Scottish Independance, anyone?

Had an interesting conversation in an airport waiting lounge with a chap from the Shetland Isles, his opinion was that if the referendum came out in favour of secession, the Orkney and Shetland Isles might secede from Scotland and seek to become part of Norway.

Arol wrote:Had an interesting conversation in an airport waiting lounge with a chap from the Shetland Isles, his opinion was that if the referendum came out if favour of secession, the Orkney and Shetland Isles might secede from Scotland and seek to become part of Norway.

That is a difficult one. I have family up in Shetland so I'm more than aware that the islands feel closer (literally, geographically) to Norway than the UK, let alone Scotland. My Uncle would be delighted in Shetland became part of Norway. What seems to be more in favour is the idea of "Crown Dependency" status like the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. This would be considered if the Holyrood parliament didn't give enough guarantees or concessions in the event of a Yes vote. In the meantime, Holyrood has stated that it's looking at greater regional autonomy for the isles, probably as a way to placate the local authorities there.

The whole problem is that the SNP has a mania for centralisation which has hacked off the Western Isles and the Highlands as well as Orkney and Shetland. It's even caused ructions with Aberdeen City Council as the transport links to and through the city need major upgrades in order not to threaten the city's economic development, in particular further investment in the Oil and Gas industry. Since the SNP keeps going on about North Sea oil being one of the keys to Scotland's future they shouldn't have to be reminded.

This has resulted in a feeling that the Scottish Government regards things as more important in the Central Belt (the Edinburgh-Glasgow area) than anywhere else. It's exacerbated by the population of that area being fairly clueless about how important Aberdeen and the Shetlands are to Scotland's economy. My Brother-in-Law is from Glasgow and he was completely blown away when he first came here as he didn't have a clue about what actually happened in Aberdeen. Two of my work colleagues are from Edinburgh and they said the same thing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subdivisions_of_Scotland

Slightly out of date as the separate regional Fire and Police services have been amalgamated to form the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and Police Scotland respectively.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Fire_and_Rescue_Service

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_Scotland

Oh, I'll throw these links in as well;

Scottish Government, with mugshots:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Government

Scots law, different from that in England and Wales as well as Northern Ireland:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scots_law

Mike.

Thanks for the background/links.
The media here in Denmark, when (and if!) they report on the planned referendum, tend to focus on the “Remember Culloden” vein of thinking still apparently prevalent in the Scottish psyche. Rather then on the hard realities of what Secession would actually mean.
But then again the same attitude was equally prevalent on my last trip to Canada, when talking to my sisters very Scottish ex-pats in-laws. The talk was more ancient grievances then on future consequences.

Arol wrote:Thanks for the background/links.
The media here in Denmark, when (and if!) they report on the planned referendum, tend to focus on the “Remember Culloden” vein of thinking still apparently prevalent in the Scottish psyche. Rather then on the hard realities of what Secession would actually mean.
But then again the same attitude was equally prevalent on my last trip to Canada, when talking to my sisters very Scottish ex-pats in-laws. The talk was more ancient grievances then on future consequences.

Indeed. IIRC, David Weber had a line in Shadows' of Freedom about Saltash that wnet something like "No one could hold a grudge like the Scots...except perhaps for the Irish..."

Here in the US it has almost no visibility on the news, although I would expect as the voting date nears it will get some increased attention (and probably increase the wet dreams of some folks in the US for 'secession').

Still, from the little I've read, it makes no sense--but as noted before, human beings in groups often don't make lots of sense...

We shall see what September brings...

A little while ago, JK Rowling spoke out in favour of remaining part of the UK in a very logical article.

She promptly got massively trolled and threatened by the rabid pro-independence fringe idiots.

Their actions actually seem to suggest that the UK might indeed be better off without Scotland...

Michael Everett wrote:A little while ago, JK Rowling spoke out in favour of remaining part of the UK in a very logical article.

She promptly got massively trolled and threatened by the rabid pro-independence fringe idiots.

Their actions actually seem to suggest that the UK might indeed be better off without Scotland...

Quite possibly. While it´s getting more and more obvious that Scotland is likely going to get a rough time if independent.

Tenshinai wrote:

Michael Everett wrote:A little while ago, JK Rowling spoke out in favour of remaining part of the UK in a very logical article.

She promptly got massively trolled and threatened by the rabid pro-independence fringe idiots.

Their actions actually seem to suggest that the UK might indeed be better off without Scotland...

Quite possibly. While it´s getting more and more obvious that Scotland is likely going to get a rough time if independent.

If Scotland does vote to secede from UK this coming September, and if the Isles does the same from Scotland, then there will be a whole new controversy.
Territorial Waters and Oil drilling licensees!
Then there’s the EU and the rest of Europe. How will they react to a member state De-unifying? Especially since there are a number of states with their own separatist movements, Italy with their North-South controversies, Spain with Catalonia and Basque movements. These and others might start to worry regarding a domino effect.
As for the EU in Council of Ministers, they’ll probably favor keeping the status quo. But the EU Parliament recently elected arch-federalist Jean-Claude Juncker as president, and as such might not be adverse in anything that would weaken the national states and thereby strengthening the EU parliament.
All in all interesting times ahead.

If Scotland does vote to secede from UK this coming September, and if the Isles does the same from Scotland, then there will be a whole new controversy.
Territorial Waters and Oil drilling licensees!

I know, total headache time.

These and others might start to worry regarding a domino effect.

EU crumbling? Would be a nice bonus side effect.

As for the EU in Council of Ministers, they’ll probably favor keeping the status quo. But the EU Parliament recently elected arch-federalist Jean-Claude Juncker as president, and as such might not be adverse in anything that would weaken the national states and thereby strengthening the EU parliament.

Yeah, stupidity reigns it seems.

All in all interesting times ahead.

Potentially VERY much so yes.

Michael Everett wrote:A little while ago, JK Rowling spoke out in favour of remaining part of the UK in a very logical article.

She promptly got massively trolled and threatened by the rabid pro-independence fringe idiots.

Their actions actually seem to suggest that the UK might indeed be better off without Scotland...

That's the problem with the Cybernats - xenophobia on tap. Not the best advertisement for Scotland, or for those of us who actually want to preserve the Union.

We get lumped in with the nuts just because we live up here with them.

Mike.

Tenshinai wrote:Quite possibly. While it´s getting more and more obvious that Scotland is likely going to get a rough time if independent.

That's if it's a yes vote, which is till looking unlikely, albeit with a narrower majority than it once was.

In the event of a Yes vote, the UK Government would be duty bound to secure the best deal for the remainder of the country. The SNP seems to think that they'll just roll over and give Scotland what it wants.

What a load of bollocks.

Mike.