SCOTTISH REFERENDUM - HOW TO DECIDE BETWEEN YES AND NO ?

[Briar]

Next month all of us living north of the Border get to take part in a Referendum,whether Scotland should break free of the United Kingdom or not.  

Like every choice polly tishuns invite the People to help decide about, the options are limited and not quite what we were thinking about.  For example, were the majority to vote "For Independence" we would NOT become independent - the SNP, under those 2 strange fish Salmon and Sturgeon, want to separate us from the UK but have us become part of the EU, so independent we most certainly will NOT be.  On the other hand, they want us to stay part of NATO, an old club of superannuated generals etc whose understanding of geography must be a bit limited as they involved themselves in the Invasion of Iraq and later Afghanistan, as well as joining in the bombing of Libya that was to bring "democracy" to that country, and are now concerning themselves with matters going on in Ukraine - none of these countried are bordering the North Atlantic !  THe North Atlantic Treaty Organization was set up to counter the Warsaw Pact, a pact between the USSR and most of its E European satellites.  The Warsaw Pact dissolved itself when the Soviet Union collapsed and most countries became independent, many later even joined the EU.  So one could wonder why there is still a NATO.  Truly the ways of the military mind are strange.

Although the SNP say they wish to be part of NATO, they also wish to ban the UK semi-independent nuclear deterrant Polaris submarines from Scotland (only semi-independent, as unlike the French ones, they have to get the codes for actvating the missiles from the USA before they can actually use them   Under the MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) concept that kept the USSR and the NATO Alliance from making war on one another directly, in favour of fighting proxy wars mosty in small asian countries, having several undetectable submarines loaded with nuclear warheads and ICBMs wandering beneath the waves, was supposed to prevent either side from trying a sneak First Strike attack.   We had it confirmed that they were undetectable, when with all the atlantic ocean to play in a UK and a French nuclear submarine collided with one another !

THe UK has dumped their Nuclear subs in Scotland and nowhere in Engand wants them.  Fine are the Scottish regiments with their kilts and their bagpipes, but I dont think they are much actual use for earnest warfare, although they perform wonderful work at the Palace protecting our Queen, and attracting Tourists.  Would NATO want them in it, minus the nuclear subs.?

This pretence of wanting Independence is further exposed for the sham it is when there is no indication of wanting to join the United Nations.  Even tiny island countries like Kiribati and Tuvalu have joined the UN.  That the SNP overlooked wanting to be in it as a goal exposes their anti-english attitude for what it is.   

In principle, it is always better to have a smaller country with a closer contact between the People and the Government, but the future being discussed is unclear on many points.  The English say we cannot have our £.  No doubt the EU people would just love to foist their dodgy € onto us.  The Scots £s are produced by Scots banks, in Scotland, and there are precedents, like the Isle of Man £, the Jersey £, the Guernsey £, the Falklands Islands £, the Ascencion Island £.  the N Ireland £, so of course they can still have their £.  Cameron and co are just being bullies.

Already, in Scotland, we are far more social about helping the weaker members of society - care for the disabled and the elderly is free and really well done and mostly in peoples' own homes.

There are free busses to take people to and from the Libraries etc.  University students living in Scotland do NOT have to go deep into debt to get their degrees, as our unversities give free tutition.   All the way through school there are smaller classes and more help at hand.

I have to check this first, but today the horrible sods in the english government announced that people to whom they paid more pension because they delayed drawing theirs beyond 50 for women and 65 for men, would in future only get half more than they do now.  (they used weasil words to say it but that is what it meant).  Now for me, I never started drawing a pension I had paid in for in the UK until being sent to work abroad - some 30 years contributions, which meant a lower than full one but I was rewarded for leaving the money with them until I was 73 by them paying me some £ 29 more a week.  I had made provisions for a contributary pension from my Swedish employers for 20 years, but when they were taken over by a Finnish firm, who was acquired by an American one, that was bought out by a bigger American one, who was then gobbled up a a transnational corporation so big and with so many fierce and well paid lawyers that I dare not even mention their name, who told all us ex employees of the original company that there was no record of any pension scheme and they never bought one and we were not going to get anything from THEM.    I never intended returning to Britain, but my daughter called me on the phone one afternoon and urged me to buy one of the ex RAF houses that were being sold off now that the local base on this island off Scotland had been closed down.  She told me that one day even I would be old and crabbit, and need some looking after, and that if I were living near her she would help me, but that she could NOT come looking for me in Vladivostock or the wilds of Siberia or Japan or wherever I was going to next.   So I did buy one, and eventually moved over and settled in, part of the year at first, then all the time.  And with age my Clients started dying off in droves, until I only had a few left.  So it seemed time to see about getting a State Pension.  I never sought more than I was entitled to and had paid in for, but if the English are going to reduce the pension for those who waited then I will see what the Scottish Government will do, and if they will pay me as promised then I will probably vote YES.

I do still work, but almost only as an unpaid volunteer.  I help our local Community Riding School, and I work for a Community Development Company, trying to improve local facilities for all who live here and who visit for holidays.  It is not just a desk job, last night I was putting out chairs in the Village Hall so that the children could watch a Disney film,  Saturday I ran the tuck shop.  Today I have been reruiting members for the CDC.   I have to go out later this week to remove Ragwort plants from fields where horses graze (that plant is posionous to horses.  It is not native to our island but in some places it has spread so much we have to get rid of it.  It usually rains when I am doing that.

[Briar]

The date for the dreaded Referendom gets closer, and as it approahces, the piles of Bumph from such interested parties as the Polly-Tickler Parties, the Westiminster Government, this or that Kirk, etc etc start to come through the letterbox in growing quantities.  So much waste paper !  So many poor felled trees to make them into paper, only to end up in the waste bin under my shelf !  I actually do read the damned things, I owe that to the memory of those beloved trees if nothing else, but as yet I have found little actual information content in any of them.

The whole game is like some kind of con-trick - devoid of any actual FACTS.    It is even more airy fairy than the still faintly remembered con trick pulled on everyone when that yachting fellow held a "referendum" about Britain joining the Common Market.   Remember how all the votes were sent down to London and counted secretly, and how the results were announced, that did not tally with local polls - where I was then living had about 75 % AGAINST, but the yachting chappy claimed we voted 90 % FOR.   I expect something similar this time.  One cannot, and should not, EVER trust the word of Any Politician, they are incapable of telling a truth !

[jaria]

Politicians are bad enough but anyone trusting Salmond deserves what they get.
He says he wants independence and at the same time integrate further into the EU probably having to adopt the EURO .
The result of that would mean swapping Westminster for Brussels and even less independence.
So what is the man up to?
My guess is that he wanted to get as much independence for himself to lead Scotland by frightening Westminster into giving him a lot more power than he would have got without threatening a referendum.
My guess is that Salmond will lose badly and those that negotiate with him will be looking at the polls.