Scottish "Independence" manifesto

[Ben Kenobi]

If the Act of Union is repealed does that mean that the Scottish King is the heir of the Old Pretender? Curious.

[Hauldren Collider]

Is this how declaring your independence from Britain works now? What happened to cool shit like "Give me liberty or give me death" or dumping a fuckload of tea into a harbor? Scots are pussies.

[C0ckney]

oh dear. it seems that some people have failed to do any research and have instead fallen back on the usual 'too wee, too poor, too stupid' canards.

[kentonio]

Whiskey and tourism apparently.

[Dinner]

Scotland is too small with too small a population to survive on its own. Their previous plan called for banking deregulation and speculating on real estate but that flopped in Ireland, Spain, Iceland, and even in the US so why would anyone think Scotland would be any different? Hell, even oil production is crashing so how exactly do they expect to economically survive again?

[molly bloom]

Scots are on a loser here.

They did so well out of being in the British Empire and the United Kingdom it's only natural they'd want to depict it as all enclosures, Highland Clearances, Cullodens and Flodden Fields.

[Wezil]

They've obviously been listening to Quebec Nationalists.

Enjoy the show Britain. Fun days ahead.

[regexcellent]

I noticed. This reads like two cars in every garage and a chicken in every pot. We wave our magic wand of independence and it shall be so.

Maybe they could raise the money by leasing the Faslane naval base for nuclear-armed submarines? Nahhh...

[kentonio]

Smaller US states have larger forces of national guard reservists. They should be able to afford 15,000 active troops, but not with a massive welfare state by European standards.

They want a bigger welfare state than everyone else here.

[regexcellent]

They also want a "defence force" of 15,000 troops (not reservists). That 1 per 400 head of population. UK as a whole currently has 1 per 500.

This is all looking like an enormous public sector expense. Sure, they could probably afford it for a decade or two, but when the oil and gas start becoming uneconomical it's going to get interesting.

Smaller US states have larger forces of national guard reservists. They should be able to afford 15,000 active troops, but not with a massive welfare state by European standards.

Also, hang on, universal child care? Seriously?

[kentonio]

Although the latter is actually not impossible (the passports not the wall). They still haven't explained how they'd expect to get around the Schengen issue.

[kentonio]

I love their argument that if we refused their generous offer to keep our currency on whatever terms they want, they will just walk away from their share of the national debt. I assume that in that case we reserve the right to build a wall across the north and insist on passport controls etc.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Yes, but you have to consider the consequences. They might cut off our supplies of shortbread and Irn-Bru.

[DinoDoc]

It would be in Scotland's interest to keep the pound, while the Bank of England would continue as "lender of last resort"

Don't you retain the right to tell them to go **** themselves on that point if they wish to leave?

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

They also want a "defence force" of 15,000 troops (not reservists). That 1 per 400 head of population. UK as a whole currently has 1 per 500.

This is all looking like an enormous public sector expense. Sure, they could probably afford it for a decade or two, but when the oil and gas start becoming uneconomical it's going to get interesting.