Posted on 10/15/2012 8:01:01 AM PDT by granada
David Cameron has signed a deal with Scotland's First Minister, giving him the power to hold a referendum on independence.
The Prime Minister and Alex Salmond met at the Scottish Government's headquarters to sign what has been called "The Edinburgh Agreement".
It declares that the UK and Scottish governments will "work together to ensure that a referendum on Scottish independence can take place".
The referendum will "deliver a fair test and a decisive expression of the views of people in Scotland", it adds, making clear that the result will be respected by all sides.
The agreement is the launchpad for a two-year campaign between Mr Salmond's Scottish National Party and the Tories, Labour and Lib Dems, who all oppose independence.
The referendum, in the autumn of 2014, is also likely to make history by being the first poll in the UK in which 16 and 17-year-olds will be able to vote.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.sky.com ...
“The referendum, in the autumn of 2014, is also likely to make history by being the first poll in the UK in which 16 and 17-year-olds will be able to vote.”
We can all predict how that will turn out. The world is mad.
I predict this will be good for England.
Scotland is by all accounts a Socialist black hole. The people there just want more and more and more in the way of government benefits. The sooner Her Majesty can cut loose from that burden the better.
Everyone is all for independence, until they realize how much they are getting in transfer payments from Southern England. Of course, a lot of Scots think they will get all the North Sea oil revenue but studies show that even that won’t pay for their bloated welfare state. And oil prices can go down too.
Any nation/country/state/government that gives the vote to a 16-year-old deserves what it gets.
The sad thing about Scotland is that a group of socialist hacks has captured the romantic nostalgia of the Jacobite cause, William Wallace, Robert the Bruce and Bonnie Prince Charlie, all dressed up with a kilt and bagpipes, on the pre tense that an independent Scotland would be more free and successful being apart from their historical oppressors, the English. What a crock. I love a good Walter Scott story as well as anyone who shares in the Scottish heritage, but the harsh reality is that the old defiant steak of Highland independence died off two hundred years ago or left for Canada and the US. What remains is a multi-generational welfare state with rusted out factories in urban hell holes like Glasgow. If Scotland goes, the Conservative party will have a huge advantage in future England elections.
With ancestors from both sides of Tweed, I will be sorry to see the end of the United Kingdom. I have to say I have a hearty dislike of David Cameron, and particularly his push for same sex marriage, which no party called “Conservative” has any business supporting. This latest initiative for the death of Britain does not endear him to me any further.
By my reckoning, anyone remaining in Scotland have accepted the leftist-nanny state - lock, stock, and barrel. Those who do not have already left.
I have met more Scotsmen in places like Singapore, New Zealand or Dubai than I can count.
It appears they have a relatively comfortable life in Scotland, although they don’t seem to make anything - so don’t know though who works and pays for it all, which is beyond my knowledge of the place. Am interested to learn more.
” What remains is a multi-generational welfare state with rusted out factories in urban hell holes like Glasgow.”
Yep.
“or will they be independent like an art history student with daddy paying for college is independent.”
Great analogy.
I worked up in far North Scotland as a radio operator- cold war stuff in the 1950's. I got my pay from the local bank, before my two week vacation.It was a twenty pound note, beautifully done from the Clydesdale and North Bank of Scotland. Down in London, a teller looked at me like I was some sort of strange being. He said he would take off about 15 percent. I took the underground to inner London and went to the Clydesdale branch. Described as a "token branch".
I got the full twenty pounds English sterling for it. Ah, honest Scots! What a carry on (chuckle).
I was there in the 60s. One time I had four one pound notes in my wallet, all different from each other. The British Linen Bank note was the only one that I could have counted on to be good anywhere in the UK.
I was there when the Chancellor of the Exchequer devalued the pound by 14.7%. It was announced on a Saturday, so nobody could run on the banks. My yankee dollars were worth that much more.
They may end up joining Newfoundland as the only nations to spend their way out of independence.
Kinmont Willie would be well pleased.
If this is successful, each country will reestablish the March Wardens.
I did some checking and find your British Linen Bank note was of an Edinburgh bank. I had only vaguely heard of it previously. Of interest is the rate of $4.83 cents to the British pound just prior to WW2. I know the London slang for the half crown piece (two shillings and sixpence) was "arfadolla". (One half of a US dollar). Five shillings being roughly a dollar.
The war shattered the pound, as had WW1 shattered the gold sovereign as currency. The British government issued paper money in it's stead. Forcibly took the public's sovereigns. You may know all of this, but it might be a matter of interest to others.
I pray for all our sakes that the US dollar stands firm. Sort of troubling when one reads of deficits and printing monies . I am well versed in the German tragedy of monetary collapse. Hitler eventually followed.
Dave didn’t really have a choice, the SNP had a mandate to call a referendum, and refusing to allow one would have been a blatant act of tyranny.
He did however, manage to get Salmonella to drop the ‘Devo-Max’ option, which would probably have gotten the most support and would have screwed the rest of the UK...
Actually, the latest poll has 16/17 yr olds heavily AGAINST independence. Tee hee.
The Olympics and the year of British sports triumph after triumph, added to the Royal Wedding and the Queen’s Jubilee, has caused a big upsurge of Britishness in Scotland.
Also people have seen the SNP plans for independence and have seen what a few years of (minority) SNP rule at the Scottish Parliament has meant. And add to this a recession and the parlous financial state of the world at the moment.
And all told, ‘freedom’ dosent seem all that appealing.
Most Scots want a strong Scotland, but within the UK.
Scotland is not subsidised by England.
That is a myth. And I say that as a Unionist who will vote NO in 2014.
They will.
See my earlier post to Texas.
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