Should Scotland be independant?

[Eternal]

We lived in Scotland for many years, my Husband is Scottish and my son was also born there. I do love it and miss it, we moved away for lots of reasons, including needing family around (my inlaws werent very involved).

Anyway, what do you think? should they be granted independance? state if you live in scotland or not.

I think they are sustainable enough, i think the UK with struggle without them, but I think Scotland have enough resources to be independant, im sure it would have to change, I.e. NHS possibly not susutainable etc.

Anyway, whats everything think?

 

[Blah11]

I'm still undecided I'm just fed up of being sort of in the back seat of England. It seems to be like we're part of the UK to the media when it suits England. Like Andy Murray is 'british' but tin henman would be referred to as English. The riots were 'UK riots' even though they were ONLY in england?! I like a lot of SNP policies and I like them way more than conservative policies.

 

[Eternal]

I'm still undecided I'm just fed up of being sort of in the back seat of England. It seems to be like we're part of the UK to the media when it suits England. Like Andy Murray is 'british' but tin henman would be referred to as English. The riots were 'UK riots' even though they were ONLY in england?! I like a lot of SNP policies and I like them way more than conservative policies.

I know, even i find that annoying (andy murray etc) not being scottish. Wales is very much pass and parcel with England, whereas Scotland alreday is fairly independant. I def found the NHS much better there, i was in aberdeenshire, when i first moved there and everyone was talking about independance i thought it was silly, but over the years i have grown to think, why not?

Scotland is way more patriot then Wales too, My OH works for British Gas, obviously Scottish Gas there, and he kept his van (infact he got a new one recently which still says scottish gas ) people often ask why there isnt a welsh gas, and it really boils down to that the welsh are happy to but from bristish gas whereas a lot of scots wouldnt buy it unless it says scottish, and good on them.

 

[angelandbump]

I think they should! I am from East Kilbride (near glasgow) but live in Durham at the moment and i LOVE going back to scotland (infact i'm going there tonight lol)
Like Scotland, the north east of england is thenforgotten land. Everything is based i feel on London. I am SICK to death of hearing about things that happen in flipping London.
The only time really i can think that the news was based in the north east for a few days is the R.Moat thing and i'm not going into that.

I may sounds OTT here but even the weather gets on my nerves. It focuses on the South of England, wales gets a little mention, it always seems to go to the north west of england then poor ireland, they are lucky to get 2 symbols for the whole area then scotland is a quick one mention for the north and one for the south.

The scottish government is better than the 'UK' as they almost always do what they propose.

This is a little off topic but this poem sums it up for me. It is basically a scottish poet expressing the fact that why does the 'UK' news need to be read by someone from England...
this is thi
six a clock
news thi
man said n
thi reason
a talk wia
BBC accent
iz coz yi
widny wahnt
mi ti talk
aboot thi
trooth wia
voice lik
wanna yoo
scruff. if
a toktaboot
thi trooth
lik wanna yoo
scruff yi
widny thingk
it wuz troo.
jist wanna yoo
scruff tokn.
thirza right
way ti spell
ana right way
to tok it. this
is me tokn yir
right way a
spellin. this
is ma trooth.
yooz doant no
thi trooth
yirsellz cawz
yi canny talk
right. this is
the six a clock
nyooz. belt up

 

[smelly07]

I live in the south east of England

I think if i lived in scotland.... i would so want it to become independent.

regarding the weather:

after like the bbc weather when they go on to say 'now the news and weather near you' where they go into more news thats happened like where i am in the south east and have another weather report just based on the south east....does that not happen in Scotland???

 

[Eternal]

it does going into regional weather after, but then it does for every area, so they should either not do regional weather or cover different areas each time, if that makes sense.

I miss Scotland, we talk a lot about moving back, here suits as we have my family if needed for emergencies and dont have to worry about my son when im in labour as they will have him, where we didnt have anyone in scotland. But if that wasnt an issue, i far prefer scotland.

 

[smelly07]

Ok, A parent of a child i looked after last school year was from Scotland....called me PAL alot..lol, he wants to move back to Scotland, saying how crap it is down south and how great Scotland is, hee hee... his little boy picked up the dad's scottish accent rather than his mums english accent which he loved!!! he is very patriotic which i think is great, i always hear the further north you go the more friendly the people get.
I would love to hear more about what goes on all over the UK not just flamming London.....i actually dont do London...lol.

i think i will have to take a trip to Scotland now as i have never been.

