I am actually entitled to vote, and intend to vote no at this point, as do both of my parents, my younger brother is leaning yes. Both neighbouring households are all no. The milkman is yes. It feels up in the air, but theres a sense of lean toward no, at least in my region (Highlands & Islands funnily enough). The right to vote is being assigned in an unusual way, I almost didnt get to. I lived 9 years in scotland and have always been on the brittish electoral roll but most of the last 10 in Sweden where i dont vote. Its residency recently that counts and only an extended summer stay with parents last year got me in, I know 2 poles who are there for the summer as canoe instructers who can vote. Both declined due to ignorance and apathy :p (their english isnt actually that good. Literally 'Dont Know, Dont Care' to which not voting is the correct response.)
I think it's quite sensible that the people currently residing in Scotland should be able to determine its future.
This got talked about a lot when I was still in school and has taken forever to become a reality (I left school more than a decade ago). When it first came up there was a surge of YES feeling running around. I personally have attributed this in the younger generation at least (mine at the time) to the movie Braveheart which was big a couple of years earlier. Make of that what you will, its accuracy may be hazy but that doesnt usually stop the sheep.
As another member of the "younger generation" I can say that Braveheart had nothing to do with my initial inclination towards independence. I've never seen the movie and refuse to watch it. The thing that politicised me and many others and pointed us in the direction of independence was the Iraq War. I suspect it was actually the same for your group too given that you indicate Braveheart came out "a couple of years earlier"; 2003 vs 1998?
Since then things sobered. We couldnt get a bloody parliament building up. Infact it was allotted a budget and time-frame. By the end of which we should have it finished. At the deadline there was not even blueprints. Oh and no money.
The Parliament faced so many problems due to the terrible incompetence of the Scottish Labour Party. We already had a parliament building that was partly ready for use and had been since 1979 (the Old Royal High School) but Labour were so insistent on making sure that they never gave the SNP a perceived victory, at least in Labour's eyes, so they decided a new parliament should be built and in doing so completely messed up the planning of it and went massively over budget. This has nothing to do with the independence movement or the SNP; it has everything to do with a political party that should be kept out of office.
Then the SNP (scottish nationalist party. dont take the nationalist the wrong way, its more independence than racist and they fly fairly close to center)
Centre-left, yes. They are currently more left-wing than the Labour Party and, despite some discrepancies over corporation tax, claim to be social democrats.
have a series of bonehead leaders.
There have been two leaders of the SNP since 1990-odd, Alex Salmond and John Swinney. Are there any other boneheads you have in mind? Do you consider Mr. Swinney to be a bonehead, despite being our finance minister? Mr. Salmond?
And everyone realizes that the north sea oil and gas they had trotted out as an answer to how the scottish economy might survive seperation is limited, past peak infact. (Another thing we have known for ages, but sheep are behind the curve, and by sheep i mean any group of humanbeings above a certain size...lets say 10)
This is a very, very debatable point. Currently North Sea oil is doing very well and every other week there's some announcement about how exploitation is going "better than expected" and what have you. We're currently looking into the Clair Ridge oil field off Shetland, rumoured to be one of the biggest oil fields in the world, hitherto unexploited due to how deep it is.
North Sea oil is just a bonus, however. Economically Scotland has more than enough resources to be a successful independent country even without oil.
It just doesnt seem as shiny as it did before. Whats the point?
Here's ten reasons, I can get more for you -
1. - We'll get the national government the majority of the nation votes for, not what the majority of people in the South East of England vote for.
2. - We'll get far, far more control over our finance than we currently have, allowing us to use the "levers" more effectively.
3. - In all likelihood our children won't get sucked into more wars. There's no reason for it.
4. - The left will most likely be revitalised if the Labour Party is cut off from its Westminster mother party. You could say that our politics would be reinvigorated in general.
5. - We'll be able to draft a written constitution that enshrines the rights people consider important. This is impossible in the UK.
6. - We won't have unelected lords and clerics as part of our national legislature.
7. - The only aristocrat in our legislature would be the Queen who would remain our head of state, but I don't think she'd remain head of state for long. Republicanism is thus a reason for voting Yes.
8. - We'll be able to choose how our resources are exploited, by whom and for the benefit of whom. Rather than sending all of our money to London and hoping we get enough of it back it makes more sense that the money should be earned and spent here.
9. - We'll have a much stronger voice/better representation in the EU, as is befitting of a country our size, rather like Finland.
10. - This may be somewhat abstract but I feel the nation would become more responsible and "aware" of itself with independence. This translates into many, many things but ultimately I think it would mean we would be more likely to actually deal with our own social problems rather than leaving them ticking over as we do. We won't be able to brush them under the carpet given the scrutiny that will be placed on them.
Yes, theres the whole 'f*** the english' thing. Many scots are the strongest bigots in the world, its just all directed at 1 country.
This is complete nonsense and you know it. The only person in my entire family who has been bigoted towards English people in my presence was my grandfather, the strongest Unionist I knew. If you think Scots are the "strongest bigots in the world" you also have no idea. My county, Perthshire, is English majority in a number of places (my mother is from London) and everyone is very well integrated and there are virtually no problems. You're relying on a stereotype that is no longer accurate and hasn't been for a long time.
But it feels like a lot of work for little reason to many at this stage.
They just need to read more, look beyond the biased newspapers. The other pro-independence parties have put forward a multitude of good documents on the issue that may help swing people, we just need people to read them.
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