The Org Scottish Referendum

[andrewsmith]

Originally Posted by Spank86

What?

Care to run that by me again?

Are you honestly suggesting Gordon brown cleared our national debt entirely or am I reading you wrong?

Bloody computers! I'm going to edit that now. It should have read, cleared a big chunk. The amount cleared with gold alone was enough to drop the price of gold

Originally Posted by andrewsmith

Bloody computers! I'm going to edit that now. It should have read, cleared a big chunk. The amount cleared with gold alone was enough to drop the price of gold

Actually not so much, It was about 3.5billion on the gold front and it was done in 1999 after Scotland took control of their finances. Most of the deficit reduction aside from the bloody awful sale of gold can actually be traced back to the policies of Kenneth Clarke the former Chancellor. Whilst Brown was continuing his policies it was all fine, when He struck out alone that surplus vanished and we bounced back into deficit.

[BanannaMan]

Too close to call.
The media puts the no's ahead slightly but they seem to be no biased.
Hope things work out for the best for all.

[TamSV]

If Cameron had allowed the option of increased powers within the union to be included in the referendum it would have been a landslide and then you've got a good basis to proceed. It's what most people would happily settle for including, I suspect, Alex Salmond.

As it is, it looks like a close vote, which is going to be pretty unsatisfactory either way for an issue as big as this.

If it's a no followed by more devolution, then most Scots will be quite content. It's not the end of the matter though. It won't be long before Wales and NI will want a similar deal and then we've still got an issue of the unfairness to the English in the current set up.

Many in the North of England want their own devolved assembly now so maybe a federal UK of regions will be the way forward. I'm not sure how much appetite there is for "more politics" in the rest of the UK.

If it's a Yes....I'm making no predictions

I reckon a fully devolved uk is the best way to go if Scotland stays.

I think the lack of powers devolved to regions of England are actually making the situation worse since Westminster has to try to counter the powers devolved elsewhere and so seems to favour England.

Plus England's so damn big in population compared to the rest.

Originally Posted by pegasus

Agreed, and quite rightly the shareholders, should reap the benefits, but don't dismiss the employment potential this would bring to the people of Scotland.



P

What employment potential? Presumably these companies currently have x employees, are you suggesting after a yes vote either they'd suddenly need to employ a lot more people (why?) or they'd sack the English people and replace them with Scots?

[Heorot]

Ex-pat Scots living outside Scotland don't get a vote, yet there are 500,000 non-Scot EU citizens currently living in Scotland that do get a vote. Is that equitable? I was listening to a Pole living in Scotland being interviewed on the radio today. He intends to vote yes in the referendum and at last count it has been estimated that around 55% of Poles eligible to vote intend to vote yes too,

[Bibio]

the thing there is 'ex-pat living outside Scotland'. the referendum is for the people who live in Scotland and nothing to do with the nationality of individuals. the vote is about the future of a nation and not about being Scottish.

[Heorot]

I have known Scots in England who were only there temporarily for work. The still considered Scotland their homeland and fully intended to return. Yet the don't get a vote. And poles intending to return to Poland do. Just as I lived in Scotland for work but kept a home in England with the full intention of returning when the work dried up. Which happened after 2 years and I then returned to England.

[Bibio]

how would you like it to work. only those who have Scottish nationality on their birth certificate to be the only ones that have a vote?

there are millions of ex-pats living all over the world who have a Scottish birth certificate but have no desire to ever return to Scotland so should they get a vote.. ermm no.

if it was a vote for Scottish born individuals only then that would not be fair on the rest of the residents of the Scottish population migrant workers or not. if you are a resident of Scotland and are on the voters role come the 18th of September then you get your say no matter what nationality. doing anything else would be classed as racism. even students who only live in Scotland during term times get a vote due to being on the voters role. jeezz come to think of it the royal family might even qualify to have the right to vote if they so desired.

its a referendum for a country to become independent from the rest of the UK, its not about a vote of nationality.

even if Scotland does vote in favour of the split it will take a minimum of 20 years before Scotland does become truly independent, its not like there will be a big fence built the day after. there are faaaaar to many things to be sorted out by each side before the 'keys' are handed over.

now here is something really funny, if Scotland do vote yes to independence there will still be MSP's sitting in Westminster for the next 18 months and due to this come the next UK Election the population of Scotland who are on the voters role will still get a vote in the UK Election. now how does that make you feel?