Looking our best

[Suff]

To foreigners.

I do wonder if those who go running around screaming and fighting, dead drunk, would appreciate the scorn being poured on the UK by a more sedate culture?

What this Portugese doctor does not seem to catch is that this is only a small, but growing, portion of the UK. Also I think he's mixing up America with "the north".

But, on the whole, if you think about Shagaluf, is this what we really want others in the world to think of us? Is this really what we are going to become?

[Kaz]

Never mind Suff, you'll be out of it by next week

[Suff]

If anything it's as bad or worse in Scotland. It's a UK wide disease.....

Anyway I won't be out of it. I'll have to apply for a passport on my family background. Mine's English issued.... Mrs S says if they vote Yes she's going to apply for French citizenship. It is war at home..

[TheOstrich]

Given "Yes", are you not going to be entitled to apply for a Scottish passport, Suff, with your background?

Our passports are up next year, and I think we may delay renewing them until 2016 so we get RumpUK passports rather than the current UK ones ..... I assume they'll have to differentiate them somehow ....

[Suff]

My Mother is Scottish, I'll be entitled.

You won't get rUK passports till the act of the Union is repealed. That won't be for at least 2 years.

Assuming there is a Yes. Which is not guaranteed.

Mind you the English going on about "Scotland has seceded therefore every city and county in England can secede too" is more likely to drive a Yes vote. Because of course Scotland is just another city or another county isn't it????

Insulting really.

[KateLMead]

I could not agree more...
I presume those Scots who live and work in England can vote Yes or No "in or out"?

Saddest day in History if the Yes voters win. Also I believe their doing so will have a disastrous effect
On our economy and trade. We will become isolated.

[cromwell]

Unfortunately they can't Kate. So my acquaintance Scottish Tony doesn't get a vote, though he's Glasgow born and bred though now living down here, but a Polish person who has been in Scotland 2 years does get a vote, which seems bizarre.

[Kaz]

That is crazy Cromwell, and what is also bizarre is giving 16 and 17 year olds a vote - the idea that someone 18 months older than my Harry or three years younger than Becky could vote on such a thing seems ridiculous to me.

I think that is a ploy by the Yes campaign, playing on the romanticism of youth!

[TheOstrich]

I think that is a ploy by the Yes campaign, playing on the romanticism of youth!

They've probably all being given a DvD of "Braveheart" to help them decide ....

That said, I understand that the level of debate in that 16-17 age range had been good (well that's what the BBC has said).

Also, English students at Scottish Unis have been given the vote, as long as they've done 2 years on a residential course, I think.

[Suff]

Kaz the 16 and 17 year old part is just one of the key differences between England and Scotland. Something most English don't understand.

At 16, in Scotland, you are a legal adult. You can leave home, marry and have children all without the consent of your parents. Also for the purposes of crime you are no longer a juvenile.

I have long said that they need to get their policies straight. If you are a legal adult then you should be able to drink and vote. So either fix the drinking and voting or change the age at which you are a legal adult.

For this referendum, whether it seems to make sense or not, the SNP has done the right thing. Even if it costs them the referendum, which it might as most 16 and 17 year olds seem to favour the Union.

As for the Poles, etc, it was a choice they had to make. In the end they took residency over Domicile. There are hundreds of thousands of Scots who have left Scotland fairly permanently and will probably never return. You could ask, how is their vote any more relevant than a person who is living, working and contributing to the community? It's not how I would have done it, but, in the end, they'll be damned if they do and damned if they don't.

What I believe they did was to work under the EU rules rather than normal UK rules. Given the decision being taken, it is, perhaps, not surprising. Again it may cost them the vote. As most EU citizens would be expected to vote No.

If you think about it, they have created a situation where, should they win, there will be no possible claim that the vote is invalid. Probably a smart and astute move. If they win!