Whiskey is produced in Ireland. The Scots produce Whisky. As for the north sea, theres as much oil still to come out as has already been removed so its hardly dwindling. Financially, Scotland would be fine on its own. Definitely better off. It would, however, take England decades to recover from the split.

Google for the Mccrone Report and have a read.
This report was suppressed for 30 years by the UK government scared of the reaction of the Scottish public if they realised the implications.

I think you're vastly over-estimating Scotland's place in the world. England, completely on it's own, would still be in the same place on the world rankings, if it was an independent country. Scotland, would fall into international insignificance; it would have as much sway in international affairs as Ireland i.e. none. Trying to compare Scotland to Norway is also laughable, Norway is far, far richer than Scotland and with much more stable finances. What on earth would England lose that would make it take 'decades' to recover from?? The £3 billion in oil revenue probably lies well within the treasury's standard deviation for tax receipts.

This is of course, excluding the argument of Scotland having no say in its monetary policy and the MoD moving all of its assets and contracts south of the border, plus all the other important yet unanswered questions.

Scotland has to decide on how they are going to run their currency

they can have

a) Euro = little control over it
b) Pound = no control over it
c) their own currency - lots of control but no-one will want it

What the less informed Nationailists seem to forget is that most of the influential business people in Scotland will leave Salmond and his 16 year old dreamers to their own devices. My brother in law has a multi-million Pound business North of the Border - he told me that he and a lot of his business chums will sell up and go.

He is resolute that he is Scottish first and British second but his opinion of Salmond is exceptionally low; I suspect he is NOT in a minority and the newly found independent Scotland will hit the ropes in very short order. He knows the value that the Union brings to his business and what it will mean if the ill-informed vote to go it alone.

Here's hoping the Union survives into the next Century for all of our sakes...

LJ

I believe he was also trying to kick up a storm because the Scottish flag was not allowed to be flown over the venues for the Olympics, the fact that the Union flag could only be flown in all Union Countries over the venues obviously did not satisfy him.

The Saltire will now fly in it's normal place at Hampden.
The London Olympic committee had to back down in face of offence caused here.

Hmm. It'd be interesting to see how the agreed boundary between Scotland and the rest of Britain would go. I'd also be interested to know who it intended to pay for the HBOS and RBS debts. Alex Salmond was proud of RBS

so you might think he was keen to pick up the tab. Not so.

Scotland's Marine Atlas: Information for The National Marine Plan


Renfrew,

Just curious with reference to the Shetland Islands and the location of the oil fields near to them in this debate.

"I think you're vastly over-estimating Scotland's place in the world"

Definitely. Have you ever met a Scot who doesn't?

I agree with Leon, hopefully the Union will prevail, we're all better off together.

Of course in this Grand scheme of Scotland becoming independant from the UK, what is to then Stop the Danish asking for the Shetlands being returned from the independant Scotland, after all it is their rightful territory.

.....

Interesting times for all.... Sorry for thread drift...

lj101,

Average gross weekly earning for Great Britain in 2001 £121.50....are you sure?

That would make the average gross annual earnings £6318, which seems far too low a figure....

Big

I'm not sure at all, I just scooped the info after a bit of googling as I was interested (sadly) in the history of the Shetlands.

A Brief History Of Shetland | Saxa Vord Resort, Unst, Shetland

There's no need to look at the McCrone report because it's all speculative. It's much easier to just look at the actual figures which show Scotland hasn't been robbed of its precious precious oil wealth.

Thanks for the laugh.

England would barely notice Scotland leaving the UK, Scotland makes up a small fraction of the UK economy.

In the short term Scotland would inevitably be worse off (and so would England) because it'd have to pay the huge overhead and upheaval of breaking up a country into 2. Medium term, it might stay on par with England IF the oil prices stay high. Long term when the oil runs out, Scotland will be worse off again.

Scottish Independence
 

Re Scottish air force.There is a Pioneer is reasonable nick in East Fortune Museum, add a few Bulldogs and there you have a viable airforce. Mind you there is also a Tonka in that museum as well, I do not know if that is flyable.

If the independence referendum fails, perhaps England & Wales could have their own referendum to eject Scotland?

I'll get my coat.... ;)

And would Northern Ireland not have a vote?:8

FB:)

Did not the whole mutual antipathy kick off with Penis Law's comments about not supporting England during the winning World Cup run of 1966?

I well remember the English anger at the churlish remarks.

The Scots went straight away from 'friends/ tolerated' level to abeam France ................

As for Scottish goalkeepers ................