Is Scottish independence a 'good or bad' thing?

How do you go from the published suggestion from an independent academic economic research organisation to an English conspiracy?

And how is a suggestion of an oil-for-debt swap, that could alleviate the problems caused by the higher interest rates that Scotland would be paying, robbing her of her reserves?

It is a conspiracy because it starts with a false assumption that Scotland should inherit any of Westminster's debts and that these should be allocated based on population. Complete muppetry.

It robs her of her reserves because the English would get the oil reserves in exchange for a debt that should not be passed onto an Independent Scotland in the first place.

Ah! That again. There is no doubt that Scotland will be taking debt, that this is perfectly reasonable and that none of the politicians (on both sides of the border) and law officers involved will ever think otherwise.

If the boot were on the other foot, and England were thinking of leaving the UK and leaving it to the Celtic nations (UN membership & veto, EU membership and all), would you expect England to take a share of the debt, or would it be reasonable that the remaining constituents of the UK should take it all?

I would expect England to take all of it since it was predominantly English voters who propped up the governments that made these calamitous decisions.

In 2005, to take an election that produced a calamitous UK government, Scotland returned 41 Labour MPs (about 10% of all Labour's seats) out of its 59 seats. Over two-thirds of the Scottish constituencies returned Labour MPs. In the UK as a whole the Labour proportion was just over 62% of all seats, and in England only 54% of MPs returned were Labour. So you can't say that Scots didn't vote for what they received.

It was even worse in 2001.

Scotland has to become independent for the sake of is own economy! The measly 54 MPs elected from scotland will never make a difference in who gets in power considering from London and down further in the south east have 129 MPs! We are getting NO say in the way or economy is run cause our votes don't matter to the public school boys in downing st. The Tories are going to pass more and more legislation allowing the rich to get richer and poor to get poorer, even though its the multimillionaire bankers who caused this mess, not labour! Not to mention trying to convince us to get out of the EU and lose the best political and financial safety net in the world! Also, us Scots get given too much from Westminster? Do we hell! We put in more than we get back! Scotland will come out better in 2014, then we'll see how England, Wales and Northern Ireland do with a permanent Tory government that do not care about 90% of the population.
From here we can only go up ALBA GU BRATH!!!!!!


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If Scotland hadn't taken part in the 2001 and 2005 general elections, Labour would still have won a majority. In 2001 they had a majority of 167, when there were only 72 Scottish MP's. In 2005 they had a majority of 67 and there were only 59 Scottish MP's.

How in any way did Scotland influence these elections?

Can you say the same for elections whereby the will of the Scottish people was superseded by those of the English? Of course not.

You don't seem to understand that Scotland would have (and did) vote for the same left-wing, high-spending governments, only more so. If the whole of England had abstained the government would have been the same one, still led by Scots, and you would still be here complaining that a Westminster government incurred all this debt, despite the fact that Scots voted for it.

I don't know why you want independence but you should face the fact that if it is to get a low-spending, low-debt government you won't succeed. For the last twenty or thirty years Scots have returned left-wing high-spending, high-taxing MPs and MSPs in overwhelming numbers.

If it is to get financial independence, again you'll be disappointed as either the Germans or the British will have a major hand on your financial tiller through control of the currency.

If it is to capitalise on the North Sea oil bonanza, you are forty years too late. You'll need to be spending that income, not salting it away like Norway did - or paying for current and planned expenditure through higher taxes.

The only valid reason to vote for independence is rabid anti-English feeling, which isn't very honourable but at least its honest.

And why does Scotland dislike England so much, after all this time, that damn Brave heart film...which was filmed in IRELAND. Last time I checked, people stopped using swords and Bows and Arrows and raiding

The past is the past, get over Flodden, William Wallace, Robert Bruce and Bonnie Charlie, we are better united then apart. The Scot MP'S sounds like they have no clue on what their doing

We don't complain about losing at Stirling Bridge or Bannockburn

If you do have your independence and look after yourselves then take your share of the debt and England wishes you the best in your future endeavours

Are you for real? That's not why people want independence at all. It's more to do with that Scotland's votes haven't influenced a UK Government since 1945. And England getting the big infrastructure projects instead of Scotland, oil discovered in what would be Scottish waters spent how non-Scottish influenced UK governments wanted it, and many more.

I recommend you watch this:

They are discussing Scottish Independence on Newsnight tonight. May be worth a watch.

what infrastructure projects? Like the new forth bridge? The 30% of renewables spending or the £700 million tram in Edinburgh?

HS2 and the Olympics are the main ones.

Why? It'll be the same old rhetoric