General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Hi DU! I'll be voting in the Scottish Independence Referendum on Thursday... [View all]Spider Jerusalem
(21,786 posts)"stuck with Tory governments we didn't vote for" isn't all that different to Massachusetts or California being stuck with two terms of Bush, "unhappy about Labour going to the right" isn't all that different to how more liberal/left areas of the USA feel about the Democratic Party...and Salmond's platform for independence is full of holes; how this hypothetical future Scandinavian social democracy, Caledonian-style, is meant to be funded when North Sea oil peaked a decade ago and is in precipitous decline with revenues forecast to drop 38% by 2017 (and the resources of oil and gas to be completely played out by 2050), and when the mooted plans for tax and spending include cuts in corporation tax and no rise in income tax, while losing the excess funding allotted from Westminster under the Barnett formula...and when major financial-services (RBS, Lloyds, Standard Life) will be seriously considering relocating their base of operations from Scotland to England in the event of independence, thus eroding the tax base...and when an independent Scotland will be at the back of the queue for EU membership (and meanwhile probably locked out of the common market), and without a serious plan for currency ("we'll keep using the pound, and you can't stop us" isn't a serious plan)...it just doesn't really add up. The risks seem to outweigh whatever the benefits will be. (And I say this as someone who lives in Wales who isn't too keen on the Tories either.)