All Scots now

We think Alex Salmond is doing well, with no tuition fees in higher education, defending the NHS and help with employment. The Scottish National Party puts the Tories, the Liberals and especially Labour to shame. We wonder if we could persuade the SNP to annex Yorkshire once they get independence.

Chris Wood, Dick Pitt

Sheffield

I hope - for your sake - that you go for it. For our sake too, if I'm honest: we need to stop holding onto bits of the world that we won by force in order to feel good about ourselves.

For the first 3-5 years things would be pretty tough for you up there - just in terms of getting a new country up on its feet. And the Yes campaign should be honest about that. But thereafter, who knows? The Tartan Tiger? Why not?

It could be great - England and Scotland could end up like Sweden and Norway: a bit of ribbing, a lot of to and fro culturally and economically... actually a better model is probably Australia. Ask them.

And England has been doing very well out of Scotland for centuries - oil, tourism, Kirsty Wark.

So go for it! Certainly most of the people down here who think you shouldn't don't necessarily have *your* best interests at heart.

[A bit of yer English understatement there]

On paper, Scotland is subsidized by Westminster, hence the usual tabloid/mid-market/Kelvin Mackenzie rants. In reality, London is the most heavily-subsidized part of the UK. The way they get around it is to deem London spending as 'for the nation." Everywhere else is for themselves. If you and everyone in your locale visited the millenium dome, then there's some truth in it. The old chestnut about England subsidizing Scotland for decades doesn't hold up when you ask why any nation would want to avoid splitting (and Westminster has fought to avoid it for decades) when it's supposed to be subsidizing the other country. Wouldn't it be a political and economic coup to get rid of it?

Rich or poor? That's going to be interesting. The oil and gas fields were quickly whipped into Crown Estates ownership when the Scottish Parliament was established. Alex Salmond has said that in the event of independence, the Scots are taking them back.

There's an old document from the 70's released under the Freedom Of Information act about Westminster's fear of Scottish independence, detailing how Scotland would have a severe surplus of wealth, and England would be screwed. Yes, oil's running out, but not for a while and it's still a vast resource.

But don't take my word for it, Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize-winning economist, currently advising the SNP seems to think Scotland would do fine, and has opined on it in a far better way than i could.

Every nation has the right to self determination.

Are we Scots the only Nation that is incapable of running our own affairs? The union hasn't done us any favours in, say, the last 35 years.

I really can't understand anyone wishing to continue the economic union with England. The social union is a different matter. That must and will thrive, I believe.

I am British first, Scottish second.
Alex Salmond is a twat.
Of the first order.
And that's all you need to know.

always, always ends in tears.

It is harmless enough to take some pride in where you're from and to enjoy a particular culture. It's quite another to make that the basis of a political system.

Whenever politics is based on "*We* are not like *them*", then no good comes of it. It is iredeemably backward and reactionary. Scotland is no exception to this rule, despite the current populist strategy of the separatists. I find it all genuinely saddening.

Now, if there was some proposal to merge the West of Scotland (say, the former Strathclyde region) with Northern Ireland then I might be tempted. It would make cultural and historical sense and get rid of a major embarrassment.

and the Scottish people. I want to retire up there if they will let me in.
Not sure its a good idea to have free prescriptions, no tuition fees etc. Vote winners but I get the feeling they are offered from a sound economic policy and you might end up paying in the long run.

Even during the worst excesses of the last tory government.

My problem is I'm coming round to nationalism in a way I never thought I would, largely because Salmond hasn't imposed tuition fees etc. I can only hugely agree with his priorities here.

However labour did bring in devolution, which by itself will prevent a situation where the tories could impose a poll tax a year earlier on Scotland with no electoral consequences whatsoever. Under these circumstances do we need full independence? I'm not sure.

Also my main political belief is that while politics is national, capital is global. If politics breaks up into even smaller chunks how the hell are we meant to sort out the economic problems of the world?

So in short. I don't know.

is coming up with a coherent and convincing argument against it.

Not a single unionist Scottish politician has managed it and they invariably start going on about machine gun nests at borders, the banning of Coronation Street and the collapse of Scotland into a sinister Soviet style police state. The paucity of opposition is not at all healthy.

Economically theres no argument to have really. Scotland contributes more to the exchequer than it receives in spending. If that revenue remains in Scotland the country would be richer. Not complex.

if Scotland is a net contributor or recipient of tax revenues? Whilst everyone seems certain, there is a clear conflict of views. I'd have thought it would have been relatively simple to do the mathematics on this one.

(which is limited) Scotland receives a disproportionate amount of tax money compared to the rest of the UK, but also has oil revenues. The two roughly balance each other out, so in the short-term, an independent Scotland would be fine.

