Scottish independence

[VNA]

There's an interesting parallel here.  Crimea is a region within the state of Ukraine.  Crimea recently had a referendum on whether it wanted to remain part of the Ukraine or become part of Russia.  The result was, allegedly, that a resounding majority wanted to become part of Russia.  Now the EU, NATO, UN and various other acronyms have all stated that the referendum is illegal as it would have needed to be a referendum over all of the independent state of Ukraine and not just the region of Crimea.

There is no parallel.  The Crimean referendum followed an uprising within Crimea (obviously there were other major events in Ukraine that preceded this) along with invading Russian militias and armed forces.  It was held at two days notice and many communities within Crimea refused to take part.  In short, over the period of a few days Russia annexed Crimea.  You could call it a referendum at gun point.

And all that may have been part of the price that the west has to pay for ignoring Russia on the international stage, and considering it to a spent force.  Putin has a number of reasons for taking this action, one of them is sending a message to the west.  The spent force has made the west look impotent. 

Scotland as Hiswitsend points out is not a region of England, it's a country and is currently part of a union called the United Kingdom.  We have a devolved parliament and a democratic process.  In the SNP manifesto before the last Scottish election was a pledge to hold a referendum on full Independence.  The SNP achieved the impossible - a majority in a coalition parliament.  Hence we now have a referendum. 

Of course we do not have the right to hold a binding referendum on Independence.  Westminster initially refused to recognise any such referendum.  But it was clear that Scotland was going to hold a consultative referendum anyway.  So Westminster - umm hang on a minute........;

Remember that name - Jose Manuel Barroso?  You know.......

Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, said it would be “very difficult, if not impossible” for Scotland to get the agreement of all EU states to join the bloc.

That name that your English press and the BBC love to keep quoting and referring to his statements on Scotland joining the EU (seemingly forgetting that we are already EU members), well he is refusing Catalonia the very type of referendum that we are holding in Scotland.  Get it?  But the popular press keep quoting him despite his lack of credibility on the issue and crystal clear agenda.  And of course they think that Scots won't notice this.

If there is a YES vote, it will be down to the failure of the 'Better Together' campaign.  It is theirs to loose, and bit by bit they appear to be loosing it.  eg.  Not having the balls to be honest about the EU and the pound.  Yet again Scotland is being lied to.