Selfsufficientish.com

here is a survay from the scottish government on the referendum for independance which will take place in 2014:

https://consult.scotland.gov.uk/scotreferendum


so to all you fellow scots who care about the future of our country, take a few moments to answer some questions so the government have a good understanding of what scottish the people want.

im personally on the fence about independance. Ierland has not done well since they seperated.
and from living in former yugoslavia with my husband and learning all about the reasent history here, everyone is worse off since the seperation and there is still breakups happening within the riegon, our neibour kosovo being the most recent.
my husband tells me they used to go on holiday to greece with his family where everything was much cheaper, now its the other way arround. the standered of living have fallen dramatically here since yugoslavia split up.
although the UK is not at all like the balkans, but still, united was stand devided we fall and all that.

i think probably the best way to go would to be to stay together but have more control over scottish issues and finances.
but david cameron doesnt like that as it doesnt benifit england, probably it would be cutting taxes to england so they would be worse off but scotland would be better off from keeping scottish taxes for scotland.

i dont know though, its a tough one

another thing i have learned from living here is that its not good to be nationallistic.
right now there is an ongoing battle between greece and macedonia over whos got rights on the name macedonia because there is a riegon in greece next the the macedonian border called macedonia, because it used to be part of macedonia but greece took it and are now saying that their macedonian riegon within in greece is the only true macedonia and they dont recognise macedonia the country. because of the tention between the 2 countrys, greece vitoed macedonia's intergration into nato and the european union ( although with the state its in i will be suprised if they take in any more countrys ) then macedonia sued greece and won because they had a treaty not to stop macedonia from progressing forward. aaahhh polotics! and thats a whole other issue.

but my point is, its fine to love your contry because thats where you came from but its not good to be nationalistic and antagonise the neibours. and i think there are a lot of idiots in scotland who are very nationalistic, football fans ect., who have hatred for england, william wallace and all that ( just like alexander the grate, another issue between greece and macedonia).

i just hope people take the time to really think it through. its a big decision which will effect the whole contry and i hope there is not in influx of nationalistic people voting for seperation simply because they have a grudge with england. this decision needs to be based upon what it best for scotland's future, it is not somthing to be taken lightly. i still dont know what the best option would be, and as no one can see the future i guess we will just have to wait and see and hope for the best.

You have made some very valid points. My father was born in Ireland totally under English rule and lived through the war that freed most of it. He saw the poverty and the good times and now we have poverty again. He always said it was better to starve as a free man than be fed as a slave to a foreign nation

As an English woman living in Scotland, I have very mixed feelings about this - for various reasons.

1) I hate any form of Nationalism
2) I don't understand enough about the economics of the situation to tell whether it would be viable or not (the oil revenue may morally belong to Scotland (or not?) but is time-limited at best)
3) On the other hand, anything that distances us from that destructive shower in Westminster can only be a good thing!
4) But if Scotland left the Union it would leave England to TTD (Total Tory Domination) - at least until they grow up enough to change their vote
5) I've heard said that it's mainly the English, living in Scotland and a very few Nationalists who are in favour of a split.

Those are all I can think of before breakfast.

Green Aura wrote:3) On the other hand, anything that distances us from that destructive shower in Westminster can only be a good thing!

That's the key issue for me. As long as England keeps voting Tory (or Tory-lite, aka "New Labour"), I don't want to be governed by them. Nor do I want their nuclear weapons in my country, or to see my compatriots killing and dying in foreign wars for the benefit of BAE Systems.

Green Aura wrote:4) But if Scotland left the Union it would leave England to TTD (Total Tory Domination) - at least until they grow up enough to change their vote

A common idea, but it's not actually true. I'm afraid I don't have the link handy, but I did see some proper analysis which showed that there has pretty much never been a time when the Scottish vote actually changed the Westminster government. We get a Labour government when England votes Labour, and a Tory government when England votes Tory. We just don't have enough seats to make a difference.

Green Aura wrote:5) I've heard said that it's mainly the English, living in Scotland and a very few Nationalists who are in favour of a split.

Said by whom? Unionists, I'll wager.

gregorach wrote: Green Aura wrote:5) I've heard said that it's mainly the English, living in Scotland and a very few Nationalists who are in favour of a split.



Said by whom? Unionists, I'll wager.

You'd think so, Dunc.

EU phobic people banging on about how much better it is to be governed from London,always make me smile,and to be honest,the idea that being governed from Edinburgh will be substantially different for someone living on Barra,ditto.

They will only change their economic and foreign policies if allowed to by the vested interests (which are transnational).

gregorach wrote: That's the key issue for me. As long as England keeps voting Tory (or Tory-lite, aka "New Labour"), I don't want to be governed by them.

me neither :-(.

Susie wrote:

gregorach wrote: I don't want to be governed by them.

me neither :-(.

OR ANYONE ELSE.

Just think, if there is devolution from Westminster then there will be no longer a United Kingdom. Would we then have to use the term Great Britain. The days seem long gone when we could honestly call ourselves that. Maybe we would just have to call ourselves English and ditch the other two, once and for all.

Speaking for myself I hope Scotland doesn't leave us. One of my best friends is Scottish, she would become a foreigner living in this country. My cousin, who's English, lives in Edinburgh so he'd be abroad.

We'd have to have passports and border guards between us and the Scotts would have to have a different currency (Euros?). Calling Scotland would be an overseas call and we'd have to have special car insurance just to drive up to see friends and family.

We'd go back to separate Olympic teams and Scotland wouldn't have an F1 team or circuit.

Presumably, the Scots wouldn't be able to access the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) or iPlayer.

Oh and Scottish MP's wouldn't have any say on matters that only concern England!

Zoe

Thomzo wrote:Presumably, the Scots wouldn't be able to access the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) or iPlayer.

I don't think the BBC is specifically English - I'm sure all the staff at BBC Scotland would disagree!

Watching Question Time the other week, it was made apparent that the majority of the Scots would vote yes if they became financially better off and no otherwise. So much for independance and a sense of nationality.
We are in tough times which look like getting worse. We need to all stick together and get through it, divided I think we will all be worse off.

Yep,I can see the bankers et al ,crestfallen through the 5% reduction in their income tax,queuing up at the foodbanks!

Speaking as a British person - something I have always regarded myself as - I deplore any attempt to piddle around with the country of my birth. I take heart from the apparent fact that the notion of Scottish independence is based upon oil revenue, and trust that most Scots will be able to see through this futureless gambit. It is unfortunate that "Salmondism" is being presented by the media as something of a return to the days of William Wallace, but I believe that the majority of Scots, if given a realistic choice, will choose head over heart and reject outright nationalism.

Nationalism, as far as I'm concerned, has a nasty smell. It is to be avoided like the plague.

For what it's worth, my grandfather's surname was McCleod.

Mike

Mike,genuine question,,(I've never got this'belonging thing'probably my loss) honestly not being flippant,what's the difference between nationalism of say the Scots variety,and nationalism of the British variety?