 

[Eternal]

Ok, A parent of a child i looked after last school year was from Scotland....called me PAL alot..lol, he wants to move back to Scotland, saying how crap it is down south and how great Scotland is, hee hee... his little boy picked up the dad's scottish accent rather than his mums english accent which he loved!!! he is very patriotic which i think is great, i always hear the further north you go the more friendly the people get.
I would love to hear more about what goes on all over the UK not just flamming London.....i actually dont do London...lol.

i think i will have to take a trip to Scotland now as i have never been.

lol! Def do. the West coast is beautiful (wet though) and very dramatic coastlines (roads are a bit dodgy though lol) the east is also very beautiful (i loved in aberdeenshire and loved it), we used to have to do a lot of travelling, like my hospital was 42 miles away, but it takes just as long because of the traffic for me to get to my hospital here even though its only 10 miles.

I generally found things cleaner, and all the parks were so well maninatin and beautiful.

I worked in aberdeen and it seemed nice enough, and i loved dundee for shopping etc. But i didnt ever go to glasgow, edinburgh is lovely but loads of walking and big hill, and we parked in a car park once and it cost £14.00! eck! lol! lovely though x

 

[Yammas]

I think they should be I dont see why not really if it doesnt work out then they can always reunite again.

 

[Rhi_Rhi1]

To be fair i think its England that draws the short straw the way things are at the moment, only ever hear people complaining about how we pay for their prescriptions etc, i pulled this from the independent

Would Scotland be better off without England?

Yes...

* As an independent state, Scotland would be flush with oil and would not need English aid

* On its own, Scotland could pursue the kind of policies that have given Ireland a booming economy

* Independence and economic growth would draw thousands of talented ex-pat Scots back to the land of their forebears

No...

* Scotland receives more from the UK government than it pays in tax and would be worse off without English subsidies

* Most Scots want devolution, but have never wanted to leave the UK

* If the UK broke up, the English and Scots alike would see their influence in the world diminish

 

[Rhi_Rhi1]

An ICM poll for the Sunday Telegraph in November 2006 produced the startling finding that 59 per cent of English voters wish Scotland would leave the UK.

The reason is that Scotland is perceived to be living well off English taxes. New figures throwing light on this issue will be published next month. For now, we can only go on the published figures for the year 2003-04, when public spending in Scotland was £7,346 per head of population, compared with £5,940 in England. Scotland received £3bn more from the Exchequer than it paid in taxes. Scotland is seen as a country that gets Scandinavian levels of public services on US-level taxes.

 

[KatieB]

I think they should! I am from East Kilbride (near glasgow) but live in Durham at the moment and i LOVE going back to scotland (infact i'm going there tonight lol)
Like Scotland, the north east of england is thenforgotten land. Everything is based i feel on London. I am SICK to death of hearing about things that happen in flipping London.
The only time really i can think that the news was based in the north east for a few days is the R.Moat thing and i'm not going into that.

I may sounds OTT here but even the weather gets on my nerves. It focuses on the South of England, wales gets a little mention, it always seems to go to the north west of england then poor ireland, they are lucky to get 2 symbols for the whole area then scotland is a quick one mention for the north and one for the south.

The scottish government is better than the 'UK' as they almost always do what they propose.

This is a little off topic but this poem sums it up for me. It is basically a scottish poet expressing the fact that why does the 'UK' news need to be read by someone from England...
this is thi
six a clock
news thi
man said n
thi reason
a talk wia
BBC accent
iz coz yi
widny wahnt
mi ti talk
aboot thi
trooth wia
voice lik
wanna yoo
scruff. if
a toktaboot
thi trooth
lik wanna yoo
scruff yi
widny thingk
it wuz troo.
jist wanna yoo
scruff tokn.
thirza right
way ti spell
ana right way
to tok it. this
is me tokn yir
right way a
spellin. this
is ma trooth.
yooz doant no
thi trooth
yirsellz cawz
yi canny talk
right. this is
the six a clock
nyooz. belt up

I agree that not much is mentioned of the North East or Scotland and a lot of the NE is no mans land unfortunately, but I grew up in Durham City and it is the most beautiful place to me, I love going back there and find it so peaceful , the cobbled streets and my old haunts, the cathedral and uni, I could go on and on! . But there is no chance of jobs up there really and not much opportunity but it's like that most places now, sadly. I also agree with you about the weather thing, the bbc news weather forecast really annoys me, it never mentions Manchester or Leeds on the forecast for the big cities, I think Newcastle sometimes gets a mention, it's a joke It is all London is the big smoke and always comes first lol.