Oil production, however, is falling, and the question is what would be an independent Scotland's economic strategy in the long-term? It wasn't long ago that Alex Salmond was talking of Scotland having the potential to follow Ireland's lead (which of course didn't turn out too well).

from the Celtic myth, a highland dress designed by Walter Scott to impress Georgie Porgie. From an imagined common heritage
Ignore the fact our ruling class pleaded to join The British Empire after our own plans starved in Darien, that our greatest minds stood against the return to Medieval feudalism under Edward Stewart.
Modern Scottish Nationalism is a product of the end of Empire, an Empire the Scots did very well out of, after establishing a fair bit of it.
The success of Salmond has more to do with the failure of Labour to deliver the goods after years in Government.
And you don't expect us to trust Tories, do you?
Perhaps a greater future lies in independence.
It's just we need to bin the paranoid fairy stories first.

Not too sure how any country can be really independent - is the UK, say, independent of the USA, or Europe? Surely this line about being independent but keeping Sterling and sharing security and defence makes it a bit pointless, doesn't it? Some knobs down this way want Cornwall to be independent, for pity's sake....

.... should read "And the Land Lay Still" by James Robertson. A brilliant novel.

to the recent More or Less podcast that tackled exactly this issue. It was looking at it more from the perspective of how Scotland would have weathered the GFC if it was independent.

what Scotland costs the UK in £'s minus what Scotland contributes to the UK in £'s. Answers on a postcard to Alex Salmond, Scotland and David Cameron, London I suspect David would be quick to sign on the dotted line but I'm happy to be proved wrong. I don't do politics usually but i do wonder sometimes if people realise when they're well off.

Down with Scottish/Irish imperialism!

Assert our ancient Pictish rights and wrest control from the usurpers who have held us back.

Again.

What's that? Gold's been discovered in the Highlands?

No! I was joking! Come back, come back! We love you!

Beaker-land for the Beaker people! Forward to a new bronze age!

And so on. And so forth.

No, nothing remotely silly about nationalism.

No more MPs from Scottish constituencies. 59 MPs go. 41 of which, at the last election, were in safe Labour seats.

Bit unfair on Labour.

This is written and suing by two Nationalists and it pretty much sums up the beliefs of the SNP. it's also the best folk song written in the past 20 years.

I have a very irrational answer to this one
Whenever I get asked where I come from, I answer "I emigrated from Hampshire" (and I really do love Hants); whenever I get asked "Are you British?", I answer "Scottish, actually".

That's just how I feel. I'd vote for Independence; the economics seem to close to call, so it's a question of principle for me. I don't consider myself to be British. When I take out citizenship, I'll be a ScottishAmerican; my son is already.

It's a bit like the Tebbit test for me - who do you cheer for? Well, in rugby, my second team is France, ahead of all the other ones. I'm juvenile enough to admit I will support anyone playing against England. I love a lot of England, and spent the majority of my life living there.

I'd say vote your heart; with whom do you most closely identify - Britain or Scotland.

I struggle to understand the anyone but England arttitude. I was in a pub in clydebank when England were playing Germany. They were cheering the Germans. In Clydebank!

I am Scottish rather than British but I have nothing but respect for England. Our culture would be the poorer - I can't even imagine - without our neighbours. On both sides. That does NOT remove my wish for political independence.

Born and raised in Northern Ireland, long term resident in England with a wife whose family originate from Scotland.

I despise the politics of nationalism and separation which has been the ruin of Ireland for more than a century. We have far,far more in common and I would personally be rather upset if the UK were to break up.

Don't have the time or inclination to get into the economic arguments but is Salmon offering to take on liability for the existing and future debts of RBS and HBOS? - that would dwarf the similar obligations the ROI took on with Allied Irish and Anglo meltown and would shatter the finances of any small nation.

English second. That's me.

I can not picture an English flag flying from my house, but a Union Jack? certainly. I can even see myself giving a toss about a British Football team whereas the current English one has slipped from my radar. Looking forward to supporting GB in the olympics.

When I visit Scotland and Wales, I feel at home. It's beacause I am at home.

Economic predominance of one nation over the other (no guesses which way) will emerge. This will then lead to people from one nation trying to sneak illegally into the other 'for to make a better life'. Sham marriages will become rife with Scots and English marrying in order to remain in one country or the other. Finally, one nation will attempt to erect a large wall to keep the other out.

Don't Arizonicate Olde Blightey.

What will the Scots do when they travel abroad? As it stands now, we have a people so proud of the land they come from that they advertise the fact with a sticker on their car. In French. Will an entire continent be forced to learn the name of a new nation or will Scotland do the right thing and just call itself 'Ecosse'

Scottish Oil. I thought it came from the North Sea.

and then maybe you can stop hating us and we can stop having to apologise for being English and worrying about being too metropolitan.

