Poll - Does Scotland really want to go it alone?

[morag]

Being separate doesn't mean we can't co-exist, our differences in the 3 towns (and beyond) add colour and richness to the pot. How strange we identify so strongly with 'our town' yet are willing to be lumped as a country?

[John Donnelly]

PT and Morag,

an excellent point. What is it that makes a country so important? Why is the 'cut-off'' point made at that level?

Why do we not target our loyalty at county, town or even street level? I'm afraid I'm harking back again to he emotional element, which is so brainwashed into us from birth.

JD.

[morag]

Of course emotion plays a part as well it should, and of course politicians will use that, think of all the catch phrases we're familiar with. But you are being facetious, John, I know. Wanting Scotland to be independent doesn't mean isolation but actually more involvement in the global community..involvement on OUR level, how WE want it. Not how Westminster tells us we want it.

[sweet caroline]

[quote="John Donnelly"]PT and Morag,

an excellent point. What is it that makes a country so important? Why is the 'cut-off'' point made at that level?

Why do we not target our loyalty at county, town or even street level? I'm afraid I'm harking back again to he emotional element, which is so brainwashed into us from birth.

JD.[/quote]

What about taking it further Scotland /England
Mary McDonald ,daughter of Major Donald MacDonald of Ternadrish,Inverness ,who lost his life in the cause of Prince Charlie 18 Oct 1746 .She married John Chichester of Arlington ,Devon.She will have living decendants in England .Buried in Yorkshire.
Can't see how emotion can come into it .

sweet caroline

[morag]

I'm sorry Sweet Caroline..I'm missing your point?

[John Donnelly]

Of course emotion plays a part as well it should, and of course politicians will use that, think of all the catch phrases we're familiar with. But you are being facetious, John, I know. Wanting Scotland to be independent doesn't mean isolation but actually more involvement in the global community..involvement on OUR level, how WE want it. Not how Westminster tells us we want it.

Morag,

I'm not being facetious in the least. Emotion should have absolutely no place in politics. Unfortunately, the reality is that unscrupulous politicians and the press and big-business with a profit-interest, ply the public with the emotional nonsense they want to hear, knowing they will lap it up and react accordingly.

I would like the voters to make their own mind up, based on hard facts, not on the button-pushing nonsense you get from the media. The Sturgeon episode is a good example of how things are manipulated.

Please let's all think for ourselves instead of spouting the pre-digested opinions of others. They don't pre-digest it for your benefit, but for their own.

Gawd; I'm going to hit the submit button quick before I re-read this and chicken out.

JD.

[morag]

lol! I meant you were being facetious about taking our allegiances to street level John, not in general.

[John Donnelly]

Quite, but I was making a valid point.

What is so special about country? The same aguments can be offered for county, town or street. It's us against them; just on a different scale.

We can also go the other way; to continent. People in the States have the same emotion about their land; It's thirty times the size of Scotland, nearly as big as Europe. Citizens of Luxemboug are the same with only 3-4 hundred K of them.

I understand why; I have the same feelings for Scotland. But not when it comes to the future of my children and grand-children. Never forget, the wind we sow today, might be the whirlwind they have to live with.

For goodness sake, lets be awful carefull. I'm damned sure, I'm not going to let my emotion drive that decision.

JD.

[John Donnelly]

Let me put this one very, - no ultra, carefully.

What happened in Germany in the 1930's and 40's was driven by emotion, whipped up by people with a hidden agenda.

I'm not suggesting anything like that is happening in Scotland. I'm utterly convinced that the people behind the independence movement are totally sincere and of unblemished character.

But I want to point out how powerfull the (ab)use of emotion can be.

Don't believe everything they quote at you in the media.

JD

[Retsum]

John, I don't think we will get answers to most of your list of issues until after there has been a yes vote. Only then will negotiations begin on the division of resources and liabilities and these are reckoned to take about a year. The first truly independent Scottish government would be elected in the 2016 election. What we will get are plausible cost/benefit analyses by supporters of each position. What we need to ask ourselves is this: is it likely that the rest of the U.K. has been subsidising Scotland all these years. I think the answer is 'no' because there is nothing in it for them. So we have been paying our way.

[frank quinn]

A wee thought, if Scotland becomes independent, how are those of us who
have settled & lived in the UK and other countries be treated ??
Will we be treated as other "foreigners" are treated!!

[Retsum]

Frank, I would imagine that those Scots who have emigrated and adopted the nationality of that country would be treated in the same way as they are now. Some might have dual nationality - our daughter and grandchildren in Australia have two passports. Perhaps you are thinking of those who have settled elsewhere in the U.K. My guess is they would be eligible for dual nationality and could get a 'rest of the U.K.' passport and/or a Scottish passport.