Scottish Independence Referendum - 18 September 2014

[Badger]

Unless Al, in his usual arrogant and condescending way,

Pot, meet kettle.

Anyhoo, my reason for posting here are to say that I'm a huge believer in popular soverignty, but it's downright foolish to leave such a mammoth vastly-reaching event utterly affecting every person to a simple 50%+1 vote. The fact that such an irrevocable change of history should be potentially determined by the momentary (dis)approval of the of the PM or Home Secretary, or some non-story like this twisting the vote based on a momentary sway of fleeting opinion, or bad weather >iminishing turnout in a pro-union stronghold.

There REALLY should be some type of super-majority required; at least 60%, if not 2/3 support. Fwiw, I felt the same way about the Quebec independence referendum,  and and Southern sucession as well.

That is all.

[Badger]

@EPG: I see your point, but what I'm saying is that such a utterly drastic proposed change should revert to the status quo of union unless there is a concerted society-wide, if not consensus, at least overwhelming mandate. A 51% yes vote and a 51% no vote both should result in continued union as neither is indicative of the overwhelming mandate that should accompany as momentus a decision as independence. I'm not necessarily saying 65% shouldn't be enough (though I'm not sure 2/3 is insufficient), but at least 60% should be.

Simply put, independence seems premature to put it mildly for any country where opposition is in the high 40 percents.

edit by el caudillo: take the schoolyard brawl elsewhere

[Badger]

Hm, Badger has made quite a good point about danger of a country becoming independent via referendum with almost another half of the voters opposing such measure. Perhaps there ought to be higher threshold for making such decision?

While I agree it's unfortunate that 51% of Scots could force the other 49% to become independent, it would be way more unfair to let 41% of Scots force the other 59% to stay united with Britain. Simple majority is the best system because minimizes the number of unhappy voters.

That said, I could support a requirement that YES wins, say, at least 45% of all registered voters - so as to make sure that independence is won through voter apathy.

Perhaps then 50% +1 of all registered voters would make even more sense?

[Badger]

Rasmussen poll of 1000 Americans:

Do you favor or oppose Scotland becoming an independent nation rather than a part of Great Britain?

30% YES
19% No
51% Undecided

Plus:

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Link

As I've said the thing I find perplexing out that vastly over-represented 19% on this forum is that I can understand an American supporting Scottish independence for romantic reasons. That makes sense to me. How does an American unionist happen? Some nonsense about Keeping Our Ally Strong!!1 ?

Partially that. Partially wanting to avoid the economic dislocation, both short term and long, and it's ripple effects on the EU and ultimately here at home. Also some of us oppose such dislocation being based on a bare majority principle.

Maybe some liberals may oppose it because they don't want to see Labour and the LDs screwed from losing a big chunk of their base.