The Scottish Government

I believe that independance is fundementally flawed. At the minute as part of the United Kingdon we recieve such privilages as being represented in the UN security council. Scotland will not had this if it independant we are a countro of 5 million one of the smallest populations of a country in the world if we split from the UK will anyone take us seriously I think not. And all this about north sea oil i work in the oil industry and I will remind you that the good days of oil are over and don;t even think of nationalisation of oil would destroy what's left. We cannot survive on our own just as England would have a hard time without us, Wales and NI. Oh and the Queen is the Queen of Scotland too and this wouldn't change even if we were independant.

There is no doubt, in my mind, that the time for independence has come. Westminster has shown it does not understand the needs of the Scottish people and consistently passes legislation and engages in conflicts that are contrary to the will of the Scottish people. However, more importantly the Scottish Parliament has shown it is a good forum to represent the people of Scotland. With sound local solutions and smaller government, not to mention the wealth of political talent Scotland currently has, Scotland would prosper as a sovereign, independent country. As a young person, I feel frustrated that the Scottish Parliament is restricted in delivering its potential. However, I get the impression that more and more young people are realising that the current Constitutional settlement is not enough. I believe that we are on the road to independence. I don't want history to see my generation as the generation of hesitation. Let's seize the day and unlock Scotland’s potential now. Let's be the generation that delivers independence.

I have seen my town almost halve in size during my lifetime. Several reasons, but much of it UK misrule in allowing the demise of shipbuilding and engineering.
Greenock's strength, which attracted our own James Watt's grandfather from Aberdeen as a youth in the 1600's, was as a vibrant melting pot of hardworking people. We have a local pride in our national ingenuity and skills ability. It is this we tell to our visitors that arrive in by liner during summer months. We also have a pride in Scotland, often dressing accordingly for these same visitors.
My feelings are that the closer Government is geographically the better the result. Edinburgh, not my original choice, is close enough, and we should have a direct voice from there into Europe unbridled by London.

I would also ask anyone who is thinking about independence to think about it, can Scotland survive on its own. Every person must ask this to themselves in isolation from politics or history because if we go down this road regardless of what the SNP say the rest of the UK/EU will not bail us out or accept us back. When the SNP talk about Ireland remember that BILLIONS were pumped into it's economy by Europe and that now the money is heading east the economy is slowing (fast). Take into account Scotland has generations of Families living of the state. That we have a very poor survival rate for start up business and the health of the nation leaves a lot to be desired.

I know that this is going to be looked at as more Unionist doom and gloom by the Nationalists amount you but before you get hot under the collar about this ask yourself is the grass always greener?

#514

Why should Scotland be the only place entitled to a referendum on independence?

As I predicted many postings ago independence for Scotland would become independence for Shetland, then Outer Hebrides?, Inner Hebrides? Why not re-instate the Lord of the Isles? Angus Og’s descendants can come into their own. They won’t need the Queen as their head of State, they’ll have their own.

In my plooky youth, well even earlier, my very favourite primary school teacher, Miss Cairns, was rumoured to have stood guard while her fellow conspirators stole the Stone of Destiny!!! It is even rumoured, in fact it is recorded in song, that the original Stone was never returned to Westminster, a substitute was given in its place. This would mean that Stone of Destiny is out there somewhere and the Stone that came back to Scotland is a fake!

Of course if you go back even further it was rumoured that the original Stone of Destiny was made of black granite and covered in Egyptian hieroglyphics and was brought over by an Egyptian princess at the time of the pharaohs! The king to be sat on this stone and had his claim to the throne, in deeds and other attributes read out, then acclaimed by the attending nobles. This stone was hidden from the invading English, who were presented with the cover for the monastery’s toilet as the Stone of Destiny.

What has this to do with the claim of the Shetlander who insists he is not subject to Scottish law because his part of the world was part of the kingdom of Denmark and under Danish law could not be surrendered by the king of Denmark to a third party? Well the story of the Stone is impossible to verify, whereas the claim by the Shetlander CAN be substantiated. When Napier, he of the Napierian Logarithms, who devised a mathematical method of calculating loan interest on a DAILY basis, and took the islands as collateral for the dowry of the princess who married James’ son, he KNEW the Danes could never repay the loan. Of course asking a SCOTTISH court to uphold this claim is expecting too much, therefore I expect Shetland to remain part of Scotland, whether the natives like it or not! FREEDOM on YOUR terms?, No thank you.

Expect, in the fullness of time that the islanders will be able to work out the £5 billion from North Sea oil will go a lot further among the population of the islands, than the 5 million people on the mainland.

Loyalty? who needs it when we can look after number one?

Pure and simply, tired of feeling like I'm considered 2nd after England.

I want a country that has me as it's priority. The powers to make Scotland the best it can be. The only way forward is independence.

Alex Salmond and the SNP have my full support.

No 521

So being in the UK gives us representation on the UN Security Council. Wow can you feel the benefits everyone?
Only obvious impact is the fact it helps us be draged into innapropriate conflicts that make us unpopular throughout the world. As an indepenedent nation we would be on the UN.
I really cannot see how we would be losing to no longer be on the Security Council.
Would we be taken seriously? Well I do not think we are at present and I am sure we would be taken as serioulsy as any other small country. Good enought for me.

517. PMK - Ayrshire "I hope you can agree with that stance of welcoming all (regardless of the position they take)?"

Already done so in the very post you refer too, which you obviously didn’t read closely enough!

I wrote “For the record, I have no problem with him/her commenting but its clearly factually incorrect to think he’s as effected as me”

Thanks for acknowledging I will be effected if Scotland eventually votes to leave the UK.

My heart has always told me that Scotland should be independent. Now the but, If I were to be asked to vote in a referendum in the near future I would lack the information on which to make a logical,well founded decision. Where is the information about the costs of actually running the day to day business of the country. How many costs are hidden in the provision by the UK of administrative services. A few that spring to mind are, in no particular order, passports/ID, driving licences, vehicle registration, consular services,social security administration, benefits administration, pensions administration, tax administration etc. So can any one help me, what are the hidden costs that will have to be borne by a much smaller taxation base. No doubt we can learn a lot from other smaller countries, the point is that this work has to be done now, so that there are answers to the questions when the referendum comes. When Ireland won it's independence the world was a much simpler place and they went through unbelievably hard times to reach their present position. So please Alec, get the work done and the answers out there on the street.

#521 - I must forward that argument to the 190-odd independent governments in the world! "Independence is fundamentally flawed", no explanation just a bald statement of opinion! At 5 million Scotland would not be one of the smallest countries in the world, we would be medium-sized in European terms certainly: Denmark, Norway, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, Croatia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Portugal, Belgium, Finland etc ... etc ... are all of comparable size, as are many more. Also, many other economically successful states in Europe are far smaller, for example: the Baltic States and Iceland. And every single one of them has more say on the international stage than Scotland, despite the UK Security Council seat. As for oil, as The Herald's Oxford-based study has shown, Scotland could comfortably survive without oil. Many forget that the UK is currently running a deficit of £20 billion or 5.7% GDP, at a time when study after study has shown Scotland would run a surplus.

#528 Mike King - I wanted that made explicit, that you accept participation by all. Partly because your last post you backed-up the poster with no set name from fife who has been shouting down pro-independence contributions from the rest of the UK, Ireland and America while welcoming anti-independence ones from anywhere.

I have no doubt you would be affected in a limited way by Scottish independence, but ultimately - as the Scottish people are sovereign - it is only they who will decide their constitutional future.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.