Lossiemouth Upgrades
Gnome de PPRuNe
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Too close to Croydon for comfort
Age: 60
Posts: 12,617
Received 293 Likes
on
161 Posts
How about Roe?
In 2014 45% of Scots who voted, voted for independence. Five years on, the Scots have seen Brexit 'imposed' by the English, and five more years of 'Tory austerity', my impression is that support for independence and hostility to the Union has increased pretty markedly. Has it tipped as far as 51%? No-one knows for sure, but I suspect that in any Indyref 2, Sturgeon would get her way, unless it happens to coincide with the trial of the odious Mr Salmond........
In 2014 45% of Scots who voted, voted for independence. Five years on, the Scots have seen Brexit 'imposed' by the English, and five more years of 'Tory austerity', my impression is that support for independence and hostility to the Union has increased pretty markedly. Has it tipped as far as 51%? No-one knows for sure, but I suspect that in any Indyref 2, Sturgeon would get her way, unless it happens to coincide with the trial of the odious Mr Salmond........
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: Chigley
Posts: 151
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Would be interested to know just how many servicemen would be happy just to switch to the Scottish Royal Air Force after a successful Independence process? Pay, pensions, opportunities, location -there are many things that would need to be more attractive than they currently are for any Scotsman or Englishman being induced to serve in the SRAF. I think there might be an exodus of personnel to pastures south of Hadrians wall. I don't think there is much support for an independent Scotland for those Scots currently serving in the RAF. I know I wouldn't fancy it!
Would be interested to know just how many servicemen would be happy just to switch to the Scottish Royal Air Force after a successful Independence process? Pay, pensions, opportunities, location -there are many things that would need to be more attractive than they currently are for any Scotsman or Englishman being induced to serve in the SRAF. I think there might be an exodus of personnel to pastures south of Hadrians wall. I don't think there is much support for an independent Scotland for those Scots currently serving in the RAF. I know I wouldn't fancy it!
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: Chigley
Posts: 151
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
It would be interesting to see what wee Jimmy Crankie has to say for herself if someone asks during these upcoming leader debates "Defence for an Independent Scotland...Hows that going to transition then?"
They don’t even know how car tax and mot’s would so no chance on defence.
Berwick upon Tweed
Thought Berwick became English in 1482 when Richard, Duke of Gloucester (later Richard III) recaptured the town.....?
An interesting Wikipedia link, thank you. I know this is ‘thread drift’ but I am honour and duty bound to reply …
We Berwickers are aware that the town has changed hands between Scotland and England thirteen times (so far).
It is one of the four original Scottish Burghs and became an English Borough with a different status to all the others.
The unique situation of divided loyalties and legal institutions lead to the town being included as a separate entity (along with Wales) in documents and ceremonies such as the coronation of English Monarchs.
As the town was last seized in 1482 under conditions of blackmail there are many who doubt the legal nature of its transition.
Of interest the river Tweed which runs through it is by legal definition a Scottish river in its entirety and all activity on it, and on either bank are subject to Scots law.
It only ceased to be a Royal Borough in 2009 as part of the wider structural changes to local government in England which saw the town being handed over to Northumberland County Council.
This was the latest bad move as the Geordie council have never understood Berwick and have neglected it ever since.
The story continues …
Scots ...what?
More drifting ...
It's an awkward question but what is meant by Scots?
There are no accepted legal definitions of what is or is not 'Scots'. I know there is a difference between 'Scotch Beef' and 'Scottish Beef' but as for the people well ...
There was such a long and difficult legal battle to get the wording right for the Indi Ref of 2014. As there was no authoritative answer the fudge was proposed 'The People of Scotland' which was taken to be anyone, regardless of place of origin who was residing within the legal boundaries of the territorial lands of Scotland on a given date. It also excluded any person born within those boundaries who was living elsewhere.
It stems from there being NO Scottish people as a race. They/we are tribal by nature (Clans) - the latest of which is Polish - there are distinct religious divides (ever been to Glasgow?).
There is a clear 'us and them' when it comes to the 'central corridor' and anywhere else. Highlands and Islands are culturally different to Borderers and so the mix goes on - each with a locally defined sense of identity.
I may be wrong but my understanding is that the Scottish clans have never, ever, united for anything in their history. They/we will however at the drop of a bonnet unite against anything overtly English (1966 and Thatcher immediately spring to mind).
It may be simple when viewed from outside to think of Scots as being simply 'of Scotland' ... it's not, the people of Scotland are not united.
It's an awkward question but what is meant by Scots?
There are no accepted legal definitions of what is or is not 'Scots'. I know there is a difference between 'Scotch Beef' and 'Scottish Beef' but as for the people well ...
There was such a long and difficult legal battle to get the wording right for the Indi Ref of 2014. As there was no authoritative answer the fudge was proposed 'The People of Scotland' which was taken to be anyone, regardless of place of origin who was residing within the legal boundaries of the territorial lands of Scotland on a given date. It also excluded any person born within those boundaries who was living elsewhere.
