How could the people of Scotland have voted No. Did they actually vote Yes and the counts were rigged ? Everyone’s journey has been a very personal one, but I took a very firm, ‘I Don’t know!’ stance, at the very beginning of all this in October 2012. I believe this is the only stance to take, unless you are sure you know as much about either argument as possible. If we ask all the right questions, we can make an informed decision. I agree that we will never know everything about all the policies, arguments for and against. I certainly would never want to be a politician, it’s too friggin stressfull! But I do believe that I am ‘genetically programmed’ to make this decision. I’ve gone through the deep emotions and fears of leaving ’Great Britain’. Now 44, I’ve lived between England (12 years), Scotland (25 years) & HK (7years)- a British colony at the time (1982 to 1988). What was going to happen to the Great in Great Britain? The Union Jack? The Queen? 4 Countries are better than 3! This is one of the most successful unions of all time. This is like a divorce. Most of my friends are English, my wifes ‘English’, my two younger boys are half Scots/English and live in Scotland, my Ex-was ‘English’ and my 2 oldest were born in Scotland (English/ Scots) and live in England, they think of themselves as being English. What if they put up a border?.. Then comes the rush of all the other fears; Financially? - Will Scotland be a lot worse off if they decide to split from the UK? Are we subsidized by the rest of the UK? What about the pound, will we be able to keep it? Is the Oil going to run out? Resources? -Will Scotland will be able to access far fewer resources. Being part of the UK currently means it has access to resources from the 60 million tax payers, rather then the 5 million, Businesses? - Geez I’m a businessman I like a good deal Currently Scottish businesses sell more to the UK than to every other country. Pensions? NHS? -We have the powers to shape the NHS, how could independence change anything? Defense? We will have to take over the maintenance of the country’s defense. Will this prove difficult as this is more responsibility than Scotland has previously undertaken. The list goes on and on….. all of these fears were everywhere, yet they have slowly but surely withered away… So what are the arguments that Scotland could build this ‘wonderful Country into a much better place. What a HUGE question to answer….. I have focused on a few issues in this, It’s already getting very long and I don’t want to turn it into a 100, 000 word Essay! Not got time for that, between running a business and spending time with my family and friends lol If you want any resources I’ve found to answer any questions, please just ask and I’ll send them over Financially? We now know that Cameron’s amazing truthful u-turn admission, that Scotland can become a prosperous country. There is now no doubting that. The Governor of the Bank of England nervously scratching his head, when revealing Scotland’s wealth, when asked by the Treasury Select Committee meeting, said ‘it was about 10x GDP.…which in absolute terms is NORTH (how much north hasn’t been declared) of a TRILLION Sterling (https://facebook/video.php?v=10204890048076129&set=vb.1387723057&type=2&theater ) https://youtube/watchv=tp50fqWhr5Q&list=UUziLJOD6bjrsv44xuOn0Z7Q Scotland is a NET contributor to the UK. Last year Scotland provided £800 more in tax per person that the UK average. This means Scotland would have been £8.3 billion better off as an independent country over the past 5 years. We could have spent that money investing in our economy with the same debt levels as the rest of the UK or saved it and had £8.3 billion less debt. businessforscotland.co.uk/10-key-economic-facts-that-prove-scotland-will-be-a-wealthy-independent-nation/ Will we be able to keep the pound? Of course we will. It just doesn’t make sense not to. Why would the rest of the UK wish to create problems in trade from the onset? With roughly £5,000,000,000 worth of trade in goods and services that England, N Ireland and Wales, makes with Scotland. Why would Westminster act in a way to threaten the Hundreds of Thousand of jobs that this trade is reliant on? But more importantly, how would they ever get elected again!? Them making hell for us getting more powers, if it is a No, that’s the more pertinent question, as we can all see what is happening already! Currency Union is the best option and Westminster and the bank of England know that. This is just another HUGE scare tactic. Mark Carney, The Bank of England Governor has already said he has developed contingency plans for a YES vote. The Bank has said it will support Scotland for 18 months. There are already schemes in place to protect depositors. Also their statement about the debt, is yet another scare tactic, as we will get the deal. But lets just imagine we don’t, then we would not default on the debt, cause they couldn’t force that on us. If the rest of the UK Gov don’t help with the assets