Scottish independence - The Official Atlas Forum mock referendum

[politicus]

- Scotland is still a highly homogeneous society, with nearly 9/10th of the population being white. Imagine them to go into an uproar once the government is targeting other groups. (s/o to Al for suggesting this)

This idea seems far fetched. Why should we imagine such a thing in a country where integration works relatively smoothly? A recent poll showed 94% of minorities consider themselves Scottish, that's a pretty high number.

Why should the government even specifically "target" other groups  and not just threat them equally?

In the 2011 census only 4% of the population came from non-White ethnic minorities, so I don't know how you get to 10%+. There aren't that many adopted children in Scotland

[politicus]

Again, there are important non-economic reasons for voting for independence. But for the Yes campaign to promise that an independent Scotland will have free higher education and subsidized daycare in 10-15 years is pure fantasy. If Scotland can vote to leave the UK, Scots can also vote with their feet.

I think you are forgetting the brand value of becoming independent. Scotland has had remarkable growth rates in recent years in sectors like farmed salmonds, whisky, tweed and tourism with the Asian markets driving this. Independence will increase their brand value even further.  While this may sound like small fry, it isn't (I can look up the numbers, if you like).  Also the SNP plans to reinvest the oil profit in reindustialization of the country will have a positive effect, they have a strong tradition in craftsmanship and practical application of technology - renewable energy is an interesting area here. As the Danish windmill industry has shown, government subsidizing of this area pays of for small countries.
The present finance and resource extraction driven economy is not ideal for the country and a different economic model with industry, fish farms and tourism playing a bigger role would benefit Scotland in the long run.

Scots can vote with their feet, but most people don't leave their home country over small differences in living standards and the country would also attract immigrants and capital from outside Britain (Asian and Scandinavian in particular) if British companies leave. Scotland is basically an attractive place to be with a lot going for it and independence would increase its already high brand value and global profile.

Regarding right wing populism, this is likely to be a phenomenon in every European country, but I fail to see why it should be more of a problem in an independent Scotland, than in the present UK.

[politicus]

Scotland has had remarkable growth rates in recent years in sectors like farmed salmonds,

Nice Freudian typo there.

I mostly agree with Foucaulf; though I'd replace his worry about right-wing populism (not really much of an issue there I'd think) with a worry about how Scottish independence would be a pro-Tory gerrymander in the rest of the UK.  And, yes, that is a legitimate thing to care about.

If Scotland was proposing to have its own currency (and would be allowed to have one by the EU they would like to be a part of) then I would look more favorably upon the "Yes" crew.  But their current "solution" to the currency issue is obviously bad, and obviously looms large.

England has in several post-war elections produced a Labour majority of its own and can do so again.

Its not up to the EU to decide whether Scotland should have its own currency. But I agree its a mistake not to create one, even if its understandable from a tactical POV.They can, however, decide to create one at a later date, so I think there is far too much emphasis on the currency question.

[politicus]

I'd rather have all of the UK under a Labour government than it minus Scotland under a Tory government and Scotland under some yucky nationalist government.

What's yucky about the SNP? I'd like to actually know your well thought out reasons on this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdelbaset_al-Megrahi

So releasing a felon with  terminal prostate cancer is your reason to hate the SNP?

[politicus]

...

Al nailed it, again.

Not really; http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/on-policy-scotland-is-far-from-most-of-britain-but-not-london/

[politicus]

Wow, interesting poll results. I wonder how close to reality it ends up being.

Quite close probably.