going on holiday to Scotland that's why I would go there.

If I wanted a UK city break I'd go to London - why would that change after independence?

Why would we want to celebrate independence? Unless you're Scottish. And we have family in Scotland but I can't see us heading up there for independence celebrations.

The only difference I can see is we might rethink our journey to Northern Ireland if a different currency was a pita (we avoid the Dublin routes because needing euros for toll booths is a pita. Although looks like it would be choosing between 2 different ones .

I don't understand why it would increase tourism at all.

Agree SquattingNeville that's one of the aspects of the vote that really worries me - how will celebrations by either side be taken by the rest of the population? I'm campaigning for a No vote, but wouldn't want to take part in any really obvious celebrations as I think it would be really inconsiderate to those who really want a yes vote.

Personally I think I will watch the count with a bottle of wine (actually undecided as it looks like the result may not be available until later than a general election - can't find the doc now but I was reading about the logistics of the count and the implications of remote areas, higher turnout expected etc, might be better setting the alarm really early) and hope that I will be able to utter a heartfelt "thank f*ck for that".