But, but, what if those reasons are just 'well, I was kinda brainwashed by this guy on this one forum'?
Alternatively; I'll do it if the sign can say 'Owlbread for Grand Emperor of Scotland!' instead.
This is a serious point. I would only recommend doing this if you felt comfortable enough nailing your colours to the mast - I understand that I am guilty of "brainwashing" because as a Yes-supporter I have been the only one really talking about this, but I have been as truthful as I possibly can and I genuinely believe our arguments.
But yes, the offer still stands. If anyone is interested, contact me and we can discuss things. It's a big ask in a lot of respects but maybe you would enjoy it.
Should Britain re-nationalise the railway?
In economic terms, a railway system (like power, water, healthcare) is a natural monopoly and there are significant economies of scale to be made in having it run by one firm. Monopolistic firms can screw people over (as is seen in the railway currently where firms have regional monopolies, making rail tickets obscenely expensive) but a publicly owned railway would have legal requirement to offer an affordable service, and it wouldn't have the disadvantage of having to be profitable.
I agree with this. The problem was that people used to treat the railways with a lack of respect when they were still nationalised but our government did run those services rather badly back then. There is still a chance that we could run it properly. East Coast rail is still nationalised and they run at a profit, unfortunately the Tories plan on selling them off in 2015 just like they did with the Royal Mail.
Unlike Ed Miliband and the rest of the Labour leadership I would advocate renationalising the Royal Mail (they refuse to commit to it in public) and what's left of British Telecom in Scotland, given that they hold a strong monopoly here and can exploit us at will without worrying about competition. BT would then be forced to install new infrastructure in order to compete with the government's company, raising the quality of service all round. I could also be convinced of the merits of nationalising the big six energy companies in Scotland and also our oil supplies, but there may be better ways of getting the most out of the oil like forcing them to donate £50 billion a year to a fund for 10 years to end poverty in Africa or something.