(I do love Scotland though, beautiful place).

...but the problems of NI which Lando keeps referring to are down to English interference and partition a long time ago.

While I have no political views on the matter, the UK abandoning NI 'to sort its own problems out' would be economically akin to the UK abandoning the Falkland Islands, St Helena and Tristan Da Cunha.

England/GB/UK created these problems/entities a long time ago and has the moral obligation to sustain them or pass them on to some sustainable form of alternative governance. Economic independence for any of the above is simply not possible - and neither is it the fault of any of those communities (three of which didn't exist at all untill English colonisation; the fourth of which was culturally altered in a way that has created a perpetuable bloody headache for all of us, me included).

... was suggesting northern & southern assemblies for England ... taking that one step further, you could either just federalise the UK (Scotland, Northern England, Southern England, Wales, Northern Ireland, each with an assembly) or go the whole hog and for those federal regions to become part of a proper EU state

given what's going on this week, the outcome would either seem to be an EU with a finance minister and a central bank (en route to the Vereinigten Staaten von Europa, or VSE) or Europe spins apart like a catherine wheel in the next wee while and it's hello Great Depression of the 21st Century ...

I don't care either way. If Scotland wants to be independent then go ahead and do it. Same goes for England and Wales. Why not? Actually...why not go one step further. Independence for Mercia! Nice flag.

I'm awa' to the But an' Ben.

everybody hates us and I don't care.

...beyond a gut feeling that Scotland will regret dissolving the union. I understand the two sides: a nation (depending on how you define that) should of course have the right to self-determination. On the other hand, I'm very much with Lando on the ugliness of - as he puts it - the politics of difference.

I'd really like to see some un-spun facts and figures about the economic sustainability of Scotland as an independent nation, since the opposing sides present completely irreconcilable ones. Someone's right, and suspect it's neither the nationalists nor the unionists.

can I respectfully ask that you repatriate George Galloway? You will have almost total support from the English then.

TMFTL

Warbitch Nicola Sturgeon... is that her name? I do try to ignore her... has pushed through much anti alcohol legislation lately... fair enough Scotland does have an alcohol problem, especially in the smaller towns.
So retailers can not now promote a wine deal for example that's "Three bottles of Echo Falls/ Blossom Hill/ Jacobs Creek for £12.00" We have to sell them for £4.00 apiece... will that cut down alcohol consumption then?
Erm, no.
Next year Lafish is trying to, and will succeed, in making it illegal to purchase alcohol in a shop at the same time you buy anything else.
That is, when you go into your local Tesco in Wishaw you will have to buy your milk/ bread/ fags/ glue/ deoderants/aftershave seperately from your purchase of your weekly plonk de la jour, and at a seperate alcohol specific till.
Apart from the security issues of customers walking back into the shop with full bags of shopping to buy booze, how is that gonna work?
Will it cut down alcohol purchases?
To quote him from Home Alone, "I don't think so".

... of that "everyone loves the SNP because they are at least trying to do something about it".

I wish they'd fucking stop trying to do stuff about it, because the stuff they invariably 'try' is wrong-headed, authoritarian and clearly bound to fail. They're not bright enough, for example, to anticipate (and therefore prepare for) even the most obvious flaws in their stupid 'let's make alcohol harder to buy' plan.

As for the proposed anti-sectarian football legislation ... if you care about civil liberties and personal freedoms, I'd be surprised if you found that anything less than sinister.

Never, ever trust any government that would seek to outlaw the expression of socially /politically /culturally 'awkward' opinions.

These people are not just stupid and opportunistic, they are dangerous.

The United Kingdom is a far better place with Scotland as part of it. Scotland has a lot going for it, including economically, but it would be a minnow in Europe without the rest of the UK. Would an independent Scotland be sustainable? Possibly, but it depends who is in charge and how effective the governance might be. I expect that a good number of the larger estates in the country are owned by non-Scots; do we have the money to buy these back, or is the plan simply to confiscate these properties?

Scotland currently has the best of both worlds, with security, a national identity and a culture to be proud of. Why risk losing some of this because of a nostalgic wish to "be free". Scotland is free already. United we stand, divided we fail! I'm Scottish but am not particularly impressed with the SNP, or its desire for independence for Scotland. Independence is a big decision, and we need to fully understand the consequences so that we take an informed decision.

I'm not sure I'm qualified to comment. No. I'm definitely not qualified to comment but I'm going to anyway.