 

[KatieB]

Also I'm getting really annoyed as my OH plays and lives and breathes rugby and is French. France have just lost specatularly to Tonga so now he's pissing me off by supporting Scotland instead of England, the ****! Shouting out "The Flower of Scotland"!!!. Just a reminder of how we never support each other in sport, ha ha!

 

[Eternal]

An ICM poll for the Sunday Telegraph in November 2006 produced the startling finding that 59 per cent of English voters wish Scotland would leave the UK.

The reason is that Scotland is perceived to be living well off English taxes. New figures throwing light on this issue will be published next month. For now, we can only go on the published figures for the year 2003-04, when public spending in Scotland was £7,346 per head of population, compared with £5,940 in England. Scotland received £3bn more from the Exchequer than it paid in taxes. Scotland is seen as a country that gets Scandinavian levels of public services on US-level taxes.

Im actually really surprised that Scotland isnt contrubuting more, with mass money from oil and whiskey! But i also know lots of people who make money off oil who dont declare taxes here (they will for france or somewhere as its way cheaper), so i guess that could have in impact too.

 

[Blah11]

To be fair i think its England that draws the short straw the way things are at the moment, only ever hear people complaining about how we pay for their prescriptions etc, i pulled this from the independent

Would Scotland be better off without England?

Yes...

* As an independent state, Scotland would be flush with oil and would not need English aid

* On its own, Scotland could pursue the kind of policies that have given Ireland a booming economy

* Independence and economic growth would draw thousands of talented ex-pat Scots back to the land of their forebears

No...

* Scotland receives more from the UK government than it pays in tax and would be worse off without English subsidies

* Most Scots want devolution, but have never wanted to leave the UK

* If the UK broke up, the English and Scots alike would see their influence in the world diminish

Your first con is incorrect. Scottish people bring in more tax per scottish person than the UK as a whole. I guess its to do with population levels.

 

[marley2580]

I'm still undecided. It really annoys me that Scotland would never vote for a Tory govt, but we still end up with one. That said, I don't know if we should go it alone or just push for more devolved powers.

 

[Eternal]

I'm still undecided. It really annoys me that Scotland would never vote for a Tory govt, but we still end up with one. That said, I don't know if we should go it alone or just push for more devolved powers.

didnt they get in the boarders or dumfries and galloway? i remember thinking how odd it looked to have one area that was blue, lol.

 

[trgirl308]

I live in Canada, my granparents came here from Scotland after ww2. So I can't say that I am well versed in today's political situation over there. But my DH and I went to Scotland this summer for our honeymoon and we observed a few interesting things. The further North you travel the more ppl want to seperate, but it is let's say the middle class. It seems that the ppl with the most money live mostly in England, and would not want to lose all the privileges they have. So if it did come to a vote, I don't know if they would win. As for the South of Scotland, Edinbourgh for example, we found it to be very similar to England, not London, but a city slightly smaller than London for example.

I would say that at least if it came to a vote, that agreed with seperation that is, then at least it could be done without all the bloodshed of the past, and I would support it because it is what the majority of the population wants.

But I will also say this, where I live 49% of our population wants to seperate from Canada. Their arguments are ones from the heart, wanting independance, freedom of culture and decision etc. Those opposing, like myself, understand that economically we would not be better off in the short or the long term. So just be vigilant as to what the pros and cons are.

 

[indy and lara]

I am pro independence and always have been.

 

[KatieB]

An ICM poll for the Sunday Telegraph in November 2006 produced the startling finding that 59 per cent of English voters wish Scotland would leave the UK.

I'm one of the 59%.