It stems from there being NO Scottish people as a race. They/we are tribal by nature (Clans) - the latest of which is Polish - there are distinct religious divides (ever been to Glasgow?).
There is a clear 'us and them' when it comes to the 'central corridor' and anywhere else. Highlands and Islands are culturally different to Borderers and so the mix goes on - each with a locally defined sense of identity.
I may be wrong but my understanding is that the Scottish clans have never, ever, united for anything in their history. They/we will however at the drop of a bonnet unite against anything overtly English (1966 and Thatcher immediately spring to mind).
It may be simple when viewed from outside to think of Scots as being simply 'of Scotland' ... it's not, the people of Scotland are not united.
They do have minds of their own and are able to use them, despite your trite little comment.
Anyway, I thought this thread was going to be about who might be the new Honorary Air Commodore at Lossiemouth....
HAS59 - unless I've misread your post and muddled up the Scottish stations, HRH Duke of York aka Prince Andrew has been Honorary Air Commodore at RAF Lossiemouth since 1996. It's who will replace him that I'm curious about. Meghan perhaps?
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 110
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
That's fine, JJ. But at least you are aware of the issues that would need to be covered and opened up to any future discussions. Nobody has any definitive answers to the questions you have posed, but at least you are a little bit more open minded to it than some of the previous posters above. One last point, I'm not sure it would be called the Scottish Royal Air Force. There's no denying the affection a great many Scots have for the Queen, me included, nationalist or unionist. But as for the rest of the shower....
they would not be in any hurry to set up a driver and vehicle licensing agency or a civil aviation authority but would continue to use the DVLA in Swansea and the CAA in London.
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Right here, right now
Posts: 270
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
2015 UK General Election (Scottish votes)...
Pro-indy votes 1,493,641 = 51.5%
Pro-union votes 1,407997 = 48.5%
2016 Scottish Parliament Election...
Pro-indy votes 1,073,069 = 47.3%
Pro-union votes 1,194,433 = 52.7%
2017 UK General Election (Scottish votes)...
Pro-indy votes 983,455 = 37.2%
Pro-union votes 1,659,319 = 62.8%
2019 EU Election (Scottish votes)...
Pro-indy votes 714,156 = 46.3%
Pro-union votes 838,913 = 53.7%
What the results show is that support for independence has actually stayed pretty much the same as the IndyRef vote (and in half the elections actually fallen), and the last real election results covering the whole of Scotland (can't include the EU election as we all know how seriously people take that and this year was purely aBrexit vote) showed a major swing away from the pro-independence parties.
Last edited by MFC_Fly; 23rd Nov 2019 at 11:58. Reason: Forgot to include the 2015 & 2019 results
Yeh but the current PM is pretty toxic in Scotland - he doesn't exactly fit in there................... and the Scots Tories have lost their leader
Unless of course if they were 16 or 17 and decided, of their own free will, to go and join ISIS.....only to lose the battle and want to come home upon which the "hand wringers" would tell you that a 16 or 17 year old is not mature enough to make decisions.
Anyway, I thought this thread was going to be about who might be the new Honorary Air Commodore at Lossiemouth....
Anyway, I thought this thread was going to be about who might be the new Honorary Air Commodore at Lossiemouth....
The SNP have been very clear in stating that HM The Queen would remain head of state of an independent Scotland, as part of their falling over backwards to assure Scots that nothing would really change, as in "you'll still get East Enders and Strictly, Ken Bruce on Radio 2" etc. etc. In their manifesto they even stated that they would not be in any hurry to set up a driver and vehicle licensing agency or a civil aviation authority but would continue to use the DVLA in Swansea and the CAA in London.
"a newly independent England will have an awful lot of searching and potentially very expensive defence questions to answer."
Well that assumes we go for the same level of kit etc as we use now. Operate the current Trident fleet out of the East Coast US for a fee for a few years - I could see it being a great excuse to scrap the Successor programme (thus pleasing everyone from the Treasury to a lot of voters) and maybe building a few more Astutes to keep Barrow busy. You could shop for warships anywhere without having to build them expensively in Scotland. The RAF comes south - maybe having to accept "austere" basing for quite a while without all the expensive support bells & whistles but it's only a few squadrons these days. The Army? Not many up there so back to Catterick or disperse more to the Middle East, Cyprus etc
It's a sad fact but "expensive defence questions" are normally only answered one way in the UK these days - cut the capability.
Well that assumes we go for the same level of kit etc as we use now. Operate the current Trident fleet out of the East Coast US for a fee for a few years - I could see it being a great excuse to scrap the Successor programme (thus pleasing everyone from the Treasury to a lot of voters) and maybe building a few more Astutes to keep Barrow busy. You could shop for warships anywhere without having to build them expensively in Scotland. The RAF comes south - maybe having to accept "austere" basing for quite a while without all the expensive support bells & whistles but it's only a few squadrons these days. The Army? Not many up there so back to Catterick or disperse more to the Middle East, Cyprus etc
It's a sad fact but "expensive defence questions" are normally only answered one way in the UK these days - cut the capability.