Alec Salmond is a politician whose face demands slapping. That said, what the SNP has done re tuition fees, free prescriptions and so on is admirable. I'm not sure how they've managed to do it and balance the books but it would be nice if they'd let George Osborne into the secret (and if they'd told Brown and Darling before). The truth is that England and Wales could also do the same thing if they set their priorities differently. You don't expect the Tories to do any different but Labour should be ashamed (and I speak as a member since 1981) that it allowed the space for the SNP to come in and be seen as having the interests of the Scottish people at heart.

I don't know whether Scotland could succeed as a truly independent nation. It seems to me that if a clear majority want it then they should be allowed to try. And subsidy, in whichever direction it actually flows, should cease. It does make me wonder what would happen to those UK government jobs devolved to Scotland because that many civil servants would not be required just to service Scotland but that's a relatively small issue. The capitalists will invest wherever they can get the best return for the least cost and so we could see Scotland and England and Wales competing in a race to the bottom in terms of corporate tax and workers' rights.

And, I could be wrong, but I believe Labour has won majorities at Westminster and would have done so even without the Scottish constituencies. Of course, the current gerrymandering may change that possibility.

As I said, I'm not qualified to comment.

...N Ireland couldn't survive without the (sickening, depressing) 70-80% of public sector jobs. I imagine Scotland must have a fair percentage too? And then there's the jobs that indirectly depend on govt. And then there's the fact that all European govts appear to circling the plughole alarmingly, with no obvious mechanism for escape.

it's very depressing. I'm just hoping to make it to the end of life without spending the latter part of it in very reduced circumstances.

I think Scotland is a marvellous country and the Scots are generally a friendly, humourous and gifted bunch! I like Scotland being part of the UK. We all have so much more in common that what divides us. With devolution do the Scots really need to be indepedent? In the end of course, it's up to them but I don't believe that independence is the cure for all ills that some optimistically hope for.

Three reasons why Alex Salmond is a twat:
When the High Court in London deemed that the trial and conviction of alleged wife killer Nat Fraser was not sound and that Fraser had not received a fair trial due to the prosecution withholding evidence from the Defence that would have blown the prosecutions case apart and recomended his release, or at least a retrial. Salmond berated the five judges for interfering in Scottish law, and stated that as they were English they did not know enough about it, and to "stop interfearing".Two of the judges were Scottish, and were well versed in the machinations of Scottish law. Nat Fraser is still in custody.
I stay in a Wee Toon in the The Highlands of Scotland, pop 4,000+. Our main employer is an industrial firm which employs some 150 locals.
Early this year the parent company went into liquidation and the effects of that would have been disastrous the local community. A Danish company stated that they were interested in taking over the site, depending on them doing their due diligence. In May the takeover was ratified. That very same feckin evening Salmond and his cohorts, along with a film crew from BBC Scotland, flew into The Wee Toon by helicopter, and held a press conference in the Toons Main Street which was beamed live on the TV. I have it on good authority that Salmond had no input whatsover into the takeover procedure- that was between the existing site managers and the Danes- but he was there to proclaim himself as The Saviour Of The Wee Toon.
Finally, Salmond is mooting an "Independence Referendum" for Scotland, and in a recent speech he quoted an "election expert", one Matt Qvortrup that the proposed referendum was "fair, reasonable and clear". Mr Qvortrup said no such thing. What he actually said in response was that the proposal was "untenable and muddying the waters". Mr Salmond was forced into a grovelling apology.
Twat.

...on the Scilly Isles?

... and the anti-English sentiment among some Scots. There's obviously history there, and I feel that the likes of Alex Salmond play on that. That, to me, is not the way forward.

The unfortunate knock-on effect of this is that whilst greater Scottish independence would probably be a very good thing for Scotland, I can't bring myself to do anything other than oppose it, because I can't stand the idea of Salmond and his type scoring any kind of victory with the tactics they use. Which ultimately, is equally as childish as what he does, but at least I've got the decency to admit it.

Absolute bollocks.

The SNP are planning on holding the referendum for an independant Scotland on, or as close as they can, the 13th of June, 2014.....
Which happens to be...yep, you guessed it, the 800th anniversary of the Battle Of Bannockburn... Gimme strength..
Did I say that Salmond is a twat?

I'm a Scot who has never felt British. I find the term and all it connotes rather embarrassing as do many English and Welsh folks I know.

Stephen I would say vote for independence whether you think England is subsidising Scotland or vice-versa. Either way Scotland is a separate nation and should be responsible for steering its own course in a British, European and worldwide context. For better or for worse.

If Scotland goes independent, will we actually get proper weather forecasts on the radio, instead of "There's going to be A LOT OF SNOW... at the top of the hills in North West Scotland... where nobody lives... oh, and in the rest of the UK, sun, rain, wind, less dramatic stuff, whatever"