Scottish Independence

[kerry red]

And then we will get Scottish health tourists when their own health service has been truly fucked up just like the fucking Taffs.

If they really want independence then it should be the full monty - with absolutely no handouts of any description from south of the border.

Makes no difference to me if they go it alone, I hope they do.

Fuck 'em

[Honkytonk]

I've been to Skara Brae....wonderful place. I suspect in the neolithic, the Orcadians were aware of their fellow inhabitants of these islands, and got on just fine with them.....it was a bit later that it started getting nasty.

Links back to Wiltshire too, because the Orcadians were coming down to Stonehenge and its surroundings regularly, leaving their crummy smashed pottery around, and slaughtering pigs for laughs, as you do.

[Reg Smeeton]

Links back to Wiltshire too, because the Orcadians were coming down to Stonehenge and its surroundings regularly, leaving their crummy smashed pottery around, and slaughtering pigs for laughs, as you do.

Yeah, but just because there's Orcadian pottery, doesn't necessarily mean there were Orcadians....

[Ardiles]

And then we will get Scottish health tourists when their own health service has been truly fucked up just like the fucking Taffs.

Saving the Scottish NHS is in fact one of the reasons many are giving for voting Yes.  It's a murky debate.

[horlock07]

Isn't the outcome of this vote just going to polorise the camps in Scotland into nationalist and unionist camps whatever the outcome with the losing side taking a hardline going forward as their opinion has been overlooked?

Not saying it will reach the same intensity but it does look like it could possibly lead to something like what's happened in Ireland previously?

[iffy]

Saving the Scottish NHS is in fact one of the reasons many are giving for voting Yes.  It's a murky debate.

Not that murky.

"But as things stand now, NHS England can use more private providers, introduce more charges or stand on its head, but there is no pressure on Scotland to follow suit and no reason why health funding to Scotland will be affected."

http://blogs.channel4.com/factcheck/factcheck-scotlands-nhs-threat-westminster/18821

[Ardiles]

Isn't the outcome of this vote just going to polorise the camps in Scotland into nationalist and unionist camps whatever the outcome with the losing side taking a hardline going forward as their opinion has been overlooked?

In a word, yes.  It's not going to be pretty, whatever the outcome.  The prospect of either side winning emphatically is very remote.  There's going to be a massive sense of grievance hanging in the air for quite some time.

[horlock07]

Since oil/gas was extracted from Scottish waters the TAX revenue (only) went to the UK Exchequer and still does. The resulting money goes into the fucking UK gluepot and gets distributed how the UK government feel at the time.
When we vote yes all the tax revenue will come to Scotland and we can decide how to distribute it fairly.

But that works both ways as the Barnett formula has ensured that public budgets/spending per head has been proportionally higher in Scotland since the late 70's (and remains so).

[kerry red]

Is the vote open to everyone who lives in Scotland or just those born there

[Ardiles]

Is the vote open to everyone who lives in Scotland or just those born there

It's done on residency.  Scots living outside Scotland don't get to vote.

[ron dodgers]

UK will be exceeding Germany in 4-5 years as top EU dog economically cos of the City of London dominance. May now not occur ( so quickly) if Scotland secedes but we wont miss oil revenue as much as people think. I'm going to move to the Shetlands and kick up a fuss to go back to Norwegian ownership as it was in the 16th century - I'll think you'll find it's Shetland oil actually.

[Ironside]

David Cameron will finally find his place in history. The Prime Minister who presided over the destruction of the UK. He should fucking swing for that. Swing alongside Blair and Brown too.

Next stop, NI, closely followed by Wales, we're all part of the European Union now...

[donkey]

If the Norwegians pay the debt, I should think they can reclaim Orkney and Shetland. Some old dowry not paid so the islands were transferred I think.

[Iffy's Onion Bhaji]

Sadly, I think there is a great deal of 'anything's got to be better than this' informing the debate in Scotland.  'Westminster' has become a byword for corruption, something bad that has to be replaced.  And Westminster politics has done itself no favours recently, there's no denying it.  But what a lot of folk fail to see, I think, is that politics everywhere is corrupt.  It's not uniquely a Westminster phenomenon.

French politics is corrupt, as is Italian politics, US politics...corruption everywhere.  After a Yes vote, voters in Scotland will have 'freed' themselves from Westminster - and I give it no more than a couple of years before the penny drops and they realise that their own home-grown Holyrood politicians are every bit as shifty.  They'll have achieved fuck all.  Out of the frying pan...

On the flip side a yes vote means no Scottish MPs voting on English laws. At long last happy days.

[Reg Smeeton]

If the Norwegians pay the debt, I should think they can reclaim Orkney and Shetland. Some old dowry not paid so the islands were transferred I think.

Cnut.

Latest opinion polls show a lead for Yes....this is going to be hysterically funny