It’s caused a lot of interesting debate up here - a lot of people don’t see the validity in Indyref2 as there was a vote just over 2 years ago, however the circumstances of the previous vote have been completely invalidated by the EU referendum as quite a prominent part of the No campaign’s strategy centered around voting No to stay in the EU. The huge gulf in the EU ref showed the difference in political climate between Scotland and the rest of the UK - now it’s up to the SNP et al to convince a pretty doubting population that Scotland can stand on its own two feet as an independent nation.
I’m involved in the Scottish Greens now which is the other main Scottish political party in favour of independence, and i’ll be out canvassing for our local elections in May so it’ll be interesting to talk to people about their views on it. I recognise that the impact of falling oil prices has been huge but there’s a really big potential for renewables in Scotland that can be capitalised on for the future benefit and security of Scotland’s economy - the issue being that until that technology can be developed and implemented we could be in for some rough times ahead.
Even though some powers have already been devolved to the Scottish Parliament they’re pretty tokenistic and the Scottish Government doesn’t have too much fiscal control as it’s overruled by Westminster on the main economic factors. Although certain tax controls have been devolved, the nature of Scotland’s relationship within the UK renders those powers pretty useless as it’s far too easy to escape any kind of changes that the Scottish Government could make.
It’ll be a very interesting campaign and I wonder if we could see a date set for early next year to quicken Scotland’s exit from the UK before we leave the EU and too many bridges are burned. The question over whether Spain would veto Scotland’s membership of the EU is a big question mark for me, but a Norway model is potentially possible going ahead although a large stimulus package would be necessary to avoid any big impacts on living standards in the country after independence should it happen.
I don’t buy into the arguement that the Bexit vote changed anything . Surely they knew that by voting to stay in they were participating in UK wide elections and uk wide decisions . Part of deciding to be in the uk is accepting uk wide election result It’s not like they didn’t know that the Tories were committed to a referendum when they had their indie vote
Don’t buy that at all LD, David Cameron himself was campaigning for No on the basis that it would secure Scotland’s membership in the EU - the referendum pledge only popped up on the Tory manifesto a year after the first Independence referendum.
I love the Scots. I think it’d be a real shame if they leave, and no disrespect, Lord D, but I think we can agree that attitudes like yours drive a bit of the need for separation, which ultimately helps the SNP.
We’d be mad to let them go. We presently benefit from having sovereignty over the entire island, and no formal border within. Ok, each constituent nation proudly sighs when you enter them, but there are no checkpoints.
I wonder if in your reactionary drive to get the Scots out, you’ve really considered all of the implications, especially as someone that have been massively vocal on the Brexit cause.
After getting rid of that pesky EU that we both disagreed with in its present form, do you really want to have all those problems on your doorstep?
Fair enough, got my dates wrong on that. Still, a pivotal point of the No campaign was retaining EU membership - that has changed now so Scotland has every right to re-evaluate in light of the change in circumstances.
I don’t see complete autonomy as necessary - a country of Scotland’s size is much more influential within the EU than outside it. I’d take a few laws being dictated to us for a seat at the table and generous subsidies in farming and renewables.
Judging from the sort of debates I’ve had on Twitter lately, the Nats are rattled about Corbyn big time. I’ve jousted with a few jocks now that are all too willing to throw bad Labour stat after bad Labour stat into the mix. Furthermore, I do not contest these statistics. Game, set and match to Sturgeon’s lot, surely?
Well, no. Charmingly for us Sotonians, the SNP seemed to have developed the same “cut off point memory” which means that they are only aware of events up to a certain point in time. That would be 2015.
Corbyn has not been elected in their rhetorical universe. The Labour party is still, according to them, New Labour.
I suspect the answer is that they’ve no answer for Corbyn. They fought the last election mostly on independence, a flagging cause that allowed Ruth Davidson to fight on a unionist cause. They’re now up against a Scottish Labour party that has a leadership that actually reflects the one down south.
Hmm. The SNP is foundering quite a bit lately. Sturgeon’s latest wheeze is to ban cheap food deals like 2 for 1 pizzas. She is in cahoots with Jamie Oliver.
Ian Pattinson is a terrific writer. Never forget Rab looking at Mary hen asleep on the sofa during the afternoon, dribbling and snoring - Rab (something along the lines of) “look at that beauty - the face that lunched a thousand chips!”
