Independent Scotland

Never mind the Falklands, more worrying to the Brits is the insistence of Scotland wanting to withdraw from the Union, and become an independent Country. If it happens we would still be called the UK, as it stands for the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland. But Great Britain which currently includes England, Wales and Scotland, simply wouldn't be so great as before.

The ramifications of this proposed move will be rumbling on for some time to come, with typical lurid headlines. Mind you, many still believe they eat babies north of Watford .....

Hadrians Wall

Gosh, with enough global climate change, Scotland could achieve as an independent nation the well being and status of Ireland.....

Absolutely........& totally stuffed due to the Euro!

I like Scotland, and I like the Scottish people. I've been to Edinburgh and loved it, and I'm going to Glasgow this spring, and looking forward to it. Unfortunately they have a bunch of crap politicians who pander to the extremists.

I was privileged a few weeks ago to have had a ticket to the visitors gallery at the House of Commons. That day they debated the Daylight Savings Bill and it sadly got filibustered. Who was the the prime culprit? That well known Scottish windbag Angus MacNeil.

They are welcome to him.

To be fair, the Scottish view was if that bill went through, it would mean that up in the North, it wouldn't get light until 10am in the morning, which they said was unacceptable. A not unreasonable point. It caused a bit of a fuss because the change was widely supported on both sides of the House, and was also receiving Government support and backing.

Moreover the Bill had written into it a provision that a trial had to be carried out first to the satisfaction all sides before it became enshrined in law. It must also be said that it wasn't all Scotland, a number of other MP's were against it as well. As far as I know it will be brought in again by another MP as a Private Members Bill in the the next Parliamentary session.

I don't think it would have been practical for business or commerce to have had Scotland being 1 hour different to the rest of the UK. It has to apply to all or none. But Scotland has always as been banging the drum for more independence, and the 1998 Scotland Act gave them their own Parliament. It makes sense to have Devolved Assemblies like Wales and Northern Ireland, but Scotland wants more.

All we are really seeing here is Alex Salmond and the SNP just banging on a bit harder, due to a recent surge in popularity.

The Scottish National has welcomed the findings of the Panelbase poll for the Sunday Times and Real Radio Scotland – which puts support for independence at 47 per cent, compared to 53 per cent opposition – and finds that support for the SNP is at a high of 50 per cent. An Ipsos MORI poll last week put SNP support at 49 per cent.

Here's a point to ponder....

Should Scotland succeed in gaining independence & Wales followed suit, that would leave England as an independant nation - Therefore & I hope quite legal, all 3 countries would no longer be bound by the EU as they were admitted as the United Kingdom.

If this actually happens, it would be nice to know if the trough loving horses (oops sorry, politicians) would hold referendums to gain admittance to the EU - Or would I be dreaming.......
____________

I don't know if Scotland will gain full independence, I think the odds are against it but who knows. It is being suggested that If Scotland does split then England and Wales would have to re-apply for admission to the EU on a revised basis. But I doubt there would be s special referendum upon that, the government would simply regard it as restoring the Status Quo.

There are a number of ways of running countries. You can have a Dictatorship, which is fine if you happen to be in with the Dictators in-crowd, not so good if not. You can have a Military Junta, where if you disagree you get shot, and it only lasts until the next coup anyway. Or you can have single party Communist run countries which aren't much fun to live in either, or you can have a country run by revered religious leaders.

In the civilised West we prefer to have our countries run by democratically elected representatives of the people, also called Politicians. Most politicians are Members of a certain political party, and the most popular party gets to govern. If we didn't have that system be would be back in the Middle Ages with feudal Barons, Lords of the Manor, and serfs.

If people don't like their politicians they have regular elections where they can choose to vote them out, which also applies to local Councillors running local Government. The Scots regularly get a thistle stuck up their sporran now and again, I'm not taking too much notice of it.

@BarryAZ -

more than one way to eliminate the evil of the monarchy and National Health in one play.

Not as bad as the dark ages but still that glimmer of the good old days

You did notice the trailing <g> --- figured the comment might wind someone up though <smile>