Scottish Independence

The frozen pic before pressing play on that video is all you need to know, like USA but 4 states. Then if you are interested you can learn about the smaller states which are basically villages on rocks to bring you up about 10 total.

ZyyzYzzy_sl said:

Is Scotland a northern or southern state? Is it like Kentucky?

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I have no concept of what Kentucky is like... er.... probably all of northern europe is northern states. We don't have rotting wooden huts with unemployed black people in them or trailer parks (other than a few fucking gypsies).

To me one of the most interesting parts of this is how many people in Scotland seem to be willing to follow a guy making so many promises and guarantees he'd make the average U.S. congressman blush.

Like his response to all of the UK parties rejecting a currency union with an independent Scotland was along the lines of "it will happen anyway, because magic". Or that NATO membership is guaranteed. Or EU membership despite the countries that have their own separatist regions.

Also, how has England allowed theWest Lothian question - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediafarce to go on for so long? Scotland already has more democracy than England. If I were English I'd just let them go instead of offeringmoredevolution that the English don't have.

Chris_sl said:

I have no concept of what Kentucky is like... er.... probably all of northern europe is northern states. We don't have rotting wooden huts with unemployed black people in them or trailer parks (other than a few fucking gypsies).

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He's basically asking where the stupid white trash live. Based on my limited visit to England, the closest demographic I could recognize were the soccer hooligans.

I'm all for independence for the Scots, especially if it costs Cameron his job.

Frenzied Wombat_sl said:

I'm going to tread into territory I am not that familiar with, but hasn't the whole EU/currency thing been deemed a failure, mainly because of the drain caused by effectively "3rd world Euro nations" like Greece? Wasn't the UK's decision to keep the pound a smart one? Looking for edumacation here, so don't all start jumping down my throat.

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No.

Quineloe_sl said:

No.

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Well, now I'm confused since Chris said "Yes". Chris/Quin please Braveheart this out for us so I'm not forced to pollute my mind by reading the Guardian/BBC to educate myself on the subject.

Araysar_sl said:

Oh sure, Scotland gets to vote on its independence but Eastern Ukraine or Crimea can't.

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It has to do with the Tanks / Ballot boxes ratio.



About the Euro question, I'll let an economist fill the specifics, but I think it's a package that comes with good and bad things (probably more of the former) and, unsurprisingly, the good is quickly forgotten when the bad happens.


EDIT: Oh and someone mentioned tiny countries and made a rebultal about banking being 85% of GDP or whatever. You will pleased to know banking is slightly above 10% of Switzerland's GDP. Raw material trading though...

Thanks for that video. I think I 'mostly-sorta-kinda' knew all of that but not to such a degree. The truth is that you could make a nearly equally confusing venn diagram for the US, Russia, China, Japan, Spain, France, Germany, and probably several others.

I am with Wombat I think. To his question Chris says yes, Quin says no, and that makes me wonder their separate underlying political philosophies. For instance, I consider myself a social liberal and a fiscal conservative. Which basically boils down to, "Do whatever the hell you want to in this world just so long as you're not hurting anyone else. Get high and fuck each other in the ass all day. Or, don't ever get high and don't ever fuck and just go to church all day. I don't care one way or the other, I just don't want to be sent the bill for your lifestyle. And if you fuck up and make bad decisions? That's life pal. No one gets a free ride. Be smart or be left behind."

There isn't really a political party in America that represents my views. The Libertarians think they do, but they have slowly become pseudo-anarchists and have, generally, lost themselves over the years to their own radical element.

So I wonder, do the people of (gotta be careful here) "The Greater Realm of The British/UK Political Sphere" have a party like the one I am describing or is it like America? Are you also forced to pick between shitty and shittier? Over here if you support capitalism and 'The Right to Economically Fail', you must also have sex with Jesus every day in your mind and like to eat nothing but bacon while you drive your H3 over a group of baby seals. But if you support gay marriage and legalizing weed, you must also agree to pay for thugs' cell phones and their Mountain Dew addictions while you apologize to them for not killing yourself the second you were born. There is, currently, no middle ground.

Anyway, I just want to know which side the capitalists fall on, and which side the socialists fall on. I know it isn't that simple. Nothing ever is. But if Limeys are anything like Yanks, that political division will tell you a lot more than just what's on the surface.

So the scots would rather deal with the EU than with London. I didn't realise things were THAT bad up there. Anyway I don't how an independant scotland would possibly not be quickly integrated into EU and the Eurozone should they ask. It's Scotland, not Romania or Estonia, no offense to our Romanian or Estonian friends,but if it's taking longer and longer to join the EU and the Eurozone, it's not so much because it's a long process rather than countries wanting to join being far away from european average + people being less than enthusiastic having very poor and corrupt countries joining.

The only Scots I know personally are very much pro independence and have been talking about it for the last year fairly steadily. I too wondered why this hadn't gotten a lot more press as it seemed like a pretty damn significant thing. Not the least of which due to our close governmental ties to the UK. There are lots of things marked US/CAN/UK/AUS/NZ that very pointedly leave out Ireland and I wonder if Scotland would be tossed or not. Quite a lot of the UK engineering defense contracts are actually located in Scotland after all. I think many people discounted the whole vote for a long time because the polls showed "No" to have a sizeable lead. Flash forward to last week when "Yes" seemed to pull ahead or at least be even and suddenly shit got real for everyone else.

While Wales has a very different relationship with England than either the Irish or the Scots ever did I can't help but think that if the Scots break off then there will be calls in Wales to separate as well. They already have a strong cultural separation in the form of the language which you see on signs all over the place and was quite a wake-up call when entering Cardiff. I think BBC Wales being so very successful in genre TV has really done a lot for people understanding what exactly it is to be Welsh and that there is a part of the UK that isn't English Scottish or Irish.

That having been said the only Welsh people I know have no real desire for independence when I mentioned the Scottish vote to them. They just make a point of staying as far away from London as they can and doing their own thing.

See, this is what happens when you make an Outlander TV show!