Amazulu

Quebec Shows Scots Question Returns Even If Answer Is No - Bloomberg

An interesting article about Canada/Quebec and their experiences of these kind of referendums

Whichever way it goes, there are going to be hard times ahead for Scotland

Salmond and Cameron have a lot to answer for

Jon77

Nailed on swing to the yes vote -
BBC News - Cameron and Miliband to skip PMQs and head to Scotland

Cameron, Clegg and Miliband will all head north together in an effort to ask Scotland to remain in the union.

This could get very messy

I think the Scots will send them homeward to think again

Cameron if he is lucky might make it back to the border in one piece, or his head may be displayed on a pike at Edinburgh castle.

fish.01

Been reading a lot about this in the last few days...have seen numerous comments in different places from reasonable sounding Scottish people saying that they have never seen their compatriots so politically engaged.

Quite a few have commented that they have been pleased to see much rational discussion and debate about what an iScotland might look like rather than simply braveheart nationalism. It really does sound like something special is going on in Scotland regardless of the result.

Can any locals let us know what they have observed on the ground ?

scot47

Change is in the air, after a generation or more when many people had withdrawn from political debate ! Matters that had been the preserve of the "political class" have been debated at length in pubs, bus queues, cafes and workplaces.

commonwealth

And will they change their national language and eventually disuse English like the Quebecois?

paulry

That's a very interesting article, thanks for posting it. I agree, Salmond and Cameron have a lot to answer for and regardless of the way the referendum swings I think the British people divided or otherwise they'll be worse off for this.

scottishcelts

England will be - that's a given

paulry

I'm not so sure.

However, I do see an opportunity here. While it would be sad to see the UK broken up, if the United Kingdom were to break up entirely, it's contract with the EU would be null and void.

scottishcelts

How will England manage, no EU and no Scottish oil, gas. or even managers?

amomentofstillness

Best thing for everyone (apart from Westminster and the establishment) if Scotland votes yes. The union doesn't work and hasn't for a very long time.

So proud of Scotland and the people who've engaged in politics for the first time, campaigned for a yes vote and supported the many grassroot organisations.

It started off as an SNP project, then the yes campaign but I'll will end with the people. Hopefully that can continue after a yes vote. It would be a shame to vote for independence and just end up with a mini Westminster system.

Amazulu

The gas and oil is nearly all gone

Good luck with that Scotch

amomentofstillness

The oil certainly isn't. New site descovered at Clair Ridge recently and there's been rumours for years of potential oil at the Faselane navel base that can be explored when Trident is removed.

Oil is only 15% of Scotland's GDP anyway, compared with 20% of Norway's. Nice bonus for any country.

Amazulu

BP Statistical Review 2014 says otherwise:
Statistical Review of World Energy 2014 | About BP | BP Global

This is the industry standard for proven energy reserves - everything else is opinion

According to BP, the UK (Scotland) has:
9.6 years of oil left
6.7 years of gas

Good luck with that

Norway and Scotland are 2 very different beasts. Norway is the only western country with good energy reserves that hasn't blown the lot. Norway put their energy windfall into a sovereign wealth fund. The UK (and Australia) spent their's on welfare. Scotland's hard-left SNP government will do the same

paulry

By managers, surely you don't mean Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown?

amomentofstillness

I'm all too aware of the differences between Scotland and Norway unfortunately.

Cheers for the link, will have a look. I'm amazed nobody from better together, Westminster or the media has mentioned that oil has less than 10 years to go. They say it's running out, which is obvious but won't put a timeframe on it.

I'm also assuming that doesn't include the new site at Clair Ridge.

Regardless, Scotland doesn't need oil to be a successful prosperous independent country.