Scottish independence

[VNA]

I'm sure the Scots will be very happy under Mr. Salmond and friends (yeah, right  [img alt=:rolleyes]http://foc-u.co.uk/Smileys/efocicon/rolleyes.gif[/img] ). You really think your own MPs will be any better than those at Westminster?

It's not an election, it's a referendum as to whether the people of Scotland want to continue as part of the UK or not.  It's not about Alex Salmond.

Your second point - YES!  Doh.  We will at least get the government that we vote for, rather than the current situation where-by another country decides what government we will have.  There ain't no Tories in Scotland you know.

So you want to negotiate new terms as an independant nation with Europe? Except that Europe doesn't sound very enthusiastic about it.

The popular media, who love nothing better than bashing the SNP (whilst seemingly ignoring that the SNP have already achieved the impossible) keep quoting the EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso "extremely difficult, if not impossible" (for Scotland to join the EU) despite the fact that he has little real credibility on this issue.  He's really talking about Catalonia and the Basque region.  Time and time again this man's lack of credibility on the issue is pointed out to the mainstream media yet they continue to quote the man and to his obvious delight.  Ask other senior officials in the EU the same question and you will not get the same response.

Why does Mr. Salmond think that everyone will give an independant Scotland everything on a plate?

I don't think that he, or anybody else up here thinks that will be the case.  Yes obviously there will be negotiation.  And yes, as Mark Carney of The Bank of England pointed out there would have to be some sovereign consessions from Scotland in order for their to be a currency union, which he made clear would indeed be potentially workable.

and never mind oil

Yes that oil that Scotland was told would run out by the year 2000.  The oil that was squandered on social security payments so that Thatcher could destroy the miners and the Unions of the working classes.  The secret documents released a couple of years ago confirm that Scotland was lied to.  Other documents talked of talking Scotland's oil being taken by force should she leave the UK, whilst yet more documents make it clear that the reason that Scotland was conned out of devolution in 1979, despite Scotland voting YES in that referendum, well it was oil.

Anyway there's at least 40 years worth of production left out there.  Scotland today is sitting on more oil than Kuwait.

My gut feeling is that both England AND Scotland will be worse off if split. But, like everyone else, I have no concrete evidence to base this on.

The UK is going down the pan, being sold off by the toffs that run the country.  The NHS in England is being privatised.  Our utilities, essential and social services are now mostly owned by private foreign companies and even more bizarrely foreign state owned companies.  Any profits are sucked out of the UK.  And gradually only the middle classes and the poor will pay tax.  It's focced.

Independence for Scotland, if Scotland makes a go of it as I believe we will, has gotta be good for England too.  Perhaps finally doon sooth folks might start to realise that they too have been robbed and conned.

I also wonder if they'll really vote for independance. The independance lobby is very vocal, but is there a silent majority who have no such wish, when push comes to shove?

A silent majority.  That silent majority that has almost the full might of the whole UK popular media behind it.  The roar screaming NO! is deafening.

But Scotland has already achieved the impossible.  Devolution was supposed to stitch the Scots up once and for all.  The Scottish Parliament was designed such that no one party could ever hold a majority.  What that really meant is that the SNP could never hold a majority and as such there would never ever again be the threat of a referendum on Independence in Scotland. 

In 2011 the SNP achieved a majority in the Scottish parliament and called for a referendum on Scottish independence.  The polls had predicted a Labour victory.

Will it happen?  I don't know.  Do people like change - no.  But do people like not getting what they vote for - no.  But I do know the impossible is now possible.