Scottish Independence Referendum - 18 September 2014

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edit by el caudillo: please post in English

#WhyImVotingUKIP

Thes threid obvioosly needed a post in scots tae liven things up.

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It is interesting to me how much traction this is getting considering just how loyal Scotland has historically been to England.

This is a misunderstanding of the situation; Scotland was not an English possession but joined the Union as a comparatively equal partner ('comparatively' due to the vast population disparity). The old ideology of Scottish Unionism was effectively a form of Scottish Nationalism; by being united with England, Scotland could benefit from the growth of Empire (and indeed it did so disproportionately). Scotland retained (amongst other things) separate legal, administrative, religious and educational systems and also kept its monetary peculiarities.¹ Scottish interests would be protected at Westminster by a larger cohort of Scottish MPs than its population strictly deserved. Notably the Conservatives in Scotland were organised as a separate political party (the Scottish Unionists) until the 1960s. This system started breaking down in the postwar decades as the twin pillars of the Scottish economy (Empire & related sundries and heavy industry) began to crumble, while the political calculus was permanently changed by the discovery of North Sea Oil. The situation was changed further (if inadvertently) by the Thatcher government, which had a new and shocking lack of respect for Scottish interests.² This led to a crisis of confidence in the Union that has never really abated; devolution has not sated this - as was hoped by the Blair government - but probably made matters a good deal more civilised; Scotland and the rest of Britain have at least been spared the 1918 General Election in Ireland scenario.

<sub>1. It has its own banknotes which are printed by individual banks. In many respects Scotland feels like a palpably different country to England in a way that Wales - road signs aside - does not.

2. Or at least that was how most Scots saw things, and that's what's relevant here.</sub>

A lot of Scotland joining was because of their failure to establish the colony of Darien in Panama. They seemed to have picked a bad place; that area still doesn't have a road connecting North and South America.

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Olds are unionists, while those under 60 have swung big time for independence.

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I wouldn't necessarily say that. Right now it's able to present itself to the electorate as the defender of Scottish interests in a hostile environment (Westminster). If Scotland became independent there'd be no need for that position anymore and a number of nationalist voters would probably move (back) to the other parties.

The same thing would probably happen in an independent Bavaria which I doubt would see the Christian Democrats run away with every election.

Look at how badly the Bloc Québécois did in the last election.

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Polls are open.

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Now that about 55% of Scotland has voted to remain part of the UK, what impact will this result have on next year's Scottish parliamentary elections?  Will the SNP be adversely impacted by it, or is it likely to have no significant effect?  

I could see the SNP using the argument that the relatively strong showing got promises of new devolutions and powers. I wonder if there's any chance they'd get enough powers that the UK could be considered a federal state instead of a unitary state. LOL that a unitary state has 4 "countries".