to create our own currency, then why should we then take up the debt. No assets, not debt. Simple. They cannot push on this, as they know they risk a substantial lot more by not taking a currency Union to begin with. Think of it as a bargaining chip, we know that they know that they need to get along ‘as we always have’, ibtimes.co.uk/scottish-independence-would-yes-vote-trigger-run-scotlands-banks-1465682 businessforscotland.co.uk/first-minister-no-currency-deal-no-debt-deal/?fb_action_ids=10152635791621703&fb_action_types=og.likes We will join the EU but never the Euro. We all know the EU will accept our re-entry after discussion of terms. arrowfm.co.uk/uncategorized/leaders-clash-over-currency-in-scotland-debate/ scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0042/00420804.pdf Will we be in the pound forever, as this has been argued to be ridiculous if Scotland wants to have the true Autonomy of an Independent Country. This is where the idea of plan B & C & D come in…When will this come in is another question I don’t know, but when we do, we will be ready and so will the rest of the UK. Scotland has all the resources, Services and Industry it needs; I found out that Scotland has 8.3 % (remember that figure) of the population, yet provides; 32% of land Area 61% of sea Area 90% of fresh water 65% of the natural gas production 96.5% of crude oil production 47% of open cast coal production 81% of the untapped coal reserves 62% of the timber production 46% of total forest area 92% Hydro Electric Production 40% of wind, wave and solar energy production60% of fish landings 30% of the beef herd 20% of the sheep herd 9% of dairy herd 10% of pig herd 15% of cereal holdings 20% of potato holdings 100% of scotch Whisky industry We also have; £21.4 billion Construction industry £39 Billion in Manufacturing £13 Billion food and drink industry £10 Billion Business Service industry £9.3 Billion chemical services industry £11.6 Billion Tourism industry £7 Billion Financial services industry £5 Billion aeroservice industry £4.5 Billion Pound Whisky exports industry £3.1 Billion life sciences industry £350 Million textiles exports We have 25% of Europe’s wave and wind energy And finally we have 1.5 trillion pounds worth of gas reserves. Scotland also has world leading expertise in life science, world class universities (5 in the world’s top 200), a multi-billion pound creative sector and vast energy (oil, gas, tidal, wave, wind and solar), fishing and agricultural resources. The Oil. Is it going to run out? No-one can definitively say for sure when it will run out, 50 Years? a 100years Plus? I then find out about the McCrone’s report oilofscotland.org/mccronereport.pdf, a secret document from 30 years ago, grossly underestimated the reported reality of the last 30 years of North Sea oil. This document exposes all the lies the London Parties have been spinning about Scotlands Economy for over 30 years. Oh dear they can’t be doing it all over again can they? That just wouldn’t be British! We then find out that oil companies have been approached to back Better together and to say the oil is running out and they will pull business out of Scotland. What did they offer them? More Tax breaks? They wouldn’t do that would they, that’s just not playing fair! If this is the case then, why have not one of the Oil companies stopped increasing investment in Oil, in the north sea and announced they are leaving if Scottish Independence happens? They are actually investing more as we speak; telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/11066692/North-Sea-oil-gets-500m-vote-of-confidence-from-private-equity.html heraldscotland/mobile/business/company-news/shell-vows-to-invest-billions-in-north-sea.24925660 https://facebook/video.php?v=870347176309962&set=o.294477047400255&type=2&theater Like all resource companies they are driven to where the assets are. Then we come to the Oil Corporation Tax Revenues since the start of the century; Figures from the HMRC- https://gov.uk/government/statistics/statistics-of-government-revenues-from-uk-oil-and-gas-production As you can see from page seven of the PDF, these figures show there has not been a dip in production at all, the truth is the exact opposite. We know that Tax breaks have been strategically planned theguardian/uk/2012/mar/21/budget-2012-oil-industry-tax when they were given to the oil industry by the Treasury, for them to make major new investments during 2013/14 (the highest for 30 years), was timed deliberately, so as to reduce revenues for the year of the vote for Scottish Independence. The figures which expose the often repeated lie of falling revenues in recent years, with the highest revenues being in 2008/09 and 2011/12. We are all set to become one of the richest countries in the world, we have all the qualities- https://youtube/watch?v=EecqveojXWg What has insulted and disgusted me deeply, and an ever increasing people of Scotland, throughout this debate, has been the way the no campaign have conducted themselves through out! I started to see these surreptitious and illegal, underhanded, interventions, from the government, and the Mainstream media. Slowly but surely they came to light in abundance. From basing their whole campaign on fear, to the panicked rush up to Scotland to beg for us to ‘PLEASE!’ stay, as they do soo love us. Manipulating the big Supermarket chains and businesses, to say trade and prices would go up!. Thankfully they all didn’t cave in and only Asda Cracked…Shame on you ASDA! THEN….. here comes the big one, the treasury illegally leaking sensitive information to the press, to deliberately cause uncertainty in the markets,. This all mixed in with our lovely impartial BBC reporting, going from very clever editing to down right completely lying, when the bomb of Nick Robinson hit https://youtube/watch?v=lRDDtsUIJwg I was utterly incensed, as was everyone I knew that had seen it. I then attacked myself for being sooo naive!! I wasn’t naive though, I knew these things went on, but choose to not give them much headspace before now! Would I vote for them? I absolutely without a shadow of a doubt, I would not! But underneath this dark cloud of depression, people have been using the internet, sharing on Facebook & twitter to expose truths and lies, impart facts and figures, we have been talking on street corners, pubs, clubs.... there is an unbelievable amount of knowledge buzzing around, which has generated hope in the air, that the people can make a difference. We know we are already! ‘Despite the rise of social media, the established media continues to define the scope of representative politics in Britain, to shape political demands and to punish and erase those who resist. It is one chamber of the corrupt heart of Britain, pumping fear, misinformation and hatred around the body politic. That so many Scots, lambasted from all quarters as fools, frauds and ingrates, have refused to be bullied is itself a political triumph. If they vote for independence, they will do so in defiance not only of the Westminster consensus but also of its enforcers: the detached, complacent people who claim to speak on their behalf. ’ - theguardian/commentisfree/2014/sep/16/media-shafted-people-scotland-journalists You can use scary language like split, rip apart and Divorcé from the UK. But I don’t see this analogy of a divorce from a marriage, ring true though. There are only 2 in a marriage (they couldn’t possibly have meant just England & Scotland!), but I see us as a FAMILY. I see it as us moving out of the family home to spread our wings. Our family are still there, and we can talk to them over the phone or drive down or train it or fly down to see them, facebook, twitter or facetime. Can we not still get on? Can I still not travel to see them? I look at this from a business angle as well. Will I not be able to trade with the rest of the UK? What is stopping that? Of course we can. If trouble starts, Who is making the trouble? If we disagree on things, can we not work it out? … If we can’t work together, then what kind of relationship did we have in the first place? That’s why the Edinburgh agreement was created, a legal document, to ensure that everything possible would be done to help in a smooth transition to Independence. scotland.gov.uk/About/Government/concordats/Referendum-on-independence We are not students any more, when we were reliant on grants and still dependent on our parents. It is now time for us to take the next step and get a grown up job, earn for ourselves, build a home and our own family, with in the context of our extended Family; the rest of the UK. I’m not happy with the way things are, the status Quo cannot be an option, there is nothing being offered to us , not one thing that they have to stand by. Do I trust them? Not one little bit. My trust has completely GONE! Some may think I’m being romantic, a dreamer, un-realistic, …… but I now do so deeply, truly believe that we have an opportunity here to shape a country by the people for the people. It’s not going to happen straight away, we are going to make mistakes, but an Independent Scotland will have the power to rectify these mistakes when they have the necessary powers to make all the financial decisions. And in Irvine welsh’s words; ‘Wether the result is YES or NO, it’s that turbulent, quarrelsome, compassionate minority, the Scots themselves, who have—quite astonishingly—won the day. At 97% voter registration, unprecedented in the Western World, they have shown that a G7 power state, mired in a neo-liberal model of globalization, can be challenged, even broken up, and a vibrant, non-militaristic democracy established. This amazing country has, to its own great surprise, lit a torch of freedom that will burn across the world. Nelson Mandela said it perfectly and echoes the spirit of this debate for me; “May your Choices reflect your Hopes, not your fears.”
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 12:11:34 +0000
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