Scottish Independence

[Doom]

So if you were in Scotland, and you were offered some of the freedoms that you wanted without the risk of independence you'd be more resolved to say no?

 

I'd take it as a sign of desperation from a campaign that's in disarray and trying to bribe me.

 

Next they'll be offering free gas and electricity for the next 10 years.

 

I personally don't like to feel I'm being bribed, hence why it would strengthen my resolve to vote yes....Each unto their own I guess.

 

Having said that I hope the better together campaign do manage to persuade the floating voters to go with them, because I think it will be better for us all to stay together as one big union.

 

Regards

 

Doom

[LeMaquis]

Simple fact is that what is being proposed now as 'new' has been discussed in one way, shape or form over the past years. The Yes campaign will benefit from calling it a panic move (they are) because that way they can ridicule the offer without having to pay too much attention to it.

 

It's only now that the No Campaign has announced a timetable for Devo Max. They've known about this referendum for a couple of years and have done little but talk about how much stronger the UK would be in NATO if Scotland stays. And when that falls on deaf ears because it doesn't address the day to day concerns of the average Scot, all of a sudden Gordon Brown is taken out of mothballs and talks about concrete constitutional reforms and a timetable to enact them.

 

If the No Campaign had done that 2 years ago they might not be in the mess they are now.

[Doom]

It's only now that the No Campaign has announced a timetable for Devo Max. They've known about this referendum for a couple of years and have done little but talk about how much stronger the UK would be in NATO if Scotland stays. And when that falls on deaf ears because it doesn't address the day to day concerns of the average Scot, all of a sudden Gordon Brown is taken out of mothballs and talks about concrete constitutional reforms and a timetable to enact them.

 

If the No Campaign had done that 2 years ago they might not be in the mess they are now.

 

Goodness me, I'm finding myself in agreement with you.

 

Regards

 

Doom

[tzijlstra]

Just for the curious. Here is a list of other European areas with strong separatist politics (taken from a study by a Frisian institute, who, interestingly, don't deem the Frisians as such, presumably because the Frisian Nationalists don't actually want separation, instead work to safeguard Frisian culture):

 

Beginning closest to home:

 

Wales

Northern Ireland

Brittany (FR)

Flanders (BE)

Wallonie (BE)

Galicia (SP)

Basque (SP)

Catalonia (SP)

Andalusia (SP)

Corsica (FR)

Sardinia (IT)

South Tyrol/Trentino (IT)

Northern Cyprus

 

And outside the EU:

 

Republic of Srpska (BOS)

Herzegovina Bosnia (BOS)

Kosovo (SRB/independent)

Transnistria

North Ossetia

Abkhazia

Chechnya

Nagorno Karabakh

Kurdistan

 

As you can see from the first half of the list there are some big European players who would worry about Scottish independence, France, Belgium, Italy and Spain most notably.

 

What the study does not mention is how strong the independence movements exactly are, it just states it is strong.

[biotechpete]

What's clear from the debate about the devomax powers for Scotland is the massive democratic defecit in the rest of the UK. We needed to have had the debate about a federal system and whether we all in the UK wanted it before a Scottish referendum. At the moment it looks a lot like a small part of the UK is holding the rest of us to ransom over changing the entire constitutional strucutre of our country.

[geared]

What would a federal system involve tho??

 

I think we already have more than enough layers of politicians, we absolutely do not need anymore of them mucking about sticking their noses in the trough.

 

If anything they should see about cutting them down abit, and funnelling the money saved into frontline public services.

[GLASGOWOODS]

No more tory government.

No more house of lords.

 

Probably the most common comments I'm hearing over the last few weeks.

 

I agree with them.

[Eater Sundae]

Just for the curious. Here is a list of other European areas with strong separatist politics (taken from a study by a Frisian institute, who, interestingly, don't deem the Frisians as such, presumably because the Frisian Nationalists don't actually want separation, instead work to safeguard Frisian culture):

 

Beginning closest to home:

 

Wales

Northern Ireland

Brittany (FR)

Flanders (BE)

Wallonie (BE)

Galicia (SP)

Basque (SP)

Catalonia (SP)

Andalusia (SP)

Corsica (FR)

Sardinia (IT)

South Tyrol/Trentino (IT)

Northern Cyprus

 

And outside the EU:

 

Republic of Srpska (BOS)

Herzegovina Bosnia (BOS)

Kosovo (SRB/independent)

Transnistria

North Ossetia

Abkhazia

Chechnya

Nagorno Karabakh

Kurdistan

 

As you can see from the first half of the list there are some big European players who would worry about Scottish independence, France, Belgium, Italy and Spain most notably.

What the study does not mention is how strong the independence movements exactly are, it just states it is strong.

 

Re bib. In the event of Scotland voting yes, might those countries make it difficult for Scotland to seamlessly transfer into being a member of the EC in its own right, in order to show its own separatist regions how hard it would be for them if they tried to gain independence?

[LeMaquis]

Goodness me, I'm finding myself in agreement with you.

 

Regards

 

Doom

 

Never, ever again.

 

---------- Post added 09-09-2014 at 11:09 ----------

 

Northern Cyprus

 

And outside the EU:

 

Er.

[tzijlstra]

Re bib. In the event of Scotland voting yes, might those countries make it difficult for Scotland to seamlessly transfer into being a member of the EC in its own right, in order to show its own separatist regions how hard it would be for them if they tried to gain independence?

 

Yes, that is the logical conclusion. It is different for all of them though. I can see Spain in particular being really against an automatic re-union of Scotland into the EU as their separatist areas are pretty volatile. For Belgium it is slightly different as it isn't a discussion of an area separating but more of the country folding back into its natural form. I am not quite sure how stressed Italy and France would be, although both Corsica and Sardinia have a long history of seeking political independence.

 

The big question is though: Should we want to stop them gaining independence under the EU umbrella?