Scottish Independence (the sequel)

Love this last edition of yes prime minister on gold about scottish independence with robbie coltraine playing sort of akex salmond character madd some good points

I don't want to get all super-serious on the subject but I watched a commons enquiry a couple of months back on the subject of 'an independant Scotland's defence capabilities' (or lack thereof, as I shall explain).

What took place was basically some SP ministers questioned some UK military and economic boffins who basically came to the conclusion that all the traditional named regiments would have to go and said that Scotlands defence forces would be the size of about 1/2 to 3/4 of a batallion, about 4 tanks, a handful of misc vehicles a couple of transport aircraft (probably a freighter and light helicopters but no Chinooks or anything that big or useful), 1 1/2 a tornado (or other fast jets) and a couple of costal patrol boats AND THAT WAS IT!

They also concluded;

Post independance Scotland could not afford to keep it's regiments or any form of navy;
could not operate an effective coast guard with so few vessels;
The RNLI would likely have to officially cease rescue operations for all Scottish coastal regions regions (for legal reasons as well as financial reasons, apparently the RNLI having already done a lot of research on the subject);
with a lot of the UK's armed forces based in Scotland it would mean a lot of job losses north of the border and a lot of recruitment south of the border benefiting the remainder of the UK by way of creating jobs as well as saving a lot of money on defending coastal interests etc:
(they did acknowledge that a shared security was in both the UK's and Scotland's interests if independance were to happen so some agreement of defence coverage would likely be agreed upon but which would in turn come at a cost to Scotland).

When it came to the classic old "Where'll you put your subs, laddy?" question the boffins all agreed that storage of naval nukes could be done by the US (apparently they hold some for UK now anyway) and as for servicing, porting, refitting etc. of the UK's subs, that could all be done with a minor upgrade/reinstatement of services at one of England's existing naval facilities.

All in all it was interesting to watch/listen to and also made any thought of an independant Scotland being able to defend itself or carry any defence posture internationally seem quite absurd.

When you consider the shear number of things Scotland would lose, have to give up, need to apply/reapply for internationally, spend more money on than it does now... the list goes on, it does seem a real hair-brained idea.

The long and short of it all is that if Scotland does want independance her people are going to have to pretty much put up with being like an impoverished 3rd class nation with a hell of a lot of serious hardships all for the sake of being able to say they she stands alone and not as part of a much stronger union with all the benefits that would otherwise afford her.

Denmark and Norway spend 1.4% and 1.5% respectively of their GDP on defence. If an independent Scotland does the same it would have a defence budget of about £2.1 billion, which is considerably less than the £3.3 billion which the SNP estimates Scottish taxpayers currently contribute to UK defence spending.

Those who favour independence are talking about a currency union with the UK so that Scotland can keep the pound, but why do they want to keep the pound in preference to having Scotland's own currency?

(12-11-2012 10:10 )Digital Dave Wrote:  'Sleekit' does describe Mr Salmond rather well.

But not sleek.

I'll still cheer on East Stirlingshire whatever happens, and no bigmouth bighead with a Moses complex is gonna stop me.

I'm surprised nobody has posted this. September 18th 2014 will be our day of destiny. The campaign really starts now. I will ofcourse be voting yes. It's also worth remembering that a yes vote isn't a vote for the SNP but a vote for the independence of Scotland.

A vote to choose our own politicians from now on. I mean the Tories in charge of the UK. A party that is well despised by most Scot's. Time to put the vote firmly back in our hands. We need to rise up and be a nation again, prove the doubter's wrong and book our place in history. I actually think it's going to be very close but I'm very hopeful that we'll manage to secure the yes vote.

So braveheart will be shown on the 17th September next year then

Just out of curiosity (in fun )

Own up -
How many of those who voted yes are Scots?

And how many are Englishmen who want rid of us?

(23-03-2013 17:44 )Scottishbloke Wrote:  A vote to choose our own politicians from now on. I mean the Tories in charge of the UK. A party that is well despised by most Scot's. Time to put the vote firmly back in our hands

The vote is always in your hands. In 1997, you voted for a Scots-heavy Labour party because you despise the Tories. They were "in charge of the UK" and could have given you anything you wanted. And look how well that went!

The Scots used to vote Tory in great numbers. Then they voted Labour in great numbers. And then they voted SNP in great numbers. It's all just a phase...

...and when you lose the referendum, then what will you do? Turn to UKIP?

The treasury just released a document, with accompanying figures, which claims that an independent Scotland wouldn't cope with another banking crisis.

Swinney's response - "This is just a feeble attempt to undermine confidence"

No, John. It's your response that's feeble. How about a properly thought out counter argument of your own, with some figures, for once.

Really getting pissed off with the SNP's 'trust us, we know best' attitude. Anyone know when the Vote Yes campaign is actually going to start?
Or are we going to have to put up with this shit for the next 18months?