Tresidentevil wrote:
We need their claims to North Sea Oil. Its a fucked up thing to do economically because England already subsidises Scotland. I don't think the original reasons for the union (centralisation of political power, Scotland not being able to chose Monarchs) really apply today. Thing is Wales will want it too, not really a bad thing?
Nah, historically England and Wales have always been fairly close and the appetite for independence is fairly minimal.
Winston_Smith wrote:
They are subsidised to the tune of £800 pa per capita.
We can legitimately claim 30-50% of the north sea oil.
They would be a third world country without being in the union.
Not necessarily. They could quite easily set themselves up in the Luxembourg mould and offer tax breaks to promote business. That's what previously had seen a lot of gaming companies transferring offices to the UK (and actually a fair amount to Scotland). It also benefits from having some fairly reputable universities (St. Andrews) which benefits fields of industry where innovation is prioritised. A country with a small population such as Scotland would be able to operate in a wholly different style to how the UK currently performs.
Barna Azul wrote:
Im not sure they fully realise the financial implications of this. What happens when North sea resources dry up?
What currency will they use?
How will they survive not being in Europe or the UK? Take Amazon as an example with its massive warehouses and jobs it creates for UK and Europe. They will not want to have to export everything!
How will they pay for things like Emergency services, Health, Border control....ect!
How much will taxes have to increase to cover this?
I'm pretty sure one of the first things an independent Scotland would do would be to apply for membership of the EU (if they weren't automatically granted it). Initially they'd use pound sterling only from the Bank of Scotland rather than the Bank of England. Kinda how they do already. It certainly isn't an issue that would require dealing with immediately.
South East Citizen wrote:
If there's a referendum in 2014 they'll break away I reckon. Independence referendums always go that way. 2 years should give Salmon and his cronies enough time to whip up enough nationalist fervor to dupe the Scottish public into shooting themselves in the foot. Be a massive result if they do. 1 down 2 to go... We should challenge them to an all out naval punch up for the North Sea oil, winner takes all. That should escalate things nicely. Probably be Argie subs in the Firth of Clyde before the year's out.
Can't see it happening. It's an issue that the majority of Scottish people are already likely to know how they feel on the matter as it is a fairly prevalent issue in Scotland. It's not like the AV referendum (remember that?) where a lot of people never really had an opinion on the matter beforehand (or indeed during, or after). I'm struggling to foresee a 20% swing in two years considering its practically been hovering around the same mark for the last half of a century.