David Cameron effectively stole a whole chunk of my SERPs contributions a few years ago, so forgive me if I don't trust the UK with my pension any more than anybody else. Scottish independence isn't without risk, but it's an economically risky world, and as a result of Brexit UK has just set out to sail through the riskiest part of it in a patched-up bathtub with no support. I don't see why you think your pension is any safer sitting in a financial system which has been cut off from Europe and is probably in imminent deep trouble, rather than in Scotland.
Why wouldn't we allow people to take up Scottish citizenship on that basis? Scotland needs more people, particularly to support more rural economies, and especially now that European freedom of movement has been curtailed.
I'm not a pensions expert, but I'd imagine it would be no different if you had worked in, say, Germany and saved in the Euro. Pensions are still risky whether or not we're part of the UK or not.
You could mention it, but it would be a topic for a new thread
...and in elections, you have on average 60-70% of the electorate voting against the ruling party of government.
Ah yes. The Shetland independence campaign that is virtually non existent beyond Daily Mail and Express headlines exploiting unionist bloggers to provide anti-change ammunition, and the one that has never returned any elected pro-independence supporting individual to Holyrood or Westminster?
I'd definitely prefer a second chamber, a president and the Euro to the queen and hanging on the shirt-tails of the pound. One of the problems last time around is that they were at such pains to pretend that nothing changed that they made the whole thing look deceitful and not worth the hassle
Abso-bloody-lutely. Make Scotland a neutral republic and we'll talk. The previous plans changed too little to make it even remotely worthwhile. If the SNP want me to ever support them, it would take a pretty radical vision, plus a reassurance that huge steps would be taken to respect and involve the doubters in building a new nation.
Agreed, and there are already some moves towards drafting a constitution. This is just one link I've come across, and it is just a consultation, but gives an idea of what it might look like:
constitutionforscotland.scot
I would also prefer a second chamber and an elected head of state, but I fear this may be a sticking point for some. It would be a clean break from an archaic system.
Oh dear. Forgive us for having the British Identity drown out your English identity for the last 300 years. From this side of the border it would appear otherwise, but don't for one minute feel that we're trying to prevent you from fulfilling your dream. In fact, by sheer weight of numbers you got what you wanted through Brexit. Never mind what Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales wanted, you managed to get rid of those pesky foreign foreigners and now that that particular goal has been achieved, you're more than happy to get rid of the native foreigners who apparently place such a yoke on your poor English shoulders.
None of those things are particularly undesirable, and opting out of them largely held Britain back and prevented us from seeing the full potential of EU membership. Sure, there's been a largely contrived narrative in recent years that the notoriously strong and stable Greek economy has been dragged off course by the Euro, but even 30 seconds honest review will show that it was a basket-case to start with, and the UK's needs would have been far closer to those of Germany's anyway, so we'd have benefitted.
Forgive me if I've missed a point in the discussion but I'm still not understanding the grounds for these concerns. Ignoring the hypothetical future of British citizenship following independence (which is beyond the topic of this thread anyway), the current rules only allow for British citizenship to be transmitted to the first generation born outside the UK - so people who are already British citizens at the time of independence will be able to pass that to their children born in Scotland, but those children will not be able to pass it on any further. It's no different to how the children born to British parents anywhere else in the world today can inherit British citizenship from their parents, but cannot pass it on to their children. So given that entitlement to new British citizenship by virtue of connection to Scotland only will cease when Scotland ceases to be part of the UK, the pool of people who can claim British citizenship in Scotland becomes essentially finite.
I'm a bit bewildered by that too, if I'm honest. Even Australia managed virtually-complete metrication between 1971 and 1981 with no pressure from any international organisations and very little genuine bother.
Personally I'm ambivalent about monarchy. Retaining it wouldn't be my preference but I can see that doing so could be an important concession for people on the unionist side. And the Royal Coat of Arms for a separate Kingdom of Scotland is really rather fancy (with double the number of unicorns!
)Forgive me if I've missed a point in the discussion but I'm still not understanding the grounds for these concerns. Ignoring the hypothetical future of British citizenship following independence (which is beyond the topic of this thread anyway), the current rules only allow for British citizenship to be transmitted to the first generation born outside the UK - so people who are already British citizens at the time of independence will be able to pass that to their children born in Scotland, but those children will not be able to pass it on any further. It's no different to how the children born to British parents anywhere else in the world today can inherit British citizenship from their parents, but cannot pass it on to their children. So given that entitlement to new British citizenship by virtue of connection to Scotland only will cease when Scotland ceases to be part of the UK, the pool of people who can claim British citizenship in Scotland becomes essentially finite.
Indeed the proposed Scottish rules are less restrictive then this, as (like the current Irish rules) they'll allow two generations of descent. The British rules instead provide only for the UK Ancestry visa, which allows people with one or more grandparents born a British citizen in the UK (including Ireland before 31 March 1922) to live and work in the UK - though in fairness it can be used as a pathway to naturalisation.
The key point is that - by UK law as it currently stands - people who already hold British citizenship, regardless of how they're entitled to it, won't lose it as a result of Scottish independence, and thus won't lose their right of abode in the rest of the UK. Their Scottish citizenship, should they claim it, will be in addition to any they already hold.
I'm a bit bewildered by that too, if I'm honest. Even Australia managed virtually-complete metrication between 1971 and 1981 with no pressure from any international organisations and very little genuine bother.
Personally I'm ambivalent about monarchy. Retaining it wouldn't be my preference but I can see that doing so could be an important concession for people on the unionist side. And the Royal Coat of Arms for a separate Kingdom of Scotland is really rather fancy (with double the number of unicorns!
I think England is too big and diverse to really hold together an identity in the same way as Scotland. It's true that a lot of the trappings of Scottish identity were themselves made up or tacked together in the 19th century from very different island, highland and lowland cultures. It's easier to manage that though, than to convince people from Yorkshire or Cornwall that they are basically the same thing as Londoners. Personally the identity I've always felt most strongly was European, and since that was torn away from me with no consideration at all, so mostly my attitude is a pox on all your houses, and I'll quite happily watch all your identities perish.
I wasn't joking, and I meant it about Scottish identity just as much as English. I grew up in the West Midlands, which is too often the butt of everybody's jokes to really assert an identity, and I've lived in Yorkshire and Scotland, but always felt more like I was in them than of them. Meanwhile I was still a child when the single market opened up, I regularly travel all over Europe and I can speak 6 other EU languages to varying degrees. I'm European to the core, and the fact that I was stripped of that by people who still refuse to understand that it's even a thing is, to me, deeply disturbing.
