Scottish Independence.

[cromwell]

If Scottish independence does ever come about then I hope we can be good neighbours; it would be a lot easier for both sides. Trouble is that Sturgeon has stirred up an awful lot of ill feeling; it's a deliberate political tactic. Increase dislike and mistrust of the English. If indyref 2 comes along and she does win she can't expect to have everything her own way though, especially as regards timescale.
Personally I hope the union stays.

[medsec222]

Totally agree Cromwell. Nicola Sturgeon is a real stirrer. If she can nip in ahead of Johnson and do something different to quite deliberately get one over on him, then she certainly will. In any case, I have never been totally comfortable with the three nations doing their own thing throughout the COVID pandemic and have a strong opinion that the fight against it should have been led by the PM. Imagine in the 1940s when Churchill led the war effort, if each of the nations were making their own decisions.

[Suff]

Ah but in the 1940's Tony Blair had not devolved the parliaments and given full competence to the devolved parliaments in certain areas. One of those competences was Health. It was supposed to allow a sense of control and freedom without giving away the family silver. I'm sure that nobody thought about a pandemic when they wrote that, otherwise Health would never have been devolved.

In order to fix it Boris would have had to repeal the devolution of parliaments act and then re-enacted it with Health as a central government competency. Something, I'm sure, would have been decried as pure politicking. Because he didn't do it, it is all his fault that the devolved parliaments went and did their own thing and no surprise that Wales and Scotland tried to score points off Westminster.

The thing about the union is you are either united or you are not. Devolving the parliaments meant we were not united. That can only grow over time. If, however, we became federal, then it would mean giving England their own parliament and then having a federal government like Germany and the US. Where that leaves the monarchy is an interesting point. Then Federal rules, taxes and everything else become less and lighter and member state laws and taxes become more relevant.

I don't see an appetite for a federal UK, so we either live with the devolution slowly tearing the UK apart, or we allow someone to leave, soon and take the pain. Which, hopefully, would leave Wales and NI in no doubt about how much it would cost them. Scotland is actually quite a large county in terms of economy. Should Scotland decide to secede, it would find itself somewhere between 41 and 45 in the list of world economies, probably somewhere just ahead of, or behind, Finland. All depending on where the £ goes against the £ in the next 2 years.

That is _not_ a small or second class economy by any standards, any more than the UK was a "little country" who would have to learn they were a "little country".

So whatever happens at the election, Indyref2 is likely to get a majority of votes. Whether Sturgeon survives Alba or not will determine how I view Indyref2 but I no longer have a vote, only 15 years out of country and then you lose it. Under Sturgeon, my take, she doesn't have my vote. Salmond, depending on what he says, might.

[Workingman]

I have always been for the union I was born, brought up in and served in the RAF, but I read some things and I am very tempted to join the "Sod off Scotland" camp.

Go, but lose your seats, or have to apply to keep them, at the G7, the G8, the G20, the International Monetary Fund, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, and the United Nations. Then there is the issue of the EU.

It would be one hell of a laugh if those areas strongly against independence, the Borders and Orkney and Shetland decided to secede from Scotland and re-join with the rUK or even go it alone. It is not as though Scotland is totally united on this issue.

[Suff]

No Scotland isn't united on this one and Orkney and Shetland are wild cards. For instance they could decide to secede but they would be in a very niche position with even less position in the world.

True Scotland would be in a worse place in world affairs. But no worse off than Israel, Argentina, Egypt, UAE, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Bangladesh, South Africa, Pakistan, Columbia or Chile and significantly better than the other 150 odd countries and territories. Yes they would need to register with the UN, WTO and a few other bodies, but nothing that has not been done before with other devolutions.

Joining the EU again though? That's a deal breaker for me and for the 36% who voted to leave. Even if they would have Scotland which is by no means guaranteed even if they wanted to thumb their nose at rUK.

The problem with Nationalism is that it is all very emotive and that obscures a whole swathe of issues and resolutions.